@mtbtomo – I usually have porridge, but it was just too warm to contemplate, evean at 6.30 in the morning. I’m not particularly strict with diet, and only really do structured training in the winter when its not particulalry feasible to ride outside in the evening

Ah, would have said hi if I’d known. I didn’t hang around for results- I had to wring my stuff out

My last race at Shrewsbury was minging, and I walked into one of the changing rooms to see a fellow rider washing his bike in the shower, so I just shrugged and walked into the shower cubicle in full kit 🙂

My bike was in a worse state after than most of the cx races last season

facebook pics

Well done CH. I sat in the Hut while you raced as I was already wet and cold.

Raced the E123 immediately afterwards. It can best be described as a gritty jet wash. Conditions were atrocious. But unlike the 3/4, riding was largely impeccable. I sat in and cruised most of the race , back third. Always felt comfortable, even when visibility was awful – I have to wear my Rx insert glasses, which steam up! One rider really struggled to carry any speed through the bends. But he was strong on the straights. This kept opening up gaps. Some aggressive position holding, but just smooth and fast.

A few good hard breakaway attempts, one of which I blocked for a friend. No attacking from me though – TT tomorrow. So little effort in the sprint and back of the pack finish after 52 minutes. Average speed was a tasty 47 kmh.

Pre race, I’ve been using double espresso gels. Taken 40 min before the race to achieve peak caffeine concentrations at race start. This help keeps the heart rate higher from the beginning. Races are too short for caffeine to benefit if taken during racing (my day job)

What kit were you in TiRed?
First time I’ve raced Hillingdon that way round and took me a couple of laps to trust my tyres in those conditions… there was at least one rider worse at cornering so hopefully you’re not talking about me 😳

Pre race like tonight I have a can of coke and packet of crisps.

Road race breakfast is gallo pinto, fried haloumi (sp?) and eggs. Plus some corn flakes if I’m still hungry.

Ah, well done TiRed!
That is the one and only thing better at Thruxton- no grit! I figured out I could remove the padded inner of my clear-glasses before the race as with it on, it reduced your peripheral vision too much. As it was, I still got grit in my eye but not too bad. The poor lady racing with us had a full on grit-beard 🙂

Our fastest lap was only 28.7mph 😆 and I hit 34mph during my ‘sprint’.

Road race breakfast is gallo pinto, fried haloumi (sp?) and eggs. Plus some corn flakes if I’m still hungry.

Sounds good, but I dont think i’d have time to prepare that, what with having to go to the toilet about half a dozen times #nerves

Make a big batch of it and reheat each morning. Keeps for 4 days or so.

even the eggs? 🙂

😆 no and don’t expect the cornflakes to be great after 4 days soaking in milk either

I arrived in my white summer kit, changed into my normal blue Twickenham jersey for the race. Putting a nice dry jersey on after the soaking was pure luxury!

Rode the best bike. Giant Defy Advanced SL with deep section carbon clinchers.

Conditions looked grim! I didn’t even bother commuting in yesterday 😆

My pre race food/routine is essentially my breakfast, but more:
3 hours before = 150g oats, 30g vegan protein powder, 10g cocoa and 20g honey with soya milk (eaten cold)- with a big mug of coffee.
90 mins before = smaller cup of coffee and an energy bar
On the line = 1 energy gel, in the hope it kicks in for the sprint
On the bike = 40g go electrolytes

seems to work for me..

In other news, looks like I can carry more water on my training/commuter bike, as CH and I think this is an additional cage mount on the underside of the downtube?!

Yes. That’s a common bottle mount location for touring.

Not sure I’d like road grime on my water bottle though ha. I didn’t think there would be that much room under the frame?!

Looks like I can do my centuries non stop in future 😆

You would just stored the bottle there and then transfer the liquid to the other bottle when you stop. And a touring bike would normally have full guards as well. You wouldn’t take the bottle in and out from there when riding.

I’d just stop at a garage or shop but if you really want to carry it all on your bike… triathlete style saddle mounted bottle holders?

SY. Which rider were you last night? You were probably in front of me f most of the race as I deliberately sat back for most of the race. I prefer that direction as the incline favours me – you may have seen me gaining positions regularly up the slope.

I mix the E123, club ride, and regular training ride. Wednesdays I race vets or time trial, so don’t want to kill myself the day before – although some of my fixed wheel club runs have had a higher suffer score than the E123 races!

Nath it’s a touring mount. Crud catcher styled. Stick a bottle in your back pocket. Or drink less. 2L is fine if you leave early enough.

@matts – yeah makes sense!

