#operationwattbike

Last month I finally moved home. The reason for the move was so I could get a #paincave as having my bikes and turbo stored in the conservatory wasn’t an ideal situation. In the new house however there is a dedicated #paincave in the shape of a garage.

As I was getting a room to store my bikes and train in, it seemed a good idea to upgrade my turbo to a Wattbike. I have decided that a Wattbike will be of huge benefit as it will allow me train more consistently, means the sessions need only last as long as they need to (no traffic, traffic lights or breakdowns to contend with), is safer than riding on the road in winter, means I can train whatever the weather and it means I can monitor my improvements closely.

After moving and waiting patiently for delivery (entirely my fault as Wattbike could have delivered it within three days), my Wattbike finally arrived last Friday. Who says Christmas has to be on the 25^th December? My Christmas was on the 28^th November. I ripped open the box like a kid on Christmas day (cardboard flying everywhere) to be greeted by my new toy. After an hour of assembly (with the help of the clear instructions), it was their in all its shining glory. My new Wattbike (complete with 10%  off RRP due to being a Triathlon England member). Yes I have heard that people have a love hate relationship with their Wattbike but at that moment, I could not have been happier.

I set my Wattbike up to the same dimensions as #Rinnie, my TT bike. Much to the dismay of my patient wife who helped me take the necessary measurements. It is so easy to replicate, there are just four measurements you need. Bottom bracket to saddle nose (horizontal and vertical) and saddle nose to handlebars (horizontal and vertical). After you have those it is a doddle to dial in your actual riding position. This will be really useful as it means I will be training and racing in the same position.

Fast forward to last night, my first proper session on my Wattbike (after the obligatory playaround which obviously took place over the weekend). Let me set the scene, the #paincave was a balmy 3 degrees, the TV had been set up to play the London 2012 DVD and I had my session from my coach. After completing my 3 minute test last month, my coach worked out my zones and set last night’s session accordingly.

Taking clear photos while pedalling is hard

It sounded quite simple.

·         10 minutes easy pedalling at air resistance 2

·         20 reps of 20s seconds at 110rpm and 40 seconds of easy pedalling at air resistance 2

·         9 reps of 3 mins at 90rpm at air resistance 4 and magnetic resistance 2 followed by 2 mins easy pedalling at the same resistance

·         15 minutes of cool down

By the 6^th rep of 3 minutes I noticed steam rising from my body. I was literally steaming. That is a first.

The first 6 reps were comfortably uncomfortable whereas the last 3 reps were just plain disgusting. One of the other athletes who is trained by the same coach, refers to this session as a peeler because you have to peel yourself off the Wattbike at the end. I completely understand that now. When I finished the 9^th rep, my legs were jelly and I still had the 15 minute warm down to go. Having completed just one session on my Wattbike, I now understand how people have a love hate relationship with Wattbikes. They hurt but it is through this hurt that we know we are making progress.

My first #wattbikeselfie #broken

Surprisingly my left right pedal balance across the session was a 49/51 split, which I was pleased about. I need to have a look at my pedal shape on my computer at some point but when I remembered to look at it on the display it was definitely not the shape that I thought it would be. More of a figure 8, less of a peanut. That’s something for me to work on over the coming months.

Data overload

Here’s hoping that I make the improvement that I strive to make over the coming months. Thanks to Wattbike for answering all my queries in the run up to completing my order.

Thanks for reading,

Michael

Getting (re)acquainted with #Rinnie

I bought #Rinnie last year for this season. She is a rather sublime Planet X Exocet 2 in matt black. After I bought her I had a bike fit but never truly settled in a comfortable position.

I spent most of this season tweaking my position to something I could withstand for a sprnt distance event. I thought my positioning was okay until at Brigg Triathlon when someone commented about my wandering left knee. There’s even a photo showing my left knee in another postcode to me and my bike.

After more tweaking ahead of Drax, I thought I had corrected my knee. Yay. However in doing so I lost all semblance of comfort that I had managed to obtain. Boo.

Enough was enough. After much deliberation, I decided I needed another bike fit. After spending many hours perusing the internet and asking for people’s recommendations. I decided to take a trip to Cannock to visit Bridgtown Bike and their level 3 fitter Mike Taylor.

Mike has fitted many top athletes including Chrissie Wellington and Tom Lowe and now he would be fitting me. I booked my appointment for a Saturday (yes they can fit in around your work) at 10am and made my way down to Cannock.

