Post 127 - A busy week with a 50 mile time trial

This was a very busy and fairly intense week this week, culminating with a 50 mile bike time trial around Essex and topped off with a 10K run straight afterwards…

I had the usual rest day at the start of the week on Monday to allow my body to recover from the previous weekend’s training exertions. The “rest day” involved getting up at 6:20am, going to work, getting home, making enough food for the week, putting it in Tupperware boxes in the fridge, eating, and going to bed. Very restful indeed…

I decided to do an FTP (functional threshold power) bike test on Tuesday evening, on the turbo trainer. FTP tests are not fun things to do. You warm up, then you go as hard as possible for 20 minutes without fading, then you slump over the bike, gasping for breath and flooded with lactic acid, muscles and lungs screaming, then when the gasping and screaming has subsided, you pick up the pieces, and do a cool down. I’d like to get to a level where I can maintain 330 watts for 20 minutes, which would give me an FTP of over 310 watts (over 4.5 watts per kilogram). That would be acceptable going into the Ironman.

The best thing to do when training is not to think about doing it, and not to wish there was an easier way (there isn’t) but just to get on with it, so I did my stretching, got on the bike, and did my warm up. Then I got into the FTP test. 20 minutes doesn’t sound like too long. I tend to break the 20 minutes down into three sections. 3 sets of 6:40. The first 6:40 is OK. The second section gets really tough. And the third section is excruciatingly painful and slow. For the first 6:40, I was pushing close to 330 watts. Not bad. For the second 6:40, I dropped fractionally. Ideally you want a consistent output for the whole 20 minutes. You don’t want to fade. Too much of a fade and you may as well abandon the session, because it won’t give a representative FTP value, and you won’t get any benefit from the session. A fractional fade is just about OK. But would I continue to fade, and blow up?

I managed to up it again slightly for the final 6:40. Time went so slow. You look at the timer, then look around, look down at the gears, look out the window, count to 10, watch your sweat drip, watch your legs pump, look at your power numbers, look at your heart rate (which is through the roof), then look back at the timer and, lo and behold, only 10 seconds have passed. Time distorts. It’s a nightmare. 20 minutes finally passed and I hit the stop button. 325 watts average. Not bad. Multiply this by 0.95 and you get 308 watts for an FTP value. That's over 4.5W/kg. For comparison, elite cyclists would probably be able to hold 6-7W/kg for a similar length of time. Hmmmm, work to do... After the FTP test I did some weights and core work. My legs were twitching all night. It’s quite a maximal session.

On Wednesday I had a rest day as I was out for dinner, then I was back at it on Thursday – a trip to the osteopath for some cracking and loosening, followed by a 40-minute fartlek run around the park, followed my core work and weights. My new helmet arrived too – a green Rudy Project Wingspan. It looks great. I wanted a shorter-tailed helmet than my current Bell Meteor – my body position on the bike means that a shorter tail is more aerodynamic. I also wanted a helmet with earflaps that didn’t compress my ears as much as my current Bell Meteor helmet, giving me a splitting headache after a couple of hours. I also decided against a fully integrated visor, thinking that ventilation would be better without a visor and just using sunglasses. So far so good, the helmet looks and fits great…

I also got hold of some Zone3 gear. Their Lava shorts are great, they are what I’ll race in this season. I’ve decided against a triathlon-specific top. I want a sleeved top, with a full-length zip, and good pockets at the rear, and not a flimsy top – I’m racing in the UK and I’m skinny, so I would like a little insulation and warmth, and a lot of the triathlon-specific tops are really thin and offer no warmth. I also don’t want mesh material on the rear because I don’t want to get sunburned. It seems that such tops are tough to come by. I have decided to buy an aero cycling top rather than a specific triathlon top, and use that for the Ironman bike. I’ve ordered a few Castelli tops – they have sleeves, thicker material than a tri top so more warmth and more sun protection, good pockets at the rear, and still a tight aero fit. I won’t be wearing it under my wetsuit at the Ironman anyway so it doesn’t need to be flimsy, super-thin and quick drying, I’ll just whip it on in transition and start the bike nice and dry. Plus I can pre-fill the pockets with gels.

