Getting final training in for Tour of the Pennines

As I have the "Tour of the Pennines" coming up, it is imperative that I get some hill training in now so that my legs have time to adapt.

The "Manchester - Sheffield - Manchester" event showed my fitness and endurance are still some way off where I need to be,  I want to be happy I can finish these challenges.

For the last few months, my short distance work is fine and the lungs work fine, legs are keeping good, but the rest of my body is struggling for the endurance of the events I have entered demand.

So for this session, I decided two hills over a short distance would give my legs a workout but minimise the strain.

It all went well, it was my first time up Buckstones Road (except in a car) and it is a long, constant climb, reaching the top was such a hard effort and all the time, wishing for another “Granny Gear” which is a term used for gears to help you get up hills easier, spinning the legs more and requiring less power, just more endurance.

Turning left at the top is downhill into Denshaw, as I approached the next turn there was a police incident, two cars had collided head-on, the passengers must have been taken to the hospital sometime before, the police officers thankfully didn’t make me cycling back up the hill I had sped down!

So I carried on through Delph to tackle the second hill “Grains Bar”, the way home thankfully is all downhill!

Finally at the top

As I was due for another cortisone injection in my troubled shoulder, I went for a run Thursday morning, my timing wasn’t great as I emerged off the trail, back the main road, the school kids were all streaming everywhere, cars queuing, fetching out fumes, my lungs were goosed.

It took some time when I got home to recover, twice I had to get on the inhaler. I have not had to use that since before the first lockdown, the “return to the new normal” the empty roads were a boon for runners and cyclists, almost clean air!

On Saturday I did a version of the Royton Trail, which is our (Royton Road Runners) annual race, this year the race HQ has been changed to the Royton Cricket club, which is our base, traditionally we go from near the Tandle Tavern and finish there.

So the route is not too different but the hard work up through Tandle Hils is now near the beginning and so leaves you to enjoy the rest of the race downhill and mostly flat, I live close to the route and so had the first wear of a running vest thus far this year as it was mid-afternoon and super warm.

Sunday was a planned 36 mile Cragg Vale ride, I took a nice pace ride out to Hebden Bridge, it's a good route with a warm-up distance to Kiln Lane, a steep hill on the way to Hollingworth Lake, it was
quiet on the way round and down to the turn for Todmorden Road.

It is a long easy climb up to Todmorden and undulation from there to Hebden Bridge and a nice rest for a bacon butty and latte at Coffee Cali.

Well earned rest

Latte and gel, a great combo

A quick supplemental gel for energy and it was off to Cragg Vale, arguably the longest, continuous climb in England of around 5.5 miles, not my quickest time up there, but good training and happily Royds Ices were at the top and had a rewarding ice cream

Royds ices, the depot is a the bottom of the hill

The descent back into Littleborough is steep and today a touch windy, not for the faint-hearted! It's the same route back past the lake and home, so this time put a bit of effort and got myself home for a well rewarding brew!

So got a good endurance and hill effort in, getting better now and feeling more confident about the Tour of the Pennines, which is just 2 weeks away.

As I publish this post I have raised £135 which is 27% of my £500 target which is fantastic and thanks to all those who have sponsored me so far, if you can afford and wish to help out, the link is:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mark-kelly57

Next week I will write about the energy bars I make, not just for me, something for all the family!

Thanks for reading

Mark K

2021 is getting back on track and its charity supporting on the road

Now that the UK is emerging from the Covid pandemic, battered but not down, folks like me can now start to take part in events.

I run and coach with Royton Road Runners so it is good to see races appear back in the calendar and I booked the first few... Mossley 10k was cancelled the next week after I signed up!

I am trying to raise money and awareness for SarcoidosisUK, a charity that supports sufferers of this rare disease, I was diagnosed back in 2019 and although I can still exercise, it takes much longer to recover and some weeks I cannot train as the fatigue can be too much.

I have entered 3 cycling sportive events and as you may know, the Manchester Marathon is something put back twice now but should go ahead and this will be my final challenge of the year and my fundraising for 2021

Tour of the Pennines - 41 Miles of Hills - 8th May

Tour of the Peaks - 61 Miles of Hills - 23rd May

Cheshire Cat - 108 miles including "Mow Cop" - 12th September

With my last and final challenge 

Manchester Marathon 2021 - 26.2 miles of running around my home city

If you can spare time to look at their website https://www.sarcoidosisuk.org 

and if you can afford to sponsor me head to my JustGiving 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mark-kelly57

So my training regime is going to be a mixture of two longish runs with the club, Monday and Thursday's and either a long run or long ride

After the first ride of the year went "wrong" for me last Sunday I have bounced back and committed to getting the training right so that the challenges ahead are "doable"

The running is not so much an issue but the start to the year cycling has been mostly on the turbo trainer and very few opportunities to ride, so rocking up to the Manchester-Sheffield-Manchester I was nervous, to say the least.

