Sportive numbero deux

Two weeks and 2 sportives!

Yesterday I did the 'Just Racing' Quattro around the hills of Northamptonshire. I have to say it was a lovely route, not the most lovely day though. A little bit overcast throughout the ride and as soon as I got back in the car...BINGO Sun out!

The exciting thing about this ride  was it was the first time I have taken the Go Pro for a spin...product to come later!

So....onto the ride.

The event was organised very well, with a map and natty waterproof pocket for it to go into dished out at registration (very sensible).

TOP TIP! Another grassy car park and I learned my lesson about walking on grass in my bike shoes and I brought 2 plastic bags to go over my shoes to prevent water to get in! I got a few funny looks and a couple of envious ones as others complained about wet feet!

There were plenty of signs throughout the route and it was very clear which way to go depending on which route you were on.

At the aid station there was lots of what you would expect, water, NRG drinks, gels, mini sausage rolls, sausages, flapjack, brownies, crisps and of course because its easter, hot cross buns!:)

The rest of the week at Playitas, Fuerteventura

Breakfast was indeed all one could have hoped for and more!

Athletes, especially triathletes happen to be the fussiest bunch of eaters I know. Well, this breakfast had something for EVERYONE. Every kind of bread you can imagine, gluten free, rye bread, white brown and everything in-between. A smoothie bar manned by a guy churning out smoothies like no-body’s business. An egg area, for whatever kind of egg you would like! Omelettes, that Spanish thing I have forgotten the name of, like quiche without the pastry. My fave is the ‘make your own museli’ station which has load of different dried fruits and nuts. All kinds of milk, soya, even no lactose milk! And of course cooked breakfast including fried courgette and all kinds of strange stuff along with all the faves. Basically everything!

The staff also seemed to have warmed up a bit and have been helpful and friendly. Someone even kindly showed me around the apartments as I think that might be nicer (and easier for food etc) when I come back for the Challenge race in April.
 

This is pretty much the landscape!

 My thoughts on the bike course (The Challenge Fuerteventura bike route) is it basically has 4 distinctive parts;

Undulating

HILLY/mountainous

Undulating

Flat and fast



Hydrating on the beach!
 Nearby café with great
coffee and free Wi-Fi!

I think that hydration and feeding are going to be critical on the bike, its very hot and humid even now in December. The wind ads anew problem to the equation too, since taking a bottle to drink from, at the same time as a strong gust nearly sent me tumbling into a ditch!

I have found there is a wild cat feeding area in the hotel! Some very friendly kitties seem to mooch about here. This provided a nice distraction from the pain in my legs for about 5 minutes!
 

Dinner was as good as breakfast, everything you could hope for and lots of it! My only criticism is that drinks are pretty pricey, and they don’t let you take your own bottles in, even just water.
 

Day 2 and the rest of the week

Went for a little dip in the sea which was lovely. The sea temp is about 19 degrees centigrade. There were a few little tropical fish floating about, but after they had gone the seabed was pretty barron! Just black and volcanic! It’s a really good beach for OW swimming as there are a number of bouys fairly near the beach so great for sighting practice.

Off on the bike again after breakfast and I went on a short-ish ride down to the south. It must have been hotter than yesterday, but the wind masked that. I only realised how strong the sun was when I got back and saw my lovely red arms and crazy tan legs in the mirror!

I ran off the bike today…cripes! Windy and hilly made for a fairly miserable run…however I got some new tan lines. Ehem….I mean burn lines!
 

I swam in the evening in one of the later sessions, and now I know why no one swims then…it gets freeing! I couldn’t finish the session since my head was pounding and I started getting black spots in my eyes! 10 mins in a hot shower and normality was restored.

The pool is an extra EUR2.70 for an hour. It was really clean and 8 lovely wide lanes in the sunshine :) Very nice for someone who hates swimming.

One day I decided to try out the small fishing village adjacent to the resort. I went to a lovely restraint and decided sea food would be the best option given the nature of the location. I had a delicious meal, and cheeky EUR2.00 glass of wine! The dinner was lovely and on the seafront. Perfect place and way to unwind after an intense day in the sun! And it was really reasonable. The dinner was also accompanied by the local kitties, fine for me as a cat lady, but others weren't so keen!
 

