The Second Peak

Back in June I wrote two blog posts: one about my training from March to June; and one about my first A race of the season, Q100. 

After Q100, I ate and drank for a week with a handful of easy rides keeping my waistline in check. I also got my first Covid vaccine.

Training

With 10 weeks until Q10/19 on 22 August – my second and final A race of the season – I shifted my training so it was better suited towards my target race.

An average week looked something like:

Mon – off

Tue – vo2 max

Wed – easy 90 minutes

Thu – race OR threshold

Fri – same as Wed

Sat – easy / openers

Sun – race OR threshold

With this configuration of three hard days per week, it was imperative that I kept my easy days easy which, prior to this period, meant sitting up on the hoods ticking over.

I read somewhere that riding the road bike on the drops complemented the TT bike position because of the similar hip and torso angle, so I spent more and more time on the drops during these easy rides.

At first, the more aggressive position was uncomfortable, particularly on my hamstrings which inevitably took the burden from my indolent glutes, but gradually I adapted and now I am comfortable on the drops.

My lazy glutes have caused me problems in the past, particularly on the turbo, where there's nowhere to hide. To remedy this, I started to go through some simple exercises that would get the glutes firing.

I vaguely remember a pro cyclist recommending these exercises during a vlog though I can't remember who it was. Essentially, you move the leg in all four directions, ideally pulling a resistance band, and do a few bridges/single leg bridges focusing on waking up the glutes and keeping the hamstrings relaxed.

I regularly went through this routine before my hard turbo session on Tuesdays. It definitely helped me to produce power in the TT position on the turbo.

VO2 Max Tuesdays

The hardest session, and most important, of the week was vo2 max on Tuesday. I didn't have a planned progression for it, but rather I wanted to do roughly 20-25 minutes at, or above, 10 mile TT effort (350 - 360 watts).

Tuesday sessions:

6x4' @ 369W

5x5' @ 363W

4x6' @ 357W

8x4' @ 363W 

5x3.5' @ 386W

5x4' @ 383W

4x6' @ 353W

5x4' @ 366W

6x2' @ 385W

4x3' @ 367W

As you can see from the first three weeks, I extended the length of the reps but reduced the power week on week. The longer reps are definitely harder, even at a lower power for me, I suspect because I'm more anaerobically inclined.

Week four I had great legs and somehow managed 32 minutes at slightly above 10TT power.

The next two sessions were focused on Max Aerobic Power intervals from WKO5. In hindsight, these were probably a bit too hard, particularly the 5x4' @ 383W. I really ground out that final rep and felt spent afterwards.

The following session was only 48 hours after and I felt awful – to the point I had to sit up for the third and fourth rep to salvage something from the session as I was about ready to call it a day after the second.

The next session was during an endurance block, which I'll talk more about later, and the last couple were tapering sessions in the lead up to the race.

Races

I regularly raced throughout this block to keep myself familiar with the discomfort needed to go fast in TTs. They're also lots of fun.

Most of these race reports have notes imported from TrainingPeaks.

Hilly 21

338W normalised for 55 minutes... I'll take that!

This race was a step into the unknown: racing on my cheap commuter bike on a proper sporting course made for an interesting prospect.

Fortunately I had great legs, I paced myself well, pushing hard when the speed was low and backing off when it was high, and had a pretty clean run with the exception of one short holdup at the top of Ide.

One thing I love about the Hilly is that it's a course that rewards you for being brave. You climb Hubbards just before the halfway mark, which for me meant doing 380 watts for 5 minutes knowing there's 25 minutes of racing left at the summit.

But I needed to minimize my losses up there, particularly as a heavier rider. Knowing there was still a big effort required to get up Baileys at the end made the Hubbards climb even more mentally challenging.

I managed to recover descending Ide and had enough in the tank to do almost 400 watts for the almost 4 minute climb up Baileys.

Brands 2up with Stefan

I borrowed a Zipp 808 for this. Was a little nervous beforehand as it can be twitchy in crosswinds, but had no problems during the race.

Strategy pre-race was: I sit on the front and aim for 360 watts on the way to the turn, Stefan takes over on the way back.

Legs felt really good, did 400 watts for 2:30 on the slowest part of the course to minimize time lost up Gorse Hill, and still managed to get back on the power shortly afterwards.

I managed to take a few recoveries on the way out, which gave me a bit of headroom to push harder on the hills rather than keeping power quite steady.

Stefan came past on the approach to the RAB, put in a decent effort to get us back up to speed whilst I recovered on his wheel.

