Entries tagged with “cycling” from TRI-ing harder

Sorry I've been quiet for a while (Emma)! I've so much to tell you all: Blenheim triathlon hell, triathlon heaven at my first Olympic distance in Windsor, and how my running recruits got on (hint: they did well), and much, much more.

But I have no time! I'm busy packing - or at least thinking about packing - to head off to Paris by bicycle.  That's right, myself and 14 other fools will be cycling the roughly 350 miles from Eynsham to Paris starting on Friday. We're aiming to arrive in Gay Paris on Monday, and with Le Tour in full swing by then we're hoping for a good welcome as we roll into town in our Eynsham Road Runners cycling jerseys! 

But I witter.. I must go now, but wanted to say à bientôt before I went.  I will be trying to do some blogging or photo logging whilst I'm away, so you might hear more from me.  At the very least I will do something with my Facebook profile.  And I'm possibly going to be using Bliin to track my progress (on my brand new Nokia phone - that I won at the Windsor triathlon! But that's another story, which I don't have time for!), so you may or may not be able to see my current location on the trip by checking out my bliin.com homepage, and/or on the image below.

14th - 22nd June 2008 is National Bike Week.  During the week, people will be encouraged to ditch the car or that pesky walking and get on a bike - possibly for the first time since childhood.  This year organisers are promoting family-oriented cycling and there are literally thousands of great events to get families cycling together and enjoying the Great British Countryside (let's hope for good weather in the Great British "Summer"), and so there are rides for all ages and abilities.

If you want to know more, or want to take part, check out the website and find an event near you.  Go on, get on your bike.

I'm often amazed by how thoughtless, arrogant, reckless and downright stupid both drivers and cyclists can be - Yes: both cyclists and drivers.   We all let our minds wander at times when we're in the car or on the bike, and yes, we're often in a rush to get to our meeting, or get out of the cold, but for goodness sake, people...

As a driver and a cyclist, and someone who's been the cause and victim of various incidents both in the car and on the bike, I feel in a position to give my advice to you all. 

I've just started working with a chap (Robin Akers) who is doing a research programme into explosive and/or resistance training and its effect on time trial performance.  He's going to be working with a number of amateur triathletes to see whether certain training regimes will improve their power capabilities and performance more than others.

The programme will last for six weeks, and I'm not sure yet what it will entail for me, because it depends which training group Robin puts me into.  I may even be in the control group where I don't need to do anything other than my normal training programme (here's hoping!)

To start with, he wanted to take a 'baseline' power measurement, so he can say how much (or little) I improve over the six weeks.  This was mainly what appealed to me, because I've heard a lot recently about how power-based training can be more effective than that based solely on heart-rate and HR zones.  Since I didn't have any idea what my power output was, I thought it would be good to find this out, and hopefully improve it.

He worked out my baseline power by measuring my output during a 10 mile indoor time trial, using a PowerTap hub which measures power, cadence and speed.   The PowerTap reported that I averaged 205 watts over the 28 minutes of the TT.  This compares very poorly with some of the other people he's measured so far (I will probably be the worst!), with the best so far coming in at sub-20 minutes and with an average power of over 300 watts.  But, at least now I have something to improve on!

I've previously read that a good starting point is:
    average power (watts) =~ 2.5-3 * body weight (kg)
So, at 76kg, that would give me an average power output of 190-228 watts.

Today I found another formula by Jim Martin of the University of Utah, which seems more precise.  You can see the details here, but basically it's:
    power (watts) = 60 * Body weight (lb.) /10k run time (minutes)

Again, for me, that would give

power (watts) = 60 *167.55 / 52 = 193.32

So at 205 watts average, I'm about on the money.  I've definitely got a lot to do, and as well as improving my power I also need to improve my technique (I'm very inconsistent with my cadence and gearing over the 10miles), but hopefully by doing this programme with Robin I will be able to focus a bit more on this aspect of my training and things will start to improve.

Oh, and if anyone wants to donate a PowerTap hub to my cause, you can buy me one here.

Matthew Parris wrote a 'joke' article in the times over Christmas.  At the time I read it I thought it was a dumb article just aimed at inciting some comments and laughs at other people's expense.  I'm now not so sure and am grateful for the cyclists and non-cyclists that took much more serious umbridge over it and responded.  The Times has now issued a (small, discreet) apology, although Matthew Parris has yet to be decapitated.

Some of the comments are fantastic fun to read, and will either make you laugh or make your blood boil.  Some of them also make you appreciate just how stupid people some Times readers really are (AK from Swindon, I'm looking at you).

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article3097464.ece

Now you've read that and had a chuckle, try this one (mentioned in one of the comments)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1637173.ece

My employer has recently started offering discounted bikes using the government's Bike to Work scheme. Under the scheme, employees can effectively buy a bike tax-free, therefore saving 30-40% on the original cost of the bike.  It works like this:

• The employer buys the bike
• The employer allows the employee to use the bike
• The employer deducts the cost of the bike from employee's salary, over a 12 or 18 month period
• The deduction is made before tax, meaning no tax is charged on the amount paid for the bike
  
• At the end of the 12 or 18 month period, the employer can sell the bike to the employee for a nominal fee

The Eynsham Road Runners are a busy and highly organised bunch.  Each year they take part in many events and organise many of their own.  I've been privileged enough to take part in their triathlon, the 100 mile relay and various of their more social activities.  Even though I'm not a member, they still welcome me with open arms and a motivating word or two.  Although they're all stronger runners than me, I tend to get involved in cycling or triathlon events with them so I can more or less hold my own in these events.

Over the last couple of years the ladies of the club have organised a team for the Three Peaks Challenge where the aim is to get a team of people up and down the three tallest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales in just 24 hours - including travel time between them.  They've now "been there and done that" so this year they've opted for something slightly different.

Lesley has hit upon the idea of an Eynsham to Paris bike ride.  The ride will take about 4 days at a steady pace (70-100 miles per day), including a ferry from Folkestone. 

The first training session last weekend was surprisingly tough. We went at a very steady pace - perhaps 15 miles per hour - but in total I cycled about 80km so was pretty knackered by the end of it. I obviously need to do some serious work before next July...