Last day

I had a late flight which meant after checking out at 1100, I had some time to kill. I did a swim and sesh in the gym (which is free to hotel guests). The gym is large and really well equipped. Lots of eights and machines, plus all the foam rollers and thera-bands you would expect in a top-class gym. The staff kindly stored my bike and luggage for me so I was free to swish about the resort as I pleased. A bit of trg and a lot of book reading, and then it was time to leave :'(

Concluding thoughts

The resort is really clean and well set up for runners, triathletes and generally active people. The weather in Demember was lovely, not too hot, but sunny enough to top up the vitamin D levels and get a bit of a pre-Christmas tan! The staff were actually very friendly and helpful, I think they were just having a bad day when I arrived. The food is good and plentiful! The cycling is as challenging as you want it to be, but beware, its not called the windy island for nothing.

I would definitely go back for a week, or more of training. The long flight time (4h +) makes it a little too far for any time less than a week. Looking forward to being back for the Challenge event! And by looking forward....I mean totally terrified by the hills, the heat and the sheer enormity of 70.3 (for the Sprint and SD distance girl anyway!)



 

Challenge - 8 hours of Bikram Yoga

Since not being able to run, and therefore compete in triathlon and obviously running, there is a big competition and challenge shaped hole in my life. I have really missed the mental and of course physical challenge which racing brings, but also the immense feeling of satisfaction which comes with completing a triathlon, or getting a PB, or generally having a really good race. 

I have been plodding along with my rehab program and generally drifting about in the wilderness of training without racing. Those of you who know me will know just how much I love racing all all which that brings.

I found out about this challenge for Children in Need at Hot Bikram Yoga in London. It is 6 Bikram yoga classes back to back in one day.

That's Back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back bikram.

Now, I am sure some of you are thinking "pffft, that doesn't sound too challenging to me? Sitting about saying 'OM'". I am sorry to say, this was my view of yoga until a friend of mine introduced me to Bikram yoga. I have been a huge advocate of it ever since, and the benefits for mind and body are huge. Especially for those of us who abuse our bodies through mile on the road, in the pool or hunched over TT bars on the bike.

For those of you who don't know, here is a bit about Bikram...

Bikram Yoga has been developed from traditional hatha yoga. It became popular in the 1970s but is currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Generally Bikram Yoga classes run for 90 minutes and consist of the same series of 26 postures, including two breathing exercises. Now here comes the part which sets it apart, it is practiced in a room heated to 40 °C and with a humidity of 40%. I promise you will be dripping with sweat at the end of it! 

I am doing this for the personal challenge, but also trying to raise a few pennies for a good cause. I have never done anything more than one class in a day, and they are tough at the best of times.

13 November, Balham HBY Studio

Some links;
Check out HBY...you wont regret it :) 
My fundraising page

Buying a bike

I was lucky to be able to loan
this steel bike from
RAF Triathlon to learn what
features I did and didn't like.

A number of people have asked me for my top tips on buying a bike, so here they are…

It took me almost 12 months to finally decide on the first bike I bought. I had the added dilemma of TT or not since I was an aspiring triathlete at the time. However whether it be road bike, or TT bike, the essential points are the same. After buying my TT bike (a Quintana Roo) and riding that only for about 12 months, I am now the proud owner of a Moda road bike too.

• Set a budget. Bikes are expensive, and there are thousands of them! Working out what you can afford initially narrows down the search.

• What are your needs? Commuting, racing, training, training and racing? Knowing what you wan your bike for will enable you to make sure it is fit for purpose.

• Do your initial research. Have a look on online forums and have a look around some shops too. Be prepared to put a bit of work in, otherwise you will end up with something you don’t love to pieces, and may not be a pleasure to ride.

I LOVE this bike, these wheels were a later addition

• One for the ladies. Yes female specific bikes exist, but if your body geometry doesn’t fit well with a female bike, then don’t feel you have to go down that road just because you are a woman! Why? – Women typically have a shorter torso and arms for the height so the top tube length is shorter. Also the arrangement of the break levers can be slightly different to accommodate out lady like small hands. The length of the head tube is normally longer to accommodate for the longer leg women have compared to men, in order to keep the rest of the geometry tip top! Handle bars can be a bit narrower too to accommodate a narrower shoulder, and often the crank length is smaller to. However, after all that, both my bikes road and TT are male or unisex.

