sábado, 8 de febrero de 2025

KW - Jo.Co

Fantastic ride. 

Riding steady. Moderate efforts up the hills. Feeling easy for the whole ride. 


Great coffee stop as well. Very good coffee and two pastries for me (can’t resist the temptation of a good Pastel de Nata).


I was forced to sprint for Juniper’s KOM when JFW got in parallel with me. For a second I panicked and put a stronger effort than strictly needed.


At Horton roundabouts I played it safe. I let JFW and Denis take turns at the front while I was taking the free ride.


It felt very comfortable. Although it is fair to say we were taking it easy at the roundabouts as the tarmac was wet. 


Being an experienced sprinter I moved to second position at the right time. JFW at the front. Denis behind me. Perfect positioning when we entered the final straight.


I still had time to fill my brain with doubts. I couldn’t tell if JFW was completely cooked or if he was pretending to be cooked. 


I moved parallel to him and looked at him. He looked completely cooked to me.


I looked again to my left. He was definitively cooked. There is no point in sprinting. I can just turn the pedals two or three times a bit stronger and I’ll take the sprint. 


Looked at him one more time fearing he was tricking me. That is how much I trust the man. 


I looked at the front right on time to see GC Denis passing us both and taking the sprint. 


Not really a big fan of this new breed of GC riders that get involved in the sprints. Huge distorsion to the results.


The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13572446557/


Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González


sábado, 1 de febrero de 2025

The Pope in killer mode.

True to tradition, he arrived at his typical time. 

Something tells me he was in a hurry. Maybe he had to be back home at some impossible time.


He let us lead the first few kilometers so everyone had a nice warm up. 


Then he hit the front.


And that was the story of the whole ride.


The Pope leading, everyone else praying their favourite litany. 


He took all the KOMs and all the sprints.


All but the one DD took.


He didn’t take the Esher sprint either.


He was going to, but he had me on his wheel all the way and he didn’t. 


Not because I passed him in the last 10 meters, arms in the air celebrating just another amazing win in my fantastic cycling career, but because the sprint was neutralized due to too many cars.


I feel for him. All that effort wasted, without reward. 


I don’t feel too much for him though. He was not in my team today.


Still, I’m such a nice guy that I hope he wasn’t too late back home.


The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13509476294 


Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González


sábado, 25 de enero de 2025

Tanhouse, the weird way

 First ride of the year as “ride lead”.


Although I prefer the expression “ride captain”. Somehow being “ride captain” sounds better to my ego than being “ride lead”. It feels to me “road captain” is a title that gives you more authority and responsibility. 


Not that I’m any good at any of those two qualities. 


I have to admit I wasn’t that responsible when I chose the route. All I wanted is a route to ride 3.5 hours and with a coffee stop that I could recognise. Looked in my route library. Found this route and didn’t even check it. 


Well, that was a weird way of going to Tanhouse and even weirder way of getting home from Tanhouse. 


Not very responsible of me having to admit that I didn’t know what hills we were climbing and that I was lost most of the time. 


To that I attribute my lack of sprint victories today. I had no idea where the townsigns were!


I wasn’t able to exercise my authority either. 


I have a great excuse though. JFW was riding with the group. 


At the forum I had described the ride as “steady k2”. Al LW, before we started to ride, I reminded everyone, JFW included, that we were going to ride steady.


Next thing I know JFW is riding in the front with me pushing the pace.


I was completely out of breath and he was talking to me. 


Couldn’t hear half of what he was saying. Couldn’t understand half of what I was hearing. All I know is he was talking about running. He was clearly defying my authority. 


JFW was JFW again climbing Effingham. A climb that is perfect for keeping the group together.  That is what happened in the first half, when Peter led the group.


In the second half JFW hit the front and defied the concept of steady k2 pushing the pace. JFW being JFW that lasted a [very] few hundred meters before he moved to the right, dropped to the group and left the rest to deal with the mess he had created.


The confirmation that JFW has a problem with my authority (although I could argue he has a problem with any form of authority) was returning from Tanhouse. 


We still were at Newdigate. The traditional way back was taking a left turn. The planned route was continuing straight. 


