SportsShoes Blog

I’ve just got back from a training camp in Majorca and it’s the best I’ve felt in a long time! A change of scenery is always good and the week was good for my head as well as the legs!
I was sharing a flat in Port de Pollenca with Joanna Rowsell and Claire Galloway, Claire being a recent addition to the training group. She’s come from a rowing background and was in the middle of a medical degree at Oxford which she’s having a break from whilst she gives the team pursuit a go. It’s pretty handy having her around, whenever anyone wants to know something science or health related it’s like ‘Ask Claire!’
It was a pretty relaxed atmosphere but we did a good week of training on decent roads and I surprised myself at how much training I could cope with, it’s definitely the best week I’ve put together since my accident so that’s a good sign! My leg is bearing up ok too and since I got orthotics for my shoes to compensate for the slight leg length difference I’ve had no back or knee pain…happy days! The weather wasn’t amazing, although a LOT better than when we went in March and we did have a couple of days where it was clear skies and 28 degrees so not bad for October!
Now it’s coming to November it’s time for the Academy to start again so riders have started moving in already. I’m looking forward to the winter training and getting in a good routine again of track and road and this year, gym too. I always enjoyed the gym as a junior rider and loved circuit training when I was a runner so it’ll definitely be a session to look forward to! We’re also doing skills rides on mountain bikes which should be um…interesting! The less said about my skills on a mountain bike the better but I agree it’ll be a good way of improving bike handling skills and hoiking a heavy mountain bike around trails won’t be bad for the fitness either! Fingers crossed I stay healthy and injury free then it’ll be a great winter!

I’m now back in training after breaking my left femur and right wrist 4 months ago, and it feels great! As was reported on the site, on the morning of Friday 7th May myself and my teammates set out on a normal training ride of three hours when our group was involved in an accident with a car. Basically, to cut the long story short, the car hit me directly and the outcome was the two broken bones. Obviously I was absolutely gutted, but 4 months on it’s time to get over it and I’ve now been back on the bike for 6 weeks!
I started off slowly, literally doing 30 minutes of riding at a time but now I’ve built up to just over 15 hours a week on the bike, aswell as 2 sessions in the gym.
Obviously I know there’s a long way to go until I’m even properly fit again but its so encouraging that everything is going in the right direction and I know its just a matter of time, hard work and being patient!

If you have all followed one of our bloggers  Hannah Mayo’s  progress in her sport of cycling then you may have heard that she and 4 other members of her team were involved in a car accident in Belgium when a car ploughed into them during a training ride.

All 5 members of the team suffered injuries and because Hannah was on the outside she suffered the brunt of the impact and came off the worst.

Hannah broke both her legs, Lucy Martin suffered cracked vertebrae, Emma Trott sustained a broken collarbone and Katie Colclough was treated for concussion. The fifth rider, Sarah Reynolds, suffered a badly cut chin.

We are told that Hannah and the rest of the team will be returning to this country very soon to continue with their recovery.

All of us here at sportsshoes just want to wish Hannah and the rest of the team a very speedy recovery.

Good Luck Hannah, we are all behind you x

I’m back out in Belgium now and training and racing on the road! Late March and April has seen me enter the start of a huge block of racing, starting with the first World Cup of the road season, Trofeo Binda in Varese, Italy. Being my second World Cup on the road, in addition to Plouay GP at the end of last season, I knew what sort of standard to expect, as all of the big hitters would be there! As there isn’t a U23 category on the road for females, all of the road racing we do is senior women’s so the standard is always pretty high! The race included a large lap of about 60km with 2 nasty, steep climbs and a long dragging ascent, then continued on to an 18km finishing circuit with more climbs to complete the race distance of 136km! After the first steep climb the race split into about five groups and I ended up in the third group of about 20 along with my team mate Katie. From this point we rode on towards the finish circuit, keeping the pressure on along the flat to try and catch the group in front but the group was simply too big to work together and there were only about 5 of us doing any turns on the front, so we never made contact with the main bunch again. When we entered the finish circuit we were told we had to stop and were pulled out of the race. This can sometimes happen in road racing, as the commissaries (race organisers) have to stop the traffic for the race, so if the race is too split up then this makes it difficult. So, in the name of safety anyone who is too far back has to stop. In fact, over half of the field didn’t finish. However, Nicole finished in 6th which was a good start to her World Cup campaign.

