2 Days to push

The fact that I am leaving the UK to start another chapter in my life in sunny New Zealand is beginning to sink in. I changed a few simple lines on the website to state we are now a New Zealand based company, a simple task that doesn't give the full picture of how hard I will have to work to build my business in a new country.

Jenn has been getting as far away from the damp Macclesfield climate as much as she can, enjoying a break from work visiting her team mate Ruth in Brighton, and its just as well as we have had rain every day since we packed the flat up over 6 weeks ago. She did manage to get out on a short ride with Danni Rider who was up getting tested, and the rain did stay away for Jenns last ride in the Peak. She told me the other night she went to church with Ruth for what she thought was a fun carol service but turned out to be a full on sermon. As we are not religious folk she had trouble not cracking up, it is a load of nonsense that makes no sense.

I too have been staying off the bike as much as I can, running for an hour 2 times a week and have done some good gym sessions on the rower which I should have chosen as a sport instead of trying to compete against 65kg whippets in a power to weight critical sport. I always like doing power lifting exercises as they use my whole body and with a light weight I can do quite a few reps and get some high heart rates.

The next time I blog will be on my way to NZ or once I am there. Wish us luck and stay tuned to see how Patterson Training evolves.

The Marathonists

Dave Hayward and Mike Powell are the most dedicated athletes I know
but someone is lying on their food diary.

Training Log No2

Ok just a quick blog to keep you up to date on my training. Since last time I blogged Jenn and I have moved in with my family living out of 1 (rather large) Powerbar kit bag each. The situation is good and bad in that we have my mums cooking to look forward to most days, however that is also the bad bit as she still thinks I'm 13 years old and there is a need to feed me up. Me size portions don't mean a great deal in the Patterson household.

So moving swiftly onto the training, and body mass..... well what can I say the house is full of rich food and chocolate digestives so no change there I'm afraid 81.5 kg and my body fat using the electrical impedance is a shocking 15 %. There is a good side to over eating, yes you heard me right my body is a bit more of a carbohydrate burning furnace than It usually is albeit at the expense of my ability to burn fat for fuel but I will focus on that aspect of the training in a couple of weeks when I get to the sunnier NZ climate and I can get some big easy miles in without fear of being washed away.

So what is the benefit of this carbohydrate furnace? Well when there is a lot of glycogen in the muscle and glucose in the blood the enzymes that allow me to fuel forceful contractions are prevalent. I still need to teach my brain to fire the muscles more forcefully but when I do ask them to do contract hard I have the fuel supply working at a very high level.

The result of this is that I am able to put in some good strength work on the bike as you can see from strength section of my training session below my seated over geared efforts are creeping up to the 600 watt mark for 1 minute and I hope to be able to hold 1 minute at over 600 watts before I leave for NZ in a couple of weeks.

I have also seen a couple of new 5 second mean maximal values as I have got my body used to high velocity muscle contractions but these have been done away from the force work after a period of recovery, as I'm sure you are aware trying to co-ordinate your legs at high speed in sprint drills is a no go when force reps are a large part of the training. If sprinting is your thing, make sure you do the speed work first so you are building power onto good form and high leg speed not the other way around.

Apart from working on strength I have been doing the easy rides but not staying on the Cheshire plain, I have been cruising around the peaks just taking it easy and trying not to stray into zone 3 unless I'm doing specific tempo intervals. I am well aware of how efficiency is such a key component of endurance racing (2-6 hours) and I have a set pattern of aerobic training that can shift my aerobic threshold (not my OBLA (LT2) to some quite high power outputs, although it is sometimes hard to hold back during the long aerobic rides and focus on cadence rather than power and doing it in bad weather doesn't help so the lions share of that training can wait a few weeks.

Jenn is enjoying some down time although she has been commuting most days keeping the miles in. And down time in another form as she was knocked off the scooter the other day which we had just fixed up. She is not badly injured as the impact was low speed (get well gifts of chocolate and Campagnolo ergo 11 spd shifters can be sent to me and ill pass them on... honest!) It highlights the problems of commuting in this country where drivers seem to have forgotten that you look right, left then right again before pulling out, not right then left then pull out still looking left. Its all very well delivering bike ability courses to get people out of cars and onto bikes but its damn dangerous at rush hour times. Drivers need educating as much as cyclists, perhaps a week commuting on a bike should be part of the driving licence that would make drivers be more aware.

