One of my resolutions this year that I didn’t have to abandon due to reasons out of my control (I had all kinds of cycling plans I couldn’t fulfil due to injury etc) was to create more videos for my YouTube channel.

In order to do this, I have to walk about on my own chatting into a screen like a lunatic and try not to get too embarrassed about filming everyone, everything and all that I do. I often explain to people beforehand that I’m making an edit just so I don’t feel like such a narcissistic arse but it’s hard not to, so I often sneak off around corners to talk to the camera. Having said that. the more I do it, the less I care about that kind of thing so I guess I just need to keep at it!

I could really do with a new camera and a mic as I’m just using a camera phone at the moment but I’m still learning the ropes at the moment and therefore don’t really want to invest. What I really need to do first is refine the process – I generally end up filming too much of the wrong stuff and too little of the right so it can be really time consuming and occasionally takes away too much from the experience I’m meant to be enjoying. But on the whole, t’s a fun process to get to grips with, editing in particular.

My most recent trip was to Gran Canaria with Polartec on the Follow Contador training camp (read all about it here!) so of course I wasted no time in whipping out my phone to capture the three days cycling up mountains and the frequent dips in swimming pools.

It was one of the best trips I’ve been on in a long while, despite the fact my fitness was a bit off the mark.

Check out the video to see where we rode and what we got up to and if you like what you see, subscribe to my fledgling channel. I’d love to hear any comments you have, find out what videos you’d like to see in the future or if you’ve any tips, please share!

Newly released this year, the Garmin Forerunner 735XT watch packs a whole heap of functions into an attractive package. The watch is squarely aimed at Triathletes and though I’m not one and have no pressing plans to try one, I drawn to the multi-sport functions having become rather taken with swimming during my Speedo Pedal To Pool challenge. I’m not currently doing much running but for the purposes of testing the watch and trying out my new trainers, I’ve done a few runs, and naturally, I’ve done heaps of cycling alongside my swimming.

The watch records data from all variations of these three activities, so indoor and outdoor running and cycling as well as pool and open water swims. As it’s a triathlon watch, you can also record multiple sports in one activity, so say I was doing a triathlon, I could log all the elements as one race but analyse them individually. You can also record gym workouts other activities such as cross-country skiing and paddle boarding, rowing and hiking.

Today I swam a kilometre without stopping, something I’ve never done before! No idea if that’s fast or slow but feeling pretty chuffed with my achievement #winningelements#pedaltopool#swimming#fitness#training#getspeedofit

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Aug 20, 2016 at 8:02am PDT

A good looking watch

I opted for the cheerful looking aquamarine version (Frost Blue). It’s also available in black but doesn’t look as good if you ask me. It’s a sporty looking number made of soft rubber so if you like to look athletic this will fit nicely with your day to day wardrobe – less so if you plan on wearing a dress to the office or whatnot. Big buttons are easy to use even with cold hands. It’s lightweight and comfortable to wear.

The face is large, shiny and chunky – about 4cm across so it pretty much covers my entire wrist and it’s near enough a centimetre deep. The display is bright and clear. The watch face display can be customised to look how you like, by downloading different faces through the IQ store.

Around the back, you’ve an Optical heart rate sensor which is how it picks up and records your heart beat. You have to ensure the strap is fairly snug to do that, more so when exercising than the rest of the time.

The watch itself isn’t tricky to set up, however you do need to pair it with Garmin Connect which can be temperamental, to say the least. Let’s just say, I hope I never have to do that again. In theory it should only take several minutes.

A very smart timepiece

This watch has so many features it’s mind boggling, so I’ll just get on with listing a few of them. At its most basic, it’s step counter/fitness tracker, then it (roughly) records your heart rate throughout the day, which I find interesting as my resting heart rate gives a good indication of how recovered I am from my training. It’s best to use this HR data a general guide though rather than expecting pinpoint accuracy – it doesn’t check your heart rate very often when you’re inactive, so unlike a Fitbit you’re not actually getting truly continuos HR data.

You can also display your HR for the last four hours and then scroll though to see your average resting HR for the last 7 days. I wouldn’t pay too much attention to that though as it got mine way off – mine’s low but not 32BPM low!

As the watch doesn’t have a barometric altimeter it doesn’t record stairs climbed. It does record steps and displays your activity levels for the day, though for some reason it doesn’t factor your cycling/swimming/other activities into the total calories burned.

It also records sleep, though I’m not convinced it’s that accurate as my true resting HR is so low it probably thinkings I’m sleeping when I’m just reading in bed.

The connectivity features are really cool – if you pair it with your phone (using Bluetooth) you can have your texts and Facebook messages appear on the screen and you can answer phone calls – you’ll still need your phone to reply but I find it useful to press ‘answer’ on my watch whilst I rummage about in my bag for my phone. It can display events from your calendar and the current weather. You can also pair it with your Garmin Vector pedals or Shimano Di2 groupset, all of which makes me feel like I’m living in the future.

Activity Data

Recording activities is simple – Just select the activity by clicking through the selection then press the arrow to record. You can choose what to display with combinations of Timer, Laps, Speed, Distance etc as well as what heart rate zone you are in or even your Strava ‘Suffer Score.’

Cycling:

Just click record and you’re off – simple. When training on the bike, I tend to prefer a bar mounted unit as it can be tricky to see your wrist but for times when I don’t want to be glue to a screen looking at my data, the watch is great. I’ve recorded rides on the watch and my Garmin Edge 1000 for comparison and the data is not dissimilar.

Swimming:

The watch is water resistant to 50m, which should be more than plenty. To use it in a pool, you need to select the correct pool length first, otherwise you’ll think you’re really fast, like I did when I forgot. Sadly, the Optical HR monitor on the watch doesn’t work underwater, so if you want to record HR data you’ll need to buy the swim hear rate monitor strap to wear on your torso. Regardless of that, the amount of data recorded is astonishing, showing in minute detail your every stroke. Lengths are counted each time you touch the end.

I really enjoyed using the watch to record my length times, finding it really motivating as at the end of the swim, any Personal Bests or records you’ve beaten flash up on the screen. It’s not flawless  – one day I got out of the pool and my time indicated a new World Record and occasionally it might get the number of lengths slightly off, but overall, it’s good.

Six new swimming records today, including my longest ever swim: 2.5km. I’ve found swimming in a 50m pool much more enjoyable than a 25m. I’m really enjoying tracking my progress as these small improvements make me feel really good. #pedaltopool#swimming#winningelements#speedo#training#fitness

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Sep 7, 2016 at 3:37am PDT

I didn’t have much luck in the sea. The watch uses GPS (and/or Russia’s Glonass though using that drains your battery more quickly) to record distance and pace, so you need to wait for the GPS to kick in before you press record, then in order to work it does calculations that make up for the loss of GPS every time you dip your arm in the water to take a stroke. It sounds amazing but no matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t get the watch to record my open water swim properly and I tried heaps of times. I’ve read other reviews that say the watch is 95% accurate at recording open water swims, so I’m not sure what the problem was.

Running:

I don’t run a lot (yet!) so I tended to use this watch in it’s most basic way, simply to record. Back at home when you upload the data there’s heaps of interesting stuff to analyse such as stride length and split times. Out on the road or the trails, you can use a metronome to regulate/optimise your cadence, which sounds cool but its too advanced for me. I stuck to using the lap, interval and timer modes and looking at the map of my laps on Strava afterwards, I could see the Forerunner’s GPS had accurately pinpointed my whereabouts.

Battery life

Using the watch as just a watch, you can expect about 10 days battery life. Using it with GPS, optical heart rate monitor and all that malarky and you’re looking at around 14 hours, but it does depend on what other sensors you attach – say you added your power meter, that would drain it more quickly. Charging is simple using the USB cable.

In conclusion

It’s not perfect but I knew how much I liked this watch by my panic and despair when I thought I’d lost it. It’s fun to use and if you’re a data freak like me, you’ll enjoy recording everything you do and looking back at it. The Personal Record notifications are fun and motivating, it’s simple and intuitive to use and I like the way it looks. On the negative side, it can be inaccurate in the normal day-to-day (rather than activity recording) mode and I couldn’t get the open water swim to work.

When I wrote my 2016 ‘To Do’ list I had little idea of how my year would actually pan out, so unfortunately there’s quite a lot of stuff on there that I’ve not achieved, but not to worry, I intend to just shunt those unmet goals over to next year and try my best to succeed in 2017!

I had intended to move seamlessly from crit racing to cyclocross, figuring I’d be in good form after a summer of racing and ideally suited to the ridiculously high demands of a cross race, but as you possibly know if you read this blog regularly, my race season came to an end shortly after Red Hook Crit Barcelona when I had only one Cyclocross race in the bag.

Photo: Josh Greet

I’d anticipated using ‘cross racing to keep my top end fitness tuned right through until Christmas but having now missed nearly every race I’ve had to rework my plans. So on my return from Gran Canaria, which was my first real training after a bike-free September, I embarked on my winter training proper.

So how does winter training differ to training the rest of the year? What am I doing this Autumn?

