Not a club run, this was straight down the A413, around the round-a-bout in Wendover and back again. Program for Saturday said 90k and I did good for once, only going over by 7k.

Averaged 30kph before the turn around and probably a little more on the return leg thanks to a tail wind. Need to veer off course next time, get lost in the hills somewhere.. I know they’re out there..

I did 400k today. Okay, ~200k was sitting on a train to/from Manningtree but over 200k was human powered. 🙂

My ride in to Liverpool Street was a bit nippy (-1degC forecast) and I’m blaming the cold on the Powertap not working for most of it. Very annoying! Give me power data!

I met Ed at Manningtree station (which I keep calling Manningham for some reason), after spending an hour and a half with the Raindance ravers.. a bunch of chicks clad in fluoro shorts, fishnets, high-viz jackets. I can’t really comment on people’s dress sense when I’m clad head to toe in lycra though can I? 😛

Ed has already detailed much of the ride in Suffolk in Hell so I’m going to let Ed do most of the typing and instead present a tonne of pointless graphs and stuff.. I’m a walking talking data logger!

Route: [Ealing-Liverpool Street] – Manningtree – Bentley – East End – Tattingstone – Holbrook – Freston – Wherstead – Ipswich – Trimley – Martlesham – Woodbridge – Chillesford – Sudbourne – Snape – Thorpeness – Aldeburgh – Tunstall – Campsey Ashe – Otley – Helmingham – Westerfield – Ipswich – Wherstead – A137 – Manningtree – [Liverpool Street-Ealing]

Download the Google Earth KMZ for the route here: Ed’s Suffolk in Hell Google Earth KMZ file

Basically, I got my legs ripped off. I knew Ed was faster than me based on the 10mi TTs we’d done last year, but it has now become clearer why he’s the club TT champion. I was quite enjoying my spotless big chainring but Ed saw fit to end that. We started out easily enough, mindful of ice and animal, visiting a nice little thatched house which backed onto a bridge over a river/creek (which poet’s house was it Ed?). (Update: Flatford Bridge Cottage, Painter “John Constable” not poet). We’d probably traveled just far enough for me to become lost, ie. around one corner. After that Ed upped the pace and it was a case of me gritting my teeth and hanging on. I did some feeble turns at the front but that was mostly out of feeling sorry for Ed who was doing all the driving. It’s a bit embarrassing when someone’s pulling 15 minute turns and you hit the front and fade within 2 minutes. Nevermind, this is what training is for!

We had a cake stop somewhere (hehe my sense of direction and local awareness is great ain’t it?!) where I think I should have eaten another 14 cakes and coffees to match. I threw in a quick hamstring stretch as my back was giving me grief. There was no more risk of ice now and I really wished I didn’t have my jacket on as the sun was out and I could get some more tan action. 😉 Off again and we rode past the sea! Lots of bird spotters were out.

I mentioned that Suffolk reminded me of Belgium – or perhaps Northern France, given the title of this post – rolling quiet roads, open flat fields, drivers friendly towards cyclists. It was meant as a compliment Ed, as I happen to really like Belgium! 🙂

With 150k on the clock, a million kilometres still left to ride on Ed’s map and me getting delirious I was hardly going to argue when he suggested taking the quick way back to Manningtree. More hamstring stretching to try and sort out my aching back. After a bottle of Lucozade though I was feeling quite good and when we passed under the huge bridge again I knew we were close to home.

The train trip home was a bit quicker, dozing off probably helped. The Tarmac came out of the guard carriage intact and I rode to a nearby service station to get some new AAA batts for some lightage, then made it home alive through the Sunday night carnage.

About 206k on the clock for the day. I even managed to set a new peak power of 1205W sprinting for home. 🙂

In the morning, one thing I noticed, aside from the pain behind my knees, was my saddle. I’d swapped the Toupe for a new SLR and noticed it had moved almost all the way back on the rails! No bloody wonder the stretching wasn’t helping my back. So, I’ve got to sort out this single-bolt Specialized seatpost so this doesn’t happen again. What the hell are these two arrows for anyway? Can’t believe I need to look at a manual for a seatpost with one bolt.

As promised Ed, here’s some funky new graphs from CyclingPeaks WKO+. Please big clicking to show bigguns!

Cadence Distribution:

Heart Rate Distribution:

Mean Maximal Power Distribution:

Power Distribution:

Speed Distribution:

Now I’ll see if I can get an elevation profile out of the Garmin.. here we go..

The coolest round of the Chiltern Classics takes place in just under 10 days time. This is an event to be ridden in style. All Willesden riders are to ride in Squadra Verde colours (choose your own edition). For that authentic Italian look wear your sunnies and talk constantly on your mobile phone. Contact WCC organiser, Giovanni Le Brummi, on Squadra.Verde@gmail.com for any additional information.

fixmawheel.blogspot.com – playing with wko

With 2 “recovery” and 1 turbo session power file to go on, I am in the lowest bracket within TrainingPeaks/CyclingPeaks WKO+ demo that I’m testing out – “Non Racer”. Not bad.. because I am a non-racer.

