Hate riding a time trial bike around here!

Perhaps hate is too strong a word but damn, everything becomes more annoying on a TT bike! Riding out of London, don't bother using aerobars there's too many blind drivers and peds to dodge. I rode a short loop out west (~4 hours) and I would cancel the Olympics right now if I could use the money to fix the potholes out there! The fscking POTHOLES! ARGH THE POT HOLES!
If I had any money left over it would be put towards High Wycombe and perhaps an MDMA transfusion into their water supply. I swear that place has a higher percentage of a-hole drivers than anywhere else over here. I mean, the rest of London and surrounds is full of selfish, blind, morons behind the wheel but in High Wycombe they're also malicious.
The rest of the Olympics funding would be used to remove the 47,000,000 fscking traffic lights from High Arsehole to London. I really don't see how any traffic moves at all, ever, when they're all fscking red. Every hundred metres 40kph, 0kph, 40kph, 0kph.. argh! FFS! I'm going to send the bill for my brake pads and rims to the local council. Oh, but they clearly don't have any money to pay it, given the state of the roads..

Only 6.5 hours to do tomorrow.

Interesting reading about how to estimate frontal area (CdA) using a power meter and some weather and terrain data.

Check out Jason's other aerodynamic testing articles too.

jasperga.blogspot.co.uk - chung method

Or, just call drag2zero and book some tunnel time..

First long ride back in the UK since the month in Australia for Rob and Yas's wedding. Forecast was for a good morning and then showers. I think I beat the showers - about 4 drops and that was it. It was almost warm (alright, alright mid-teens but that's warm enough for me nowadays). 130k around my new regular loop (Burnham Beeches, Maidenhead, Cookham, Bourne End, Princes Risborough, Wendover and A413 back towards London). It wasn't a particularly long ride but I'm fairly tired now - the all night drinking session on Friday probably didn't help matters.
I have to say doing similar distance around Mildura can get a bit dull - lots of the same scenery and the terrain is flat, very flat. There's also less crazy drivers to have to deal with so not as many adrenalin surges as riding around London. Then again, I only saw a couple of bunnies and a pheasant versus a brown snake, some goannas and kangaroos. Mildura's wildlife is definitely more interesting. Sorry Dad I didn't stop to pick up the 5 'L' plates on the ride. Scherrit has just emailed through a new program for me so it looks like I'll be back to business training for this 24hr TT now. Perhaps I'll have more to write about.. if I can stay awake long enough to type it. ;)

I'm sore. 7 hours today in the rain.. yeah it rained ALL DAY. 185k or so riding through muddy lanes or small rivers. Then the temperature dropped so much it was sleeting (that's "not quite snow", Aussies). I had to ride with my gloves off as it was warmer. I thought I was going to die from exposure or something. I think my toenails might fall off.
The ride itself was great. It was the ride home that it all fell apart. I've eaten everything in the house.
I couldn't get food out of my pockets my fingers didn't work. Couldn't change gears or brake properly. Very sweary times.
Had to get Mal to undo my jacket and shoes me so I could get in the shower clothed before stripping off.

In France I was doing ~80kph above the cloud line with snow caps around before heading through the clouds and back into pouring rain. This lasted a couple of hours and was my previous coldest. I think it makes a difference if you run low on fuel which might explain why I was so cold yesterday -> 7hrs@ more than 12hr pace=5500 calories used. Including 2L strong SIS GO I'd eaten 3 large Go bars, 1 small Go bar and 4 CNP gels for a grand total of <1700 calories in. It was my longest/fastest ride this year with over 440 TSS (training stress score) points (the 24hr was ~1100 I think). So, I think my body just had no fuel and quit trying to keep warm. It's something I'm keen not to repeat (but will, because I never learn). :)

I wrote the above after doing the Rumble, guess I didn't finish it so here it is now.

A 100-year-old cyclist from France has set a new age group world record for The Hour an incredible 86 years after his first competitive race.

Robert Marchand, who lives in Mitry-Mory near Paris, had to enter that debut race under an assumed name because he was too young to compete.

Read more: road.cc - French cyclist breaks age group record for The Hour - three months after his 100th birthday

I heard of Tommy Godwin's "Year Record" back in 2006.