@the southern yeti – I cycle solo and so stopping to go into a garage/shop is a pita. Not sure about the 3rd bottle of water but I may as well use that mount if it’s there!

Would feel a bit like a grandad though haha

ZeroBC black, blue and green ‘digital camo’ kit, riding my litespeed whilst waiting on a team Colnago.

nath, even riding solo I just race in and out of a garage, planning a route that ensures I pass one where the bike’s always visible.

Your cornering is forgiven then 😉 I rather enjoyed the race. And it set me up nicely for this evening’s TT in glorious conditions.

For CH, I calibrated my powerpod for best accuracy on the TT bike using an out and back ride (3 laps each way round). Then I rode 11 laps to confirm the calibration was where I thought is should be (40 kmh average was probably a bit fast for a warm up!). Then I raced to indicated lap power. Watts reported 312, watts from model 312 for time (22:43). It is bang on. this for no drafting, tweaked 5% lower rolling resistance and 5% more aero.

In road races it’s not as accurate, but for circuits in controlled conditions, Physics is precise. BTW, the model is validated by other riders with direct force power meters too as it predicts their times to within 2% accuracy.

Plan is to couple with a DFPM to give CdA, but that is another thread.

I totally get that it works- it’s just such a convoluted way of getting a very rig-specific number.
It’s like driving a 15 mile loop to get to your neighbours house when you could have just opened the back gate 😆

You have the knack and get repeatable results which is all that matters 🙂

Ah well, got 17th in the end. 7th placed 4th Cat. It’s funny thinking about upgrading though because I’d only be racing the same race anyhow so it wouldn’t make any difference.

I’ve been thinking about the whole discussion around racing v training and whether racing yourself fit is even viable and I’ve kind of changed my mind a little- especially given the fitness boost I’ve witnessed in my own performance.
I think the key is to race to lose! Well, obviously you always want to win but you need those moments when you’re clinging on for dear life and a reasonable IF/suffer score/NP at the end of it and of course, that’s not how you win a Cat4 or 3/4 race!

Which also brings me back to TiReds list- to complete that, I need to win! And to win, I can’t get many top ten finishes or I’ll get an upgrade 😉 My best shot is the Big Events Cat 4 only in October I reckon. I’ll go public now and say I want to win it! 😮

It was ironic I didn’t go to Thruxton- there wasn’t a race on anyway 😆 Obviously I’d have noticed when I tried to enter 😉

I think I will go back to Hillingdon next Tuesday. Then maybe switch back to Thruxton if Weeksy comes to play the week after.

I’m still torn with my training too. I ramped the volume up again this week a little with 2x 90minutes Z2 rides since Tuesday and it just made my interval session this evening feel really hard. I had 90mins Z2 pencilled in for tomorrow too but I’m going to swap it for 60mins recovery instead. I guess this is where a coach would earn their keep.
Beat MrBlobby up a local hill on Strava so it wasn’t an entirely wasted session 😆

What?!!!! Off to check out Strava now… 😉

Perhaps ‘hill’ is stretching it a bit 😆

Today’s update. It was horrible, I felt sick at the finish, and got lapped by at least the top half in the last couple of laps. Wallingford festival/ ORRL crit.
Strung out by a crash in the first bend then never really got in touch, just picking off others who had dropped off.
Slightly lighter on the scales this morn (82kg) so disappointed the associated watt/kg boost marginal gainzzzz didn’t see me to glory.
And for the earlier question about fuelling for a 1330 start, 2 weetwbix and skimmed milk when I woke up about 7, same about 10, toast at 1130ish and a Clif bar about 1. Then a gel just before start.

Ah gutted for you Leigh. Didn’t make it down to watch as it’s my nan’s funeral tomorrow so had to work today.

Have you entered Thruxton?

I’m going to Hillingdon- happy to drive you if you have the afternoon free? (Leaving here at 16:15)

Very kind CH… And sorry about your nan.
I think a few of the locals have committed to thruxton, and I’m working til 3 or 4 so will head there hopefully. And Hillingdon sounds hard….!!

No worries. I heard a whisper on the wind that Weeksy may come to Thruxton the following week so I’ll switch back if he does.

I guess it depends on your strengths- bike handling is one of my few advantages so I get a little more leverage at Hillingdon. It’s also a narrower course with a narrower and longer bunch.
The fact it’s built for bicycles means the corners are a little more challenging than those designed to be taken at 120mph 😀

It’s nice to mix things up at any rate 🙂

Agreed mate, change is good. Although after today with 2 particular corners I borked 50%+ of the time corners you can make at 120mph might do me a favour…!!

Yeah, town centre Crits look hairy!! I watched some old Boise Twighlight vids yesterday and those guys have no fear. Millimetres from the barrriers at 30-40mph!

