Cyclocross, Eating too Well and a trip to A&E...

Well, it’s been a while, a few things to update you all on not least 2 races, a trip to hospital (not for me) and the effect of over eating.

So going back a few weeks there was round 6 of the Yorkshire Cyclocross Points series, this was at Sheffield, a good technical course on a hill… which on the face of it sounds good but add in some rain, wind and mud and it makes for a painful day out.

I knew as I warmed up this would be a tough day, 2/3 of the course was okay for me, the other 1/3 involved running, now most will know that I parted company with triathlon due to my dislike (inability) to run so I knew this was going to be a painful day out.

The claxon went and the sprint to the first corner set off, sitting in the top 20 I was pleased with my start for a change, this was short lived.  I soon went backwards and after the first run up a hill I was rapidly going backwards.  Still this is good training and it is always good fun, although the tackiness of the mud and leaves was adding to the challenge.

It was a day for 2 bikes, my front brake became so clogged up that it was actively braking which meant that going down hill was scary as the brake would just lock up from time to time, needless to say I have to stop more than once to clear the brakes, combined with the running I was happy to see the end of the race, finishing in the top 50 (just)!!

Training has been mixed, being away with work and rubbish weather has meant that I have been unable to get the miles in, which is frustrating but in some ways not a bad thing as I have taken the opportunity to recover.

I have also been back for testing at York Cycleworks with my coach Rob, similar to last time we did a ramp test and lactate crossover test, frustratingly this id not yield the results we were hoping for, I am fairly pragmatic with it really as there are so many variables when you test 12 weeks apart and the differences were not massive, still we are looking to spend some time recovering and retesting in Jan to see if it was due to fatigue.

Needless to say I have been enjoying the build up to Christmas and have been eating a little more than I should and that, combined with intermittent training, has led to my weight creeping up, this came as a bit of a shock when I stood on the scales on Sunday (20^th Dec) morning to see 88.8kgs, that’s up 9kgs since the start of last season, this is now on the plan as something to address as soon as possible ahead of the new season.

I have also raced in round 7 of the Yorkshire Cyclocross series, a race that was organised by York Cycleworks and York Sport village, it was a great day out and the weather was kind (although it was breezy), I was feeling the effect of my extra timber, both mentally and physically but it was good fun to be racing and the crowd was very supportive, unfortunately I didn’t finish as my rear mech decided to self destruct 2 laps from the finish.

There was plenty of York Cycleworks riders racing and once the results come out I will do some name checks.

I have also managed to end up in hospital, not for me which makes a change, but because of my little girl, I was left to fend for myself while Fiona went out with some friends for a Christmas meal, I had no concerns as  I am confident looking after my daughter however that confidence has been tested, in short she got herself very worked up, I am not sure why, to the point that she held her breath and basically passed out, people tell me this is common, however it was terrifying not knowing what was going on and basically seeing your daughter change from being fine one minute to being limp and a bit lifeless the next.

I had rung 999 and the first responder was there quickly, although it felt like an age, he took Erin off me and reassured me, he went away, and did some tests and was able to tell me that nothing was wrong, although whenever a child under 2 has an “episode” it is recommended that you go to hospital, so off we went in an ambulance, typically Erin was fine in the ambulance and smiling and laughing which makes you feel a mug, but I can tell you I have never been more scared and I hope it never happens again.

So where are we now, well I am looking forward to Christmas and some time off with the family.  I have decided to stop racing cross for the time being and focus on training and diet up until the start of the TT season in late Feb, although you can expect updates along the way.

Not the most interesting of updates and I promise the next one will be more timely and in better humour.

Thanks for reading and have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mud, Glorious Mud, Broken Mechs and Brakes (Yorkshire Points Rd 5A Barnsley)

Its been a tough couple of weeks, training has not been as consistent as I had hoped, but the reason is simple, when I get home from work I want to spend as much time with my wife and daughter as I can, I am conscious that I wont get this time back and I don't want to look back at it and regret being on the turbo and missing out, this is all fine when i can cycle to work but at the moment there is a lot on in work and I am required to work out of offices in Sheffield quite a lot, this means that when I get home I am not able / willing to jump on the turbo, so I have lacked some consistency.

That said I had been looking forward to racing at Barnsley and with the recent bad weather it was looking like a mud bath, and it was not going to disappoint.

Getting there about an hour before the race it gave me plenty of time to get sorted out and look at the course, it was a tough one last year with peaty, claggy mud getting everywhere in the end making it very difficult to clip in let alone pedal, this year it was better, it was so wet that pickup was less of a problem generally but there is always a risk that you might lose a rear mech.

