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Back in December 1985 I visited London with my mum – bear with me, I’ll get back to this..

I was 18 and, not knowing what I wanted to do and having decided not to go to University on the grounds that I had suffered from a serious lack of revision for my A Levels I had to enter the grown up world of work. My first job at the DHSS Bournemouth involved opening post and filing it away in cardboard files kept in large filing cabinets. The pay was a heady £3k a year and the highlight of the day was being able to see my sister who worked on the floor above, and visit the bakery to buy lunch. Although I had to sign the Official Secrets Act I can tell you now that there was nothing about the job to get an 18 year old excited at all! I quickly decided that this wasn’t for me and, after a few weeks, moved up to the lofty rank of Junior Cashier Clerk at a local Finance House. This was much more fun (and a bit more pay – £4.5k p.a) working with great people but still left me with a hole in fulfilment and the dawning realisation that Paul Weller had been right when he wrote “When You’re Young” about how quickly and inevitably the vibrant and angry young man in us all becomes swallowed by the machine which is society. So, as you do, I increased my spending on beer (and my waistline) and turned my mind to thoughts of times when I had enjoyed doing other things…and re-discovered cycling through a friend of my mum’s Duncan Connell (much talented, funny and much missed –   a true gentleman) and the local CTC (Cyclist’s Touring Club, or as we in the know called it “Café to Café”…). As I pulled my then not insubstantial carcass up the hills of Dorset, with Duncan twiddling a ridiculous 28 x 34 (the 28 on the front) Granny Gear (no compacts or triples then – Duncan made this himself!) I remembered being younger and lighter and riding the roads around Leeds. And regularly seeing the legend that was the late Beryl Burton, World Champion, mile-eater and all-round good Yorkshire lass. So back to the London visit and there in a bookshop was Beryl’s autobiography Personal Best. After persuading mum that this would make a suitable Xmas present for me I failed to persuade her to let me read it on the train back but had to wait until Christmas day to read about her exploits.

In the book she describes a training regime that would leave all but the hardest men completely broken and it certainly inspired me to ride my bike more – the central message seemed to be “if you want to get fit do miles – lots of ’em!”. The philosophy still fitted with most people I met at the time – get out and do 100 miles on a Sunday and you’ll get fitter. Well, we used to. And I did. But there were lots of stops. And it was great fun but got a little slow. Oh, and I didn’t get much thinner…

The other message in her book was a little less explicit but involved Beryl saying in the transcript of an interview that “fitness to me is speed on a bike”. Beryl, of course, used to ride a lot of track and mixed her racing up. When she trained she rode hard and she liked to talk in miles but then she could do 100 of them in less than 4 hours.

Riders still talk of miles spent training but this is a lot less common. Now riders tend to talk about the number of hours spent on the bike. Anyone who, like me, has ridden the hilly roads of West Yorkshire will know that 3 hours there could be 15 miles less than 3 hours in a flatter part of the country but a good deal harder! The advent of heart rate based training also brought another metric to the table and now with power meters as well it is a lot easier to monitor and plan your training time efficiently.

Which leads me onto this post, and many apologies for it being delayed (not only by my pre-amble!).  The post is a story from this year’s Marmotte,  a sportive undertaken by a number of my riders and written about here by Nick Saunders. Nick is, like most of my clients, time-poor with a young family and a busy work life. He has improved amazingly on limited training time due to hard work and continued dedication. His hours in the saddle leading up to this event have been less than many riders he has spoken to yet his results speak for themselves. The words in italics are mine, the rest is Nick.

