Catch the pigeon, catch the pigeon... Dave's training blog

If you’re old enough to remember that catchphrase then you'll remember Wacky Races. And so my story begins, in fact the old Mallorcian man that was part of the dispersing crowd looked like Dick Dastardly – thin, frail, with a slim pointy moustache and a devious look in his eye... yes there was panic in the sleepy villages of Mallorca the other week as Ben cycled around in his Lycra shorts, but that's not Ben's fault, it's mine.

You see a week last Friday I was support for Ben. Now what he didn't realise is that at 5' 7'' (well, with 3 pairs of socks on!) I could hardly reach the pedals of his big shiny truck, plus I’m not used to driving a mini lorry. You can imagine the fright in a little sleepy village when they see a blingy red sports truck swerving down the road with what seems like no-one driving (well you could make out a pair of hands and some tufts of hair just protruding from the wheel, but that was it!).

It always helps when, as a support vehicle, you know where you're going... "Morning Dave," – I could swear I heard Ben rattle as he got out of the truck, there's so many supplements he's taking lately. "So, where we going?" I replied. "Well, I thought...." as soon as I heard that word "thought" I knew that there was no plan… I was in trouble.

"I'll meet you in Arenal", I confidently agreed and set of to get ahead and chill out with a coffee. I swear I sat down for only 3 minutes after finding a cafe 20km into the journey, and there he was in the corner of my eye already. I jumped into the road like Billy Elliot to grab his attention, and to stop him, I’m such a nerd I need to plan and hate not being organised. He went gliding past. "Not stopping," he shouted. I screamed back at him to ask directions, “Cala D'or" I heard faintly. Bloody hell that's the other side of the island and numerous ways to get there. God I hate life…

****** Half an hour later & the phone rings *******

"Where are you?" said Ben in a stroppy tone. "Where am I? Where am I? Stressed – trying to find a bloody needle in a haystack!", I replied. "It's a lovely ride this, by the coast, sun shining, nice breeze!" said Ben. The coast? The coast! I was miles away and losing tufts of hair by the minute. You get the picture but it got better, at least when I caught up with him about 3 hours from the start, you know he's starting to move at some pace!!!!

Back to the less stressful task of training with him. The day before our ‘adventure’ I rode with Ben, South to North and back – 135km, great to spend some quality time together and train, talk, get some fresh air and appreciate our wonderful island. You should have seen his face light up when at 70km we had a full English brekkie treat at a British bar in Alcudia. This was Ben's toughest weeks training to date, 4 continuous days, 600km, it was by no means easy but he cracked it, with a smile and not too many aches & pains. That's a massive boost to Ben and his confidence is soaring. I'm really chuffed with his progress and Ben is duly proud of what he has achieved to date.

In terms of timescales, we are now half way through the training schedule that I set with Ben and he can now tackle a tough riding week at 50% capacity of his target weekly ride. Ben's on track. The problem we now face is that it's impossible for Ben to increase the volume of bike hours with work and family commitments. So I’m devising a tough gym plan to challenge his cardio system and throwing in some eye watering endurance leg work to take him to the next level.

I must say we do have fun training and have a great rapport, I do give Ben some stick on my blogs sometimes but I assure you he gets his own back. In the gym last week I asked him to do some hanging leg raises, it involves hanging from a static bar from the wall. The bar is 6ft plus off the floor. "Don't know that one, show me", he said with a straight face. “Hmmm OK" I said as I stood under the bar, concentrating on my leap. Well a full stretch with my hands above my head (as if I have a revolver pointing at me) leaves me 6 inches short! I jumped and just managed to hold on – he had a grin as he knows I normally need a box to get up. He walked over to the bar, easily grabbed it and started swinging his legs like a little kid on a swing

Cheeky git… I always get my own back; he knows he pays the price. You see Ben, you think I keep losing count with reps, I don't, I just add up all your practical jokes for the week and add them to your rep total…easy. As Muttley would say "heeeeeeheeeeeeeheeeeeeeheeeeee".



Q Rings, weight loss and three painful parts!

Hi everyone

I had a great week last week! I did 4 back-to-back rides – Wednesday 50k, Thursday 135k, Friday 200k and then another 200k on Saturday.