I started on row 3, gridding can be a bit odd sometimes I get called sometimes I dont, no idea why but I am generally pretty close to the front.  Claxon went and we were off, I was on the outside on the uphill drag to the first corner, I held my position well and as we joined the course proper I made up a handful of places and must have been comfortably in the top 20.

The first pass through some of the slippy stuff and the rider in front fell, I had no where to go and rode in / over his bike, although I managed to stay up it cost be a lot of time, frustrating after the start I had made but as I would say more than once, "thats racing".

Back on it and I started to pick off riders, given the easy week of training I was feeling pretty fresh, managing my effort on the climbs and powering down on the flats, as well as making use of by mountain bike skills on the descents to pick my way through.

A couple of laps in and I was starting to get into my stride, then, typically, on an off camber descent I ran out of grip (talent) and before I knew it I was rolling round in the mud... pretty much standard but i was uninjured and aside from a wonky left hood the bike was intact, I jumped up got back on and pressed forward again.

Two laps later I was approaching the same point, I was in a bit of a battle with another couple of riders and one of them decided to make a banzai move up the inside just before a small, slippy technical climb, he stopped I couldnt and it pulled my front brake apart, also the chap behind ran into the adjuster on my rear mech braking it off, so with limited gear and no front brake I decided to call it a day.... there is always next time. 

Another good turnout from York Cycleworks with Andy Johnson putting in a solid top 20 result, Matt Eastwood riding well until a rear mech failure and myself contesting the senior race and Wayne Nicholson smashing out a great 2nd place, Simon Wright and Mark McKie getting suitably dirty in the vets race.

 Wayne (Photo by Clare Crabtree)

 Mark (Photo by Clare Crabtree)

 Simon (Photo by Clare Crabtree)

Matt "Amatuer" Eastwood (Photo by Clare Crabtree) 

Andy (Photo by Clare Crabtree)

So I got my stuff together, and headed off home to spend the afternoon with the family.  

Next weekend is Rd6 in Sheffield, just need to get the bike fixed for then!

This week again, I am in Sheffield working most of the week, Rob has booked in some short 30min turbo sets which I will endeavor to do, but it's always going to be a challenge when I cannot do the work on the commute, still the TT season is a long way off and there is still time to improve before we get there.

Chronic Fatigue, Whiplash (not the good kind), Sausage Roll Power and Cyclocross (YP5 - Huddersfield)

So, I am back… Much like the Terminator, although less Austrian and marginally less "Hollywood"....

In the last couple of weeks or so since my last blog I have finished a strength block, had an “easy” week and started on my speed block (that’s leg speed not the drug), so what does all this mean?  The end of the strength block came as some what of a relief, my legs were in tatters, every time I rode the bike they felt empty, my HR was not able to get higher than about 160BPM and my power was suppressed, I’m not going to lie it was quite de-motivating. 

One thing I have though in Rob and York Cycleworks is a coach who is almost always available to consult, he has acknowledged that the efforts are likely to have this effect and that essentially I have build chronic fatigue into the muscles, which was in essence, exactly what we wanted to do, breaking down the muscles to allow growth and strength / power to be built.

Its good to have that on tap, it means that I can ask the questions about why I feel a certain way and what it is that I need to do to feel better, which in most cases was an adjustment to the plan, or a moved session here and there.

After a 2 weeks of easier sessions (thanks in part to the plan and work commitments), racing at the 5^th round of the cyclocross Yorkshire Points Series went better than I had hoped, but more on that in a little bit.

I have now moved on to taking the strength and building that into leg speed, this will help to ensure that the transfer of power is as efficient as possible and that at higher cadences of a race situation I am able to maintain the power output for as long as possible.  Its another type of effort that I have never really had in a plan, but it basically consists of high cadence efforts at a given power output.

Soon enough I expect that a number of these sessions will need to be turbo based as we head in the depths of winter although I remain hopeful that we will have a nice mild winter that allows me to ride through most of it, as I found that trying to fit the turbo sessions on around the little one is not easy, once I get home all I want to do is chill out and be dad, not getting on the bike in the garage for an hour to slowly sweat myself to death, it remains to be seen how this works out if we have a severe winter.

One unexpected thing was caused by starting to ride a motorbike to work again, the first day I seemed to get whiplash type injury, I imagine from the buffeting and the fact that my neck is not sued to it, that made me feel quite sick for a few days and I skipped a training session as the thought of getting on the turbo didn't appeal when my neck was that sore, still it eased day by day and I was comfortable enough to race.

