The journey continues

Up the Passo Giau

Yesterday¹ I began my 'journey' of 5000 miles in 2018 for Bloodwise by taking two friends for a gentle ride from Forest Hill in South London to the Thames barrier via the Cutty Sark and the riverside path. Neither of them had cycled in London for some years and they were concerned about the traffic in our busy city. The plan had been to set off at about 10:30am but the rain intervened and we had our coffee stop before the ride even started. However, by 12:15pm the water had stopped falling from the sky and after adjusting saddle heights for my two companions we were off.

At just over 15 miles it was long enough for my friends to get the feel of riding again but not so far as to get too cold or wet. The rain started again on the way back but we had been out and that felt good.

Please join me on my journey at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stephenmaxted2018 and follow me on Strava https://www.strava.com/athletes/4647248

Today² was a very different story. I was up early because my wife was back at school for a training day. So, it was time to set up the turbo trainer again -fancy having to put it away just because the back bedroom was needed for family staying over the New Year - but sadly, with winds gusting at 40mph plus, it was no time to be on the open road. So, once set up, my Elite Turbo Muin became the means (by video) of climbing the Passo Giau under the guidance of GCN's Simon Richardson.

Strava logged my ride this morning as 10.2 miles, that was the climb plus some cooling down afterwards. https://www.strava.com/activities/1338514739/analysis

In the real world the stats are

Passo Giau Profile:

• Starting elevation: 1314 m
• Final elevation: 2236 m
• Length of ascent: 9.9 km
• Elevation gain: 922 m
• Average gradient: 9.3 %
• Max. gradient: 15 %

It was a great workout. Sweet Spot and sprint intervals for just over 40 minutes. The term 'sweet spot' refers to an intensity of training that is hard enough to elicit substantial physiological benefit but not so hard as to be unsustainable. It lies at around 90 percent of threshold power.

My FTP³ when I last did a test in November was 230 watts. That is relatively low but I am pleased to be back at that level after my accident a year ago.

Simon's guided ride meant riding for blocks of 4 minutes at 80 to 90% of FTP with each block followed by a 30 second sprint. In my case, the sprints this morning, meant reaching around 400 watts by increasing the speed at which I was pedalling from approx 80 rpm to just over 100 rpm.

I am committed to riding to raise money for the important work undertaken by Bloodwise to support patients with blood cancers and medical research to find cures and treatments.

Please will you support me in my efforts by making a gift at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stephenmaxted2018

During 2018 I will be riding in some of the most challenging one-day cycle events including L'Etape du Tour and hopefully the Fred Whitton Challenge. This morning's turbo trainer session was part of my preparation for events such as these.

1 Tuesday 2^nd January

2 Wednesday 3^rd January

3Functional Threshold Power, or FTP, is the maximum average power you can hold for one hour. 

My life as a 'pin-up'!

Maybe the headline should read 'my life with a 'pin-up'. It's not a pretty story or even a very pretty picture but there is some colour and a whole load of unwanted clarity.

Unlike the Flanders and Swan¹ song which begins on a Monday morning my encounter with a different sort of 'gasman'² started on a Sunday morning at the end of November 2016. I was riding in the Fontwell Freeze³ when in the lovely village of Lavant near Chichester, I had a slow speed slip, a whole lot of morphine courtesy of the event medic and a trip to St Richards Hospital, Chichester.

Sometimes things don't go as one expects. I remember thinking, as the front wheel of my bike slipped away, “I am going to be sore when I stand up”, but it did not occur to me on the way down that there would be 'no way up'! Although I did not know it until much later in the day, I had broken the ball off the top of my right femur.

The Fontwell Freeze was only one of a number of cycling events in which I had participated in 2016. It had been quite a year, taking part in the Gran Fondo World Championships⁴ in Perth something for which I was not prepared; and also riding from London to Paris with Bloodwise. But my aims on that morning in November had been simple. Ride steadily at a pace, have good aerobic exercise and finish with a reasonable time. So much for finishing! I had made a reasonable pace until the right turn in Lavant and then the day was over and I joined the ranks of 'did not finish'.