A post on the Mersey Roads 24hr thread on tritalk.co.uk reminded me about it and the Dave Barter at phased.co.uk now shows you daily updates on where Tommy would've been during his attempt.

For example: "On Sunday 29th January 1939 Tommy Godwin rode a total mileage of 109 miles bringing his year total to date to 4,447 miles."

You can also receive a daily tweet of the mileage ridden by Tommy Godwin by following the Twitter account @yearrecord.

See also: www.youtube.com - Tommy Godwin Memorial

www.phased.co.uk - Tommy Godwin FAQ

Dave is trying to find more information about Tommy so If you have any information concerning Marcel Planes, Arthur Humbles, Ossie Nicholson, Walter Greaves, Bernard Bennett, Rene Menzies or Tommy Godwin please get in touch with him: Dave Barter - dave AT phased.co.uk

It's been about three weeks since The Bike Whisperer set the Kinesis up to use a midfoot cleat position. I'd love to be able to tell you I now make 20% more power or something but it's not yet possible to tell if there's any performance improvements. No, I'm not going to try and analyse my power files in that kind of detail just yet.

I do make enough power to snap quality chains (and before you use my oft-spoken own words against me - no it wasn't the join that failed and this chain had done a few thousand kilometres before I ripped the side-plate to pieces).



What I can tell you is that I've quickly adjusted to the mid-foot cleat change and it certainly doesn't feel slow(er). I've put in some reasonably hard rides (up to 160k/100mi) as well as regular commuting and I've got used to the toe overlap and wrong-sided trackstanding. The odd feeling when riding out of the saddle is also barely noticeable to me now. I've noticed nothing in terms of aches or pains. Certainly there's been no reappearance of my Achilles tendinitis that plagued me last year. It's perhaps too early to write that off completely, however the signs are promising.

Today, Scherrit set up my Planet X Stealth time trial bike for use with mid-foot. I bought a second pair of Shimano shoes from ebay - the more bling silver carbon R131s. Scherrit will do all the custom drilling soon (based on a slightly modified set of instructions from Steve Hogg) but in the mean time I will use my existing pair of Shimano R085 shoes with the new Speedplay cro-mo pedals and saddle adjustment (775mm down to 751mm and some fore/aft adjustment, 4 deg front drop remained the same). We didn't adjust the bars lower just yet in order to keep the setup 'comfortable' rather than 'aero' for the early test rides.



In other news I received three trophies this year from the Willesden CC. If I'd have bothered to enter a 50 and 100 I'd probably have scored a couple more!
Willesden CC Winners

Last night I bought some more cycling books, including The Long Distance Cyclists' Handbook by Simon Doughty. It wasn't until I read one of the comments from a certain Rocco Richardson (who was missed at the club dinner, get well soon!) that I actually noticed the author's name. After a bit of googling, I'm sure that the Simon Doughty who wrote this book is the same one that holds the current Willesden Cycling Club 24hr TT record. So, I'm buying the book of the guy I'm trying to surpass!

What is it with this ride? There's always something. This year, I was a bit late leaving due to having the Willesden CC club dinner the night before (3 trophies this year - score!) so on arrival at the HQ there were no 100k routes left, only 55k - no thanks. There were already 200 riders doing the long one. Doh! I decided since I'd already ridden the 30k out I would just do the equivalent distance to get my hours done. I had my GPS so I could 'get lost' without too much worry.

I started out following the tyre tracks of the previous riders (found a wireless cycle computer right near the start - contact the organisers if you lost yours) and saw a sign for a hill so headed in that direction. Eventually I spotted a couple of riders and followed behind them for a bit trying to work out if they were doing the course or not. If not I was just going to stick into the GPS some of the hills I remember doing in previous editions. We came upon a HHH signed junction so I decided to stay on the course - save using my brain for route making.

A couple of other riders went by while I was taking it easy and before long I recognised the fencing going up Bison's Hill. Obviously I have to represent in club kit so upped the pace and was looking forward to decimating the few riders ahead when I see two of the guys stopped, one holding a chain. Whoops! I rode past apologising for my lack of chain tool and carried on past Cervelo guy who'd stopped for a breather. He offered words of encouragement (I think) which was nice.

