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