“I am never going to see my family again.”. 1979, on the road between Addingham and Ilkley, West Yorkshire on a fine, sunny summer’s afternoon. Words spoken with certainty by this very coach, aged 12. To fully appreciate this situation, any situation, you need the full story…..
…which begins the day previously when the phone rings at my family home in Leeds and a school friend says “Tim, time to test your new bike out. Fancy a ride to Malham?” A few things you need to know here. Firstly, the friend on the other end had been cycling with the Otley CC regularly on a Sunday, knocking out 60-80 miles in the hilly terrain of the Yorkshire Dales. In short, like most cyclists, he was an awful lot fitter than me. Secondly, although Malham is a beautiful place and of much geographic interest (indeed, I had endured a school trip there as a 10 year old. We sat in silence on the bus there as we weren’t allowed to speak. Then we had to climb a dried up waterfall, which is where I first discovered I had vertigo. Packed lunch at the top, terrified. 5 mile hike.Then we went home, again in silence. Ah, the heady days of Leeds Grammar School in the 70’s. What fun.) it is a good 30 plus miles from my old family home. Rather a large percentage of those miles are uphill and on what you might call “lumpy” roads. Thirdly, my new bike was an interesting “racing” bike from Halfords and, if I had to estimate, I would put it’s weight at somewhere between a Rhodesian Ridgeback and American Pit Bull Terrier. Wearing a collar made of plutonium. And Doc Martens. Lastly, my font of cycling knowledge was only just beginning to trickle at that time, nurtured by the wonderful International Cycle Sport magazine and visits to Woodrup Cycles in Leeds. In short I knew nothing at all about clothing, equipment, distance vs fitness and, crucially, correct nutrition (I was so green…..I had another good friend and his dad was a club rider who introduced us to cycling – thanks George – I had no idea about clothing and used to wear a kagoule as my cycling top at all times, prompting George’s wife to ask me on a 70 degree summer’s day “expecting rain, Tim?”).
The following day dawned, sunny and warm and off I went to Otley, enjoying what is now my favourite view of any: the descent into Otley from the main Leeds Road, running under Otley Chevin. Brief stop to pick up my friend and off we went along the Wharfe Valley, heading for Skipton. Finally approaching Malham after 30 plus hilly miles in the standard jeans/kagoule Junior Blackcat team issue strip I began to feel strange sensations in my legs and hear a whispered, far off voice in my brain. The sensation felt like I had been walking a while. The voice seemed to be saying “yooo have bitten off more than yooo can choooooow” in a somewhat ghostly fashion. I ignored this and in high spirits (and a sweaty waterproof) entered the café where we would have lunch.
And here lies the moral of the tale and the focus for this blog piece (in case you were thinking that I was just going to ramble on…which I will anyway)! Food! I was hungry at this time but not hugely. I had a sum of money with me which would have been enough to get a good meal in a cheap café but (a) I only ever ate sandwiches my dad made me on previous, shorter rides and (b) this was a café in what was then and is now a tourist trap, and very expensive. So we ordered beans on toast and tea. Beans on toast. I hate beans on toast. My friend kept saying “Eat your beans on toast, you’ll be glad of them later” and I just didn’t. In the end he had them and we set off again.
All was OK for the first 10 miles then the inevitable happened and I ran out of fuel. Visions of cups of tea containing 10 sugars and spoonfuls of jam began to haunt me. This is where we came in……..
I did make it home that day, though not on the bike. Reaching Otley and facing the long climb up to Bramhope I cracked and asked to call my dad from my friend’s house, much to the bemusement of his family who were tucking into their evening meal as we arrived. I’d like to say that this was beans on toast but I don’t think it was. I’d also like to say that they offered me some but they didn’t! When my dad arrived he simply didn’t believe me when I said I’d ridden to Malham. He continued to doubt me even when I couldn’t do anything but lie on the setee two days later. I’m still not sure he ever believed me and am surprised that, on his death bed, he didn’t motion me to come nearer to his head and whisper “You didn’t really cycle to Malham on that heavy bike wearing that ridiculous kagoule did you Timothy? Did you? Tell me you ate lunch you dunce……..”
So.. a lesson for all of you out there riding your first sportive or challenge ride. Eat. Before, during and after. What you eat and how much of it depends on the event duration and profile but, as a rule of thumb, eat more carbohydrate than you would normally. And if all there is available is beans then man up and swallow your taste buds!!!!
This summer has brought some exceptional performances from Blackcat riders, one of the most impressive being from Vicki Lee. Vicki contacted me after seeing a piece on the Wattbike blog about my coaching. She had entered the Etape and had a little over 10 weeks to train for it. Not joking. Vicki has her own nutrition business and, like most of my clients, is time-poor. But it was clear from our first Skype conversation that she has a steely determination and a huge work ethic. Of course she succeeded in fine style and that is a story in itself but what is also fascinating is her in-depth knowledge of nutrition and how her strategy worked brilliantly for her at the Etape and in lead-up outings. So, time to take off the kagoule, get the tin of beans opened, read on and try to ignore your dad shouting “Malham? I don’t believe it…”
Vicki Lee – an edited version of this post appeared this summer on the Wattbike blog http://wattbike.com/uk/blog/post/10_weeks_on_a_wattbike_to_conquer_letape_du_tour and this also features some of the training sessions she completed.