As soon as I sat down with Mike, I felt at ease and knew I had made the right decision. We talked about everything from my hip (the pin which I suspected was the root cause of my wandering knee) to my past life as a sedentary being. After about half an hour, Mike started to take some measurements starting with my feet, then loking at my cycling shoes and watching me walk and testing ankle flexibility before I was finally allowed to unveil my knee issue.

After cycling on the turbo, Mike immediately saw the problem (it wasn’t hard to miss) and said he knew how to fix it. HOORAY. Mike said e has to correct this problem about twice a year. Great trust my body. The problem was (drumroll please.........................) I have a wide stance.

A what?

A wide stance? Yes I know I have knocked knees but I didn’t know I had a wide stance and a high “Q Factor”.

Because of this, my feet when clipped to the bike and being forced out of their natural position and being forced inwards which was causing my knees to track outwards.

Mike fitted some spacers to my bike, between my pedals and cranks and told me to give them a go.He also had to fit some new pedals as the Look pedals on #Rinnie had the wrong fitting for the spacers.

After I got back on, my wandering knee was not wandering as much as it had been. Hooray.

Following some more iterations to my position including altering saddle, altering cleats lowering saddle, Mike then fitted some “shims” in my shoe underneath my insoles and for once I could feel where I was or was not applying pressure through the pedal stroke.

My knees now piston up and down rather than doing the Hokey Cokey. He gave me an exercise to do to relieve the tension in my back which has plagued me this season and resulted in numerous trips to the Physio to relieve the pain in my feet.

Mike then watched my pedal some more and was amazed at the differences he had made to my position and power output in the 3 hours. I felt so much more comfort on #Rinnie and didn’t have the aching quads I have become accustomed to.

My quads have been aching when pedalling because Mike theorises I have only been using a percentage of each (of the 4) quad muscle when pedalling because my knees have been tracking in and out rather than acting like pistons.

Because Mike paid attention to the unique biomechanics of me, I was so relieved and the level of service was second to none. During my previous fit, it was a bike fit by numbers and although I was fitted, I wasn’t comfy. Mike looked at everything from the ground up and I am hoping that the changes he made will allow some significant improvement in my bike splits next year. He was amazed I have managed to go so quick considering I had such a poor position. Brute force and ignorance does have its uses.

Now I just have to get used to this new position over the winter before the first triathlon of next year.

Mike said I can go back to Bridgtown in the spring for a follow up and he will further tweak my position to enable me to get the best out of my bike.

Considering that when I went to Bridgtown I had convinced myself I would have to trade #Rinnie in for a different bike as she wouldn’t fit me, I was pleased to be leaving with a bike which I finally feel comfortable on and only a small dent to the wallet (pedals, spacers and bike fit).

I can’t praise Mike enough. His demeanour was superb and he instantly made me feel at ease and he listened to me before using his vast knowledge (of biomechanics and cycling) to give me a bike fit which was personalised to me. Thanks Mike

Thanks for reading,

Michael

2 years on

I can't believe it's been two years since I gave up smoking. At todays prices and given I used to smoke 200 cigarettes a week, I would have saved over £8000 if I'd put it all in a jar, but instead I found triathlon. And I am so pleased that I did.

2 years ago I wrote this blogpost http://smoker2triathlete.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-hardest-thing-i-have-ever-written.html
Last year I wrote this blogpost http://smoker2triathlete.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/1-year-anniverssary.html

2 whole years in a new relationship with my lungs and body. I can't believe how much my life has changed in those two years either.

I am now a triathlon coach, have helped set up a new triathlon club which now boasts nearly 100 members, have a love affair with triathlon, have completed triathlons at every distance and finally settled on the distance I enjoy most. I can't wait to see what the rest of my new life has in store for me.

Looking back on my life from two years ago, I spent a lot of time drinking in pubs, eating the wrong food and generally abusing and poisoning my body. Nowadays I spend most of my spare time exercising and I bloody love it.

I love challenging myself and pushing my body to work harder. Yes running is still not my favourite thing but two years ago I couldn't run to the end of the street whereas now I run three or four times most weeks.

The last two years have had their ups and downs but that is life. I am so much healthier since my decision to quit and really enjoy my new found love of exercise.

I am a proud ex smoker, I wish I had found triathlon sooner in my life and stopped poisoning my body sooner.