Back to Cyclocross, the 5^th round was in Huddersfield, which was a very unseasonable 18+degrees, this winter cyclocross is not as bad as people make out in terms of the mud, cold and rain…  There is still time though.

After a couple of easy weeks there was a chance that I could go well, although with the concerns about where I was in terms of fitness I had no expectations, and was just there to enjoy the effort and use it as training.

For the first time I was gridded, this was my goal for the cyclocross season so I am pleased with that, basically what it means is that I, along with a number of others, get to start towards the front of the back, this is to avoid new riders getting involved at the start and also to make sure that those that are competing in the overall series are given a fair starting point.

Photo By Clare Crabtree

I was filled with Sausage Roll and ready to (any sausage roll manufactures fancy sponsoring me I am open to offers), the whistle went and we were off, it was a relatively short gallop to the first corner, and for the first time I actually made up places, going into the first corner somewhere around the top 15 which I was pleased with, this gave me a chance of a reasonable result.

There was some “interesting” things going on in the first lap, which is one reason why I am always very carful at the start, firstly some numpty on a mountain bike barrelling up the inside of 3 riders into a right hander shouting “on your right” as if they could get out of the way, needless to say 4 into one was never going to work and they all ended up in a heap, cue much cursing and probably broken bikes, but it have me 4 places so I was not complaining.

I got caught up in a few spots and lost some places, and going into a major bottle neck behind some bushes it was all ahead stop, with everyone forming a gentleman’s agreement to hold position until it opened up again… well, I say everyone…. There was one lad from Otley Cycling Club that insisted on trying to barge past everyone, needless to say there was insufficient space and some shouting but he ended up colliding with fellow York Cycleworks rider Craig Gath, not the first time the two would come together.

Its one of the things that clubs and riders need to be mindful of, I now have a view of Otley cycling club that is less than positive, “Rob” or “Robin” did not seem like the sort of person that you would want representing your team or club,  yes its competitive but there are times when you just have to sit back and accept that you are going to be held up a bit, he was not willing to do that and when challenged was mouthing off and being generally unpleasant, its not a pleasant attribute, but thankfully one that is not seem very often in the sport.

Tony Mills - Photo by Clare Crabtree

We continued with the race and I yo-yoed with a few of the guys around me, I felt better than I expected and on the fast power sections was easily able to pull past and make a gap only to be caught on the up hill bits, or where you had to get off and run (I really hate running!).

The majority of the race continued like this until a lap or some from the end when a small mistake meant that I ended up with my wheels in a rut and me rolling off my bike, this cost me about 5-6 places as I also dropped my chain and had to put it back on, the bike was okay so I ploughed on.

It was about this time in the race that going through a section of switch backs I heard the horrible noise of bikes coming together, I looked back to see what was going on and I saw Craig Gath and the lad from Otley CC had collided bringing them both down, without even seeing the accident my instant reaction was the Otley rider was in the wrong based on how he had been riding earlier, had he not been so aggressive earlier I would not have made such an assumption, and that’s why it often pays to be a bit conservative, this is not the world champs!!

Craig finished after getting some medical attention, although I was not able to find him after to see how he was, so I am hoping that he is okay and any injuries recover quickly.

Also in the race was Tony Mills and Andy Johnson, until I decided to have a lie down I kept Tony in sight, and was hoping that I could make some inroads into his advantage over me, although it seemed pretty static for the whole race and he seemed in a good tussle with about 5 riders, finally finishing 25th Overall and 10th in his age group .  Andy had a mixed day, setting off too quickly and suffering the consequences meant that later in the race he was de-hydrated, after coming off and making a number of basic errors he decided to withdraw, something that is never an easy decision to make, but sometimes it pays to be safe, as another fall could mean a significant injury or worse… a damaged bike!!  So for all of us its on to the next race!

So, I finished around 11th in my age group and top 30 overall which I am pleased with.

I always neglect to mention the other York Cycleworks riders that take part in the “old boys” race, with Wayne “The Silver Fox” Nicholson, Mark McKie and Simon Wright all taking to the grass, a great turn out from the York Cycleworks riders and some great results with Wayne picking up 6th overall and 2nd in his age group.

What next, well its 2 weeks until the next Yorkshire Points race which is in Sheffield, so its back to the training sessions and commutes.

Riding wet, riding cold but still riding....

