The New Sugar Tax

The BBC is reporting that the UK Government will start levying an extra "sugar" tax on sugary soft drinks from April 2018.
Apparently the tax will cause an 8p (10.5 cents US, 9.6 cents Euro)  rise in the price of a can of Coke, Pepsi or Irn-Bru, and a 6p (7.8c US, 7.2c EU) rise in the cost of Fanta and Sprite.

Naturally, I like my carbs.
But I don't routinely drink carbonated soft drinks ("soda"), sugar sweetened or otherwise.

Chainline Issues

Where it all started - looks like the Incredible Hunk broke my cranks ...

My bike is a bit slow changing into the smallest chainring.
When I have a triple chainring mounted, to get into the smallest ring at the front may require me to get into one of the smallest two rings at the back first.
Changing to the larger rings is fine, it is just trying to get into that small one.

My 2017 Training Plan

A training plan, showing periodization targeted to produce peak performance on two specific dates in the year.

Above you can see a generic outlibe for an Annual Training Plan.
It uses "periodisation" - the most important rule of training. The idea is apparently a rather old one, with even the Ancient Greek sportsmen dividing their year up into three periods - preparation, competition, rest. Even the Greeks knew that there was no point being at your best in the "off-season" if you were past your best by the days of the actual competitions!

No good doing well in that optional minor event if you are too tired/injured to do well in the events that matter to you. Indeed, many professional athletes deliberately enter minor competitions, not to get easy wins, but as part of their training, and the minor competition is completed as a workout exercise, and to develop technique and tactics ready for the "big" events.
For example, in 2015, I rode the local 100 km (62 mile) charity sportive as an event in it's own right, but also as final training for the charity London to Brighton ride (the biggest longer-distance cycling event in the country), which happened a few weeks later. Both events also acted as training for the 232km (145 mile) "Randonneur" ride I did about 6 weeks later.

And that is the point of periodisation - to make your "best" period of fitness/ability coincide with your "competitions".

Why I don't own a proper "Road Bike"

Back in March, I'd been doing my "Winter dreaming" again.
I found a carbon road bike that weighs under 8 kilos, kitted out with Campagnolo Chorus, on clearance, advertised at about £1150 (c. $1600, €1400).
Wow, just wow !!!!
(Not many things in life are worth FOUR exclamation marks!)
Just price up a Chorus groupset to see how great that price is.
Worth buying for the parts alone!
In case you are wondering about the price, it was from a "pro" race team that races in the class below the real top end (so not Team Sky, then!), and the team was ending, not entirely unconnected with quite a few of their riders having failed drugs tests. There were a number of bikes, and each had rider names on them, and had been used, but not that much. Some were the riders' number one bikes, and some were the riders' number two bikes, each rider having had two bikes. Sizing was: if there was a team rider about your size, there is a bike (or two) available.
So "proper"  racing bikes, then, not poseur's toys.

First metric century of 2016, and training tips

First "century" of 2016 - the TdV route, with the end clipped off.

Back in March, I rode my first 100km ride of 2016.

A few weeks earlier, I had ridden to Oxford and back, but I had "bitten off more than I could chew", and my knees were packing up after just 60 km. I cycled slower and slower to finish the ride, getting home with 90km under my wheels (got rather cold towards the end, too, because my slow speed wasn't generating as much heat as I had planned!)
This time, my knees held out beyond 80km, although I was a bit flaky for the last 20 km.
Just as importantly, I rode the 100km in no more time than it took to do the 90 km to Oxford, and it was just as hilly!

As always, I started off thinking I could move my gearing up a bit, as I don't really need the lowest one or two gears ...
... and, as always, on the later part of a ride I remember why I fitted an extra-low first gear :-)
My lowest gear is REALLY low. I have a 26t chainring driving a 32t rear sprocket.
It is so low that I couldn't really go any slower without falling off sideways ...