The End is Nigh...

Or at least I hope it is. Andy and I have been living in a half-packed state for weeks now, and tonight is the last night in our flat before we move in with Andy's parents for a few weeks. The Patterson Training team bus and all our furniture and possessions will be loaded into a container bound for New Zealand on Monday.

The Rush, the Scalpel and my winter training bike are being packed away as I write this, so it will just be the Little White Bike for a while. Part of me thinks it would have been nice to get out for one last blast around Macclesfield Forest before we leave, but I've never been the sentimental type. I know I'll be back to ride around the Peak District hills that I've called home for the past 10 years. Right now I'm thinking about Mt Taranaki and the start of summer.

It's an all new start for Patterson Training. We've invested in an exciting new software system called Training Peaks, that will allow our clients to log in to their training plans from anywhere in the world. Andy will post up more details about Training Peaks once we've got this moving business out of the way.

By moving our permanent base to New Zealand we can drop a lot of our overheads and invest more time and money into providing the best service for our clients, both here in the UK and in New Zealand. So our clients need not worry - it won't be business as usual, it will be better than usual. The Patterson Training website, Trackside blog and our email addresses won't change either.

For me, I've got a new set of goals to look forward to. The New Zealand National Road Race Champs are on 10 January 2010 in Christchurch, and I'd like to have a go. Aside from that, I'll be riding the Round The Mountain road sportive in Taranaki on 30 January, and the NZ National XC Champs and Oceania Champs in February and March. It's a short season, to be followed by my first NZ winter since 1998.

I might even dust off the old snowboard.

End of Season Sale

PINK Hope Team Edition Mono Mini Pro Brakeset
One of only two sets in the world.

It's that time of year again, and we are selling off some of our kit to make way for new stuff. I've had a great deal of interest in my special edition pink Hope gear this year, which is hardly surprising as it is a bit special. I was the only female XC racer on the Hope Factory Team this year, so my custom pink kit is unique. There are only two sets of these brakes in the world - I'm keeping one and selling the other.

For pics and a rundown of the Hope kit take a look at my original review.

These are 2009 Mono Mini Pros (not the standard Mono Minis, which are available to the public in pink), and they come with a set of matching pink 6-bolt floating rotors. The Moni Mini Pro is being phased out for 2010, so there will never be another set in this colour. As I've had so much interest during the year for these, I'm offering them here before auctioning them off to the Giro-mad Italians. Email me at jenn@pattersontraining.com if you are interested. £300 for the set.

Minoura RDA 850 Turbo Trainer

This is about three years old but is in really good order. I've been using it for warming up before races, but otherwise it hasn't had much use (I'd rather ride in the rain than train on a turbo). Can be used for MTB or road bikes. These retail for about £175 new. We're selling ours for £75.

Training Log No1

I said I would put my training for the New Zealand Round the Mountain road race up on the blog so here it is. Why you may ask? Well I spend so much time mulling over hundreds of files and feedback reports from my clients that I find it hard to spend the time to fully plan my own training. A couple of good results in my last two MTB races has revived my enthusiasm for hard training, but that doesn't mean I am in any good shape or form. I'm not - in fact it was only my technical skills and my ability to suffer that has allowed me to be competitive in the last couple of races. I have a lot of work to do if I am to get good road speed in time for the New Zealand race at the end of January.

It all started today, with my power profile to establish strengths of each energy system. Maximal values are taken for 5 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes and for power at the onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA). These values give a reasonably valid, but more importantly, an easily repeatable indication of the strength of the neuromuscular system, anaerobic ability, aerobic capacity and muscular endurance. The results of the power profile are as follows.


5 seconds. 1400 watts
1 minute. 615 watts
5 minutes. 410 watts
OBLA. 320 watts


These values are divided by my body mass (80 kg), giving a power to weight value in watts per kilo (w/kg) which are then plotted on the power profile shown below.

