Pyrenees 2013

Shots from my recent family holiday that also included regular riding partner Mark and his family and a conveniently chosen Pyrenean location in the Departement de L'Aude nr Ax-les-Thermes.

Cue plenty of beautiful hill and mountain riding including the HC Col du Pradel and the Port de Pailheres that featured in the recent 100th edition of the Tour. And a guest appearance from rock climbing partner of old, Richard who serendipitously was holidaying in the same location...

Early morning ride toward Limoux

Chateau de Puivert - base for our rides

The beautiful and quiet Plateau de Sault above Ax-les-Thermes

Defiles de Joucou - amazing limestone gorge

Summiting Col du Pradel and below, the top section of Port de Pailheres

Col de Montsegur

In the footsteps of the Tour - Port de Pailheres from Axat

Down the Pailheres after climbing from the Ax-les-Thermes side and the Col du Pradel

Playing out in Lee Quarry

Me and Mark, our 2 boys and a pump track...

On the subject of coaching....

I started my musical training at a relatively early age, around 8, going down the common route for kids starting out - recorder, bit of piano and then later, after a dose of choral training, a search for a more mainstream instrument. The bassoon looked like me in shape, it sounded kinda funny, you needed big hands and no-one else played it at the school. Sold.

And so continued a journey that would last 14 years or so. Mentors, supporters and teachers came in and out of my life as I developed as a musician, working my way up through school, borough, county orchestras and then the National Youth Orchestra. Music college followed, some professional engagements and a career as a professional musician beckoned. That it all ended there is the subject of a completely different story, but it is only now that I have realised the relevance of a big part of that story to my cycling exploits.

Pic: Bob McMinn

This realisation has come about through working formally with a coach around my cycling exploits for the first time. I've posted already about mentorship, and my connection with Greg May who runs Stoic Focus Coaching. This relationship just got more formal, in the latter part of my cross season and to good effect, taking Greg's advice and direction around training over the past couple years to it's ultimate end - the relationship of coach and athlete.

Now there is a part of me, the insecure, ego affected, middle-aged family man that finds the whole idea of having a coach for my cycling activities faintly ridiculous. Embarassing even. Coaches are for elite athletes, for winners, for Olympians. Or least wannabe Olympians and winners. Sure I've won a few races in the past, had some good results in the past, flirted with the National Cyclocross Development squad as was but...... I'm not setting the front of any race alight now, even an age-group relevant Veterans race. Why should a coach be of any real benefit and relevance where I am up to now?

Here's the key - it's because I have a passion, a drive, definitely a little bit of an obsession, with 'cross and cycling. Just like I did with music. When I was starting out, and as I went along in music, I just wanted to be better. Perhaps even to be the best. At the very least, the best I could be.

This is how it is with my 'cross - as a 40-something with kids and a non-cycling wife, a job and all the trappings of modern, settled family life my ambitions are not to attain the kind of success I had in music, or even the moderate success I had earlier on the bike. More mundane, more limited, my ambitions now are simply to be the best at what I love with the resources I have available. Because I enjoy the work, because I enjoy the journey. It gives me focus, direction, an inner calm even, to be thinking about a part of my life where along with being a parent, a husband, a worker, I can enjoy developing.

And like my career in music, I've recognised that I could do with some help. Can I enjoy riding and racing without this help? Of course, and I have done for years. But developing a relationship, a coaching relationship with someone has given me a new lease of life and a new enjoyment of something I already enjoyed. Key to that relationship for me is working with a coach that understands my time limitations, my physical limitations but is prepared to push in areas where I can stretch, where I can control what I do or don't do. It would be pointless trying to follow a schedule that the 20-something I was once might have done - I'll end up ill, in marital strife and generally out of balance. All in, I'm keen to look at what I can do, how much I can progress, where things can go with the time I have and that's why I'm particularly revved up to be working this year with Greg and his stoically focused approach.