Overnight it had snowed and I have very little winter gear so had to brave it out with what I could find (Fingerless gloves and knee warmers) 

On the second to last hill, I suffered horrendous cramp and had to stretch out and push the bike up the short bit to the top.

On the last hill, I had to seek medical help and eventually got to Glossop Fire Station for the feed station. I tried to stretch the legs but the pain was too much, so decided to quit and contacted the event HQ to let them know.

Hopefully, in 3 weeks the weather will be better and I will have learned from my mistakes, not a great deal of time to improve my cycling but will soldier on.

My shoulder is still very painful and after an ultrasound was carried out, it was not a bone spur as first suspected, but inflammatory Arthritis. The physio administered a cortisone injection, which has done nothing and the pain is just getting worse. 

I am waiting for a Rheumatology Physio session if this can be confirmed as inflammatory then it might possible Sarcoidosis related, either way it is blommin painful!

So Tuesday evening I ventured out for a 5k run, the legs were tired and a little achy but the effort was respectable

I don't usually bunch runs together but work was getting on top of me on Wednesday, so decided after a year of working from home, why not go for a lunchtime run! it was fun and a little quicker than the day before, just over 22 minutes

Thursdays RRR group B was a nice pace, I think we had all had a challenging week and the conversation was super as we went around a hilly but simple route.

The groups target pace is 8:00min/mile so it was a more comfortable 9:00 pace, my runs to and back from the clubhouse, I go a little faster.

After the tough ride last week, it was imperative I got some miles in the bank on the bike as the Tour of the Pennines is just 3 weeks away! So warily I rolled out on a quiet, cool but wind-free Sunday morning.

My main effort was the Newhey Climb, which is a hill that just keeps on going, I met another cyclist on the way up and we rejoined as I cruised down the other side of the hill, he caught me up and kindly offered to adjust my seat slightly. Turns out my seating position was not helping my performance!

It turns out he is the "Bike Fit" engineer for a cycling team and has done super long weekends of 400 miles, so quizzed him as much as I could!

So a cheeky 21-mile ride with a total climb of 1467ft around stunning scenery was a superb way to get my training on track. 

So please help me raise as much money for Sarcoidosis, and I will do my best to complete these challenges and spread more awareness of this awful disease and together we can find a cure. 

All the best 

Mark

Time to get back running

 After a week or so easing off, it's time to get training again. My left shoulder is currently in agony and this week I had an ultrasound to start getting to bottom of what's going on. 

Some years ago my right shoulder went through same pain and it turned out to be a bone spur rubbing into the rotator cuff, this  help the arm lift in all directions.

So the treatment was micro-surgery and the bone spur removed, thankfully the recovery was quick and 12 weeks later back training, this Bupa article will tell you more.

Subacromial decompression

So it is not a show stopper to train with this impingement but sore still the same, hopefully if it the same I can get the done and back before races start again...

This week it was announced the Edinburgh marathon was not going ahead on 30th May, the world is getting a grip of Covid but not not quick enough to save this years event, so it was either a virtual event or defer. I deferred now for the second year, its a good chance this will be third times a charm!

Oldham Council have stated Royton Road Runners can resume on the 29th March, keeping to the rule of six, so need to get my endurance levels back and have updated my training plan.

So just one run this week, a ten miler while went well enough, I thought I was taking it easy, but an average of heart rate of 171bpm

So hopefully the next post will be more "action packed" keep running folks.

First winter training week over!

I have got the first week of winter training over with and a good mixture of structured bike training and a couple of runs under my belt.

As with any training plan, you have to adapt and move sessions around to fit in around life, Thursday for became my rest day (usually a run day and with the club...) and had to break up the cycling with runs, so jiggled the week up.

This is a breeze in TrainingPeaks as you just drag and drop sessions to fit, I wish I could overlay my iCloud calendar (which you can do the otherway round) 

On Monday run I went for a run 

It was pleasing to keep the pace up and a nice mixture of flat and climbing

On Tuesday I started the TrainingPeaks sessions and this one is called Lionel: The Generous

The text says:

"This workout is what Lionel Vujasin uses as a moderate interval session. So we call it "The Generous":

First, 4x4min Sweetspot at 90% with just 1min rest followed by 3x3min at 115%, where you will have to push your limits at the end!

Lionel's tip: Make sure that you don*t exceed target intensity during the Sweetspot efforts to have enough left in the for the hard stuff!

Let us know how generous you think he is at the end!"

