Man with a plan

Got my results from the VO2 testing & I did OK with a figure of 53.9 which is pretty good apparently, I found this on the BBC site which give an explanation of what VO2 max is & how they work it out.  I've now got my training plans for the next 4-5 weeks from Tony & the guys at 76 Harley Street & I'll be going in for re-testing on May 9th to see if I've made any improvements before the big event.

The sessions I've been given look hard but doable & not a right lot different to the sort of stuff I do normally but there are a few differences.  For instance I'll still be doing the chain gangs from the 3 Nuns, Cooper Bridge on Tuesdays but I've been instructed to ride in bigger gears, with an extra bottle on & a bit less pressure in my tyres.  I've noticed what look like some fairly horrendous looking interval sessions were I have to do efforts in my biggest gear 53-12,

Tony obviously thinks I am a bit weak & that I need more POWER!!  He's not far wrong I tend to ride in pretty low gears most of the time it won't do me any harm to work on my strength, it'll probably help in my road racing too.

That's it for now I'll update me blog after the Brian Robinson Challenge, a 75 mile Sportive organised by Ravensthorpe CC's Martyn Bolt, loads of Star Wheelers are riding so should be a good do.

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.

Why have I started a blog?

Good question glad you asked.

Back in January I entered Etape Du Dales a proper hard Cyclo Sportive in the Yorkshire Dales, 112miles of riding up & down hills.  I've done it a couple of times in the past, my best time was in 2008 when I rode it with fellow Huddersfield Star Wheeler Paul Smith in a time of 7hours 20mins.  Not a bad time but I reckon I could go faster so I thought I'd have another crack this year.

About a month ago a post popped up on a popular Cycling forum Veloriders from Professional Cyclist & Eurosport commentator Tony Gibb wanting volunteers who were riding Etape to go down to London to do some testing before receiving some training plans to help them complete the ride in the fastest time.

Never one to pass up an opportunity for some free stuff I obviously replied straight away & as I had the following week off work & was able to get down to that London for some testing at Tony's Sports Performance clinic 76 Harley Street

As a reward for all this free coaching, testing etc I will be writing this blog & probably tweeting facebooking that kinda thing.

Who am I....

Hello here is a quick biog of me

Name: Ivan

Location: Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

Age: 38

Height: 6ft 2in

Weight 80ish kgs

Job: Postie

Family:  Emily & kids Ruby aged 9 Dylan aged 6

The rest:  When I'm not working I'll usually be found riding or racing my bike, coaching kids on how to ride/race bikes, watching people race bikes on Eurosport, organising other bike related things then I go to sleep.