What happened?

Friday September 10th 2010

Decided to fit in another training run prior to the Ventoux on Sunday - but with a lower power output. There were still big surprises in store! 

If someone had told me that pedalling technique made an enormous difference - I would have perhaps accepted but with a pinch of salt, expecting a small difference but not an enormous one. Unfortunately that person would have been wrong.  It's not an enormous difference it's an utterly humongous gianormous difference. Why has it taken me almost 50 years of bicycling to get it ? How ridiculous. Unfortunately I don't think I'm alone here.

I wanted to just climb today - up to 2000m - which is higher than the main climb will be on Sunday. The weather was good so no protective clothing was needed. The legs were still a bit tired from a demanding (high gear) ride yesterday and I din't want to push it too much - it was more of a "maintenance" ride.

One month ago I pushed very hard up this climb to La Plagne 2000 staying mostly above the lactate threshold zone - which is very hard work. Today, staying more than two complete training heart rate zones lower - between "Basic Endurance" and "Tempo" - I arrived at the top of the climb five minutes faster than on that previous gut busting effort! What on Earth happened?

Despite working at a very much lower effort the climbing speed was a lot higher. This doesn't equate! The difference was purely in the pedalling - the pulling up along with the pushing down - all the time. Previously I'd noticed that I lost most time in competitions on more gentle, long gradients. I could battle up the steep hills - but by the second big climb my legs would be finished. I could stick with groups on the flats. Intermediate climbs just seemed to kill me - as if it was some sort of power to weight ratio problem - so  I worked on losing weight - but to no great satisfaction. Until now I have been compensating for poor pedalling technique on the climbs by pushing effort levels to the extremes - which is why the longer races have been agonising and yet not bringing results to match the effort.

Now I'll never be able to ride a bike again without some sort of cleated pedal. My mountainbike flatties are going directly out of the window. I wish I could go back to being two years old and put cleats on the bike way back then (plus a helmet etc.) Actually I didn't use a helmet when I was two and never got hurt, so why am I so paranoid about wearing the stupid thing now?

Better results with Reduced Breathing

Went out on final (perhaps) workout prior to the Ventoux race on Sunday. Decided to do the same course as the previous two times with the climb to Granier. Despite starting off with the intention of going slowly I was soon enjoying a full-on workout. The idea now was to ensure reduced (nasal) breathing to get a good rapid recovery from the workout ensuring less accumulated fatigue for the actual race. 

The interesting thing about today was that contrary to expectations about the constraints of nasal breathing I ended up recording a significantly higher overall heart rate (more anaerobic threshold zone) than on the previous occasion. In fact I'd deliberately used a less efficient higher gear to work on leg strength and try to reduce cardiovascular work. The result was that the time was only 1'30" behind the maximal effort with unrestricted mouth breathing despite the inefficient gearing. The expectation was that it was not possible (at least at the moment) to maintain such a high anaerobic output comfortably with reduced breathing - but it was! The result time-wise was half way between the two previous efforts (different breathing) and significantly closing the gap on the unrestricted (mouth) breathing personal  record time.

Perhaps what made it hard to restrict breathing a few days ago was a very slight cold and headache - which causes the system to hyperventilate. Christiane had a misearble cold but I could have been fighting off the virus too - perhaps more successfully. This load on the system may have made it too hard to constrain the breathing at the time. The thought went though my mind at the time but only now does it appear to fit the evidence.

Why was the correct pedalling technique so elusive? Well when you start pedalling bikes at age 2 you probably develop some ingrained habits. Until my mid thirties all the bikes I used had toe clips and even my current mountain bike has simple flat pedals (but with small grippy spikes). My under-used steel framed racing bike had Time quick release pedals - but after a lifetime of pedalling a certain way there never appeared any good reason to change. Pulling up on the pedals always seemed like a temporary, excessive and tiring action. Recent literature even describes that the pedal shouldn't be pulled up - but only the leg pulled up, taking the weight off the pedal on the up stroke. Other's describe "scraping" the foot backwards at the bottom on the stroke and pushing it forwards at the top. I'd tried that too but felt very little. The real connection comes from joining up the push down with one leg and the pull up with the other at the same time. There is a slight delay in perception so this actually corresponds with the "scraping" backwards (like trying to remove muck from your shoe). The real problem appears to be how people communicate their experiece to others - and getting across the message that there really is an alternative to just pushing down on the pedals.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Next level at long last!

One of the great attractions to living in the mountains is that you have Nature on your doorstep. Step outside and you are there. The years go by and you are drawn more and more in tune with Nature and eventually there is no turning back - there is no way to accept urban existence or the rat race again.

After many years of living in a shoe box in Val d'Isère ski station at 1850m altitude I finally saw sense and moved down the Tarantaise valley to the much more hospitable environment of Aime. Basically even snakes don't seem to survive up in Val - the climate is too rude. There are some bone eating vultures there and other animals living on the edge. Originally Val was a place where criminals were sent as an option between "jail" or "the good life". Now the criminals own and run the place.

In Aime the climate for 7 months of the year is perfect - not too hot and not cold. The other five months is winter and it's like someone one day just switches on a giant fridge - and leaves it running. Of course, that's what makes a perfect winter season too for all the world class ski resorts in the area.

The great thing in Aime is that you step out of the door and can choose a different path into the wilderness in any direction you please. For road cycling it's also ideal because the minor roads linking the villages are very quiet. My favourite workout starts at the doorstep and climbs directly to Granier, 550m higher directly to the North. It's a route best done earlier in the day to guarantee the sun. Later workouts catch the sun on the opposite side of the valley climbing directly to La Plagne - also from the doorstep.

Usually I integrate the Granier climb into a longer overall workout through the Tarantaise valley - but the climb is an inviting challenge to measure your progress against. 5 years ago, unfit and unmotivated after a winter of ski teaching, I started climbing to Granier on my mountain bike and remember the first attempt took 1hr 10minutes and gave me a sore bum. Gradually this time was whittled down over a few years to around 43 minutes. Eventually, last year when I resurrected my steel framed road bike this time was reduced to 35:09 minutes and there it stubbornly remained until this week.

