In November 2011 I received an email through the contact section of my cycle coaching website www.blackcatcyclecoaching.com . It was from Ken Jones and he wanted to bring structure to his training with the dual aim of the London2Paris ride and a foray into time trialling.

In our initial consultation it became very clear to me that Ken was going to be great fun to coach – he seemed willing to give me lots of feedback (coaches love this – the more the better) so that I could plan meaningful sessions for him. He was also keen for me to have bike fits (all part of my service) done on his road and TT bikes to optimize the power he could put out in an aero or, in the case of his long sportive targets, road bike position.  This is relatively straightforward to do with a Wattbike: replicate the position on the Wattbike, pedal at a certain wattage, record power and heart rate, change the position, monitor power/HR again and arrive at more power for less effort.

It was also very apparent that Ken had been a class performer in other sports: anyone who has read the fabulous “Feet in the Clouds” by Richard Askwith will know how tough running up mountains is…..here are Ken’s words from my initial rider questionnaire (when I sign a new client I always ask them to provide as much information as possible about their athletic history…or lack of it!) regarding his previous sporting life:

“1990’s, to mid / late – running, mainly mountain running, and orienteering. Competed at elite level in Mountain Marathons (middle of elite field, not top!), usually over about 60 miles in 2 days, best result was 17^th in elite race (KIMM, now the OMM) in 1993 (about 3,000 in whole race). Running road racing times a lot slower (much too short!), best was 34 min for 10k.”

And his mountain climbing, again from the questionnaire:

1980’s – climbing, reasonable standard, best performance was a sub-2 hour climb of the Matterhorn in 1986 (just over 1,000m of roped ascent on rock/snow/ice).

So…Ken was also no slouch on the bike having finished in the first half of the field in the 2006 Etape (Alpe D’Huez) in 40c heat, and finishing 86th out of 800 in The Dragon Ride 130k 2010. He’d also survibed in Group 2 of the London2Paris 2011.

After we had adjusted Ken’s position I got him to work over the winter on specific intervals to build his Functional Threshold – roughly, the power he could sustain for 60 minutes (in turbo training classes I always tell the class members that it’s the pace they could sustain for an hour if someone held a gun to their head….uncomfortable, but do-able!). This would be crucial in developing both his cruising speed for the L2P (don’t forget this also has race sections and Ken was going to be hanging on to the likes of Stephen Roche and Maurizio Fondriest…) and his ability to reduce his personal best times in short distance time trials. We worked first at long “Sweetspot” intervals (read Allen and Coggan’s bible Training and Racing with a Power Meter for more explanation) with decreasing periods of rest, and then added shorter intervals with more recovery at his threshold heart rate. Ken is one of my clients who usues a power meter and so the added metric meant that we could target his threshold power more precisely (and for him, more uncomfortably – heart rate can vary but the meter doesn’t lie!). The result? Faster! Here are Ken’s words…..

“When my running legs finally gave in, aged 53, I decided to focus on cycling, and sought advice from Tim. I’d done a few sportives before, and wanted to improve my performance and try some racing. Tim carried out an initial RAMP test using his Wattbike to determine my training levels and set targeted sessions designed to improve my threshold power. Further RAMP and 12-minute sub max tests showed I was making excellent progress!

2012 was my first season focussing on cycling: a best of 24.03 cut over 3 minutes from my 10 mile time trial time. I also improved my finishing positions in sportives, with a good result of second team (out of 35) in the London to Paris with its racing sections”.

Ken is targeting short to middle distance TT’s for the early part of the season and has a long distance multi-day sportive target at the end. Watch the blog for updates!! And check the picture out below – Ken at the summit of the Matterhorn 1986!