2012 Specialized Body Geometry S-Works Road Shoes

I've done about 2000 miles in these shoes since I got them and as I've never done a review before I thought these would make a good first subject.

The first thing you notice about these shoes when you pick them up is how light they are (that is until you fit Speedplay cleats to them), Specialized claim that they weigh around the 520g mark for a pair.

The uppers are made of a material called Micromatrix which despite the patent leather/shiny plastic appearance is a comfortably soft but tough material and I haven't suffered much scuffing. This material also has the advantage of being easy to wipe clean after the usual British summer ride. The mesh panels are highly breathable and keep the temperature down during the rare hot summer days but the down side of that is the they let in water and cold air when the weather isn't so nice. Compared to other shoes I tried on these did feel a bit minimalist to be honest and less inviting for your your foot but as you appreciate how comfortable they actually are as your ride goes on.

The shoes use 2 Boa S1-M closures for tailoring the fit to your foot - there is no putting these in the oven to mould to your feet. The Boa's work in a very simple way - turn them one way to tighten and the other way to loosen and for each click they pull in a couple of millimetres of cable. I have heard of people complaining that they have broken the dials but I've had no issues whatsoever with them. I do find that if you tighten the upper closure too tight it can dig into your foot and Specialized have move the location of the dials on the 2013 shoes.

The soles are high modulus, unidirectional carbon fibre and are very, very stiff - they're not shoes that you'd want to walk far in. The soles have the 3 bolt cleat pattern to accept Shimano SPD-SL, Time and Look cleats and also Speedplay cleats with an adaptor kit. There is a mesh vent in the sole under the toes and the heel is replaceable should you wear it out. Insoles are the BG+ High Performance foot bed featuring a 'metatarsal button' which is ridge running down the centre to help support the foot and I've certainly not experienced any hot spots on long rides with these shoes.

£200 may seem a lot of money for a pair of shoes but compared with the likes of Sidi they are extremely good value and with them being stiff, light and comfortable what else could you want?

Progress

Well it's been a successful January.

Since I started my training at the start of December I have lost 16lbs in weight (as of the end of January).

My Functional Threshold Power (the maximum power I can produce for an hour) has increased by 11 Watts and the combination weight loss and FTP has led to my power to weight ratio doubling.

All in all I spent 23 hours and 55 minutes training in January.

So I have gone from looking like this in September 2012.

To looking like this in February 2013 (those are the jeans I wore on the above holiday.

A full week on the turbo

With the crap weather we're suffering from at the moment this weeks training has entirely been indoors but its a week I've enjoyed. I know last week I mentioned that turbo training is boring - well I might have found an answer - TrainerRoad.

So what is TrainerRoad? Basically its a piece of software that you load onto your laptop and using an ANT+ cadence sensor (I'm using a Garmin GSC 10), ANT+ heartrate monitor belt and an ANT+ USB stick (again from Garmin) it works out your virtual power. That's not all though as there are workouts that you can download on-line that you can do and you get live heart rate and cadence displayed on screen as you work out. The workouts are based on power so by entering the turbo trainer you are using TrainerRoad uses the turbo's power curve to work out virtual power so you have to keep to the virtual power levels as instructed in the workout.

I appreciate that the power measurements are virtual but if you use the same tyre pressure and tension of the roller against the wheel then you'll get repeatable results as you have ironed out the variables. By completing a threshold test first, TrainerRoad will calculate your FTP (Functional Threshold Power) and use this for your workouts.

This does cost $10 a month but there are plenty of work outs and training plans to keep you busy and the boredom at bay.

Have a look at the video below if I haven't explained it very well.

So with a weeks worth of training how do I feel I have done? Firstly I've been working on cadence and FTP intervals this week and I'm spinning the pedals much better now although it has engaged other muscles so I'm aching in new places but this will make my pedal stroke much more efficient. Interestingly I have also noticed an increase in speed compared to pain levels and I'm enjoying the flood of lactate acid into my legs.

All in all its been a great week of very hard training but I can see progress along with the weight I am losing. This week is a recovery week to let my body get used to the increase in training so I'm off swimming on Tuesday and then have a 45 minute ride scheduled on Wednesday (or an equivalent turbo session) and two 2 hour rides for Saturday and Sunday (or turbo sessions again) so I'm going to enjoy the rest starting with the Spurs v Man U game this afternoon.

I hate the cold

Well that's the second week of training in the bank and I'm sat with my feet up enjoying a rest day.

Due to the weather I've done more than my fair share of turbo work this week and it doesn't get any less boring. Sufferfest training films help with the boredom and the pain and so did watching last years Paris Roubaix especially when you spice it up with a flat out spin every 10km the pros ride.

One thing I have discovered that adds a bit of fun to turbo work is using Speedplay pedals - huge cleats, puddle of sweat and you can probably guess the rest.

