Cycling Training

UK weather news

Admittedly though, it doesn't seem as though it's rained too much in London itself. I've been able to get some time in on the bike thanks to my turbo trainer. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get much quality work done. I prefer to do my quality work outdoors, I just respond better to it. For one reason or another the last five weeks have seen something go wrong on saturdays to prevent me racing the crits...and now they are over until summer. Damn.

I was really hoping to get a go yesterday, then this happened.

I should have finished the symbolism by standing behind it as I was held captive by the weather yesterday

At least it's not quite the polar vortex North America is suffering, but that vortex is what is giving the UK bad weather.

Anyway, today was a beautiful sunny morning so I took the chance to get out onto the roads. Even though the day was "beautiful", the temperature was 2 degrees C when I started! I survived and thanks to a great Xmas and birthday present (cycling jacket), I was actually sweating.

No clouds, sun...dead trees. I suppose they aren't dead.

I took the chance to get another closer look at the Olympic site, since the pool is apparently opening on March 1 (good bye walking home from training at 10:30pm!) I've attached pictures of the area and the village - what I could access that is.

That hill has a neat man made mtb track on it. The colour of the sky, not man made.

That which we are, we die,

One equal temper or heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will,

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.



I believe that's the hockey centre to the left and the velodrome to the right. Just like in Australia, but with just about every single bike path, it just ends suddenly as soon as "real traffic" needs it to.

There is glass everywhere in this city. As I was taking this photo a mother was screaming at her child called "Shenaya". If you name your kid Shenaya, you deserve to have to scream at her. From what I could tell the kid wasn't really doing anything wrong.

The road surface was so nice compared to the other roads around London, which have potholes and cracks every 20m. I find it absurd that the entire site isn't up and running 18 months on, in a city like this. Given how woeful the builders are in our house though, it doesn't surprise me about the length of time on the Olympic site.

I then got some actual riding in, rather than tourist riding and rode to where the crit is held. It's a pretty cool course with BMX and MTB catered to as well.

 Finish is just after you come up this hill. Vastly different to Murrarie.

 Opposite end of the course has this downhill, where everyone tries to chop wheels and crash into each other.

Appalling photography skills, but there are ppl on the mtb course in this shot.

If I was to post a pic of how most of my riding looked, it would be my "insert bike brand and model here" top tube and the picture of an angry ape I've attached to it and my two legs, so that's pretty much it,

I went to the London Bike Show and Tri Show yesterday, but that deserves a post all to itself. Which I might do from Alicante, Spain or next weekend.

Swimming Training

Where I lived in Australia I had 50m pools and high quality swim squads in abundance and close proximity. I had also spent almost 13 years based primarily out of one pool, in that time having only 5 swim coaches and being a part of three squads.

In London there are barely any 50m pools. There seem to be plenty of 25m pools, but they are everything you'd expect from a nation that isn't Australia or the United States and hasn't been the bees knees in swimming for the last 60 years.

The site they held the London 2012 Olympics at and the Olympic swimming pool is only a few k's down the road from where I live, but despite that being held 18 months ago, the pool doesn't open for another month.

2012 was all about legacies. I don't see there being a sporting legacy, but the areas around are improving.

I have found a squad that I am really enjoying my time with. Here's a few details:


Schedule:
The squad swims 5 times a week.
Mon am 5:30 - 7:00
Tues am 5:30 - 7:00
Wed pm 7 - 9
Fri pm 8 - 10
Sun pm 5 - 7



9:30pm while I wait for my bus, the Balaam pool

Focus: The sessions I've been to so far have had a clear sprints and power focus. We've used t-shirts and shoes for drag plenty of times (marginally easier than the "crab pots" one of my squads used in Aus). Sunday afternoon is a Gym/Swim session. The gym is a lot lighter than what I am used to.

Balaam as I get there at 6:50pm

Members: In Aus, every squad seems to have a group of 10 to 15 young teenage girls aged 12 to 15. The boys 5 - 10 boys aged similarly, but up to 17 deal with the hormones and ...girlyness of this. As does the coach.
The squad I'm training with have about 10 or so males aged 14 up to mid twenties and only two girls. I enjoy this peer group more because I don't have to deal with girls either beating me or distracting the coach. Teenage males get silly too (very silly) but I'm more comfortable with it. Australia 1 England 0 in the promotion of sport to teenage girls.

The building beside East Ham Leisure Centre

 

Coach: The coach is classic. He's an Italian with a whole bunch of swimming and exercise science education and experience behind him. He's also very entertaining:

• "Are you allowed to taser students as a teacher?"
• "They take away the cane and look at what we end up with...Justin Bieber"
• "You should not play football. Australians can not play football. They can play rugby and cricket but football? No."
• He'll introduce a set of 20 x 50 with evens and odds being different things, changing every 6 and then ask "Any questions? No? Good. Go" While everyone looks at the lane leaders as their faces turn white with the knowledge that they are about to fail to meet expectation.
• While we're deep into a painful session "Think happy thoughts...Perhaps not that happy Chris."

Pools: We swim at three different pools (Yep, weird by Aussie standards) because that's all the club can get from the three local pools. All are 25m pools, so I keep adding a second to all of my 50m times.

There are slides down the back.

