Words and Photography - James Ion
Three months down and finally it feels like progress! Three months doesn’t sound long until you look at it in weeks, 13, or days, 91 and then your Trainingpeaks keeps telling you that in only 6 weeks is the first event, then it feels both long and not long enough! I have already talked about my, self-sabotage, and feelings of doubt, but now that I am three months in I finally feel like I have a handle on those pesky negative thoughts. One of the best, if not the best, parts of having coaches is that they can give you feedback and then encompass the whole picture. I am sure like many of you, after a ride you get loads of data, there is a graph that shows coloured lines and statistics giving you percentages about your V02 etc. but do you really know what they all mean? I don’t, I mean I have an idea, I can see if my power was good for that session and I can understand heart rate zones etc., but I don’t really know if I am getting better other than I feel like I am. Having a world-class coach like Toms Flaksis who can take all this information and then feed it back to me in a way I can understand is so useful. It gives me motivation as I can see I am improving, for example, unbeknownst to me, my Training Stress Score (TSS) for the week has almost doubled, my power has increased and my fatigue resistance has improved, all small things when looking just at the one session, but when looking back over the whole three months it shows a level of progression that I didn’t know I was having!
Equally important is the impact Kate Macleod is having on my nutrition. Initially, she told me most of the meals looked like snacks! Now they look like proper meals I have become more conscious of how my macros should look and finally, after many ups and downs I understand what I should be doing, it’s like I have been in nutrition base training for these three months, getting the basic work done so that now I can get more specific and build on my foundation of knowledge. I now have the tools to make the progress I want and I feel that the next month will see a lot of progress in terms of my body composition and fuelling. For the last three months, my weight has stayed the same at 83kg and I am carrying a bit of extra timber as it were. But in the last few weeks, there has been a trend of ever-decreasing numbers on the scale. Nothing major, just small changes but all in the direction I want.
The biggest takeaway from a nutrition standpoint is to focus on the macros, not the calories. Kate has set me 166g Protein, 200g Carbs and 83g Fat as my base macros. When I have increased intensity or longer duration training then my Carbs go up accordingly, but on all other days, I stick to these amounts. This should give me around 2211 calories per day which should put me in a deficit while still meeting my macros and still fuelling my training, so expect loads of photos of my six-pack soon!
I will be interviewing my coaches to get their take on training methods and fuelling strategies and to pick their brains about all things cycling so keep an eye out for that, there will also be a competition!
This next month there will be a ramping up of training, still sticking to the 10 hours per week, but with more intensity. I will also schedule an over 100km ride and look to put my training to the test. The first event earmarked is Turnhout Gravel in Belgium. I have not yet entered as I spent my budget on entry for Marly Grav in Valkenburg and the A Race Gravel One Fifty. So it is still up in the air if I will take part. If I don’t I will look to find an alternative to test my legs, hopefully there is one close by. Although the entry costs are not too expensive, it is worth noting how expensive the whole thing is. I have entered Marly Grav in May. Entry was 86€, it is not feasible to drive there on the day of the race, so I need a hotel, this costs 114.64€ I could probably find something cheaper but it is right next to the race, also our family has one car, so I have to hire a car to get me there this is 72€ plus petrol, then, of course, I will need some spending money etc. let’s just say 100€. In total just to take part in one race it will cost me around 372,64€ which is not cheap, and I want to do that three times! So if any hotel or car hire companies want to get involved please do get in touch!
Costs are probably something I will look into in more depth next month as it is not just the cost to enter and get to the races, it’s all the nutrition, the equipment, subscription costs, bikes the whole deal. You always think you have it all then you realise you don’t, or something in training occurs and you start researching how to make it easier – like how to transport 10 gels on a training ride and the costs can start adding up real quick!
How do you keep the costs down, do you have any homemade solutions? Let me know in the comments.
Good luck!