JFW turned left. Five garmins started to bip to tell five riders we were off route. JFW doesn’t have a garmin so he carried on. 


That was the complete end of my authority on anything related to the route. 


At the top of Juniper we turned left (!!!!) and I got lost completely. The garmin was still saying we were on route so we never were actually lost but I had no idea where we were.


To make things worse everyone seemed to know where we were. They kept saying “this is the Ride London route”.


I knew the route was going through Esher. A sprint I have studied to end. A sprint I like. A sprint to redeem myself. 


So here you have me riding third or four wheel. Conserving energy. Scouting the road ahead of us waiting to recognise the approach to Esher’s sprint.


You can imagine my surprise when somehow, suddenly, we were in Esher. 


We had come to Esher on a different road. 


The ride was over and I must have been fourth or fifth in a town sign I didn’t even see. 


Terrible day for a responsible and authoritarian sprinter.


The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13447736056


Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González


viernes, 3 de enero de 2025

2025 first ride

 A CTL of 23. 


In layman's terms that means the last two months are the ones with less km and hours ridden since I started riding road bikes (excluding when I broke my left femur in 2015).


Pretty unusual and scary spot for someone like me. 


How am I managing it?


Planning my objectives for 2025. 


Here you have them.


My main objective is to finish London-Edinburgh-London (https://londonedinburghlondon.com/). A 1530km Super Brevet happening between the 3rd and 8th of August.  


Before that I’ll aim to beat my personal best at the Quebrantahuesos (https://www.quebrantahuesos.com/). In 2029 I did 6:30:03 (https://www.strava.com/activities/2471284485). I’m still annoyed about those three seconds. I have entered the ballot. An objective that is equally bold and stupid, especially considering the 23 CTL I mentioned above. 


I also want to finish a Super Randonneur series. I have entered the following Brevets:



And finally, as difficult to believe as it is, I want to have another go at Valencia’s Marathon. Let’s just say I’m not super happy with my first attempt (https://www.strava.com/activities/13024264408) and now, a month later, sitting comfortably on my sofa, I believe I can do better. How can I be so silly?



Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

domingo, 1 de diciembre de 2024

Valencia Marathon - My first ever marathon - Official time 3:39:49 (5:13m/km)

Well, that was way harder than expected. And I’m not that happy about it.


Last week (https://www.strava.com/activities/12971960713) I was saying I was going to pace myself based on my heart rate (“I'm going to aim to run it at 145 - 155 bpm”). 


That went very, very well. I managed to control my pace based on heart rate the whole marathon. I didn’t care if it felt like the whole marathon was passing me. I just followed my heart rate. My final average heart rate was 164 bpm (85% of my maximal heart rate).



I also did very well at following my nutrition plan. One gel every 20 minutes. Not much merit though. Yesterday I discovered it was possible to set my watch to trigger an alarm every 20 minutes. That made following the plan very easy. 


So, why am I not that happy? 


It just felt very hard. 


Not at the beginning. 


In fact, it was not hard at all for the first 25km. I was keeping my heart rate at 145 bpm. Around that mark I started with higher doses of caffeine. In my mind I was going to accelerate my pace to a heart rate closer to 155 bpm from the 30 km mark.


But from kilometre 25 my right leg started to send me messages. 


The message was something like “A big muscle is about to give up and that is going to be very, very painful”. 


Last (and first) time my brain received that message was back in 2008. The third time in my whole life I rode a [rented] road bike. The first time in my whole life I took part in a cycling sportive (148 km, 3370m). I was second to last of the whole peloton. (the report, in Spanish, is at: https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2008/06/x-marcha-cicloturista-lale-cubino.html).


To write this report I had to Google what muscle was about to give up. I don’t know much about anatomy but it is either the Rectus Femoris, the Abductor Longus, or the Vastus Lateralis. You tell me.


My brain registered the message but I decided to keep following the plan. Heart rate at 145 bpm.


Things got worse at kilometer 30.


Now my left leg sent my brain exactly the same message. 


That’s when I decided to give up my plan of upping the pace to 155 bpm. 


My muscles weren’t hurting. It was just the threat of going to hurt a lot that made me aim to keep the pace at 145 bpm.


