Croft again - Speeding it up

Im up to around 500 miles of base training so far this year and so i feel the need to start pushing a bit harder. A motivation for me to push harder and ride faster is a saying i heard . . .  'Train slow and you ride slow'. An example could be a guy that rides his bike to work everyday at the same 14mph average never stressing his systems will never be a fast rider although he rides everyday. 

Garmin 705 Virtual Partner

I have a usual training route i use around Croft, Warrington of about 23 miles. The route and statistics have been saved as a course in my Garmin Edge 705 bike computer/sat nav. I can call this course up or any other that i have ridden such as the 'Old Lags Rivington ride' and race against a virtual partner that rides at the stored rides previous pace.
Yesterday, Sunday i went out for my usual training route around croft and loaded the course i had saved with an average speed of 16.1mph. So i knew to beat the virtual partner i had to go faster than that for the 23 miles. Most of that previous rides heart rate was in the low end of zone 3 (144-164bpm) and averaged 147 bpm and so it was hard work this time out with my heart rate spending an hour in zone 4 (164-185bpm) and averaging 165bpm. As a result i could fly along at 25mph until lactic acid built up which made me slow down again to about 16-17mph then after a minute or so i was off again. I guess it resembled an interval training ride rather than a constant pace higher 'Tempo' ride. I beat the virtual partner (mini me) by almost 3 miles and knocked 10 minutes off the previous rides time. It was a good training ride and i feel that i worked hard and achieved something since my quads are still aching today.
Stats  were -     miles 23.34, time 1hr 17s, Average 18mph, max 32mph, Hr av/max 165/177 bpm.

Base Training - My Understanding

My understanding of base training is that you train at a relatively easy pace in order to improve particular body systems. Keeping your heart rate within a certain range typically of around 65% to 75% of maximum for 90 mins or more each time is said to improve aerobic capacity, endurance capability, promotes fat burning for fuel instead of glycogen/carbs and provides a firm foundation from which to launch harder and faster efforts later in the year. Base training stimulates slow twitch muscle fibres (endurance) and enables them to work using less oxygen from the blood. This type of training is also said to build the heart muscle enabling more oxygen rich blood to be pumped to the muscles with every beat. Other claimed advantages are that you will extend your time to glycogen depletion by as much as 75% meaning you can eventually train harder and faster for longer before you 'bonk' or 'hit the wall'. 'Bonking' happens when your body has used all its stores of fuel that it can convert quickly to energy, namely glycogen. Your body then switches to burning fat which takes longer to convert to energy so as a result your body makes you slow right down while it does this - the 'bonk'.
There are numerous schools of thought on how long to perform base training before ramping up the effort to improve your speed. CyclingInform.com states that 2 months is about right, which is probably around 1000 miles. Cptips.com quotes a 500 mile base training period http://www.cptips.com/preseas.htm.
 All of them say to revert to base training again at the end of the season, typically winter months in order to see continual improvement over the coming months and years. This is because our bodies have an amazing capacity to adapt to the training stresses we impose, and so if we train the same way all the time, our bodies adapt and we don’t see continued improvement.

Further reading on base training is an excellent book by Thomas Chapple, available from Amazon for £13.50.

Lancs Road Club - Old Lags Ride

Old Lags Ride 33 miles

Out today for a 33 mile ride over the hills around Rivington with Lancashire Road Club. The weather was terrible, it rained the whole time. It was raining before i set off to meet them and in the past cloudy skies would have been enough to put me off training but we have so much crappy weather that last year i hardly trained because it was just so easy to blame the weather.
    I had a good ride and can really tell i'm getting fitter as i climbed the big hill (sheep houses) all the way up on my 50 tooth large sprocket. The hill is about 16-18% gradient i think. Coming down the other side was a bit hairy at 40mph freewheeling with misted up glasses and salt water running into one eye, great fun.
    My max and average heart rate have been coming down too on this same ride over the past 3 weeks. First week was 183/142 second week 178/140 and today was 174/131. My hard work is paying off. I'm not out with the club for a couple of weeks now due to my days off from work not aligning with their ride outs but i will still go out on my own at least 4 times a week so i dont lose any fitness.