So as I mentioned no racing for me until November now, with that in mind I have the end of my strength sets before we turn that into leg speed, as with anything commitment is needed to stick to a plan and last week in some ways summed up what you have to go through to try and achieve your goals.

It was a relatively simple week, only 2 days riding the 18 miles to work and back and then some hills and endurance rides with some strength thrown in for good measure, until you look at the weather forecast.... Tuesday brought the back end of a tropical storm, which meant heavy rain, which coincided with a ride to work day.  I don't mind riding in the rain, as long as you dress appropriately you only get wet once, so I consider it character building.

That said the worst thing is that where I work there are no drying rooms for the 200+ cyclists the ride in everyday, so when you come to go home your kit is still soaking wet, this is one of those "lovely" things about commuting in the rain, the joys of wet kit, it takes me back to the days of swimming and using not quite dry speedo's...oh the memories!

Friday was a seemingly more familiar foggy and cold morning, again the right kit means that this is not really a problem, and having the really good lights I am pretty comfortable that people can see me. My light setup below,

Friday afternoon commute was made more interesting by a very full rucksack, packed with presents for the little one and for me, luckily it was a simple endurance ride home so nothing too stressful, but the rucksack performed well and was still comfortable (see other posts for a review).

The present for me is something that I have been coveting for a while now, and thanks to York Cycleworks I now have the ability to ride to power, with Garmin Vector 2 Pedals.  I will be doing a full review on them in the next couple of weeks but I have been impressed so far with the easy of installation and setup, and the fact that I can swap them between bikes really easily which is one of the main reasons I bought them.

Riding to power means that the variables that HR can give are removed a watt is a watt, regardless of conditions.

Also really enjoying spending time with my little daughter, she is, however, growing really fast and you forget how small she was when we brought her home just 9 weeks ago, however she is really starting to engage and its clear that the smiles are proper smiles and not just wind which just melts the heart.

I am going to leave it there for now, not much to update on really, just plugging away at the training and being a dad.

Hard Training, Long Nights and More Cyclocross (YP 4 - Temple Newsome)

I want to start by thanking everyone who takes time to read all or even part of what I write, I am amazed that anyone reads it, even more so that it has a global reach!  I will keep going and hopefully they will get better over time!

Something more in relation to a number of queries I have been asked in relation to my training and why am I "still" putting in hard efforts... the below is my view.

One of the main questions was in relation to the timing of hill reps (that is the activity of finding a hill and riding up it hard taking some time to recover and then repeating).  There seems to be a view from certain quarters i the cycling world that Autumn is a time for "complete recovery", in essence putting a cover on the bikes, hanging up the bib shorts and hibernating from the roads.  This has always felt a bit odd to me, you are basically saying that for a month or two I will allow myself to lose some of my hard fought fitness to reset my body ready for training to start in November or December.

Why?  What is the benefit of doing this?  For me there should be continuity in the training throughout the year with specific targets around the type and intensity, so you take take time out but still ride the bike.  

For me this makes even more sense this year, I have a goal in mind for 2016, something that I will probably mention at some point, and to do that I need to improve my power to weight ratio, starting now Rob has me looking at leg strength and improving that hence the need for hill reps and some big gear efforts all of which have a specific goal in mind.

It is likely that I will move to a base period in early 2016 and focus on endurance and maintenance of strength.

Also worth noting that my racing season is likely to start in earnest in February / March time with some early season time trials so I don’t have time to lose a month’s worth of fitness, get it back and then improve on it.

Sometimes the early morning training is made more interesting by the weather, this was my view on the way to work most of last week, glad I have good lights front and rear!! 

Its also been a couple of weeks since the last Yorkshire Points Race, and after an easier week in terms of training I was happy to be going into it feeling fresher that normal.  

The race started as well as normal, I was on row 3 and after the whistle I went backwards, I take care to avoid being caught up in any crashes and that costs me off the line, but I am playing the long game and this is just a stepping stone into 2016.  

The course at Temple Newsome also suits me, fast, loose, rutted and rooty descents, long draggy flat fast sections and few slow corners, so after the bad start I began to make good, working my through the pack picking off one rider at a time.  Unfortunately, you never get back to where you might have been as you are only able to go as fast as the guys you should be racing and as such you never come back to you.

So after an hour of turning myself inside out I finished having only been passed by 4 of the leaders and more importantly, not falling off!  Final result was 39th Overall and 17th in age group,  which I am happy with given the start.  The most important thing is that I really enjoyed it!