The plan comes from Rhys Howell - Canyon eSports and takes sessions from well known Zwift racers and runs over 6 weeks, I will take these sessions and incorporate them into next years training plan.

There are Zwift plans and apparently, they can sync back up to TrainingPeaks in the same fashion iI sync it down! so will look at that over Christmas

On Wednesday I went for a run, my legs didn't feel too good so rather than a long loop I did several small loops, so if it all went bad I had a short walk home!

I did manage to move to 5th on my local "Oddies to the Haggate" segment, so not a bad session 

I was very welcome to the rest on Thursday, this allowed for recovery, cycling being my main way of keeping fit and not over doing it when running, but with the turbo trainer sessions coming in, they are more taxing than I am used to.

Friday night saw me back on the turbo and did this session:

James & Steve: The Killer Sprints

"Sprinting is hard.... and it gets even harder if you have to keep going afterwards.

Our sprint specialists James Philips and Steve Young aren't only dangerous when a race is comes down to a bunch sprint but they also compete in intermediate sprints along the way.

Unlike with a final sprint intermediates offer you no respite afterwards. If you aren't conditioned for such an effort, your body will collapse. Here is how they train to survive the repeated punishment.

3 Sets:

Two with 20s at 200% right into a 6min40s-Tempo-Threshold effort at 85-100%.

One with 1min at 140% right into a 6min-Tempo-Threshold effort at 80-98%.

And then we do the final sprint: 15s at 225% of FTP! Make sure that you anticipate the efforts: ramp up cadence before they begin and mental prepare yourself to keep pushing once the sprint is over. Do not stop pedalling - just breath and try to regather your composure. This is an essential skill for racing on Zwift.

It was a hard session but it is well structured with recovery, as you can see sometimes it builds sprint up and up and up.

There is an issue with the Power readings, I can be happily constant with cadence and it drops from 170w to 120w for a couple of seconds and then straight back up, this cannot be me doing that and have logged a support call with Wahoo. Out of 31 "stages" I lost 10 due to not keeping at the withing the required power zone

Saturday morning I went out to do 10K and instead did around 8 miles in the last couple of miles is the big hill of Rochdale Road, my legs felt super heavy and tried to keep my HR at 161 on the flats and downhill, no more than 170 on the uphill. It felt good to do a longer run and a good session.

I have now taken the Local Legend status for "Oddies to the Haggate" segment

Rather than do the prescribed Sunday session from TrainingPeaks, I opted to do a few laps of Watopias "Tempus Fugit" course, it is nice and flat and has two segments to challenge you, the first is a sprint and managed to knock some time of it, down to 41 seconds. The other is an endurence that last week I did in 11 minutes, my best today jusy over 12 minutes

So a nice easy 5k tomorrow!

I have to confess I have not run since I did a half marathon some weeks back, nor blogged!

Running has taken a back seat and the Kickr been my only training regime, I have got used to the setup and thought for this post talk about what I have found useful and how to structure my training now in the winter.

First of all, how to set up the bike in the room, it is mandatory to have a fan blowing at you, it is sweaty enough. I have bought a cradle for the iPad and have a phone holder on order, that will use the Garmin cradle (phone is for the Zwift companion app, more on that later).

I have subscribed to Zwift which makes the whole drudgery of turbo training actually fun, it was easy to setup to sync with TrainingPeaks, Garmin and Strava, annoyingly it doesn't just go into Garmin and then out to the other two like the Garmin gear does.

Zwift itself has a great interface and with the iPhone the "companion app" which is supposed to give a better view at your current speed, cadence, power and HR, however, it very rarely connects and I am not sure if it is a WIFI, Bluetooth or service issue, I do see other users complain from time to time so assume it is not me!

So after a trial ride on Friday 6th November (the day the Kickr arrived), I got to work trying the features out.

Zwift fundamentally is a game and virtual world, you ride in realtime with other users of smart trainers. There are events, training sessions and gear to unlock, the more you ride or complete certain segments/routes.

Strava shows you all the usual readings, now I have Power which is the best way to train on the bike, these power meters cost a small fortune to fit on bikes so never bothered. Now my bike training will be centred around power and the first job is to work out your Full Threshold Potential (FTP), happily, there is a training session to do this!

I chose to do the shorter version, FTP's are worked out using your best effort over 20 minutes (over more brutal ways are done by professionals) this one takes around 45 minutes, has a warm-up and down segments and the 20 minutes bit, slap in the middle.

It worked out my FTP was 191W which I then enter into TrainingPeaks so that planned sessions use this for %Max FTP and Strava so it knows how well I am performing, in 6-8 weeks I will perform the same FTP test and hopefully it will go up!

