Hayley Simmonds

Well... I really don't know what to say about this morning!

Honestly when the alarm went off I wasn't feeling my best. A slightly disturbed night due to a barking dog and being faced with the prospect of racing Belgium, my least favourite world. But I needed to race as a qualifier for this month so I consumed my coco-pops, a few Haribo and jumped on the bike.

During warm-up my legs felt a bit stiff but the power seemed okay. My plan was to try and stay with the bunch on the first climb (where I've previously always been dropped) and then go from there, not killing myself before Tuesday. After the first sprint at 2.3km I text Matt and Emma saying I hated Belgium and then focused on the upcoming climb. It was hard. Yet somehow I was in touch over the top and took the opportunity to recover in a now-reduced group. After the second sprint we around 6km before the start of the second QOM - perfect opportunity for a bit more fuel. I followed wheels on the second QOM, staying in the group while Emily Sopers hit out for the top. When everyone eased off at the banner, Emily had a few seconds gap and I had momentum from trying to cling on...I bridged to her...and then attacked. 16km to the finish and I created a gap. At that point I was committed. Survive to the end or end up out of the top 10.

Being away allowed me to ride my own pace on the remaining bumps and luckily I built up enough of a gap before the final 900m kick to the line. Somehow I crossed the line first from Cat 2, solo, and also ended up 3rd overall in the women's race. My first SRC win, 2 days before the start of MWC and on a course I never would have imagined getting a result on. It was definitely the confidence boost that I needed and reassurance that my taper has worked as I hoped and I'm in a good place.

Now it's all about recovery.

Week 2 of my taper and the only intensity I have this week is today (40/20s) and then SRC at the weekend. Tapering is odd because in general things are easier - I have much less volume this week as well as both a passive and active recovery day - but then there are still some horrible sessions!

I am not a rider who enjoys 40/20s. They just don't suit my diesel physiology. I've been doing a lot of 30/30s recently and I've come to just about tolerate them, but 40/20s are a different beast and feel a lot more difficult. So I was already dreading this session from when I first saw it in Training Peaks. However I had somehow convinced myself that I only had 3 sets of 10 to do. Then I loaded the workout to discover it was actually 4 sets.

I possibly got over-enthusiastic to begin with and was trying to push numbers towards the top of the power range. However the fact that I barely finished the first set in one piece made me calm down for the rest of the session! Still within range but not over-extending too much. This is the sort of session that will definitely benefit me in e-sports and the MWC but I definitely don't enjoy it.
For now I'm trusting the taper and believing that within the next week I'll be fully ready to fight for the GC. After all, that's why I employ a coach.

Spoiler alert...it's hot.

Pretty sure everyone is well aware of that and I've seen a lot of strava rides starting early in the morning. Despite not being a morning person I've also been out early this week and did so again today but to be honest the temperatures were something else entirely.

When I left the house at 7.35am it was already nearly 30 degrees and I have no idea what the 'real' high was (garmin always registers more) but I took a selfie at 9.30am and my phone said it was 38 degrees. That's the problem with having 3.5 hours endurance...early still isn't always early enough.
I'm very much listening to my body and making sure my easy rides are 'easy' at the moment. I'm terrible for pushing on in a low intensity ride, trying to get as much extra TSS as possible. But in a taper that's a really dumb idea. I'm really not going to add fitness right now (or nothing that will be useful in the short term) but I could add a load of extra fatigue that will blunt performance. And the heat is also adding extra stress so pushing on in an easy ride is totally counterproductive. Instead, I came home with a power that was right in the middle of my intended zone for the day, though I did feel like the final 30 minutes might finish me off!

After my ride I actually went for a cryotherapy session and it felt amazing being in an environment that was -130 degrees for a few minutes after suffering on the bike.

When recovery is the focus it's really important to listen to your body. Add in the current heatwave and that becomes even more crucial.
This session was actually meant to be completed yesterday but when I went out at 7.30am (a) my legs felt like I'd done a gym session in the middle of the night and (b) it was already HOT. So I made the surprisingly mature decision (see, I'm growing) to do a 2 hour spin and focus on recovery. For the rest of the day I made sure my carb intake was good and in the evening I did a stretching/foam rolling session which identified the fact that my quads were insanely tight.
This morning I got up even earlier and headed out just before 7am to try again. Yes, the powers were a touch down on where they should have really been but given that 24 hours ago I couldn't complete any intervals, today was a big win. It shows me that underneath the fatigue I know I'm carrying, the power is there. I have a massage scheduled this afternoon and another next week; all the focus is currently on optimising my recovery.
Given that I've been telling the athletes I coach to moderate power targets/expectations this week, I just about managed to take my own advice today 😉

Approximately 4 weeks ago I wrote a note in my Training Peaks which read "It's weeks like this that make me think I should just retire". Perhaps a touch melodramatic but I'd had 10 days where all my interval sessions had been useless and even base rides felt like a struggle. I had no motivation and the only thing making me get on the bike was the fact I knew I'd feel even more useless if I didn't train. My body was giving me all the classic signs of being a little rundown... saddle irritations, disrupted sleep, moodiness and so on.