It was on to be another good race for the York Cycleworks riders with Tony Mills, Andy Johnson and Craig Gath on for great results, they have all be flying this season and its great to see the kit up the front, Tony and Craig again put in stellar performances to come 16th Overall and 4th in age group and 30th overall and 10th in age group respectively, Andy was on for a top 10 when an innocuous crash left him with a sore knee that just kept getting worse, until he took the decision to withdraw, looking at the picture it was probably the right decision.

Photo from Andy Johnson 

Cyclocross is safe, but like all racing there is risk involved which is one of the reasons why we do it!!  

Having a young child in the house does mean that nights can, on occasion, be long and tiring, my wife does much of the work during the night and that allows me to be able to function in work, however I often wake up, as you would expect when you hear a baby cry, and more recently my mind has drifted to other things, namely work, that keeps me awake more than my daughter at times, these challenges are all part of what makes amateur racing in some ways harder than that of the pros, we have to fit everything in around our lives, staying committed can be a challenge in its own right when you have been up all night or have work stress to deal with as well, that said getting out on the bike clears my head and allows me to be the best dad I can be and do okay at work!!

Now I have 3 weeks of no racing, its time to start putting in the hard yards in training with autumn fast approaching.  It is a tough balance between working full time, training and being a dad, and also allowing time for my wife to get out and cycle as she returns to fitness after the birth of our daughter, but I love my life at the moment and feel very lucky for what I have.

I have some new toys on order and will be blogging about them in the coming weeks as well as some training updates and other random waffle to keep you all "interested"

Photo by Clare Crabtree

Fitness to Fatness and Back Again - A Brief History

To be fair this is where I should have started, a brief history. 

In one way or another I have always been into bikes, from as early as I can remember I have been cycling, I cycled to school pretty much everyday once I got to secondary school and I did my paper round everyday on a bike, and every time I did it was a race, could I beat my friends to school, could I beat my previous best time for delivering papers, my hunger for competition was a constant.

However I never actually raced bikes, I got my competitive kick from swimming and rugby both of which I competed at a reasonable level at, and when I was younger made me incredibly fit, training was brutal mornings and evenings everyday, and swimming galas or rugby games at the weekend, combined with cycling I can safely say I have never been fitter than I was as a teenager.

As with all teenagers, things moved on I lost interest or in the case of swimming had a fall out with the coach over a toilet break, being told "if you get out again don't come back" did not wash well with an all knowing teenager and I did not return to the pool after that night.

I still had rugby and in some ways it was a relief, I had collapsed from exhaustion in school one day and was rushed to hospital, it was quickly established that this was not caused by the amount of work being done in school and I would need to make a decision as I could not carry on the way I was, and having a fall out with my swimming coach made that decision for me.

Overtime the rugby team a played for drifted apart, we all grew up got cars and in my case I became lazy, I didn't want the hassle of the training and games and often I became a replacement rather than being in the starting 15, so when I got to college I had pretty much given up sport, the only constant had been bikes.

The other constant was my food intake, despite cutting down on exercise I carried on eating huge amounts, this was to lead to what has been a pretty much constant battle with weight, something that I still struggle with today, I might say i have an economical metabolism but the fact I can eat my body weight in Haribo and not bat an eye suggests there is also something wrong in my head, I like, no love food and my sweet tooth is outrageous.

So, a good number of years passed, my weight yo-yo'ed.  Then i met my now wife Fee, we had a passion for motorbikes and as it happens beer and chips!  Needless to say this had a profound effect on my weight and I soon weighed in at 110kgs or just under 18stone.

I had not really thought much of it, I have broad shoulders and could carry the weight reasonably well, but after a seeing some photos from a friends wedding I knew something had to change.

I needed a goal, a target to aim for, initially this was just to be able to run, and I used the "special K diet" to start with, eating special K for breakfast and dinner with a reasonable lunch, given I was hardly exercising this worked and the weight began to come off, I found I could run (not fast or well but I could run) so the next target was a duathlon, so I decided that Stokesley would be a good place to start, completing the novice race and putting in a good bike split to be first back off the bike, I must admit I was happier on the bike back then than I ever was running!

That said, there were some great things about running, specifically the trail running my wife and I often ran off road together and some of the scenery we ran in was stunning, it is something that I do miss.

Moving on the next goal was triathlon, and I competed in a number of races with good swim and bike splits but the run never really came together and I was left frustrated, good results were always lost with my poor run, however the side effect of all the training was that my weight was down and I got to around 80kgs, was it easy? No, losing weight is seriously tough, mentally and physically getting the diet right and cutting down the excesses was a daily struggle.