The next weekend, Sunday 4^th April brought the second World Cup to Belgium! The 118km course for Tour of Flanders looped in and around the Oudenaarde area for the first half of the race, then ended up in Ninove. Again, it was a tough course but in a completely different way to Binda. There were lots of long, flat cobbled sections, ranging from about 500m to 2k and also 9 climbs. However, none resembled the climbs from the first World Cup, in any way shape or form! Some were cobbled, such as the Bosburg and the Muur - the last two climbs - and others were on normal roads but ranged from in distance and gradient. The race started off well and I fulfilled my role for the team which was to be active at the front of the bunch for the first 26km before the first cobbled section, then lead Nicole into the cobbles as far up in the group as possible. I managed to take her into the cobbles in the top 10 so was pleased to have got my job done, but keen to stay in the top group as long as possible. I got over the first climb, the Kluisberg, in the main bunch, which showed a definite improvement in my climbing, but on the flat roads after the climb, misfortune struck as my chain snapped in two! We race with radios so that we can have contact with our manager and coach, Simon and the mechanic, Martyn who ride in the convoy of cars that follow the race; so I called over the radio that my chain had snapped so that they could give me a spare bike. Unfortunately, as my teammate Lucy had crashed a little while earlier, the car was at the back of the convoy so it took quite a long time to actually reach me. By that point, not only had the first group completely gone past, but the second group, third and fourth, as well as other small groups of riders… so it was pretty much race over by then. I wanted to finish as far up as possible though, so I kept moving myself up and finished 108^th. I was pleased to have made it to the finish of such a tough course but disappointed that my chain had snapped on a day when I had good legs.

The day after Flanders was GP Dottingies, which was again quite local to our Oudenaarde base. The field contained a lot of riders from the World Cup so that fact, combined with a race distance of 121km, cross winds and tired legs meant that it was to be another hard day in the saddle! I made a lot of stupid mistakes, such as getting caught near the back in the cross wind section and starting the climb at the back of the bunch, meaning that fairly soon I was gritting my teeth and struggling to stay with the race! I didn’t end up finishing the full race distance, as I ended up too far back so consequently was pulled out. Again, disappointing, but not really that surprising considering my bad positioning and fatigue from the previous days efforts.

After a recovery ride on Tuesday and a 4 hour drive to Holland, the next race was Drentse 8, a 141km race in the Drenthe region of Holland. With the next World Cup, Ronde van Drenthe taking place two days later, the field contained most of the World Cup riders, plus a few others from Dutch teams. It was quite windy again with cobbles and crosswinds to catch you out but this time I was prepared! Having learnt from my mistakes on Monday in Dottingies I fought my way to the front of the bunch and managed to stay there – finding that it makes life a whole lot easier being in the shelter of the top 20 rather than hanging on at the back as there is a lot less physical effort required! It was a good race and I was pleased with how I rode, keeping a good position, going with attacks and even picking up 3^rd place in one of the ‘primes’ (sprints within the race, usually for points or money.) With around 25km to go, a group of 11 riders, including GB rider Lucy Martin, attacked and gained a 15 second advantage on the main bunch. This gap fluctuated between 10-20 seconds but was still maintained until the finish. I was hoping to be competitive in the bunch sprint, but with around 15km to go the effort of the race really caught up with me and I was cramping up big style! There was no way I could do more than 2 pedal revs out of the saddle, so tried to sprint in the saddle and rolled in at the finish for 49^th place. However, this was the best race I have ridden so far this year so was really happy and also chuffed to bits for Lucy who came 8^th and got the prize for the best young rider.

I’ve been getting in the miles on the road after the National Senior Track Champs. The Nationals went really well, I came away with 3 silver medals and 1 bronze and a new PB for the 3k pursuit, 3.43.3

After then it was back on the road for a 24 hour week of road and rollers! My new flatmate Katie had moved in so we did some really good rides, occasionally getting lost as we explored! One particular 5 hour ride turned into a 6 hour epic where we only just got back before it got dark!!

We’ve also been doing quite a bit of test work at the moment, with ramp tests, skinfold measurements and submaximal power tests at the EIS, with the aim being to repeat them in 6 weeks time to test for specific improvements.

