 Very quick blog update...
Woke at 05:30, which gave me options. But because of the snow, pondered whether to cycle to work or not, after much deliberation decided to wheel out the MTB and give it a whirl. Got 2.75 miles in, had mechanical failure and had to turn and head back. 5.5 miles bagged instead of 23.
During my lunch break I had a look at the British Cycle website and picked half a dozen events I want to try this year (more on that in a future blog), one of them was a 25m TT. Decided I needed to find out where I was at. Too much snow to wheel the bike out so popped past the gym on the way home. It's very difficult to tell as there are no hills and no wind resistance in a gym but my read out is above. 25 miles in 54m 48sec... I don't believe that for a second. The question is, how much do you add for wind resistance and hills, how much do you take away for fresh air and the buzz of competition?... I think a sub 60mins is possible this year but I'll need to work on my endurance.
Last but not least for today, the recovery drink of choice, Leffe Blonde. Well, if you can't enjoy training then what's the point!?
 In preparation for Mallorca in 2 weeks there wasn't much I could do about the weather, but I could find some hills and put in some decent miles. So, with Mother's Day on Sunday (and the wife angling for some sort of preferential treatment), I figured I would go for a longer Saturday ride.
My previous two outings with the Wheelers has increased my knowledge of the local B roads and increased my base stamina to the point where I'm now comfortable with a 3 hour solo ride. An average of 20mph is still a stretch but I thought 17-18mph would be achievable, so with that in mind I tried to plan out a route that would be between 50-55miles and take in a few decent hills, keeping off the main roads as much as possible.
When cycling, my preference is to see as much of the countryside as I can, so a loop or figure of 8 route works quite well for me (as opposed to a straight out and back). So with all the requirements taken into consideration I sat down with "gmaps pedometer", "BBC Weather" and "the wife's calendar" to devise a game plan. I think most folk probably use "map my ride", I'll need to give that a try but "gmaps pedometer" is familiar to me and no registration required.
So with permission slip signed, spares and provisions onboard, gadgets all powered up and synced, it was time to set off. For most of the ride there was a decent cross wind but between miles 2-6 it was full in my back so I opened the taps and got my average speed up to around 25mph. I eased back after passing through Echt trying to keep in mind that this was going to be a marathon, not a sprint, regardless of how much fun I was having. There were a couple of tasty hills en-route to Torphins so instead of selecting the lighter gear and spinning up as I am certain to do in Mallorca, I kept her in a heavier gear and tried to grind up to simulate the steeper hills that I am likely to face. Once at the top I had to negotiate some snow on the road before the decent into Torphins opened up. I'm definitely going to try that one again on a warm dry day, I think the average speed could get quite interesting.
I followed the signs to Aboyne and tried to link together all the side roads in my head so I can devise some alternative routes throughout the year. As I crossed on to the South Deeside my garmin informed me that I'd passed through the 25mile mark. One of my problems on these longer rides has been getting my nutrition correct. With only 750ml with me I kept it fairly even with a decent gulp every 5 miles. On the food front I ate half a nutrition bar after the first hour (I had 2 with me), then took a bite every half hour after that. And fingers crossed it seemed to work for the 3 hour ride. Although for a 4 hour ride I'll need to fit an extra bottle cage and take a few more energy bars with me.
I battled into the wind for a bit until I came to Finzean. I've only passed through it once on a Wheelers ride but I was pleased to affirm that I was in familiar territory and hadn't veered off the planned route. There's a decent climb up to a monument around there. It would make a nice spot to stop and have a couple of sandwiches and fuel up, but I only had a mouth of energy bar and set off on the decent and lump trails to Banchory. I was pretty certain I could take the turn off to Kirkton of Durris but I wanted to play it safe so rode straight in to Banchory and took a right towards Aberdeen. This was the first busy road that I'd been on all day but the cars were very respectful (they must be used to a fair amount of MAMILs passing through there) and gave me plenty of space and time as they passed by. Even so, I wanted to get off the road as quickly as possible, so I skipped the first turn off to Reimor and took the second left at the new Tesco and took the road back to Echt.
I was feeling remarkably strong, or at least not dying as expected, so I decided I would make the milage up to 55miles for the trip. So once I got back to Echt (and familiar territory) I put in a few shimmies and extra loops to take me back to the house to finish on 55.5 miles in 3hrs 05mins.
With only 2 weeks to go I'll need to put in some more work but at least I know that I've got enough in the tank to get me round. As Greg LeMond (and now the rest of the cycling world) say, "It never gets any easier, you just get faster".
