First Class Honours In Procrastination

We rode for 3 hours last night which may well prove to be our only ride this week. I'm aiming for 4½ hours but can't see when I'll get to do the extra 1½ hours.

The bike goes for its full pre-Epic service on Thursday and I then want to leave it alone until the prologue test ride next Friday.

I can't quite believe that we're now 10 days from the start of the Epic. It all feels a bit daunting at the moment. Roons has summed up the packing nightmare well on his blog so I'll not go there. Suffice to say that my tendency to procrastinate is winning out at the moment.

Paul & I will plan the final bits later this week over a cold beer and then I'll do my final shopping spree. Already I've been told there are no more Crossmark tyres locally which is a bit concerning as I really don't want to change to another untested brand right now.

One thing I am really grateful for is the service package we've got from Petie at Helderberg Cycle World. This means we need to carry minimal spares for emergencies during the race but all maintenance, cleaning etc. will be done by his mechanics after each day's stage. This will also simplify the packing process once I can face starting it. Phew!

One slight problem with packing is that the Epic gives you a tog bag at registration on the Friday and expects you to repack everything into it as it's the only bag they will transport during the race. This does somewhat complicate the packing process as one will have to do it twice, but without knowing for sure how big the Epic tog bag is. Another reason to put it all off for a while longer...

Weekly Summary

The Polar training programme really tapered down this week and leaves only 4½ hours of riding next week which is virtually nothing.

This week started well with a great ride on Wednesday, but I really was counting on a quality ride on Sunday which just didn't happen.

I'm two hours down on my target for the week but I guess that with such a small target for the week it shouldn't be a train smash. I guess time will tell.

Stats for (recovery) week:
Ride time: 6:58 (target: 9:00)
Distance: 93km
Kcal's burnt: 4591
Total ascent: 1715m

Crappy Morning

Having decided not to do the Argus, I set off for my MTB ride full of expectation of the fun I was intending to have on the single track in Jonkershoek. Time was a bit of an issue so I parked in Paradyskloof (normally I would ride from Steynsrust bridge) which would allow me more time in Jonkers. The first bit of the ride was fine until I got to the gate of Jonkers and was quite shocked to see how many fire fighters there were with their trucks and equipment. Jonkers was closed due to some serious fires which have been raging since Wed.

According to one of the fire crew, everything we hold dear in Jonkers has been destroyed by the fires. Hopefully he was exaggerating but I can't think why he would be.

So having ridden a mere 15k's to Jonkers I had no option to return whence I came.

All the way back I was cursing not having ridden the Argus, but even that would have been a bit crappy in the gale force winds.

Cape Argus

So, it's 5.30am and my road bike is prepped for the Argus. I've got a good seeding to do my sub 3 hour and all is seemingly well. My MTB is also prepped for a ride this morning and I've wasted many an hour trying to decide which to do. Most folk have told me I'm stupid to do the Argus so close to the Epic, and whilst I agree and fully understand all the logic behind the advice, I still want to do it. I had even arranged an MTB ride with my partner for this morning to distract me from the Argus, but he bailed out late last night as they were robbed. Can't argue with that.

So what should I do?

The answer is really close at hand.......

There's a pumping Southeaster of about 40kph with gusts up to 50 or 60kph. There's no way I'm doing the Argus in that! I'm off to Jonkers to play on the singletrack.

How lazy am I!?!

Weekly Summary

Training is a funny thing as I know that I've put the hours in and spent a ridiculous amount of time on the bike, ridden more miles than I would care to again and burnt more calories than I could ever consume and yet in the last few weeks I've felt strangely under prepared and at times just downright weak on the bike. This has particularly been the case on a few of the higher tempo rides we've been doing when after about 3 hours my legs are sore and I feel I've got little left in the tank. I know at these times it's my base fitness that gets me through but it is concerning me.

Yesterday was a bit more encouraging as my partner and I actually managed a 5 hour ride just the two of us. This hasn't happened nearly enough and is probably my biggest concern for us as a team as we get closer to the event. Anyway we rode at a higher tempo again and I was feeling much stronger, probably because it was our pace an no-one else's. I think it helped not to have been riding with the former junior world champion! (I've just seen on Winning Time that Martin won the Boschendal MTB challenge by a mile!).