Well firstly, now there aren’t races in the diary making my training plans extra complicated, I’ve begun training in four week blocks, which I’d recommend to anyone. Training in four week blocks allows you to build up the amount of training you’re doing in a controlled way, with a strong emphasis on steady gains and recovering properly. Additionally, it works very well for me as I know when I’m suffering through a hard week that I’ve got an easy week afterwards, so there’s light at the end of the turbo training tunnel!

At it’s most basic, it means your training gets harder each week until you have a recovery week and start again. So week one is standard/moderate training, Week 2 is harder, Week 3 is all out hardest and then Week 4 still involves riding but includes more rest days and gentler rides. As an example of how things get harder, my longer endurance rides in week three could involve extended periods riding at tempo or at ‘sweetspot’ (a very specific percentage of the average number of watts I can produce for an hour) or threshold hill climbs, whereas earlier in the monthly cycle my endurance rides would be much more steady.

Speaking of monthly cycles, women, you may want to try and time your training blocks so that they work best for you. There hasn’t been enough research into the affects of menstruation on training and athletic performance (and there’s so much contradictory information out there!) but some people find that it’s best to time Week 4, your recovery week, so that it lands before you get your period. I’d suggest that if you want to get serious about your training you make a note of how you feel, perform and most crucially, recover at different times of the month.

Blocks of twelve weeks

Each four week training cycle is part of a 12 week period and it helps me to break the year down in this way. There are differing schools of thought on what’s best to do during an Autumn training block such as we find ourselves in at the moment. Traditionally, it was thought that at this time of year riders should drop the more specific or focused high intensity stuff and concentrate on building ‘base miles,’ which is kind of like laying the foundations for the following year. It’s now thought that there is a place for more specific training sessions at this time of year alongside your long, endurance miles.

After this block of twelve, when it’s getting closer to Spring my next block will change to focus more heavily on top end tuning with some more specific Threshold sessions that will get me prepped for criterium racing. In my opinion, it’s best to focus your later training blocks on sessions that are in tune with the kind of racing you’ll want to do, so if I were only going to race crits, I’d do more of these short, hard sessions and fewer long rides. BUT I’d like to do some road races (which are often around 80km) and I want to race Enduro (day-long Mountain Bike stage races) so the long rides have to stay.

Each week I go through a variety of sessions on my bike, on my turbo trainer and in the gym. The more focused sessions I do at home on my new Cyclops Powersync smart trainer then I’ll do my long rides outside using my Powertap P1 pedals from Power Meter City, making the most of Devon’s hilly terrain. My gym sessions focus on strength and power which helps my sprinting but most importantly keeps my body strong enough to hold itself together – cycling doesn’t work every aspect of your body and I work on core strength as well as just my legs.

As I’m not in the Tour de France or more appropriately, the Giro Rosa I use this schedule as a guide rather than gospel. As long as I get in plenty of training, I’m all good. I like to take a moment on a Sunday to plan out what I’m doing for the week so I can fit in the sessions I want to.

First run in the bag, now to see if I can improve on my time! Great turnout today with 18 women racing (I think) including some absolute smashers @foxheadeurope @wildernesstrailbikes @marinbikes @met_helmets @bluegrass_eagle

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Nov 13, 2016 at 5:36am PST

Alongside the training sessions, of course there is as much mountain biking as I can fit in (including the odd race) and lovely swims at the local leisure centre. The rest of the time, I struggle to move away from the sofa and food is all I think about. Training saves me a lot of money as I’m always too knackered to go out!

If you’ve any questions about winter training please leave them below, I’d love to hear from you!

Brand new women’s cycling magazine Casquette is a breath of fresh air. I’ve got absolutely nothing against women’s cycling magazines and websites that cater to newer riders – there’s a huge need for these – but as a more experienced rider and racer I find it frustrating that there’s little created for me and my buddies.

Pretty Damned Fast and Ella Cycling Tips are two websites I enjoy reading when I find the time but as I spend so much time working on a screen of some kind of another, I really love taking a break from computers and phones and picking up a printed magazine.

Casquette is a brand new quarterly women’s cycling magazine that has interviews that interest me (Nicole Cooke and Emily Chappel in the launch issue) as well as a great sense of style that connects with me, because hey, I like checking out cool cycling stuff.

Danielle from Casquette popped down to the Assos London store launch to say hi so we took the chance to grab a coffee and chat about publishing – she told me that plenty of people had sung Coven Magazine’s praises (the magazine I used to publish) so it was nice to tell her about my experiences, both good and bad.

Giant me in the @assosofswitzerland London store!

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Nov 17, 2016 at 1:28pm PST

Danielle then recorded an interview with me which has just gone up on the Casquette site so head over there and find out why I think commuting is a gateway drug, when I was happiest on a bike and why I like working with Assos.

www.casquette.co.uk

I’ve been testing out the American Classic Sprint 350 wheelset for about 8 months, so now that I’ve amassed some serious mileage on them I figured it was time to get my review written up. 

I’d originally planned to use them as winter training wheels, but I soon found myself racing crits on them as well. I suppose this was partially due to laziness as I couldn’t be bothered to swap them over, but the reality is I just didn’t feel the need to change to a posh wheelset when these were doing such a good job.

Wide profile comfort

The 22.6mm rim width gives your tyre a nice wide profile and maximises contact with the road, giving you more comfort as well as reducing rolling resistance. The wheels feel very robust and the wide footprint of the tyres makes for a smooth feeling ride.

Whilst you wouldn’t usually associate a regular rim (as opposed to deep profile) wheelset with stiffness, the Sprint 350’s have a 28/32 spoke count which gives them nice solid feeling. The 24mm deep rim keeps the weight down to 1396g, which isn’t at all bad at all for an aluminium wheelset, especially with such a high spoke count.

I’ve been using them with 25c tyres which look beefy when installed because of the wide rim but certainly don’t feel sluggish. The wide rim gives you confidence when cornering and descending. I know I keep banging on about rim width but I do so for a reason; wide rims equal more fun! Another great feature is they are tubeless compatible and come taped and ready with tubeless valves in the box.

I didn’t have any tubeless road tyres to hand, so decided to set them up on my cross bike. The whole process was straightforward and went off without a hitch. They paired perfectly with my WTB Cross Wolfs.

Tubeless tyres have their advantages and disadvantages, I wont go into it too much here as this is a wheel review, but in a nutshell, they are quick and easy to install, the sealant will seal punctures very quickly and effectively and you can run lower pressure than when using inner tubes. On the downside, changing tyres can sometimes be a bit of a faff and you cannot run them at quite as low pressure as you can tubulars. On the whole though, I think the advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages.

Consistent braking

So what are they like for all weather riding? Well, the braking surface is consistent and does its best to slow you down in the rain.

Great all round performance

The 350’s aren’t the lightest wheelset but they do climb well and when I get out of the saddle and really give it some there is no flex at all, so they’re clearly stiff enough for my 9-Stone frame.

Retailing at £600 I suppose these are a mid-level wheelset rather than cheap winter/training wheels but they have stood up to a beating over the past year, they’ve been raced on and they are still going strong.

The American Classic Sprint 350 wheelset is a great all rounder, they held up to the mud, grit and slop of cyclocross and were equally at home racing on a closed circuit. The simple understated design looks good and they perform very well for a wheelset in this price range. 2016 has been all about wider rims and tyres both in and out of the pro peleton. I wonder if we will see a disc ready version of these anytime soon.

amclassic.com

I’m sitting at Sydney airport trying to make sense of the last six days. I’ve spent less than a week in Australia, much of it severely jet-lagged and packed so much in that it’s hard to know where to start with this update. But naturally, the very beginning of my adventures in Oz is the most obvious place to commence so I’ll rewind to my first day on Aussie soil.

With just three days to explore the capital of New South Wales I’d given myself a packed schedule, my days filled with cycling, the best outdoor activities and visits to some of Sydney’s finest laid back restaurants.

My first priority was cycling some of Sydney’s best cycle routes, of course, and so that this blog post doesn’t become overly long, I’ll write about that first and save the other stuff for another entry.

Like any major city, cycling is big news in Sydney; bikes shops are numerous and cycling clubs plentiful. Looking for some people to ride with I uncovered a thriving early morning, pre-work ‘bunch ride’ scene. Sydney’s cyclists like to meet up at 5.30 or 6.00am for group rides before it gets too hot or the traffic gets too bad. If you’re heading to Sydney and would like to find a group/bunch ride to join, try this Bunch Ride Finder.

One of the most (in)famous bunch rides is the Colluzi/Latteria ride which sees a regular turnout of pro-cyclists and the cities fastest riders. I was considering going along, even encouraged to do so by Rochelle Gilmour (!) but with my fitness not yet back to pre-injury levels and jet lag so bad I felt like I was on another planet, I didn’t have the nerve.