• Learn about the components and what they actually do. If you are in the same position I was, and have no idea about derailleurs, or down/top tubes, invest a bit of time learning all the bike jargon. If nothing else you will have some credentials when a salesman starts spewing technical mumbo-jumbo at you. I watched a lot of the videos by GCN (Global Cycling Network) on YouTube.

• Find a retailer who will let you borrow a bike for a few days. They do exist, or failing that find somewhere you can rent a bike similar to what you want for a few days. This is the best way to work out what you like and what you don’t. One of the big things is the shifting type, eg. Shimano (two different buttons) or SRAM (double tap system).

• FIT!!! This is THE most important thing! No matter how good your bike is, if it doesn’t fit properly, you won’t be any good on it. Plus you could injure yourself, back and knee pain are the most common in bikes which don’t fit well. See post on bike fitting and DrJ here :)

• Material. This will be partly guided by budget.

Me and the Moda on one of our first rides

• Aluminium is commonly found in bikes around and under the £1000 mark. It is cheap, stiff and light. Higher grade alu frames use a technique where the thickness of the tube varies along the length (called butting). This means less weight and more comfort, but of course comes at financial cost.
• Steel is heavier than aluminium but is very comfortable. There are some modern steel bikes on the market which are pretty light and very durable.
• Titanium. It is light and strong but difficult to work with making it expensive, however as techniques are developing it is becoming more reasonable.
• Carbon fibre. Some is available very cheaply, however beware, cheap can mean poorly manufactured and more likely to fail. It is easily manipulated and can me made into very light stiff and responsive frames. Some alu bikes are just as light as carbon, but have a higher spec on the rest of the components, so be careful. Carbon is not the panacea of bike awesomeness.

Happy with my ride at the top of
 the Kitzbuhele-horn

Lastly, you have to love it. If on paper it is the perfect bike for you, but it just doesn’t get you pulse racing like a different bike you have seen does, then don’t buy it because you feel you should. Your bike should be something you want, and something you want to ride.

I love my bike, (now bikes) I keep them inside ontop of a desk or on my turbo trainer, and every day I look at them and smile, even when I'm not riding them.

GOOD LUCK!
















Some good guides to buying are here:

Evans Cycles Bike RADAR

Shift Work & Training

I have been asked by a few people to share my methods/tips/coping strategies for training while doing night shifts and shift work in general...

The Background

Currently I am in a full time job where I work 12 hr shifts in an underground bunker. These are both day and night shifts. There are a lot of problems relating to shift work and lack of exposure to natural light. The first being sleeping and how that effects recovery for an athlete, but also other things like mood, motivation and willingness to train. 

Sleep

There are 3 main functions of sleep. 1 is to repair the body. 2 is to process food and restoration/recovery of the nervous system and 3 is the cognitive function of learning and memory.  Many now argue that sleep is mainly for the brain rather than the body.

"Sleep affects recovery, metabolism, hormonal balance, mood, and athletic performance. During sleep, the body secretes growth hormone, which aids in strength building and recovery from injury by stimulating the healing and growth of muscle and bone as well as the burning of fat. Sleep helps keep athletes mentally sharp, too, and is important for memory, reaction time, and hand-eye coordination as well as for learning and acquiring new skills."

So, all the good advice says get between 8 and 10 hours a night, which just aint gonna happen if your are on the night shift!

 

There is loads and LOADS of stuff on the internet about how bad not getting enough sleep is for you, disturbances in circadian rhythm (your body's natural rhythm)  etc. etc. so I wont go into all that, I am just going to share my tips about getting through it, and especially getting through it while still trying to achieve your athletic goals.

Training

Unfortunately you are going to have to adapt your training, and this might mean having more easy or light training days than you would ideally like. However this is better than trying to train at a really high intensity when you are exhausted, resulting in becoming frustrated and angry because you have had a bad session, or worse becoming injured. 

Day shifts 

These are long and tiring. I normally try and do a light training session before work (horrendously early) or after work. Anything more than that and I would be wasted and unable to do much in the following days.

Night Shifts & The Tips

1. Don't try and skimp on sleep in the day in order to maximise your daylight hours. It is really frustrating to spend the best bits of the day asleep and miss all the sunshine, but you NEED the rest. It is said you need an hour of sleep for every 2 hours awake, therefore after a night shift you have a 'sleep debt' which needs to be repaid. Set an alarm if you need too, but try and wake up naturally so your body had banked the sleep it needs. I have found moderate to hard training sessions achievable on these days in the afternoon.