We're into the tapering down phase now and trying to recover as much as possible. As such I'm often falling short on my hours but as I'm tending to do more intensity work I'm not overly concerned by this.

My big dilemma at the moment is whether I should ride in the Cape Argus on Sunday or give it a miss. I worked hard to get myself a decent seeding as my aim is for a sub-three hour ride. I know it's do-able, especially as I cracked of a 3.30 last year when I hadn't trained and only got my road bike 3 or 4 days before the event. Let's be honest, the Argus is an easy ride! My concern is that riding in a seeded group the risk of crashing and injury increases and I don't want to do anything which would jeopardise the Epic. What advice would you give and why? Leave a comment please.

Stats for (overload) week:
Ride time: 12:43 (target: 16:00)
Distance: 177km
Kcal's burnt: 9798
Total ascent: 3075m

Weekly Summary

Considering that the week didn't start too well it ended up as a pretty decent week with two good rides to Jonkershoek. My aim at the moment is to do more quality rides as opposed to quantity and the main way to do this is to increase the intensity of my rides. This involves getting out of the saddle and standing for the climbs and hitting the hills in bigger rings. I got out of these habits when I started building my base and feel that I lost quite a bit of my climbing ability. I had become a bit of a mountain goat and could quite comfortably beat most of those I rode with on the hills. I originally started riding in the bigger rings on hills in training for the Karoo To Coast but continued afterwards as I enjoyed it so much. Yesterday I really enjoyed climbing up to the waterfall in Jonkers in my middle blade and third at the back.

My aim in all this is to increase my lactate threshold prior to the Epic as there is still time to do this. Hopefully I'll also improve my VO2max which I will get tested again in a couple of weeks. I'm also trying to be careful not to overtrain and stay within the limits of the Polar training programme. Putting in big weeks of 20+ hours isn't really the cleverest thing to be doing at this stage. Also, the base fitness is in place and well sorted so only needs to be maintained with one long slow distance ride a week. The rest can be higher tempo rides getting ready for race pace on the day.

Yesterday's ride was great as I took about 1½ hours off my usual ride time to Jonkers' and still felt fresh and strong at the end of the ride. One aspect of these rides I really enjoy is the smug feeling as I see cars with bikes driving up to the Jonkers' gate, knowing that I've ridden there and will be riding home. My stats for yesterday's ride aren't quite right as 8k's into the ride my speed sensor was ripped off and I didn't notice until about an hour later. Thankfully I managed to find the lost sensor on the way home as it got ripped off on a short sharp hill which most riders choose to bypass so noone had picked it up. Thankfully that saved a few pennies as they're not cheap.

Stats for (load) week:
Ride time: 12:14 (target: 14:00)
Distance: 190km
Kcal's burnt: 8200
Total ascent: 2745m

The Wheels Are Still Spinning

Being new to this training lark, I'm not always sure what to expect, So I was quite shocked after Sunday's ride when I just felt flat and like I had no fuel in the tank. To compound my frustration about this the first half of this week felt a bit like the wheels were coming off. I know this isn't really possible (barring something major) but with a few missed rides and the hours simply not being clocked up I was wondering where the week was heading. I managed to ride on Wed with the local bike shop but it wasn't a great ride as we were baby sitting a group of Dutch guys on a cycling holiday. Some of them were quite fit and were up for a challenge on the hills but they mostly backed off after the first couple of hours. The ride was also very stop start as we had to wait for a straggler or two. Having planned to have ridden 10 hours by today I was left wondering where I would be able to make up the hours.

This morning my alarm went off at 5am and my body was telling me to switch it off and go back to sleep. Somehow I managed to get up and sort myself out and drove to Mooiberge (I'm trying to vary my early morning riding routine for safety reasons). I then sat in the bakkie for ten minutes trying to convince myself to get out and ride in the rain. Yep it rained, not something we normally expect in summer! It wasn't Jo'burg type rain, more a steady drizzle but it was still very wet. Anyway I eventually got on the bike and within five minutes was really happy I'd made the effort. I rode to Jonkers' had a lot of fun on the wet and slippery single track and then returned to Mooiberge absolutely drenched but very happy! It wasn't raining in Jonkers so much as the place was smothered in low cloud which made the riding interesting at times!