I have purchased ($9.99) a basic plan in TrainingPeaks and this automatically puts the sessions into Zwift on the day I am doing the workout. During the workout, it uses ERG mode which means you can still enjoy the scenery and company of other riders, but the trainer will disregard the hills etc and set the resistance on the trainer to ensure you are cycling whatever Wattage you are supposed to be training at. Whist you are riding, the game will give you a heads up to what is coming and encouragement to stick to the mission i.e. cadence and wattage which is super helpful.

So next week I start training in earnest and promise to get back running!

Laters

Mark
 

Run run run

This week was a very running centric plan, the cycling has taken a back seat and felt great to do a "regular' training week. Historically this was 2 x RRR training runs, a track session or pacey 5k and a Long Slow Run (LSR).

On the cycling front, I have a new profile picture which my son has crafted in photoshop (was hoping for a few pounds to be shaved off!) merging my two sport photos, the Bangor 10k (the one I had to run in shoes) and the first Sportive I did the other week.

So Monday started with a good training session with RRR group B, the route I had tried out on the Saturday before, this time though from the club and as we ran back, I could have peeled off home but felt strong and carried on to the club, a run just shy of 10 miles and 5th on the "Tiny Rebel" segment and a PR on the final sprint back to the club.

Most talk around the route was on the number of chippys open and how the smell is so good! 

 

Tuesday I had a jaunt around Royton and felt good to have a bit of pace in my legs, again 5th on "Tiny Rebel" some of the paths were dark and a reminder winter is coming!

After a nice rest day on Wednesday, it was back to training with the RRR on Thursday  

I move to 3rd on Tiny Rebel and a run just shy of 9 miles, this time the smell of chippys was too much and succumbed to pudding, chips and curry afterwards!

On Sunday I was originally going to cycle with the SIP on a nice hilly route but decided to do a Half Marathon instead

I had not really prepped, hydration or food so by mile 8 it was tough going and the route began to go uphill, I could happily have turned for home but wanted to complete a half marathon and pushed on.

The first half of the route does not need any stops for lights and so on, after Middleton, it was a regular stop and start which gives some rest for the chest, but the legs I kept having to swing to keep them from tightening up.

For some time I have been thinking of getting a "turbo trainer" and as the weather gets worse and the days shorter it pays dividends to turn to cycle on a trainer. So thankfully Wahoo has started to take orders again, the demand for any kind of training equipment is strong and the supply, patchy at best as the pandemic rolls on.

The model I have gone for is the Kickr and have friends with these and they speak very highly of the quality, it can simulate up to 20% hills which is plenty enough for me!

https://uk.wahoofitness.com/devices/bike-trainers/kickr

Hopefully it will arrive in the next few weeks as it is a backorder.

Getting more running in my training

My "on route" photo from last Saturday's "Great Yorkshire Sportive" has now arrived and a big thanks to Richard Sharpe "SI Events" for taking a cool picture.

On Monday there was no RRR Group B training night as nobody could make it, I decided to do a 10k at a reasonable effort, the route is a regular for RRR and my calf was painful going up any hill. Overall I felt strong and got some good segment results.

I took a break from the gym, in training last week I overdid things and so gave myself a recovery window, the calf still is a struggle, the reason I switched to more cycling was to train whilst it healed, as I ramp the running back up it is haunting me.

On Thursday we merged the top two groups (staying under the rule of six) and did a 7.5 loop, with the run to the club and back it was around 8.9 miles.

The aim was 8:30 pace and the lads worked hard and we achieved it, running in the winter is borning as the lanes are dark and soggy so stuck on the roads. Having runners to chat with (Covid inevitably is on discussion, especially on how it affects races planned and the next year) so that does something to lessen the boring street running.

On Saturday Recce of the Middleton lollipop, or at least my version of it, in this case just shy of 6 miles from my house and back.

It has 3 miles downhill and then the hard work coming back, the calf is still tight but kept the HR down and apart from the people milling around the road parallel to Chadderton Hall park as they get in/out of cars.

There are two segments for this stretch:

Run to the Cafe! - I can smell the Bacon

And then for on the way back

Run away from the Bacon butties

I tried hard for this segment but dodging people and that put pay for a good result.

All in all a good run and the route will be okay with my group on Monday

On Sunday I went out for a ride with the SIP Cycling Club, low numbers this week... just the two of us but no bother and we have good weather and Tatton Park was full of cyclists, a testament to the nice climate.

I tried my Le Col knee warmers for the first time, did the job, once I got used to them and adjusted them correctly as they were riding up at first.

The route is a good one, once you get out of Manchester that is! We stopped for a bacon butty at the usual cafe in Knutsford and then headed around Mobberley to Wilmslow

So back on track and onto the next week!