Dirty Reiver 2022

[weeksy]

2h20 odd today at high Z2 Hr. Power was low tempo though which is a good sign. Couldn’t quite hold on to 18mph during the spin home from town but 17.8 door to door felt good on the monster truck tyres

Excellent pace!

[Crosshair]

Last big training ride today. After a zwift century, 2 outside ones and 110 miles last weekend, I thought it was time for more specificity.

I did the route I’ve wanted to do for ages. I love riding Salisbury Plain, (usually from end to end to end to end after parking at Ludgershall) but I reckoned I could do it from home instead. This added 60 miles!

I still wasn’t sure I was up for it until this morning so I had to pop to co-op for supplies. After filling a load of bottles, I made the last minute decision to run a camelbak.

I allocated a 550ml bottle to use from home-Ludgershall. Then I intended to drink the entire camelbak (2l odd) whilst riding the plain and then save a 750ml bottle for the return commute.

I also had a 475ml can of red bull in a 550ml bottle as a treat at half way.

Food wise, I had 4 rice crispie squares, tangfastics, jelly babies and a snicker (for half way).

I chose to run 40psi in the 700x42’s I now have fitted and it was never quite right. I reckon they’ll be amazing at 28-32 on the gravel. But at 40 they were a little bumpy in places.

Legs felt amazing! Really pleased with that.
My feet never aches around the cleats at all. Really pleased with that.
My shoulders did ache from the camelbak so maybe I’ll wear it in the last three weeks of training every ride

I did however mess up my fuelling. I had 60g of sugar per 500ml of drink and no plain water and it was too much.
Because I was eating as well- I found myself struggling to drink because I didn’t need extra carbs. As a result, I bonked like mad at 102 miles.

My decoupling (hr/NP compared every minute over time) went from an incredible 1.6% at 400 minutes to 10% 100 minutes later!!!

I don’t think it was fuel though. I think I was dehydrated. That’s the trouble with a camelbak- you don’t know how much you are drinking!

So that’s something to reconsider. I think I can just run sugar in the bottles and use plain water or electrolytes for the camelbak. That way I can water down the concentration to make sure I drink enough.

That obviously destroyed my power too. I was still averaging over 200w until 102 miles and then a couple of bid descents and my dyhdration meant it was down to 191 by the end.

I kept trying to calculate if it was going to be my biggest ride on Strava as there was no way I was doing extra but luckily it was by about a mile

[weeksy]

You're a bloody animal!

[Crosshair]

This is a bit obscure so not really sure it’s even worth describing but I’ll try

It’s always really annoyed me that the first time I rode my MTB end to end to end on the Plain was the fastest. 14.8mph in fact!
Especially as I had no power meter then.

I’ve been back several times since on different bikes (plus with a power meter on the Scott) and whilst each is a subtle variation on the original route, the same thing is always true- I can’t get within 1mph of that speed!

Yesterday felt better but the route was quite a bit different than that original out and back as I did a loop instead which took me up the Wylye Valley. It was however started after 2h15 of riding rather than fresh from the car.
And after pulling out the segment- I finally matched that original 14.8mph speed

One of the keys I think is a Westerly wind. A bit like the 8am Newbury loop we all ride around here- it’a better to have the headwind whilst you are fresher.

But I’m also nearly 2 stone heavier than that original effort so that shows that my power must be loads better than back then so next task after Dirty Reiver is to try and get both the current power with my old weight

[weeksy]

This is a bit obscure so not really sure it’s even worth describing but I’ll try

It’s always really annoyed me that the first time I rode my MTB end to end to end on the Plain was the fastest. 14.8mph in fact!
Especially as I had no power meter then.

I’ve been back several times since on different bikes (plus with a power meter on the Scott) and whilst each is a subtle variation on the original route, the same thing is always true- I can’t get within 1mph of that speed!

Yesterday felt better but the route was quite a bit different than that original out and back as I did a loop instead which took me up the Wylye Valley. It was however started after 2h15 of riding rather than fresh from the car.
And after pulling out the segment- I finally matched that original 14.8mph speed

One of the keys I think is a Westerly wind. A bit like the 8am Newbury loop we all ride around here- it’a better to have the headwind whilst you are fresher.

But I’m also nearly 2 stone heavier than that original effort so that shows that my power must be loads better than back then so next task after Dirty Reiver is to try and get both the current power with my old weight

Our recent Belgium trip showed the difference the wind makes... our speed in the last 20 miles dropped like a stone.

[Crosshair]

Yep. Was doing 280w downhill for 12mph in last years dirty Reiver at times

[Crosshair]

Back to the plain yesterday. Was still bloody windy but that’s good mental training for DR as it’s bound to be headwinds all day long up there
I just made up a loop on the fly and it ended up a bit hillier than last week (per mile of plain) but again- that’s more specific.

I actually felt amazing once I’d shaken off heavy legs after about 20 mins. And even the Garmin agreed for once with a +5 form score.

I wanted to simulate more of the on/off power needed for DR as it is literally never flat so I did ten minute intervals where the only goal was to be over 300w. In the end, some were 5 mins, some 10 and some 15 but I fitted in nearly 90mins at over 300w.

I had yet another tubeless issue. The rear tyre isn’t holding air the best (it goes down overnight) and starting at 30psi meant it got squishy after a couple of hours.
I decided to dump a co2 in it but somehow snapped the tubeless valve in half! And didn’t have a spare.
So I finished the ride on a rear tube.