On Friday I went to the pool and blasted out a 1500m time trial. This was a bit like the FTP bike test on Tuesday night. You go as hard as you can, try to pace it evenly, and hope you don’t fade or blow up towards the end. Swimming pace is quite tough to judge as there’s little pace feedback, and no heart rate or power feedback, so it’s mostly judged by perceived exertion. I probably went a bit too hard initially and tailed off towards the end. I did 23:24 for the 1500. A little slower than I would have liked, but not a disaster. My best ever 1500 in a pool was just under 23 minutes – I wonder if I’ll get back to that level before the Ironman…? I still don’t tumble turn when swimming at speed, but when cooling down I try to practice a few. I’ll get there… Then it was back home and onto the turbo trainer for single leg drills. Pedalling round and round with one leg is a bit tedious, but it’s beneficial, so it gets done.

Up to this point, it had been quite an intense training week, so I took Saturday off to ensure I gave myself some opportunity to rest and recover before Sunday’s 50 mile time trial. I wasn’t treating this time-trial as an A-event and so I didn’t taper down like I usually would, I kept training right through the whole of the week leading up to it.

I was dying for a lie-in on Saturday morning, but I knew I had to be up at 4am on Sunday to get to the time trial venue before my 7:26am start time. Lying in until 11am on Saturday morning would mean I wouldn’t be able to get to sleep early on Saturday night, and I wouldn’t be well rested for Sunday. So I dragged myself out of bed at 8am on Saturday morning. I had no training to do, so instead I kept checking the weather forecast (and kept cursing it). I got fed up looking at a wet forecast and so I got my bike prepared (it looks great with the new wheel decals if I do say so myself), and dealt with “life admin” – washing, ironing, cleaning, paperwork, sorting, tidying, planning and so on. Then I went to pick up my road bike which had been in for a service this week, and went to the car rental place to get the car.

Looking good

Another twist was receiving an email which stated: “IMPORTANT NOTICE – Traffic lights in Tillingham South Street:  As you enter Tillingham from the Dengie straight (hard left corner) there are traffic lights for a road works. The roadworks are 50 metres long and there is clear sight to the far end of them. These road works will be marshalled. Any rider riding discourteously or dangerously will be liable to disqualification.” Interpret that how you will… It didn’t explicitly say that jumping the lights if they were red would result in disqualification…

I prepared and packed my gear, and with a final look at the weather forecast, I went to bed at 8pm. I set the alarm for 4am… It was to rain all night, and the rain was to fizzle out by around 8am the next day. My start time was 7:26am… I really didn’t want rain and wet, but it was going to be wet… wet is bad, the risk of crashing is higher, and your bike gets messed up and filthy in the wet, and the course was to be a very twisty and technical course, which is not good in wet conditions. But, it would be what it would be, and hopefully it would warm up and dry out as the time trial progressed.

Start at the green dot, go anticlockwise, do two full laps,
then two-thirds of lap three and finish at the red dot/chequered flag.
So many tight turns...

I went to sleep. Next thing, the alarm went off. 4am. Argh. I looked out the window. It was already getting bright. With only a few weeks until midsummer’s day, you could say it was “the height of summer”, and yet it was soaking wet outside. At least it wasn’t raining. I got ready, ate breakfast, loaded the car up, and got on the road. After a couple of wrong turns, I made it to the event HQ at the village hall in Steeple in eastern Essex, and registered. There were around 80 riders entered, starting at one-minute intervals from 7am.

