LEJOG Posts

Fourth week of training

Bushy Park

Testing week, as in FTP and VO2Max testing.

FTP test was on Monday. A 20 min warmup and then as hard as possible for 20 minutes. 3 weeks ago I was trying to hold 200W, this time I was trying to hold around 210W. I ended up with an average of 208W so my FTP has improved to 198W. I’m really pleased with this, but also know that this means all the subsequent workouts will be that much harder.

VO2Max was on Friday which was also the hottest day of the year so far. The warmup for this one was 45 minutes followed by a 1 minute full out sprint. I pushed this as hard as I could and paid the price in the heat. The 10 minute recovery seemed to fly past and then I was into the 5 minute effort. I wanted to hold around 240W for this but had to settle for 230W. I felt that my power level fluctuated quite a lot during this 5 minutes and I felt I could have gone harder but the heat played a part. Very happy to set new 5s, 1 minute and 5 minute power numbers though.

The weekend saw a mix of a long endurance ride followed by an active recovery ride. The endurance intensity was just the wrong side of comfortable so was pretty hard work. The average speed for the ride showed this too whereas the recovery ride was spent riding up and down Bushy Park at a gentle pace as the park got busier on a Sunday morning.

This was the first week with 5 sessions. The next 3 weeks also have 5 sessions each before I taper in the last week before the ride itself. It is getting closer and closer!

Third week of training

The intensity feels like it has ramped up this week. The intervals are longer, the power expectations are higher.

I’ve started to work with a massage therapist I’ve seen in the past when I have had back problems. It was different seeing him with a view to preventing injury rather than healing from it.

Friday’s session was the first one I didn’t complete. My notes from TrainingPeaks say: The initial 10 mins at 190W was ok. Once the intervals started I found the low cadence (65rpm) a struggle. I got through 10 intervals but had to reduce the intensity a bit.
On one hand I know I had a late night on Thursday, didn’t eat particularly well on Friday so am not surprised I wasn’t at my best but on the other hand it’s a lesson about the importance of sleep and nutrition.

Sunday’s road based workout didn’t start well when the new head unit lost connection to all the sensors after about 1km and refused to reconnect to anything. Turned round, went home, got the old head unit and started again! Feel like I’m almost getting the hang of it now. The tempo intervals with NP bursts were actually fun.

The bike

The most important piece of equipment for the entire ride, my bike. If you’re not interested in bike specs and technology then skip this post!

My bike is a Wilier Cento 10 NDR with Shimano Ultegra Di2 R8070 groupset plus Ultegra pedals. I’m using 50/34 chainrings and an 11-34 cassette. The wheels are Mavic Cosmic Pro Carbon UST Disc and I’m running 28mm Continental GP 5000 TL tubeless tyres. I have a Specialized Power Arc Expert saddle and use Fizik R4B shoes.

The bike itself is really comfortable thanks to some special damping where the seat stays meet the seat tube. There’s a technopolymer dissipater that allows the rear wheel to move a couple of millimetres when riding over bumpy and uneven surfaces. The front is really clean as all the cables are routed through the handlebars and the frame uses aerodynamic Kamm-tail shaped tubing.

Second week of training

Monday’s session was a hard start to the week. 30 seconds at 350W followed by 1 minute at 105W, repeated 10 times was hard work. Another 4 minutes at 105W and then the 10 intervals started again. The last 3 were a real struggle and I just hung on. I find these sessions a mental challenge as much as a physical one. When your legs, lungs, heart are all telling you to stop it’s important to remember why you’re putting yourself through this.

The one thing that concerns me is getting injured or ill during the training. Every little niggle gets amplified; this week its some discomfort in my right foot.

Two workouts based around repeating intervals this week. I can feel it in my lower back, not in a painful way, more in a being aware that the muscles have been used. Time to add some core workouts so that my core is being used rather than my lower back.

First ride not in the training plan this week too. It’s the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend so 2 extra days off work. Kaz has the all clear to start riding her bike again so 4 of us set out for a gentle spin. Apart from Kaz doesn’t do gentle spins so we headed off to the Hog’s Back including the climb over Keogh Barracks.

Bit of a disaster installing new cleats when the threaded part in the shoe pushed up through the insole! Good job I had a spare pair of shoes in the cupboard (like you do!).

First week of training

My training plan for LEJOG

A combination of my FTP test and uploading all of my rides for this year to Training Peaks gave Grant a good idea of my current fitness levels.
My maximum power comes at 88rpm, my FTP is 188W (considered fair for a rider of my weight), I’d overloaded myself during early May (getting ready for the Etape Caledonia) and need a sustainable training load going forward, my VO2Max is 41ml/min/kg (considered a little low by Grant but also seen as excellent for a 57 year old male) and my resistance to fatigue is reasonably good. Grant’s plan was to increase my two main energy systems for endurance riding; the aerobic system and my Functional Reserve Capacity or how much energy I have available once I hit threshold.

Training Peaks links to Zwift so my workout was there when I logged in. I’d looked at it in the TP app and it didn’t look too bad but I’d massively underestimated it. I found it really hard, mostly because mentally I wasn’t prepared for it to be so hard. I wouldn’t make that mistake again!

The plan includes rest days as a vital part of the bigger picture of getting me ready. I’m used to riding my bike a couple of times at the weekend, and with the bank holiday weekend approaching wanted to know if I could still just go out and ride my bike. The answer came back that this was fine, Grant would keep an eye on my fatigue levels and adjust the plan if needed.

The weekend saw my first ever workout session on the road. I found keeping in the power limits really hard and as a result i struggled to get into any sort of rhythm. Surprisingly at the end I’d managed the right intensity so I was happy with that.

How it started

14 days from Land’s End to John O’Groats

LEJOG is one of those bucket list things for many cyclists, myself included. The idea of cycling from one end of the country to another has a strange allure considering how hard it is. I’d looked at it before but it had never got off the ground. The Deloitte version, taking just 9 days, always seemed a bit too much of a stretch but a supported, 14 day event seemed manageable.

In early May I’d thought about riding LEJOG with Pedal Britain starting in June 2022 but after talking to various people, including the people that run the ride, friends and other cyclists I decided to try it next year. Then I rode the Etape Caledonia on 15th May, finished it feeling really good and without having really struggled on the climbs and suddenly it felt like it might be doable sooner. Then a space came up on the ride in July 2022; that gave me 8 weeks to get ready rather than 5.

I spoke to the coach associated with Pedal Britain and he thought I just needed to sharpen up as my fitness sounded like it was ok. That was that then, I booked the last space and waited to hear if I was in. The next morning I had an invoice waiting in my email. My first reaction was “fuuuccckkkkk, what have I done?”

Next thing was to book travel insurance (just in case anything went wrong before the start) and then signed up with Grant Goodman, the coach. His first request, not surprisingly, was to get me to do an FTP test. This is a horrible thing to do, after a pretty hard warm up it’s about going as hard as you can for 20 minutes. The first 10 minutes feel hard, the next 5 minutes hurt and you spend the last 5 minutes just wanting it to end. The good news was that my FTP was the highest it’s ever been, that’s a good starting point. Grant went to work building a training plan to have me ready in 8 weeks.