So the wheels are not coming off and this morning's ride was shorter in time but a good high quality ride which is what I'm aiming for now. I'm also looking forward to making up those missing hours over what remains of the week!

As I said, I'm new to this training lark, having never trained for anything before in my life, so I'm drawing on the advice offered (of which there is plenty) whilst also making a certain amount of it up as I go along. I look forward to seeing how it all works out at the big event.

Weekly Summary

This week was a recovery week on the Polar programme so I made a real point of resting as much as possible. That said, I nearly killed myself at Stellenbosch Uni see 'Tortured Cyclist' for more on that.

I only managed one mountain bike ride this week which was an early ride this morning. I rode with Paul (Epic partner) and a young Swiss guy called Martin Fanger who is in South Africa for the MTB World Cup in Pietermaritzburg in April. That says enough about him and his abilities! He is a nice lad and fun to ride with but he lifted the pace of the ride too much for me. Paul was keen to toy with Martin on some of the climbs but I wasn't in the mood for that.

Anyway, this morning's ride was from my house onto Sir Lowry's and the railway servitude road, over Sir Lowry's Pass into Grabouw and up Nuweberg which is a monster climb. I was feeling pretty lousy on the bike as if I simply didn't have anything in my legs. I really don't get why I had such a bad day out as I was well rested and had been eating well. I guess that my base fitness is what saw me through so in a way it was quite a good test before the Epic. I still managed 5½ hours with total ascent of 1835m which is good simulation for the big event.

Much of the route this morning will make up a large part of Stage 7 on the Cape Epic this year so it's good to spend some time on familiarising ourselves with parts of the route. This is local riding for us which is a real bonus! We're very blessed to be quite familiar with this part of the world and what it has to throw at us. One thing for sure about Grabouw, you will be doing lots of climbing!!

Stats for (recovery) week:
Ride time: 14:45 (target: 14:00)
Distance: 316km
Kcal's burnt: 10227
Total ascent: 1835m

Tortured Cyclist

I'm feeling pretty tired right now as I've just finished three days of tests for Christa at Stellenbosch Uni's Sport Performance Institute.

The first day involved the VO2max test and a Wingate Test (very unpleasant!) to test anaerobic capacity, followed by a 40k time trial. On Tue & Wed I again did the Wingate test (they don't get easier) and after a rest, completed 100k time trials. During each of these time trials I had to sprint 8 times at set markers. Four sprints were for 1km and the other four were for 4km's each and they were alternated. Preceding all of this was a trip each morning to the pathology lab' at Stellenbosch Medi-Clinic to have blood samples taken. Never a nice experience but at 4am even less enjoyable than normal!!

After all the exertion on Monday & Tuesday I then got to sit in a warm swimming pool for 20 minutes which was great. There were three recovery options and I think I was lucky and picked the best. The other options were ice bath for 20 mins or active recovery on the bike for 20 mins. I would have loved to go in the pool again this morning but Christa didn't need me to as she won't be testing me tomorrow. Instead she talked me through my results and what they mean for my Cape Epic training.

Generally the picture is looking quite good, but I now need to concentrate on power training to increase my lactate threshold. To this end I received a revised heart rate schedule which gives me my optimum target zones to achieve my goals.

I still need to do at least one long slow MTB ride a week to maintain the base fitness but I really need to start upping my intensity work, so I'll start with some interval training on Thursdays as well as starting to push a bit harder on the climbs with a view to sprinting (or as near as) up the last third of each hill. A little closer to the Epic Christa will redo my VO2max test so hopefully I'll see some big changes in the values.

It has actually been a lot of fun (but I refuse to get up at 3am again for a long long time!) and I've learnt quite a lot. I now know I am not a sprinter by any stretch of the imagination! Christa was always very encouraging and sprinting to Led Zeppelin & Pink Floyd was always going to be a pleasure!

Optimal Recovery = Optimal Performance

This coming week I'll be atStellenbosch University again helping Christa with her study on: "The effects of cold and neutral water immersion on the recovery of competitive cyclists after high intensity training."

The image shows what is involved as well as giving an indication of the time commitment. I did the preliminary stuff on Tuesday morning between 4 and 7.30am and will be there again for Mon', Tue' & Wed' at the same times (I think Paula will make me sleep downstairs for those three days). The 100k time trial is incredibly boring and now I have to do two more maintaining a minimum heart rate and power output. I think it's going to hurt. I know the VO2max test will as you have to pedal yourself to the point of exhaustion. Utter madness!

