Testing day

Decided to combine the trip to 76 Harley Street for the ramp test with a couple of days doing touristy stuff in London,  Went down on the Thursday with the test on Friday am & stopped in the Travelodge at Kings Cross which apparently is quite a nice area;-)  Other than the guy bursting into our room at 3.30am coz somehow he'd been given our room too, we had a decent night's sleep, not really.

Anyway I'm digressing, got to the sports clinic after a light breakfast & no coffee! and we got started, Jim explained what the test was before hooking me up to about a dozen wires to monitor my heart & sticking a mask over my face to monitor my breathing.  The mask feels very claustrophobic at first but once the test is in full swing that's the least of your worries.

The ramp test goes like this, you start riding the bike with no resistance keeping a steady cadence & as it goes on it's as if your riding up a steadily steepening hill.  It's a doddle at first & I was wondering if Jim had forgotten to start the test but after a bit longer it gets a bit more interesting.  The bike has a cadence readout on the handlebars & Jim told me to get to a number I was comfortable with & concentrate on keeping that pace up.

As the test goes on you find yourself having to concentrate more & more to maintain the pace & by the end your chewing the handlebars with sweat pouring of your brow & Jim was shouting "Drive those legs" he shouted to keep it up for one more minute & thought thank f**k for that so I dug in until I couldn't take it any more.  I was on the bike for a good 10-15 minutes, once it's over you spin the pedals for a few minutes until you can see straight & then that's it job's a good un.

So the point of all this testing is that now we have info to work out my heart rate zones so Tony can set up my training plans so in the month leading up to the Etape I can make the most of my riding.

After this we went to see the Queen but she wasn't in.