Building to the Marmotte

At the beginning of 2012 I decided to start getting serious about my fitness. I had being playing football regularly for quite a few years but had found maintaining fitness a struggle as my life became more and more complicated with both work and family pressures. I had been doing a limited amount of running but found that motivating myself to get out on a cold dark winters night virtually impossible. A new direction was needed, something which would not only motivate me into getting fitter but would also give me the desire to train harder than I had been able to do before. That new direction was going to be cycling. I had bought a road bike during 2011 but did not use it until January of 2012, but only on a turbo trainer. I followed several plans but quickly realised that if I was to maximise my training given the time I had to do it in I needed something with more structure and purpose. I also needed a driver that would motivate me into training regularly week in week out. I came to realise that a coach who could provide plans, advice and feedback would tick all the boxes for me. I sought out the Association of British Cycling Coaches and began the process of getting more information from the coaches listed in my area first. I rang Tim Ramsden of Black Cat Cycle Coaching and had a long and informative chat with him. I talked about how I wanted to get fitter but was struggling motivating myself and felt cycling would give me renewed impetus. Also how I found it difficult to motivate myself to train and how a ‘paid for’ plan could provide the necessary reason to get out and train. Lastly how my time was limited so I needed to get every ounce of benefit every time I got on the bike. I then listened as Tim went through the various options he could provide and how he could help me. I took Tim’s offer of a weekly plan and feedback via email. I also booked a RAMP test with him to give us both some information as to my starting levels of fitness which would also give us an idea of the direction the training should take. I had decided that my goal for that year would be to enter monthly Sportives of a gradual distance building up to a 100 mile event in October 2012, this was my goal for that year and the training plans Tim would set would be with this goal in mind. The training would continue into 2013 with the goal being La Marmotte, a cyclosportive set in the French Alps. La Marmotte is widely regarded as one of the hardest Sportives in Europe covering 180km and taking in 4 major mountain climbs which added together amount to around 5,000 metres of ascent. A major undertaking but one I felt would be the ‘driver’ in getting me to complete Tim’s plans.

So it began, with gradual mileage and steady Heart rate sessions. Remember, I was coming into this from virtually ground zero so had to take things easy at first and keep building. All Tim’s plans for the week had a turbo alternative if weather or time prevented training on the road. I quickly became used to riding in specific heart rate zones through specified intervals all with the aim of increasing my threshold. In terms of time spent on the bike I was finding that I was training for 3 or 4 days or sessions during the week and once at the weekend. As we came into the summer I began to up my time training as I was able to commute to my main office which was around 16 miles from my home and then ride back in the evening and even extending that ride home to 2/2.5 hours. Notice I say time on the bike and not miles. This was because the focus is on getting the maximum out of your ‘time’. So mileage was never an issue it was all about quality and focusing on intensive and well constructed sessions. By the summer I had also finished playing football and made the decision to limit my playing the following season to maximise my training. The training was beginning to pay off and I found I was motivated and training hard and I was getting fitter and faster.

My schedule of sportives was well under way and by September I had completed an 80 mile event and was looking ahead to the 100 miler the following month. By now my training had increased so that I was riding each day on a weekend and having only 2 days off during the week with plenty of extended rides on my way home from my office. There was still no mention of mileage but still time spent in the saddle with measured efforts, now including sprinting intervals, built in. I completed the New Forest 100 in October in a silver medal standard time of 5.30hrs and went into the autumn having achieved my objective for 2012 and, more importantly, I was still enjoying the training and was pushing to do more. Having Tim’s plan’s really kept me focused so that I had to plan carefully my week ahead so that I could maximise time spent at work, with the children and on the bike. Around this time I had a second RAMP test from Tim and the results were amazing. I had increased my power output sustained for 1 minute by 60 watts (This is often referred to as MMP Maximum Minute Power or MAP Maximal Aerobic Power. It is the average power recorded during the final minute of a RAMP test to exhaustion. You should also hit your max heart rate around this time before the man with the hammer taps you gently on the head and shouts “Stop, you fool!” From these figures it is possible to set heart rate and power-based training zones. It also correlates well with a 3 minute maximum test after a good warm-up.) so I was definitely heading in the right direction. However I now had a winter to get through and with the dawning of 2013 the Marmotte was now on the horizon.

The winter proved hard mainly because the training was now being done predominately on the turbo trainer with rides at the weekend when the weather allowed. This is where the plans came in useful to give structure to the week but in the end it did require a certain amount of self motivation to get the training in through those dark winter months.