The real benefit to myself and other cyclists is the VO2max test results as these can really help with planning your training programme to ensure you're working smarter not harder.

Hopefully the final analysis of the study will also be of benefit for those training for the likes of the Cape Epic, as we know it's not really about how well you train but how well you recover between training episodes.

See here for previous posts on this.

Weekly Summary

This week is my biggest week of training with 21hours being the goal. Suffice to say I rode the hours and am just a bit tired now! This week was a bit unusual in that I was at Stellenbosch Uni' again on Tuesday morning and did the 100k time trial for Christa. This involved strapping my road bike onto the spinner which is hooked up to a computer which measures power output etc. Having done 7 hours on Monday morning and then 3 hours on Tuesday's night ride I was fairly exhausted by Wednesday morning. However, I managed to drag myself out of bed and joined Petie (owner of Helderberg Cycle World) for the usual Wed' morning ride, but I bailed out after 3 hours. At the time it felt like the right/easy thing to do but I do regret it now.

This week has involved one 3:30am start, two 4:30am starts, one 5:30am start and a night ride which finished at 10pm. I'm beginning to realise that the really epic thing about the Cape Epic is the commitment and dedication required to train for it.

My last ride of the week was this morning, yet another 4:30am start! Once again I rode over to Jonkershoek, but my route was severely disrupted by the numerous fires in the Jonkers' mountains, but it made for a nice bit of variety. Sadly, two young lads were apparently trying to get a braai (BBQ) started and somehow managed to burn down a HUGE chunk of Stellenbosch's glorious mountains. Despite the behaviour of two prats, I and many others were still able to ride in Jonkers' where the fire crews are doing an incredible job of containing the fires. After feeling exhausted on Wed' I felt really strong today which goes to show how important it is to recover well. Next week is a recovery week and I will be taking it very seriously, making sure that I'm well rested for the following week.

Stats for (overload) week:
Ride time: 21:59 (target: 21:00)
Distance: 369km
Kcal's burnt: 14423
Total ascent: 4460m

Cape Epic Route

The Cape Epic route has been public for a while now but in the last day or two they have added the profile of each day's ride. As ever the profiles look really intimidating, but it wouldn't be the Epic if it was easy.

This particular profile is of the first day, which also happens to be the biggest day covering 110k's with 2770m of climbing. That big hill in the middle is Groenlandberg, and it is a BIG climb!

The whole route can be seen here.

Weekly Summary

I'm really enjoying my riding at the moment and had a great week this week. I hadn't given too much thought to just how fit and strong I would become on the bike, especially once the base fitness was sorted. Right now I seem to be able to ride for hour after hour with no fuss and I'm also enjoying the back to back riding (Mon early, Tue night ride, Wed early) which should help for the Epic.

My favourite ride at the moment is from Home in Somerset West to Jonkershoek in Stellenbosch. Aside from a few k's on the R44 and a bit on Jonkershoek Rd the rest of the ride is on dirt roads, jeeptrack and lots of singletrack. It's the single track that I'm really enjoying as it's a lot of fun but also great for developing those all important technical skills (apparently we'll need them for this year's Epic). For those that know Jonkers', once through the gate (R20 to get in) I go straight onto the Canary Path and ride this piece of singletrack all the way to the top. Canary is made up of three parts and is a very technical ascent. I then turn right onto the contour road and after a couple of K's turn left and climb (a big climb) up to the waterfall. This is also a great place to refill the waterbottle! I then descend the other side and rejoin the contour road to the Never Ending Story which I ride to the end. This is fast and free flowing with some good switchbacks and other technical obstacles. At the bottom I turn Left and after the oak trees join the Patula Path. This is in two parts and whilst it's mainly flat it's very very rocky making it quite technical. Having followed this to the end it's back onto the dirt road to the dam wall where I turn left again onto Taeda Path, the single most rocky piece of singletrack in Jonkers. Most riders skip this path as it's very rocky and once the rocks are dealt with it becomes very sandy, but it's well worth it! This path also takes you right back to the gate. Once I've done all this I then set about riding home along the river in Stellenbosch to Coetzenberg where I turn into the University's farm and do the rocky climb back into Eden. Once there I do a bit more singletrack before retracing my steps over Stairway to Heaven and farm tracks all the way back to Mooiberge where sadly it's back to the tarmac of the R44 all the way home. That is my early (4.30am) Monday morning ride which sets my week up very nicely.

