The steeper the better

Not much time for blogging this week, I'm afraid: a heavy teaching load taking its toll.

Training wise, Tuesday was a day off, partly thanks to the after effects of my disastrous run the evening before. Yesterday was a hybrid session: an hour in the pool followed by half an hour on the spin bike. It was a good session, but the combination of the swim and cycle was pretty tiring: it's a while since I've done any proper combined training of that kind.

I had limited time to train today, and with the threat of rain in the skies I decided to pull my heavy winter bike out of the garage and do some climbing work. I only did 30 km, but almost all of it was climbing and descending. Maybe it was because I knew it would be a short ride, but I felt better attacking the hills than I have all year. Even on the heavy bike, with the standard chainset, I felt like I was flying on the steep inclines. A good confidence booster ahead of the Bealach and an indication that the training is paying off.

The weather looks like it will work out for me to pop up North this weekend and give the route a go ahead of the race. Hopefully the road will be reasonably quiet.

Please click on the links above and give to Project Zambia. I'm not doing this for fun, you know! (Well, actually I am, but as the Joker said: "If you're good at something, never do it for free.")

Ouch part 3

Sorry for the lack of blogging over the weekend. I was down in England for a viva on Friday (so no training), and was too tired on Saturday evening, after a tough but rewarding 70km cycle in a bit of a wind.

Today was a hybrid session. An hour on the bike, fighting the wind again, but still managing a decent 28 kmph on a very hilly route, was followed by a 5k run. At first the run felt fine: my calf seemed okay and although I was tired from the cycle I felt quite relaxed. About the 4k mark, though, I felt the calf give way and ended up limping home. I am now dosed up on anti-inflammatories, but I can still feel the muscle as being stiff.

So, looks like another trip to the physio ...

Still snowing ...

Well, not only was there a brief flurry of snow here in Fife yesterday, but the forecast for the Highlands also promised snow accumulating from 300 metres upward in the West Highlands. Ben Nevis, of course, is over 1000 metres high, which means that a fair bit of this run is likely to be through snow. I am starting to think much more seriously that this might turn into an adventure run in full climbing gear. That is going to make it even tougher ...

I didn't quite manage my planned cycle and run tonight, having had to take care of some other matters. That may have proved to be a blessing in disguise, though. I just did a brief 5k run, which was a good opportunity to see how my calf is holding up, especially with my new arch moulds. I felt pretty comfortable running, and very relaxed (moreso than has been the case since I started to run again). Still a slight niggle in that leg, though, and it feels quite stiff now; hopefully it will have settled down by the 10th May.

Check out the links above for details about the Project and how to donate to it. It seems there was a problem with one of the links, but it should be fixed now.

More thanks!

Big thanks to Mengmeng for her donation to the project. What a star!

Training-wise, today was a swimming day. I'm not devoting much time to swim training, as I am a decent swimmer and can handle distances. I do need to ensure that I do a session about once a week, though, to avoid losing the flexibility in my joints and keeping the muscle memory intact. Actually the light training has been good for my swimming, and I managed to sustain a stroke count of 16-17 over the first twenty lengths, which is pleasingly low for me! It crept up to 18-19 for the remaining 70 lengths, with one very sloppy 21 length (dodging people doing breaststroke).

So a session of just over 2 km: the triathlon will be closer to 5km, just short of 200 lengths. C'mon: that's gotta be worth some sponsorship!

Tomorrow, hopefully, will involve a 40km cycle and a 10km run. Hopefully ...

Spinning and Snowing

This photo, which I came across on this climbers' blog suggests that I might need to run Nevis in full climbing gear. Now, I'm not going up by that route, but the blog notes that snow fell to about 600 metres two nights ago, which would make even my path difficult.

Gulp.

The Bealach cycle should be fine, though. Training was mainly oriented towards that today, with an hour on the spin bike pushing 360 watts, followed by about ten minutes of hard climbing and sprinting work. My heart seemed reluctant to get above 192 bpm, but I felt pretty strong in any case. It was about 1,200 calories worth of work. I spent a while stretching the calf muscle, following it with 10 minutes on the wobble board. Tomorrow is my first trip to the pool for a few weeks.