I’m still not convinced tubeless is worth it although I also got a thorn in the front tyre which sealed up, so I just snapped it off.
I need to get both up and running properly before the event though (get that thorn out and patched and get the rear to stay up somehow).

I also took a full camelbak which I knew I didn’t need so just rode the entire ride with it on for conditioning.

A good session all in.

[weeksy]

Interesting on the tubeless. Are these tyres prone to puncture?

[Crosshair]

Nope, they have great reviews. The originals were great to be fair and who knows how many punctures they actually saved but it definitely seems like more fannying around than just patching a latex tube when you do have to do something.
Not to mention constantly scraping sealant off of everything

[Crosshair]

Took the rear tyre off in the week, put a new valve in and plenty of new sealant. I think it’s still going down overnight but not so bad- hopefully in testing this weekend it will last the whole ride.

It’s funny how you kind of hope tapering will leave you feeling amazing but your body actually feels like junk as it comes to terms with what you’ve been doing to it.

I’m feeling really guilty for not riding much that’s for sure- even though I know the gains should be well cemented in by next week.

Tuesday I set out for 4x4 min intervals and my Garmin packed up. It was weird riding with no power- I had no idea within 100w how hard I was going for the efforts

Thursday, I had it working again but decided to do my little “tempo loop” segment. No warm up- just flat out from door to door.
Unfortunately I forgot to calibrate my power meter so I’m not sure how pleased to be with the results
Average for 52 mins was 355w! If that’s genuine then it was bonkers how good my legs felt. I was definitely pushing like I did in the vo2 max intervals so it’s certainly not impossible. And I have done similar efforts in Zwift races (although not with the amount of steady power I was putting out- they’re more 600 on / 100 off).
Speed was 20.3mph for the segment- only just off of my race bike best effort with 25mm tyres, aero handlebars and skin suit.

Intervals.icu is suggesting my ftp is 357w if true. That’s +50 from September so should make 9hrs achievable. That has to now be my goal I’d say.

Probably heading to the plain tomorrow for one last final shakedown. Depending on how I feel I’ll aim for 50ish miles at target pace, which for 9hrs will be 13.6mph. Then that’s basically it for training- just got to keep ticking over in the week with two short high intensity days.

[weeksy]

20.3 wow. That's impressive

[Crosshair]

Thanks! Fastest on the Scott is 19.9 with aero bars mind you.

[Crosshair]

Salisbury Plain on Saturday was okay but not great. Was flying initially and I averaged 16mph for the first couple of hours. Then I stuck in a couple of big climbs and just felt totally flat. I’d eaten and drunk plenty so I’m not really sure why. The heat maybe came as a shock. I’m also assuming I hadn’t quite recovered from that big watt effort on Thursday.
Anyhow, I slogged back and it was a lovely ride- 65 miles at 14.2mph but not the confidence booster I’d hoped.

Yet again, I spent the next day scraping tyre sealant off the frame! There was a hole but arguably it would have been quicker to patch a tube mid ride than have to use a scouring pad for an hour the next day!

Monday was off. Tuesday was a tiny session. 5 x90 sec intervals in a 30min ride just to do something but I’m pretty sure it’s made no difference.

Today, my knee was really aching for some reason so I skipped riding and sorted out the tyre by patching it with a regular patch inside and then re-inflating with fresh sealant. Both seem to holding air now (in the water bucket at least).

I decided to go for a frame bag too. I bought a ToPeak Midloader 4.5l top tube bag and two bottles to go in it. That means I now have three bottles in mounts and two in there for 3750ml total. The camelbak is handy but it does add fatigue.
Last year I had 3150ml across five smaller bottles and was a bottle short so now, we’re golden- especially if I go any quicker.

Tomorrow I won’t ride far, maybe a couple of miles to test my setup one last time and then Friday I’ll hopefully arrive with time for a leg-opener after the journey.

It’s stupid really- I know I’ll not be troubling the front (they do it sub 7!) and I know it’s easily achievable for me with the training I’ve done but I’m still getting really nervous about doing myself proud with an effort worthy of the time and money I’ve invested.

6 months is also a little too close to the last event- I haven’t quite forgotten what an insanely hard ride it is

[Crosshair]

Literally tying myself up in knots here Can’t choose between a) running the camelbak, risking a bit of extra fatigue but having a nicer handling bike.
b) running the frame bag with two bottles so I have all my gear on the bike. No extra fatigue on the shoulders but the bike rides like a tank.
Or c) forget all about riding non-stop or the idea of completing f without unclipping and scrap a load of bottles but stop at stops 2 and 3

It’s driving me potty going around in circles

[weeksy]

C. Because it's all about fun. Ride and chat with random people, stop and talk garbage for a bit. Ride for the fun, the skies, the views.

[Crosshair]

I’ve seen the views already
I want to optimise my performance to within the best of my abilities.

It would be like someone telling you to just ride whatever bike you have downhill on stock settings and just concentrate on your own flow state

[weeksy]

I’ve seen the views already
I want to optimise my performance to within the best of my abilities.

It would be like someone telling you to just ride whatever bike you have downhill on stock settings and just concentrate on your own flow state

Then clearly C isn't even an option.

[Crosshair]

I think it’s quicker though

[Crosshair]

I suppose the trade off is whether completing it in 9h05 without unclipping is more satisfying than 8h55 with a stop or two.

[Crosshair]

(Given that it’s largely out of my control if I unclip or not- there’s a million reasons why I may be forced to dab a foot)