Click on the image for larger view

As you can see, I'm not in good shape. To maintain a good all round cycling ability I need to raise my anaerobic power (1 minute mean maximal power) as this is clearly lacking behind the other energy systems and is a key component in road racing and mountain bike racing.

As this table is relative to my body mass one of the key areas I need to improve is my body composition, dropping some unwanted body fat will push all the power profile values up, improving my speed on climbs, my ability to accelerate and reduce my frontal area for flat terrain speed.

Click on image for lager view

The body composition values are taken three times from each skinfold site then the average is noted. The values don't look that bad on paper, but I am 6 feet 4 inches tall and 12mm of fat spread over quite a sizable abdomen adds a fair amount of dead weight and the same goes for the rest of my body. I know I am overweight by about 3-4 kg and am very healthy at this weight, but the speed increase on climbs is very noticeable at 76 kg, so that has to be my target.

That's some of the initial and very basic testing done, there is much more that I need to test, such as my efficiency, core strength and flexibility, but that can be done later. Field testing using the SRM power meter during longer training rides can be very valid and there is nothing stopping me conducting a full blood lactate profile after each training phase. The next phase is to evaluate the demands of the Round the Mountain race against the strength of each of my energy systems and set some goals, but that's a job for tomorrow.

British Mountain Bike Series - Round 5 Plymouth
Saturday, September 26th 2009

By Ruth Mordaunt

I have waited purposely to post my brief race report as not only did I enjoy reading Andy’s report below but more importantly his last paragraph expressing his adoration towards Jenn. It needed to be framed in the limelight for awhile before I rattled on about me!

To keep it brief, I had an excellent result for the last race of my season. The usual suspects were on the start line for a four lap race. However, Nina Davies (Ogmore Valley Wheelers) – whom was leading the British Series was nowhere to be seen and then Alli Northcott (Shred Racing) appeared in stealth like action on the start line, not having raced against her before, but knowing how strong she was when she helped our team at the Bedford 2-day road race. Due to a delay to the start, they set the Master Women off with the Junior Females, Expert Females and Veterans Female. It was a fast and frantic start but the opening climb sorted us all out and entering into the first section of singletrack I had no major hold up problems.

Alli, Kim Hamer-Hurst (Owens Cycles-Scott), Emma Bradley (Torq) and Malin Tindberg (West Drayton MBC) were all spaced out in front. So it was head down and start working hard. Andy’s motivational words during my warm up was “power on the climbs you southern softie!” It helped! I passed Emma and Malin on the second climb on the first lap. I could see Kim up in front, but I had lost sight of Alli within the first 5 minutes of the race. I could also see Maxine Filby (A5 Rangers) leading Expert rider just seconds in front, but she was looking strong. I used Maxine to help pace me and by the second lap I had passed her, but she was always hot on my tail. This helped me to remain focused on keeping the power on and track down the leaders. The course was super fast with two river crossings per lap and some short sharp climbs that zapped the power out of your legs before the super fast flowing single track, which I enjoyed with lots of smiles.

Unfortunately I was unable to catch Alli or Kim, whom finished respectively and I took bronze. I was really pleased with how strong I rode.

With the results all toted up from the series I finished second in the British Mountain Bike Series 2009. Excellent, considering I was not going to race much this year due to the traumatic loss of my father back in April and the lack of any kind of consistent training.

So this leads me nicely on to sending a huge thank you to Jenn and Andy whom have given me consistent support and belief in me as a racer especially when the chips were down. I feel proud to be part of the Altura Patterson Training Race Team. A huge Thank You and I wish you much love and happiness in New Zealand.

Thank you to all other sponsors too, for if it was not for the brilliant superlight Cannodale Scapel and other bike components and products, I could not have raced so well without the support given to me. Thank you all.

As with the look on the picture, it is time to recover (what a state!), reflect and refocus on next year’s goals.

Happy pedalling

Ruth

British Mountain Bike Series Round 5 - 26 September 2009 Plymouth

Race Report by Andrew Patterson

After last weeks glimmer of form I was psychologically in a good place. I had found my mojo and riding and racing the Rush was a joy. This weekend was the final National series race down in Plymouth, now two things I don't like about the course at Plymouth are; 1. It's miles away. 2. It's hilly.

