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.

What am I doing ...?

I'm useless at blogging. I'm also useless at Twitter. About once a month I remember to say something and spend an hour staring the screen wondering what I could say that would be of the slightest interest to anyone. I then give up and watch the Big Bang Theory or read some Neil Gaiman novels.

This time, though, I will try to keep the blog going, knowing that I only have to do it for about a month. In a month's time (May 8-11), I will throw myself up various mountains, on a bike and on my feet, and drag myself along a 3 mile watercourse to raise money for the University of St Andrews' Project Zambia: a fantastic scheme to take students to Africa, to develop sports and educational projects for communities and youth and to encounter a radically different culture.

The blog will describe my training activities as I prepare for this and probably open some windows onto my weird psychology. Hopefully it will provide a portal for some of you to donate to this project as we work towards the £25,000 that needs to be raised.

If you do want to give, click here.

Okay, that's the basics, and I need to get back to work. I'll make a post tonight on why I am interested in the project and also giving some basic descriptions of my fitness statistics and goals.