It was good to be back in Essex – I lived in Billericay for part of 2013-2014 and did quite a bit of cycling in Essex. I got to know the roads quite well, and the time trial would be on some of the same roads I used to cycle on. Nice, quiet, scenic roads. I wouldn’t describe them as fast or open roads, and I learned that the time trial was classed as a “SpoCo” or a “Sporting Course” – a more technical and “difficult” course than some typical faster time trial courses which go up and down flat and featureless dual carriageways at 4am…

I wondered what sort of time I would do. I knew I had done a 100 mile time trial in just under 4 hours in 2014. I’d like to think I’d be at a similar level of fitness this year. So this would mean going under 2 hours for a 50. But, having seen the course map and the conditions, under 2 hours would be a hell of an effort. Realistically, maybe 2:05? 2:10? Surely not as slow as 2:10? I just wanted to put in a decent effort and (literally) get round in one piece. No crashing please and thank you…

I got chatting to a guy named Terry, from Southend, as I was unloading my bike and getting ready. He told me it wasn’t a particularly fast course, and talked me through some of it. Some of the small villages were to be treated with caution, with lots of parked cars and hidden entrances. One of the villages at the far end had roadworks and the damned temporary traffic lights, as well as a lot of parked cars and side entrances. Terry also mentioned a really steep climb, up to 12%, just after the start. We’d go up it three times in the 50 miles.

Ready to roll... wet roads...

I decided on wearing two tight tops, arm warmers, gloves and toe covers under my aero shoe covers, as it was still very early and quite cold and wet. I rode the four miles down to the start with Terry and it was really cold. We were just cruising and I wasn’t generating any heat. I needed to warm up properly. Terry was off 10 minutes before me and I had 10 minutes to get warm and get ready, so I cycled off quite hard in the opposite direction to warm up. I went down a side road to pee before the start and ended up having to hammer it back to the start area – a time-trial start time waits for no-one. I made it with a minute to spare and was a bit too much out of breath for my liking, but the start time is set in stone, you can’t ask to delay, so I got into position, the starter grabbed my bike and held me upright, I clipped into my pedals, ready to go. I got “30 seconds”, “20”, “10” and a countdown from 5. Away I went, down in the aero position, 50 miles ahead of me.

Straight away I noticed a whooshing noise – the air channelling between the helmet ear flaps and my head. If I “turtled” my head and really got down low, it stopped as the helmet position changed and the earflaps were less exposed to the airflow. Whooshing = bad and not aero, quiet = aero. Spray was going everywhere. I quickly realised I wouldn’t be going under 2 hours (I hadn’t really expected to anyway). The course was slow, my legs weren’t completely fresh as I hadn’t tapered, and I wasn’t quite averaging 25mph.

There were a lot of 90-degree turns and I was tip-toeing round them. I really didn’t need to crash. But on one of the first few turns, a right-hander, despite my tip-toeing, my back wheel stepped out of line and skidded. I managed to just catch it, but in doing so, I was heading for the verge. I didn’t need to somersault into the bushes and I just about kept it on the black stuff. Heartstopping. So for the rest of the course, I was cautious on the corners…

I got through the traffic lights no problem on the first lap, and settled into the ride. My heart rate was just over 160bpm and I was confident I could sustain this for 2 hours, but I did think that my average of well over 290 watts was a bit high. The first lap passed quite quickly and no-one overtook me. I started the second lap. Riders were still queuing up to start. I went up the steep hill for the second time. I wasn’t as strong this time. But still not bad. I was chasing one of the “big boys” with a disc wheel and a skinsuit who had just started his 50 – I was a lap up on him. I overtook him going up the hill – being 68kg has its benefits sometimes. Then shortly afterwards, he passed me again, but we were pretty much going at the same speed. I didn’t want to be towed by him, I wanted my effort to be honest, so I dropped back a little and carried on, and throughout the second lap, he was in my sights, pulling away ever so slightly. I kept battering on. Things were drying out but I was still wary of taking the turns too fast.

I hit the traffic lights for the second time. They were just after a left-hander, so you couldn’t see them in advance. I rounded the left-hander, and they were red. Feck! Split-second decision… there was nothing coming… there was no danger… I’m not stopping… Through I went, with some sort of grunt to the marshals – half “hmmm yes I know I shouldn’t go through a red light” and half “please have sympathy because there’s no danger…”

I did thank all of the marshals and timekeepers as I passed them, I make a point of doing this at every event. But at this time trial, the red light was the only time I didn’t. Saying that, it was a 3-lap course and the traffic light marshals got my thanks on lap one and lap three when the lights were green… I hope they knew my grunt wasn’t badly-intended…

Coming towards the end of my second lap, a slow-moving peloton up ahead, not involved with the time trial, was leading a slow-moving convoy of maybe 6 or 7 cars that couldn’t get past on the narrow winding roads. This didn’t look good… There was no way I could overtake or undertake the cars, it would have been far too dangerous, so I had no option but to sit up, slow down, try to contain my frustration and try not to rage too much. It could have continued for miles, but fortunately the road opened up and we passed a few junctions, clearing the way. I zoomed past the peloton and cracked on.