Stats for (load) week:
Ride time: 17:45 (target: 16:30)
Distance: 267km
Kcal's burnt: 13350
Total ascent: 4675m

Weekly Summary

This was supposed to be a 'Load' week on the Polar programme with 16 hours of riding but after the disasters of Monday & Tuesday's rides (see post below) I was really down on my hours. Had both rides gone to plan I would have ridden 11 hours but as it was I was almost 6 hours down. I had also planned to ride with the local bike shop on Wed morning which was planned as a 4 hour ride but without my bike I thought I would have to bail out. However I had a bit of a brainwave and decided to use my Giant Boulder (the bike I use for the the school run) for the ride. So after a couple of hours on Tuesday night spent prep'ing the bike I had a decent ride of 4½ hours with Petie (owner of the bike shop).

On Saturday I managed a short and gentle 2 hours on the road bike with Paul (Epic Partner) which was great as we rode to Stellenbosch and back. It was good to do a gentle road ride to keep the legs spinning.

So after all this I finally managed to get 13 hours in, leaving me just 3 hours short, so I've re-jigged my programme and decided to make this a Recovery week and bump the programme forward by one week. Thankfully my taper period at the end of the programme has enough space to allow for this. So next week will be a 'load' week.

Hopefully I'll have no more weeks like this one!

Stats for (recovery) week:
Ride time: 13:13 (target: 11:00)
Distance: 203km
Kcal's burnt: 8854
Total ascent: 2725m (ish)

Not A Great Start!

The start of this week has been one I hope not to repeat - ever!

On Monday, I set off early for my usual 6 hour ride and all was going well until I got to Jonkershoek. The Southeaster had been blowing quite violently for a few days. Anyway, as I entered the park I was about to turn left when I heard a huge gust of wind and a strange noise so decided to go a different way. Just as I moved one of the big oak trees fell down right where I'd been.

A little while later on some single-track I was almost taken out by a bok who was running straight towards me at a phenomenal pace. I think he was a bit confused and didn't realise quite how fast I was going at the time. Thankfully he missed me.

Frustratingly this was all topped off 4½ hours into the ride when the hanger ripped off leaving me in a bit of a pickle (the gear set-up on this test rig has never been right). I managed to make the bike into a single speed with the aim of completing my ride but this only lasted for about 30 minutes before the whole gear setup jammed. Thankfully Paul (my Epic partner) came and picked me up and took the bike to the shop.

I got the bike back on Tuesday ready for my usual night-ride with Paul, but after 1½ hours the derailleur cage got caught in the back wheel and was ripped in two (see photo). Thankfully the wife came to the rescue and got me home.

Hopefully the rest of the week will improve, although I'm not sure how as I'm supposed to be riding in the morning but am without bike.

Weekly Summary

This week was supposed to have been a recovery week of 13hours on the Polar programme but has turned into a bit of a disastrous week. I had planned on taking this week as a partial week off meaning that I would only ride between 6 - 8 hours but in the end that decision was taken from me.

On Monday I slept through the alarm so missed my ride which wasn't a great start as I knew I wouldn't have many other chances to ride. Then on Tuesday whilst in Montagu I twisted my ankle quite badly. Thankfully there were no broken bones but I'm in a lot of pain! The photo doesn't really do the bruising any justice but it does capture the swelling quite nicely. Like an idiot I decided it would be fun to have a go on a zip line (aerial runway) and for about 30 seconds it was quite exhilarating. Sadly however, I hadn't reckoned on how fast the thing would go or how I would stop. In the process of putting a foot down to slow things down I watched (in what felt like slow-motion) as my big toe was dragged under my foot followed by the rest of it. My foot appeared to twist through 180° and I was left in a heap on the floor unable to move. WHAT AN IDIOT!!!

I guess I should use this as a wake-up call and stop doing anything that might negatively impact my training for the Epic or my ability to ride the event. Hopefully I'll be back on the bike next week as I have a few big weeks coming up now.

