I awoke around midday having had a good 4 hours sleep and feeling much better than I did at the end of the previous stage. We were heading towards TS51 in Mount Airy (MD) where all crews were required to stop and check if they’d received any time penalties during the race. If they had, they had to wait there and serve the penalty before continuing to the finish. We’d had reports that Jon and Coz were making good progress, particularly given the lumpy terrain and the two large peaks that t...

I awoke at around 11.00 pm feeling very tired and a little disorientated having only managed around 4 hours sleep. The lateness of the hour combined with the desolation of our location (Gas n Go station at TS46) and the minimal amount of external lighting made all of us a bit subdued. We busied ourselves getting everything ready and then Jon and the crew appeared; Jon riding Cozza’s bike as his had punctured within minutes of our rendezvous. The first 15 miles of my first leg were very lump...

The day started (around 7.00 am) in an eventful way as, after getting ready to start our next stage, we soon discovered that we were off the official route and therefore in the wrong place to meet Jon and Coz. We quickly put the bikes back in the RV and tried to remedy the problem. After a couple of wrong turns, some panic, and several miles in the wrong direction, we finally managed to locate the gang, thanks to our on-bike GPS systems. Jon and Coz had done a great job of riding through the ...

I awoke later that same day in Dieterick (Illinois) to prepare for the next stage. It was nice to be cycling in daylight once again. Indeed, this was my favourite time to start, as the weather got cooler as the stage progressed, plus you finished in a normal time for sleeping. It was, yet again, extremely hot but my first leg went really well despite having to negotiate several turns. The crew met me about 5 minutes earlier than scheduled and I remember feeling a little frustrated when Mike c...

My sleep was disturbed by a horrible scraping noise as someone pranged our RV. I heard Mike trying to resolve the issue but I was too tired to get involved. The next time I awoke we were at TS31 in Camdenton (MO) where the words ‘if anyone fancies any chilli there’s a big pot of it on the table over there’ met my ears. TS31 was by far, the best time station on the route, and as I’d just got my appetite back, the two bowls of chilli that I had were lovely and just what I needed. The la...

During the previous night, Jon and Coz passed the halfway point of RAAM (time taken: around 3 days and 10 hours). Unfortunately, Jon had taken a wrong turn at one point and, during the confusion, had been passed by the German team. Still, the tussle between our two teams was helping to keep us all motivated.

I woke at around 5.00 am to a clear and, at least for the moment, relatively cool morning. There was a small daschund-like dog lying in the middle of the road and the girls informed me ...

I awoke the next day at around 11.30 in Keyes, Oklahoma, to another scorcher of a day (probably the hottest so far, though to be honest it was difficult to distinguish them). I felt refreshed after a good sleep and, though I still didn’t have my appetite back yet, I tucked into my usual pre-race bowl of Raisin Bran. My stomach cramps seemed to have settled, though even the sight of a sports drink was enough to make my stomach turn. This was the stage I’d been looking forward to the most s...

This stage was to be the first attempt at our original plan of 10 hour shifts. It began at 2.00 am with Mike and Hayley as our crew. The terrain was a bit lumpy to begin with, but with a slight downhill trend and the entertainment of the odd rodent dashing across the road in front of me, things went well. Mind you, the novelty of night riding was beginning to fade, particularly when there was nothing to look at apart from the 30 metres or so of road ahead. The absence of any moonlight made th...

I awoke at around 11.00 am in a deflated airbed (no idea how it happened). The weather was baking hot and we were parked in one of those large, out of town, outdoor shopping malls that are far too common these days in the US. I was informed that we probably had about an hour before the changeover, so I had a bowl of Raisin Bran and some orange juice, and visited the restrooms in the adjacent Walmart before getting ready for the off. About 40 minutes later, the support vehicle arrived and info...

Race day arrived and we were all eager to get started. Jon had called ‘shotgun’ sometime in January to be the first to ride, so he and Corinne were on the first shift. We’d decided to work in pairs using 10 hour shifts to maximise efficiency and to rotate through a variety of daylight hours, though in the end, 8 hour shifts proved to be the best option. However, to prevent Tom and myself having too much night riding at the start, we agreed to begin (thanks to Jon and Coz) with a couple ...

Over 23800ft and 300+ miles in three days. It’s good to know that I’ve got that in the back pocket so that I can pull it out when I need it at RAAM!

I drove up to Bristol on Friday night to crash at my sister’s for the weekend – trade off was that I was to feed her cats while she was away; Bargain.   Each day of the three day sportive started at Somerton;

Day 1 took us north along the lanes towards Bristol for 102 miles, total ascent 7,512ft. I had no idea what to expect but...

Weekend of the 8th of May saw Team Human Science assemble once again at the gates of Bush Park in Teddington. This weekend we were changing the usual long steady ride for something with a little more intensity. I had mapped a route that took us to mid-Wales where my parents live and we set off in pairs to replicate the one hour on - one hour off type of riding that we would be doing during RAAM.

Mark and Jon set the pace and rattled off the first 20 miles while Tom and I settled down in the c...

We awoke to rain, which soon turned into a full blown thunderstorm once we were about 5 miles outside Bridgenorth. At one point, the storm got so bad that we stopped and took cover under an old-style brick-built bus shelter (one of the new style shelters would have been useless, give the conditions). Fortunately, the storm soon abated and we pressed on, only pausing for a break to fix a puncture in Jon’s rear tyre (though how anything managed to pierce those things was a mystery to us all)....