Cyclocross: all of the faff

Here's a little film from Dave Haygarth featuring the two of us faffing. A lot...

It’s the National Championships at the weekend, and time to reflect as the season approaches its finale.

Cyclocross is a strange sport. It breeds and harbours obsessives. For a discipline that involves belting around muddy fields, there is an inordinate amount of fine-tuning, preparation and finesse… from the meticulously exact tyre pressures for the conditions in the correct tubulars with the correct tread, to the perfecting of the right line on the course recce at 8am in -2°C. The right clothes, the right food, just enough sleep, the right warm-up… the training, the bike fettling, and even the Dirt Bags to make sure we clean off properly after a play in the mud.

This short road movie is about all of the faff of cyclocross for team mate Alan Dorrington and I as we covered the northern half of England in the final three rounds of British Cycling’s National Trophy series.

Yeah, we raced, too. But that was just for a few minutes every fortnight.

Mentorship

Pic: Dave Haygarth

I realised the other day that I'm lucky enough to have two 'cross mentors. They'd been there a while but I hadn't quite noticed the impact they were having for the good, on my 'cross endeavours.

Now I'm no elite athlete - I had some success with 'cross in the early 90s when a full time student, I mean athlete, winning quite a few local League races and getting a top 25 position at the Nationals - but although the results have significantly tailed off of late, 'cross is still my passion and I want to improve simply for improvements sake. A big gap in 'cross particpation from 1993 till a few years ago has meant a steep re-learning curve, as well as a bafflement as to why my body does not respond the way it used to. The first point is easy to document, the second is a little harder toe explain but that's for another day.

Anyways, I've been fortunate to hook up in recent years with the effervescent Dave Haygarth, who whilst nearly wrecking me many times with his superior fitness, technique and ability in countless training sessions together, has been kind enough to pass on much of his hard earned race-craft and technical skill to my benefit. Don't underestimate the value of riding and training with someone who is better than you, particularly if they share what they know. My ego crumbles at times but I bounce back, determined to get a little closer to him next time. And it's coming....

My other 'cross mentor is Greg May - a (not-for-long?) Dublin based exercise physiologist and coach with a no nonsense, slightly old skool approach backed up with heaps of science. Greg and his partner Pauline (a talented IronWoman) have been regular guests at mine on Greg's racing forays outside Ireland and during these trips, and between he has regularly passed on nuggets of training advice around intensity, structure, technique and a lot more.

Greg's approach can be summed up in this superb article on 'cross training. I won't repeat it in full - go read it for yourself - but a couple of bits jump out for me:

CX is not a pretty sport. If you don’t train in the suck you won’t be able to race in the suck. 

'I can’t corner in mud' – Well no one can…you just get less bad at it. Practice...

Sometimes the best advice is the most simple - you can dig out an entire seasons success from that small article but better still, go find yourself a mentor, a training partner, a 'cross soulmate and learn together the only way there is - by getting muddy.

Bull Hill 2012

I've written about the delights of Bull Hill before here - '...a warm up on a monster climb up onto the moor – a descent down a shattered river bed (under 6 inches of water) but posing as a track – a walk/scramble up a 45 degree slope easing off into water logged peat bog caressed by a howling gale – an attempt to shuffle into a run and summit up further steep slope onto Holcombe Moor – before an exhilerating career down the other side, wiping sweat from my eyes and trying not to crash before turning left to go down the shattered river bed again and repeat.'

It still remains one of the most accessible (Friday lunch break) and effective (just over an hour for 3 reps) 3 Peaks cross sessions I've found. This year is no different, though the first session a couple of weeks ago was less of a shock to a pre-Peaks training constitution than in previous years.

Rather than writing, I thought I'd showcase some of the cracking images that Dave Haygarth has taken recently that show you much of the character and beauty of the area.....

Cross and Cobbles - a Belgian road trip

Write up and bike review to come, but here is a taster of said recent trip to Flanders..