After about 3 years of triathlon I made the decision to focus on cycling, it was always my passion and I found there is little better to me than being out on the bike in the fresh air just enjoying the changing scenery. I ended the 2013 season with some solid results, I was, for a period, unbeaten at the York Sport track regardless of the nature of the race, I could be out front driving the break, or taking it in a bunch sprint.  

In 2014 I moved from Clifton Cycling Club to York Cycleworks, as I have said before they have always been very supportive from buying our first bikes to bike fits to general support and banter, I felt it was appropriate to give something more back.

2014 was a tough season for a number of reasons, and as a result of not being able to get the training in I was not in a place to be competitive in races which meant i tried too hard and often ended up crashing, so much so I have a reputation for it even now.  

2015 has been a solid season, lots of races, PB's, some points, some wins but above it all lots of fun.

That brings us up to date, I am still working on maintaining my weight, and in time reducing it some more to maximise my potential for 2016, but in a nutshell that is where I have come from, I am very much an average Joe that enjoys riding a bike.

Hills, Poops & Cyclocross (Round 3 - Wakefield)

After a tough week of training culminating in Hill Repeats on Saturday morning my legs were feeling pretty tired, that is a good thing as it shows that hopefully the work is bring done to go into 2016 in good shape.  That said I am pretty sure my coach, Rob, is a bit of a sadist underneath it all.  

One thing that I was most concerned about was a lack of sleep, being a new parent you hear the horror stories of endless sleepless nights spent soothing and feeding, and I will admit that in the early days it was hard going it that respect but very fortunately my wife has been amazing, she has done the night feeds and now the little one has been able to get some sort of routine sleep is better, still broken but better.

As my wife also likes to ride bikes and race we are also starting to get into a bit more of a routine so that she can get out, although mainly for her sanity I think at the moment, with me and the baby she is struggling for mature adult contact... and there is nothing better than being out in the wolds to clear your head, while it needs some tweaking it seems to be working okay, its about making it work with the baby not about making everything about the baby.

On Sunday it was the 3rd round of the Yorkshire Points Cyclocross series in Wakefield, a course i rode and enjoyed last year, broadly flat with some good technical sections, however before I get into that, a technical correction from my last blog, I may have been 47th overall but thanks to "pesky kids" and the veterans I was 13th or 14th in my age category, which I will take!

But before all that, a story about the nappy that couldn't, Sunday morning and the Sharp family had been up for 2 hours, the baby had fed and was due an hours nap before they headed en-mass to Wakefield, this was to be Erin's first sight of Cyclocross.  Mum had just changed Erin and was putting her in her favourite place to nap, her sling, Dad was watching some telly and all seemed calm.  Just then a cry from the dining room, this was not the cry of a baby but of mum, "ahhh there's poo everywhere" she exclaimed!  Jumping to help dad rushed in to find mum, baby, the sling and the floor covered in delightful poo.... After cleaning up dad found that despite all your best efforts, sometimes nappies just cannot retain the required volume and it results in a full system breach, which is always nice.

So in the preceding hours to Wakefield I spent then using a hairdryer to dry the sling after it has been hand washed so that we could take it with us, knowing that without it my daughter would not sleep, and that would mean that I would be going alone.  Parenthood is not without its challenges but, sometimes those challenges are messier and funnier than you expect.

Back to the race, I started in the 3rd row in the middle of the pack, better placed that normal so I was happy enough with that, the whistle blows and its all out sprinting to the first turn... where I basically bottle it.... not wanting to get tangled up I drop back allowing quite a lot of riders past me, still I am upright and now able to set about making up some ground.

The first few laps are pretty uneventful, I spend most of my time catching and passing people, trying to avoid the roots, hitting the roots, being convinced I have a puncture and struggling in the slow corners, not sure why if its the tyres or what but I have lost some of my nerve, my lines were not great and I was battling the bike a bit.

After about 4 laps it all calms down i find myself in open air and I am able to set my own pace, I see I am catching a small group ahead and target them as a goal for the race.

I am not sure when it happened in the race but inevitably the leaders caught me, watching them skip past is very impressive, it really shows the difference between me and them, fitness wise I am on a par, having raced against Jack at Malton Crits and been in the 3 man break for the whole race, but technical ability its quite something to watch.