As Jenn was working until 3pm on Friday we had to endure the long slog down from Manchester to Plymouth in heavy traffic, set up camp in the dark and ride a practice lap in the morning before the race. From experience I know this doesn't help Jenn, myself or any rider looking for peak performance for that matter, but it's what we have to do, as even with Jenn's palmares, full time work is still required to fund the year's racing program. I'll let Jenn comment one her race and focus on my race.

Climbing well past the feed zone

I had a good grid on the second row so I could get a comfortable position up the feed zone climb into the singletrack. But once the gun sounded a rider who was sat to the left of me made a crazy sprint across my wheel forcing me to back off and lean heavily on Adrian Scott (Corley), losing a few places. On the feed zone climb most riders sat behind the wheels of other riders in one line almost afraid to put a wheel off the smooth track and gain places into the singletrack, which is just what I did using up all of my anaerobic capacity and found myself in around 10th spot in the singletrack where I could recover.

The first lap is always fast and furious and I came out of it in around 9th spot with Paul Hopkins (Offcamber of Blandford). Paul sat on my wheel up the first climb and then jumped in front on into the singletrack where I felt a little held up having to use the brakes far to much behind him. We stick together on lap 2 until I think I pulled away somewhere at the start of lap 3 having a 10 second gap into the second tough loose climb out of the clay shooting range.

The drop in that burped my tyre

By this stage I had a problem in that I had burped the front tyre on the short drop in at the end of the first piece of singletrack, so on the second singletrack section just as I was catching 4th, 5th and 6th spot I thought I had to act fast and get some air into the tyre or risk rolling it off the rim. In doing so 3 riders including Paul Hopkins passed me but I was fired up and way faster on the singletrack. I caught them back easily then made a move on Paul on a short earthy very steep climb where I saw Paul drop into the granny so I battered the middle ring in a contorted effort to power away and keep good traction. As I passed him at the bottom of the climb I said "I'll pay for this later" acknowledging that efforts like that don't always pay off in endurance events.

One of 2 river crossings that I'm sure were getting deeper each lap

I was obviously reaping the rewards of the power and strength endurance training I have been doing in my facilitative (Suck it and see) style training rides as I felt strong for the rest of the race. I had two laps to catch those in front who I could see every lap just in front of me on the loose climb out of the clay shooting range, but I lacked the pace to bridge the gap.

My feeding was shocking throughout the race, drinking only about 1 litre and eating 3 PowerBar gels but I was riding right on the nail and above it for the whole race and I found it hard to breath slow enough to drink. I know, I know I don't always practice what I preach but I was very happy with my drive and I had to push all the way round as I thought the efforts of attacking hard on steep climbs would need paying back in the latter laps, and if there is one thing I can do its hurt myself.

I stayed clear claiming 6th spot in the end 4minutes 53seconds behind race winner Phil Morris (XC Racer) my best National series result yet. Now I just keep asking myself what could have been if I were 76kg? Full results can be found here from Timelaps.co.uk It was a great event, well done to Martyn Salt and team for a great day out racing. The band and night cross race added a great atmosphere to the event.

We are off to New Zealand at the end of the year so this was the last National series event Jenn and I will race. I would like to show my adoration to my Partner Jenn O'Connor. The range of Jenn's success over the past years in 24 hour racing, MTB Marathon and MTB XC has never been bettered, all whilst working full time. Many female athletes will benefit from her campaign for equal prize funds in 24 hour racing and have benefited from her help and support in the MTB scene, spending tireless hours chasing up sponsorship deals for others with no personal reward. I'm sure this won't be the last time Jenn puts a number on, but for now we have some different challenges. I am privileged to share my life with Jenn and be part of her optimism, drive and love of life. I look forward to our life together in NZ and love you lots Jenn.