My first morning I was up very early so I headed off on a ride I’d spotted on Strava’s Sydney ‘locals’ page, the Eastern Beaches loop. Stupidly, I hadn’t downloaded the route and uploaded it to my Garmin before I left the UK and there’s currently no way to send a GPX route file from your phone to your Garmin via WiFi or Bluetooth (there definitely should be, come on Garmin!). So instead of being able to follow step by step instructions, I had the Strava route open in one tab on my phone and Google Maps in another and I’d switch between the two, cross-referencing where I was. It made for some slow progress until I reached the beaches, where I was able to just follow the coast with the ocean on my right hand side.

Riding away from my base at The Rocks, I rode through the city towards Hyde Park then continued on to Centennial Park, a popular pre-work sport for cyclists wanting either to ride laps or meet up for bunch (group) rides, or so I’m told. I took a traffic free cycle path that skirted the path and didn’t actually see many Lycra clad riders, leading me to believe I was either in the wrong place or it was the wrong time. Who knows.

After a few wrong turnings I headed away from the main road which was getting busy even at such an early hour and rode through some wide, quiet residential streets. The first beach I reached was Clovelly where they have a fantastic looking pool, surely one of the best places to swim in Sydney (though it has some stiff competition) and as it was only about 6am there was barely a soul to be seen. Continuing along the coast up and down ever so many hills (Sydney is hilly!) I passed more beautiful beaches on my way to Bondi and spotted a great number of extremely fit looking Ozzies working out, running and swimming along the way – healthy living is big business in this outdoor city.

Really struggled to sleep last night as I was so excited about my first day exploring @sydney. I ended up having breakfast at 6am then spending a few hours riding along the coast past so many lovely beaches including Bondi, which is in this photo. Jetlag made navigating more difficult than it needed to be but I just about managed the loop I had planned. I was surprised there are so many hills in the city; I had this crazy idea that Sydney was flat. #ilovesydney #NewSouthWales

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Nov 28, 2016 at 4:21pm PST

I paused at Bondi to watch the surfers enjoying waves unlike any I’ve ever experienced in the UK (yes, I know there’s good surf in the UK too, I’ve just yet to ever be in the right place at the right time!). From there it was pretty straightforward to  ride through Dover Heights and up to Watsons Bay and Camp Cove beach, as pretty as spot as you could wish for with clean, light coloured sand and an inviting looking turquoise bay. A few hills later and I was in Wooloomoloo and the Domain, a shady park with an adjacent outdoor 50m swimming pool which I duly added to my list to visit.

Bondi Beach

As it was still pretty early, the traffic wasn’t at all bad really, the worst bit being going through the city and Hyde Park. Many other parts of the route were actually really quiet as they went through residential areas and past tourist spots that weren’t yet busy due to the early hour. It was already pleasantly warm but not yet too hot – I was in a sleeveless base layer and jersey which was perfect as I kept stopping to take photos. So all in all, I can see why Sydney’s cyclists get up early.

oysters at Graze MCA

After an incredible lunch at Graze MCA at Circular Quay, a superb little spot opposite the Opera House where I ate sweet little oysters and the best baked salmon dish I’ve ever had (served on a salad of heirloom tomatoes and watermelon – sounds odd, tastes amazing) I headed off on a slightly different ride, meeting up with Bonza Bike tours for a spot of sightseeing on the Sydney Highlights Bike Tour.

I always find it’s easier to get a feel for a city from two wheels and it’s even better if you can get some insider knowledge and a bit of history thrown in. I was somewhat ‘over biked’ on my Goomah next to my host on his rental bike but it was enjoyable to roll around getting some facts on Sydney.. We rode round The Rocks, past the Opera House, under the bridge and through the new Barangaroo reserve before checking out the new development along the quay, which is home to heaps of new restaurants.

Sadly, in the short time we had we couldn’t get out to the somewhat more hip areas of Surrey Hills and New Town though my guide left me a great map of where to go if I had time later. It sounds like there are all kinds of weird and wonderful places to go, such as Soda Shop where you enter a bar through a drink’s machine or something and another place that looks like a butchers.

My next ‘proper’ ride was another snagged from Strava. I wasn’t actually intending to only go and ride on my own, in fact I did email one of Sydney’s cycling clubs asking if I could join one of their rides but they never replied. A lot of the bunch rides started from parts of the city I couldn’t really get to and I had an offer from a friend of a friend to ride one morning but it was hard to coordinate because of the other stuff I was doing and the fact I was so jetlagged I could barely keep my head together. I nearly always ride on my own anyway though, so no biggie. It’s nice being able to do exactly as you please!

The ride is called the North Loop. I’d definitely recommend it though pick your time of day wisely though as the traffic can be absolutely terrible if you don’t leave early enough.

Heading North from my hotel I rode straight over the Harbour Bridge on the dedicated cycle lane enjoying far reaching views of the city. Unfortunately the cycle lane does have step access at one end which is a right pain in the bum if you’re wearing cycling shoes – I wince when I have to walk on my cleats as they cost a bomb!

From there I headed through Neutral Bay and Cremorne along Military Road, which was hella busy with buses charging past and not leaving you much room. As I used to be a bike messenger, I’m not intimidated by riding in traffic but if you’re not down with that kind of thing there are some cycle routes through some of the quieter surrounding streets that would make a good alternative.

G’day! I’m in control of the @assosofswitzerland IG for three days so give them a follow to see what I’m up to down under. #cycling #womenscycling #ilovesydney #visitnsw

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Dec 1, 2016 at 10:53am PST

From there, it was over Spit Bridge, which is epically pretty, though of course, ram-jammed with cars and then up a road that winds it’s way up the hillside and offers great views of the Spit Reserve and all the boats below. As Sydney is a city built around water, you’re never far from a beach or a bay, but that doesn’t make any of them less lovely; certainly I never tired of looking at the blue of the ocean whilst I rode my bike in gorgeous weather.

The next part of the route followed Wakehurst Parkway all the way up to Narrabeen, going through a forested area on a wide, straight road then back towards the Ocean. At this point, I’d wasted so much time stopping to navigate (and take photos as I was doing a takeover of the Assos Instagram account) that I made the decision to turn around and ride the same route back rather than have to keep looking at my sodding phone for the remainder of the ride!

Stay tuned for a new video on my YouTube channel about my time in Sydney and racing the Etape Australia.

Over the past 18 months, I’ve walked (or cycled) a well trodden path when it comes to training, first training using a ‘rate of perceived exhaustion scale, then moving on to using of a heart rate monitor and finally embracing power meters and working in power zones.

This autumn I was keen to get a new power meter of some kind and after browsing all that’s on offer at specialist power meter shop Power Meter City, I ended selecting the Powertap P1 pedals, for a couple of reasons.

Being a small company, everything at Powertap is meticulously made – there’s one person carefully putting together each product and checking everything is right with it and that appealed to me. When it came to the product, Powertap make a whole plethora of devices designed for measuring your power output, or wattage, such as hubs, wheels and chainrings but pedals seemed like the easiest way of adding power to my bike with the least amount of faff. Pedals can also easily be switched between multiple bikes.

The P1 pedals are dual sided, measuring the power from each leg separately using a set of 8 strain gauges.

Installation

Installation of the P1 pedals is incredibly simple – you just screw them on like you would any pedals – you don’t have to worry about using a torque wrench like you do with the Garmin Vector pedals; you just use an allen key. The pedals paired flawlessly FIRST TIME with my bike computer, which has got to be a first and was such a relief. It drives me nuts how annoying some stuff is to get working.

Each time you ride, you have to calibrate the pedals, which involves unclipping and pressing ‘calibrate’ (funnily enough..). This has worked every single time I’ve done it and within a few seconds, which feels a little like a miracle considering how frequently everything else I have connected to my bike computer messes up and won’t connect.

Connectivity

The pedals connect using ANT+ as well as Bluetooth so you can pair them with your bike computer and phone and link them with Zwift or Cyclops Virtual Trainer.

Cleats

The P1 pedals come with their own special cleats, which look similar to Look Keo but aren’t actually the same, so you will need to buy P1 cleats every time they wear out.

Battery Life

The pedals are powered by a AAA battery in each pedal and you should get about 60 hours of ride time before you need to change them. I have to wonder why Powertap had plumped for such a bulky battery as opposed to say, one of those small, light, watch style batteries – it seems like an odd choice. One advantage is that you can use rechargeable batteries, saving money and reducing the impact on the environment.

Battery levels can be checked on the phone app. Should the right pedal die before the left master pedal, you can carry on recording power using just the left and it automatically adjusts the power reading. So if your left battery runs out, nick the right one and put it in the left!

Accuracy

It’s claimed that the P1 pedals are accurate to within 1.5% and whilst I can’t test that myself, I’ve found the readings to be consistent. The eight strain gauges work with a ‘Multipole Ring,’ a sensor made of 20 little magnets around the pedal spindle. The pedals measure left/right balance as well as much more detailed information throughout the entire pedal stroke, which is very useful if you’re looking to optimise your pedalling efficiency or gauge the effects of a bike fit. I haven’t yet, but I’d really like to try measuring my power before and after a professional bike fit and seeing if I notice a difference.

Weight and profile

I have but few minor criticisms of these pedals and they’re all to do with weight and bulk. At 199grams per pedal, they’re certainly not light, though it has to be said they power meter products are generally heavier than their non power-measuring counterparts.