Local rider Emma Osenton rides for the Kinesis Morevelo Project. She also rides with Hebden Bridge based physio Ali Mills. Check out this little vid for the story......and support Ali.

Dirty Disco twins - video evidence

From the sublime racing of Koksijde to the faintly ridiculous at Hasy Sports Centre..........

Myself and Dave Haygarth putting the On One Dirty Discos through their paces whilst attempting some coherent form of cx training. All a bit random but great fun.



Cyclocross Training in Haslingden from Dave Haygarth on Vimeo.

More from Petites Reines - Allez Christel!

If you have been calling in here for a while you will be familiar with the Petites Reines series of films, following women's racing and it's riders.

This film, kindly sent in my direction by Paul Goulden of Still Searching (@Ripoph) showcases French National Champion Christel Ferrier Bruneau preparing for this cross season, aided and abetted by her husband:

A peine la saison route terminée, il faut changer de discipline pour un exercice totalement différent dans la sphère du haut niveau.
Quelques jours de tournage au coté de la championne de France sur route 2011 Christel Ferrier Bruneau et de son mari entraîneur.
Préparation au calendrier cyclo-cross et recherche de partenaires/sponsors pour la saison à venir.
Portrait d'une cycliste dont la ténacité, la rigueur et le travail ont su la hisser au plus haut niveau.
Ce film documentaire essaye de montrer également les obstacles que doit franchir une athlète afin de pouvoir continuer sa passion dans les meilleures conditions possibles et avec un maximum de moyens permettant d'optimiser ses performances à venir.




Allez Christel! from Petitesreines on Vimeo.

Recce

I've done it in previous years, but never so close to the event. In hindsight, I don't know why.

Myself and Konrad Manning from Rapha, one of the key brains and brawn behind the Rapha Super Cross series, headed up on this last Tuesday before the Peaks to have a look-see at Whernside. On foot at a jog, of course, due to the legalities of riding in the area, though this is actually the best way to do it, allowing for a more stately perusal of terrain, and line as you progress.



We found a mixed bag of improved surfaces (from last year) and some real boggy and sticky ones due to the recent wet conditions. Make no mistake, at the time of writing this looks set to be quite a wet Peaks, irrespective of any rainfall on the day. That said, as we discussed, considering the terrain the Peaks traverses, and the annual rainfall seen there, the actual route is surprisingly dry, even in a wet year.

The race appears to go the wrong way up a one way street.....

More importantly, I have some amazing new lines off Whernside, courtesy of Konrad's eye for detail and scouting ability. These are of course a closely guarded trade secret but will ensure swift and easy progress off what is one of the more intimidating descents in the Peaks.

We also had to pause our descent down the hill to wait for the Air Ambulance to land to evacuate a casualty - a sober reminder of the severity of the environment. It looked like a precarious business as the pilot took several attempts to lay it belly down on the peat bog, having retracted the undercarriage to avoid becoming bogged down.

Incidents aside however, things are looking good for Sunday. Now, about that weather.....

We got cross

Images from the recent 'Get Cross' cross skills day - morning session with Ed Oxley at Lee Quarry, Bacup.

The afternoon was led by Dave Haygarth covering more cross race specific techniques in the mud in Stubbylee Park, Bacup.

Excellent.

Beard envy from Greg @billyfishWORC May

Jason '@Mr_Terrahawk' 

Picking lines and riding 'light' over rocky terrain

Tom '@24Tom' was very smooth. Bloody mountainbikers.....

Unweighting the bike for obstacles

Plenty of this stuff in the 3 Peaks

Railed

Getting a pump on on the pump track

Move those hips Greg

Getting in the mood.

Fulcrum/JBV Cyclocross Clinic with Jeremy Powers

Not to mention the Get Cross skills day I'm participating in on Sept 10th.

The Pre-Final Countdown

Post holiday blues dispensed with and I'm back into the meat of my Peaks training this year. Plenty of Bull Hill reps, some brick sessions and a mini Peaks simulation. Or two.

