For the past 4-5 weeks sleep has been a rare commodity. There are a few causes to this – firstly, the weather has been somewhat tropical in this region and on regular occasions it’s mid-twenties at night. Doesn’t sound a lot but it does affect my sleeping patterns. Secondly, I do not have a blackout curtain in my bedroom, this means that as soon as it’s daylight my brain switches on and I’m up – sometimes from 4am with a bit of a problem getting back to sleep. The main cause I’m led to believe is the training – as the volume is increased I’m permanently overtired and getting to sleep can be problematic and I do think that my body recovers better when it’s awake so once fatigue really does kick in I wake up every two to three hours each night.
Suzy and I compounded this issue this weekend as we rode the “Dunwich Dynamo” bike event. This classic free event starts at London Fields in Hackney on a Saturday evening. As we arrived at the park we saw hundreds of cyclists laying on the grass and just chilling, waiting for the start. When I say cyclists I use that term very loosely. Some were on shopping bikes, some on courier single speeds, some on bikes that I’d seriously not use to go to the shops for fear that they’d break under me, but here they were ready to ride the 112-mile journey from this park in east London to Dunwich Beach. There were a few guys I race with who were there for the crack and there were definitely some who were taking it far too seriously with full race kit – fully aero’d up!
As we passed 7 o’clock the numbers of cyclists doubled, tripled and soon enough you couldn’t see the grass on the park, or surrounding roads because of 3000+ cyclists ready to ride the route. Then, very casually people started riding, no specific start gun, no set time, people were just finishing their pint or burger and getting on their bike & riding. After each of us in our group (13) had a last-minute toilet break we too were off, heading through Hackney up to Epping Forest and on our way to the half-way point at Sudbury some 60-miles ahead. The night closed in and soon enough we were all riding with our flashing LED lights and simply following the red lights in the distance. This event is always based around a full-moon weekend sometime in July, unfortunately it was a bit cloudy so although we could see the moon it wasn’t lighting up the way.
We passed riders, riders passed us, it was so laid back it was scary. The residents on the route came out to support, cheering us on and stupid o’clock in the morning. Tea lights were placed along the route to confirm we were heading in the right direction.
Sudbury Fire Station was our main stop as the fireman swapped their fire engines for a mass of Barbecues and burgers and coffee were in full flow. For an event that is not organised at all, these guys were very organised. On the road again this time heading for Needham Lakes, north of Ipswich for a double expresso just to keep us awake at 2:30 in the morning. Then onto Framlingham, familiar lanes now and through to Dunwich beach at around 4:30am to watch the sun come up. As I said it was cloudy so not as awesome as we had hoped. After another coffee we rode the 20-miles back to Lowestoft and clocked in at 133 miles for the night. Off to bed for at least a couple of hours just to try & survive the Sunday.
This week started with a rare rest day on Monday, after Sunday’s Triathlon and endurance session this was a smart move as I was dog tired for the whole day and trying to do a session would be hard. I did set out to do a swim session in the river as the week before but heavy traffic meant I stood no chance in getting there on time.
Tuesday saw me ride the Honington Crit Series race near Bury St.Edmunds in the evening. I had deliberated quite a lot in entering as I would be in the senior/faster race as I was still a 2nd category rider. I was already fatigued and my training doesn’t cover intense efforts so any acceleration would see me in difficulty – however I still went. Suzy came too as she was racing in the women’s event – only her 2nd road race ever. I survived for a short while but the high-end efforts saw me dropped to a group of 4 hanging about 30-seconds behind the main bunch for pretty much the rest of the race. One guy dropped out and three of us were left to fight for 15th place. I claimed 16th and upon finishing I watched Suzy come in for 7th. All in all a great training session as opposed to sitting on a turbo trainer or wattbike in controlled conditions.
Whilst on a fairly good high from the event and grateful to catch up with team-mates I read a message that was sent to a group chat that clearly wasn’t intended for me to read – this was about me and my lack of “road race form”. I’m disappointed I read it but on the other hand glad to know what my own team-mates are thinking. Moving on….
Wednesday started with a 75-minute run before work which was completed quite well. The issues with my hip seem to be going away no so fingers crossed.
After work I headed to Stradbroke near Harleston to have a 1-2-1 with Carolyn Hatton – one of Suzy’s friends who is a swim coach. I’ve never been coached before and all my swimming has been self-taught. Kind of like reading the Highway Code and then driving a car! So I was expecting to have all sorts of horrible habits that I’d self-learned. Instead I swam a few laps warming up and she talked me through what I was doing and how I could improve my stroke – she was amazing. Layered information (coaches know the term) and real effective coach in getting the information across to newcomers – as a 46 year old guy I was unfortunately in this bracket as a swimmer! There’s definitely a very large area to improve on in the near future.
Thursday was the dreaded 2hr tempo set on the wattbike and 30-minute brick session straight after. This was the session I could seriously procrastinate about but as Suzy was still away in Manchester I had no excuse but to get on with it and nail it…which I did! I couldn’t believe it – two hours at 80-85%, I had expected dead legs after the race on Tuesday but they seemed to be fine. The air-con in the gym was still broken so a had a fan 2-feet away from my face for the whole duration just to keep me cool.
Friday was another rest day – a very busy long day at work saw me absolutely shattered and a on-hour easy ride seemed pointless considering the weekend I was just about to have.
Saturday was my long run – an 18km run before Park Run Lowestoft and once the 23km was complete I’d go for a sea swim with Suzy and Marcus. The run went brilliantly, no major issues in my joints or pace setting, no nutrition issues either. My longest run to date in this journey. The sea swim was quite the opposite – very choppy and Suzy decided not to go in so it was just Marcus and me. He’s a very competent swimmer so I was acutely aware he was simply nursing me throughout. We swam for a short while towards Lowestoft Pier before turning and then swimming into the wind, into the waves and around the Claremont Pier – something I’ve never done in my entire life. Pretty scary to be fair but I needed to break the back of this fear of swimming. I got round the pier ok but then I lost concentration and took a full mouthful of sea water and spent the next 10-minutes being sick. Session abandoned at 25-minutes 🙁
Saturday/Sunday was Dunwich of course and Sunday afternoon was the annual DAP CC barbecue round the boss’s house. I was a bit apprehensive about going as I hadn’t been out racing or riding with the guys as much this year and after the message I inadvertently read earlier in the week I was almost at the point of cancelling. I had promised to go and I wanted to catch up with a few team mates so we went.
A great afternoon and evening on the whole. I was upset that some thought it’d be funny to use me as the butt of their jokes and refer to the wrongly sent message – and with that I made my excuses and left.
All in all a roller coaster of a week, some ups and some downs. But….I’m still heading in the right direction and those who matter have supported me wholeheartedly throughout.
Training Peaks Geeks Time…
Fitness 115. Fatigue 133. Form – -1.
16 hours training. 832 TSS.
Swim – 1300. Bike 234km. Run 36.5km.