I’m chuffed to bits with myself. I’m so happy that my body allowed me to do the distance and the time on the bike, and I felt strong throughout it all. This gives me even more confidence that I can do the ride next year. I still have lots of training to do and am nowhere near ready yet but I will be on the day.

People think I have loads of time for training and that the ride is a long way off, but it really is close and I have to push as hard as I can to be ready for next year.

After these 4 days on the bike I discovered out a few problems that I’m working on now. The main problem is pain in the 3 points of contact on the bike - my hands, feet and bum.

I’m going to go back to the shoe company that did my insoles as they are better but my toes are killing me, so I need to try and fix this. My bum is still killing me as well, so I’m now trying new seats to see if I can find one that’s better for me. My hands hurt because I’m putting too much weight on them, so to help with that I’m going to train my core a lot harder at the gym. I’m raising my handle bars by 1cm, tilting them up a little and trying a new gel strap that wraps around the handle bars to see if that helps.

I am also trying to strip weight off the bike too. A new carbon seat post should save me 50gr, new seat 25gr, new carbon pedals, which move out a little wider to help on the pressure on your knees and hips, save 60gr.

I’m also going to try something called Q rings. Q rings are the 2 plates at the front of the bike that the pedals are attached to, and instead of being round they’re oval! This gives me 2 more teeth on the pedal stroke down when my leg is at the angle with the most force and 2 teeth less on the angles where my legs have less force. This should make my rides faster and help me recover quicker. I could write a whole essay on the things, but if you’re interested in knowing more about the Q ring just Google it.

With the Q rings I’m also getting new pedal arms, so in total I’ll have lost 235gr off the bike. Don’t even ask me about the price as it is getting ridiculous! What I can tell you is, it’s a lot cheaper to lose weight at Slimming World than trying to do it on a bike!

I’ve sent my bike off for the changes so this week I’ll be in the gym doing some really good training to gain more power for speed, core training for my hands and back and also massive cardio to strip off more fat. I’m after no fat at all - I just want skin!

Love the comments on Facebook and the website, Keith Walters seems to be having the time of his life on his bike, well done to him. Thanks to Dave my trainer for his funny blogs (just to let you know I always get him back every week after his blog taking the mick, but he never tells you! Numb nuts Dave is what I call him - he needs to find a better saddle too!)

And well done to John my ride buddy over here in Mallorca for doing his first 200k last Saturday.

Keep you posted

Love

Ben

Crash, bang, wallop.....oh what a picture, what a picture - Dave's training blog

Old Jetta, 12 years old (or 80 something in dog years) flinched again as Ben went hurtling towards the ground. I could see him wobbling out of the corner of my eye – not surprising really as he was trying to ride the e-roller with no hands!

Blood trickled from a cut on his leg, his dodgy Flashdance headband looked like a crooked pirates’ bandana, and I can tell you he didn't look too fetching in his Lycra pants!

"OK - time for a break!" …Yes, leg break if you don't keep your hands on the bloody bike!

That was last Thursday and as part of Ben's training he has an e-roller (check it out on You Tube - most of the videos show people falling off!) It's an advanced stationary cycling system for your bike, and I can tell you it's an art to ride. For endurance Ben’s been putting in 4 hour stints, and it's boring... really boring, and he hates it! And, as he has the attention span of a goldfish, he likes to attempt party tricks! Hence he's covered in bruises and his dogs are on valium.



A possible solution to Ben's attention span!



Ben's best training sessions are always outside, fresh air, variety of scenery, mountains - and there's no better training ground than Mallorca. This week’s training is a bit of a milestone for Ben, it's going to be the toughest yet and a real gauge of where he is in his European quest to cycle 6,000km. So Wednesday night is a 75km night ride with John, followed by a 100km on Thursday which I'll join him on, then Friday and Saturday will be 200km. Four back to back rides with the last two at distances which Ben proposes to sustain for a 6-week period in April 2011.


This is a massive, massive event for Ben and a turning point in his training, a positive week and he's off and flying to the next phase. To crash and burn – well that's not even worth contemplating how tough that is mentally.

So Ben needs all the support he can to motivate and push him through the pain barrier. Please send Ben your thoughts and wishes this week to spur him on and get him home before the dogs start to worry!