The Fontwell Freeze was intended as the start of my training for L'Etape du Tour 2017, but that seemed to be over before it had really had a chance to get underway. However my determination to take part in L'Etape du Tour, despite gaining a 'dynamic hip screw', was starting to be formed.

Fortunately for me, the orthopaedic surgeon on call was a cyclist and after a conversation in A&E it was decided to 'go for' the repair of my own bones rather than a replacement hip. The surgeon felt I would wear out a replacement joint out too quickly. I now realise how lucky I was. Almost every conversation I have had with other medics has indicated that in most cases my injury would have resulted in an almost automatic decision to fit a 'replacement' hip. In addition, the risk of the operation not being successful because of the failure of the head of my femur not having the blood supply restored was high.

It took from the end of November 2016 to mid-March 2017 to get rid my crutches and but by June I was well enough to compete in the Tour of Cambridgeshire and in July ride 172.3km out of 181km of L'Etape du Tour; and in all have managed to cycle 3000 miles in 2017 since getting back on my back in March.

Life with my leg 'pinned up' is the start of a new challenge. In 2016, if I had not had an encounter with the road in Lavant, I was on track to ride 5000 miles in the year. So in 2018, I am going to try again to reach that distance target but I have another target in mind. I want to raise £5000 for Bloodwise (formerly Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research). They do a great job supporting patients and sponsoring medical research to help beat blood cancer.

Nothing is certain in life, I did not expect to fall off my bike and break my leg, but I am going to do my best to ride the miles. Please, will you support me by making a gift? It is easy at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stephenmaxted2018 I also need people to make my story known, so please post it on Facebook and any other social media you use. You can follow my progress on Strava, just click here. I will be writing more over the coming weeks.

1The Gas Man Cometh

2I think that anaesthetist was a lady but I don't remember that much about the op!

3Wiggle Super Series 2016

4http://www.sport.be/ucigranfondoworldseries/2018/en/about/

12 hours and counting!

I really can't believe it is now about 12 hours before I join almost 200 other riders and cycle to Paris to raise much needed funds to support Bloodwise in their fight against Blood Cancers.

I have raised almost £1440 so far. My target is £2000 and I would like to ask you to help me reach my target before I set out on tomorrow morning.

The ride is 291 miles over four days. We assemble at Eltham Palace at 06:30 on Thursday and arrive in Paris at approximately 16:00 on Sunday.

It is a privilege to be part of this event and I could not do it without the support of people like you. So please may I ask you to click on the picture below and go to my justgiving page and make a donation - however small or large - as the advert says "every little helps" https://www.justgiving.com/Stephen-Maxted2/

Finally, if you have friends that you think might want to sponsor me please do ask them to join you in supporting Bloodwise by sharing this post about the ride on Facebook or Twitter. You and they will be helping the approximately 38,000 people diagnosed with blood cancers each year. Thank you. https://www.justgiving.com/Stephen-Maxted2/

Life from Harriet!

I have just watched an amazing inspirational video. It's worth a blog all on its own. http://tinyurl.com/jzzop23

It is stories like this that have prompted me to participate in Ride London and ride from London to Paris for Bloodwise and raise money for reseach into blood cancers and care for the suffers. Please support me by visiting https://www.justgiving.com/Stephen-Maxted2/

Thank you

The Gospel of St.Rava - Training progress for Ride London and London to Paris 2016

Its been and interesting week week. Four training sessions, two indoors on Wattbikes at Cadence Performance (Crystal Palace) and two on the roads of South London. All of them started before 7am with me on my Giant Defy 3.

Thanks to Jack (Tuesday) and Rob (Thursday) the Wattbike sessions have seemed more brutal than the FTP test a couple of weeks ago. Tuesday's interval session of sprints followed by 4 x 4 minute 'zone five' efforts followed by max sprints seemed bad https://www.strava.com/activities/517479725 until Thursday, when Rob decided that it would be 10 max out sprint sessions in 40 minutes https://www.strava.com/activities/519164974 But, each of these tortures did have the appropriate warm up and cool down sessions.

What have I learned? First, I can keep going even when I thought there was no more to give; second my legs will turn the pedals at 154 rpm if I try hard enough, that will generate 740 watts and sent my heart to 160 bpm and I can still ride home afterwards.

