Pawsed

Written for a blogpost:

A change in approach is afoot, and it’s partly the fault of  Super Quaich champ Gary Macdonald (I’m not taking sole responsibility here).
Okay, so after an improvement last season, brought about by a sudden increase in bike miles with a new, longer-commute, job, I’d already started thinking about doing some ‘actual training’ over the summer. The problem was I didn’t really know where to start, and started flicking through books I’d bought years ago, digging out the equally vintage heart rate monitor from the sock drawer. Which is where Gary comes in. Sort of. He wasn’t in my sock drawer. That would just be weird.
I was chatting online with him for the purpose of an interview to be printed in the Dig in at the Dock programme. During the course of this he mentioned Espresso Cycle Coaching a couple of times, with a certain Mr Lines forming 50% of the staff (Gary Hand being the other half – this is a duo with individually impressive palmares). And from there the snowball gathered pace in my head.
I put off doing anything until I had started physio on a troublesome knee, but after having it determined that the errant joint didn’t have to stop me riding, the plunge was taken. So it was that after work yesterday I found myself (entirely aptly) drinking coffee with Espresso’s Davie Lines, being talked through heart rate zones, looking at ridiculously detailed graphs, and learning of the advantage of power meters.
On power meters, as a momentary digression, the idea of one was completely sold. I got home, Googled, and… I think I’ll shelve that particular option till I see if I can stick to the training plan and have worked out exactly how to rob the bank.
To return to the topic at hand, what was interesting to me in the main was how relatively simple it would be to slot training into my daily routine. I already ride about seven and a half hours a week just commuting. I can extend that really easily if I want. Some nights I can tag on half an hour to the usual 45 minutes. Some days I can pop out at lunchtime, and there’s a young guy not long started in the office here who in winter suggested he was going to set up a lunchtime chaingang in the summer.
I’ve never ridden a chaingang. I’m not a sociable ‘club’ type. But now it feels like it might make sense.
I can make sure on a Saturday or Sunday morning that I make my two to three hour sojourn a regular occurence. And if anything the hardest part would seem to be factoring in one weekday a week to be off the bike. For a daily commuter that’s going to be hard going. I’m going to resent the bus and tram. I’m going to feel like I’m cheating. But, fingers crossed, I’m going to feel the benefits.
The ‘power’ option is there to properly assess progress, given I can get on a static bike at Pedal Power, where they have an office, then go back to be re-tested a few months later. Heart rate on its own isn’t the best indicator, but for the time being will be my main focus. I just need to work out how to get my Lezyne GPS to work again, then pair the HRM chest strap to it…
The aim is clearly the start of the next cross season (where, embarrassingly, I’ll miss the Callander opener which Davie co-organises). But there should be little indicators along the way. I’m lookng through possible sportives. And then there will hopefully be the Peebles Love Cross event again. And Strava, there are always the Strava PBs.
The old cross bike, my Cotic X, will be receiving a new rear wheel shortly (once I’ve built it) and become the weekend ride of choice for a while. At the start of May I’m getting a bamboo bike homebuild kit (something I’ve always wanted to do) to replace the ageing, and about-to-fall-apart, Kaffenback, as my commuter. Both of which I’m hoping will spur me on to get out and enjoy the bike.
The real progress indicator will be that first race-proper, and looking around at the riders about me. I’m hoping to see some new faces.
Of course those new faces won’t quite be at the elevation of Lines or Macdonald.
Yet.