The day started with a short sharp climb out of Askrigg, followed by a nice little diversion across a river footbridge to rejoin or route towards Kettlewell to meet up with Cozza. After about 10 miles we hit what was probably the hardest climb of the whole trip (16% for far too long!). It was one of those climbs where if it hadn’t ended when it did, I’m not sure we’d have made it. Anyway, we did, and following a much more enjoyable descent we met up with Corinne who was sat on a bench p...

The day began with a phonecall to Scott at Alpine Bikes in Inverness who very kindly offered to repair our injured bikes free of charge (faith in humanity restored: thank you Scott). The trip to the bike shop also enabled me to purchase a new ‘pair’ of gloves. At around 11.00 am we were back by our hotel ready to start the day’s stage which thankfully, given the delayed start, was only 77 miles. Apart from some poor road conditions, the stage started well with all feeling relieved now t...

Weekend of the 28-29th April saw Team Human Science at the gates to the park at 8.30. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, they were off on another team ride. The route took them from Teddington, through Esher and Cobham, down to Guildford. From there they swung south through Godalming and joined up with the Surrey Cycle Route number 22... delightful!

I'm afraid that after that I stopped paying attention to the route that we were following, sat back and enjoyed the ride! Tom did a fantastic job of be...

My current road bike (a Trek 1200 which cost about £600 in 2007) is a little tired now. Whilst it's in for a service I'm strongly considering getting something lighter and faster to complete RAAM and John O'Groats to Land's End on.
Tempting me at the moment is a Specialised Tarmac 07 which has been reduced in price by £600 to £1400.

One issue is what the mrs will say. She may vito the idea, I think, for one of two reasons:
1. It's far too much money to spend on a rubbish cyclist.
2. She hates...

RAAM meeting (yesterday) was a great day, met up with about 30 other like-minded human beings. Some who are approaching the RAAM with slightly more intensity than I; some who seem to have the same book as I do and are reading from the very same page....now isn't that nice. Definitely came away from there stoked up. Lots of useful tips and I'll have to have a look back through my notes at some stage and make sure that they are shared with the rest of the team!

On a slightly more frustrating not...

 
courtesy of http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/08/recreational-super-vehicles.html

Woke up this morning to the winter wonderland that's kept most of us at home.
Apparently very few people managed to get in to work today, and after getting outside this morning I decided it wasn't going to be the safest time to get on the bike. After my two recent run-ins on the road I wasn't planning on taking risks today so I ended up being another one working from home.



Corinne (comment): Jon, tell me you didn't leave your trusty steed out in the SNOW?!
Jon (Reply): No, no. This picture was ...

Like Coz I'm on a rest week this week. Must be that thing where hanging around together too much brings our body clocks into sync!

This weekend was some solo riding for me doing 40 miles to the mother-in-law's house on Saturday, and then 60 miles round the local B roads on Sunday. Considering the nasty weather Sunday was only supposed to be a 40 miler, but due to the poorly signposted roads of Essex which maliciously sent me in the wrong direction I ended up shamefully having to get out the ma...

Next week (w/b 26th Jan) is rest week. Yippee. I feel tired but not too battered by the last three weeks of training. I've managed to clock up about 22.5h of low HR rowing, cycling and running and lifted more weights in the gym that I ever thought I'd care to! I don't feel that I've done too badly considering that I wasn't really training in the second half of last year, but I do feel like I am playing a game of "catch-up" and feel that I should be doing a little better than I am.

I pootled o...

With snow in the week the outlook wasn't good. However with promises of double figure weather for the weekend moral remained high.

Armed with booties,leg warmers,thermal layers (Thanks Santa!) Team Human Sciences hit the road for the 1st time in 2009........

A brisk jaunt to Windsor and back was the plan (approx 50 miles ish), even the sun made a welcome appearance to mark the occasion

The winding roads of surrey were frequent reminders that the lab is no substitute for fresh air and filthy road...

Physiology testing was completed in December '08 (Happy New Year by the way).

We completed a VO2max and lactate profile.
For those who don't know...
VO2max is the limit of how much oxygen you are able to utilise to generate energy. The higher the better.
The La profile will give us an indication of what effect we are having on our bodies at different heart rates so will help us to plan training.


Corinne:
Mass: 62.2
VO2max: 61.6



Jon
Mass: 85.5 (fatty!)
VO2max: 53.9 (worst in the team)



Mark
Mass: 67.6
VO2...

Lactate profiles today !!
for Tom and Jon.



Tom - Looking comfortable @ 350 watts !




Tom - In a zen like state of concentration



Jon - Barely breaking a sweat , testing by Dr Mark who snaps on the latex-free gloves for today..

How did they do ?

Early analysis show whilst neither may be "Lance Armtrongesque" both seem quite capable of pushing a strong pace. With a little training the miles will fly by...... Results to follow

When you set yourselves the challenge of riding over 3000 miles how do you go about setting your training schedule ?

Surely with a team composed of an exercise physiologist,strength and conditioning coach,biomechanist and a musculoskeletal injury specialist we must be able to cobble something together ?

Before christmas the team will be hitting the physiology lab to undergo a series of physiological testing including a lactate profile and the dreaded VO2max test. How will we fair ?

Keep checking...