Remember, all this hard work is for Project Zambia, an innovative scheme taking students out to Zambia to engage in HIV/AIDS awareness education, primarily through sport. They have already raised about £8,500, but that means we are only about a third of the way to the total. Click on the links at the top of the page to sponsor the Project Zambia team.

Big thanks to Murdo Murchison

A huge word of thanks is due to Murdo Murchison, who made a substantial donation to Project Zambia today. Murdo is a friend of mine, a car dealer based in Doune near Stirling, and I'm grateful for his contribution, in honour of which I am going to try and get a logo printed on one of my cycling tops (actually, just so that I can zip it up as I cross the line and look like a sponsored rider!)

Light training today: with the Sports Centre mobbed tonight, I opted for running instead. The calf problem is still niggling me a bit, but hopefully the arch moulds I have just ordered will take care of that. In terms of my fitness, I am starting to feel stronger running, with my flat pace sitting nicely around 8.5 - 9 mph and my 12% incline pace around 5.5 - 6 mph. Once I push up to 15% incline, I drop back to about 5mph, but that should be plenty for coping with Nevis. I think the ascent will push up significantly beyond 15% at points, but I can drop back to something more sustainable at that level. I just need to get used to sustaining the pace over a steep incline for an hour and a half! My only concern is this ongoing calf problem, which makes steep climbing difficult. Hopefully, though, the arch moulds and maybe another physio session will take care of these problems.

So, just a brief 40 minutes of running

day off

No training today. I felt a bit unwell, actually, which I suspect was just because I hadn't properly refueled after my cycle yesterday. I am feeling better now, though, which should be a good sign.

So no training to report, but I'll use the opportunity to say something about why I am doing this for Project Zambia, since quite a few people have asked. First and foremost, it's a great cause. We live a funny kind of existence as academics, often in a bit of a bubble. When we get a chance to actually serve others, to bring some of our abilities and learning to them, it's an opportunity that should be grasped. So when Gary Brankin told me about a group of students doing just that, by traveling to Africa and developing community education projects, I couldn't help but be interested. I have never visited Africa myself, and may never do so, but I have had many friends who have worked there and seen the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS. My brother cycled the length of the continent a few years ago and brought back stories to further ram home those observations. Project Zambia will change (and perhaps save) lives. The students who go out (who have, incidentally, given up a summer's employment and income, or a summer with family), will have an enormous impact on the young people with whom they work, in sports camps and in schools. So it's a great cause, and if I can help to raise a little bit of the necessary £25, 000 then I will be delighted.

So why the triathlon? Why cycle one of the toughest routes in the country, run the biggest mountain and then swim three miles? Why not some other fundraiser? The truth is, I am doing lots of training at the moment because I can. For several years I had joint problems that were steadily deteriorating, to the point where I honestly thought I was going to have to start walking with a stick. I saw GPs, surgeons and rheumatologists. We still don't know what the problem was: it may have been mechanical joint alignment, solved by the gel inserts that went into my shoes, or a metabolic or nutritional problem connected to the GI disorder I suffered from. Whatever the cause, the problem settled down and now I cycle, run and swim for the sheer joy of it, for the good pain that it involves. Maybe the bad pain will come back someday, but until it does, I'm going to enjoy feeling my heart beat at 197 beats a minute and my muscles screaming at me to stop climbing, to turn the bike around and go downhill. The triathlon is my way of being grateful for my mobility and health; it's a way of saying "thank you" by doing something meaningful with that health. I'm just glad that it has dovetailed so well with Project Zambia.

Click on the links at the top of the page to donate to the Project.

Going the distance

Congratulations to all in the team for Project Zambia, for cycling the length of the U.K. without leaving the U.K.! I chipped in with an hour on Wednesday and about 35 minutes today. Between the two slots, I did around 47 miles, which leaves an awful lot of miles covered by those on the Project Zambia team. A lot of money has come in this week, too, so thanks to everyone who has given.

On the training front, I did about 35-40 minutes on the spin bike in St Mary's today, covering 17 miles, before jumping on the bike and doing a 70 km road route. Tough cycling today, actually: there was quite a fierce headwind on the outward leg (not the 6mph that was forecast), and my average speed by the time I got to the top of the Lomond climb was down around 23 kmph, I managed to pull it back to 25.5 kmph after the return leg, though, which I was quite smug about, given the amount of climbing I had to do on the way back.