It's all a bit of a blur now - just riding and turning if I saw a course sign. I remember starting to ride up Ivinghoe Beacon (I think) and remembering going wrong here last time so asked one of the many riders who'd hit it coming from the other direction if they were doing the 100k. Nope, the 55k, one of them said. So I rode back down and carried on.

I was stoked to start seeing (and of course passing more riders - yeah, I'm like that) on Aston Hill. I was enjoying the descent and noticed one of the group I'd passed had given chase. I eventually eased up and low and behold it's Ludwig from LFGSS! He says there's a whole bunch from the forum back there and they thought it was BMMF in Grupetto kit flying by. Ha! Maybe if BMMF grew a foot or two in all directions! We all kind of rode together after that - respect to Jonny on SS and Joe riding fixed - mentalist! Again, I lose track of where we are and what's going on, it's just a nice day riding around some nice places. Tear off to the finish to hand the computer in, the others go to the pub and I head home with 100 miles in the bag.

Tonight's commute home through peak hour traffic using the new midfoot setup was ok. I was making a very conscious effort not to do much lane splitting, lest I get caught out with the toe overlap trying to hook around a bumper bar. Clipping in is getting more accurate. Trackstanding the wrong way around is a bit wobbly but will only get better.
So far, there are no niggles, no pain, no strange muscle recruitment that I've noticed. The only odd thing is still the fact that the cleat is further back and I'm expecting pressure under the balls of my feet but not getting it.

Did a 2x20min turbo session using the midfoot setup too. It went ok but felt perhaps too heavy on the quads - this could have been the turbo angle or something though?
No pain, nothing bad to report about the new setup. Power was ok, nothing special but basically what I was aiming to hit.

After 140k cycling around Watford and Hemel Hempstead with fellow Grupetto, BMMF, I called in to see Scherrit to finish off the mid-foot cleat conversion of the Kinesis. The original setup was documented, the ATAC pedals were swapped out and the Speedplay cleats were test-fitted to the custom-drilled Shimano shoes. The saddle was dropped and moved forward and I cycled whilst Scherrit eye-balled the position. The saddle was raised a bit and moved further forward and the bars were dropped and the position was retested. The shoes rubbed on the cranks so the cleats were moved in to shift the shoes outwards. Scherrit adjusted the cleats whilst I was on the bike and conducted a shim test (left shoe was heel wedged with a Steve Hogg designed wedge) once more before locking the whole lot down.

Kinesis midfoot fitting image gallery

The alarm was set early today so peak hour could be avoided. Carving through gaps in London traffic on a totally new position and pedal system just doesn't appeal.

First thing to note is due to the Speedplay design having the moving gubbins on the shoe rather than the pedal, you need to use cleat covers to keep dirt out of the cleats. I hate carrying extra stuff so this is annoying. You're also supposed to lube the cleats every week. This is contrary to the zero maintenance policy I've applied to my SPDs, SPD-SLs and Time ATAC shoes/pedals in the past. Basically, so as long as you aren't using totally worn cleats, you're fine. I've never lubed or bothered to service these pedals and they work fine. Scherrit's reason for using Speedplay is their ground-up design for cycling rather than being, essentially, a modified ski binding. They are also supremely adjustable and more suitable for mid-foot cleat position, which is why they are on my shoes now.

Clipping in to Speedplay is awkward for me - it operates the other way around from SPD, SPD-SL, etc. in that you don't hook the front and push down, you hook the back and twist (at least that's how Scherrit explained it). My method is more akin to 'slam middle of foot towards Speedplay lollipop and hope for the best - surprisingly this seemed to work most of the time.

The Speedplay pedals also feel much more 'skatey' than my other setups. They probably move more freely as opposed to the centre-sprung SPDs for example.

Cycling with a midfoot cleat position does feel slightly odd, but perhaps not as weird as you might first think. It's not difficult or anything, just, you know? A bit odd. Seated pedaling feels good. Now and then I find myself wondering what I should be doing with my toes - should I be scrapping the shoe back or is the motion more like an ankling movement. Clearly for me, with my Achilles problem, I should be minimising ankle movement and I think mostly I am, it's just now and then I'd wonder if my feet should be moving more. After adapting, I'm sure this sensation will vanish.