I realised I had a route of almost uncanny similarity to the real Peaks just on my doorstep. At least in terms of rhythm, steepness of climb and similar terrain. Albeit a little shorter. As Bull Hill mercilessly exposes your weaknesses whilst strengthening them, this route mimics the on road/off road nature of the constantly changing effort that characterises a successful Peaks ride.

Whilst this lacks the length or severity of the real thing, it is useful nonetheless in my view for staving off the cramp attacks that sometimes bedevil my Peaks outings, given as I believe they are, to be caused by rapid changes in effort between foot and bike.

The keen eyed among you may notice that I didn't finish near my starting point - a further 40 mins on the road steady added to the useful mileage.



In terms of something rather different, I also took the opportunity of a work visit to the Lakes to get in a good run in the mountains. I parked up at Kirkstone Pass and ran up Stoney Cove Pike in the direction of High Street. It had been so long since I ran in the high fells that the feeling of space, solitude and allround 'bigness' was fresh and invigorating. I hope I can remain mobile and fit enough in the coming years to do that more often. As has been the pattern for the last couple of years making the same journey to the same conference at the same time of year, I saw Rob Jebb out riding, as I had in previous years, fresh from his altitude training in Spain.

Finally, I took an August Bank Holiday chance to meet up with Konrad Manning, Burnley born but London exiled in his work for Rapha. Konrad came up with a friend, Russ and my ever faithful Peaks support crew Mark took us all on a magical mystery tour through East Lancs moorland, bogs, quarries, ancient woodlands, mill town cobbles and river valleys. Plenty of single track, climbing and carrying all with convivial company. Bike sucking bogs and scarecrow festivals were all part of the mix in what was a great ride.

I've been finalising equipment choices too for September - more on that in a later post.

Hiatus. Or a lack thereof.

The break in posts recently is not indicative of a lack of activity, training wise. Far from it. It represents a change of venue and distance from a PC of any sort, in the form of a welcome family holiday in the far south-eastern corner of England, not far from Dungeness.

And therein lay an immediate issue - the terrain. Or rather lack of it, given the express need for Peaks training.

I needn't have worried - what the drained marshland lacked in contours it made up for in wind. Of the incessant, blasting, reducing you to a grovel variety. To this rider, used to the consistently vertiginous East Lancashire hills and moors it was quite simply, a delight.

I had previously heard traditional explanations for the late 20th Century success of Dutch climbers in Grand Tours attributed to the strength gained from training on the flat, in constant winds, and how that is akin to the kind of efforts required on long climbs. And I can vouch for its truth now. After a few days of short sharp rides, mostly into the infernal wind, my legs were battered. An even with the wind behind, the temptation to use it and pedal hard was irresistible leading to several spinning out returns to our holiday home. Note to self: cross gearing of 46x12 is insufficient, even on the flat, when the wind is blowing from behind at 30mph or so.

The Marshes around Rye, New Romney and Dungeness also happen to be peculiarly beautiful, albeit in a slightly desolete way. Flat, windswept and sparsely featured, they are anything but boring with the desert like area of Dungeness popular with bird watchers, photographers, alternative communities and a ruddy great nuclear power station.

The sense of space and sky was at times quite intense, alluding to what it must be like to ride through some of the great plains areas of the US and Canada. I took a lot of black and white photos of sky and horizon, fascinated with the everchanging cloud patterns. Little farms, isolated houses and shacks also peppered the route around the marshes, with some of the back lanes taking wonderfully quirky routes around the network of drainage ditches.

Running? Nil. Cross riding? Nil. No matter, the training was good and hard in the wind, fun out of it and I feel replenished after not just a holiday, but the break from tough terrain. And as a consequence, I'm all the keener to get back into the swing of things Peak like.

Mixing it up

18 July - 31 July

Consolidation. 'Building the engine' as Greg calls it. I've been plugging away with some threshold/sweetspot efforts, some Bull Hill reps, some easy riding and a bit more running. Finished off this period with a custom designed Peaks session - a double hill reps brick session.