Raced a lot since my last post! After Germany the next big race was Holland Hills, a UCI race which was really tough….basically, anyone who thinks Holland is flat would definitely change their mind after looking at the course! After only 4km disaster struck as there was a crash, which brought down my team mate Katie, who crashed into my back wheel.  Thinking I was ok I carried on, then realised that my wheel had been damaged in the crash so I had to wait for a replacement. This took longer than expected as the car was back at the crash sorting out a spare for Katie, so in the end we both had to chase back on to the main group for a good 45min! I spent pretty much the rest of the race in the main group then after leading out my teammate Sharon into one of the climbs I finally cracked and was dropped, finishing in the second group in 50th place.

After Holland Hills, we had a hard week of training, with 3 races and hard training days in between to try and simulate the sort of fatigue we would be feeling in a couple of weeks time when we did Trophee d’Or, a stage race in France.  In one of the races in Hoeleden I got another 2nd place to GB rider Joanna Rowsell, which I was fairly pleased about but disappointed I didn’t win. 

After a tough week it was time to ease off a bit then make the very long journey to France for Plouay World Cup. On the way, during one of the service station stops I managed to get in touch with school to get my A level results! I got an A in Psychology and 2 B’s in Human Biology and English Lit, so was really happy…..and celebrated with….a Magnum ice cream!!

Once we got to our hotel for the race we met up with Olympic and World Champion Nicole Cooke who was also riding for GB that weekend, and went to look around the course. It was basically a 19km circuit which consisted of climbs and descents with very little flat in between, which was to be completed 6 times - so I knew it was going to be hard once it got to race day!

Saturday came and it was as expected - hard! It rained early on in the race which was pretty scary once it came to descending the hills! I finished the race after getting dropped in a group of about 20 riders - but we were too far down on the winners time to be given a placing.

From Plouay it was another long drive to Bourges where we had a couple of easy days then into Trophee d’Or.

Well I’m now back in Oudenaarde with the other Academy girls and its going well.  I can feel myself getting fitter and its meant I can ride more aggressively and get more out of the racing.   The last couple of weeks have seen me get my first podium placings out here, with a win too!

My first result was in Diksmuide, which was a criterium race.  I broke away with Emma Trott and Dani King, both British riders who had come to race in Belgium, with Emma being based here full time.  Myself and Emma stayed away to gain about a minute on the main bunch.  In the sprint, I attacked too early, so Emma could come round me and go first into the last corner.  Out of the corner there was only 100m until the line and so I was beaten!  A couple of days later though I managed to get a win in Herentals, also a criterium. With my parents and sister watching, as they had come over from the UK, I really wanted to do a good ride and was aggressive in the first few laps.  Eventually, having attacked into a corner which lead out on to a cobbled section, I managed to get away.  With my teammates helping to chase down attacks from the main bunch, I spent the rest of the race riding on my own to take a solo win!
 
From Herentals it was straight to Germany for a crit in Dortmund on the Saturday night.  With a UCI race, Sparkassen Giro the next day, it was a quality field and a bit of an eye-opener coming in for the bunch sprint and surrounded by so many riders! With a lap and a half to go I had managed to get myself in the top 6 but then I hit a stone in the road, and looked down at my wheel for a couple of seconds and found that I had completely lost my place. Finished at the top end of the bunch.
The next day it was Sparkassen Giro, an 88km race which was ‘lumpy’ with one main climb.  I climbed okay and managed to keep myself in the main bunch. Unfortunately I couldnt get myself to the front of the group again but managed to get 18th place, which upon reflection I decided wasn’t too shabby.

After we came back from Germany, my family were still around for another couple of days so I spent my rest day with them which was really nice. Had a look round Oudenaarde and sampled the local cakes which I have to say aren’t too shabby either!

I did it I - conquored the Fred - I managed to ride the whole thing from start to finish - and quite a challenge it was too.

Here’s my story.

After rising at 4am scoffing a big bowl of porridge and a banana and driving up to Coniston in the lakes we found ourselves at the start line of the Fred at 7.30am. A qucik ‘dib’ of the electronic timer and we were off. As a sportive event, rather than a pure race, it’s not a mass start. You can set off whenever you like between 6am and 9am and through the magic of modern day timing devices your split and finish times are recorded as you go.