I think I might be sitting a little forward on the saddle compared to previously. This is possibly one of the positional tweaks I'll need to address or it could be nothing and just need some more riding.

At higher power outputs my right shoe in particular rubs against the crank. Perhaps I twist or roll my foot under load or perhaps it needs to be moved further out? Something to look at.

Generating power whilst seated isn't a problem, though out-of-the-saddle efforts feels a bit strange. I'm training for long distance time trials (50mi, 100mi, 12hr, 24hr) so this isn't much of an issue for me. At some stage I'll have a go at a peak power test just out of curiosity.

A particular concern was the large toe-overlap now present - toe overlap being the front wheel, when turned, clipping the front of the shoe. At speed this is not an issue since you're leaning to turn (#dontlean!), but in heavy traffic (ie. all of London) you are always weaving around cars, buses, trucks, taxis and the like at slower speeds. Peak hour could get a whole lot more interesting soon... #gravelrash

Trackstands are much harder for me now since it requires I use my non-favourite foot forward. In the past I'd turn the wheel right and have my left foot forward and be rock solid. Because of the toe overlap now, this method would mean the back of the wheel would hit my shoe and I'd possibly topple over. I can flip it around the other way so my right foot is forward but I rarely do it this way so I'm a bit unco at trackstanding with mid-foot.

Usually, when I can't be bothered to trackstand I'd roll up to the gutter and put a foot down. This feels strange now, since the saddle is 20-30mm lower. It's actually more comfortable to just put a foot down on the road.

Not a bad first test I would say. I'll document some more as I adapt to the new setup. Wonder how long it will be before I order some bio-mxc2 shoes..

NB: I'll post some info about the 2nd stage of the fitting process later

Great idea from Rapha. The Rapha Festive 500 challenges you to ride 500 kilometres (310 miles) December 23-31, 2011. Should you join, you and riders from around the world will attempt to escape the clutches of holiday indulgence by achieving this feat in just one week.

Finished on New Year's Eve with a 220k jaunt around WOL (west of London), in the Chilterns, around Burnham, Maidenhead, Marlow, Princes Risborough, Aylesbury, Wendover, Great Missenden, Chalfonts, amongst others. There were some very impressive rides (I think the milder northern hemisphere winter helped) and I'm sure I'm not the only one taking a well-earned rest from the bike right now!

Using Strava and a GPS I logged about 770k during the Festive 500 which I thought is pretty respectable considering I started late and was working between Christmas and NYE.

The poor Kinesis suffered a bit though - I worked my way to the blue protective layer on a 25mm Marathon Plus and yesterday broke a spoke in the rear wheel yesterday as well as watched the bottom bracket spew its inners out. The cranks were moving about a centimetre side to side! Bye bye bearings. The HTC Sensation did well, logging over 9 hours of cycling yesterday with 7% still remaining on a single battery charge. It's not going to last for a 24hr though, obviously so maybe a Garmin 800 with Extended battery pack is on the cards?

Cyclists do some odd things for performance. This feels like one of the most strange to me - changing the way I've been pedalling for the last 30 or so years in order to improve long time trial efficiency and reduce the likelihood of my recurring Achilles injury.

I'm currently working with The Bike Whisperer to change my cleat setup to a mid-foot cleat position. Most of a cyclist's power comes from the quads, glutes and hamstrings - the lower leg only connecting to the pedal and stabilising what happens above. It doesn't contribute enough to justify its energy expenditure - and I have massive calves. The idea is there will be more oxygen/fuel left for the bigger muscle groups. Side benefits include a reduction in the overall height on the bike for better aerodynamics and hopefully the elimination of my recurring Achilles tendinitis.

"Midfoot cleat position is when the cleat is positioned so that the Tarsometatarsal (TMT) joints are over the centre of the pedal axle. The TMT joints are the joints between the two rows of bones drawn on the foot below."


Midfoot is being used by lots of long distance riders, Ironman competitors and such-like.
Read more here:
www.stevehoggbikefitting.com - power to the pedal – cleat position
www.trainingbible.com - cleat position
www.biomac.biz



Gallery: Midfoot Cleat Positioning - Stage 1

Bye Hatchy.