Pausing for a banana near the cafe in Wendover Woods.
It is a decent climb to get up here - the first part of the slope is 13%,
but it eases off at a bit. This is very close to the highest point of the Chilterns
(it is in the woods just behind the cafe), and getting up here is one
of the toughest hills in our area.
I have only covered about 18km ( 11 miles) by this point,
but that is the toughest hill done!

I find my basket mount (sans basket) to be a very convenient place to mount my Garmin watch.

There is quite a bit of signposted "cycle route" round here. Most of it is on minor roads, like this bit.
I'm about 38 (24 miles) km into the ride here, and this is where I took the pic of the Garmin watch (above).

Ivinghoe Beacon. Quite a few folks (wrongly) think this is the highest point of the Chilterns.
I really don't think there is much in it. A decent climb to get up here, too!
The road down has a T-junction onto a main road just down the slope. then it is up (again) a short distance, then left down, down, down the hill through Aston Abbotts.
Even a weak old man on a heavy bike (like me) can easily exceed the 30 mph (48 kph) speed limit that applies as one enters Aston Abbotts (let's not get onto the legality of bicycles and speed limits, I'm just saying, that's all).
Everything is all downhere from here! (well, not entirely, but the three hardest climbs of the ride are out of the way by now!)
About 54 km covered so far (33 miles)

A civilised place for a quick sit down.
This lichen-covered bench is just outside Oving, about 80km (50 miles into the ride).

The view from the bench - the Vale of Aylesbury.
Towards the left the wind turbine is visible.
It is the biggest on-shore turbine in the country.
and, more importantly, it is downhill from the bench at Oving!

A "crop" from the picture above showing the turbine.
To get an idea of the "bigness" of the turbine, think Empire State Building, and you are in the right ballpark.
It is clearer with the naked eye than in the pic (my 5yr-old smartphone has only a 3 megapixel camera!)

The turbine from the Berryfields part of Aylesbury, 90-odd km into the ride (56 miles)
It looks quite big compared to the houses, but the turbine is a LONG way behind them, so it is even bigger than it looks.

Reading posts on the forums and from acquaintances reminds me that some folks train with poor techniques.
They seem to set a target, then ride it by pure force of will, injuring themselves in the process.
Don't get me wrong - if there was an Olympic medal to be had, most folks wouldn't care if they couldn't walk for a month afterwards. Me included.
But injuring yourself on an early-season training ride just seems daft.

My routes tend to be loops, so I can "bail out" if required, and limp home using that extra-low gear and a LOT of freewheeling. When my knees start to hurt, I take notice - when they develop a burning sensation, I stop and let them recover - even if I am halfway up a climb at the time.

This is the principle of training:

Progressive overload + recovery = greater the next time.

Excessive overload + injury = lost training time in the future.

Let me say it again ... "Progressive Overload".
I keep saying it because it is the KEY principal of training, on which all other aspects are based.

Progressive Overload is the key principle of training.

That means working up from what YOUR body can handle, so that YOUR body can handle more.
(And it is about YOUR body, not mine, or the person on the TV - "individualisation" is one of the other key principles of training. Individualisation just means each person should train in a way to suit themselves - an individual plan for an individual person)

It isn't about Strava "games" trying to complete a "epic" ride.
If your knees can only handle 30 km, then just do 30 km. Then do 20 the next weekend. Try and ride a few 10s in the week. On the third weekend you will be good for 40 or 50 km, then do 25 to 35 the weekend after, with a couple of tens in the week, again. By the fifth weekend you should be good for 60km.

But if it isn't working out, and you know you are risking an injury, then pace it over a longer period for building up the mileage.
Don't lose weeks, or months, of training time by injuring yourself early on.

Me, I'm at 100km this year.

At Easter I was expecting to do some trail riding on one of those "rails to trails" routes that used to be a railway line. This one is the Camel Trail, running from Devon into Cornwall.
A nice bit of riding on a rough surface with fairly soft tyres would have helped to build up my legs and knees a bit more.
I was planning on doing some beach and hill running, too, tp get my heart and lungs into tip-top condition, and give my knees a rest sometimes!