Logically I knew that I was just tired, having been training hard and without a real off-season at the end of last year. I've had periods like this before and they always make me remember a magazine column written by Katie Archibald about a GB training camp in Portugal. She was feeling terrible. Unable to keep up on rides or complete her interval sessions. The coaches told her to take a few days off and, begrudgingly, she did so but all the while thinking that she was done and the coaches were actually trying to subtly retire her from the squad. To nobody's surprise, after a few easy days she was back to kicking everyone's ass. Even though I recall this article well, I struggle to apply the story to my own training...

On 1st June I had a rest day to travel to France and then on Tuesday 2nd June a session appeared in my training plan, titled "2.5 hours LIT - enjoy life ride". That was actually the only session I was set that week. I had a great ride on the Tuesday to a tearoom with Matt and Emma and then the rest of the week I did what I fancied; a 4.5 hour club ride on the Wednesday, cake ride Thursday and then some harder rides Friday - Sunday. Despite not being set anything that week I still did 17 hours and 800 TSS but it felt easier somehow. Good food, good company, happy head, better legs.
The past 2 weeks have been back to structure and hard sessions. I've done back-to-back 22 hour weeks, each of >1000 TSS and with runs being added back in. I've got through it. The end of last week was becoming questionable but I'm happy with how I handled the load. Yep, right now I'm in a small hole again; I actually fell over on Saturday morning when I got out of bed. But I have experience with this state; 16 days out from the Commonwealth Games TT in 2018 I felt horrendous and had to take breaks walking up stairs. I distinctly remember not wanting to move. The benefit of having data from back then is that I can look at my metrics and they are remarkably similar to yesterday's numbers. Knowing that I now have 2 easier weeks before MWC kicks off this is pretty encouraging and it's now all about managing my recovery (and hoping that, 8 years later) I can still bounce back from that type of load!

So today should have been race day. Gralloch UCI Gravel Race. One of my favourite events and something I’ve done for the past 3 years (but have a checkered history with…).

Year 1 - slashed sidewall after 28km when in 3rd place. Not repairable, DNF.
Year 2 - really strong race, 7th.
Year 3 - felt awful. Crawled round. Found out later that I had glandular fever.
Year 4 - DNS.

Why didn’t I start? Well, it’s complicated and I don’t think I have the word limit to go into it here. But I’d been questioning whether to ride for several days and that alone was enough for me to realise that I probably shouldn’t race. I’ve had enough instances in the past of starting a race that I haven’t been sure about and at no point has it resulted in my feeling better (physically or mentally) afterwards. So for once I made a sensible choice. I protected some of my mental wellbeing and I went training. I watched my friend Hanna start, took her extra kit, went for a ride and then met her afterwards at the finish.
There’s a part of me that’s sad I missed The Gralloch this year, but I also know deep down that it was the right call. The race will still be there next year and I will make sure I’m in the right place to be able to compete.

I know myself really well… there’s a reason that I don’t have live segments on my Garmin, and that I tend to watch a movie when doing easy indoor rides. It means I stick to my riding plan and don’t ride harder than necessary to try and go for a segment or a jersey…

Yesterday after my ride I had an email. “Uh oh”… a segment that I got whilst riding from my dad’s 2 years ago (on my road bike) had been taken by 1 second. A segment only a few km from where I’m currently staying.

Today I had an easy spin but part of me wanted to see if I could take it back on my gravel bike. Because I’m petty/competitive/childish… call it what you will.

1 hour of easy riding followed by a 10 minute push - not quite all out but way harder than I should have been riding. Luckily I did reclaim my crown, and picked up another along the way. And I suppose it’s a good thing that my competitive streak is still very much alive and well!

A 530km drive after yesterday’s SRC brought me to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. My dad lives here but I make an annual pilgrimage each May which tends to be when the weather is better.

I was lulled into a slightly false sense of security by the sun because the wind was pretty cold today, but I wasn’t foolish enough for short sleeves! I headed out on the gravel bike even though I was sticking to tarmac but there were some pretty rural and patchy stretches where I actually appreciated the 45mm tyres.

Today’s ride involved 3 sets of 8 x 30/30s which felt like heaven after last week’s catastrophic 30/15s, and then 1.5 hours of easy riding to spin the legs. Despite racing and travelling yesterday I felt pretty good so hopefully this week will be smoother sailing 🙏🏻

Spoiler alert… this was attempt #2 at training today.

The planned session was 3.5 hours with 3 x 13 x 30/15s and my original plan was to do it on the turbo (because 30/15s are so difficult to control outside). I knew before I got on the bike that it would be a push today. I did 5 hours yesterday and probably didn’t refuel as well as I should have done, confirmed by the fact that I woke up starving.