Thanks for looking after him for all these years Mum & Dad.

Last night I looked at the TT bike and thought "nah, it'll be slower on the hill climb" so chose to prep the S-Works road bike. I looked at the 11T DA cassette and thought "nah, I'll not need go fast enough for that" and kept the 12T on. Turns out I could've done with both. Damn. My normalised power was 20W up on the 10mi TT I did on 18/09. The tailwind on the way out meant that at my preferred cadence I ran out of gears on the Wendover bypass. I averaged ~47kph/30mph to the turn-around. The average after the turn was 36kph - the wind made a big difference!

Perhaps being on the road bike meant I paid less attention to the power meter and just punished myself? Whatever, it was fast and almost a new PB. I was pretty annoyed afterwards that I didn't bother with the holder at the start and was mucking around pushing 2-up clubmates back together mid-race (shhh!). So, once again, note to myself: If you're going to bother entering a race then race properly!

Followed up the 10 with a hill climb up Longdown and got a second place overall. I was a long way off first place (the winner has won it 4 times though I was only a second slower than him last year when I didn't ride the 10 first).

24:24

Last night I looked at the TT bike and thought "nah, it'll be slower on the hill climb" so chose to prep the S-Works road bike instead.

I looked at the 11T DA cassette and thought "nah, I'll not go fast enough for that" and kept the 12T cassette on. Turns out I could've done with both. Damn!

My normalised power was 20W up on the 10mi TT I did on 18/09/2011. The tailwind on the way out meant that at my preferred cadence I ran out of gears on the Wendover bypass. I was averaging ~47kph/30mph at the turn-around. The average after the turn-around dropped to a meagre 36kph - the wind made a difference!

I probably should've made use of the holder at the start and perhaps not got involved in the err 'Willesden 3-up' :)

Using the road bike meant I paid less attention to the power meter, so perhaps rode more to my body's limit than a pre-determined best guess? Anyway, a good lesson in preparation that I will ignore like the other hundred lessons in preparation I've ignored in the past. The 'green army' headed to Deep Mill Diner where those who had planned to do the hill climb had a coffee and those that were perhaps talked into doing the hill climb had breakfast.. ;)



The hill climb over Longdown (Cadsdean Road) was a fairly standard affair for me with the only things worth noting: sort gears out before starting! Crunch Bang Crack Pop Click Snap Etc. and if you want to perform well.. don't do a 10mi TT beforehand!

I came in 2nd place with a 2:44 I think, way off Dom's first place 2:15. Apparently I was only a second slower than him last year with a 2:47 which means he has basically got a lot faster going up hills. But it also means I am marginally faster up hills which is nice. Maybe doing thousands of kilometres during the season works for me? *bins turbo trainer* Yeeess!!!

Thanks for the photography Ron

2:01, 3rd overall, 1st Willesden

With thanks to the lovely man Digger, for not encouraging me to stay for drinks too much, I managed to get up on time and make it through the thick fog to the bottom of Windsor Hill. Without too much time to spare before the start I didn't bother riding up the hill pre-race. I know it well enough now anyway. Tony, riding his first hill climb (I wonder if he'll be back for more?) and his daughter Kirsten let me use their car to stow all my warm kit. Cheers guys! A brief roll around the block (I'd call it a warm-up but think it actually made me colder) and then back to the start line ready to roll.

Little ring, smallish sprocket so I don't have to use the front derailler or spin too fast off the line and get my HR high too early. 30.. 15.. clip in.. 10.. 5.. go!

Using my light-weight Ksyrium ES's instead of the Zipp 404 Powertap wheels meant the bike was probably >500g lighter but I had no power for pacing the effort. With this in mind I tried to ride conservatively early on the hill, knowing it ramped a lot near the end. Around the first corner I was already going for easier gears as the all-too-familiar rapid and heavy breathing kicked in. Dropped another gear here and then as it kicked I climbed out of the saddle to get some more speed into the ascent.