With the spring arriving I started to look at racing and in particular the local races to me run by the South East Road Racing League and the LVRC (The League of Veteran Racing Cyclists). This meant a slight change in emphasis on my training but still having great benefits for the upcoming Marmotte sportive (Contrary to what traditional training models prescribe, shorter race-paced training will also bring increased performance over longer distances – a lot of riders do too much training, regularly doing slower, over-distance rides as part of their training. These are sometimes described as recovery rides even when the ride is over an hour and in a HR/Power zone which is too high for recovery). I continued with my commutes and extended rides but now there were more sprint intervals and also training with a fast bunch at a local outdoor circuit. The aim now was to work towards handing burst of very high intense efforts whilst also pushing my threshold higher. I found that the sprint intervals involved a quite intricate set of instructions from Tim’s plans and that these were not suited to the various disturbances met when riding on the road. Again I took these intervals to a quiet long stretch of road and simply went up and down on what amounted to a 1 mile stretch of road. With the interval instructions taped to my stem I could push hard without fear of meeting traffic lights, road junctions or other disruptions. I was also now starting to increase my rides at the weekend to around the 3 hour mark, my training diary was now showing an average of 9 to 10 hours a week training. The racing was a baptism of fire not only in terms of the speed but also of how to handle yourself in a race that involved several sharp corners. I was now seeing why the sprint training was necessary. High intense efforts over a 50 mile race were very taxing and my first few races did not go well. I was starting to feel some improvement when, however, the date for the Marmotte was just now around the corner, so the racing was put on hold to avoid any injuries that would put a serious dent in completing it!

Prior to me setting of for the Marmotte I discussed with Tim nutrition both pre ride and during the ride. We had talked about this throughout the year and had got a system which worked but had never been tested to such extremes that you meet on the Marmotte with the heat and amount of climbing being the main issues.

The Marmotte

On arrival in Alpe d’Huez, which was to be our base for the next 4 days, the amount of cyclists around the village was an amazing sight as was the weather being very hot even at altitude. The Friday allowed us to have an easy run out and we took the opportunity to scout out the route the Tour de France will take after it climbs up Alpe d’Huez for the first time. After a 25 miles of easy pedalling in the valley I tested my legs by climbing the first section of the Alpe up to a small restaurant at La Garde. This is about 4 hairpins up and regarded as the toughest part of the climb. It was great to test the legs on this short section and gave me a brief sample of what to expect on Saturday and in the Marmotte proper. However there would be a major difference climbing after nearly 7 hours in the saddle as opposed to just over an hour.

