Paracycling | PB Performance Training Camp

I decided to split the Training Camp blogs into prep work and the actual camp, so it will be easier to look back historically. This was my first ever training camp, with PB Performance being sponsored by Palau Cycling, it meant that I was going into the unknown. My biggest week ever came back in 2016 when I did 14hours30mins (made by 100mile ride and 100km ride on back-to-back weekends with a bit of riding in between), while this week was projected to be around 24 hours. 

The goal for the camp was to just survive and see how the ankle went. My general assumption was that I would do Saturday to Tuesday and then Wednesday/Thursday off before doing Friday and Saturday. As much as it was about fitness, I hadn’t ever done a proper descent yet so the technical side was as important - if not more!

Training Camp Day 0

Camp technically was Sunday to Saturday, but we did just over 100km (121km) Coastal loop. It involved 2 big climbs and the up-and-down of the coastal road.

The climbs weren’t too bad with the first climb being 6:06 at 307w (308w NP) with a few spikes representing the hairpins. 

The bigger concern was the descending skills as I was dropped by a mile (well almost). I lost over 40 seconds to the group, but the first descent was always going to be the worst. It didn’t help that it was a mix of dry-wet roads and I took it very cautiously. This meant that I was doing some big efforts to get back into the group at the bottom of the descents - which is a lot of wasted energy but required.

The coastal road wasn’t too bad in terms of climbing, and by the 3rd descent, I’d managed to stay with the pack and did the same on the 4th. The final descent was slightly different as there were a few moves. I decided it wasn’t worth risking my confidence and went at my own pace, but that meant a big effort to get back in. 

You can see that I made five efforts into Zone 5 (400w above), which isn’t ideal. The 4th and 5th efforts are a single combined effort. 

We also ended the day with a cafe stop which was going to be the next big challenge of how my foot dealt with the stop.But nothing happened, which was good, but also unexpected. I did find that constant uphill meant that my legs hurt differently to normal, even if the power wasn’t that high. 

Training Camp Day 1

Having probably ridden too much for a free ride, the first day of camp had three big climbs including a new biggest climb.As with the day before, the climb was a focal point, but the descents were the main target. There was also a chaingangbetween the first and second climbs for around 20minutes. 

The first climb was Santa P where the groupetto rode comfortably for the (just under) 20minute effort. I could have definitely gone faster, but the goal was to climb in the groupetto and no quicker.

The descent was the big news, though, where I kept up with the group while being kindly guided down. The descent was a step forward in that I was in the group, but also because I reached new cadence records. I say that my limit is around 105rpm, but I managed to hold 130rpm!!! All of this to keep up with the group as I peaked at 78.0kph! I did make a slight mistake not realising how sharp back-to-back corners were, but it wasn’t too bad and I was still in control.

The chaingang segment was around 17minutes and I found it to be flat out - even if the numbers on a high level aren’t as high as they should be for a “flat out” effort. The overall effort was 17mins15seconds at 295w (314w NP). My technique needs a lot of work as I was wasting way too much energy. I wasn’t smooth changing lanes either on the front or on theback. I’d argue that the work on the front is more related to imposter syndrome. I was so worried about slowing the group that I actually did slow down the group by making it surge. I also found my turns to be on drags which only made the imposter syndrome worse as the impact is much larger. 

I think this is best shown by my top six 30second efforts all being 400w (or higher). Never ideal for being smooth if you are consistently over 400w. 

The technique on the back was nothing to do with imposter syndrome, but more related to being able to get away with it when riding with slower people. At slower speeds, the acceleration isn’t as intense and it’s quite refreshing to do a small effort out of the saddle. The biggest tip I learnt was to keep pedalling at all times and to be more confident in my power. 

The second climb was the steep climb and this time it wasn’t as easy but also wasn’t flat out. The effort being8mins21seconds at 280w (281w NP). This one was the hardest climb I had done, but it was still comfortable being in the groupetto. The main effort was getting back on where I did 20seconds at 415w but the rest of the effort was 274w (280w NP).