2. Go to bed as soon as you can after your shift. Try not get distracted by other jobs which need to be done, this will likely wake you up and you will find it hard to sleep.

3. Get some decent black-out curtains, blinds or sleep with an eye mask. Personally I have thick curtains AND use an eye mask which make it really easy to get back to sleep again.

4. If where you are sleeping is noisy, and living communally is I can assure you. You can try ear plugs (the type motorcyclists use, or if you don't like putting things in your ears (I don't) try ear defenders.

5. Put a sign on your door if you can, explaining 'Shift worker sleeping' or something similar. This should dissuade people knocking on your door trying to sell you something, or something else equally unhelpful.

6. Keep your room cool, this makes it easier to get to sleep.

7. Don't get stressed if you cant sleep. Try reading a book, listening to calming music. I like to write a list of what I need to do when I get up, then I can see my goals for the day and allocate my time appropriately.

8. If you are hungry, eat something. It can be hard to not over-eat while on the night shift, but if you are starving when trying to get to sleep, you wont. I sometimes have a small bowl of porridge or a handful of nuts. Walnuts, almonds, cheese, rice, cherry juice and chamomile tea are all know to help stimulate sleeping.

9. Don't under-estimate the power of the afternoon nap! Although you should try to nap for 90 or 45 minutes (or factors of, e.g. 3 hrs). This is one full, or half of a sleep cycle. This will stop you waking up in the 'deep sleep' part of the sleep cycle. That is when you wake up and feel totally awful!

10. After nights I find I am extremely irritable, my mood is very unstable and I can find myself being easily distracted. I am aware of this and that alone has helped to enable me to re-focus on what I need to get accomplished on that day. However I have also learned to LET GO, if I miss a session, it is not the end of the world! This is my hobby, I'm not a professional and it should be enjoyable.

Days off

These might be in the week rather than the weekend, and depending on your family situation this will dictate how much time you can give up to training, but generally I make the most of my days off and get in some big sessions with long periods of rest. I also try to do as much prep as possible for my days at work. Doing things like food prep, washing and getting bags of kit prepared so I don't have to waste time in what can be busy and very long days.

 

Holiday - Part un

 Well it wasn’t what most people would think of as a holiday.

I spent a glorious week in the Peak District, based at a lovely hotel/B&B in Chinley, near Chapel-en-le-frith, and more importantly near a very small village (more like settlement) called Bagshaw! We stayed at the ‘Old Hall Inn’ which I would recommend. They very kindly locked out bikes in a garage overnight (however if there had been many more cyclists it may have been a bit of a squeeze!). The Landlord is a triathlete himself so was extremely helpful in advising some decent routes, and a little bit of local know how really helped, since the Garmin route planning software seemed determined to turn us into cyclocross riders! The food was good, breakfast was plentiful, comfy beds and if you are into beer and ale they had hundreds!!

We racked up some quality and hilly bile miles. There are LOADS of national trust places, cafes and scenic stops, but a little bit of research goes a long way, since one of the days we went rogue one day and didn't plan, ending up in a café that despite having ‘cappuccino’ on the menu, they weren't so sure how to make it. :/

The peak district is a really great area for cycling, with lots of bike friendly cafes and on the whole car drivers seem pretty receptive to cyclists when passing and overtaking. When out in the heart of the peak district there are hardly any cars about anyway! We managed to tick off some of the must ride climbs and routes. The first being the one that gave me the idea that it would be a really good idea to come cycling in the peak district. A huge great climb out of hope valley which is on the 100 climbs to do in Britain, find more pain here.

The second which I did on a solo mission was mow cop. 25% gradient and removed from strava as a segment for being too dangerous!! :O The weather can be a bit hit and miss so make sure you take all manner of cycling gear. I didit take my overbooties off once (although I have the coldest feet in the world!) 

So I guess I am a World Champion

What has just happened? 

No really.... What has just happened?

I am sat on the plane now as the World Sprint Duathlon Champion! Pretty cool eh?  I won my AG (20-24) but I was also the first female in the entire field of 175 Age Group athletes from 37 different nations.