Then I got back on the front as we approached the first rise, putting in a decent effort to keep our speed high and carry the momentum.

We then rotated naturally, with whoever on the front putting in monster efforts whilst the recovered, changing mostly in line with the gradient. So whoever was freshest attacked the rises, put in a surge to maintain momentum then rotated again.

I'm a little surprised how well we worked together considering we've barely ridden together!

G25/89

Went through my usual routine, legs felt a little flat. I did some front wheel aero testing the afternoon  before, which may have caused it.

Conditions were pretty dire, heavy rain at the start, lots of standing water so I was riding in the middle of the lane for most, trying to avoid hidden potholes. Absolutely nailed one near the start.

Felt sluggish on the way out, power a bit below where I was hoping but also speed quite a bit slower. 

Managed to increase the power/effort on the way back but finished with a little too much in the tank, so ended up undercooking it. 

A 25 mile time trial is a tricky distance. I think they're hardest to get right and hurt the most.

Q10/29

I'll take that as a compliment from Neil :)

Caffeine gel before start. New Castelli Fast Feet overshoes.

This was one of those rides where everything comes together and it’s amazing. 

Plan was 345 with the wind, 360 into it but my legs felt so good I was just riding to feel a lot of the time and seeing some extraordinary numbers. 

400w surges didn’t really hurt like they usually do, position felt tight and fast, and I just felt in control the whole way around.

Even managed to squeeze out a few more watts towards the end. Incredible. So much fun. 

Ecstatic with an 18 second PB on what felt like a decent night but also one without much traffic — no help whatsoever to the first RAB with the exception of one car that almost cut me up as I got there. Generally very quiet most of the way around particularly the start/finish bit. 

I think I could get very close to a 19 with these legs on a different night.

Arguably my best performance of the season.

Q50/11

Fuel: 500ml SIS beta fuel, 2 gels

Woke up at 4.30, toilet, brush teeth, contacts in, skinsuit on, let Mochi out, aero socks on, make a coffee, put Mochi back in her room, left around 4.50.

Nice drive down to Hamstreet. I always enjoy the journey there in the early hours of the morning but my mind was quite preoccupied for this one. We only rescued Mochi on Friday, so felt bad leaving her all morning. This was on my mind throughout the day actually. 

Got to HQ, saw a few members from the club including Martin and Debbie. 

I was making good time, so got on the turbo nice and early so I wouldn’t have to rush before the start. 

Legs felt good on the turbo, lots of time in TT position. The temperature wasn’t high but I still sweated a lot from lack of air circulation. 

Finished turbo around half an hour before race — in hindsight it probably would’ve been better to get the last bits done before starting I.e. overshoes, gloves, etc then I could’ve finished later and gone straight to the start line.

Disaster struck within the first two minutes from the race: my bottle popped out and I had to go back for it. In total it cost me around 30-35 seconds.

Like the 100, I put it out of my mind and pushed on although I knew my Average Speed reading on the Garmin now came with a small asterisk. 

The first 10 miles was, in theory, into a headwind so I planned to keep the power high and make sure the speed didn’t drop off too much.

My speed was frequently above 26mph which I knew meant I was on for a quick time as the tailwind section would be very fast.

My visor fogged up which was frustrating but it cleared when I reached the tailwind section around mile 13 and was fine after that.

The section through Camber was very fast and felt fantastic; doing 30mph off of <300 watts makes the RPE so low!

The wind was back in my face for the A259 section although more of a crosswind. Felt good and could see a few riders ahead so hunted them down. 

One of them was Martin, gave him a few words of encouragement and pressed on to the roundabout. 

Headwind proper section didn’t feel too bad. I put more effort in here and was seeing 27mph more regularly. My average speed was 27.2 I think at the halfway point so I knew I was on for a big PB regardless of the earlier incident. 

I got held up behind a car who was held up waiting to pass Debbie though this was only a handful of seconds. 

Then onto the fast section through Camber. Strangely the wind had died down — the flag was limp — so it wasn’t as fast but still saw some good speeds. My cadence dropped into the 70s here which I found a bit too hard so changed into an easier gear.

I wanted to ramp up the effort but I knew there was time to do that and the A259 westbound section was going to be tough so didn’t want to go too hard too soon.

Put a big effort in along that section, then dialled it up for the final few miles heading north.

There wasn’t much traffic but I tried to keep my cadence around 80rpm in 58x13 (I think) as this meant 30mph, which I was very close to holding for the last 3 miles at around 350 watts. 