After last summer season it became a long term personal objective to break the 30 minutes barrier for this climb. That's a big difference however and it was no great surprise really to discover this year that I couldn't even match the 35:09 time and the closest I could get was 35:15. Part of the motivation to invest in a modern carbon framed bike - a Canyon "Ultimate CF SLX 9.0 SL" (really excellent bike - http://www.canyon.com/_en/roadbikes/bike.html?b=1927 ) was to gear up to the challenge of getting up to this next level of performance.

Saturday's climb up to la Plagne had been a breakthrough in understanding pedalling technique - as I reported here the following day, so on Sunday it was tempting to try it out on the Granier route. Sticking to nasal breathing added to the challenge, but with a great sense of satisfaction the clock registered 34:11 at the top. At long last progress was being made. It was with more a sense of relief rather than accomplishment that I completed the rest of the route that day. The trouble was however that 34 minutes was not a ground breaking improvement if the 30 minute target was to be reached. If anything this seemed to show the 30 minute barrier to be well out of reach.

Monday was a rest and recovery day and Tuesday started with heavy rain, plunging barometer and a very bad weather forecast so cycling seemed off the menu for the day. Late in the afternoon there was an unexpected break in the clouds and a surprisingly rapid drying out of the roads so this gave a perfect window to get another ride in. Curiosity had managed to get the better of me however and I decided to really attack the Granier climb - without a warm up and with no breathing constraints - but using the newly found pedalling technique. It was nothing short of amazing to arrive at the top of the climb with a time of 30:55 demolishing the previous personal best only established two days earlier. In one great swoop the doubts have gone and the 30 minute target is well in sight. Silly as it might seem for such a trivial thing - it felt like a major breakthrough - suddenly being propelled up to another level. When you have been fighting like mad to improve physically for years with countless hours of effort, you don't really expect this sort of thing to happen. Needless to say this called for a quiet celebration - so I couldn't resist taking Christiane out for a meal in town later on - but not until I'd pushed her out the door for a 10km run first.

Analysis

The two graphs are from Sunday's and Tuesday's rides. The legs were not as fresh on Sunday so it's not possible to make a perfect comparison. The nasal breathing on the first one though does appear to limit performance. Unrestricted breathing seems to raise the heart rate a complete training zone - and the speed goes up too. The graphs show the same for the second climb at Macot when the body was warmed up - so it doesn't appear to be a warming up issue. Rather than conclude that nasal breathing is not ideal for intense effort level performance it's probably fairer to conclude that I'm still not very well adapted to nasal breathing. For the moment however it seems best to compromise and use nasal breathing for all sub maximal efforts and to breathe through the mouth for short very intense efforts lasting under an hour.

La Plagne - Philosophical

Saturday 4th September 2010

Short high intensity workout today. Was a minute slower than personal best time - but not a surprise after only one full day of recovery since Colle St Carlos. What is interesting is that all the muscle pain from both during St Carlos and during the recovery was totally gone already and surprisingly did not return at all during this hard fast climb.

Getting more comfortable with the saddle height and the mechanics of pedalling differently. On the St Carlos there were moments when everything felt very "natural" both mechanically and bodily - but it was unconscious and not obvious why. Today the process became a bit clearer.

Learning

For me there is no mystery to "consciousness" despite the subject's almost taboo status in psychology and its primary role in silly New Age religions. Consciousness is just a feedback system that permits us to re-program our behaviour - to learn and adapt - nothing more. I've read books written by PhD Physicists linking the bizarre qualities of quantum mechanics to Eastern religion etc. but they are all based on wishful thinking. The authors seem to think that their qualifications and education are a good substitute for intelligence and ironically their writings are clearly not guided by consciousness.

In the book "The Rider" by Tim Krabbé he describes how during sustained intense effort the brain must function smoothly like a well oiled ball bearing - with no resistance. That's kind of what happens when you are done with the conscious learning and the whole thing slots into place unconsciously. There is more to it though. The "learning" is only assisted by the consciousness - it gets your actions into the ball park - but no further. Learning and performance in general stem from self-organisation. It's an automatic optimisation of a system that we do not control - the same way a 3D stereogram takes shape in front of our eyes surprising us. You cannot consciously will the 3D image into view, but you can prepare the conditions so that it will happen to you.

With physical training you work on the patterns of movement making sure they correspond as closely as possible to advice from more experienced athletes. This guarantees that your movements will be somewhat mechanical and artificial as you search for improved feelings - but it does get you in the ball park. Feedback through video is even more powerful than a coach at this point. People may listen to a coach but somehow they often don't register until they see it all on video. This "conscious" stage to training is really important if you need to change anything to develop - but it will never feel like a smooth well oiled ball bearing - neither in your brain nor in your body. It's after a certain level of conscious work, repetition, practise and persistence that the magic happens. The self-organisation - the real learning - sneaks up on you from behind and takes you by surprise. This magic happens to you as a gift - but not from "god" or the universe - it's from hard work. The Arabs say "Inshallah" - "God willing" - but the opposite is true. It's when "God" is not willing that things get interesting and creative. Steven Hawking is currently in the news for publishing a book challenging Newton's belief that gravity was due to "God". Science has thankfully moved on a long way since Newton in 1650!!! Spontaneous self organisation is now an observed and better understood phenomenon. Hawking is right to say that with the existence of gravity that there is no need to invoke a god to explain spontaneous creation. The religious world responds smugly that Mr Hawking doesn't understand. Unfortunately for them he does understand very well - but they don't have a clue. Not only are they shockingly ignorant but they are being rapidly replaced by very large screen TV sets everywhere that they are not banned by the Taliban.

Spontaneous Creation

What happens next is that the body starts to connect all the dots. The dots that seemed random reveal a picture that could not have been guessed at - another level of organisation. In this case, the pedalling - the way all the components of the legs and bike are used suddenly come into focus. The forward/down stroke with one leg connects to the backward/upstroke with the other leg - through the body's core - the lower abdomen. (All the positioning on the bike must be reasonably accurate to get this to happen). The upper abdomen, where the breathing muscles control the diaphragm, remain relaxed. The body settles into an effortless breathing rhythm, through the nose,  using the diaphragm in shallow breathing. The physical output may be near maximum - anaerobic - but the whole system works together smoothly, body and brain like a  well oiled ball bearing. It happens at first only when you are unconscious of the process - when you are focused on nothing that can distract or block the magic from working. That's the effect of training and practise taking over from consciousness and then letting the body take it all up to the next unexpected level. When breathing has settled into a natural rhythm there is a natural pause between breathes - where the breathing muscles are totally relaxed and inactive - resting - even at maximum physical output.