51 miles wandering

Just got back from a 51 mile ride up towards High Legh and back. From Tyldesley straight down the Lancs to Lowton and a left towards Croft. I started out with very heavy legs, feeling very sluggish like i was dragging a manhole cover behind me. I rode through Fearnhead and Padgate then eventually stopped to check my bike over. I hadn't centred the rear wheel properly and it had been binding on the brake for the last 15 miles. Once i sorted that out it was a lot easier going. From Padgate up along the A50 Knutsford road through Latchford to Lymm Dam. I did a right here onto a lovely country road called Crouchley Lane. Its probably about 4 or 5 miles long with barely any traffic and led me back out onto the B5159 High Legh road where i turned left to go back toward home. This led me through Warburton, over Warburton toll bridge which is free to cyclists to Hollins Green where i did a left onto Glazebrook Lane leading me back towards Culcheth. At the mini roundabout at Culcheth i was showing 32 miles and i wanted to make it 50 so i had to do a couple of circuits of my route around Croft before heading back down the East Lancs cycle path to home.
I took it easy all the way round my route today to try to keep within the heart rate levels for base training and to ensure that i didn't 'bonk' by training at such a pace that my body would prefer to burn fat for fuel instead of precious carbohydrates in the form of muscle glycogen.
50.29 miles, average speed 14.6, calories burned 2281, Time 3hrs 27 mins

Miles done thus far

My 23 mile Croft run

Mon 3rd and Weds 5th was 2 rides out to Croft, about 25 miles each. Thursday was a 35 mile hilly ride around Rivington with Lancashire Road Club. A nice easy pace averaging only 14 mph but about right considering the steepness of most of the hills. I came away from this ride feeling pumped rather than wasted. Saturday was a nice 10 mile ride up to Lowton on the mountain bikes with my fiancee. Total miles for the first week 92.69
The next week beginining Monday 10th had me doing 3 runs to Croft and the Rivi ride with the club again on Thursday. Total miles for the second week 104.03
Third week was 3 rides out to Croft and Rivington on Tuesday which this time was 55 miles. Total for the third week 124.91.
All my rides up to now have been what is termed as base training. Which basically involves me working out at an easy/moderate pace in order to build a solid fitness base from which to launch my later harder and faster efforts. For me with a maximum heart rate of 205bpm that involves keeping my heart rate between 60% and 65% of that which is 123 to 133bpm.
 Total to now for January is 321.63 miles.

History Up To Now

I started  off cycling in Jan 2008 on an old mountain bike, a Carrera Vulcan (Halfords special). I'd go for a 12 mile ride 3 times a week down the East Lancs cycle path.
They say the hardest part of any workout is getting out the front door but i found the first month or so really difficult. I'd come back from riding those 12 miles with spaghetti legs, light headed, soaked with sweat and ready for bed. What kept me going though was that i could feel myself getting fitter and faster week by week.
2 Months later and i had bought a shiny new Trek 1.9 road bike, joined a cycling club and was regularly riding over 150 miles per week. I had also lost around 21lbs in weight and was feeling very fit.
2008 saw me covering 4500 miles. I rode the Manchester to Blackpool 60 miles in just over 3 hours with an average speed of 18.6 mph. I rode the Rainford 10 mile Time Trial in 26.08 mins, an average speed of 22.9 mph. The next year 2009 was a turbulent year in my home life and saw my free time schedule shaken up and cycling was not ranking high on my list of important things to do. As a result I only covered 2500 miles and in 2010 that figure dropped again to 1200 miles.
At the begining of September 2010 I got a shock as to how much of my fitness I had lost. I rode out with a cycling club to Knott End, about 50 miles away. Our average speed on arriving at the cafe was 18.5 and I knew I was going to be in trouble on the way back. My legs were weak and I had no energy. We headed off for home again at the same breakneck pace and I couldn't keep up at all. I kept falling further and further behind. Riders from the main group kept dropping back to see if I was ok. I kept telling them to go on without me as i would get myself to Preston then catch a train home. Eventually thats what they did. That was on the Tuesday. On the following Saturday I managed the Manchester 100 ride but at a much slower pace averaging 15.5 mph. My short rides up the East lancs cycle path were feeling like hard work again also. So 2011 became my year of getting fit again.
I have an app on my android phone called CardioTrainer that tracks my speed, route, caories burned etc then posts the workout to my Facebook profile. My profile was getting a bit single themed and cycling stats became my status, so i created this blog to post my cycling year to instead.