I have a set of sports anatomy books with exercise for strengthening various muscles, so I worked on that, too, while I was away.
I was really lucky, having a week off just to ride trails and run and train!
But in the end, things didn't work out as planned.
I did some running, which was good, but I only ever got about 15 miles of the Camel Trail under my belt.
I returned from that trip exhausted and a somewhat ill.
Hey ho.
That's the "Real World".
Not everything goes to plan every time.
But I still had plenty of time left in the year, so I picked up again later, and beat my personal best on the local 100km charity sportive in late June.
Another basic principle of training (and planning in general!) is to allow spare time for problems that develop. Don't start a 13 week plan just 13 weeks before a big event for you.
Better to start a bit earlier - say 16 weeks, then you have a few "spare" weeks for "life" to get in the way!
Even better, start gentle and progressive training at a lower level 26 weeks before, so you are in reasonable shape at the start of the 13 week "main training" period. But I will cover that in greater depth in another article.
Note that I used the phrase "progressive" training again.
It may not be good prose style to keep repeating the same few words, but it can be good rhetoric.
I keep saying it because it is so important.

Progressive Overload is the key principle of training

Another tip - don't just worry about "long" training sessions.
It is all too easy to miss a session because you don't have an hour, then miss another etc. etc.
If you have half-an-hour, but not an hour, do a half-hour training session instead!
What you actually do counts for more than what you hoped to do but didn't!
It is also a good reason to start your training program a bit earlier in the year, too!

Anyway, the take away points are:
1) pace your training with PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD
2) don't overdo it and injure yourself early in the season (EXCESSIVE OVERLOAD)
3) start your training program well before any events you intend to enter (again, PACE YOURSELF)
4) It is better to stop a training session partway through, than it is to complete it, if that completion results in an injury (again, PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD, not EXCESSIVE OVERLOAD!)

Footnote: This ride was undertaken on my previous bike, Mermaid, which weighed in at about 18kg, with rack and mudguards/fenders, but without panniers. My current bike, Hoppy, with rack and mudguards fenders weighs about 16kg. Both are low cost bikes - real "entry-level" machines.
So, the point is, most bikes can cover 100km/62 miles.
It is merely a case of preparing the rider.
And at the age of 52, and being recently diagnosed with the early signs of osteo-arthritis, I am no spring chicken either!
But if I can do it, so can you!
You just have to work yourself up to it slowly, and progressively.
PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD, not EXCESSIVE OVERLOAD!

My Favourite Training Peaks Features

With Training Peaks, you can get all sorts of charts set up.
This one shows the longest ride I have completed in any given week, going back over the last 6 months.
For folks interested in longer sportives, this sort of information is important.
You can't train for a 5-hour event just by doing "hard" one hour rides!

Taking the Short Cranks Challenge

I had pair of old cranks lying about, so I thought I would give them a go.

All steel, with steel, riveted rings.
The "double" steel 152mm crank and cogs weighs a good bit more than my usual 175mm alloy "triple"!

here you can see my 175mm cranks, with the 152 held in front.

the steel 152 crank is slimmer than the 175 crank at the "pedal" end.

You can see the 152mm cranks are steel, because the cadence magnet sticks to the crank arm without ties!
(of course, I put a couple of cable ties on as well, to allow for rotational forces in use).

My 61cm XL bike frame makes the short cranks look even smaller.
The best description I can think of for using such short cranks is taht it feels a bit like running on the spot.

It's all about leg angles.
Leg angle at TDC
The saddle is still set up for 175mm cranks, and it could be argued that I hout move it up about an inch now I have shorter cranks.

Leg angle at BDC.
Angle of straightest leg, just before BDC is very similar.

Update 15 April 2019:
The 152mm cranks had fixed rings of 38t and 48t, and I found the 38t a tad too high for me.
So I got a 145mm pair of cranks with interchangeable rings (110 BCD size, so rimgs are pretty common, and available in grades from plain steel to fancy stuff with pins in them etc. etc.
I've been using them for quite a few months.
Iirc, i used the 145s with a 34/48 pair of rings for a while, then went back to the 175 cranks, then went back down to the 145 cranks again. Anyway, I've been using just the 145mm cranks for quite a few months now. Might be 6 months, might be a year. I haven't really been counting.

