Last Of The Summer and Looking To Winter Training

The season ended well, shortly after the infections cleared I took on Revolve24 as part of the Direct Power cycle team, a little unfit but willing to give it a go! The race was over 24 hours at Brands Hatch and we raced it as a relay team, one member at a time on track. We all had time slots booked in and as I had work Sunday morning booked in for 3 hours on the Saturday. I couldn’t have imagined how hilly the circuit was though, both decent and assent and can’t believe some people were doing the solo 24 hour😮 Concidering the time off injured I managed to hold a really strong pace over the 3 hours and was passing loads of people on the hills and felt strong to the end! The team was doing brilliant and it was great to be part of it👌😃 I managed to make it back the following afternoon to take over the second to last hour stint and had recovered well enough to hit it hard. The team had continued to push hard over night and put in a massive effort👊🏻

Great team, hitting it for Chikama Trust a great cause!

It was a good start to the winter hitting targets and twice improving in powere testing. Continuing to work well with the support of Pav Bryan coaching and my coach Ian Jenner, developing a good relationship and improvements coming thick and fast👌 we’ve put in an extra rest day over the winter which I am hoping will take the pressure off stump damage, although with being so busy at work it’s been tough to manage some times🤦‍♂️ It’s going to be a big year though with doing a 12 hour time trial to raise money for Noah’s Big Charity and Arctic One👌😃

Summer Ups & Downs

Overall it's been a very positive summer, racing more crites (para and able bodied), working allot more and now full time at last👌😃 The National Paracycle champs went okay though didn't really shin, I think after only racing one crit beforehand and a hand full of TT's the race fitness wasn't there and got dropped early on in the road race. The TT went better though, it being longer than last year, hiller which suits me I gained a couple of places👍Testing has gone amazingly with the 6 sec, 3 minute, 12 minute and FTP jumping massively. Although I am still struggling to stay with the PAC in crits (circuit road race) I am getting better in every race and won my last crit race of the year at Southend, Redbridge💪🏻😃 I also got moved up to cat3 able bodied which is a bit of a confidence builder👌

National paracycle champs

Southend, Redbridge paracycle criterium, going up Hoghill

Unfortunately the end of the year has gone a bit bellys up with the same issue as last September when I was also managing a bursa on the knee/stump, for months but as is the way with these if they don't go they eventually get infected! It's on a different place on the knee than it was last year and the year before but I did get onto it quicker this year starting antibiotics. Still didn't shift it though, even with not training so have had to start another course of stronger antibiotics which should start to work after a couple of days really!

Over a week off training now though and even with the rest feeling shattered and had a fever for a couple of days so not great!

As I say though it's not been all bad and going forward I have a new job with a small family run business, Raw Pet Foods that is going brilliantly👍😃 Coaching sponsor Pav Bryan @DirectPower along with my coach Ian Jenner @CoachRule5 have agreed to continue my coaching support saying that I show great dedication and potential going forward so a big thank you👊🏻👌😃

Now I need to start planing for next years para season, also a little 12 hour TT to raise money for @Arctic_0NE and Noah's big charity👌

Please support me and these two amazing charities if you can http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AdrianHeathfield

Thanks

Ade

Positive Times

Although as I find time to write this post it is because of having to pull out of a sportive, the 1066. I've just got swelling over the lateral tendon behind the knee above my stump. I've managed to keep it under control for the past couple of weeks which is amazing considering how much heavy lifting I do at the different places I work, the increase in training intensity but it's finally caught up with me and I need to rest it before it gets out of control! I'm good at managing stump stuff though so will just take it on the chin and us the time to catch up on other stuff👌

Im doing lots of different jobs now both employed and self employed so that has taken some stress off as it means my bills are at least covered, although they are just short term fixes it is still a positive move😀 Them all being manual jobs is not helping with my stump but at least it takes some pressure off not running anymore and is just a case of adapting the management, I was thinking of getting a wheel chair again so I could rest the stump up more at home and on rest days!

Q25/8 Time Trial(TT)
I've not had any more road races but did a TT at the end end of May. Training has gone very well and working with my coach, Ian. The TT was for this type of event fairly hilly as they are for the most part pan flat so to still PB shows how fare things have come and my functional threshold power(FTP) was up by over 50 watts, off the top of my head and with a lower AHR. So all bodes very well👌

Training for my 12 hour TT next year to raise funds and awareness for Arctic One and Noah's Big Charity http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AdrianHeathfield is very much in the base phase. So just change my Sunday group session which I couldn't get out on anyway because of working Sunday morning into a 4 hour afternoon ride it TT position. It's just long enough at this point to highlight any potential issues with position, rubbing, aches, pains fuelling so adjustments can be made before we start putting the hammer down!👍

Please support me and these two amazing charities if you can http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AdrianHeathfield

Thanks

Ade

First 10TT of the year and Para Crit race at Hillingdon London

Q10/1

10 TT was a local race the Q10/1 heading out from Hamstreet, that is about 15 minute cycle from my house. I was aiming for my first sub 23 which with the form over the winter seemed very realistic, it was soon apparent though that it wasn't happening. The power looked good on the out bound leg but then I clocked the average speed and was well down on the target. My heart rate was to low also though so just tried to dig deeper but no matter how hard I seemed to push the heart rate was still fairly low but the speed did pick up massively on the second leg heading back as I then had a tail wind but not enough! I had people to chase that I was slowly gaining on so concentrated on pushing to catch them as soon as possible, I caught one of my old triathlon team mates on the home straight, who had started 2 minutes ahead but my finish time of 24:09 was very disappointing. I know it was only the first 10 and they do get quicker as the year goes on, I improved by over 2 minutes last year so am positive that even though I missed the target for this race they will improve. Conditions wont of helped as there wasn't allot of very quick times and I also have rib/intercostal injuries after a fall off the bike so am hoping when this clears up I will be able to at least get more out of the heart and lungs!