This isn't about cycling or endurance sport. The same thing happens in any physical activity - playing a musical instrument or skiing - just the same. It's why learning is interesting- and why anyone who isn't learning is dead.

One Last Thing
How do you know when something is "right"? Many years of teaching skiing and playing a fiddle (difficult!) have made this one clear to me. Something is right when eventually, instead of trying hard to do it, it starts happening to you - yes, "self organisation" again. In fact its only then that you really "understand" it. (whatever "understand" means). The other thing that indicates something to be basically "right" is that it then acts as a building block for the next levels - it opens doors.

Technical

Advantages of Reduced Breathing ("Siberian System of Self Suffocation" - as some Russian wag tagged it)

One surprising advantage is that increased CO2 levels in the blood reduce the perception of pain. Coffee tends to increase respiration but it also has a similar effect on pain. I don't find coffee having too big a  detrimental effect on my breathing (7 breathes per minute at rest) - so perhaps I am getting the advantage of both of them together.

Currently finding that rapidly increased physical efforts are hard to deal with in Reduced Breathing. The body needs a period of several minutes to adapt - for the breathing centre to get used to higher CO2 levels. This is most likely an accurate way to measure "warm up". Like many people I'm a bit too impatient to take 40 minutes to warm up so I often jump straight into the workout. It's during the first 20 minutes or so, when effort is rapidly increased, that you feel suffocated by nasal breathing. The solution I use is to back off a bit on the effort - not much - but enough to get reasonably comfortable. People who are in bad shape or health can react negatively to rapid increases in CO2 levels. It's clear that lung and blood CO2 levels rise rapidly with any sharp increase in physical output. The question is whether or not an improvement in breathing adaptation/health would deal with it - or whether the real issue is not having warmed up. My current "Control Pause (CP)" - that is -  a completely comfortable pause in breathing after an exhalation from a normal breath - is 43 seconds - which is good, but short of the 60 seconds recommended for optimum health. Some people can get this up to 180 seconds. This "CP"  is not just a test it is part of training for reduced breathing. I wasn't even aware of a natural pause in my own breathing between breathes until I started studying this. The length of time the Control Pause lasts is determined by how well your body is oxygenated - which is linked strongly to the level of CO2 in your body. Low CO2 levels though over-breathing means low Oxygen levels.

When an amateur diver wants to free swim underwater he will hyperventilate - over breathe - prior to diving. Professional divers will never do this because they know it can kill them - it's that powerful. The over breathing empties the CO2 out of the lungs and then the body can't extract oxygen out of the blood and the swimmer falls unconscious and drowns.

The trick with the most effective pedalling seems to be in coordinating both legs to work together through the centre - core/abdomen - instead of dealing with each pedal stroke as a separate event. Saddle height seems to play a critical role in this and even a few millimeters in height can throw it off - reducing the actions to disconnected components.

Analysis             Weight 67.5kg, Max hr 185bpm, Min hr 38bpm, Body fat 12.1%

Still a bit tired from previous outing - but very similar cardiac levels despite falling 1 minute behind last week's effort -bellow...

Colle St Carlos

Thursday 2nd September 2010

"Yell for Cadel", "Allé Nibali"! The poetic painting on the road was still visible from a year ago when the Tour de France came over the Col du Petit St Bernard. Despite the road being used by all sorts of vehicles, this profuse and bright road art seems to confer a special status to all cyclists attacking the high mountain pass over to Italy - the road belongs to us! Coming back from Italy just add an "o" to everything: "Passo Piccolo St Bernardo" and it becomes Italian instead of French.

There are several reasons for going to Italy. The hot chocolate is amazing - really thick chocolate and not really a drink. The people dress incredibly - well, Italian - very stylish and smart - the way golfers should be but always fail to be. It's refreshing also to just hike over to the next valley and find that everyone is speaking a language you don't understand - a welcome reminder of just how varied the world is.

The other reason is the "Colle St Carlos" a seriously steep 10km mountain pass that is fun to climb and has a welcoming cafe at the summit. "Colle" in Italian means mountain pass - but in French it is the word for "glue". Nothing could be more appropriate because the first half is so steep that it really does feel like you are glued to the ground.

The workout would involve 117.4km and 3230m climbing taking 5:50hrs of cycling.

Prior to leaving Bourg St Maurice I decide to have a chicken salad as it was lunch time. This meant risking leaving a bit late but I had small bright safety LED lights on the bike in the eventuality of a late return. More concerning was the high cirrus cloud formation spreading over the sky and diluting the sun's warming influence. Such clouds can often mean bad weather coming in but the forecast was good for at least a few more days so the risk was minimal. The mountain pass over Petit St Bernard to Italy can be pretty horrible at 2200m altitude when bad weather comes in from the west. This pass forms a channel over the mountains to Italy which funnels all the wind and weather coming straight up the Tarantaise valley - and there is nowhere else for it to go on it's eastward journey. Today the weather would hold and temperatures would be fine. Climbing the Petit St Bernard was fun. It is a 30km climb - from Bourg but this is because it is a main route were they have kept the gradient down a minimum. It felt great powering up the hill. There was at least one cycling club going up, with all age groups, but they were crawling up and it would take them forever. It's very satisfying climbing at 17 or 20 km/hr and rapidly ticking off the kilometer posts at the road side - and to be honest it makes a pleasant change for me! This would obviously not be the case later on in the day and I was fully aware of that and enjoying this temprorary aberation as much as possible.