So, three hours of training today, and about 2, 600 calories burned. Sponsor me per calorie!

Big thanks to Allan Gartshore for arranging physio for my calf problem, by the way, and to Lyndsay the physio for getting that nasty muscle loosened off. I'm going to try to run it tomorrow: hopefully it will hold up a bit better now.

Stay in the Saddle

Only a short time for training tonight, so just an hour on the bike. That, by the way, is a short session!

The route targeted a couple of steep climbs, though, with one quite long more or less sustained climb of about 4km (with one flat section in the middle). Although I generally attacked the hills quite hard, I concentrated on that climb on staying in the saddle and keeping the cadence high, even if it meant dropping the pace and power slightly. I'm thinking of how I will tackle the Bealach na Ba pass, which will have a sustained 9km climb, culminating in that 22% incline up the hairpins. I'll need to try to stay in the saddle as much as possible to maintain efficiency and keep some fuel in the tank for the steep bit.

Given that it was a hilly route, my average speed of 29kmph was decent.

Should be on the spin bike in the St Mary's Quad tomorrow, if any of you are around.

If you are new to the blog and wonder what I am going on about, scroll down to the entries at the bottom of the page. Also, click on the links above to find information about Project Zambia, and to donate online.

Spinning the length of the U.K.

The picture above will make sense when you get to the end of this post!

Today's training session was a little different. One hour on the spin bike, but not in the gym. Nope: outside the University Union, heckling passers-by to give money. Turns out if you just point at people and make eye-contact the guilt is too much for them to bear.

It's one of the fundraising ideas for Project Zambia: the team (with a little help from various staff from the Sports Centre and me, of course) are cycling the length of the U.K. on spin bikes, which basically means all the hard work with none of the scenery. Well, maybe not all the hard work: there are no climbs after all (unlike the Bealach race, which I'll be doing next month).

It made for quite a light session, since the bikes don't calculate the distance covered in relation to output wattage, but in relation to pedaling cadence. In its own way that proved to be a good workout: I kept a cadence of about 120 for most of the hour (i.e., each pedal goes round 120 times per minute). It's a good discipline to push the cadence up like that, although 100-110 is probably a more efficient rate, and on the climbs I tend to drop down to 90.

Should get out on the open road tomorrow, and hopefully do a bit of climbing. At least my weight is back down to where it should be. I'd quite like to trim another kilo of my weight (maybe two), but that requires a bit more discipline with food than I generally show. How Bale did it for the Machinist movie, I'll never fathom.

Motivational reading this week? A biography of Robert Millar, the great Scottish cyclist who was King of the Mountains in the '84 Tour de France. That's him pictured above, in the glory days of team outfits! (Picture from Cycling Weekly). A remarkable guy by all accounts, especially in terms of his meticulous dieting.

Ouch Part 2

Well, today was a running session. I had planned to do about 10k, but after the first 5k lap of a fairly hilly route that runs around the village, that dodgy muscle in my left calf started hurting again. It's a bit of a concern: I had thought it had settled down and was just a symptom of my return to running, but the recurrence of it tonight suggests a longer term problem. I'm going to try some different insoles next time, to see if it is just a mechanical issue. I'll need to let it rest for a few days before I run again, though. At least I can keep cycling in the meantime, as that will probably help to stretch it off.

Oh, and on the cycling front, here is a gradient profile of the Bealach. The incline at the end kicks up to 21.9%, which will more than justify a fudge doughnut for breakfast that morning.

All this week there will be also be spin bikes set-up at various locations around the uni. The idea is that the cumulative mileage done on the bikes will equal the distance of a Lands-End to John O'Groats cycle. If you are in St Andrews, keep an eye out for us. I'll be doing an hour tomorrow morning outside the Union. You can either put some money into the buckets or give online, using the link at the top of this page.

If you are visiting the blog for the first time, please click on those links to find out more about Project Zambia. Read more of the entries below for information on what I am doing to help raise funds.