Weekly Summary

This week has been a load week on the Polar programme and my target was 16½ hours which I managed very comfortably. I'm really enjoying doing longer rides, mainly because I love being on the bike so much but it also means I get a decent amount of rest between rides which is great. Something else I'm really enjoying is an amazing level of fitness which allows me to do certain rides that I would never have dreamt of not so long ago. One such ride is my new favourite of riding from home to Jonkershoek, playing on the single track for up to 2 hours and then riding home again. Twice now I've been a bit naughty on the way home and sailed past some roadies on the hills coming out of Stellenbosch. I've then really stamped on the gears to make them work really hard to stay with me, however they've not yet succeeded. That's very childish (and not great for the heart rate) but lots of fun!

Today I also did my first ever ride on a soft-tail. Paul (my Epic partner) works at the local bike shop and has been talking me into trying a softtail so eventually I agreed to try a BMC. The shop had a Fourstroke frame lying around so they transferred the components over from my Mongoose to the BMC. The jury is still out but there were certain things I did enjoy. I liked the comfort but at 40+ who wouldn't? The longer wheelbase makes for a more planted feel on singletrack and on rocky climbs and it was great on some really rocky singletrack to be able to just bounce over stuff that I couldn't on my hardtail. Sadly, the bike was very poorly setup so I'll need to tinker with it to really appreciate its finer qualities. Also, my XT front derailleur wouldn't fit so the bike shop stuck a crappy Deore derailleur on the front and I struggled to change from middle down to granny which was frustrating. I'll give it several more goes before I finally make up my mind, so stay tuned.

Stats for (overload) week:
Ride time: 16:57 (target: 16:30)
Distance: 254km
Kcal's burnt: 11840
total ascent: 3745m

78 Days, 19 Hours

The Cape Epic is this year. That is quite a scary thought. For so long we've spoken of the 2009 Epic as being 'next year' and now we find ourselves in 2009. Scary but very exciting!

This week has been a real pleasure for me as it began with my usual 5 hour ride early on Monday morning but this week I decided to do it on my mountain bike. Needless to say I had a complete blast as I rode cross country to Jonkershoek and back. The ride was also the closest I've come to a full Epic day so far and I'm beginning to see that it is do-able. On Tuesday Paul and I did a night ride which was a bit longer for me as I rode from home to the start. This ride was just short of 5 hours and by the end of it I was still feeling very strong which was encouraging.

As I said below, I don't do New Year's resolutions but I am planning to do a whole lot more on my MTB and a whole lot less on the road bike.

As I'm writing this the countdown clock on the Epic website says there are 78 Days & 19 Hours until the start. Bring on the Epic!

Happy New Year!

I don't do New Year's resolutions as I believe that in making them most people are merely setting themselves up to fail. I like to tell people that I made one resolution many years ago and have never broken it! I resolved never to make another New Year's resolution and I'm not going to break that now.

However, what I am planning to do in 2009 is to get back on my mountain bike and spend a whole lot more time on it. The second half of '08 saw me spending more and more time on the road bike which was great for base fitness and it has been a lot of fun. It's also been a great way to meet a different set of cyclists. But, and it's a big but, the MTB is far more fun and a lot more important right now. With less than three months to the start of the Epic, it's time to crack on and be a lot more diligent in my training. This week has been really motivating for me as I've managed two long MTB rides of almost 10 hours that I would otherwise have done on the road bike.

Anyway, the point of this post was to wish you all a Very Happy New Year! To those riding in the Epic, I hope it turns out to be all you hope for and more!

Weekly Summary

There didn't seem to be much point in posting a weekly summary last week as I was participating in the research study at Stellenbosch Uni' (see here). I was supposed to have done the 100k time trial but unfortunately the computer crashed so it didn't happen. Besides that I only managed two rides totaling just over 6 hours. Had I done the time trial I would have been slightly over my hours required but never mind.

This week has been back to normal, ie; following the training plan properly which is a first since the Double Century over three weeks ago! I'm not far from peaking (hours wise) on the training program and I must admit that it's quite tough fitting all the required hours in. This week has consisted of four early mornings starting riding just before 5am. I'm also doing more back to back rides which should help with the actual event. I've also managed three rides with my Epic partner which is great. So here's how my week panned out:

Stats for the week:
Ride time: 15:35
Distance: 377km
Kcal's burnt: 10114