By the end of the second lap, with 12 or 13 miles left to go, I was starting to struggle. It was warming up, the sun was out, I was sweating a lot, my heart rate was up at 170bpm and my power was down from the 290s to the 270s. My legs felt hot and chunky, the lactic acid was building, and despite my head ordering my legs to kick out 20 more watts, there was no response from my legs, they were doing all they could to hang on. I glugged on my energy drink, got a gel or two down, and gritted my teeth. Time to tough it out and hang on. The final time up the steep climb was tough going and I growled and grunted my way up, refusing to change from the big chainring to the small chainring. The lights were thankfully green on the third lap up at the far end of the course. I turned onto the “home straight” with maybe 6 miles left to ride, at one of the higher points on the course, and had my third and final nice view of the Blackwater inlet. 6 miles left. 15 minutes or so? I knew it would be a long 6 miles…

My Garmin bike computer beeps every 5 miles, and tells me what my 5-mile split times are. I had done a few 11-minute splits, but mostly the splits were in the 12s. I knew I was flagging in the final 5 miles but my motivation was to keep the final 5-mile split under 13 minutes. It was a long 12 minutes and 52 seconds gutting it out to the finish line, but I’d kept it under 13 minutes. 2:03:35 for the 50 miles. 24.3mph average speed, 284 average watts, 164bpm average heart rate. Not bad, on such a day. My maximums were 32.5mph, 173bpm, 121rpm, and 544 watts.

The breakdown of each of my 5-mile sections is as follows:

12:14. 24.5mph, 87rpm, 156bpm, 289W
12:27, 24.1mph, 88rpm, 161bpm, 288W
12:22, 24.2mph, 93rpm, 165bpm, 297W
12:40, 23.7mph, 94rpm, 166bpm, 298W
11:47, 25.5mph, 93rpm, 164bpm, 290W
12:24, 24.2mph, 91rpm, 163bpm, 285W
12:09, 24.7mph, 92rpm, 166bpm, 288Ws
11:51, 25.3mph, 91rpm, 166bpm, 280W
12:45, 23.5mph, 91rpm, 166bpm, 265W
12:52, 23.3mph, 91rpm, 168bpm, 262W

It’s clear that I probably started a little too hard and built a little too hard, leaving me fading a bit towards the end. I wouldn’t call it a massive bonk or a disaster, but my pacing could have been a bit better. I should also have oiled my chain beforehand, because it was very squeaky and I probably lost a bit of time there. I also didn’t taper for the event at all, treating it more as training. But even if I had oiled the chain, and tapered, and if it had been dry, I’m not sure I would have cracked 2 hours. Maybe if it had been flat and straight I would have been under 2 hours, but nevertheless, I’d got a good workout. I was pleased with my variability index of 1.01, which basically means that I didn’t surge or spike anything too hard, and kept consistent. Exactly how I want to ride in the Ironman. No surging and burning out my legs. I cruised back to the village hall, spinning easily.

Then it was time to run. I loaded the bike into the car, ran into the village hall to use the loos, then started my run. I wasn’t sure how far or how fast I’d run, but I wanted to do at least 25 minutes. It was pretty warm by this stage. I ran out along the road that time triallists were coming back towards the finish and it was cool to watch them zooming towards the end of their 50s. Terry was finishing off and he gave me a shout. I felt surprisingly good when running, and was comfortably doing 6:30/mile without even really trying. I decided I’d do 10K, that would be a decent run. I took a left turn towards the Blackwater and it was exactly 5K when I reached the water. I wouldn’t have minded packing it in at this point and jumping in to cool off, I was really warm now.