The other issue is with stack height and lower ground clearance – the stack height is 14mm, which is quite high and means I have to change my saddle height if I switch between these and other pedals. And because the battery is housed underneath the pedal it means the pedal extends down lower than other brands therefore giving you less clearance when cornering. I’ve never caught a pedal out on a ride but if I was racing a crit, I would be happier if I wasn’t giving myself less clearance, put it that way.

Conclusions

The number one best thing about Powertaps P1 pedals is how easy they are to install and use. They’re currently on sale for £1050, which is undeniably a pretty alarming amount of money to spend on pedals, not least as other power meters have come down in price recently, but used properly they’ll change the way you train forever. If you’ve got the cash, you want something simple, reliable, easy to use and effective, I’d recommend them.

powermetercity.com

I’m sitting on the train on the way back to our home in Devon with a bag full of Christmas goodies, a flat white and a packed lunch and seeing as we plumped for the cheap train that takes an inordinate number of hours rather than the high speed insanely expensive service from Paddington, I thought it might be a good time to catch up on some Bike n’ Stuff posts.

I’m still part way through writing up my recent trip to Australia (Sydney cycling write up here and video here) and have yet to tackle my time in the Snowy Mountains riding the Etape Australia but figured I should crack on with a few reviews in the meantime.

First on my list? The Chrome Industries Barrage Cargo backpack from Santa Fixie, who are a European fixed gear and single speed online shop.

Like with all their bags, Chrome offers a lifetime guarantee and as a result the Barrage Cargo looks and feels bombproof. The first thing you notice about the backpack is how tough and durable it looks – clearly it’s a bag that’s made to last many years. The 1050-denier Cordura exterior is abrasion resistant so it’ll stay looking smart and not degrade with heavy use. I’ve been using it for several months now and it still looks like it’s fresh out of the packet.

The fully welded and sealed military grade truck tarpaulin liner is totally waterproof and when I say that, I mean it won’t let ANY water in at all. As the bag is welded together rather than sewn, you don’t have perforations where a needle has punctured the fabric when stitching it together.

It’s very comfortable to wear, even when fully loaded. The shoulder straps are ergonomically designed and the sternum strap helps takes weight off your shoulders and distribute it more evenly. A padded back stops your luggage jamming you in the spine or kidneys.

Inside, you’ve got a 15inc laptop sleeve (non padded) at the back of one big pocket, then there’s a small zippered pocket on the exterior for items you need to access quickly. Being a bit of a neat freak, I didn’t like having to chuck everything in one giant pocket and would have preferred a couple more pockets either on the outside or inside. Then there’s the issue of the exterior pocket’s vertical zip, which makes me worry stuff will drop out when I open it. I’d have preferred a regular horizontal pocket for keys and my purse, as it’s more secure.

There’s also a side pouch, which fits a water bottle (or small lock perhaps).

One of my favourite features is the cargo net at the front, which fits a helmet perfectly. I nearly always have a helmet with my wherever I go and previously I’d have to just dangle it off my where it would clonk people as I walked through the carriage of the train or swing round and bash me in the face, so it’s nice to have it neatly stowed.

Closure is with a roll top and adjustable buckle, so you can stuff a few extra bits and pieces on top of your load and extend the capacity of the bag. There are also side compression straps should you wish to cinch the bag in and make it smaller. The strap has a reflective strip to increase visibility at night.

When it comes to volume, the indicated size is 22 – 34 litres, which means nothing to me, as I can’t properly visualise that. In practical terms, it means you can fit in a large shoebox with some extra space on top of it (rather than around it). The bag is on the moderate size so would be suited to commuting or going to the track, rather than say, travelling with all your gear for a holiday. As the bag is kind of rigid, it stands up on its on which is pretty neat – it means you don’t have to lie your bag down when you’re standing around and as only get the very bottom of the bag in contact with the floor the bag (and your t-shirt) stays clean.

When it comes to weight, well, it’s far from light – the durability and shiny Chrome signature seatbelt buckle come at a price. If you don’t mind that, then Chrome Industries Barrage Cargo bag would make a solid choice if you were looking for a stylish, tough, fully waterproof cycling specific backpack that’ll last a lifetime.

Volume 22L to 34L

Measures 29 x 51 x 14 cm

Weight 1.5 kg

With race season done and dusted, I’d just resigned myself to a few months of cold, winter rides and turbo sessions when out of the blue, a very exciting email landed in my inbox. Would I like to go to Australia to ride the first ever L’Etape Australia, I was politely asked?

Naturally, I’d replied with the only answer any person in their right mind would give, and after a whirlwind tour of Sydney en route to the starting point of the Etape in Jindabyne, I checked into my cabin in Lake Crackenback resort, assembled my bike and did the usual jumping around the room with glee.

Obviously I was stoked about cycling, but there there were also trampolines, a river, a lake, kayaks, frisbee golf (yes!), a swimming pool and mountain bike trails right outside my door. Oh, and hopefully kangaroos – I was dying to see one. Excitement levels were off the hook so I went straight out for a ride in the short time I had before dinner.

L’Etape Goes Global

The original L’Etape du Tour takes place in France on a genuine TDF stage and is wildly popular, so much so that I know people who set an alarm so that they can register the minute entires go live. It’s spawned a handful of Etapes in various different countries, all using the tried and tested Etape du Tour format and a route designed to mimic a TDF stage.

2016’s Etape Australia this December was the first time the ride had come to Oz, and seeking a suitably mountainous region the organisers had picked New South Wales’ Snowy Mountains, home to Mount Kosciuszko, mainland Australia’s highest peak as well as Threado, a popular ski resort.

Like all Etapes, L’Etape Australia is billed as a ‘closed road amateur cycling event run under professional conditions.’ Honestly, I’m not totally sure in what way it’s run under professional conditions any more than any other closed road sportive – it has support vehicles, feed stations and all that kind of thing, but then you’d expect that anywhere. What does set it apart from other mass cycling events is the fact you’re timed and actually encouraged to race, with King of the Mountain stages, a Sprint and an Overall prize awarded to winners. The women’s event was one by a pro however, so I’m not sure how that fits in with their ‘amateur cycling event’ spiel. But whatever.

Early To Bed, Early To Rise

As I wasn’t in Australia for long and also, if I’m frank, because I far prefer cycling to evenings out, I’d given up trying to adjust my body clock to the time zone and was just going to bed at around 8.30pm and getting up at about 5ish. This made getting up for the Etape a piece of cake and I was up and out the door without the slightest hint of grump, which wouldn’t normally be the case if you told me we had be at the start line at 6am.

Morning! It’s @julietelliott here enjoying my last day in charge of the Assos account. We’re nearly ready to begin the Etape Australia, it’s quite chilly this morning but predicted to get scorching later. Looking forward to exploring this mountainous region with one eye out for wildlife – yesterday a cyclist was chased by an emu! #cycling #womenscycling #assoswomen #etapeaustralia #visitnsw

A photo posted by ASSOS of Switzerland (@assosofswitzerland) on Dec 2, 2016 at 11:32am PST

Having been advised by Chris Froome at the previous day’s seminar that oatmeal and eggs is the best breakfast before a big stage, I tucked into some bircher muesli, steering clear from the coffee as usual – I recently quit drinking caffeine. As I dutifully ate my eggs, I noticed Froomy himself in the corner of the breakfast room. It turned out he was staying at Lake Crackenback too, a smart move given the start line was just a 1km away so we could roll down there – other less fortunate people had to get a bus at 4.30 am from Jindabyne.

Ride or Race?

Having never ridden any of the Etape events before, when I was asked whether I wanted to register for The Ride (127km) or The Race (157km), I’d chosen The Ride as I hadn’t quite understood the concept. I mistakenly though that The Race was actually a full on road race and seeing as I was just coming back from injury and furthermore, have never done a road race, I thought it wouldn’t suit me. Far better, I thought, to just enjoy being in such a beautiful area riding my bike on The Ride.

It turns out that although you’re on the clock, L’Etape Australia is far more akin to a timed sportive than truly a race (unless you’re a total machine) and that’s it’s nice to do it in a good time but not really important. It also turned out that the vast majority of people were doing the long version. I therefore had a mini crisis about being a weed and tried to switch routes, but it was too late.

And They’re Off

Down at the start, crowds were milling around in anticipation, waiting to be herded into large pens before setting off in waves of several hundred people. I’d asked when I picked up my rider kit when I’d be setting off but no one knew, so had a rather chilly wait as it turned out I was last. Actually scratch that; I was shaking uncontrollably in my summer kit!

Ready for the Etape Australia. Let’s go! PS I’m still in charge of the @assosofswitzerland account so check there for stories from today. #cycling #womenscycling #etapeaustralia #visitnsw

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Dec 2, 2016 at 11:59am PST

Chris Froome donned his yellow jersey to lead out the group in front of us then we assembled at the start line ready for the off. I was hoping there would be some fairly fast people that I could ride with but worried that because I’d chosen the shorter route, people might be taking it fairly easy. And certainly when we set off, it did seem like I might struggle to find a group to ride with.