Saturday, day of the race, started early around 6am as we ate a good breakfast. We then got all our kit ready and bikes on the car in preparation for the drive down to Bourg d’Osians and the start. Our start time was 7.50 and with start numbers of 6024 we would be starting at the back. You are timed from the moment you cross the line measured by a transponder on your bike so being at the back would not be too much of a problem. Once underway there is 10km straight road down to Rochetaillee were we turned right and continued what was a fast pace in a mass group to a dam at Allemond. I was able to move up the pack fairly comfortably as this section of the course is closed to traffic and the road is fairly wide. However, as we rode up and past the resorvior behind the dam,  the road narrowed and the climb up to the Glandon began. The paced slowed as we started the 24km climb up to the Glandon and moving up through the mass of riders was proving difficult but it did mean that I was able to pace myself. The Glandon is measured at 5% and is relatively easy in places and its every easy to get carried away and forget there is plenty of harder climbing to come. So I maintained a steady pace to the top. I crossed the timing mat on top of the Glandon in good shape. It felt good to have got the first climb under my belt and took the time to have a quick drink and a toilet break and of course admire the view. Although the descent is not timed some people were absolutely flying down and it was no surprise to see the ambulances going up and down and I did see one rider lying on the floor with paramedics around him, hope he was ok. The ride down to the valley floor was quite technical in places but on the whole was really enjoyable and as we turned onto the flat roads at St Etienne de Cuines the heat was really starting to build and this long false flat was open to both the heat and wind. I got into some fast groups and it didn’t seem any time at all before we turned right at Saint Martin d’Arc and began the ascent of La Galibier. The first part of La Galibier takes you up to the top of the Telegraphe which tops out at just over 1500 m with a gradient of 7%. This climb is around 7km and has some hard sections. The road is now being used by cars which narrows the road so again moving up is tricky at times and already some riders were finding the going pretty hard and were stopping by the side of the road in the shade. There is a descent after you come of the top of the Telegraphe which is pretty fast and takes you onto the climb of the Galibier proper. The first part of the Galibier is a long drag where you can get into a rhythm and just grind it out. It was still very hot even on the upper slopes of the Galibier at over 2500m. As you turn and cross the valley the climb really begins in earnest: I now I started to feel it. I kept looking up to try and see the summit but gave up as it never appeared it just went on and on. I had to dig in here as we reached the switch backs. I was,however, going past more people than were passing me, something I managed through the whole event. Pacing for me was quite simple as my heart rate monitor was playing up so I just trusted my body and went at a pace I was comfortable with, I never gave chase if someone passed me and tried to keep my cadence constant. Topping out on the 18km climb to the Galibier I didn’t hang around. My parents were waiting at the restaurant over the back with some food and drink and I was desperate to get there. After a quick drink and eating stop courtesy of my parents, who had travelled down with me, I continued the long descent back down the valley to Bourg d’Osians. It was brilliant to get some rest whilst descending but found I was getting cramp in my legs so had to keep them moving and even get them out of the pedals and shake out any cramp. I was slightly worried that the cramp would return on the climb up the Alpe but in fact I found it easier to keep moving. The heat slowly built up as I dropped of the Galibier until with the wind it felt like someone was holding a giant hairdryer in my face! As I hit the valley floor there is around a 20km drag down to Bourg d’Osians which although was downhill was into the wind. I sat in a group and moved at a reasonable pace. I could have gone on my own but I wanted to preserve all the energy I had left for the climb up Alpe d’Huez. Up to this point I had been trying to consume an energy bar and a gel an hour, drinking water and an energy drink constantly as well. I filled up the bottles when I came to a convenient water stop. All the talk of mass queues was slightly misleading. There were plenty of people at the stops but getting water and food was not a problem. The problem now was the heat. Going down the valley road to Bourg d’Osians was unbelievably hot so I was especially pleased to come to the roundabout at the entrance to the town and see the next water stop. The crowds here were amazing cheering on all the riders and part of me wanted to charge through the throng and on up the Alpe. Instead I pulled in and took on some water and some food and contemplated the climb ahead. It was then time to climb back on the bike and begin the final climb of the day and in some ways the hardest. I made it to La Garde, the same point I had climbed to yesterday, and was feeling ok. I was moving slower than the previous day but I as I had thought this was a lot different. I was getting into a rhythm and was steadily making progress when the heat really started to bite. All around people were stopping and taking a breather, some were even walking. What made it worse was the sight of riders who had finished and were now riding back down the Alpe. As I approached the church near Huez village there is a water stop and although I had plenty of water with me the opportunity to throw some over my head to cool me down was too tempting so I stopped. I gulped down a cup of nice cold water and then went to the hose pipe and re filled the cup and simply poured it over my head. This did the trick and off I went again. It’s at this point you can see the ski station above you and the end is in sight, even if there is still plenty of climbing to do. I ploughed on and on trying to keep my speed and cadence constant. I had forgot to keep a check on the numbers on the bends so when I did glance across to see I was going round bend 2 I was instantly lifted and even started to up my speed. I rounded a small group and was now on the final climb up into the ski station. I suddenly felt stronger and pushed harder up into the station going past the riders who had finished and were now having a nice cold beer in the bars that sit aside the road into Alpe d’Huez! Rounding the corner and going under the bridge I went past the hotel I was staying at –  I was now less than 1km from the finish. With this knowledge I got out of the saddle and went for the line. I know it’s not a race and but I just wanted to get it over with! I could now see what Marco Pantani meant when asked why he always attacked going up the mountains: his reply was that the quicker he got to the top the quicker the pain would stop. Dropping down into the finishing straight you have to negotiate a roundabout and then funnel into a narrow lane which marks the end, you’ve made it! I got myself together and went to get my time and was delighted to find I had completed the course in 8.16hrs which for me was a gold medal time. So in the end the time spent training in the cold, rain and on the turbo was worth it. Could I have done the training on my own according to my own plans and regime? Possibly. However, I knew that I needed exactly what a set and structured training plan devised by a coach would give me and it worked. The painful memories of climbing those mountains are now starting to subside so my goal for 2014 could well be to go back and to go quicker!

..and that’s the whole point, isn’t it? I should say here that the only concession to longer rides Nick made was in the 3 week period before the Marmotte where he was able to take some time off work and string together 3-4 days of longer rides. Nothing, however, approaching 8 hours at any time.