The third climb was more of a drag than an actual climb and my foot continued to be good. I could feel that it was starting to be affected, but a small tighten of the shoes seemed to sort that out. 

The overall ride being 108km which meant it was my first ever back-to-back 100km rides! 

Training Camp Day 2

Monday saw a mini stage race compiling of a 4 lap Road Race around a 8.6km course and a 1 lap TT. The tactics were to sit in as long as possible and then TT the remaining distance. 

Obviously, sitting in is much easier than working in the group but I was still surprised at how comfortable I found it. It wasn’t easy, but it felt more comfortable than I thought it would be. I think the biggest learning from the race was that I need to be more proactive when sitting in as I got dropped when someone who was taking turns did. In hindsight (or next time), I’d tell them to sit on my wheel to recover or be more bullish and not let them in. It’s an awkward place to be, but it’s a skill to be able to navigate a breakaway without taking turns. That effort in the group was 17mins27seconds at 306w (324w NP) which had a lot of spikes and had about a minute where we couldn’t pedal due to a tractor going 20kph. Soreally it was 6minutes at 306w (315w NP) with a minute recovery and then just under 11minutes (10mins44seconds) at 327w (334w NP). 

The remaining part of the road race was essentially a solo TT (ahead of the TT). The remaining effort took me just under 36minutes (35:55) doing 303w (310w NP). I don’t think the solo effort was my best performance in terms of pacing, as I suffered a lot in the final lap, especially in the headwind section. Not that it should be surprising, but I’m normally much better at pacing than that. 

The following effort was the TT stage which was only one lap and I’d also say I didn’t pace it well either - but this time for different reasons. The overall TT effort was around 13mins40seconds where I did 327w (328w NP). The reason I say for bad pacing is that my legs were better than I thought and you needed to be dead by the end of the headwind section and let the tailwind keep you going. The problem for me was the headwind/climbing section I did 5mins36seconds at 325w (323w NP) and then finished off the effort doing 7mins47secs at 334w (332w NP). (The missing time is the downhill). 

It’s not a bad thing that I found more power at the end and surprised myself with how well I did, but it shows that I could have gone quicker if I went harder in the headwind section. It’s not the first time that I found myself struggling to put power out in the headwind to be able to put out a lot more power in the tailwind (as I had the same issue at NationalChamps Crit race last year).

The other interesting part is how much more power I did in the TT than I did during the Road Race. While expected in a vacuum, I only had 14minutes between the efforts and I was suffering after the Road race. 

I also cracked for the first time during the return back, but it also shows the difference in perception and the people I ride with now. The “crack” was up a climb where I could only put out 244w watts for the almost 7minutes effort. It was my first real understanding that my level had increased with still being able to put out 250w for 7minutes when I felt I couldn't put any power down.

(I also added an extra 8km to get over 100km for 3 100km rides in a row).

Training Camp Day 3

Having slightly recovered from the days before, it was time to do the longest ride of the camp (so far).

It was a weird day in the saddle because I felt like I could do the power required but it felt a lot more forced. Santa P was paced quite hard without it being too bad with an effort just under 17minutes at 276w (286w NP). 

The descent was where I was finally feeling confident in my ability to take with the group when I wanted to having done it more consistently on the Sunday. However, I tweaked my ankle on the descent, which made the rest of the ride quite painful. There was a chaingang where I sat in on as any time I’d put decent torque through the pedals, the ankle was really painful. 

The coastal roads were fun and I just enjoyed the views. I found the gruppetto worked well where people descended at different speeds but always met back up on the climbs. Probably not the most efficient approach but it was the most enjoyable. 

The cafe was where I had the first big issue though with my ankle completely ceasing up with over 40km to go and we went straight up a climb. Unfortunately, there were was nothing I could do about it and it’s just doing my best with 200w being my limit and it was very much forced. Luckily, my ankle got better as I rode on and I made it back quite comfortably. In a weird way, it gave me more confidence in my ankle that I could have an issue with it and it couldrecover. 