Pounds

The good weather continues, but with the routine of teaching (and all that goes with it) starting up again, training times are getting pushed much more into the evenings.

Today was good: a 40k route out to Crail and back. The outward leg was against a surprisingly stiff breeze and the return leg up a general climb, but I managed a decent 30 kmph (decent when you're on your own, with no drafting possibilities, apart from the lorry that passed me and then immediately pulled across my path to turn into a driveway).

I've let my weight creep up by a couple of pounds over the last week, though, having been less cautious in my eating patterns. That's something I need to be wary of: I don't want to squander the power I've built up over the last few months by having some extra luggage to drag up the Bealach. So some more careful eating over the next few days in an effort to keep the chub at bay.

On the road

With beautiful weather today, I managed to get out for a decent cycle, even getting away with wearing shorts rather than leggings for the first time this year.

I managed a decent pace, given that I did a pretty hilly 50 mile route, including the Lomond climb at Falkland, which is one of the better climbs in Fife. An average of about 26 kmph is okay for all that.

Still not convinced about the SRAM gearing on the bike, though. It might be that it needs a bit of tuning: the bike came with a 12-28 cassette on the back, which is not what was advertised, and I wonder of the rear mech has been properly set up for it. Certainly, the 28 sprocket is catching the edge of the the mech cage when upshifting on the 50 chainring. I'll pop it into Spokes on Monday.

Otherwise, little to report.

Rubbish week redeemed!

Quiet blogging this week, because my training has been rubbish! I missed a session on Wednesday, because a domestic chore turned out to be bigger and more complicated than expected: what looked like a section of window that needed patched turned out to be a completely rotten casement frame. By the time I had completely rebuilt and reglazed the window, there just wasn't time to get any training in. Lots of mutters.

Following that failure, I went to the gym yesterday for a session on the spin bike. Rubbish. I felt wrecked after 40 minutes at a reduced 325 watts.

Today redeemed things a bit, though. I went out for just a quick hour on the bike, but managed to keep my average speed up at about 28.5 kmh. That's a decent speed on the landscape around here, especially on the route I was on today, which has some longish (for Fife) climbs and on which I couldn't really attack the descents (too much muck on the roads). Tomorrow afternoon I'll try to get a 50 mile route in, with some good climbing.

Still struggling to get the feel of this compact chainset, though. I'm sure I'll be glad of it on the long climbs, but at the moment it just feels a bit weird, and it's hard to know when to make the jump from the 50 to the 34 chainring.

Nerd.

Aches and Pains

Today's training involved 30 minutes on the spin bike, followed by 30 minutes of running, with about 15 minutes of the run done at a 15% gradient. The bike was fine: 355 watts maintained over the session as a a good base-line warm-up, burning about 600 calories. The run was more of a mixed bag. In terms of my running fitness and psychology I feel I am improving. I pushed the speed up to 5.5 mph while on the 15% incline today, and kept my heartrate stable at around 186 for ten minutes while doing it. I feel pretty comfortable going up to 9 mph on the flat. I had a real ache in my left calf though, especially on the climb, and while I ran through it and it seemed to ease, the muscle is now pretty tight and stiff. It might be that my plyometrics session over the weekend is still taking its toll, but it's a reminder that I have to be patient in building my running fitness up again.

Suddenly feel quite old ...

Still, overall it was a good session. I burned about 1100 calories all told and felt quite comfortable in terms of energy levels throughout. I'm trying to reorient my eating patterns slightly, eating a big breakfast and then a lighter lunch and evening meal. I'll see whether it works and whether I can sustain it (usually I devour huge amounts of food in the evening, recovering from the training sessions), but on today's showing it seems promising. This article was part of the prompt to change things round.

Project Zambia and AIDS

I felt slightly off-colour today; nothing serious, just a slightly tired feeling, almost like the beginning of a cold. It might be a symptom of overtraining, so I thought it wise to take an extra day off and concentrate on eating well. So, no training posts today, but I thought I would say a little more about Project Zambia and why you should click on the links above and donate through the official St Andrews website.