The top of the col was bleak and deserted - as it usually is. Last week the same place had been bustling with life due to an annual agricultural fare and the last week of the French holidays - but now it was right back to normal with the small Italian cafés open at the roadside, clinging tenatiously to life like wild mountain shrubs. I didn't wait there, putting on a windbreaker and heading straight down the other side to la Thuille in Italy. La Thuille is a nice place to stop when skiing or just travelling back from Italy, but today there was no incentive to stop and so I just bombed straight through it and down the main road towards the Aosta valley. The LED lights were welcome in the many tunnels that have to be negotiated here on the high speed descent. They don't help your own vision much but they certainly make you visible to drivers. The main road suddenly narrows into a precipitous, winding final descent into the valley. This Aosta was clearly formed by a big glacier coming from Mont Blanc across our path and the road had to drop down one side of this steep valley. From the valley floor you could continue all the way to Turin, but I only wanted to go about 5 or 6km down the valley to find the start of the Colle St Carlos returning towards La Thuille. First job however was to remove the wind breaker and find a fountain to fill up a water bottle. To the water I added a new sports drink mix containing protein as well as carbohydrates. This mix is understood to prevent muscle tissue loss during endurance performance and to help start the muscle recovery process sooner after the exercise. It was a bit disgusting to drink - but when you are thirsty that problem is easily overcome. I have a better drink mix ordered for the future.

The St Carlos starts off at a frightening gradient - once again up the steep side of the glacier formed valley. Back further up the Aosta valley towards Mont Blanc is Val Veny where every July they celebrate the Celtic origins of the people and culture in the valley. (http://www.celtica.vda.it/en)  They even have a local clan (Clan of the Bear) and they play the bagpipes in the shadow of Mont Blanc. Fittingly I was listening to the "Afro Celt Sound System" on my phone/MP3 player while attacking the St Carlos. The powerful fast rhythms and fusion of Celtic and African music are great for motivation and concentration on a long hard climb. Unlike the profusion of cyclists scaling the St Bernard the St Carlos was deserted. Close to the top I overtook a young woman on a mountain bike but she was the only other cyclist on the hill. Italian coffee stop was obligatory at the summit café. It was nice to stop for the first break in 4 hours. The sun was behind a thin viel of cloud but still warm anough to be pleasant even at altitude. There had been leg pain during this second climb of the day - notably pain in the main right quads. I tend to work harder on the right side due to many old injuries on the left and it does cause a muscular imbalance that's hard to address. Most of the time the pain could be dealt with by altering pedalling style, more pulling up on the pedals or dropping the heel to access the hamstrings instead of the quads, but once deep pain is there it doesn't fully go away. Resting makes no difference, it only delays the inevitable. Still, it's a healthy pain - not the injury type.

Dropping back down into La Thuille the sun was still warm and high enough in the sky to accompany me to the end of the journey. Any later in the day and the sun would have been obscured by the mountains to the south west of me and I'd have been cold even climbing due to a persistent head wind - gaining in force towards the top of the Passo Piccolo St Bernardo. Just at the start of the climb home there were road works that didn't leave enough time for a cyclist going uphill to fully get through on the green light. Inevitably I met oncoming traffic and was almost pushed straight off the road by some moron in an overpowered luxury 4x4 coming head on. You pick up on a lot of things about drivers when riding bikes. The worst drivers are those in overpowered vehicles - they mostly have no respect for anyone else. Audi drivers are particularly stupid, never leaving an appropriate distance. Luxury 4x4 drivers are the next worst category and then powerful motorbikes are bad too - not moving an inch across as they blast by at excessive speeds. Worst of all are busses and truck drivers that frequently cut across you on corner as if you don't exist. Sure those people are impatient morons but the one this they all have in common is that their vehicles have more power than they have intelligence.

The 30km drop down back from the top of the Petit St Bernard to Bourg seems to take forever even though it is downhill all the way.


Analysis

Was astonished that the overall time was only 5 minutes faster than last year! The first climb had been so fast that I was certain of having improved the time by about half an hour. Oh well, at least it was enjoyable and last year was not - it all seemed too hard back then. There might not be much quantitative improvement but there certainly is a qualitative one.
The entire workout was carried out with nasal breathing and one interesting observation was that when progression to intense anaerobic output levels is progressive, then there is no struggle whatsoever in breathing through the nose - you don't even realise that you have gone anaerobic. When warming up even the lactate threshold zone can be a bit of a struggle to start with and requires an effort to stick to nasal breathing. I read that the "breathing centre" takes about 20 minutes to adjust for CO2 levels so this probably explains the delay. The important thing is not to give up on the nasal breathing. It feels horrible and unnatural breathing through the mouth when you get used to breathing correctly. I'm assuming that with future improvements even this 20 minute delay will dissappear.

The deep leg ache did persist a bit at night and even the following morning - but that is the sign of a hard workout and not a problem.

Straight climb up to La Plagne

Tuesday 31st August

Straight climb up to La Plagne. Legs still a bit tired from Saturday's tough race so no heroics today. Still, it's always a hard steep climb so good training. Would perhaps have been better with an extra day's rest so as to get a more powerful workout tomorrow.

Moved the saddle up about 4mm and the difference was major. It seems that there is a sweet zone where tiny saddle height adjustments make qualitative differences. At first I thought it might be too high again but later decided that it was probably perfect. The extra height means that there is not such a build up of pressure late on the down stroke (forcing the pedal down at the bottom of the stroke would be a total waste of energy). The feeling is that just before the bottom of the stroke the lessened force makes it easier for the pedal to move backwards - it feels very "round" as a stroke. The "pulling back of the foot to scrape mud off" motion seems to actually happened to you. Next thing is that it is easier to pull up because the leg and foot feel more naturally extended and less cramped at the start of the pull. Combining the pull and push with opposite legs forces the bike to remain very stable. If you shift weight from side to side to get more pressure on the pedals for the down strokes, then you lose the pull up. The pull up feels much more powerful and effective as an option. There is also an engagement of the lower abdomen when the pull is used and it feels quite strong and effective. The ankle can extend on the lower part  of the stroke to use the calf muscle more and engage the quads when they are probably most effective. The first part of the down stroke seems better with the ankle flexing - allowing the glutes and hamstrings to contribute more. This "Ankling" is really to be able to access all the muscle groups in the legs when most appropriate. Very little of all the above could be felt when the saddle was a few millimeters lower.