I had troubles with pool temperature at many Aussie pools, but I have not struggled at all here. They are indoor and must just be well ventilated since I don't have the overheating issues I had in Aus. It also helps being indoor as they don't turn the temperature up to what always felt like 30degrees in winter.

East Ham Town Hall Clock Tower next door to the pool.

I just remembered with trepidation that the Olympic pool was horrendously unsuccessful for Australians. I will swim solo here on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon once it opens. These will be entirely aerobic and strength. Triathletes are addicted to paddles, buoy and band. I'll be reinforcing this stereotype.

Particularly given my rib injury is still making its presence felt, I'm really happy with how I'm swimming at the moment. There has been next to no aerobic work, so I haven't seen how I'm likely to go in Tri, but I have already, in only about 10 sessions already started to hit training pbs for sprints. If I can carry this speed across to my aerobic efforts, I will be much better placed for racing this European summer.

I'm not yet confident of gains with my swimming, but I am excited about the task and enjoying my training. I'll just have to put in the time and wait and see.

How I Fuel Now and My School Day

A little while back I wrote a post on how I would eat to meet my training, diabetic and general daily requirements.  My routine is now vastly different from when I was back home and so I thought it might be interesting for anyone who read that post to see how it has been changed.

4am: Wake up and fight against the cold of London winter. Also try to fight off the fear of being at school, exhausted and having to manage 10 - 25 disrespectful and immature, low intelligence school boys for an hour at a time.

If my motivation wins the battle, I will get up and have 250ml of yogurt. One day I will get onto natural or greek yogurt. Maybe when someone pays me to do tri.

5am: Catch a bus to swimming or jump on the bike trainer. I still swim with my two water bottles, but the water is now a 2L since we always swim indoors and it's more steamy and humid.


I catch something like this to swimming


7am: If I've swum, then I'll get a takeaway bacon and egg roll from McDonalds or sub from Subway (convenience and speed) while I head off to work.

8:30 School starts. 20 mins of form class or whatever you want to call it. At the moment I do "interventions" for the kids in their senior year and are tracking to fail. Then there are 2 x 1hour classes where I might drink close to a full water bottle here and there.

10:50 Hot cross bun time! 2 of them, sticky on top. Sticky = sugary. Oh and more insulin.

Two more 1hour classes.

1:10 Lunch time! I always love lunch as I'm super hungry. I usually have a microwave meal or a salad, or both, purely for convenience of it (speed, cost). As I get more organized and the renovations of the house we're living in are done, it will progress to a pasta salad.

Kitchen RHS

Kitchen

Kitchen LHS

Stairs of death. Bike is carried down THEN cycling shoes put on at the bottom.

The builders leave their stuff everywhere. There is some in the man hole and some under the floorboards!

One 1hour class and the teaching is done for me by 2:55 - most days. Tuesday and Thursday we essentially do another session with senior students to help with their finals which can run til 4pm. On days that don't and while it is sunny only til 4:30pm I try to run from school to a nearby park and back straight after school.

3:00 I usually spend the next two hours running or preparing for classes. In Australia, most teachers bail straight after the bell and would do this sort of thing at home after training, but here most staff stay until 6pm. It is a massive inconvenience and really defeats the purpose of why I chose a career in teaching. My agent tells me regularly "That's how it is here." She doesn't realise that me saying I don't like = I will leave and you won't get any money from me if you don't find me something that works! Maybe she's just saying "Why the hell did you move here?!". There is no misunderstanding that British revival in Olympic sports only came via training in any country other than Britain. Brits that spend large amounts of training outside Britain won more Olympic Gold than those training in Britain.

5:00 - 6:00 On the way home I get a croissant or even a pretzel on the way home. It's not really "fuelling" per se, but it gets some more food in. By the end of the day I will have usually gone through at least two bottle of water, sometimes three.

5:30 - 6:00 I will either do the run I have finished and a gym session followed by dinner and bed by 9 (hopefully), or I will have swimming in the evening. My two weekday evening swims are from 7-9 or 8-10. Depending on the time frame I have to work with, I might eat a full dinner beforehand or a really light meal. Even a couple of pieces of toast. Dinner is still largely the same as it was in Australia. That's a big upside for moving to England, it's good the food we're used to, not like the Braised Dog Meat with a side of Clenbuterol we were served in China!

After Wednesday night's swim I walk across the road to the Chinese take away and get the bus home. If the bus driver doesn't get lost (he did the first time), I'm home before 10.  Friday night's swim is a mile from my home, so I grab a chocolate milk for the walk home (which usually includes a few minute bus ride for convenience) and in bed by 11.

So that's what I'm doing on weekdays at the moment. My weekends haven't got a routine yet. Between having a cold and damaging my ribs, I haven't yet done a full Friday night to Saturday night or training yet.

 The zookeepers were getting all excited because of how interactive an armadillo and a sloth were being. Says it all about  London Zoo doesn't it. They were more interesting than the tiger. At least the lioness was interesting when I snuck up on her and went "boo". She got a fright...I wasn't sure what was about to happen, but it was fun.

My next post will be a little bit "Week in the life of". I'll try to get photos of all my training spots and give brief descriptions of the people and coaches, so there should be a bit more colour. In two weeks, I will be off to Alicante, Spain for the school holidays. I will try to do a little swimming and running and get some pics of that too.