The project will take students from St Andrews out to Zambia to engage in community education, especially concerning HIV-AIDS and its prevention. Much of this education will be done through sport related projects. Check out this link to see more on the scale of the problem in Zambia. Depending on your opinion, you might not like what it has to say about educational agendas relating to AIDS, and I would stress that Project Zambia is not linked to this organisation, but it does bring home the scale of the problem and has some useful statistics.

Project Zambia has the potential to change lives, both in Zambia and in St Andrews. Please give to support it.

With hindsight ...

Today's session was a little bit different. I have been looking wistfully at my new bike (a Scott Addict, for those who are interested) since it arrived on Tuesday, along with the snow. Today was the first day I really felt I could take it out, not wanting it to get destroyed by grime and salt. There were some ominous looking clouds, though, so I held off and did a gym session instead. 40 mins at 355 watts, followed by 5 mins of big gear gear. The clouds looked as though they weren't going to do much though, so instead of carrying on with the gym session, I cut it short, headed home and took the new bike out for its maiden journey.

Things always go wrong on such trips. First up was the freewheel, which seemed a little stiff until I realised that there was still a packaging brace in there. Doh. Second up was the Sram gearing, which I am new to, being more used to Shimano Ultegra. Okay, eventually got that worked out and gradually got the hang of it. Third up was more of a problem: I hadn't taken a full set of hex keys with me, and it turned out that the bolts on the seat clamp weren't fully tightened. Cue a saddle that eventually had its nose pointing up by about 20% and refused to go back to the level; cue a certain amount of discomfort over the last few miles!

Problems aside, the bike is glorious: it's light (7.2 kilos, or around 16 pounds), seriously stiff and handles beautifully. It took me a little while to get used to the compact chainset. I normally use a standard 53-39 chainset, but this one came with a 50-34, which will be handy for the Bealach. (And if anyone wants to get snobby about compacts: even Contador et al use them on stages of the Giro d'Italia that match the gradient of the Bealach). Oh, and on that topic, I have posted a photo of that disconcerting roadsign at the foot of the Bealach climb, above.

April Training Goals

When I first suggested this triathlon, it was suggested that I start a training blog to generate some interest and that's what this is all about. So this post is to explain some of the goals and strategies for the next month.

To recap, I will be cycling a 43 mile race that includes the longest climb in Britain (with 22% gradient at points), running the highest hill in Britain (Ben Nevis), and then swimming 3 miles in St Andrews, all for Project Zambia, which will take students from St Andrews to work with youth and community sports projects in Zambia and engage in various kinds of education. It's an innovative and exciting project that will change lives from both sides of the link. For more information, and to donate, see the links above.

The main challenge for me is to improve my climbing fitness for the cycle and the run. My baseline fitness is pretty good, and I have a high aerobic capacity. I'm not sure what my VO2 max is, but I have a resting heart rate of 47, a top heart rate of 197, and a lactate threshold of 189. At 36 years old, those figures are pretty decent. The issue, though, is whether I can generate high enough levels of power in the climbs and how my power output relates to my weight.

For cycling, the challenge is to increase the power that I can output without allowing my pedalling cadence to drop too much. During the winter (and also now whenever the weather is too bad to go out on the road), that meant using the spin bike on the gym and deliberately sticking within the 100-110 pedal rate (the number of times each foot goes round in a minute), while trying to increase the resistance. I've now got to the point where I can maintain 355 watts for an hour, with a pedal cadence of 101. That helps for the basic power, but I still have to build in climbing simulation, where I am out of the saddle and trying to maintain the wattage in that zone against a much higher resistance. Generally, then, I do my hour of base training, followed by half an hour of hard climbing intervals. With roads getting less icy now, I have been getting out on the open road more often; my main target here has just been targetting hilly routes and climbing hard, without giving myself too much recovery time before pushin the wattage up again. The hills in Fife are all pretty small, but some of them are reasonably steep. With a standard 39-27 gearing set-up as my easiest option, and on my heavy winter bike, this requires me to drop the cadence and really work at the force, which can take its toll even over a short 40 mile route. Interestingly, when I have returned to the spin bike after this kind of work, I have noticed the power gains.