Stronglight "Impact" 145mm cranks

Yep, just 145mm long - that's a whole inch shorter than the "standard" crank length of 170mm

On a 60km ride with the 145mm cranks fitted.
(The pic is in the main street in Thame ,Oxfordshire)

Really short cranks tend to lead to a higher cadence (your foot travels less distance per rotation!), and standing on the pedals is less hard than longer cranks.
Each to their own, but short cranks seem to suit me!

Four Cheap Ways To Lose Weight from your Bicycle

Are you a weight weenie?
Do you try to save every gram?
(cheap bolt-and-cover crankbolts compared with Stronglite bolt-and-sealing ring crankbolts)

Are you a weight weenie?
Do you look to save every gram, often paying out quite a bit to do so?
Here are some cheap ways to save weight you may have overlooked for your next Sportive or Strava KOM attempt:

Tacx BlueMatic Trainers Price Cut !!!

Typical.
I spend my coin on a turbo trainer, then a six weeks later there is a price cut (!)
Both the BlueMatic and the BlueMatic Smart have been reduced in price in the UK.

This has to be the best trainer for under 100 quid!
(Mine was the best trainer for 130 quid, which is what I paid!)

Long Term Review: Tacx Blue Matic Trainer

Disclosures: nothing to disclose. No freebies, no hidden payment, no fancy marketing tricks.
Price paid: 129 Pounds Sterling (about 170 US Dollars, about 155 euros)
Model: Tacx Blue Matic Smart T2650
I bought the trainer (with my own money) on 19th September 2016, using "click and collect" from my local Halfords, at the "regular" retail price.

What's in the box?
I got the so-called "Smart" variant.
All that means is that the Tacx T2015 Speed and Cadence sensor comes bundled in the box.

Aero and Power

You will no doubt hear some folks saying that FTP is everything.
Get your FTP (Functional Threshold Power) up.
Then after that worry about weight and the bike and position and the rest.

On the other hand, Specialized use the slogan "Aero is Everything".

So we have
a) FTP is everything
b) Aero is everything

So today, I will be looking at what each of these two statements implies for an amateur cyclist with a limited budget (hey, if you're rich, just pay for a professional coach, and he'll do the thinking for you!).

The Ant+ Directory

What works with what?
That's what the Ant+ Directory is for!

Ant+
It is a popular system for sports/fitness devices to connect with each other.

It is, however, not the only system.
And each system is incompatible with the others.
You probably know of another system - Bluetooth, as used on tablets and phones.

Long Term Review: O-Synce Footpod

Disclosures: nothing to disclose. No freebies, no hidden payment, no fancy marketing tricks.
Price paid: 10 Pounds Sterling (about 13 US Dollars, about 12 euros) + 3 pounds 50 shipping
Model: O-Synce "maxrun" Footpod (Ant+)
Bought online from Planet X, on sale as a clearance item, about 6 months ago (I think!)
Normal retail price on footpods is 30 to 60 pounds (40 to 80 dollars,  35 to 70 euros), so, although I bought the footpod as a "regular" customer, I haven't seen this sort of offer anywhere since.

Footpod on my running shoes.
If you are not used to them, beware that these are size 11 (US size 12) Men's running shoes
so the footpod would look a bit bigger if you have small feet!

Introduction

hi.
A new blog from me.
It was pointed out (by Kermit Green, as it happens) that my cycling blog was getting rather a lot of "training"/"fitness" stuff in it.
That, of course, included more than just cycling.
(The heart is the heart, and sustained zone 2 work increases the stroke volume whether you are cycling/running/swimming, or doing any other aerobic sport.
At the same time, I don't have much of an interest in swimming, so this is NOT going to be a "Triathlon" blog.
So expect stuff about cycling and running here.
Other stuff will be here too, if it is relevant, but this blog will have a bit more of a sports/fitness theme, so my other blog (Second Gear) will become more of a "general" cycling blog.