Adrian Trenholm Coda del gruppo

Race report: Hainault Hilly 8 March 2009

Francis Jackson put in a great ride for the Becontree
Originally uploaded by Andys1

Soon after crossing the line at this year’s Hainault Hilly Time Trial, I tweeted:

Race result: Hainault Hilly. 1:31:40. 2 minutes faster than last year. 2nd Becontree by 7 seconds. VERY windy.

For a few moments, I was happy with that performance, especially as I had beaten three clubmates, but then reality sank in. I had been aiming for sub 1:30:00 and I was way off.

Headwind happens

From the start, I had struggled with the fierce headwind. Shonks Mill Lane, 2 miles of gentle downhill, where I can usually ride an aerobic 25mph, was an anaerobic 22. London Road to Passingford was even harder.

After 10 miles, I was 30 seconds off my planned pace and completely shattered, with 18 miles still to go. Epping Lane and Theydon Mount seemed to take forever; I was 49 seconds off the pace at Toot Hill. My losses mounted; on the run to the finish, I was pedalling in squares.

Fast times at the Hainault Hilly

Back at race HQ, as the timekeepers added new results to the board, my disappointment grew. Yes, it had been very windy out there, but it didn’t seem to be slowing anyone else down. In fact, the results posted on the CTT forum show the average speed was higher this year than last.

Despite my disappointment, I was thrilled and impressed by the results; every bit as exciting to me as Contador and Wiggins at Paris-Nice, and a joy to see so many clubmates and friends going so well.

Selected results

1st Dean Lubin, PCA Ciclos Uno 1:11:30. Stunning. Rob Dulson has posted a YouTube clip of Dean powering up Theydon Mount.

2nd Paul Arnold, API Metrow/ Silverhook Chemicals 1:12:24. On a fixed wheel, apparently!

3rd Simon Bateson, East London Velo 1:12:50. Awesome performance from a regular winner at the Becontree/ELV Evening 10 series.

31st Michael Dempster, Glendene CC 1:23:14. Michael went off 2 minutes behind me and had the good grace to wait 10 miles before overtaking.

36th Francis Jackson, Becontree Wheelers 1:23:33. Francis’ time was corrected after an appeal, making a mockery of my initial report to Twitter. I was second Becontree, but over 8 minutes back.

48th Keir Apperley, CC Hackney 1:25:42. Another Becontree/ELV Evening 10 regular and a real gent, recovering from a broken arm earlier in the winter. On a road bike.

65th Adrian Trenholm, Becontree Wheelers 1:31:40. In my defence, I was on a road bike, nothing aero, and I am improving. Slowly.

66th Gary Tyrrell, Becontree Wheelers 1:31:48. Gary was poorly this week; I don’t think I would have got past him otherwise.

73rd Tony Capon, Becontree Wheelers 1:35:25. Tony’s keeping his powder dry; expect some fast times later this year.

78th Karthic Kukathasan, Becontree Wheelers 1:38:09. Becontree’s Clubman of the Year 2008, knocked a whopping 4:21 off his time from last year.

Thanks

Thanks to organiser, Graham Mann, and his team, especially all the marshalls for standing out in that biting wind, and to the lovely tea and cake ladies. Thanks also to AndyS1 for the really excellent Flickr set of the race.

I am enjoying a rest day today and I will be reviewing my training plan to see what I can do to go faster next time…

High5 performance test, round one

Time trialling
Originally uploaded by Adrian Trenholm

Ever wondered about the best way to hydrate yourself and keep energy reserves topped up while cycling? Cycling Weekly and High5 asked Dr Andy Cathcart and his team from Glasgow University to design some tests and find out.

Yesterday, I was one of seven cyclists who took part in round one of the Glasgow team’s test programme, held at Brunel University in West London. Other round one tests took place a week ago in Leicester and on Saturday at Brunel.

How the tests work

Sportive specialists, racers and triathletes all took part, each of us riding our own bike, attached to a Computrainer, which was in turn hooked up to a laptop showing a video game-style fascimile of the road ahead, and stats such as speed, power and incline percentage.

We rode a measured course at a moderate pace for 2 to 2.5 hours, then, after a 5 minute break, rode the same route as a time trial, at best possible speed. To mimic the real world, when the “road” went up and down, so did the resistance to our wheels. We were instructed to change gear as we wished: I used everything from 34×23 up to 50×13.