This morning my nose was blocked and I didn't feel comfortable breathing though it. It feels like it was blocked by congestion. The Buteyko theory is that it is blocked by pooled venous blood caused by "hypocapnia" - in other words - over breathing. The idea is to reduce breathing with breath control exercises and the blocked nose will clear due to improved blood flow. I felt sceptical but spent some time reducing my breathing and lo and behold it worked. The nose unblocked without blowing it or picking anything out of it (not that I would do such a thing). Later on the entire climb to La Plagne was done with nasal breathing because the nose stayed clear all day. I'm hoping that this will help with recovery (lower lactic acid levels) from the session and permit another longer one tomorrow - or the next day.

Préalpes Race - The Epic Battle For Third (last) Place

Saturday 28th August 2010



Who said competition was all about winning? The motivation to avoid being last is every bit as powerful - perhaps even more so - than the motivation to win.

Picture the scenario: 4 hours into a race working relentlessly close to maximum effort, rain, cold, dangerous wet gravel roads, full concentration and exhaustion setting in. All this to find yourself in last position with the sweeper up van (Voiture Balai) sitting 10m behind on your tail as you crawl up another interminable steep mountain pass - wondering whether his engine or your legs will stall first. The last guy who overtook you has already disappeared from sight.

Surprisingly I discovered the Voiture Balai experience to be motivating. I always thought that it would simply encourage you to give up but it does exactly the opposite - it pushes you on as if you desperately want to get away from it. It's much more motivating than being overtaken by other cyclists because there is a sort of fatality to it. OK, I knew that this day was a bit special - very bad weather meant a very low turnout and most had opted for the short course - so I was up against a bunch of die-hards from the start on the long course. The Voiture Balai would normally be a long way further back, but as I happened to be the one in last spot it was right on my tail. I wondered what they were thinking. Regardless, it certainly stopped me from easing up - ultimately keeping me in the race.

Preparation

The Préalpes race takes place in the Chartreuse national park, just to the south west of Chambery. It's a really stunningly beautiful area and the mountains rise with steep cliff faces - making very interesting mountain passes and gorges to ride though.

One year ago the Préalpes was my first ever cycle race - so it would now be the first one to be revisited. First advantage was that the route to get there was already programmed into the GPS. It makes it so much easier when you know the ropes - where to park, where to find a cafe in the morning, where to get your start number and where the race starts. It was only a 90 minute drive from home but I still preferred to be there the night before as it does mean a much more relaxed preparation in the morning. I parked in the same quiet spot in the centre of town that I'd used the year before. Amazingly, in the van I could get internet reception. SFR subscribers get free hotspots everywhere in France and it really works. After rattling off a few emails I went to sleep - at least tried to - but the rain started. One disadvantage of parking under a tree is that the big drops of water falling from the leaves sound like bullets on the metal of the van. Still, I get to sleep pretty easily so there was no problem - until suddenly there was a loud bang and the van shook. I went from sleeping to maximum heart rate in under 3 seconds. Convinced that someone outside was messing with the van I sat up and looked out of the darkened windows (they let you look out without others being able to look in). It was a small household cat that had jumped onto the van. Wonder what it would sound like if a lion jumped on the van? Still not much likelihood of that in France – I hope.

To bail out or not to bail out…?

In the morning I was up bright and early at 6am to have breakfast – preferring to eat as early as possible. Liver glycogen levels are depleted by around 50% during the night’s fasting and as glycogen levels are crucial for endurance sport it’s probably best to eat as early as possible to have time to restore levels to normal. I walked 100 meters to the race organisation to collect my electronic race number and then found a boulangerie to buy a very inappropriate “pain au chocolat” and then a bar to sit down for a coffee. Those comforts were very welcome because it was now pelting down with rain and extremely discouraging. Thoughts of last week’s suffering on the Col de L’Isèran were running through my head and the idea of bailing out was very appealing. Somehow every time this situation arises I opt to participate and not to bail out and every time I’m really glad of that decision – so it was obvious that there would be no bail out today. Illness is probably the only really justifiable reason for bailing out. The day before I’d bought new “SIDI” wind and waterproof “Windtex” shoe covers, so it looked like they would get well and truly tested out. My other “waterproof” shoe covers had been a total failure and the Col de L’Isèran was the final straw. The “North Wave” brand of waterproofing takes about 10 minutes for your feet to be completely sodden and frozen in rain – the rain entering from the useless adjustable seal around and under the shoe sole. The SIDI seal was not adjustable but worked perfectly and the Windtex material was also breathable – at least doing something towards removing sweat during the dry periods.

Teaching skiing for many years has taught me that it is always better to err on the side of being too hot rather than too cold. With this in mind I put on an extra tee-shirt and a membrane type waterproof jacket (completely covering up my number – as quite a few others did on this day) and arm warmers. Reflecting on the fact that most heat is lost though the head I put on a Goretex under helmet hat too – risking some potentially serious overheating on the climbs – or at least a stop or two to adjust layers during the race.

The Peloton with No Brakes!

Race start was delayed due to the deluge and participation was clearly going to be low. In the event the rain suddenly stopped and so we were only 15 minutes behind with the start - a few more minutes were lost due to the giant inflatable start banner deflating and blocking the road. There is a big organisation surrounding road security including police intervention near the mass start – and many security vehicles, ambulances, support vehicles and voluntary helpers at junctions and pit stop locations – so delays are a big deal.

The start of the Pré Alpes is always fast and because it is partly downhill and flat there is a lot of ground to be gained by staying with the fast front peloton for at least the first 20 minutes. There are a couple of short sharp climbs during this section, but it is worth maxing out on heart rate just to stick with the peloton and get through them. Today the main problem was that due to all the water on the road no-one had any brakes! A large fast moving peloton is pretty scary and dangerous at the best of times, but this was really dodgy and no-one was letting that interfere with proceedings. As luck would have it there were no accidents at the start.