Midlands XC Round 4

I have recently changed my bike from the Scalpel to the Carbon Rush. Having never ridden a Rush Carbon I thought the Rush would be a more laid back bike that was difficult to achieve that always fast feel that the Scalpel has. From the time I received the Rush I have been doing all my riding and training on it. This is because when changing from bikes of different geometry it takes some time to get my 6 feet 4 inch frame to an optimal position. After a couple of rides it was evident that the Rush actually fits me better than the Scalpel did. A slacker seat/head angle and lower bottom bracket along with a pro pedal suspension system that I can ride well into the travel without wallowing around led to a feeling of being in the bike rather than on and over it as I did on the Scalpel. But did it inspire speed as the Scalpel did?

Now I know you are thinking, sponsor supplies new bike, rider must big up the product. Well that should always happen, without sponsors many athletes could not compete with such great equipment. However, getting the right bike for myself has always been problematic and custom builds have always been the preferred option. At the final round of the Midlands MTB Series in Sherwood Pines I was about to get a shock. I took my bike but was in no real mood to race as I had ridden a marathon around the peaks in my usual 39 x 11-34 gear constraint and had even succumbed to the hunger shakes that evening before the race. But as the sun was out on race day I put my number on and lined up at the back of the grid. The gun went and I stamped hard on the 180 cranks. I didn’t lock the front forks as I usually do, I’d set them up firm with a lot of rebound damping and left the rear traction control down to the pro pedal on the Fox shock. After the initial sprint I found myself feeling very strong, the lactate was not as apparent as it sometimes is and I managed to slot into the single track in about 6th spot feeling very comfortable.

Ripin the Rush hard towards the podium

The singletrack was split by very fast sections of forest trail and I kicked again managing to pass my nemesis Darren Alexander (Mini Adventure) with surprising ease. By this stage I was thinking I have put zero pressure on myself for this race and the goal was to just get round, focus on skills, have fun and hope that yesterdays 100 Peak District kilometres and the 3 kilograms of extra weight I am carrying don’t make me look too bad. An extra bit of luck found me as Matt Barrett (Raleigh) pulled up in front of me half way into the first lap with a snapped chain and I found myself riding in 3rd spot with Chris Rathbone (Websters Cycles). So from that point on my goal was a podium. Chris and I both had some problems as his rear tyre had lost some air and was in great danger of rolling off on the bomb hole whereas my Tune cranks, which had come loose in the English Marathon Champs were obviously permanently damaged from that race and began to unwind themselves. I had to stop after lap 2 and tighten them up but easily caught back up with Chris. I followed Chris for a lap and still felt comfortable making notes on the sections he was stronger on and where he was not so strong or where his tyre may cause him to slow, then Chris followed me for a lap not giving me any distance. Im not that sure where I pulled away from Chris it may have been through one of the Star Wars style fast tree dodging sections or on a sandy drag, but I soon found myself out in second place. At the start of the final lap I was caught by Lloyd Bettles who was pacing his laps well. I followed his wheel and started to plan my finish strategy, which in brief came down to unleashing the 1600 watts I can muster in a sprint as soon as I get round the last bend. If all else fails at least it will give the crowd some entertainment.

I took the lead into the second to last section of singletrack but somehow jumped my chain off the sprocket loosing a couple of pedal strokes and Lloyd nipped by but sportingly eased the pace for me to get back on, he was also keen for The good fight. He was now in front and I was holding his wheel looking forward to a sprint finish. The last singletrack section came and I was just a fraction too close to his back wheel, so when Lloyd got his line slightly wrong I had no time to evaluate my position and over corrected hitting a lone pine cone and hitting the deck. Lloyd put the hammer down, the crowd had no sprint finish and I settled for 3rd. Stephen James (Torq) won the race 1 minute 30 seconds ahead of us.

Apart from my after market cranks (I use them as no one makes a BB30 180 crank) the Rush was truly faultless around Sherwood. Planted, smooth, nimble, comfortable all those superlatives that you hear now and then in a MTB review, and it felt very fast. I had no pressure for that race and the effect of that psychological state was very useful. It shows the power of how process goals can reduce stress and allow performance and enjoyment to shine through the often stressful outcome oriented world of bike racing. I’m still way over my target race weight, my season was badly disrupted by swine flu and one particular rubbish event but im loving racing and riding again thanks to our sponsors, Cheers.