Not far from the end, I was in the previously mentioned group, I was tagging on to the back wheel of one of the stronger riders, when at a technical section where the course went down and back up round a tree, he fell off this left me with no where to go, I also could not get unclipped and somewhat unsurprisingly I fell, hitting my head off the tree as I did.  Taking a second to check all was okay I tried to jump up to find I was trapped by a bush, I was flailing about like a fish on land, I am hoping it was entertaining for everyone watching!! 

So after my normal "off" I set about finishing the race, Tom Ramsey lapped me and I was able to stick with him for half a lap before again technical ability won out over brute force.

Another good race for me 45th overall and 18th in age category and the other York Cycleworks riders, Tony Mills, Craig Gath and especially Andy Johnson who was just outside the top 10 overall, just need to check my helmet, took a fair hit so I want to make sure its okay, otherwise its off to York Cycleworks for a new one!

Not quite so good was for a couple of friends, Paul Goulden who apparently decided that his face made a suitable brake, luckily no lasting damage after a good checkover, the same cannot be said for Richard Hamilton who managed to break his collarbone and will no doubt be spending more than a few uncomfortable days and nights trying to heal.  All the best to both on a rapid recovery.

Quiet week for me with no racing now until Round 4 on the 4th October, although you may see a blog pop up in the week. 

Sleep, alcohol and Cyclocross (Yorkshire Points Rd2 - Northallerton)

Shall I start with sleep?  Or the lack there of.... Everyone knows the importance of sleep on training and racing, so being a new dad (5 weeks old now!) there are nights where I get some sleep and nights where I get less sleep, although I will be the first to admit that my wife does the lion’s share of the night shifts it is inevitable that my sleep is not has good as it used to be.  How does this affect me?  Well for a start a tired body and mind are less efficient less able to process what’s going on and mistakes are more likely to be made, for me it also means that my heart rate is higher at resting and as a result is higher when exercising, that said there is nothing about being a dad I would change, it is, with no question, the best thing in the world.

So on to the next topic, alcohol.  There was a time where I could drink countless pints and feel fine, no ill effects, no hangover... I was younger and at 18 stone heavier as well!  However, in a show of support for my wife during pregnancy I stopped drinking, this inevitably had a positive effect on my wellbeing (I didn't drink a lot) as I was able to recover better, and get up earlier to get the training and to be honest I did feel better for it, that said I like the occasional beer or glass of wine so after the birth of our daughter I have tried both, the results have been very odd....  Firstly I feel the effects after a small bottle of beer, not that surprising really, however it doesn't end there, I also feel like I am burning up, my HR and blood pressure go up and on Saturday night I was left awake in bed trying to calm down, it was not great.  It’s an odd one and I am not sure what to do, I could power through and hope that it gets better, or accept that I am now a "non-drinker"!! I am sure there will be more to follow on this point, I shall continue my testing, I want to ensure that I am thorough.

So to the small matter of the start of my Cyclocross season, Round 2 at Northallerton.  On paper the course was well suited to me, flat and fast a power man’s course, but as with all cyclocross races, the start is everything.

I got there in good time, had some good banter with the lads and got a short warm up in familiarising myself with the course. 

As I missed the first round I was not gridded, so I started 2/3rds of the way down the pack, the start is a sprint to the first corner.  I set off next to Andy Johnson, another York Cycleworks club member and was hoping to sit behind him and get towed around to a good result (Andy is a strong CX rider so I was hopeful to learn a thing or two).  

Immediately I lost Andy's wheel, but he was still in sight so a bit of effort and I could get back, however at the first bottle neck I got caught up in a small crash, two riders come together in front on me and I had nowhere to go and ended up with a rear mech in my front wheel.  Fully expecting my race to be over with a very broken front wheel, it took some time to free my wheel check it was okay and carry on, by which time I was close to last.... right some work to do.

Thinking there was still a chance for a good result I pushed on, only to find stationary traffic at all the bottle necks for the first 2 laps, this ended up putting pay to significant progress, all that was left was to bury myself and have some fun.

On the 3rd lap I was making progress and had just picked off a group of 6-7 riders, taking a different line into one of the corners I was soon to realise that there was less grip than I had expected, cue my "standard" cyclocross fall off.  No injury, although I lost the places I had just made up and was kicking myself as a result. The bike seemed okay and I picked myself up and carried on, going to change gear, click from the shifter, nothing from the rear mech, another click on the lever this time is changes, 3 gears!  Turns out it had taken a bit of a hit and was no longer aligned and also full of mud.... mint!  Now I was basically riding a bike with 2-3 gears this was going to be hard work.