Travelling and racing on my own has been a massive learning experience. Not that I am new to either, in fact my first solo flight was when I was 5. Travelling with a bike is not exactly free from drama, especially when it is your pride and joy. I have also realised how travelling to competitions with someone you can offload your stress onto them, even if you or they don't realise it is invaluable. My other half normally acts as mule (carrying all my crap I insist on taking , but often never really need), my conscience (do you need to eat that giant tub of peanut butter - probably not) and general helper. 

Due to work commitments I only had a very brief time in Pontevedra. In fact I would say it is the minimum time you could successfully execute a race in. Fly, a day to build and test bike, compete, and then return.

The atmosphere was amazing, athletes everywhere. The elites raced on the Saturday which certainly got you in the right frame of mind. We had a briefing on the Saturday too and then a team photo (which was huge) I think we had one of the largest teams there.

One thing which wasn't so great was finding the food I wanted/needed. No where sold sandwiches, instead these stodgy pastry meat and cheese things - not ideal. Also all restaurants seemed to sell a lot of meat, and not so much in the way of carbs. I normally take my own race breakfast, but not other foods - lesson learned there! 

Another thing I will do in future is to take my own pillow, the hotel had these strange sausage pillows which were not too comfy.

360 degrees of transition

The Sprint distance athletes were the first to race at 0800 on Sunday, starting with 2 waves of men and then all the women together. 37 Nations were represented in the Womens race, comprising 175 people. I got to transition at 0600 in order to rack my bike and generally get ready. It was still pretty dark at this time, and it was also disconcertingly cold. I realised that I would have to time leaving my bag at the bag drop, followed by warm up and then the start quite carefully. Que the need for my mule :) 

The first run (5km) was two 2.5km laps of the streets of Pontevedra, very twisty with one hill.  

The bike course followed an out-and-back route, over an undulating course. The turn around point at half way provided a valuable opportunity to gauge how far I was in-front of the next competitor. Once I was around the cone at the top of the hill, I counted how many seconds the second woman was behind me. I am not the greatest cyclist, but I can hold my own, so I knew I needed to do some fearless descending in order to stay in the lead. Catching up with the blokes gave little incentives to keep pushing and some shouted words of encouragement to the 'first chica', some also shouted at being 'chicked', but all in good spirit'. 

The crowds were fantastic, lots of GB friends and family, but also other nations were cheering the fact I was the first lady, I almost couldn't believe it and kept pushing the pace all the way to the finish for fear of someone catching me!. Coming into the stadium the announcer missed me and announced the second lady as the winner. I thought that maybe I had incurred a penalty for drafting or something (even though I hadn't) so I didn't want to celebrate too soon, and then have to un-celebrate! After a couple of hours and a few panicked text messages, it was confirmed - I had won, I was now the World Champion!! And not just my Age Group, I had won the whole race!" 

I flew back home the next day and then was back in work bright and early on Tuesday morning - what a weekend! 

Triathlon training weekend

Now I am desperately hoping this weekend of intensive training, feedback and coaching is going to give my training a much needed kick up the bottom! 

I only started triathlon in any serious way in this last year. I am really enjoying the variety of training, and almost bizarrely my running has improved. Maybe this is because I am not massively fatigued and burnt out from relentless running. And I am sure that swimming, although hard (and bloody awful in my opinion) it provides some nice 'off the legs' training.

Practicing good running form

Some really interesting points were raised about running technique, and how improving your form can give you big gains in time, without having to smash yourself stupid doing huge volumes of training or really painful high intensity sessions (you will have to do some though if you want to get faster - sorry)

We were really lucky to have some really good quality swim coaching from Swim Smooth - have a look at some videos on YouTube if you have no idea what I am on about. Some brilliant technique stuff, brilliant but also ridiculously difficult for those with bambi on ice like coordination! This was preceded by a nice off road run and followed by a couple of hours on the bike around the hills of Halton. 

Leda and some of the cyclists

Day 2 was lead by Jez and Leda Cox from howgoodcouldibe.com. Both former pros  (cycling and duathlon) came to dispense some brilliant advice on running, cycling (specifically bike handling) and training. One of the most important things for me, as someone who LOVES training, is the importance of resting; not only for the body but also for the mind. In theory you should then be refreshed to take on the next days session, instead of getting more and more tired, and more and more frustrated with the results.


Train Hard - Rest Hard :)