But I turned and headed back, still maintaining my pace. I could have done with a drink or a gel to give me a little kick and get me back, but I hadn’t anticipated running for 40 minutes. I scrolled through my Garmin watch, looking at my data and numbers, and had to do a double take when I saw 9:58am… that can’t be right?! But yes, it really was still that early… I ploughed on, trying to maintain my pace, and finally got back to the village hall. 10K done in 40 minutes, reasonably comfortably. A good day’s work, and it wasn’t even half 10 in the morning… still night time really, I might well still have been in bed at this time on a Sunday morning in previous training years…!

My run data was as follows:

6.23 miles, 40:40, 6:31/mile, 161bpm. 6:44/144, 6:35/155, 6:26/162, 6:33/165, 6:27/168, 6:28/172.

Fortunately I had planned well and I had brought a lot of food and drink with me – plenty of water, coconut juice, bananas, flapjacks, and sandwiches. It all disappeared very quickly. I went inside where the results were being posted – I was already on the board, 2:03:35. I’d have settled for that before I started, and I’d had a good run too. But I was a bit annoyed for forgetting to lubricate my chain beforehand and wondered how much time it would have cost me. A minute or two?

On stage in the village hall

Results, aftermath and data

I got chatting to a few people afterwards about cycling and time trialling and racing and stuff, and it all seemed very friendly. One guy told me of the dark places you end up in mentally when doing a 12-hour time trial. I can’t imagine doing that. I also tried on his helmet – a fully enclosed thing with a full frontal visor. It felt very different to mine, and was strangely quiet inside. I had been pleased with my one though, so no complaints there. My new shorts had been really good too. I also got chatting to the winner, who had done 1:56. That’s pretty quick on such a course. I was interested to learn that he didn’t carry any bottles on his bike, but instead wore a CamelBack drinks bladder under his skinsuit. That’s not really an option for triathlon though… I had really enjoyed the whole thing and look forward to getting involved in a club again when Ironman is over and when I leave London.

Then I headed back for home. I knew I had to get the rental car dropped off by 4pm and had to go food shopping, and get all my gear sorted, washed, dried and put away. I later found out on the internet that I had won a tenner at the time trial as second place in Group D, whatever that means. I’ve won a few quid through running races in the past, but have never won anything by cycling. Then a day or two later, I received a letter in the post:

This really made my day and typified the friendly and thorough event organisation. I’ll use the money to buy a couple of pints of the black stuff (maybe)… And frame the letter (maybe)... A few photos of the time trial appeared on Facebook. I hadn’t noticed any photographers when I was riding, and so I wasn’t surprised to find that there were none of me – a bit of a pity as I’d have liked to have seen how aero the helmet looked when I was in action.

By late afternoon I was absolutely shattered and had a sore head (probably dehydration) and sore legs. I had a very early night and unsurprisingly slept really well. I planned to take a couple of days off training – I’d had a good few weeks and was in need of some rest and recuperation. So, on Monday night, I went to a burger restaurant called "Hello Burger" with my housemates and ate burgers and chips, and drank chocolate flavoured porter (think chocolate Guinness…) Then the dessert menus came round, and I couldn’t decide between pecan pie and vanilla cheesecake… what to do? There was nothing else for it but to order both… there’s no harm in having a little mental and physical break…

Hello beautiful...

From Wednesday, I will get back to training, and I will train hard through until the following Wednesday or Thursday, and then I will have a mini-taper before the Bristol Olympic distance triathlon on 5th June. 8 weeks until the Ironman…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 16 May: Rest
Tue 17 May: 45 minute turbo (20 minute FTP test: 325W,169bpm = 308W FTP)
Wed 18 May: Rest
Thu 19 May: 40 minute fartlek run
Fri 20 May: Swim 2k (1500m in 23:24), 30 minute turbo (single leg drills, 3 x 3mins R/L/B)
Sat 21 May: Rest
Sun 22 May: 60 mile bike (50 mile TT, 2:03:35, 284W, 164bpm), 10K run (40:37, 161bpm)
Mon 23 May:
Tue 24 May: Rest

Totals: Swim 2k, Bike 88 miles, Run 12 miles.