Every time I see someone smoking I want to scream at them and point out the damage they are doing to themselves and how with some hard work they can achieve one of the best things they will ever do.

Giving up smoking was a life changing moment for me. At times it was hard but it was so worth it. I just wish everyone else still stuck in the trap could see sense.

Thanks for reading,

Michael
A proud ex smoker

Miracle worker

Since I started running I have always had pain in my Achilles tendon on my left leg. It is something I have managed since sustaining the injury on the 8^th February 2012.

This injury stopped me running for three months in 2012 and severely hampered my running progress before my first appearance at London Triathlon.

Since June 2012, I have been managing the issue myself using my trusty Achilles strap (which stretches the tendon) whenever I felt it tightening. Up until recently I had completely forgotten about it apart from the lump which has been there for over two years.

A couple of weeks ago however, the pain returned. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it was in 2012 when I could barely walk let alone run but when I was running I had started to feel the familiar niggle. Worryingly I was also starting to feel it in my right leg.

After my race at Goole it was really painful and I was having problems walking down stairs in the morning. I decided enough was enough and I needed to see my physio Jenny of Blizard Physio. For those that don’t know Jenny is a miracle worker. I really can’t recommend her enough. Jenny's knowledge of the human body astounds me.

So last night I made my way over to Blizard Towers and mentally prepared myself for 30 minutes of pain, good pain though as you know you are being fixed.

After explaining the problem to Jenny she started manipulating my legs and back to work out the knots. Immediately the difference I could feel in my left Achilles was amazing. It didn’t feel so tight or painful and when it was being moved there wasn’t as much resistance. What I wasn’t prepared for however was that when I got off the bed, my lump had gone (some part of me will miss my lump :o( bye lump). This has been something I have lived with for the last 32 months and half an hour of work by Jenny had made it disappear.

I was over the moon. I wish I’d known Jenny when I initially had my Achilles problem. She could have fixed me 32 months ago.

If you’re in need of physio help around Doncaster then get in touch. She is brilliant at what she does. Yes she might make you wince with pain but afterwards the problem has gone.

Jenny is that good at what she does that the patient before me travelled from Skegness to see her. That’s a 4 hour round trip for a 30 minute appointment.

You can’t put a price on the value of a good physio and I am lucky to have one of the best (in my opinion).

Thanks for reading,

Michael

Getting back on track

I find writing things down quite therapeutic and I guess this is one of the reasons I enjoy blogging. Over the last couple of months I have not felt myself.

Surely a combination of #ironmanblues and losing my Grandma and a few other things that I can’t even be bothered to mention.

However in those couple of months I have found my favourite distance in triathlon which is a major plus. I have exhausted myself this year by trying to race at every distance with little to no transitional period between different distances. I had my reasons for this and they were mostly due to me wanting to do an Ironman before this ticking time bomb in my hip decides to appear, but it was a huge mistake. I wouldn’t change anything I have done but I have learnt what not to do and plan on using this. As I stated next year is all about sprints for me. Where this will lead I have absolutely no idea. What races I will do I don’t fully know. I need to sit down with my coach and work that out. I have a few ideas but until these have been approved, I am not announcing anything.

So now the season is over. No more swimming in lakes as quite frankly I am too soft. This means my faithful Archimedes has been put into winter hibernation. The season closed with my best result to date. I finished 28^th in the Drax Goole Triathlon and despite me feeling my bike let me down (for the second race in a row) I was pleased with my placing and how the race went especially as it was the first race where I raced by feel rather than with my trusty HRM.

Unfortunately the close season is here and after a period of recuperation (after Leeds Abbey Dash) I plan on spending the coming months working on my bike and my run and just ticking over with my swim. I know what I want for next year and it will only be achieved with significant improvements to my biking and running.  Plans are afoot to make gains with biking and running, in fact at one point I even considered a duathlon for all of three nanoseconds. What was I thinking? Run, bike, run is just madness to someone who is better at swimming. Those plans will become apparent over the coming weeks but I can’t say too much right now...........

Sorry for the lack of blogging but I have had a lot going on recently. I’m also sorry for not really writing any race reports. I just haven’t been in the mood. I’ve had some real fun racing in London, Leeds, Relays, Brigg and Goole but putting those to paper has proved very difficult for a variety of reasons.

Thanks for your patience and thanks for reading,

Michael