Nice work Leigh!!

Sorry to hear about your Nan @CH!

So I’ve just finished my final instense “Build” week (week 7 of 8), and to be frank it’s been a bit crap, really let myself down! Yesterday I was building a bike so didn’t get out for the 4 hours that I had planned and this morning’s ride was cut short too. On the plus side I’ve been commuting with my pollution mask on, if you’re not familiar with this feeling then strangle yourself while cycling – it’s tough! I’m convinced that it helps both my throat/lungs and gets my body using oxygen more efficiently (I’ll let you decide that).

Anyway here’s the chart that’s stuck to the inside of my wardrobe:

Black means that I’ve met or exceeded, red means a fail lol.

Annoyingly I’m down to 68kg, which is bizarre as I’ve been eating the same as my normal stuff but with less exercise – hope it’s not turning muscle into fat! 😆

Final FTP test on Saturday!!

P.s. tested the 3rd bottle mount, it’s a bit tight!!

Also 25mm GP 4 seasons, think I could get away with 28mm? There’s 4.5mm room here:

I think you should be pleased with that block mate- well done! Can’t wait to see the FTP test numbers and more importantly, the results out on track!!

Not sure about your asphyxiation fetish 😆

Off the top of my head, I would say it’s not a good thing for aerobic fitness, as if you still hit your wattage targets, you will be doing so with more reliance on your anaerobic system- forcing it to run on sugar when it should be practicing churning out big fat-fuelled watts.

That could be completely wrong mind you!!

Edit- (But probably still better than choking on smog!)

Thanks!

Rather looking forward to just commuting/spinning this week (provided I can get the wrong damn BB out of my new frame) – my legs are tired!

332w to beat, 345w would see me at 5w/kg which means maintaining 365w for 20 mins 😐 So that’s the target! Last FTP test I got up to the watts I wanted and the cadence and then just concentrated on the cadence number 😆 Conditional changes are the fact I’ve got a bigger fan now as the other fell over and blew itself up.

Is your CP60 set at a different number to your FTP just because of timing between printing it out and your test?

You definitely need to race and not waste your talent…

I raced a Nat B yesterday, missed the break but did plenty of work on the front and tried and failed in a few breaks / jumps across and wound up with AP of 250 and NP of 320 for the 3 or so hours. I’m about a stone heavier so theoretically you’d have cruised it.

Get off the front you wally 😆

We actually did have a gap 😯

You look about as aero as a brick there CH. 😆 A bit of work on your position and you could save enough effort that the results will start to flow.

Ch what happened to the aero posing for the camera? 😆

SY I’m not sure what you mean there 😳

Racing coming up soon, CH is joining in too! 🙂

@Leigh2612 – Hard luck, city centre crits are a bit of a lottery unless you can get to the front from the start. That you were mopping up other riders through the race indicates you were riding pretty well though

For myself, didnt race on Tuesday as a) my legs were still a bit fried from the Paramount RR, and b) the weather was bad enough to put me off driving for an hour for 40 minutes of racing.

On thursday, I raced the local evening handicap league at the Sundorne track in Shrewsbury. I was in the first group of the first race (the league has 4 handicap groups, and was split into 2 races, so it was effectively a 3/4, with thesecond race effectively e/1/2/3). The first few laps were spent waining for the 2nd group to make the catch, at which point the pace jumped up a bit.

I felt pretty good, and was finding it a lot easier than the 4th Cat only races I’d done there, despite the overall speed being the same.

Then after about 22 minutes, A Stourbridge rider about 4-5 wheels in front of me took a drink, couldnt put the bottle back in its cage, looked down and stuffed his front wheel into the rear mech of the rider next to him. Next thing I know Im upside down at 25mph. Luckily, I got away with mostly bruises (hip, back, and a black eye from headbutting the bars). Unfortunately, the rider in front of me went down face first, and was unconscious for about 10 minutes (He suffered multiple facial lacerations, a neck fracture and a small brain bleed, but the latest info is that he should recovery fully)

The racing was, rightly abandoned for the evening.

needless to say, this weekend has been a bit uncumfortable, esp the bruised hip and back

Here’s some pre-crash photos

JESUS!

Events like that really bring it home how much trust you’re putting into the people around you.

Glad you’re okay (well in comparison to the other rider!!!)!

Thanks Nath. Feeling much better today, should be able to race again on Thursday.

Looking back, its a good job I was in the drops at the time, because it helped me roll, and I didnt take my hands of the bars until I hit the deck. If I’d been on the hoods, I would have probably put my arms out to break the fall (and my collarbone)