Myself in 3rd, Lloyd Bettles 2nd, Stephen James 1st

Warwick Cycle Races

Sunday 6 September 2009
Warwick

Race Report by Jenn O'Connor
Images by Richard Robotham

After nearly five hours of alpine mountain bike racing at the World Champs, I was in the mood for something completely different. The Warwick Cycle Races (aka the Warwick Crits) is a day of town centre street racing, whereby the roads around the centre of Warwick are closed, barriers erected, and cyclists of various ages and specialities get to tear around the streets with impunity. It sounded like fun, so I signed myself up.

Andy was down in London for the weekend doing Coach Education work for British Cycling, so it was just me and Little White Bike (a carbon Cannondale Synapse), with a packed lunch and a train ticket. I put a seat pack with a C02 pump on the bike, put a spare tube and tyre levers in my back pocket for the race, and rode out to Macclesfield train station with a rucksack.

Catching the train with my bike was easy. It took just 1hr45mins to get from Macclesfield to Leamington Spa, then a gentle ride over to Warwick. I got there in plenty of time, and even got to see some of the kids' and club races. The town was heaving, and not just with cyclists. Plenty of local folk were lining the barriers, cheering and shouting, or chilling out at outside tables at the numerous coffee shops lining the track. I was having fun already, it felt like a festival.

The elite women's event was off at 2:30pm, and we got a couple of practice laps to warm up before lining up on the grid. I really had no idea what to expect, as I'd only ever done one circuit race before, which was at Milton Keynes Bowl, and it was nothing like this. There were about 20 of us lined up, and I stayed at the back of the grid, as this was a National Series race, and I had no series points for circuit racing.

We eased off the line in the manner of a road race, but then a couple of girls took off, and the race was on! I moved up to the front of the bunch, not wanting to be left behind in the tight turns, and started chasing the leaders out the front. It took a couple of laps at race speed to get used to the tight corners, and I knocked my cranks a couple of times trying to accelerate out of the corners too soon. I soon got used to it though, and Little White Bike handled beautifully. After about five laps, Nicola Juniper (PCA Ciclos Uno) escaped off the front, and no-one had the legs to chase her down. I stayed with the main bunch, and although there were plenty of strong and willing riders, we weren't really working together - more like taking turns trying to ride away.

About halfway into the race the group started to break apart, and more and more riders were getting dropped, as we started to overtake lapped riders. The gap to Nicola out front hovered between 20 and 25 seconds, but on such a tight circuit we couldn't see her. With just 10 minutes to go, we had formed a small break at the front of the main bunch - myself, Anna Fischer (Max Gear R.T.) and Natalie Creswick (Twickenham CC), but Natalie crashed on a corner with only a few laps to go, which left myself and Anna.

We were both working hard, and we had 2nd and 3rd place in the bag between us, but we knew we'd have to sprint for 2nd. The last couple of laps were ridden at a steady pace, as we both saved our legs for the sprint. Anna led up the last climb and we sprinted for the line. Unfortunately I had to get around a lapped rider in front of me, although she did her best to get out of the way. I nipped around her and up to Anna's elbow on the line, but it wasn't enough and I was beaten into 3rd place. Meanwhile, Nicola had stretched her lead from 25 seconds to nearly a minute during the last two laps while we'd eased the pace, and she lapped the entire field apart from myself and Anna.

It was lung-busting work and much more intense than my slow-cooker body is used to, but it was tremendous fun and great racing. For my third place I won £42, which was precisely the combined cost of my entry fee and train ticket, so I broke even on a day's racing, which is almost impossible in mountain bike racing!

The women's podium (from left) Jenn O'Connor (Altura Patterson Training), Nicola Juniper (PCA Ciclos Uno), Anna Fischer (Max Gear R.T.)

I was even able to secure a large skinny latte and a table with a view to watch the start of the elite men's race, before catching my train home. Warwick and Leamington Spa are lovely little towns, and the races are a wonderful day out. I hope I get the chance to go back.

A full report, results and picture gallery for the Warwick Cycle Races can be found here.

Information about Warwick Cycle Races can be found here.