For running, the power challenge is combined with the impact factor: muscles have to generate the power to carry me uphill on a steep gradient, while also dealing with the impact of each footstrike. If you think about it, that means the muscle contracting while also resisting the forced lengthening that goes with each footstrike. I've not done much running in the last five years, for reasons I'll explain in a later post, so I need to be very careful about my preparation. To train for this, I am doing two things. First, gradually lengthening my running sessions and integrating inclines (always with an eye to the heart rate monitor to keep my pace from pushing me over the dreaded 189 lactate threshold). I am generally pushing up to an incline of 15% and allowing my pace to drop from my usual 8mph endurance pace to a rather more humbling 5 mph. Hopefully I will be able to pick that pace up a bit as the month progresses. The second thing I am doing to train for the run is integrating a plyometrics or eccentric session once or twice a week. Basically, this involves bouncing, using a step or bench or some other prop to ensure that my muscles are getting used to contracting hard against an impact. I need to be careful not to overdo it (just a few minutes at the end of a base training session or the muscles and joints can get damaged).

As for the swim: to be honest, that's just about keeping going. I have a pretty efficient stroke, so I just need to make sure I take on enough water as I am going and don't get too aggressive in my turns, which is what can do the damage.

Well, apologies for a long and technical post. I'll keep it short from here on.

Will the snow have melted?

Here's a view of Ben Nevis from nearby Aonach Eagach, a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping the snow has cleared by May, but I suspect the last 500-1000 feet might still be pretty nasty. We'll stay well away from those cornices.

If you are new to the blog (and since I only started it yesterday, you probably are), I'm running this hill for Project Zambia. See the links above for information on this excellent project. Why not make a donation while you are at it!

The Routes

We had power cuts yesterday because of the blizzard conditions that hit on Tuesday night. We always get snow at this time of year, but it always seems to take people by surprise. This was an unusually fierce one, though, and was married to high winds. Fife wasn't hit too badly, but obviously some power lines came down. My plans to nip up North and cycle over the Bealach to familiarise myself with the route and gradients had to be shelved, though: not only is the pass itself snowbound, but the major routes to the Highlands were blocked because of drifting. Ah well.

Anyway, I should probably give you a sense of what I am doing for this traithlon. The first stage is the 43 mile Bealach na Ba cycle race on May 8th. 43 miles isn't that far, but it is over the longest climb in the U.K., which goes on for about six miles and includes 1km at 22% gradient. Photos don't do it justice, but there are a couple above anyway. They aren't my photos, and that's not me on the bike: I found that photo at the following url: http://glencoescotland.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html. That is the lower gradient section further down the route, a mile or two before it really kicks up. The photo of the hairpins is from here. I'll post more photos of the Bealach later, including one of the rather disconcerting roadsign at the bottom of the climb. Bear in mind, I will be trying to do this at a decent pace. I would quite like to finish reasonably high in the positions.

The second stage will be running Ben Nevis on May 10th. There will be a rest day between these two stages, so that I am not running on a Sunday. In some ways that will make things more difficult as a day off always leads to some stiffness in the muscles (I'm not just slacking!). Nevis, of course, is the highest hill in the U.K. There is an annual race up it, which I have never done, but I'll follow the race route, which you can find here. Those are some tight gradient lines! I'm grateful to Paul Martens, my ultra-running friend from Canada, by way of Texas, for joining me on this (it would be risky to do something like this alone). Hopefully most of the snow will have gone by the time we run it ... I'll post a photo looking over towards Nevis from Aonach Eagach later on.

The third day (May 11th) will be a 3 mile swim. Steve Clark, a friend and triathlon coach, convinced me that it would still be way too cold to do a swim of that length in open water at that time of year, so it will have to be the pool. I am grateful to the folks at the East Sands Leisure Centre, for agreeing to me using a lane in the pool that morning (cheers Ian). Actually, swimming in the pool brings its own challenges, which is why I have scheduled the swim as the last event. 3 miles in the pool is about 200 lengths. That's around 200 flip turns, which is hard on the back, the knees and the ankles as you spin over and push-off. Also, the heat of a pool is fine if you are just doing a few lengths at low pace, but if you are doing that distance at my usual speed, it is very warm, and makes hydration a real issue. I am aiming to do the distance in under 90 minutes, which will mean that I can only really stop now and again to take on liquid.

More posts later.