Then finally the 'inside out effect' is that my road session this morning on my standard 18.6 mile training route, while not fast, was the fastest I have ever managed at an average of 15.7 mph in the gospel according St.Rava! https://www.strava.com/activities/519975588

Hopefully this will turn into Ride London in about five hours (dream on) and keeping up with the fast group on the Paris ride.

The whole enterprise is so I can raise £2000 for medical reseach by Bloodwise into Blood Cancer. Please do visit my justgiving page https://www.justgiving.com/Stephen-Maxted2/ I am 15% towards my goal of £2000 and would really value your support.

New hope!

I am using the following with permission from Martin Abrahams who is writing about his daughter Jess and the bone marrow transplant she has had within the last month. It is a moving story. A.L.L stands for 

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

I am doing the London to Paris (L2P) ride this year to help children like Jess

Martin writes: "I did L2P in 2014 whilst my daughter, Jess, was in maintenance for A.L.L. For those that don't know, Jess relapsed in September 2015 and since then we have been preparing for a bone marrow transplant and now we are 29 days post transplant. Jess is responding well. 

smile emoticon
"The reason I am posting here now is because despite all the odds Jess is still going, thanks to research and thanks to the one donor in the world that was a 10 out 10 match.
Jess made a thank you card for him; in return he had already written a few words but our transplant co-ordinator couldn't share them until we decided to make contact. It has been translated from German.

"My family and I want to pay it forward, as what he has done for us is priceless, so if this message helps motivate anyone with regards to the fund-raising or indeed the training, then it was worth sharing."

I am pleased I can raise money to help children like Jess. Please support Bloodwise by visiting my just giving page and sponsoring me. https://www.justgiving.com/Stephen-Maxted2/

below is what the bone marrow donor wrote to Jess

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello

Dear patient

I wanted to write a few lines for you today.

I am 57 years old, male and come from Germany.

I wanted to help and give you my bone marrow whole-heartedly.

I myself have children and even grandchildren and all are doing well. I am glad every day that passes that they are well and I love them more than anything.
I hope you are better soon and you will be healthy and you can live your life like any other human being and experience all the beautiful things in this life.

So in conclusion, I wanted to tell you that I'm really happy that I have been able to help someone else in this world.
It wasn’t easy for me to write these words but it was important to me to write a heartfelt message.

All my love,

Your donor.

Left behind on the hills!

I love being out on my bike and especially riding with friends.

The problem is that I am almost 15 years older than some of the friends I ride with and even more than that for a few others. The result, I get left behind when ever the road starts to climb. So a year ago I decided I needed to do some proper training and on 26th April 2015 I joined Cadence Performance at Crystal Palace. The aim was to stay up with the group but that has turned into the higher goal of being able to ride from London to Paris to raise money for Bloodwise, the blood cancer charity.  (I am the one with the beard!)

Proper training now includes WattBike sessions early in the morning (7am) twice a week. WattBikes are indoor instruments of torture designed to help you understand how well you cycle. You can monitor the power output of your legs, the relative balance of pressure on each pedal and your pedal stroke; not to mention heart rate. they also enable you to be tested. I have been introduced to the mysteries of FTP, MMP and training zones; none of which I knew existed before last year. 

This is a bit technical but the cyclists will understand I hope! I did a Functional Threshold Power test this morning at 7am at Cadence Perfomance Cycling and survived. My Maximum Minute Power has increased from 244W last August (based on a ramp test) to 262 W in Nov (from an FTP test) to 288W from today's FTP test. I am pleased with the improvement. Thanks must go to Jack Lynch the coach who has lead the Tuesday morning sessions so well; even if he did take us through sprint intervals before the test today. It's on Strava so it did happen, you can check it out

Why does the power increase matter you ask (or not as the case may be)? The first part of answer is that hopefully I can ride up hills faster because I can put more power on my pedals. The second and more important part is being fitter and getting to Paris. My aim is to raise £2000 for Bloodwise who support people with blood cancer and fund research into cures and treatments.

I need your help to reach my fundraising goal. Please will you help beat blood cancer and support my ride. Thank you.