Multiple Mountain Passes

The route included 4 major mountain passes listed as follows:

Col de l'Epine

Col des Egaux

Col de la Clusaz

Col du Cucheron

Before and after those cols there were significant 5km climbs. It was at the first 5km climb that it was time to say goodbye to the main peloton - though I kept up a high pace and max output for both this climb and the following descent - right to the base of the first col averaging 30km/hr over the first 43 minutes of the race. I fought hard to catch and stay with a good fast moving group at this point because there was still a lot to be gained from a group effort until the base of the first col. From the base of the Col de l'Epine it was a case of "every man for himself". Steep climbing deprives you of any shelter that you might gain from slipstreaming - so it is down to your personal power to weight ratio and nothing else.

I arrived at the summit of the Col de l'Epine isolated and did the descent alone. The road was wet and the turns sharp so it had to be taken slowly to avoid any unpleasant surprises. I ended up covering a total of 13km alone and knew that a long faux plat of main road - straight into the wind - was coming up next. I could see there were a couple of riders working together behind me and catching up so it was best to slow down, rest, have a drink and wait for them. This strategy more than paid off because one in particular was determined to push on as hard as possible and for the 10km of main road he had me working my legs off just staying on his back wheel protected by his slipstream. Suddenly and unexpectedly the course split in two at around 51km from the start. There was no warning and as I'd prepared myself mentally for the big course I naturally veered off towards the hills and so did the guy behind me. Our pace-man went straight on which explained why he was gunning it - as he was on the short course and not far from home. Thus the start of the Col des Egaux climb began with company - but not for long as I had to let him go because it was impossible to sustain the same maximum effort that I had just done for the past 10 km. At least a lot of energy was saved on the flats and a lot of time gained. The Col des Egaux was followed by the Col de la Clusaz reaching the highest altitude of the day at 1213m and predictably passing though rain and cloud. (Snow level was at only 2000m) Two riders passed me on the Clusaz - the last drawing alongside right at the top. Each time it was a small fright to find someone alongside because I was in a world of my own with my thoughts and didn't realise that there was anyone there. Most importantly and without reducing effort I took time to look at the scenery because it was truly superb and unique in this area. If we had been in the high Alps a course like this would not have been possible because we would have frozen on the descents due to the rain and cloud. As it was the descent from Clusaz did chill the body, but the low altitude kept it tolerable. The knowledge that working hard for the next climb would soon generate warmth again was comforting. It was hard to decide whether or not to keep on wearing the waterproof because it doesn't allow the sweat to dry - but then it's evaporation of sweat that cools you - so I kept everything on. Talking to others at the end this appeared to be the right choice as I seem to have suffered less than those who had removed their rain/wind proofs. Several times I questioned the wisdom of having chosen the long course - especially as the choice had not entirely been mine due to the confusion at the poorly marked separation of the courses. The separation had been much earlier than expected - leaving the majority of the long course still to do with the big cols to climb in poor weather. Apparently the companion I'd collected at the top of the Clusez had the same thoughts because when he spoke to me during a flat section of the descent it transpired that he believed he was on the short course and only had a short way  to go to the finish instead of another 50km and two more big climbs. He reacted by bailing out and trying to get home via the closed road that had been the actual cause of the change of route - he clearly couldn't face the rest of the long route. I have no idea what happened to him and guess he must have succeeded because he was not listed behind me in the results. Either that or he got lost and was never heard of again.

The final Col du Cucheron was long and difficult. It was half way up this col that one by one the last two riders overtook me. I wasn't giving up or seriously slowing down - they were just faster. Eventually I was left with the Voiture Balai's diesel engine plodding along slowly behind me. This didn't have a detrimental or discouraging effect on me - in fact it made me work harder to try to escape its clutches. It felt like I was being pushed up the hill by the sweeper up van. At the top of the hill there was a pit stop and I stopped for the first time today to refill my water bottles and put some Isostar tablets in them. It was almost 4 hours since the start and I'd drunk only one and a half of the small bottles (500ml) and taken nothing to eat. There was no feeling of hypoglycemia or anything - just muscle pain which I was trying to control with technique. I'd pretty much given up on nasal breathing as I felt blocked from the start. This might be due to not having felt too great during the few days before the event. When climbing I worked at lowering my heel at the start of the down stroke so as to use the hamstrings and glutes along with the quads. If the toes are down then all the effort goes into the quads and they cramp up eventually or wear out dramatically reducing the pace. Just changing the foot position was keeping me in the fight even though the two guys ahead of me had now disappeared from view and I didn't expect to see them again. At the pit stop I had a laugh with the drivers of the Voiture Balai after confirming that I was last. They told me not to worry as many people had elected not to even do the course and that I was going fine. In other words I was well within the time limits and wasn't about to be overtaken by the Voiture Balai and have my number stripped from me. I didn't rush the pit stop and headed off relaxed and relieved to have made it to the top of this climb. 

Finally there was a proper and long descent on a wide open and dry road free of gravel - just as I like it. I got the bit between the teeth and started chasing an annoying camper van and played at losing the Voiture Balai with 70km speeds and aggressive cornering. Almost got into trouble when the camper van braked inside a tunnel and it was a bit damp making high speed braking a bit hard on the bike! Basically I had unwittingly launched a 25km chase against the two guys in front - that's how long it took to overtake the second one. Hopefully along the way I was providing some entertainment for the drivers behind me as they watched me get back into the race. The battle at the back of the race was fierce. Nobody, it seemed, wanted to be last. I found energy that I didn't imagine was there and somehow felt that I could do this all the way. It's definitely psychological but this normally happens to me 5km from the finish not 30km. Shortly before the final 5km nasty climb - the steepest of the day - I caught the second guy just as he relaxed to eat something. This signaled to me that he was tiring, perhaps even starting to bonk, so I ripped past him with a word of encouragement however. I think that the Voiture Balai was rooting for me now because they overtook on the main road to help with the traffic control for the next turn off for the climb. They were smiling and almost cheering me on - or perhaps I was just delirious by now. The climb started fast and although it quickly steepened I worked hard at keeping up the power. There was a buffer now with two guys behind me - but then the second one came charging past me on the climb again - this time he was moving. He was really skinny and an obvious climber. My power to weight ratio was against me as my data figures later confirmed. Basically I had caught him up on the long flats with the same power output that I was using on the climbs. The only solution was to increase the power and use my best technique. He was rapidly reeled in again and was more than surprised that his best effort hadn't lost me - in fact I could see him visibly cracking now with his bike starting to weave around due to his extreme efforts. He must have been desperate not to be last. Eventually something pinged on his bike and if he didn't break himself it seemed that his bike was breaking. Whatever happened he was dumped and he didn't catch up again. The last part of the climb was really steep. This 5km climb is in both short and long courses so I'd covered it last year and people even on the short course were forced to get off the bikes and walk up. Somehow I had the energy to get back up into the anaerobic zone and blast up this part - ensuring a safe descent to the finish without any pressure to race downhill. The battle at the back of the course had been intense and there was no way I could have predicted this outcome - I'd fully expected to be last and never expected to catch up and beat the others - especially with the tough climb remaining. I can't explain it.