In previous years in the Peaks I have been a cramps sufferer. Now I know pretty much everyone gets cramp in the Peaks at some point, but we are talking cramp on the road out of Ingleton that lasts till the finish, lying in the Penyghent track unable to move cramp, cramp that has caused almost complete meltdown and a grovel to the finish. Admittedly, last years sub 4hr ride was largely cramp free so I may have found ways of reducing its pernicious effects, but the spectre of cramp still haunts my preparation and race each year.

I've thought about this long and hard. Now the scientific literature is less than conclusive on the causes and even the remedies for cramp, but in a Peaks context, I think I know what does me in and reduces me to a wooden, immobile wreck - the constant change in effort.

I don't mean going up and down hills, that isn't too bad in and of itself. No, I mean the constant change between bike and run, between up and down and bike and run and between saddle and foot and saddle etc etc etc..... It just does me in for some reason.

So, by way of remedy I have set about reproducing this in training to a large degree. Obviously long rides that mix on and off road and carrying and riding are important, but more than this I am trying to get my legs used to the change whilst working hard. Cue the most brutal session known to Peakers outside of Bull Hill..... the double brick.

I have a lovely tough climb just at the top of the road, soon to be in 100 Climbs Vol2, and it fits nicely into a little circuit with 5-6mins of climbing, a steep descent, some rolling and then back into the climb:

a few reps on this for around 25mins of hilly riding and straight into the running shoes for...

supersteep hill reps in the woods behind the house (think Simon Fell steep). 15mins of that till feeling slightly giddy, then repeat the bike loop and the running reps as before.

Result? Broken legs after just two sets and about 1hr 20mins training time. If I can face it, 3 sets will be awesome. I think.

By way of fuelling the anticipation, Greg reminded of this great film that encapsulates last years Peaks very nicely:

Go long

Sunday 17 July

Dublin based friend, sports science researcher, part time triathlete, full time cross enthusiast and cake-eater Greg May has been giving me some Peaks training advice this summer. Obviously most of this a highly guarded secret, but I can reveal exclusively that he has told me to 'go long'.

No not a reference to socks a la Wiggins, but a 'you also need to just do some prolonged running' type suggestion. Now some of you love running, some of you hate running. I don't mind it, well quite like it actually but have always banged on about the fact that the Peaks doesn't really have much running in it unless your name is Jebb with an initial 'R'. Shuffling agonisingly upwards is more apt a description,

However, Greg has letters after his name and threatens to get even more soon, so I thought I had better do as coach says. So I went for a long run. By that I mean an hour round the woods near Arnside Tower, in South Cumbria. And very nice it was too - the monsoon rain meant bike riding was less than desirable and therefore a run a more comfortable option. I spent the hour pleasantly and confusingly, getting hopelessly lost not once but twice and nearly being late to pick up my son and friends from a weekend long Scout camp in the area. They had been in the woods all weekend and were unsurprisingly caked in reddy orange mud, the effect of which was to give my son a 'you've been tango'ed' look. Much to my amusement.

Anyways, the effect of all this running, apart from a mild case of DOMS (look it up) on Tuesday was to make the weekly Bull Hill efforts with Dave Haygarth and Carl Nelson feel vaguely doable. Not that you would have gleaned this from my expression captured by Dave, just as hostilities were about to commence:

So, more longs are planned - with or without getting lost. But solo, as I still shuffle round rather unglamourously rather than striding athletically. Ah well.......

Get Cross - cx skills course

Thinking of riding the Peaks this year? Already riding but want to go faster? Wanting to get into cross? Myself and Dave Haygarth are teaming up with MTB legend Ed Oxley to help you brush up on those cross skills - Get Cross:

Get Cross: A one day course to improve your cyclocross skills

Ed Oxley brings his extensive knowledge from countless mountain bike skills courses to teach betterbike handling.  Ed has taught hundreds of riders better bike handling and brings out the best in everyone.