I shot off up the first long climb because I was so damn cold and then spent a pretty long time riding solo into a headwind, because I’d rather go slightly faster on my own that go slowly with other people. Thankfully, a group caught me up, we exchanged hellos and I jumped in with them and enjoyed a bit of shelter. A fun descent followed, made all the more fun by the fact the wide, gradually curving roads afforded far reaching visibility so you could give it some gas without worrying what you might encounter. The fact the roads were closed to traffic made things even better – we were kings and queens of the road.

Past Jindabyne the route rose up again with views of the lake to our left. I truly felt happy as larry. The weather was perfect, the wind had dropped and all I had to do was enjoy myself; everything else was taken care off. As we pedalled our way over the crest of the hill, spectators cheered us on as excited children furiously rang their cowbells. I stopped to refill my bidon and use the portaloos, ate a few snacks and continued.

From there, it was all rolling hills across vast, open expanses – we passed through maybe one town. I kept seeing the same bunch of guys so we fell in together and began chatting and riding together. I’m always fascinated by our strengths and weaknesses and how we develop techniques to deal with them. For instance, I’d go hell for leather on the flats and descents and always start hills close to the front of the bunch, eventually dropping towards the back as I just suck at climbing. In the meantime, another of our group would be dancing his way up the hills with ease but absolutely destroyed by our pace on the rolling flats.

Points Mean Prizes

At Berridale, the main street had been turned into a sprint zone, something we’d been told about in advance, but I didn’t precisely know where it began so wasn’t up to speed when I entered it. With a green jersey up for grabs in The Race, it was hotly contested by the other participants. From there, we continued to the first King Of The Mountains stage, which turned out to be an absolute beast.

The Col de Beloka looked fairly innocuous as I turned the preceding corner, but kicked up savagely once you passed the bend to about 17%. The sides of the road were littered with people walking (with difficulty) but there was no way in hell I was getting off my bike, no matter how steep things got. I may have just said I suck at hills and it’s certainly my week point that doesn’t mean I’ll ever give up. The first bit was so horrible that the rest of the 3.5km, at an average gradient of 10% actually seemed fine by comparison. I looked at Strava later and I was 4th fastest women on The Ride for that segment.

I refilled my waterbottle for the 4th time (there were three feeding stations and one water station – the food I didn’t need so much as I regularly ride 80km on an energy bar but the water was crucial as it became very hot) then continued on the road back to Jindabyne. By this point, it was very windy as well as hot, so I was grateful that we’d started so early.

A Surprise Podium

After crossing the finish line and collecting my medal, I headed straight for the beer tent (of course). Whilst sitting in a shady spot chatting to a new acquaintance, I happened to glance at the giant screen over the stage in front of us. I thought I saw my name come up in a short list of three. Squinting my eyes further, I tried to get a better look and asked my friend to check what I thought I’d seen. It turns out, I’d finished Third in The Ride, without actually trying to. A quick glance at Strava revealed I’d have won if I’d have finished 7 seconds earlier, which would have been as simple as just eating a few less figs at the feed zone – if only I’d known!

Later that evening, back at Lake Crackenback I dismantled my Goomah Bike as the following day I’d be hiring a mountain bike to ride Threadbo’s chairlifts and the cross country trail back to the resort. I was feeling damn fantastic after a day on the bike with good company and a couple of beers in the VIP tent afterwards. Then I glanced outside my cabin and saw a trio of kangaroos hopping around in the grounds. My epic day was complete!

One of the highlights of last year was visiting New South Wales in Australia and with so many fun excursions, good meals and lovely bike rides packed into just six days, the whole thing seems like a whirlwind tour of an over active imagination! Was it only a month ago that I was floating in the ocean off Shelly Beach gazing at a friendly Groper fish meander through silky ribbons of seaweed?

Despite some stiff competition from all the fun times I had in Sydney, the absolute best thing I did during my time down under was ride the first ever L’Etape Australia, something I wrote about in a prior post.

I’ve just posted by new vlog from the event which should give you a sense of my excitement at being there and explain a little more about the Ride/Race format.

I’m not normally one to adhere to stereotypes, but I’m a woman who just loves shoes! But not just any old shoes; I couldn’t care less about tottering about in an agonising pair of Jimmy Choo stilettoes. No, what I like are fancy pants cycling shoes with carbon soles.

When I saw the beautiful shiny patent leather Giro Women’s Empire ACC cycling shoes, I just had to have them. Yes, they’re eye-wateringly expensive – £249.99 at full price (hint: you can find them discounted online) but they are the best looking women’s road shoes I’ve ever seen. But aside from their serious good looks, are they worth the money?

Well firstly, I can’t say I truly believe that a pair of cycling kicks really needs to be quite so expensive, but they’re on a par with other high-end shoes. Not that that means I agree with the price of any of the other ones either, but you know, cycling stuff costs a fortune.

Fortunately, the shoes actually are amazing. The lacing system (which raised eyebrows when first released as it seemed retro) allows you to adjust the fit of the shoe exactly where you need to, as apposed to say, a Boa system that just tightens the shoe all over. They take slightly longer to take off than shoes with Velcro straps but that’s fine by me because the fit is better and they looks way cooler. There’s a small elastic strap to tuck the ends of your laces under so that they don’t come undone and get tangled in your chain.

They’re incredibly light (210g!!!) and despite looking like patent leather, are actually made of a synthetic composite fabric called Evofiber. The fabric dries quickly and offers a degree of breathability, which is helped by some perforations for ventilation. I’ve been wearing these shoes for about eight months now and the material has held its shape extremely well with no baggy areas.

Photo: Ginger Beard Photo

Overall, the shape of the women’s specific last is on the slim side, so those of you who prefer a room toe box might be out of luck, ditto folks with broad feet. The shoes also come up crazily small, so make sure you order a size (or even two) up from your regular shoe size.

To customise the fit to the shape of your feet, the shoes are supplied with three different arch supports, which you attach to the underside of the insoles and this really makes a difference in terms of both comfort and performance.

The soles are full carbon Easton EC90 ACC, which are pleasingly stiff and light. Obviously the stiffness means all the power you generate is transferred right into the bike via the pedals. Despite the rigidity of the sole, the shoe felt comfortable underfoot with no hot spots. Underneath, you’ve the standard three-hole pattern for attaching road cleats plus a replaceable heel piece.

The photos below show the shoes after 8 months of heavy use.

The shoes are supplied in a good quality zippered shoe bag and with a contrasting pair of laces. As you can see in the photos, I bought a different pair of laces to switch things up a bit and it’s nice being able to (girl alert!) …. match them to your outfit.

In conclusion, yes, the shoes are expensive but they’re carbon soled, of excellent quality, haven’t deteriorated with use and look absolutely amazing. I love them.

giro.com

I’ve been meaning to write a kind of ‘year in review’ for 2016 for a while now, but seeing as I was in La Gomera over new year then had to try and catch up with a million things once I returned home, the post was somewhat delayed.

My husband Dave and I kicked off the year by heading to Malaga to check out Roost MTB’s new Enduro week where we were treated to a variety of steep, dusty trails bathed in sun. Roost’s expert guides showed us all the well known spots and some secret tracks, a mixture of pedal power and uplifts ensured we got the most miles for our buck.

http://wideopenmag.co.uk/2016/02/juliet-elliott-malaga-with-roostmtb

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Next I headed to Sierra de Guadarrama for the Marin Team camp where I entered an unexpectedly snowy enduro race and penned a couple of articles for mountain bike magazines. The terrain was very natural and rocky (when it wasn’t covered in snow) and despite being so close to Madrid, the place was deserted most of the time. The place is a real hidden gem and it was a treat to be shown around by Iago Garay and Black Town Trails.

http://wideopenmag.co.uk/2016/04/juliet-elliott-enduro-fun-festival-madrid

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After all that mountain biking it was time to get some roadie miles in and work on my fitness ahead of the race season. Dave and I headed to Girona for our own take on a training camp, seeing how going it alone compared to a fully inclusive package tour.

Girona is just fantastic for cycling with some incredible routes in the surrounding countryside, good hotels and cycle friendly cafes including my favourite, La Fabrica.

Check out my video to find out more and if you’re thinking of going yourself, my Brooks piece gives you a few routes to try,

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After missing the Red Hook Crit in Brooklyn, one of my target races for the year due to broken bones, my first fixed gear crit of the year took place in Paris. La Petite Course took place in a former hospital making use of the narrow roads that ran between the buildings for a technically challenging race. The organisers did a great job of making us all feel welcome and ensuring we had a good time and I finished just off the podium in 4th place.