That was hard. That felt really hard. I know it is silly but I wasn’t expecting to suffer that much. 


It took me a huge effort to not stop at kilometer 40 when the route passed in front of our hotel.


By that time everyone was enjoying their second wind and I was just praying for this whole thing to finish. 


I didn’t really enjoy the last kilometer. Yes, there were lots of spectators by the side of the road. Some of them even called my name. I was just fearing my legs were going to give up just there. I wanted to cry.


And then, when I had the finish line in sight, I saw the clock at 3h:39m and some seconds. 


That was it. I started to cry and upped the pace with the objective to make sure I was under 3h:40m. 


If I wanted to be sillier I’d have to train for it.


I cried all the way to the exit and cried again when they gave me that medal. I guess my nickname of “pee man” (three pee stops in the marathon, not happy about that either) should change to “cry man”.



So, yeah, I’m a bit stupid. I’m not happy about finding out my first marathon was harder than arrogant me expected, but I’m happy that today I had my fastest ever 5k, 10k, 15k, 10 mile, 20k, half marathon, 30k and, of course, I managed to finish.


The run in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13024264408/


Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González



 



sábado, 30 de noviembre de 2024

I'm a cyclist, I am running my first marathon tomorrow and I have a few last minute questions




Should I shave my legs? For cyclists the answer is obvious, rule 33 (https://www.velominati.com/) and all that. What is it for runners? I don’t want to give a bad impression in my first appearance.


Racesuit or Skinsuit? I’m tempted to go for racesuit. The pockets will come handy to carry my gels and I probably can afford the additional drag. 


Also, on what side should I pin my race number? I saw a few runners pinning their number on their belly. Are they hiding it for any reason?


Any sock length rules I should have in mind? The Union Cycliste Internationale is very opinionated on sock length. What about the Union “Runiste” Internationale?


Is it normal to not feel any faster on your [very expensive] racing shoes? When I bought them (“All the gear, no idea” could be my religion) I was surprised they were cheaper than my winter wheels. The surprise came when Strava said I had to buy a new pair. That is when I realized their cost per mile is higher than a black cab in London. I’m a cyclist, I’m used to falling for these marketing tricks, it would just be nice to know that I’m not alone among the runners.


Are town signs locations going to be published? One of my cycling mates (JFW) is big on going for town signs early in the race and dying half way into the race. He is also running this marathon and I’d like him to have a good experience.


Kind of the same question about KOMs? I’m not a climber but another of my cyclist-become-runner mates (The Pope) is a proper mountain goat. Is he going to be disappointed? 


What is the equivalent of wheelsucking in running? Is it considered good form to sit on someone's shoes for kilometers and then outsprint that runner in the finish line? Asking for a friend.


Where do I put my Garmin? I was considering carrying it in my hand but it feels uncomfortable. 


What is the equivalent of wheelsucking in running? Is it considered good form to sit on someone's shoes for kilometers and then outsprint that runner in the finish line? Asking for a friend.


At what kilometer will it be the coffee stop? I hope they have scones.


I don’t have any questions about the helmet


Take care of yourself
Javier Arias González

domingo, 24 de noviembre de 2024

Trying to find my marathon pace


Last Sunday I tried to find my marathon pace and my heart rate strap didn't work (https://www.strava.com/activities/12920436090).


Today, again, my heart rate strap didn't work so I removed it and relied on the heart rate measured by my watch. 


The problem was today was windy. Very, very windy. Gusty winds that didn't follow any pattern. Sometimes tail wind, very often cross winds and, what felt most of the time, head winds. 


That means that last Sunday's heart rate was useless and today's pace was useless.


So, I have decide I'm going to pace my Valencia marathon based on heart rate. I'm going to aim to run it at 145 - 155 bpm. That is between 85% and 90% of my maximal heart rate (170bpm).


I don't know what pace that would be. My best guess is somewhere between 5m15" (a 3:41:31 marathon) and 4m45" (a 3:20:26 marathon).


Finishing is a must. Finishing in that bracket would be an amazing result and I'd be satisfied with how the whole year went. 


But now that I have put concrete figures to it you can bet I'll aim for the lower one.


One week to find out. Uncomfortably excited about it.


The run in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/12971960713


Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González