This weeks training follows what us now becoming my routine. I have a rest day today (Monday) and Friday, Wednesday is 45 minute turbo session across HRZ 1 to 3, Thursday is a 45 minute turbo session of Russian steps to build up my cadence, Saturday is 2 hours of hill repeats and Sunday is a 3 hour endurance ride.

Weight wise it's dropping off and so are the inches - my jeans I got at new year are no longer snug.

So that's what happened in week 2 - role on week 3.

And so it begins.

Well the past week has seen me starting my training for Vaujany Master.

Technically I should have started training with 45 minutes swimming on New Years day, but with being away I didn't do anything apart from eat (I cut out the booze at 2:30am on New Years day) and with still being away on Wednesday that meant some juggling of the plan.

The first ride of the year was on Thursday which was a flat ride ride around the shores of Morecambe bay. The ride should have only been an hour long at HRZ2 (heart rate zone 2 - endurance zone) with 6 second sprints every 15 minutes but I got carried away and was out for and hour and a half and it felt great to be out again.

Friday was scheduled as a rest day but I decided to switch Saturdays session to Friday and Sundays session to Saturday to give me a double rest day over Sunday and Monday. Fridays ride was supposed to be a 1.5 to 2 hour hilly ride (again in HRZ2 apart from the climbs) and I set out really happy and enjoyed the climbing (my god I'm changing) but on one of the descents I got cold and no matter how much effort I put in I wouldn't warm up so headed for home. In reality the excess time spent riding on Thursday made up for the ride being cut short on Friday so no real problems on that front.

Saturday's ride was in the plan as a 2+ hour ride on flat terrain with all HRZ used but not too much time in or over HRZ3 (tempo zone). In the end I was out for 2.5 hours and really enjoyed it until the last 45 minutes which was my own fault because I didn't eat enough and badly bonked.

Overall I'm happy with how the first week has gone although training to times rather than distances is still taking some getting used too. My legs are a bit sore today but I haven't ridden on the road on consecutive days since July/August so I can't complain.

The coming week is similar to this week, rest Monday, swim Tuesday, ride Wednesday and Thursday, rest Friday and then ride Saturday and Sunday with no real change to the times.

My motivation is still good and I've only got a pound more to lose from what I put on over Christmas.

Onwards and upwards.

New Year - New Challenge

This year due to other commitments I am unable to take part in the UU Charity Challenge riding the length of Ireland, so with it being the year of my 40th birthday I am taking part in a personal challenge.

On the 30th of June I will riding the Vaujany Master cyclo sportive in the French Alps. This is single day event with a total distance of 173km which is around 108 miles and the profile is shown below.

This is a significant challenge to me as at 17.5 stone I'm not currently built for climbing so I need to to lose a fair chunk of weight to improve my power to weight ratio.

Just to add a little incentive I have decided to raise money for the North West Air Ambulance as the thought of people sponsoring me will keep riding when I want to stay in bed and keep me on track with regards to my diet. If you'd like to sponsor me you can click on the Just Giving badge on the side of my blog or if you are viewing this on a mobile device you can click here.

I've also added a Strava panel so you can see if I'm doing my training or slacking off and I will update the blog at least once a week with what I am up to.

I'll be starting training tomorrow (Thursday) as the festive celebrations are finishing tonight although the alcohol ban has already come into force.

The past six months

Well it's six months since I last posted and I thought it probably might be a good idea to fill everyone in on what has happened in those six months.

After Tower 2 Tower we went down to Poole for a couple of weeks and a I did a solid block of riding in the rolling Dorset countryside with my brother in law and and some gentle rides, mostly involving a food stop, with my wife. A few weeks later my brother in law came up to our house and I spent a week showing him the roads of North Lancashire and South Cumbria and our fantastic rain.

After this I think I was riding stronger than ever and even starting to enjoy climbing.

Myself and my wife had booked a week with friends in Benidorm and the first few days were really great but then on a days cycling my wife had a crash on the descent of the Coll de Rates resulting in her spending 5 days in hospital. Looking back she was very, very lucky to escape with bad road rash on her elbows, hands and knees but the worst injury was the multiple fractures of the wrist that required an operation to pin and plate it back together. As you can see Julie has a fine holiday souvenir.

She's healed up really well but still undergoing physio to get full movement back and the gravel rash on her knee is still healing.

My cycling kind of petered out to a gentle pedal after Benidorm but I have big plans in place for 2013. I'll post a full run down in the New Year but basically I'll be doing an endurance ride in France and will be raising money for the North West Air Ambulance - if you're really keen to know the plan before I do a blog on the plan you can find out by clicking the Just Giving link on the right of this site.

Until my next blog I wish all readers all the very best for a happy an prosperous New Year.