I obviously have quite a bit to learn about all this – for example, why did my “Training Stress” value drop moving from a recovery weekend to a turbo session? Surely “Training Stress” would increase when going from easy to hard sessions? Also, what is TSB, ATL and CTL? These questions will be answered! Stay tuned!

If I had my parking spot at work (any safe lock up) I could use the Powertap for commutes and have a wealth of crazy data to ponder. Nevermind.

Turbo Session HR distribution:

Turbo Session Power distribution:

Buying an expensive carbon race machine wasn’t enough of a dent to the bank account so I decided to buy a Powertap power meter as well. Got a reasonable price for a low-mileage (2500k) Powertap SL laced to Open Pro 32h wheelset and fitted them to the S-Works.

I’ve been out for two easy rides with it since fitting and I’ve grabbed a demo version of TrainingPeaks WKO+ after reading about this package on Liz Randall’s cycling blog. I’ve ordered yet another cycling book (I’m addicted to amazon.co.uk!) that covers training with power but at the moment I know basically nothing! Good timing then that my coach has also recently acquired a Powertap! 🙂

I’ve started making pretty (meaningless) graphs..

If anyone can tell me how to use this kit I’d appreciate it 😉

I have tan lines! In England! In Feb!

Mind you, I had to almost freeze to death this morning and I’ve been riding with only a t-shirt and shorts on for the last week while others roll along in jackets, hoods, beanies.. I even spotted one guy with a balaclava! This week was a recovery week. Basically I only did my commuting and rode laps of RP. At the very least it means I didn’t get lost riding anywhere.. 🙂

I give up! I had something like three turns to make and I still got lost! I went mental, yelled, rode around trying to find the way to Ickenham, phoned Mal for directions but it was too late. While I was on the phone a bunch went past so I put the phone away and turned around to chase. They’d gone over a rise and bam, they were gone. Arrrgh! I rode some more and eventually stumbled on to the start point in Ickenham. Four other guys had arrived late too so I set off with them on a short cut to catch up. One guy was dropped straight away, then the two leaders who seemed to know what they were doing just pulled away, leaving my-angry-self and the guy with the funny Belgian cap that I see doing the fast club rides. He went one way and I gave up and went to head home. I needed to leak quite badly so turned around, emptied bladder and then decided to chance the club run (which I was also running late for, but they often leave late). Surprise, surprise there were still guys there! Ray, Martin, Dennis and they were heading to Fairoaks Airfield rather than the marked ride.

It was quite a way to Fairoaks, down near Woking (SW London). I think I had 90k on the clock by the time I’d made the cafe. With the quick start chasing bunches, I was stuffed! Spent Mal’s ?10 on food and coffee and finished the lot! I was glad to be off the bike, stretching, eating, etc. Apparently it was a quick ride back home – suits me. We rolled through some really nice areas, Ray explaining that Surrey Road League race around here and it’s quiet due to Motorways surrounding the area, ie. drivers use the motorways and not the smaller back roads we were on. Of course some numpty in a Merc, on his mobile, beeping and then passing with fsck all room had to spoil it. I chased but didn’t quite get to him before he escaped the lights. He knew I was coming for him though. I hate drivers some times. We had a chat about the racing scene and how the Cats work – things like Elite, Cat1, Cat2 and Cat3 all riding together at Hillingdon and there only being one set of prizes! Err.. when are the Cat 3’s ever gonna see any money? Sounds a bit daft to me. Almost as daft as the Cat 4’s racing with flat bars! No wonder I’m not too keen on racing these days – I do have a sense of self (or bike) preservation! 🙂

The ride ended at Denham, me a lot calmer and happy that I’d done a full ride even though I missed the Team Quest ride. It worked out to be 144k for the day, making 415k for the week! So much for easing up.

Garmin Vista).

I’d tweaked the saddle height a little and pushed it forward further. The odd single-bolt clamp is probably not on properly but it seems ok. I’m scared of clamping carbon so everything is minimally tightened. The Toupe saddle was a lot more comfortable than the first ride indicated. I’m not sold on it totally and have an SLR as backup but it could be okay.

The Spesh basically did what it should do and that was roll bloody nicely! I’m still babying it but when you give it a bit of a kick it really responds. Obviously the racier geometry makes it handle a lot swifter than the slack/tall/long Ribble. It’s just so much nicer to ride. I’m glad it was sunny to allow me to get out on it!

I tell you though, it’ll be good to get over the ‘newness’, because it’s holding me back really treating it mean! 🙂

The Dura-Ace setup shifts better than anything else I’ve used. I mean, I’ve mostly used Ultegra and never saw a need for DA (“it’s for the pros”) but seriously, this 10-speed DA setup is sooo bloody smooth and rapid shifting! The braking is also way above the poor Ribble, although that’s probably just due to clean pads and clean rims whereas the Ribble is out in all kinds of mess and never gets a proper wash. Add all that to the fact it looks awesome and I’m pretty damn happy with the most expensive bike I’ve ever owned. If only the weather was nicer 🙂