I think I’d sort of mentally blocked out the whole idea of riding so far - basically because I’d never done it previously and I was a tad scared of how I’d get on. I’d also not taken much notice of the route or tried to work out where the climbs were and which bits might be easy. All I knew was that it was a long way (112 miles) with a lot of very steep climbs.

As we cruised along over the first 10 miles or so I didn’t feel all that great and as my pals were all chatting away and obviously enjoying the experience I was keeping quiet and avoiding doing too much work by soft tapping or drafting behind other riders.

As we neared the summit of the first big climb (Kirkstone pass) I started to feel a bit better and enjoyed the run down the otherside - which nearly ended in a big crash for my mate Pete whose bike started to ’shake its head’ violently on the steep descent after getting thrown off line by a manhole cover.

I got dropped on the main road to Keswick as my running legs just couldn’t hold the pace of the fitter and faster roadies but thankfully my mates had waited for me in town and we all set off together down Borrowdale.

As we trundled along Derwent water I started to feel very jaded again and the thought of the first really steep climb (Honister) was preying on my mind. I let my friends go as we entered Seatoller at the foot of the climb and nipped to the loo for a much needed ‘rest’.

After this I climbed Honister without too much trouble and zoomed down the otherside to meet the gang at the first food stop at the Buttermere youth hostel.

A good feed and a drink did the trick and I felt pretty good as we climbed the long drag of Newlands pass but on the rolling roads at the other side I lost touch with the team again and this time decided to just let them ago and ride this thing at my pace - they were all riding stronger than me, I wasn’t feeling too great and I knew if I tried to keep up with them I’d just slow them down and probably blow-up in the process.

After meeting the guys at the summit of Whinlatter we all set off on the long run round to the second feed stop at Calder Bridge via Ennerdale. When I got to the stop my mates were fed and watered and ready to leave so I insisted that they went without me. I filled my bottles, grabbed a tuna sarnie and a piece of flapjack and set off down the road munching as I went.

In a perverse way I was actually looking forward to the last 20 mile section which is by far the hardest stretch of the whole ride. After a quick ride down the valley the climb of Hardknott pass finally comes into view and what a beast it is. From the valley bottom you can see road weaving up into the clouds with an army of ant like cyclists pushing and honking their way up to the summit. At the foot of the climb is a large warning sign advising of severe gradients and a statement saying ‘unsuitable for cycles’ - here we go!!

With dogged determination and lots of under the breath swearing I managed to haul my sorry butt to the top of the climb passing dozens of walking / hobbling cyclists (and a few cars!!) en-route. After the climb comes a seriously steep descent followed by an undulating road of about 4 miles before the last real climb of the day appears. This one (Wrynose) is just as steep as Hardknott but thankfully not as long and as I topped out I knew there was only about 6 miles of the 112 left to go and much of it was down hill. The problem was that it had now started to rain / hail quite badly and it was VERY cold. The descent off Wrynose is stupidly steep and with the water and, believe it or not, snow that was on the road it was quite a challenge to stay upright.

When I got to a marshalled road crossing I asked how far it was to the finish - ‘only about 10 minutes’ was the reply - welcome words I can tell you.

The final couple of miles whizzed by and soon I was dibbing at the finish having completed  one of the toughest day rides in the country.

There were times on the way round when I started to think - ‘why am I doing this’ and ‘never again’ but I’ve done plenty of these endurance type events now and even in these dark times, I knew that come Monday I’d be plotting how I could do things differently next time (and I was…)

For the record I did the 112 mile course in a very average time of 7h 48 mins (which is actually classed as a ‘1st class’ time for this event), my average heart rate was 154 BPM (85%), my max was 179 BPM (99%) and (according to my Polar) I burned 7954 calories over the course of the day.

No wonder I enjoyed my extra large Pepperoni deep pan pizza when I got home!!!

Now I know what a long ride is like I need to get some serious training in for La Marmotte in July.

Well I’ve got a big challenge already in the bag for 2009. Me and a group of my cycling pals are going out to France in July to ride La Marmotte - it’s a 173km road cycle route around the Alps which finishes with the famous Tour de France climb up Alpe d’Huez. It attracts around 5000 riders each year so it should be quite a day out.