Crossed the finish line with a strange feeling: happy that I had done a big PB, but also a bit of an anti climax as my mind was on other things. I definitely didn’t empty the tank so I also wondered how much faster I could’ve gone. There was a sense of relief/excitement that I didn’t get caught by Nic Fennell for 5 minutes — I finished only 4 minutes behind him!

Overall very happy with the race and I’m sure my mindset was just an anomaly caused by non-cycling related stressors.

Q10/18

Ride was a bit of a shit show. Held up by a hay truck between RAB 1 and 2, then shipped chain 3 times(!). Think I may have back-pedalled after hitting potholes.

This was one of those races where you just have to write it off as a bad night and move on. 

Races – P881/25

Coffee on the way there, sipping juice, gel before warmup, gel before start. Sipped SIS beta fuel throughout warmup and before start. 

Started raining quite heavily as I was getting ready/warmed up.

Once out on the course the rain wasn’t too bad. Feet got wet within minutes but there wasn’t a huge amount of spray or visibility issues. 

The surface of this course is nigh on immaculate with hardly any potholes — I made a mental note of 2 during the 5 mile southbound stretch I drove along on the way to HQ. 

I rode this really well. The aim was 51:59 which is 28.8mph, so simply aimed to push harder when speed was below target, and recover when above.

There was a slight NNE wind which made the long drag northbound a touch slow but not overly so. I made sure to push hard during this section without burning too many matches. 

I checked my average speed at the halfway point — 28.6mph — and felt I was on a ride as I still had another gear in me. 

Smashed it up the long drag from mile 14 to mile 16. That was hard work but I kept telling myself there would be a rest period coming, which did. 

On the final stretch home it felt like I should empty the tank but because of the road undulating I made sure to keep things steady ~300-330 during the fast sections then really attack the rises. I started to feel it around mile 22 but the next recovery was always just around the corner. 

Finished feeling very happy but not totally spent. Maybe a sign I paced it really well!? Either way, delighted with the ride. Great to get back on the horse after dented confidence from Thursday (Q10/18).

It was after this race that I began a two-week 'endurance block'. I had to go into the office on Monday (the day after the P881/25 race!) and Friday of the following week, and we were planning to go to Rutland the following Friday which I had decided to make into a big day out on the bike.

This mini block definitely affected my performance on the bike. In general I felt flat and had no zip in the legs that I had had before.

Q10/27

On more than one occasion I have ridden this course and wondered whether I didn't go hard enough on the way out. That feeling would not be felt at the end of this race, no matter what..!

Warmed up on the turbo, had a gel before warming up and one before starting the race. Also sipped SIS beta fuel throughout warm up.

Purposefully started too hard to see how much of a difference it would make going all in up Gorse Hill. Answer is around 10 seconds, but I paid for the effort and lost more than I gained on the way to the roundabout (around 12 seconds down compared to 1 July).

It was actually very unpleasant having gone so deep so early, my lungs were in my throat and I was fighting the gradient the whole way to the RAB. The way back is pretty easy all things considered, feel like I've got that dialled in really well.

In future: I'm going to aim for around 400w up Gorse Hill but the main aim is going to be to keep the average power as high as I can to the RAB.

Pretty happy with the time all things considered!

Q10/24

Having not raced for what felt like forever but was actually just two weeks, I went over to Grain for the Gravesend CC evening 10.

Running a bit late so not much of a warmup. Sipped SIS beta fuel during.

Tried to push harder into the wind on the way out but legs just didn't have much. Felt much better on the way back, although probably because the wind behind me meant I was flying! Finished strong and saw some very high HR numbers.

Good to get a 10 under my belt. Few more efforts needed before Q10/19.

Q10/18

Keen to get another race in my legs, and remember what it's like to push hard, I decided to do the Polhill interclub. Unfortunately, I somehow got my timings wrong and turned up an hour late. Thought I would do the course solo anyway, as I was there.

Sipped beta fuel on the way there. Got to Polhill and realised I was an hour late and the TT had finished. 

Did a quick warmup/badgers mount loop to recce potholes then did the TT. Good power up past knockholt but a bit down elsewhere. Wasn’t an all out effort so happy with that.

Q25/12 3up-ish

Turned up on time for this one (thanks to Andy driving the three of us there), but still managed to mess things up. Rode off the front between the Brookland and Brenzett roundabout and, by the time I realised my mistake it was too late. Carried on solo.

And that's it for now. My taper began after this race. I'll do a writeup about Q10/19 in another blog post.

Thanks for reading.