The search for the perfect turbo trainer tune!

Normally I have a set playlist that I listen to when I'm on the turbo. It's an hour long, comprises a mixture of genres, ranging from electronic dance music, to hip-hop, to heavy metal. This morning however, while I was warming up for the first 5 minutes on the turbo, I decided I'd change my playlist.

While I was choosing which tunes would be the most motivational to get me going, I found what I think is the perfect turbo tune. Now the majority of you reading this probably won't be that familiar with the work of Norwegian electronic jazz trumpet legend Nils Petter Molvaer, but please, bear with me!

Nils is somewhat of a pioneer in his genre, that of mixing improvised jazz trumpet, with electronic effects, metal guitars, loops, samples etc. One of his early albums, Hamada, includes a mental tune called 'cruel attitude'. This, is the perfect turbo tune.

After 3 or 4 minutes into the 8 and a half minute tune, the tempo and intensity starts to increase, and by the half way mark the band are in full flow, which nicely translates into a tune that well and truly puts the hammer down and kicks you up a gear on the bike. I used it after about 20 minutes into a 40 minute turbo session this morning, and it was just about timed perfectly. 

I found that the first few minutes were used to get me even more in the zone that I already was, and I gradually got faster and moved up into bigger and bigger gears the more the tune went on. By the time it finished I was flat out at a cadence of about 120, totally in the zone, with my legs screaming out in pain and with sweat dripping off me like a pig on a spit roast! Awesome feeling, awesome tune, give it a go. Tell me I'm wrong?!

......this is what the tune made me look like when it finished....!!

Can't ride, still training!

Another week till I'm back on the bike, you don't want to know why! Suffice to say it's doing my head in and I am beyond itchy to ride. My new gore ride wear is hung nicely in the wardrobe, bike is freshly clean, cycling shoes at the ready, the only thing I need now is time. Roll on next week!

In my downtime therefore I am doing what I can, which pretty much just involves core work. Lots of planks, kettle bell squats, leg raises and so on. If I can't feel the burn on my legs from riding up 19%, I'm sure as hell going to feel the burn in my abs from some core work.

It's all a means to an end, all training for Le tour Alzheimer's on 20 July, so all good. Even if I am frustrated as hell seeing all the cyclists I follow on twitter going out for rides, and the sun outside and lighter mornings beckoning me to join them on the road.

See you soon!

Wearing a bike helmet and having lights is obviously not cool!

My wife and I took the kids to buy some rabbits yesterday. Nice for you to know and yes they are very cute, but totally irrelevant to cycling, right? Well, on our way home from the pet shop, while we were driving down a dark country lane on the outskirts of rural Harrogate, we luckily managed to spot a teenager on a bmx, in the dark, riding on the road a few hundred metres in front of us, with no helmet, no lights, and no high viz anything! And to make matters worse, when we got close to him he decided it would be a good idea to ride on the wrong side of the road to let us pass!! 

We drove past him, slowly and with our jaws on the floor at how stupid this lad was, and how much of a death wish he must have, and I couldn't help but think that whoever taught him to cycle obviously didn't do a good job teaching him how to be safe on the roads, and what to do when a car approaches!! I guess being visible and staying alive just isn't cool enough these days?!

If you are reading this, whoever you are from last night, just remember that having a cool bmx (and it was a cool bmx by the way) and being able to do a 180 on a vert ramp is all well and good, but it won't do you much good if you get run over because some car driver doesn't see you, in your black outfit with no high viz, lights or helmet at 8pm on a dark evening on a country lane with no street lights!! Muppet!!

Stay safe kids!!!  ;-)

Training changes, what a difference a year makes!

12 months ago my average training ride was about 20km, with the odd 25-40km ride on a weekend which just about wiped me out! And all of the rides tended to be on nice days when there no wind or rain!!! Since I finished London to Brussels last year I got my head into a space where longer distances in all weathers, I.e. 100km+ in my terms, became more of a possibility on a regular basis. 

This year I have signed up to do another endurance ride for Alzheimer's, namely the first stage of the tdf from Leeds to Harrogate. Before you get excited, i have not turned pro, the ride is a few weeks after the main event and unfortunately not on closed roads, but at least they are familiar roads and in my home county of Yorkshire :) The ride we are doing is 120miles, 193km, over the actual route including all 3 of the main climbs, so I have consciously increased my training to get ready. Not only was I training all winter in all weathers, with the exception of a couple of Weeks in December over Xmas, I have been on the road throughout 2012, and this year I've been on the road every week from 1st jan onwards. What a bitch of a ride that day was!!

Now though my training has ramped up a notch. I am off the bike right now for a couple of weeks recovering from an operation, but in jan and feb I was regularly doing a couple of very hard hours on the turbo during the week on the dark evenings when most other folk were in the house keeping warm and getting fat (!!!!) followed by anywhere from 70km to 100km on a weekend, again with very few other cyclists out on the road to nod at. I fully intend to carry on this level of training when I get back on the bike in a couple of weeks time, and my mantra now is 'get fit not fat', and I am finding that I live my cycling life according to this as well as the infamous rule #5 and rule #9 (velominati.com in case you don't know what I'm on about!!)

I'm working up to making my staple training ride 100km each time, longer by the summer, and building in as many hills as I can muster. Otley chevin and ilkley moor especially, but as we get closer to July I'll be going over to buttertubs and the other stage 1 climbs. There is a nice 156 km ride from my house to kettlewell and back that I have my eyes on for a nice summer day, bring it on :) 

I guess the reason for writing all of this is reflection, and also to show that with a lot of focus and training it is possible to make huge leaps in the space of a year. I don't confess to be the fastest climber, ask my mate the 'bike geek' and he will tell you that I can get up a 20% climb with the best of them, but I may not be at the front of the bunch. But for someone who was knackered after a 7km ride 18 months ago, to be honest I ain't fussed. I have my own style that works for me, seated mostly but with some out of the saddle for short sprinting climbs. I do want to work on getting faster up hills, but it's not my priority. Increasing the distances, getting a faster overall average speed, and being ready for July is where my head is at right now. And so far, so good!