 Good weather is a double edged sword. On one side, you really want to spend all day on the bike, on the other you want to spend time outdoors with the family. Luckily for me there's not much difference between a 3 year old boy and a 33 year old boy so we all got to spend time on two wheels this weekend.
With this year's focus being time trials, I thought it a good idea to take up as little family time as possible and pencilled in a Saturday morning Time Trial, to see how far off race pace I am. Unfortunately for my test, one of my friends also scheduled in leaving drinks for Friday night. He's away with his longterm girlfriend for a 12 month trip around the world, so I popped out for a pint... which turned to three... which turned into a sausage supper at 01:30 and the faint recollection of overshare with a taxi driver. Come 06:00 when my son decided to get up, I didn't think a time trial would be on the cards. Safe to say, I decided to leave it a while and get some family stuff done instead. So we watch a few cartoons and made breakfast, did some art stuff and played with some toys. By 10:00 Mrs N had him in the car and whisked off for a couple of hours of playtime. This, unfortunately, was my window of opportunity. I went for an easy spin/few junk miles to clear the cobwebs and find out what shape I was in, a half shut knife springs to mind. But by the time I was home I didn't feel too bad. I took on some more food and water and got myself perked up, a few cups of coffee later and I was ready to wheel the TT bike out of the garage and onto the familiar Drumoak 10m TT course where I'd unexpectedly produced a 22:54 in September.
I gave it a crude warm up for 7 mins then set off. For the first 400 yards I felt like a winner, the TT bike much more responsive than my daily commuter I've been accustomed to over the last few months, but the illusion was quickly shattered as I struggled to keep my HR anywhere near where I'd been keeping it in September, it was like running on dirty fuel. A few coughs and splutters later I was in a groove but it felt a gear short. I wasn't too upset to find I'd reached the half way mark 40 seconds down on my PB. By about mile 6, I started to feel the crouched position quite tiring on the back so had to shuffle around a bit in the saddle and came up from the aero bars for respite for 10-15 seconds. When I passed through mile 8 without throwing up I knew I wasn't going to be awarded a DNF, which in itself would have been better than the DNS I was predicting earlier in the day. Coming into the home stretch I searched for that last kick but alas I think I left it in Paramount the night before.
I crossed the line approx 75 sec off my PB, but happy that I know there's room for improvement and that with some decent training I'll find that elusive extra gear. That decent training, health permitting, should start in a couple of weeks. A trip to Mallorca with a few lads from the Wheelers sparkles on the horizon. But that brings another set of problems... HILLS. It dawned on me later that night that I hadn't done any hill work this year, Mallorca has a lot of hills. Mrs N kindly gave me another couple of hours window on Sunday morning to get some hills in. It wasn't enough time to jump on with the Wheelers for their proposed 75 but I figured a couple of hours of hills would serve me just as well.
The closest hill I could think of was the 1.5miles stretching from Bieldside to Blacktop. My garmin says it's an average of 3.5% but there are a couple flat sections included so I'd make it more like half a mile of flat, book ended with two half miles at 8%. I'm sure the last kick is about 15%. From memory, it gets the heart pumping. I took a fairly direct route to the bottom of the hill ready to give it a crack. My thinking being I could give it a good kick on my first attempt, my 2nd and 3rd rep would be a bit more manageable. It started off alright, nice and steady pace, never going harder than I thought I would be able to sustain for the whole hill. I got up to the flat then got the bit between my teeth and decided to open it up, by the time I neared the last kick I could feel the lactic building. Just as the kick reached it's sharpest I rose out of the saddle for the first time and the chain gave a couple of slips on the cassette, lucky for me she caught again (new one is on order) and I gritted myself to the top. Once at the top it took a fair while to recover as I descended back around to Cults and across to Bieldside for another crack. It's been a while since I encountered my old pal Mr Lactic, but he's the same prick that he used to be... I don't think he has too many friends. Half way up the second attempt I'd thrown in the towel with regards a 3rd rep, instead I was planning another attack against the clock and the "Countesswells East" strava segment seemed like the best choice. It didn't leave me much recovery time from the summit but it would be my final effort of the day. I gave it a good go but the same as the previous day, I felt a gear short of race pace. I couldn't really remember where the segment started or finished (for anyone that hasn't got themselves into Strava yet, I can't recommend it enough, google it. No doubt it will be replaced with something else in a couple of years but for now it's great for a bit of motivation on solo rides), I was a couple of seconds off the KOM but now I know where it's at, it's going to get my full attention some day. I might never get it, but it's a bit of fun along the way!
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