During our ride, some of us were given regulated amounts of High5 products. The others were instructed to consume their own food and drink as they wished, which the testers recorded.

Before, during and after the ride, we were weighed, and gave blood and urine to check our blood sugar and levels of hydration.

In round two, we will ride the same route, but swap nutrition strategies. By comparing our performances in each round, it should be possible to draw some useful conclusions about which nutrition and hydration approach works better for long distance, high intensity efforts.

Results

Sorry, I am teasing: I can’t tell you my nutrition strategy, nor reveal any results here - I have agreed not to spoil Cycling Weekly’s big story.

I can tell you that there was much witty banter about “beer and curry nutritional strategies” and “getting blood from a stone” (apparently, my blood flows quite nicely, thank you very much). I can also confirm that one rider turned up with, among other things, a ham and cheese sandwich bought from the local kebab shop.

This was a very tough test. I didn’t have any problem with the moderate phase of the ride, but by halfway round the time trial, I was gritting my teeth and sucking down bottles as fast as the testers could hand them up. I definitely “got it all out.” By the end of the test, I was totally spent.

While more than four hours on a turbo trainer is not anyone’s idea of a great day out, the test team did lay on some music to keep us occupied. Perhaps the least enjoyable element of the day was having to tote my own pee around the Brunel sports centre in a big bottle with my name on it.

Thanks

Chapeau then, to all the test subjects for putting in such a big effort in the name of science. Thanks to High5, for sponsoring these tests and agreeing to be so open about the results. Finally, hats off to the Glasgow team for making us subjects feel so well looked after, even as they subjected us to over four hours of turbo trainer madness. In particular, thanks to:

• Carrie: for photos and witty banter while taking my blood
• Rhona: for photos and tea cakes
• Seamus: for coping with my very tight wheel tyre combo, and
• Ramsay: for playing Girls Who Play Guitars when I needed it most during the TT

Round two is in three weeks time.

Flickr set: Cycling Weekly High5 nutrition testing, round one

Cycling Weekly High5 performance test: I’m in

I just received confirmation that I have been selected for the High5 performance tests in London on 1 March and 22 March this year. These will be two batches of full on scientific tests, to compare test subjects’ performance, consuming what we normally eat and drink while riding, with our performance when fuelled by High5.

As I understand it, each test will be split into a 2.5 hour moderate intensity ride and a 64km time trial, carried out on a Computrainer, plus blood and urine tests. It all sounds a bit grim when written down like that, but I am looking forward to it nonetheless, if only to get as much performance data as possible.

I have been asked to declare my regular “nutritional strategy” which made me laugh like a drain. My “strategy” can be summed up in two words:

Malt loaf.

Sydenham Wheelers reliability ride

Adi Gaskell mentioned in a comment that Sydenham Wheelers have a reliabilty ride coming up. It would certainly be a chance to test myself again over similar terrain to the Hell of the Ashdown - and this time hopefully go a bit faster - but it is not to be. Instead, I will be taking del Gruppo junior to see her grandparents for half term.

The details are on the Sydenham website. Several reliability rides got cancelled last weekend on the safety grounds, so I suggest you check the site and the weather right up until you set out for the ride.

Heroes, Villains and Velodromes

Heroes, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain’s Track Cycling Revolution, by Richard Moore, has been out for a while, but I read it only last week and I highly recommend it.

You don’t need to be a trackie to get something here: Moore and his subjects are fantastic on the topics of goal setting, consistency in training and the mental side of sport. It is also a better book about team management and turning round a failing enterprise than most business books you can buy.

Possibly my favourite passage is the one in which Chris Boardman and Peter Keen discuss ambition:

Boardman makes an interesting and revealing claim: “Ambition didn’t come into it. Pete and I were similarly fascinated, not ambitious. We were fascinated with the process, of trying things, finding potential solutions… that process excited us more than performance.”

Keen talks about dreams rather than ambitions … “We all dream, but the extent to which that dream translates into a daily reality, as you get fruther up the mountain, and the mist clears so you can see the top… and what might be involved in getting there, that’s when many think, that’s it, that’s enough for me; only a few think, I’ll push on for the summit.”

For me the chapters on the Japanese Keirin circuit and the removal of the kilometre from the Olympic track schedule did not really add much, but the rest is - no pun intended - pure gold.

Buy Heroes, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain’s Track Cycling Revolution from Amazon.