We are also planning to ride the Fred Whitton in the Lakes in May which is 100 mile tour of the Lakes taking in all the big road passes. Although there are around 200 riders it is estimated that only around 15% actually manage to ride the whole course without resorting to pushing!!! Should be fun….

Before all that though is the very serious business of the Santa Cycle - this year it’s on the 20th December and if you’ve got a bike and a santa suit you’re welcome to come along. It all started about 13 years ago when a small group of Mountain Bikers from Eldwick had an idea to do a Christmas ride dressed in santa suits - it was a great laugh and so a tradition was born and now each year around 20 santas make the journey from Eldwick to Bolton Abbey tea rooms via Ilkley. I think this will be my 6th santa cycle (I’m a relative newbie) and I can tell you it is such a great day out. People always ask if we do it for charity and the answer is no - we don’t want anyone to feel obliged to give money we just want to spread some festive cheer - the looks on the kids faces as we cycle round Ilkley singing carols is just amazing and the number of honks, cheers and waves we get from passing motorists of all ages is ace. A few years ago we even managed to get on the front page  of the Ilkley Gazzette as a reporter spotted us and got us to pose for a photo down near the river. Apparently we also feature in Bolton Abbey’s brochure - they love us in the tea room and we’re usually given a free brew in return for a couple of verses of Rudolph in front of the fire (mind you that’s after we’ve spent about 300 quid on grub to fuel the fire for the return leg back over Keighley Gate).

I keep getting people saying they’ve read my blog which is great so a big hello to Romero (who, despite his name has got a stronger Yorkshire accent than me) and Tricky - one of the cycling santas who is a steel rimmed glasses and grey haired high flying bank manager by day and a Freddie Mercury impersonator by night (only ‘half’ joking - but his Freddie outfit at the 80s night we went to a few weeks ago was a sight to behold…).

Well it’s Monday and I’ve survived another 3 Peaks Cyclo Cross (my 6th).

What a day we had yesterday - a record entry of over 500, a new course record set by my Bingley Harriers team mate Rob Jebb, stunning weather and the biggest crowds I’ve ever seen at the event.

As you’ll have read in my earlier posts, I hadn’t really prepared very well (read at all) for this year’s race as I’ve been concentrating on my running instead of biking this year but as there’s a lot of off bike climbing and off road descending in the peaks my time didn’t really suffer. In fact I set my second best time around the course at 4.00 hours 46 seconds. I should be pleased with this but as a first class award goes to all those under 4 hours I feel a little bit miffed.

Anyway, what it did tell me is that I should be well capable of a sub 4 if I put a bit of time into getting bike fit before next year’s race. I’ve decided that this will be one of my target races for next year and want to see if I can find a good blend of cycling and running that will see my results improve in both disciplines.

As predicted, I didn’t feel I did too bad on the climbs and the descents but the road sections (of which there are quite a few) are my major weakness. The roadies just come steaming past me, working together in groups, and I simply can’t hang on. I reckon there’s a good 10 mins to be saved if I can up my road strength and stay with a group.

I beat my pal Pete Jowett by two mins but it’s a bit of a hollow victory as he punctured coming of Whernside which will have cost him 5-10 mins - that said staying puncture free is all part of the race and if you push too hard on the descents is very easy to nip a tube.

My running training partner Jamie Robinson did the race for the first time this year and despite admitting to be sh*****g himself on the start line he had a great, trouble and injury free ride coming home just inside 4.5 hrs - well done Jamie. I’ve spoken with him today and he’s caught the 3PX bug and is already talking about what he could do in next years race - funny how pain can be addictive!!

It was also nice to have some friends on the course spectating this year - the support I got from Jez, Mick, Steve and Ian was fantastic and even though I declined a drink from Sarah on the way up Penyghent it was a much appreciated offer. However, either Ian or me need to practise our Tour De France style rider support as I nearly broke my hand on the mirror of his van whilst trying to pass back an empty bottle…..

The old legs feel fine today - it’s amazing how different the body feels after a long cycle compared to a long run. It’s the down hill braking effect that really screws the leg muscles when running - something that just doesn’t happen when biking.

Next event is the Langdale Fell race in the lakes in 2 weeks time - I’m really looking forward to this as I had a great run there a couple of years ago and I’m keen to get round the course again.

My eldest son Max is going training with the Bingley Harriers for the first time tomorrow - he can’t wait.