After Race

I changed into dry clothing straight away on finishing and sure enough the clothes were soaked and heavy with sweat. The driest parts were the feet - for a change - the SIDI shoe covers having worked excellently. Lunch was still being served at 2:30pm although few people were still eating. I slowly consumed everything because carbohydrates and protein are essential immediately after a hard workout to get the recovery process going.  I sat down beside John Thomas who was waiting in the hall despite having finished the short course at around 11:15am. He had finished 9th overall only 5 minutes behind the winner - another amazing performance and a 2nd place age category podium. He was there for the prize giving - which I was also in time to enjoy. Despite being 2nd he was disappointingly not awarded a cup but instead received a mountain walking stick engraved with  "Prealpes 2010" and a water bottle for his bike (worth 3 euros). Only the 1st place got a silver cup - so next time he needs to get first place. 10 minutes later he won the exactly same prize in the Tombola without even moving a muscle - much to our amusement.


Analysis.

Results   Long course -  54th out of 56 in 5:13:37hrs     13th out of 14 in age group.

Data   ( Distance used for X axis to give better profile for the hills. Normally Time is used instead to indicate the length of time spent in various heart zones.)

Technique   Worked on lowering the heel at the start of the down stroke so as to activate the glutes and hamstrings. This seemed to allow a better pace and endurance on the climbs and prevent any cramps as it made it possible to be selective about muscle use.
Felt like the saddle might still be a bit low. Feels good on the downward power stroke but also feels too cramped to get a good pull through, back and up. When it was 5mm higher it seemed that power was lost on the down stroke but perhaps that was a case of needing time to adapt. Will put the seat back up by 2.5mm now and see if there is an effect.

Breathing   Felt a bit under the weather for a few days before this race and breathing through the nose felt "heavy". It was no surprise to find the same during the fast start to this race. I ended up breathing through the mouth during the most intense efforts, but the rest of the time nasal breathing was possible. When mouth breathing I worked at controlling the breathing pattern - taking longer on the exhalation and still trying to keep the volume of breathing as low as possible.

Body parameters   Weight 68Kg , Blood pressure 109/70, Resting HR 45bpm

Nutrition Had a wholemeal pasta and beans feed the evening before with a small protein bar just before sleeping. In the morning had porridge early - more than 2hrs before the race but forgot the fruit to put in it. Had a horrible "pain au chocloat" also with a coffee while it was pouring rain before the race.
During the race my nutrition management was terrible - I ate nothing and drank only 1.5 litres of sports drink during the 5 1/4 hour effort. Energy felt good at the end though so I don't really understand this. Was able to get in to anaerobic effort zones when required at the end so there was no apparent energy dip despite not eating.

Notre Dame du Pré

Wednesday 25th August 2010

Great sunny weather has returned so definitely time to go out and generate some vitamin D. Legs were always going to be a bit tired after yesterday's high speed climb, but another 52km and1680m climbing in the bank is all good training. It's worth the climb up to Hautecoeur above Moutiers just for the spectacular view on a clear day like this.

Technique

Worked on leg strength again - bigger gears. Leaves the legs hurting by the end of the second climb, but it's certainly faster - especially when pulling up on the pedals too during the climbing. Not sure how I'll come through the race on Saturday with this energy output - might be better to slow down a bit and try to keep the pain reasonable until near the end of the 130 or so kilometers.

Breathing

Slept poorly last night after the late workout and could not stop myself from breathing through the mouth in the early morning. It seems that doing so during sleep causes the nose to block up and then it is hard to switch back to the nose and reduce breathing volume again. Had no problems during the cycling though. Hopefully that will ensure a rapid recovery so that there will be a good build up of energy over the following two days of rest before Saturday's Pré-Alpes race.

La Plagne (short workout) Tech and Breathing special

Thursday 24th August 2010

Today's workout was intended to be short mainly because it was started late in the evening after a miserable day of rain and cloud suddenly cleared up and dried. Originally it was only going to be a 30 minute workout, but I felt better than expected and there was easily enough daylight to complete the normal "short" workout.

Technical

 

The recent raising of the saddle height has allowed me to find out that there is a lot of power to be gained when pulling up on the pedal during the upstroke. Last year I'd read in a book of triathlon training that it's not necessary to pull up on the pedal, but was better to just lift the weight off the pedal on the upstroke. This is starting to look like bad advice. I started the climb to Macot both pushing and pulling on the pedals and was amazed at the climbing speed that it gave me - but expected the effort only to last a few minutes at best. To my amazement there was no difficulty continuing this all the way up the climb - reducing my previous best time by over 4 minutes and 8 minutes faster than last years best. With the saddle a few centimeters lower it wasn't physically possible to pull up on the pedals as it was so cramped - but that position had complied to the rule book - permitting the heel to sit on the pedal with the leg straight at the the bottom of the stroke. Since deciding that I didn't like this squashed position the saddle is now about 5cm higher and everything feels much better. (Now using the rule that the saddle height should be 109% of the inside leg length - measured from pedal spindle centre at the stroke bottom) It feels like the glutes and hamstrings can be used now whereas the lower position was only loading up the quads. The calves and ankles can be used - like a push off in running - whereas before they couldn't be used at all. The pedal cycle feels naturally "rounder" as the maximum power of the leg - just before full extension - takes place before the pedal is at the bottom of the stroke, whereas before it seemed to be still loading up the pedals at the bottom of the stroke - which was probably wasteful in energy terms. One other advantage is when descending it is much easier to keep the pedals at equal height. When the saddle is lower doing this feels like a squat position and is uncomfortable so you end up stretching one leg down to avoid it. When cornering on steep hairpin descents you have to make slightly more effort to get the weight off the saddle and completely onto the outside pedal, but this is easily done by pulling up on the inside leg. During this climb the saddle felt like it could go up even more so for the next day I put it up another centimeter and found that it helped again with the pulling up of the pedal, calf/ankle use etc. Starting to feel just a little high though, but can't tell if that's just because of not being used to it. Definitely not having to rock the pelvis or stretch to reach the pedals though.

