Back in this coach’s youth, summer days were for long rides: .the trusty cheese sandwiches (made by Dad as he was always up early…a throwback to naval wartime when he did 4 hour watches, he never really slept a full night after that) in jersey pockets, one bottle of water, a bit of money, and the Cagoule safely on my back (whatever the weather) …ready for some of the priceless Yorkshire scenery (wasn’t it a treat to see that in the TDF this year? I had the pleasure of riding on closed roads to the Grand depart at Harewood House – which, by the way, is pronounced Hair wood unless you are very posh – and then watching the riders go off on the roads I travelled as a boy. Flat stage?? You try it……). As I got a bit more competitive it became a matter of who could ride the farthest – a ride to Hawes from Leeds, or Aysgarth Falls were always considered to be very big days out. Later still I became much more interested in how fast, rather than how far…but of course one is closely related to the other!
In this series of blog posts I will be featuring accounts from Blackcat riders of their encounters with long, tough events both here and on the continent: also the attendant skills, nutrition and training that go hand-in-hand with this type of challenge. Hopefully each post will encourage some of you to up the quantities of white bread and Red Leicester cheese in your weekly supermarket trolley, hone your sandwich-making skills, and investigate entry into one of these tough events – maybe in 2015. If so, contact me tim@blackcatcyclecoaching.com and we can plan it together…
The first post is from a rider who, as I write this, is enjoying the pleasures of the Etape du tour 2014 – I hope he will contribute some words on that formidable event for a future post. Craig Fisher approached me in January this year with a number of aims in long and multi-day events both here and abroad.
More on the latter later but his first “appointment” (as Hinault might say) was the brutal Fred Whitton Challenge in the Lake district – a super-tough early season event.
The ride is for charity and in memory of Fred Whitton http://www.fredwhittonchallenge.co.uk/about-the-fred-whitton/about-fred/ . The route is very simple – 112 miles over all the famous Lake District passes – Hardknott and Wynrose amonst them.
Craig did a RAMP test using my Wattbike (www.wattbike.com) at the Blackcat testing studio/torture chamber as a start. We established his maximal aerobic power, watts at threshold and his heart rate/power training zones. He also requested a nutritional analysis, body-fat analysis and a nutrition strategy for the event itself – hugely important and, as Craig will testify, hugely beneficial. Craig doesn’t have a Wattbike or a power meter but his turbo trainer measures power and we were able to match things up sufficiently to have two different sets of power zones – one for when he re-tested on the Wattbike and one for his turbo work…and there was a lot of that! Time-poor with a demanding career, Craig was able to train on the roads at weekends but was limited in the week. Specific intervals aimed initially at improving his aerobic engine evolved over the weeks into sessions which would help him to cope with the steep inclines and moderate-length climbs (I use this in the context of continental climbs – there is absolutely nothing “moderate” about any of the climbs featured in the Fred route…). Craig also “enjoyed” regular hill rep work in Z4: repeated efforts with the throttle not quite on the floor…..or a similar big gear/low cadence session on the turbo trainer. All in all, as you will read, this resulted in big gains in fitness specific to this type of event – I use the term “specific” because that is a crucial part of a successful training programme, though in this context it didn’t mean riding 10 hours plus on every Sunday….
In terms of event-specifics that are difficult to prepare for, the weather plays a big part….and also the descents. I had a few riders in this event – Tim King, Peter Lynk, William Nicholl were the other 3 (all completed the route) – and all commented on how cautious you had to be on the steeper drops. Descending is something that you can learn, however, and participants in the Blackcat training camps (last year we were at http://www.ciclocostablanca.com and will be there again next Spring – watch my Facebook page for details http://www.facebook.com/pages/blackcatcyclecoachingcom/494426953937992) have the perfect roads to do it on and the benefit on hands-on coaching from the very experienced guides and a coach who always takes a safe line…….
So! For those of you who take your sportives strong and with lots of lumps here is Craig’s account of his successful ride…
“If you were thinking of going out for a quick Sunday training ride, The Fred Whitton Challenge isn’t something that would seem to fit the bill. At 112miles & 10,800ft climbing it’s been described as the “hardest sportive in the UK”. And yet – here I was, queued up in the rain and mud at 6am in Grasmere. It’s ‘only’ a training ride for me by dint of the fact that I had rashly committed last year to improve myself enough to join a group of friends on the 450mile Raid Pyrenean in August.
I joined Black Cat in February when I decided that the determination, ad-hoc spinning and chamois cream combination that I used in the past wouldn’t work. Although it had got me from fat, non-cyclist to 7-day LEJOG survivor in two years, I didn’t think it would be enough get me along the Pyrenees in 100 hours.
Tim took my list of ‘WIBNI’ rides (Wouldn’t It Be Nice If) of The Fred, Dartmoor Classic, Etape du Tour and Raid Pyrenean. We added it all to a RAMP test in February, and put in place a plan to get me as far away from Homer Simpson and towards Chris Froome as possible. “The Fred” is the first test of that strategy.