Racing La Petite Course Crit In Paris

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I guess the time off the bike injured left me motivated to do well in the races I was able to enter, because I bagged second place at the Fixed 42 ‘Fixed Gear World Champs’ the following month in Berlin. The race was definitely one of the highlights of my year, and not just because I did well, but because it was unlike any fixed gear race I’d ever entered before. Setting off from a town outside the city, we raced on the closed motorway and then through the closed streets of Berlin past all the sights I’ve come to recognise over the years. It was truly fantastic.

http://www.bikes-n-stuff.com/rad-race-fixed-42-world-championships/

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A super fast trip of just 36 hours, but one of the best of the year had to be Bikepacking the Ridgeway trail from Ditchling Beacon to Avebury. I’m a big fan of bike touring and camping out, but honestly I don’t really get to do it enough as I’m always so busy either racing or training. Somehow, after endless attempts to coordinate our diaries, my friends and I managed to get two full days of riding and one night of camping in the bag. I immediately vowed to do it again and more frequently but with my 2017 schedule looking even more nuts than last year, I’m not sure how possible that’s going to be!

Bikepacking on the Ridgeway Trail

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In August I went to Barcelona for one of my favourite trips of the year – to race Red Hook Crit and hang out with all my fixed gear buddies from around the world. RHC Barcelona is THE race to enter if you’re into fixed crits because there’s a goddam beach! The day of the race, we all want to race hard and place highly, but up until that point we’re all buddies focused on playing beach volleyball, swimming and going for beers.

I managed to break the top ten for the first time in a Red Hook Crit, walking away with an 8th place that I’m proud of.

Red Hook Crit Barcelona 2016

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After racing in Barcelona, I was forced to take yet more time off after my endlessly annoying and impossible to fix back problem flared up and gave me more gyp than I could ignore. I felt fantastically frustrated at missing Red Hook Crit Milan and feeling my fitness slip away. But just as I was getting super bummed out, a surprise trip to Gran Canaria cheered me right up!

Polartec’s Follow Contador training camping was T O U G H, not least after time off the bike but the degree of difficulty I faced in trying to keep up with professionals and top level amateur racers didn’t make it any less awesome, because let’s face, cycling can be (and should be!) hard sometimes. The organisers from both Polartec and Free Motion Bike Centre were absolutely super, the hotel was stunning, the rides were fun… what more can you ask for?

Follow Contador – Polartec’s Training Camp

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And finally, riding the inaugural Etape Australia was amazing, not least as I had another few days away from the cold and gloom of the UK winter. After several days cycling in Sydney (and trying to overcome by severe jetlag!) I flew to Jindabyne where I attended a workshop with Chris Froome, drank plenty of local ale, rode the 127km Etape Australia and went mountain biking in Threado.

Riding the first Etape Australia

So that was 2016 and it was packed with racing, injury, sickness, training, travel, fun, despair and more! Here’s hoping 2017 keeps the highs and drops the lows.

I can’t help but begin this post being annoyed about writing it. Not because I don’t enjoy penning pieces for Bikes n’ Stuff, but because I wrote the whole darn thing once already as just as I pressed ‘publish’ it disappeared.

So here we go again. I think I began something like this….

My mum is the kind of woman who gets an idea in her head and just goes for it, something I’ve probably inherited from her. You could say that in some ways it’s Mum’s ‘fault’ that I dropped out of Art College and ultimately became a pro-snowboarder, because way back in my late teens Mum impulsively decided she wanted to be ski-bum for the winter and spend a whole season skiing. I immediately dropped everything and headed to the Alps where she said I could stay with her on the proviso I did all the cooking. So along with getting my first sponsor, I ended up learning how to cook, something I still really enjoy doing.

Check out the photo I found of myself snowboarding on Google Image search!

Anyway, this winter, Mum decided she’d had enough of the cold, dark English winter and after recently downsizing and making a bit of money she decided she would up sticks to sunnier climes. The place she chose, La Gomera is a geological marvel, geology being something that interests Mum, plus the island is a lot ‘greener’ than some of the other Canary Islands. Add to that a whole load of sun and warmth and she was sold.

We were invited to join her for new year, which immediately appealed as we haven’t celebrated New Year together for years and years, plus Dave and I never really bother doing anything much (expect buy a bottle of Champagne) because

a>we are lazy

b> we live in the middle of the countryside

c> our idea of having fun is riding bikes and it’s too dark to do that at midnight

Like any sensible cyclists, one of the first things we did once we’d accepted the invitation was check out the roads on Google Maps and see what the island looked like for cycling. Once we saw what we could ride, we booked our bikes on the plane (at vast expenses, needless to say).

Love it here soooooooo much. I’ve been having such a great time with my family for a start, then there’s all the amazing cycling and swimming and unlimited free exercise classes including TRX, crossfit, yoga, pilates, Kettlebells etc. Oh and absolutely heaps of food. My kinda holiday

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Jan 3, 2017 at 9:41am PST

Once on the island, we enjoyed wonderful sunny days by the pool with Mum and my brother and his family and made full use of the free exercise classes put on by our hotel, Hotel Jardin Tecina. When we explained to Mum that we were going to cycle up a giant hill for an hour or two, Mum thought we were mad, and she continued to think that every time we went. Maybe we are!

I wrote about one of our hill climbing excursions for by regular guest post on the Brooks website, so head over there and have a gander:

http://www.brooksengland.com/en_uk/blog/a-climbers-dream-cycling-in-la-gomera.html

I also couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a short video that I posted on my YouTube channel.

When it comes to winter sunny cycling, the Canary Islands are really ticking all the boxes for me – Mallorca doesn’t get warm till later in the year, ditto Girona, nice though it is. So to make up for all the time off the bike last year, Dave and I have booked a trip to Gran Canaria to ride with Free Motion Bike Centre, who organised all the rides (and bikes) on my trip there last year with Polartec. Yippee!

For me, sunglasses when cycling are a necessity.

My eyes tend to stream uncontrollably, so much so that I can barely see without eye protection, so I don’t just wear them for fashion, but for safety. Additionally, bright sunshine (sometimes amplified reflected back off the road) can damage the retina and on a more vanity-based level, squinting doesn’t help the wrinkle count.

I don’t always wear cycling specific sunglasses, because sometimes I don’t feel like looking all kind of retro-futuristic, which is how heaps of them are styled to look. Even though I know that cycling glasses frequently give a better field of vision, are lighter in weight and fit better with my helmet, sometimes, I just want to look normal.

Having said all that, on other days I like to get all geared up with the best kit and wear something that performs well and looks dead fancy. So that’s where these Smith Optics Pivlock Arena glasses come in.

Size and shape

The overall shape of the sunnies is narrower than some of the humungous offerings we’ve seen recently but there’s still large, unobstructed field of vision with no frame taking up space. Clarity of vision is as crisp and clear as you like and I had no issues with fogging.

The Pivlock come in two different sizes, the regular ones that I’ve been testing and a larger version, the Pivlock Arena Max that gives more coverage. I initially went for the smaller version, firstly because I fancied something a little slimmer than my other glasses, but also because huge glasses make me really hot – this might sound weird, but I feel like the trap hot air and make my face sweat. I now think that because of my eye watering problem, perhaps the larger pair would have been better – quite a bit of air got in when I descended, whipping tears from my eyes as it did so.

Fit and feel

Straight out of the box, the fit is good – the arms grip lightly and snugly, the soft rubber of the ear socks’ and nose piece helping secure them. I haven’t ever experienced them bouncing or sliding around. The arms are the right length to provide stability without getting in the way when they come into contact with your helmet. They’re lightweight and comfortable to wear.

Customisation

The ‘Pivlock’ is Smith’s clever way of switching lenses and it makes swapping between the three included an absolute piece of cake. You simply pull each arm up and with a soft click it’s free, there’s absolutely no need to yank and bend your expensive sunglasses or rub your greasy fingers all over the lenses.

The nose bridge is a clever piece of kit too – it’s pops in and out easily too but what’s unique about it is it’s articulated, so you can adjust the fit of the glasses to your face.

A good buy

For your money, you get three lenses, a hard carrying case and a soft pouch.

Retailing at £99, the Smith Pivlock are neither the cheapest nor the most expensive cycling specific sunglasses on the market. As they look and feel good and you get three lenses are included, I’d say there are decent investment and represent good value for money.

www.smithoptics.com

Last week I popped up to London for a meeting and decided to tick a few things off a list of things I’ve been planning to do for a while.

One of the things I was most excited about was visiting Third Space to meet Luke Worthington, who I’m loathe to even refer to as a personal trainer because he’s so very more than that. I first came across Luke through my friend Sophie Everard’s Instagram where she mentioned Luke was helping with her some imbalances caused by snowboarding and surfing, and after following a little Instagram trail and reading Luke’s piece on Sophie’s blog ‘Mad To Live,’ I became convinced I needed to see him.

I’ve suffered from lower back pain for around five years now. It worsens and lessens but it never goes – sitting here typing this blog, it’s hurting me now and when I’m on the bike, it’s my back rather than my legs that inhibit my performance. When I get a bad flare up, I can’t actually stand up straight, let alone cycle.

I’ve seen doctors, chiropractors, physios and massage therapists. One physio told me it was in my head and I needed to ride around thinking ‘happy thoughts,’ which just made me furious. I swim, stretch, do yoga and devote a lot of time to strengthening my core and glutes. I’ve had X-Rays, though never an MRI (too expensive). I’ve had a bike fit and tried numerous different set ups. But despite the fact the pain is one-sided, I’d never considered that it could be related to something postural, or to the many years spent sliding sideways when I was a pro-snowboarder.