Another day, another 100km+ ride (four in a row)!

Training Camp Day 4

The Recovery Day - well sort of. In the fact we did 64km of riding. The morning started with bottle practice (100% catch record) which I’m not sure I need but it was worth getting involved. Then a ride to the cafe and back. 

A lovely cafe stop where the ride combined 2hours44mins of riding with over 5 hours elapsed time. As all cafe rides should do, aim for a 50/50 balance between cafe time and riding time. 

Training Camp Day 5

Day 5 was all about the TT up Sant Marti and then surviving the rest of the ride - which included riding up Els (long version).

Thursday was intensity day which meant that I started off with 16mins47seconds at 283w (294w NP) before recovering ahead of the TT Hill Climb up Sant Marti.

Sant Marti is a climb that should suit me as it is consistent and it's just about putting the power down and not being affected by riders riding past you. The only thing for me is that it's a bit too steep to be perfectly suited, but I enjoyed the effort.

The effort was 32mins57seconds long and I paced it almost perfectly. Arguably, I went too easy at the beginning and should have backed myself to know how to pace it, but we are talking about the difference between seconds rather than tens of seconds. It is also steeper at the top so maybe I did the right thing.

Pacing is something that I can just do and this is a really good example. I don’t look at power numbers, I just have the climb details in front of me and go from there.

Perhaps given it ends steeply, I did pace it perfectly as you can see where I spike for hairpins and generally increase my effort towards the end. It also was a 30min average power best too with the total effort being 32mins57seconds at 332w (332w NP).

The rest of the ride was about sitting in the wheels and continuing to work on that while the legs were destroyed. We did a chaingang effort and it got quite choppy, but the joys of the sitting on that it shouldn’t affect me - but I allowed it to. In a way, the choppy aspect allowed me to rest more, but actually, that isn’t effective for sitting.

We finished the ride going up the long side of Els Angels which is beautiful as I rode it in Z1/Z2 with a few spikes here and there. It was the one occasion that I just enjoyed the climb like a tourist before the fast, fun descent which I reallyenjoyed. I didn’t bomb it down the descent, but I did descend at a good speed.

Training Camp Day 6

The final day of riding, for me, was the longest ride (both time and distance) I’ve ever done and the legs were feeling awful. The route was a trip to France and then back which was just over 100miles (and then I did extra to make it my longest ride).

I’d say this ride was probably the one that opened my eyes the most and the one I take most pride in. That’s because I just suffered for the whole time, but the power numbers weren’t actually that bad. 

Using IF (Intensity Factor which is Normalised Power for the effort divided by FTP) as a measure, the efforts weren’tcrazy but when looking at the Strava leaderboards it tells the picture much more. The efforts were all done around 250w which was all I could do but that’s better than most people can - obviously, most people don’t race but it puts in perspective how I’m thinking I’ve absolutely hit the wall but it’s still quicker than most people.

Perhaps not surprising given everything, but it was it like I couldn’t get out of the 3rd gear and the threshold zone was not available. That said I could hold 200-250w relatively comfortably. 

Being in the group was an interesting challenge into a block headwind as it was basically not pedalling with over 18minutes at 108w (132w NP) which was a good challenge for me in terms of ensuring I was protected in the draft butalso it was quite difficult on my ankle with the stop-start nature.

As I mentioned I wanted to make it my longest ride in terms of time and distance so I did an extra 13km, but the ankle was in ruins. It took me 35mins to do that additional distance and I was in so much pain - but I did it!

I finished the ride having done 176.1km with one stop (food stop) which meant that it was 6hours26mins of riding (over a 7hour 4min period). 

Summary

My biggest 7 days of riding by miles! 850km ridden in 29hours29mins of riding which is nuts to think about. It was over double my previous best for a 7 day period. The biggest thing was that I enjoyed it all too.

For those still here: Palau's Villa is stunning which you can check out here: https://www.palaucycling.com.