8 weeks to Iron Bike

I took an extra day this week to consider what exciting stuff to write here. Well it was a Bank Holiday.

Towards the end of last week, I pitched up for the Didcot Phoenix TT. Apparently it was a float night, a term which I hadn't heard before, but one testers use to describe ideal conditions for fast times. Well it didn't help me! 30 seconds slower than last year. If I try and understand why, I can point to the following excuses. I'm a bit heavier than last year. I have done less short course racing than last year. I am using a Powertap, which has two effects. Firstly the wheel is fitted with a winter training tyre, rather than my usual TT 19 mm tyre and the wheel is heavier and less aerodynamic. I think the real reason is that I'm slower!

There comes a time in your training when you have to start doing some proper hard rides and this week those hard rides start. Sunday was the Gran Fondo Cymru, which I scared myself about in last week's post. I'll try not to bore you with the blow by blow, but it's basically 200 km of pretty tough riding. The first half makes you feel a better rider than you are with a definite downhill bias. Some pretty exciting downhill at that - we all like coming round a blind bend to be stopped dead by a car doing a 3 point turn! Part 2 was like the sequel where they took all the bits you loved from the first one and turned it upside down. The weather went from pretty warm and dry to wet and ferociously windy and the downs became ups. As I said the hard work starts.

It's good to remember though that you shouldn't do this sort of thing too early on in the season as Monday I was shattered, Tuesday I was tired and today I'm not looking forward to getting rained on. That leaves tomorrow to make my training work and weather permitting it's more race of truth. Lets get that powertap off the TT bike so I can't use that excuse this week.

9 weeks to Iron Bike

After saying last week that I hadn't done much riding I certainly made up for it at the end of the week. When I last updated this blog, I was sat at my desk, thinking I hate the rain and I hate riding my bike in the rain. Guess what - the rain stopped that afternoon, I went out for 30 odd km on The Ridgeway and everything was right with the world again. That's the funny thing about being out on your bike - sometimes it can take you places you never expected. Away from the real world!

For the weekend we arranged some special punishment for ourselves. Two decent rides to get us used to that tired feeling that 8 days consecutive riding will give you. Saturday my mate Pete, my wife Amanda and I set out for a decent road ride taking in plenty of hills. Amanda rode with us for the first 75km; I'm not sure how as we weren't taking it easy. After passing by home, Pete and I headed off for more hills and 120 km in the bag at the end of the day. For Sunday's excitement, Pete and I headed off road to Goring. The point of the ride was more miles testing my Scott Genius, my back (which has been giving me grief) and do more of those back to back rides. I had meant to change saddles on the Scott as it had caused me to moan in my last post. Poor preparation leads to.... I forgot, basically. Anyway, the singletrack was surprisingly sticky for the time of year and I was comfortable in my gillet, mindful of not casting a clout as May wasn't out. 70Km in 3 hours 45 and job done.

This week is dominated by thought of the Gran Fondo Cymru at the weekend. 200 km, 3900 m of climbing and max gradient of 25% are the bits sticking in my mind. What does that mean for preparation? The plan was hill repeats on Tuesday, Time Trial on Thursday and rest and fitting a larger ratio for the rest of the week!

10 weeks to Iron Bike

When I started writing this in March, I thought a weekly update of how my training is going would be a good thing to aspire to. Obviously, that hasn't happened, so what I'm now aiming at is 10 weekly updates till we get on the plane to Italy. By the way, that's Iron Bike on the left. Might be better know as Iron Walk.

A quick summary of the between then and now would give a coach (if I had one) reason to tell me that more work is required. Lots of excuses, but looking back on my performance so far this year, I think I'm probably in a better state than I was way back in 2006, worrying about the TransAlp.

2 weeks ago I raced at the Gorrick 100, http://www.gorrick.com and finished a decent enough 30th out of 90 ish starters. Everyone said it was a much harder course than last year, but I wasn't sure; I bonked so badly on lap 4 last year that it seemed easier!

Last weekend I made the most of the good weather by punishing myself on Saturday with some hill intervals between Lambourn and Wantage. I made good use on my Powertap as it provides an excellent indication of your effort on each repeat. Sunday was an early start, with 90 km on The Ridgeway. It was the first time I had ridden my Scott Genius in over a year, so I was checking out whether it still worked, as it will be being carried up all those Italian passes. Piece or advice: ride your chosen bike plenty of times before you commit to lugging it on a multi day race. My rear must have changed shape over the last year as the saddle was very uncomfortable, so I'll be ordering something else soon.

If I haven't plugged Trailjunkies for this, then let me just say that this was bought from them and Craig built me a lovely lightweight wheel with the hub that's now a permanent fixture on my road bike. I would recommend anyone that's serious about training, looks into power based riding. Trailjunkies have a wheel which they can hire to customers, so go and ask Neal about it. If you want some help on understanding it then give me a shout.

Anyway, this week's training has been interupted quite badly by work and today by the weather, so the weekend will be another punisher.

Training for a bike ride

My name is Jon and I'm 30 something (getting ever closer to a 40 something).

I meant to start this a while ago, but like most things this year, I am behind schedule. This is a record of my attempt to get myself fit enough for my summer jaunt to Italy.



In July, my friend, Pete and I, are off to Italy to compete in the Iron Bike race. Whilst, we are no pros, neither are we novices having successfully finished the Trans Alp race in 2006. When I did that I did it with the fear of failure resting heavy on me and when I eventually finished I felt like I could achieve anything. Well anything after a rest. It was certainly the hardest things I'd done, but equally