Seeing the finish is a nice bonus here and I was out of the saddle again to impress the fans :) I heard some cheering going on (thanks Gladys and Ron) and crossed the line, gasping for air. Considering I could barely move after having done these previously, I was happy to roll down the road for 30s and then have enough in the tank to turn around and cheer on Tony and Kirsten and the last rider off, 29. I'm not sure what happened to Pete - he was going to be my main opposition for the club HC trophy this year.

In the end, I came in 3rd overall doing a 2:01, which oddly enough is 1 second faster than I did on this course 2 years ago. I was sure I was going to be a lot slower, owing to all the LSD I'd been doing (that's Long Slow Distance not Lysergic Acid Diethylamide). Pretty happy with that - though I reckon it's down to that 500g and not my (relatively poor) training lead up. 2nd did a 2:00 and the winner, Joe Holloway(?) did a 1:44. Not sure of the Savage duo's times, they'll appear on the blog soon, no doubt. Thanks for the gels Gladys. Found a quid on the way home too. Bonus. :)

Welcome to Dopeology, a website about reported instances of doping in European professional road cycling. Make no mistake, this is an enormous subject. That's why our story begins as recently as 1980, while the history of doping in professional cycling actually began over a century earlier.

Dopeology builds a topology of the densely interconnected network of doping, by listing the people, substances, techniques and events involved as recorded by reliable press sources. The purpose of the exercise is simply to organise and present the data in a logical way rather than to make any judgements about what has happened over the years.

The data on Dopeology is divided into just a few categories: People, Teams and Products, combinations of which go together to form doping-related Incidents. Every incident is supported by published sources, all but a handful of which are accessible online.

www.dopeology.org

59:44 Under the hour, finally!

Okay, it's not like I train for 10s and 25s but I've been close before (1:00:04 was my previous PB) so it was only a matter of time. I didn't think it would happen on this course though. The HCC114 is bit bumpy north-south-north-south with no real gift sections except perhaps the Wendover bypass downhill. My PB for this course on the TT bike was 1:02:11 last year.

I think the main problem with my TTing is that until this year I've never trained on the TT bike. It was strictly for the TTs and maybe the odd turbo session. Having spent the last 8 months riding for hours and hours and hours on this bike is obviously paying off (two PBs in two weeks) even though I'm not really doing any specific short distance training - at least until this week I wasn't.

A smaller breakfast was on the cards this morning due to the unknown start time forcing me to be there before the first rider off time of 8.30am. Espresso and a single Vegemite (food of champions.. and me) toast. Nibbled on a Powerbar riding out. Caffeine and gel 15min before the start. Set off a bit fast, wanting to catch Ray and John, the other two Willesden CC riders and Westerley's Rolly, who I'd cycled some of the way to the start with. Paid for that exuberance at the Wendover turn-around when the speed sunk but at least I kept the power up.

Half way through the race my left leg started going numb, like pins and needles. Unlike last week I'd done my shoes up this time so stopped and undid them a little bit thinking that might've been the cause. Shuffled about on the saddle too. I guess it helped a bit but still something that needs addressing. Glutes were hurting again too.

Still heading south and held up by a 4x4 waiting to go past another rider for a bit. It might've cost me some time but the rest was welcome. Shardeloes RAB turn-around and then back up past the finish line - which is unfortunately on the other side of the road. I was looking at the distance and time and thinking to myself "something is wrong, there's no way I'm this slow, I'll never get near the hour". It took me some time to work out that we didn't go all the way back down the Wendover bypass but actually turned around at the start of it. "Oh, sweet, so I might actually be able to get near the hour". After the turn-around with this new goal in mind it was hammer time. This is where everything hurts and you have to push harder. I knew the finish line was coming up soon but where?! Dig dig dig! "There it is!" Go go go! 59-something!!! Woo!!! Finally cracked the hour. Grovel back to the HQ and then wait to have it confirmed (my last three race times/distances have been wrong so I wasn't getting too excited just yet). Ate cake, had a coffee and... confirmed! Yes!

2010-05-30 WLC 25mi TT HCC114
2009-04-19 WLC 25 mile TT HCC114

westerleycc.blogspot.com - Interclub Sunday 25 September result

www.willesdencyclingclub.co.uk - hippy under the hour

Team Clonc