“The best money I’ve spent on a mountain bike was learning to ride it properly. By the end of the morning I was riding stuff properly that I would previously have balked at. Highly recommended”

Alan Dorrington and Dave Haygarth join Ed to look at applying those skills to a race day.  Shaving seconds off every bend, climb and descent is not just about being the fittest. This part of the course will look at the recce, the race line, and how to apply Ed’s flowing riding skills when under the pressure of a race. Shaving five or ten seconds per lap in a ten lap race is worth a great deal, so put the turbo down and let’s learn to ride smart.

To book please contact Ed ed@great-rock.co.uk or 07939 205563

Saturday 10th September at Lee Quarry, Bacup

Cost £70 

Bull Hill

Friday 9 July

In terms of synonymy, Bull Hill and the 3 Peaks have one of closest relationships present in my cluttered mind. Geographically apart, diverse in scale in all aspects, they still manage to have this peculiar intertwined relationship for me - the one giving rise to the other in so many different ways.

Let me explain further. Whilst Bull Hill has been there for some time longer, an innocuous moorland hill on the first of the northern hills above the Manchester basin, 'Bull Hill' is the slightly more recent invention of blog regular Dave Haygarth. In looking for somwhere to train and replicate the demands of the 3 Peaks (or so I assume), Dave looked out of his house at the glowering hillside above him and went out to uncover a small circuit of unsurpassable simplicity, relevance to Peaks terrain and sheer pain.

What it lacks in length, the Bull Hill circuit makes up for in intensity. I wrote about it's peculiar charm last year describing the circuit thus:

'...a warm up on a monster climb up onto the moor – a descent down a shattered river bed (under 6 inches of water) but posing as a track – a walk/scramble up a 45 degree slope easing off into water logged peat bog caressed by a howling gale – an attempt to shuffle into a run and summit up further steep slope onto Holcombe Moor – before an exhilerating career down the other side, wiping sweat from my eyes and trying not to crash before turning left to go down the shattered river bed again and repeat.'

And so Bull Hill has for me almost become part of the Peaks experience itself - not just a means to an end. The Peaks means Bull Hill and Bull Hill means the Peaks - the two have become almost inseparable in my mind, and in their stomach flip inducing status. Dave has been doing Bull Hill reps for some time already this 'summer'. Cue some nervousness from me then on Friday as I pitched up for my first session, even though I had tried to do some preparation for it in the past couple of weeks.

To get to the circuit and by way of warm up, there is a rocky bridleway climb followed by a grind up through moorland that is actually bigger than the circuit climb itself. If I am honest, this part fills me with more dread than what is to come - on this first session, I think I probably hit my max heart rate trying to stay with Dave and 'clean' the greasy slabs and rocks on the way up. Not an auspicious start before being forced into a shuffle after the top gate onto the moorland:

Pic: Dave Haygarth

Christ, those ensuing laps messed with my head - pain, self doubt, fear, humiliation all featured on the next two 15min or so rounds. Character building stuff indeed, but I had a moment of clarity for myself proving just how tough mentally you need to be to perform at the highest level in an endurance sport - to banish the self-doubt in face of the discomfort and the difficulty of your chosen activity. And that is why I remain a commited enthusiast rather than a high performing athlete. I simply don't have the strength of character it takes (as well as the genetic ability of course) to reside in the upper echelons of the sport. No matter, I enjoy what I do, in the way that I do it. And will continue to for some time yet.

Dave on the other hand was on fire. Here is the final, steeper than it looks climb to the summit on his last lap:







His 3 laps (to my 2) were consistent, measured and within 10 secs of his lap record. A fine effort, indeed. There will be more of the same for the next few weeks including a push to 3 laps in the very near future. That's more of a mental barrier than anything else but crucial nonetheless.

The relief on getting back down after that particular experience, and in the worsening weather, was strong:

Pic: Dave Haygarth