I just about made it through set 1 but after 1 effort in set 2 I had NOTHING. Deciding it would do more harm than good, I spun my legs a little bit and then climbed off. Grumpy 😆.
Queue carbs! I made a decent pancake stack, used the foam roller on my quads and waited several hours before then deciding to go out on the road for take 2.

It still wasn’t pretty. The numbers weren’t my best. BUT I got something done. And today that was a big win. I limped though the efforts on the bottom end of the power range and then did enough extra easy riding to make my total ride time for the day up to the target 3.5 hours. And I made sure to fuel really well during the ride, as well as when I got home, to make sure I’m recovered from a solid 2 days.

With rain and work on the Saturday afternoon schedule, we rolled out pretty promptly for some FRT (fatigue resistance training)…

On the menu: 5 x 30/30s, LIT, 2 x 10’ sweetspot, LIT, another 2 x 10’ sweetspot, LIT and then 5 x 30/30s towards the end.

I’m pretty convinced we had a headwind for most of the ride but otherwise it was a great route. I definitely started feeling my legs in the last sweetspot block as I was tearing down a long, straight descent and revving out my biggest gear 🙈 but made it through all the blocks in better shape than expected after a pretty big week. And we avoided the rain - success 🥳
Despite feeling really fatigued a week ago I’ve actually been good on the bike all week - good food, a fun atmosphere and riding company has definitely worked wonders. Along with the cafe stops of course!

…which to be honest is exactly what I need right now.

I’m pretty bad at backing off but sometimes it isn’t necessarily a total break that’s needed, but a change in perspective and mindset.
Very rarely do I stop at a cafe when I’m riding at home (normally because I have no training buddies 😂) but in the past week we’ve stopped most days. I’ve done intervals when set but the rest of the time I’ve not been looking at power numbers. And if the ride is 10 minutes short then who cares? It’s the perfect antidote to a mentally (and physically) tough period and exactly what I needed to reset.

In all of my years of pro cycling, today’s ride will go down as one of the more entertaining I’ve been part of.

There was everything… from a specialized tarmac with deep carbon wheels, to an old colnago with mechanical shifting and rim brakes. Plus the unrestricted e-bikes ⚡️
Then there was me… the only girl, with 2 bottles, a pocket full of precision and no mitts 👀
However I got a nod, a handshake and a “bon” from one of the guys on the e-bikes and I don’t think I’ve had me or Matt banned from future club rides.

Turns out, when people shout directions in French from the back of the group, I have no clue whether they’re saying “right” or “straight on” 🫣😂

The other thing I learned today… no matter whether they’re 12 or 72 - boys will be boys.

Well... this was a bit of a baptism of fire to be honest!!

Given that TTs is how I got into cycling in the first place, I realised on the drive to Perpignan that it's been almost 2 years since I raced my TT bike. I only entered this event on the train back from Copenhagen after my half marathon, deciding that TT training had gone okay and I fancied a fun, low pressure race to reintroduce myself to the hurt.

I arrived in the region at 15.00 on Wednesday and headed out on the bike to check out the route. The course had a few km of flat at the start and end but otherwise the remaining 19km was effectively climb-descent-climb-descent.

Given the nature of the descents (the first being narrow and twisty, and the second being exposed and windy) I opted to run my zephyr front wheel rather than the deeper, 100mm Titan.
For some reason, despite working perfectly in warm up (and cool down), I started my race effort and looked at my Garmin to discover no power numbers 🙄. I have zero clue why, though with the course not being one for “average power” it allowed my to just ride on feel - pushing the climbs and recovering on the descents.

A lot of people opted for road bikes and honestly I don’t think it was much of a disadvantage, especially with how windy the last descent ended up being.

I’m really happy I chose this as my first TT back because it was a really fun course, very pretty and a low pressure event. I’ve never done a Gran Fondo race before as I’ve always had UCI points but the atmosphere was super friendly and made the whole day very enjoyable.

And, as a bonus, not only did I win my age category but I won the women’s event overall 🥳 so now I just need to decide whether to add the Wolrd Championships in Japan to my race calendar for the year 🙈

(Early?) Mid-life crisis in full swing! 😂
My first ever running event and strangely really enjoyed it. Only goal was to run sub-2 hours and I finished in an official time of 1:52:17. And yep, I've already registered for next year... 🫣

Ripping off the race band-aid is always painful!! Cold day on the bike and didn't eat or drink enough. Chaotic mass-start which has never been a strong point but slugged my way through. Could tell I was underfuelled when I started swearing at the track and the wind (which picked up A LOT) in the second half.
Literally fell up some wooden steps that you had to walk up...did they mention them in the briefing? Probably but my Danish doesn't extend to that. But on the plus side, only one fallen tree to climb over.
Happy enough with 3rd to start the gravel season.