The queue through the swampy sports field was already bedraggled when we set off in driving rain at 6.13 (having had little sleep the night before… but that’s another story) by the time we got to the top of Kirkstone Pass (453m) the rain and spirits had lifted slightly. The descent from Kirkstone was excellent – steep, and quite fast without too much head-wind, but there was still a lot of rain-jacket bingo being played.
The next big climb is Matterdale End (347m) that takes you to what could have been a pleasant cruise to downhill to Keswick – if it also didn’t turn us straight into a 25mph headwind. It’s always galling having to pedal downhill!
Honister Pass (358m) was a hill that I’d failed to climb twice before – but the new, lightweight, stronger me was determined to get up it this time, and I felt gratified that whilst there were still younger, fitter people passing me – I was cycling past people walking!
The descent from Honister is very steep, twisty, and in the wet – treacherous. An hour or so after I passed it, and was stopping to refuel at the top of Newlands Pass, the air-ambulance flew low overhead: I discovered later it was going to a cyclist that had come off during the descent.
A pleasant run along the Buttermere Valley brought us to the first food stop at 52miles – but they’d sneakily put Newlands Pass (335m) 25yards out of the stop, which although was advertised as such, still came as a shock!
Another fab descent took us to the long slog up to Whinlatter Pass (318m)- with jackets still going on and off. As with many of the passes, the marshals and public at the top were fabulous, shouting and bell-ringing their encouragement throughout the day.
Only one more major climb before the second food stop – Cold Fell (295m). Although there are only 9 ‘named’ climbs, there are plenty of other decently-sized anonymous hills, all of which got tougher as the day went on. Cold Fell is well named – with a 25mph wind and blowing rain, the name is spot on. Thankfully, beyond the fell was the second feed stop at Calder Bridge (86 miles in) – where the surprisingly yummy joys of cream cheese with jam sandwiches was another first for me.
The thought of only being about 30miles from home spurred me on, with ‘just’ Hardnott and Wrynose (both 393m) as the major climbs left. And more importantly – we turned with the wind on our tails.
As the vertical green wall of Hardknott crept onto the right of my Garmin screen, I’d already decided that I would be better to make a tactical ‘no-bid’ on Hardknott, and save it for Wrynose. I wasn’t alone. Most people were pushing their steeds up the 25-30% hairpins that put the Hard into Hardknott. Chapeau to anyone who cycles it, there were a significant number panting past the rest of us mere mortals.
Over the top of Hardknott is yet another technical, brake-block-burning descent, with a cracking view of Wrynose ahead. The tail wind helped to get me most of the way up Wrynose – but my legs just ran out of juice on the last little kicker.
Both Hardknott and Wrynose descents are nasty – especially with wet roads, and it’s easy to pick up way too much speed within seconds. Unfortunately the air-ambulance had to be called out for another cyclist, and incredibly landed on an unfeasibly small hump-backed bridge to air-lift him to hospital. The road was closed for the duration, but had cleared by the time I got there. I understand that both casualties are ok thankfully, but there were quite a few other tumbles that were less serious, mainly on descents, they aren’t for the faint of heart.
Having now conquered all the big passes, with the wind on my tail, (relatively) flat roads ahead, and the finish line in sight, my legs found new energy and I pushed hard over the last 10miles to try and get in below 10h30m. It’s a testament to the hours on the turbo, Tim’s training plans and nutrition info that, although tired, I still felt fine at the end and could have carried on. Perhaps I should have tried Hardknott after all!
The supporters, marshals, and bike-laden cars increased as I pulled closer to Grasmere and finally rolled in at 10h20m elapsed (with 9h riding time).
I’d definitely recommend the Fred Whitton Challenge for anyone’s bucket-list, but make sure you get lots of hills into your legs, and if you’re aiming to get up Hardknott – get a triple! I may make another attempt one day, but I’ll be doing the Four Seasons version (which you can do year-round), and making sure that the hills are a bigger part of the challenge than the weather. The next ‘training ride’ of the Dartmoor Classic is in a month – bring it on!”
…which leads us nicely to the next post on, where there will be a focus on both descending and nutrition in the context of two tough events….Quebrantahuesos and the Dartmoor Classic!
A last word on descending from Doug, the hardman of my previous post “You time it, I’ll ride it”: I followed Doug down a rain-sodden super-steep Dorset descent (tree cover, potholes, gravel, 1 in 6..you know the thing) at breakneck speed, having dropped everyone else and all the time wondering how he could go so fast and wasn’t this s big risk to take in your 50’s? At the bottom I asked him how, and why. His reply was beautifully simple: “I haven’t got my glasses on and I can’t really see anything so it doesn’t bother me”.
Now – go and get those sandwiches made….
theblackcatscyclingwhiskers 