I plugged away and caught a small group of 3 riders, we proceeded to battle it out for the rest of the race, elbow to elbow at times it was great fun and we pulled each other round picking off some places in the process. 

I was 47th out of 115, not bad given the day, to be honest I am not that fussed, cyclocross is more about getting out and having fun for me, and to that end it’s the most inclusive form of racing I have come across and there is always someone to race against, regardless of your ability. Full results here 

Needless to say it was a hard effort, max HR was 181 bpm with an average of 171 bpm which for me is right on the limit.

So, what’s on this week, some training, some dad stuff, some work, then on to round 3 at Wakefield. 

Cyclocross No Show & Fitness Testing

So after my last blog I had every intention of racing the first Yorkshire Points Cyclocorss race at Skipton, given my reasonable current form I was hoping for a good result, however on Sunday morning I was struck down with an ear infection from overuse of earplugs (I thank my new born for her refusal to sleep at night!!), had it just been the ear infection I would have probably still raced but the effects were significant, I was dizzy, very dizzy... imagine if you can that feeling you get after a night on the booze and the bed is spinning, that is where I found myself on Sunday morning, needless to say this was followed by nausea, the end result?  The only racing I did was between my sofa and the toilet.

This sidelined me for Monday as well, luckily I am on an easy week training wise so I didn't mind much.

So yesterday (Wednesday) was testing day, i was nervous that the illness might have taken the edge off my figures... I have changed coaches recently and moved the Robert Stanley, the performance coach at York Cycleworks.  These guys have been very good to me over the years and supported me one way or another and as a store ambassador I have an opportunity work even more closely with them for the rest of 2015 and into 2016.

The testing would cover a number of areas

• Lactate threshold ramp test
• Max Power Sprints
• 1 minute effort
• Physiology analysis (bode fat percentage, skin folds measurements etc)

The physiology test told me nothing new, I am carrying some extra timber...  Weighing in at 84.4kgs and 182cm tall my bodyfat % came out at about 17%, something I need to work on over winter when I can more easily manage a calorie deficit without worrying about performance.

Next up was the Lactate threshold test, this basically a ramp test, you start at a given figure, something easy, and every 2 mins the power figure is increased by 20watts, during this time your lactate is measured, when it "spikes" it gives you the cross over between anaerobic and aerobic threshold.

With only a short warm up I felt pretty bad at first, my HR jumped up and I was concerned it could be a bad test, however after about 10mins I settled down and was able to put it a solid test, the results show (4.64w/kg) that I am in good form but there is potential to improve, 

The Max power sprints are a short 7-8 second effort that measure you max power output they are harder than they seem, again not bad results (756w) for someone who has been focusing on time trialing and not max power efforts.

The 1 minute effort sounds easy, basically a power is selected that you scan maintain for only 1 minute, then you spin up and try and power through, at the start its the easiest thing in the world, but soon it starts to become more difficult and after 20-30secs its really hard work, by the end the pedals are barely moving and your HR is through the roof with a 618w average i was pretty happy.

So now we take the results and see how to make them better, looking forward to getting stuck into a training plan.

If you want to see where your fitness is get in touch with Rob@yorkcycleworks.com and get booked in, if nothing else you can see where you need to improve and renewed focus, otherwise take a look at www.yorkcycleworks.com to see what else they offer!

So what next?  With any luck Yorkshire Points Cyclocross round 2 at Northallerton.... Fingers crossed i make it this time!!

New Blog for a New Dad

So, blogging.... Not something I have really done before so those that read this will have to bare with me!  

So firstly why  have I started to do this, well after a reasonable road racing and TT season (for an amateur) and the recent addition to my household of a lovely little daughter I wanted to keep a kind of record that I can look back on, this will no doubt end up being about the trials and tribulations of being a new father and racing as well as trying to combine the two while also supporting my wife Fiona, who also races. 

So where am I right now, I am in a relatively calm period in terms of racing, the cross season starts on Sunday 6th September and I have been getting some training in ahead of it so that I can hopefully go into it fresh, in terms of being a dad, I am loving it, its tiring and hard work at times, but even just 4 weeks in, its massively rewarding.  In some ways it reflects training, you have to work hard at it but if you do the results should speak for themselves.

I am about to change coaches and I while I am sad to leave my current coach who has helped to shape a good season I am excited to see what the new coach can do, I start next week with power and fitness testing as well as the dreaded "skin fold" test! 

So as an intro that's about it, the next update is likely to be after the first cross race of the season!

Cheers

Richard