A former national athletics champion who went of to play rugby in the Premiership, Luke has a huge amount of experience of elite international sport and athletics. Luke specializes in biomechanical assessment, injury rehab and prevention and strength and conditioning for stability and is the only person outside the US trained in Postural Restoration through the Postural Restoration Institute. He’s basically a kind of super coach with a clinical approach.

So what exactly is Postural Restoration and why does it matter?

Put simply, there’s more to posture than just standing up, and whilst it might seem straight forward, the way we stand and move is the result of a complex arrangement of multiple systems, beginning with the obvious ones such as muscles, through to the breath and the mind.

With an asymmetry in place (as a result of standing sideways a lot, for instance) naturally movement becomes restricted and the resulting tightness makes it hard to move correctly. But that doesn’t mean you simply need to stretch the tight area – it’s pretty much impossible to isolate one movement from the kinetic chain, which is why Luke looks at the body as a whole and aims to create realignment, because otherwise you’re not actually dealing with the root of the problem.

So that’s the biomechanical side, but that’s just the beginning. In dealing with our imbalances and just with life in general, we can end up with an overactive sympathetic nervous system, which means we’re permanently ‘switched on’ and fired up, and in that state we’re unable to switch off active muscle chains or properly recover.

The sympathetic nervous system regulates some of the body’s unconscious actions, with something called the Sympathetic Ganglia delivering information to the body about stress and impending danger. Breathing very deeply with the diaphragm can help down-regulate the sympathetic nervous system, so breathe work is used with realignment exercises, meaning Luke might ask you to blow into a balloon whilst you’re balancing on your heels to work on your hamstring.

So what happened on my visit?

Well, first of all, Luke had me perform some exercises to asses my range of movement then I lay on a couch whilst he moved my limbs around to see where the were restricted. Pretty much straight away, it was obvious that there was an issue with the alignment of my pelvis and left leg.

Such an insightful session with @lukewtraining looking at my muscular imbalances caused by years of snowboarding and cycling and how my body has learned to compensate and adapt. What was truly fascinating was the neurological angle, how muscles and joints were inhibited in their range of movement not because they’re necessarily predisposed to be, and that mental tricks can unlock and switch things on again. Much of how we move is learned so it makes total sense. I’m hoping to teach my body to move correctly again and deal with my back pain for good. Thanks Luke!

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Jan 25, 2017 at 4:40am PST

What happened next was very odd. Luke explained to me that the body decides how it’s going to move in order to cope with the misalignment, which is why we need to look at the neurological side of movement and not just the physical, such as a tight or weak muscle. One way of tricking to body into not restricting movement in another area or moving in an odd way is by closing one eye, or putting a straw in one side of your mouth. Yes, I know, it sounds bonkers. But I tried a range of movements with and without and it was true.

So where does that leave my recovery?

Well, clearly I don’t want to go cycling with a straw in my mouth to stop my body behaving strangely, what I want to do is realign my pelvis. To do that, I need to reengage a small muscle in my glute that has stopped firing properly, strengthen my left hamstring and adductor, work with the breath to develop postural stabilization and control and down-regulate the sympathetic nervous system. In practice, that means working through a series of exercises that combine breath work, alignment and strength before every training session.

I’ll let you know how I get on, and I’ll be heading back to see Luke shortly for a follow up and to make a video.

My latest vlog details my trip to London for some help with my cranky body and a visit to Athlete Lab (with some ice-skating thrown in for good measure).

Luke Worthington

I was in the big smoke for a couple of meetings and wanted to visit Luke Worthington at Third Space for an evaluation of my back problems with a view to some advice on how to best deal with it.

I’m not unique in being a cyclist suffering from lower back pain; sadly it’s a pretty common complaint amongst people who spend hours sitting on a saddle propelling themselves forward from the hip down. What’s slightly different about my back pain is that it came on very suddenly and was immediately very debilitating.

Here’s a little history:

When I first hurt my back (messing around doing bunny-hops on my fixed gear bike) there was a definite sense of ‘shit! I’ve done something really bad!’ I never did manage to find out exactly what it was I’d done but the following six months were a write off. I couldn’t ride my bike, I had to lie down rather than sit and I felt like an old woman who’d had her spine fused – I literally couldn’t stand up straight.

Eventually, things settled, I regained much of my mobility and then went on a snowboarding trip to Oregon with the Reason Magazine. Whilst I was there, I landed really heavily from a massive jump and was back in agony and unable to walk properly. At an emergency visit to the chiropractor, I was told my pelvis was out of alignment. I had it straightened out and I immediately felt heaps better.

But that was by no means the end of it. Since then, I’ve had mild to severe backpack almost every time I ride my bike and when I’m suffering from a flare up, when I’m off it too. As I mentioned in my previous piece about visiting Luke, I have explored many avenues when it comes to dealing with my back pain but nothing has particularly worked, apart from sports massages which help deal with the aftermath.

Anyway, in my video, I head up to London and visit Luke for some advice and then don’t take my camera in to the gym to show you guys what happened! It was such an error and I don’t know why I was being so silly that morning.

Fortunately, I’m heading back for a follow up consultation where we’ll evaluate my progress – I’ve been doing the exercises Luke prescribed religiously for a couple of weeks now. Whilst I’m there, I’m going to film a proper video of our work together so that I can share what we’ve been doing.

Aside from visiting Luke, I took the opportunity to enjoy some culture and food – I live in the countryside where art galleries (if they exist) tend to just show local watercolours and the most exotic food you can find is a chinese takeaway. To that end, I enjoyed my favourite London breakfast of ‘menemen’ at the Stone Cave in Dalston then checked out the Feminist Avant Garde exhibition at the Photographers Gallery and the Guerilla Girls at Whitechapel Gallery.

Athlete Lab Visit

Later that day, I popped into Athlete Lab in Cannon street to have a look at the facilities and try a class. Athlete Lab is a turbo training studio in the heart of the city, geared towards cyclists committed to training but short of time. For the price of a membership, you can store your cycle shoes in your own cubby hole then dash in and onto a bike that has been set up for you in advance and to your precise bike fit measurements.

It’s not a spinning studio where you pedal away furiously whilst an instructor barks at you, riding a ‘bike’ with a maddeningly imprecise way of changing the resistance and difficulty of your ride. Athlete Lab use specially constructed bikes wired up to a central control panel that changes the resistance on each bike individually and automatically, based on your FTP.

I signed up for an FTP building session, where I rode blocks of intervals at a percentage of said FTP under the watchful eye of Athlete Labs coaches. All the data is shown on screen, so you just have to match your cadence to the one indicated and the power you produce will be consistent with that required, thanks to the resistance on your rear wheel. The coaches can (and do!) make things more difficult for you if you’re chatting away and smiling too much (hehe) or they’ll make things more bearable if you’re having an off day.

The classes are pretty pricey – £30 just for one or £129 for an all inclusive membership. In terms of efficiency, the sessions do resemble the workouts I might do on the virtual training app Zwift with my Cyclops Powersync smart trainer – hooked up to the computer my smart turbo trainer changes resistance automatically too. But here’s the thing – a Zwift set up is not exactly cheap – I have an iMac, a smart trainer, Powersync P1 pedals and a heart rate monitor, all of which cost a fair amount.

The benefits of the class are how nice it is to just turn up, get on your bike and get your workout done with no faff, so I can definitely see the appeal of the place if you worked in the city and wanted to squeeze in a session before you went home. Add to that the fact you have coaches on hand for immediate feedback, plus the follow up data you’re sent after each class and you would struggle not to get results if you committed to their classes several times a week.

Check out my trip to London on my latest vlog.

Like many cyclists, I enjoy keeping track of my rides, sometimes so that I can see where I’ve been if happened upon a particularly fine route, other times so I can analyse my performance once I’m back on the sofa with a cup of tea.

Much of the time, I use a dedicated cycle computer mounted on my handlebars as it’s convenient to just glance down at the screen and see how many hours I’ve been riding or how much longer the climb I’m doing is going to last. Or I might be keeping careful watch on my power or heart rate zones whilst doing interval training.

It’s safe to say that any kind of watch, no matter how smart is not going to be ideal for the latter – it will be hidden under a long sleeved top in winter and besides, you have to loosen your grip (or let go of the bars) in order to rotate your wrist and take a look at the face.

But for the kind of rides where you want less on-the-go data and of course, for running, hiking, working out and just tallying your steps, the Fitbit Surge, a super charged fitness tracker and a bit of a ‘jack of all trades,’ does a fine job.

Looks

I’ve got to be honest – the design of the Surge just doesn’t do it for me. I was sent a size Large which doesn’t exactly help, but the problem is that the band is clunky and huge, making it hard to get your sleeve up. And just looks a bit weird. I have nothing against something so conspicuous looking per se, I would just prefer it to look nicer or sportier if I’m going to walk around with a device strapped to my wrist that screams ‘I’m wearing a fitness monitor!’