“I’m embarrassed now to admit that I hadn’t actually heard of L’Etape du Tour when I signed up for it. I was sitting at my desk one afternoon back in November when a friend phoned to tell me there was a race in Annecy that I needed to enter that day or else I wouldn’t get a place. “Why not?” I thought, it would give me the incentive I needed to get fit for a couple of beach holidays I had planned for that summer. My new bike, a birthday present from my husband, was still sitting where I had unwrapped it a few weeks before.
In fact the bike continued to sit in my dining room, unused, for the next month. The winter was miserable and there was no way I was going to take my first ride out in the rain on the London streets. But I knew I ought to start some training. I bought a turbo trainer and spent an hour every day pedalling away in the basement. But boredom got to me and by the middle of February I was spending only a couple of hours a week on the turbo. I was yet to get outside on the bike. When I did finally ride outside I realised that clipping in and riding on the streets were very different from the turbo. I was a nervous wreck on a bike. In fact by 1st April I had ridden the bike outside exactly twice. Things were not looking good for the Etape on 7th July.
A holiday in France in mid-April basically became make or break week. At the start I could barely clip in on the mountain and had to be pushed off by my husband, by the end of the week I had cycled Mounts Revard and Semnoz (two of the biggest climbs on the Etape). At this point I figured that if I could do them with virtually no training then if I was to put my mind to it and dedicate the next three months of my life to the Etape then I might be in with a chance of being able to do it.
Time was of the essence and the drive back home from France was spent devising a plan of attack. By the time we reached London I had ordered a Wattbike and signed up with http://www.blackcatcyclecoaching.com.
Being a nutritional therapist the nutrition side was an easier box to tick. I regularly devise nutrition strategies for triathletes, iron men and ultra-runners but this would be the first time I would use sports nutrition on myself. I decided that I would use my training and preparation for the Etape as a project: to devise and implement a nutritional protocol to the letter, taking every food and supplement that would enhance my training, performance and recovery. The protocol also included making all the lifestyle changes I would typically recommend to endurance athletes. My mission became to prove the name of business: Nutritional Therapy Works (http://nutritionaltherapyworks.com/ ).
My brief to Tim Ramsden at http://www.blackcatcyclecoaching.com was to devise a training schedule to get me fit for the Etape, based entirely on the Wattbike. Any “real cycling” would be viewed as a bonus. Vicki trained relentlessly on the Wattbike, undertaking specific climbing sessions sometimes twice a day and supplementing these with hill repeats in Highgate!
As a practitioner of Functional Sports Nutrition ensuring my underlying health was at an optimum level for such intensive training was the key. I could not afford time out for illness or injury. I kicked off the training program with a two-week metabolic detox, giving up a long list of foods including all alcohol, sugar, gluten and dairy products. This was supported with specific anti-oxidants, to protect against free radicals generated during both the detox and excessive exercise. Although I kept up my nutrient intake throughout the training program with a diet rich in protein, oily fish, fruits and vegetables I found I physically couldn’t eat the amount of “good stuff” I deemed necessary. To get around this I supplemented key nutrients as well as making a pint of green juice per day and drinking fresh beetroot juice before each Wattbike session. To boost my iron stores I ate liver every other day, supplemented chlorophyll and included 300g of spinach in my daily juices. Carbohydrate intake was focused immediately before, during and after exercise using nutrient timing techniques. To minimise the inevitable inflammation I boosted my oily fish consumption with Omega 3 oils and turmeric. As the program intensified I supported ATP energy production with targeted nutrient supplementation and took several different magnesium formulations each day. I used herbal formulas to increase my endurance and support my ability to cope with the stress of the exercise.
The Wattbike training was intense, particularly as I tried to fit it around my normal life. This meant I was regularly up at 5am to train before my children woke, or trained late at night while they slept. There was a period when I’m sure the children both went to sleep and arose to the sound of the Wattbike! As the Etape got closer it was impossible for it not to take over my life. I seemed to wearing my heart rate monitor constantly and the washing machine was permanently full of cycling gear! Double training sessions meant I no longer went out in the evenings, which was probably a blessing for my friends as all I could talk about was cycling (surprising for most didn’t realise I even owned a bike).
To get some experience of cycling events I entered a couple of sportives (even I realised it wouldn’t be sensible for the Etape to be my first race) and was thrilled to find that the training was working. I was among the fastest finishers both times. This gave me the confidence I needed at just the right time, though it also served to change the goal posts in my mind. Somewhere near the end of the ten weeks of intense training I realised that my initial goal of simply finishing the Etape had changed into finishing it in a respectable fashion. I didn’t want to be climbing Semnoz with the broom wagon on my wheel……”
No broom wagon for Vicki – a stunning 7:49 ride and her nutritional strategy worked well for her…..it could for you too so if you are interested in what she could do for your sports nutrition why not check out http://nutritionaltherapyworks.com/ ? Now…where’s the tin opener….
theblackcatscyclingwhiskers 