Breathing

Despite this being the fastest climb ever - it was done with only nasal breathing the whole way. It's taking time but I'm learning what this breathing is about. A lifetime of overbreathing conditions all our reflexes towards overbreathing. This means that even when we try to change this condition we end up unconsciously looking for ways to continue to overbreathe. When we feel the air constricted by the nostrils we try to breathe more deeply with the diaphragm or we try to force more rapid breaths. Another strategy is to try to grimace to widen the nostrils or to use clips to keep the nostrils open wider. What we just don't do is see this constriction to breathing as a natural defence mechanism by the body - telling us that we are still overbreathing. When we make an intense physical effort it seems to be commonsense that we need to breathe deeply - but have we ever tried anything else? The feeling of air hunger or slight suffocation is a bit scary so it's probably quite reflexive to strain for deep breaths. During this climb I decided to tolerate the air hunger at intense physical levels and try to observe my behaviour. Being conscious of this anxiousness changes everything. The real issue turns out to be the anxiousness and not the air hunger. The air hunger is no big deal and just doesn't lead to trouble. In fact it's the overbreathing that will kill you despite our basic instinct telling us otherwise.

In the available literature they say the the nose getting blocked or the lungs constricting (asthma) are the body's defense against overbreathing - but they don't discuss the general physical constrictions that we encounter during sport. There's a point where by desperately trying to force the air in the nose the nostrils are sucked together, narrowing even more. Why has nature caused this? The answer might be to stop us from overbreathing. Instead of wishing for wider nostrils perhaps we should take a cue from this and work harder at learning to adapt to breathing less.

One other thing I've noticed is that when breathing through the mouth and starting a workout without warming up there is a rapid initial rise in heart rate which then settles back down after about five minutes. With nasal breathing this doesn't seem to happen - the heart rate climbs smoothly and progressively regardless of the absence of the warm up.

Col de Petit St Bernard

Sunday 22nd August 2010

102km circuit, 2280m climbing

Another Garmin equipment failure - this time the cadence/speed sensor has cracked. It obviously let in water during Wednesday's wet weather and is now dysfunctional. I'll try to repair it. Most electronics work fine when dried out and plastic can often be glued. Once dropped a Hewlet Packard conputer in the sea and after washing it out with fresh water and drying it the thing worked fine.

Still too tired from the midweek cycling to be able to go into a race this weekend. Decided to just do a workout at my own pace instead without the pressure of racing. Focused on leg strength again. Using mainly gears 3, 4 and 5 for climbs. This leads to leg pain after about 2 hours. Leg pain has only started happening recently due to stepping up a few gears to go faster. Not sure what adaptions this will bring about in leg strength and endurance, but they will probably be quite positive. Have noticed that the leg pain can be either prevented or removed by shifting down gears and pedalling more. It’s for this reason that by using a “compact” gear setup I’d not had any pain earlier in the season. While losing weight and getting into shape it was more or less necessary to work in the lower gears permitted by the compact setup. This really proves that the compact setup is ideal for someone of my level. It’s often difficult to work out how to set up a bike – triple, double or compact setups being the option. The compact lets me climb any hill without pain – either when getting into shape or when very tired at the end of a very long day – or it lets me work the legs into the pain zone when desired. The “double”, standard setup guarantees either pain or walking. The triple is just a double with an extra small chainwheel added – complicating things.

Today was another exercise in nasal breathing. The most important aim of nasal breathing is to reduce breathing volume. The natural reaction from chronic over-breathers like myself seems to be to work at getting more air through the nose – rather than to use the nose to reduce breathing. You can breathe very deeply through the nose by using slow abdominal (diaphragm) breathing – but that defeats the purpose. The purpose is to learn NOT to over-breathe. A lifetime of hyperventilation through the mouth and encouraged in sports makes changing this tough. What’s the point? Well number one is to avoid heart attacks. Number two is to oxygenate the body better making it more aerobic. Counterintuitive as it may seem – that is done not by breathing more but by breathing less and training the body to get used to higher CO2 levels in the lungs. This has the effect of increasing the blood CO2 levels which alters the blood PH (acidity) value and releases higher levels of O2 from the blood to the muscles and vital organs such as the heart. Basically, you cannot have a heart attack if you breathe this way and in training lactic acid levels should remain lower due to better oxygenation of the muscles – so endurance should improve and recovery should improve over time as the body adapts.

The climb to the Col de Petit St Bernard seemed long and hard in a high gear but the sun was out and it was a beautiful day. Normally it is completely desolate at the summit of this mountain pass over to Italy but today, to my great surprise, there was a major local agricultural fair right at the top just on the Italian side. There were dozens of stands selling local farm produce and hundreds of prize cattle being studied buy crowds perched on the hillside facing the sun. I stopped just over the Italian border and ordered a coffee in a small bar that I’ve visited occasionally when skiing over there in the winter. It was great to see such a dynamic atmosphere.

The legs continued to hurt a bit through the night but that is normal for a workout of that sort of power intensity. Will just have to gauge it carefully for next week’s race!

La Plagne (Short workout)

Saturday 21st August 2010

The most important apect of today was finding out that my GPS is working perfectly despite bouncing down the road on Wednesday at 60 km/hr and going wonky for a while. The quick release attachments for the Garmin Forerunner 305 need to be seriously avoided - back to a normal strap now.

Legs still tired from Wednesday’s 200km outing. Aim for a short fast climb half way up to La Plagne to keep the system ticking over after a two day break. Work on staying in a higher gear (leg strength) and reduced breathing.