The digital display itself is oddly retro looking and I’m not sure whether that’s intentional. I’d prefer something a bit more slick and modern, like the display on the Fitbit Blaze for instance. Presumably, the monochrome display helps with battery life.

Set up and user interface

To set up the Surge and use it properly, you’ll need a Fitbit account and to download the app to your phone. I found it easy to set up and use and had no problems pairing the device. It’s worth noting that you can only set an alarm on the watch via the app, which I find irritating.

The Surge is a smart fitness tracker so can be paired with your phone to alert you to calls can be used to control the playing of music and can display text messages.

Heart Rate Monitoring

Like the majority of fitness trackers, the Surge has a built in heart rate monitor that continuously monitors your heart rate. It uses Pure Pulse technology, which shines a light into your capillaries creating a reflection that is read by the sensor (weird, huh?). During normal wear, the sensor takes a reading every five seconds but when you’re recording activity it does so every second, for greater accuracy.

The day-to-day heart rate tracking seemed close enough, giving adequate information to track your resting heart rate trends through the app. When exercising, the heart rate monitor was ballpark rather than pinpoint accurate, which is fine for a casual user.

I like the way you can set target heart rate zones for your workout, depending on what kind of result you’re looking for and it’s easy enough to train in said zones providing they are of sufficient length. I found that during really high intensity intervals, the Surge was slow to pick up the raise in heart rate – I’d do a set of burpees for instance and see a large spike in my heart rate when I had already stopped. It wasn’t too much of a problem down the gym as I don’t train in heart rate zones but could be an issue if you wanted to run short intervals or do HIIT at a particular heart rate.

Battery

The Surge fares well if you’re just using it to track steps, lasting about four or five days without a charge. If you’re using GPS, expect around 5 hours on a full charge.

Sleep Tracking

Fitbit are well known for the quality of their sleep tracking which is activated automatically after a period of inactivity and low heart rate – you don’t have to press any buttons to get it to begin recording. But on the nights I’d been tossing and turning, I found it my results indicated I’d slept all night, which I found odd.

Other than that, it did seem to fairly accurately record the time I went to sleep and woke in the morning so it could be useful for figuring out very roughly how many hours sleep you are getting – in case you’re bad at Maths and can’t figure that out yourself.

GPS

The Surge has GPS built in, so you don’t have to pair it with your smartphone in order to get a fix on your location. When recording a ride or a run, it can take a minute (or several) to get a GPS signal, but then you’re good to go.

Activity Tracking

Recording a run is very simple. Hit the left button to select run, then either tap the screen or select the kind of run from the menu on the right – ‘Free Run’ or ‘Manual Lap’ run. Once the GPS has been acquired, start recording by pressing the bottom right button again.

Once you’re running, you can swipe through various metrics to view your heart rate, distance, pace and average pace or check out your lap pace or lap distance, if you’re in the Manual Lap mode. Just tap the lower right button again to end your run. Afterwards, it’s easy to check out your splits on the app and analyse your performance and there’s a whole load of in-depth info on your dashboard on the Fitbit site.

For running indoors, you’ll need to configure your stride length by running a certain distance whist the device counts your steps, then inputting the date in on the website.

When it comes to cycling, well, hmm. For some reason, when you select ‘Ride,’ it doesn’t disable the step counter, so when you record a hilly ride the device thinks you’ve climbed about 80 flights of stairs. If that doesn’t bother you then it works just fine, recording where you’ve been, your distance and all that, but if I was looking to track my fitness over the day with any precision, that would be irksome.

As I said earlier, the heart rate data is not minutely precise, but I’d guess that if your recording cycling on a watch (rather than a bar mounted computer so you easily see) then accurate enough should be fine. What I like the watch for is bike rides where I’m more interested in where I’ve been and how quickly I got there, for instance when I’m mountain biking, rather than training on my road bike.

It’s worth noting, you can’t swim with the Surge, as it’s not fully waterproof.

Conclusion

The Fitbit Surge is user friendly, works well as a running watch and makes a good companion for those looking to monitor and analyse their sleep and heart rate trends whilst keeping track of general activity. The phone notifications are a nice touch, the caller ID telling you whether you need to quickly grab your phone.

It’s not without its flaws, which for me were the fact it thought I’d climbed stairs when I rode the bike and the only ballpark accurate heart rate data.

Fitbit Surge. RRP: £199

Now in its fifth year, The Prudential London-Surrey 100 is arguably one of the greatest cycling legacies of the London Olympics. Taking place entirely on closed roads, the route goes past some of London’s most well known monuments and out into the Surrey hills for a loop that includes a summit of Box Hill, just like in the Olympic road race.

I’ve always thought it sounds like a whole lot of fun but it’s fiendishly difficult to secure a place on the ride, with a ballot system in place to ensure fairness. But much like the London Marathon that operates in a similar way it can be possible to secure a charity place, meaning you not only get to ride but can also help raise much needed funds for one of the charity partners.

This year I’ve partnered with UNICEF and will be raising money through my Just Giving page and any donations, however small would be really grateful, so please don’t feel shy about donating a pound, I really, really appreciate every penny.

Or even better, how about actually joining me on the ride? UNICEF have 243 charity places to fill, so why not cycle for charity and make the day even greater? You can register for the ride for just £30.

Why not grab a place then tweet at me to let me know so we can try and meet up and roll together?

UNICEF will be there every step of the way to help you with your training and fundraising leading up to the event and they’ll also be there on race day to cheer you on!

You can register for the race today for just £30 then all riders are asked to raise £600, which could help Unicef provide warm winter clothes for 17 children displaced or affected by the conflict in Syria.

Where to sign up: unicef.uk/ridelondon2017

>To find out why your support is so important to children in dance, watch the video below

To donate to my fundraising page please click here. Thank you

With last year being so annoying thanks to multiple injuries and enforced time off the bike, this winter I decided to treat myself to some time in the sun to make up for my time on the couch. Inspired by my time in Gran Canaria with Polartec, this February I headed back to the sunny Canary Islands to ride once more with Free Motion Bike Center, having really enjoyed their guided rides and the ease of hiring a bike rather than taking my own.

Whilst there, I made a video detailing all the best rides on Gran Canaria including the biggest, longest, most awe-inspiring climbs so check out the video below if you’re keen to see what’s on offer just a four hour flight away from the UK. To my mind, the Canaries are the best destination for deep wintercycling as they’re so warm right through our coldest months, unlike somewhere such as Girona or Mallorca which aren’t reliably warm until mid April.

My absolute favourite ride/climb was called Valley Of The Tears, something I was initially apprehensive about so I’m really glad I didn’t let a lack of hill climbing confidence stop me from trying what turned out to be the highlight of the trip.

I wrote all about this epic climb and how and why I developed such a profound love of travelling for my guest blog on the Brooks England site. Have a peek here.

Both Dave and myself are very excited about a new challenge we’ve signed up for this year, Deloitte Ride Across Britain. In September, we’ll be cycling the length of Britain in 9 days riding just shy of 1000 miles, from the South Westerly tip of Cornwall to the most North Easterly point in Scotland.

Living on a relativly small island, I’ve always had a desire to see as much of it as possible and riding Land’s End to John O’ Groats or LEJOG, as it’s commonly called is a bit of a bucket list ride as well. I’ve always put off actually doing it because I’m always just too busy to organise it as I wouldn’t even know where to start, plus I mean, how long would it take if you were carrying all your stuff? I’m thinking it would be slowish if I had bags with all my gear and I just don’t have enough time to devote to doing it that way.

Luckily, Deloitte Ride Across Britain organise absolutely everything so all we have to do is turn up and ride! The routes are all sorted, there are feed stations, we don’t need to carry any bags and they’ve even arranged camping for us. Oh, and huge breakfasts and dinners. And massages. See, EVERYTHING!

Starting in Cornwall, we’ll tackle a couple of super hilly days to get things started, pedaling from Land’s End to Okehampton and ascending 7000 feet as we cross Bodmin Moor and skirt Dartmoor.  Day two is another tough one as we enter the Quantocks and make our way to Bath via Cheddar Gorge, climbing 6000 feet in our 110 mile ride.

Riding long distances back to back is something I’ve not really done before, other than when I rode London Revolution which worked out at about 230 miles over two days (as I rode to and from the start and finish). I don’t even generally do heaps of long rides as I race mainly Criterium at the moment, which are short, fast, circuit races of around 45 minutes so I do a lot of short, hard, fast, threshold intervals to mimic that kind of riding.

So I’m going to have to take a look at my training plan in the next month or two and figure out how I can make some adjustments without ditching any of the top end tuning sessions that I really need to do throughout the Crit season. I think it will be challenging to try and train for two things that are so totally at the opposite end of the spectrum, actually so much so that I’m not really sure how I’m going to tackle it just yet. As my priority has to be the races, I wonder how I’ll fare with this endurance based challenge?

I’ll let you know how I’m getting on over the next six months. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to manage my training. If you’ve any tips, please leave them in the comments below.

www.rideacrossbritain.com