National Para-Series and cat 3/4 Crit Hillingdon 22/04/17

eeeesh another that I will just chalk up to experience in more ways than one, it was a fairly big field at 70 people on a tight course in places, twisting but no corners you couldn't cycle round. This in mind I started to far back in the pack, about 3/4 the way back in the middle so every time there was a kick at the front you ended to far off the front and the same if someone touched the breaks when they didn't need to. I loved the course but managed to lose a couple of meters on a down hill out of a corner and didn't react quick enough to it! Within a couple of seconds I was over 10 meters off the back of the pack with 3 other riders, I put in a big kick for about 10 seconds but the pack had done the same out of another corner and I found myself by myself. I tried for a couple of laps to get back on as I could see the main pack and was picking up other riders who had dropped off and was trying to get them to work with me and keep pushing. At this stage in my mind with 5 of us anything could happen up front and there is always a chance of catching if they slowed enough or there was a crash but it took to long till they decided to pick it up, it was just me working for the first long stint at the front. As soon as the pack lapped us I just treated it as a good opportunity to practice race craft and working with what turned out to be about 8 guys and kicking out of corners and the slight inclines into some of the corners. I wasn't in the best form probably physically with my ribs/intercostals being sore and looking back AHR was low again, so early season seem to be struggling to push into the big numbers like I have been all winter. I also put what I thought was 700x23 on my back wheel, that's what it said on the box but actually turned out to be 700x25 on the actual tyre. The wheel went on okay but noticed after the race it was rubbing on the frame. Needless to say the following day after lots of panicking that the frame was bent and 4 hour session replaced with the TT bike (which was actually good practice for endurance in TT position), it was just a relief it was just the tyres not the frame. It did hurt being lapped not just by most of the cat 3/4 guys but also the para lads, not my proudest moment, evaluate and move forward with positivity though!

No excuses though just evaluating in my own head, there was negatives to look at, to learn from and positives to take forward.

Work hard, work smart dream big!

Ade  

Testing Start to 2017

Had the joy of a couple of spells of crashing on the bike over the last few months ruining my new winter kit, that I brought through sponsorship and the shifters on my road bike, which has been very costly! Silver lining although very upset at the costs which are spiralling (who ever said you don't have to spend much to train/race was lying!!!) at least I wasn't injured, apart from gravel rash and then gravel rash ontop of the gravel rash I already had on the hip!

My sponsors have continued to be brilliant at helping me out and am so very grateful for that, it's a struggle some times to even find enough money for food and I couldn't even afford to train let alone race without them..... So thank you:)

The financial constraints have hit again as I'm still struggling to find full time work so had to drop out of considering York as my first lot of paracycle races. Instead I raced a local Time Trial yesterday as it was 5 minutes down the road from me and also the longest TT I have done to date at 30 miles. It went okay although it didn't really show the kind of improvements my testing form over the winter was pointing to. I was hoping to hold the same average speed that I did on the 25 mile last year on the same roads, as my improvements pointed towards me being able to do it. Weather conditions wouldn't have helped yesterday because the swirling wind meant that you got tail, head and side winds without changing direction. It was going well initially holding 40kmh, which was above my targets with relatively low power and heart rate but then got off the nice new tarmac onto the old surface and it just beat me. I ended up averaging about 37.8kmh which is over a kmh slower than I had targeted. First race Time Trial of the year and the lack of race fitness is evident. I'v trained and tested so hard over the winter and made big improvements but its not racing. I can take the positive I suppose that although I was down on my 25 from last year, I was about 2kmh average quicker yesterday than when I raced a 16 at the BC championships:)

Need to race importantly, keep turning the screw though and step it up!

Moving Forward

Its been a good couple of months of training and things have steadily improved. The goals of improving top end power have been achieved but I always want more and the goal of four figures for the top end effort is still some way off but atleast I am heading in the right direction. Functional Threshold Power which is tested over 20 minutes on Training Peaks has steadily rose and apart from picking up a cold this week am feeling like I am in a good place to be starting the racing season in March.

Ive earmarked 3 para series weekends of racing, York in March, Essex in May and my A race the BC National Championships in July. I'm also looking to do a 12 hour TT this year for charity but am looking for one later in the year. I will also look to race more crit races but it will just depend on money and any work I am doing I think I just need to race as much as possible this year but again that does come down to money.

Since my previous problems with bursitis it has all settled down, even with increasing training load and intensity. Ian who is coaching me for Pav Bryan coaching has been putting good session plans in which are improving fitness and power.

A Slog

This month has just been one of those months where I have been training with post crash injuries and the knee bursa, its just been a tough slog. Although I am now seeing the back end of both the bursa that has gone down just leaving some bruising and the ribs are no where near as tender, so things are in a better place.

Iv  had no races to focus me at this time of year which I don't normally have a problem with but had a recovery week last week and just didn't feel recovered come the end of it yesterday! I struggled most  of the week to find motivation which is very unusual for me and the body felt very lethargic in general. I think life stress with work and money probably plays a big part but it was definitely a tough one. Its turned cold very quickly to which it seems to do in the UK, it seems to suddenly drop by 10 degrees so doing less intense rides you really have to dress up warm to stay comfortable. You can always take stuff off and stuff it in your pockets so I never worry about being over dressed and its always good to have plenty with you just incase of a mechanical.

The last day of the recovery week yesterday I was feeling allot sharper though. It was a Sunday 3 hour Club ride with Ashford Wheelers and although I did try to make sure to take it easy, its difficult when you take in a few long hills, fun ride though and that's what is most needed sometimes.

I start the next 3 week build tomorrow which I am looking forward to working at and hitting some performance goals!