Thursday 25 August 2011

MP3's, Riding & Killjoy's

Following on from my last blog - Riding & Ranting - I decided to head down to the inlaw's to ride in the same area as the Blenheim Bike ride. It's an area I know fairly well and I used to use some of the hills in the area to train back when I was racing.

As you may be aware, from the last blog post, that I can't stand Killjoy's or people that try to implement rules based on their own petty prejudice rather than solid fact. The banning of MP3's, they claim, is for safety and when I pointed out the fact that deaf people still ride and perfectly safely they just came up with some stupid counter that had no basis in fact and so I did decide not to ride that event this time or ever in the future.

I decided to head up into the same area though - the area around Stow On The Wold. I headed from Middle Littleton through Honeybourne and then up the wonderful Fish Hill. I love that climb, it's long - over 3 miles, and steep in places at 10% plus. It was one of the hills I always used to train on in my racing days and it became something of a tradition to ride up it. I was taking it easy as it's towards the start of the ride and I was planning to do 60 lumpy miles - that was until some chap decided to overtake me. I don't race anymore, I'm too fat and slug like - but for some strange reason I'm still competative. I checked out his gearing and saw that he was running conventional racing ratio gears and he looked like he was making really hard work out of it - and we hadn't hit the steep stuff yet! So, I sat on his wheel and let him work, I was spinning nicely on my compact chainset and just keeping my heart rate down, then he slowed so I was forced to go past him keeping my tempo even. Then, I just rode away from him.........and at the top, I upped my gear and rode way even faster! Poor bloke.

Well, the ride was stunning. Cloudy and cool to start with but soon brightening up, lightish SW winds and I knew that the last few miles would have a tail wind. I rode up and over the hills round Stow and then hit the fast descent from Ford on the Tewksbury road. From there I headed over to Bredon and round the back of Bredon Hill, the last 25 miles were a nice tail wind, well, more of a breeze really but nice none the less.

Evesham is a wonderful little town and nice to ride through on a Sunday and so I did, getting motorpaced by some guy on a big sports motorcycle who happened to be sticking to the speed limit! Good fun that, the last short climb of the day at Bennetts Hill was done quickly and the last couple of miles to the inlaws was taken easy.

A great day, with good music, great weather and stunning scenery. I tried to make a short video using my mobile phone, it's not brilliant, but check it out. I intend to get a better helmet/bike mounted camera for next year and I'll start adding videos of rides and routes.

Here is the Endomondo workout for that day. I did a ride the following day but was shattered and just did a short easy one - and, I've just been out and done a nice hard 26 miles before nights, both workouts are listed on the Endomondo page August 22nd and 25th.

Oh, and here is the video!


Thursday 18 August 2011

Riding & Ranting

Just a short ride today, 33.8 miles after nights to the cafe at Fradley Junction for breakfast. Not a bad day but cool, it could have been nicer considering it's August!

I made a point of keeping my heart rate low today, nothing taxing as I have, in theory, 5 days to get out on the bike - whether that happens is another matter altogether.

On the return route from the cafe I bonked big style, my blood sugar must have dropped very low and I was forced to use my emergency Energy Gel to bring it back up. I used to hate Gels until I found the High5 Isotonic Gel, they work a treat and aren't to sticky. Well, that worked and I was able to ride home feeling fine.

Here is the Endomondo workout for today.

As for the rant - I really have this bee in my bonnet about the so called cycle safety brigade that feel that they know everything there is about road safety and cycling.

On Sunday I'm supposed to be doing the Blenheim Cycle Challenge - but on reading the rules they can shove it where the sun don't shine. Why, MP3 players of course - they say you are not allowed to use them for, "Rider Safety". Utter bollocks. They claim that riders will need to keep their ears on at the start - and get this for safety - as they are starting 150 - 200 riders at a time! How bloody safe is that? 50 is too many to start in one go without closed roads. There is no way that amount of riders leaving at one time is going to be safe, remember, those of you that know me are aware that my job is all about road safety and that ain't safe. I can see the faces of frustrated motorists, the blaring car horns, the riders taking risks to get out of junctions - I can see a nightmare and a possible fatal crash. They are totally misguided.

I pointed out to them that by their theory they are banning deaf and hearing impaired people from riding their event. They said, and I quote, "Anyone with a hearing impairment would make themselves known to us before and at the start the event and special measures taken to ensure their safety." What a load of rubbish they're talking. Hearing impaired people ride in large bunch races without being able to hear and are perfectly safe - we have another safety feature built it - called, wait for, EYES! All we need to do it to look around to see whats going on. I ride with my MP3 player all the time and I have my head on a swivel, I'm always looking for danger and don't take silly risks.

Well, they can stick their Sportive where the sun don't shine - rules like that make me seethe as they have no foundation in truth. I won't be doing it and will ride the route in a few weeks on my own enjoying my music riding safely and taking no unnecessary risks!

Rant over - thanks for reading!

Sunday 14 August 2011

Time For A Blog Update!

Folks, it's been a little quiet here of late, my fault!

I've been back at work and as a result I've been knackered! A month off and then back to long shifts is hard on the body and soul of this ageing & overweight bike rider, so I've not done a great deal on the bike!

To be fair, I think I overtrained slightly in July and my body is rebelling. I should have done the Wiggle Tour Of The Peak today with Mark but I've really felt dreadful over the last week or so, lethargic, no energy and I just feel like I need to sleep all the time. Classic over training and working long hours without enough proper food and water. I also have an allergy similar to Hay Fever that gets worse in damp weather - so this week I've been coughing my guts up. All in all it's added up to me crying off. Not sure how I feel about that at the moment, when I talk to Mark I'll probably wish I'd done it.

So, to bike riding. There's not much to report if the truth be told, because I've felt so bad I've had 7 days completely off the bike. I went out Friday, got 1.5 miles down the road and rode into rain - so I promptly turned home - 3 miles total........

Yesterday I tried my legs out and found that I felt better on the bike than off so I did a 50+ mile ride. I went to the Beehive Farm where the Honeypot cafe is. A nice little cyclists cafe situated on a farm that over the last few years has become a popular camping and caravan site. It was a good ride and I felt fairly strong.

Here is the Endomondo workout for yesterday.

As I've already said, today should have been Tour Of The Peak day - so despite still feeling tired and a little jaded I decided to do my own, shorter, Tour Of The Staffordshire Moorlands. I headed up through Uttoxeter  and up the 3rd Cat climb up to Ramshorn. I was OK, I got into a rhythm and paced myself - not to say that I found it easy by any stretch of the imagination. Actually, I suffered a bit, quite a bit. I realised on this climb that I'd not have been able to do the Wiggle ride even if I'd started it.

It looked like rain so when I got to the turn for Iptsones/Onceote I made the decision to turn left to Ipstones (towards home) rather than right to Onecote which is part of the Tour Of Britain Stoke stage and takes in some good climbs. It'd been my plan to follow the Tour route up through Longnor and then up the climb at Gunn Hill. Rain stopped play!

A good ride home followed with some very steep stuff around Cheadle followed by a good, but very wet, descent down from Spot Acre all the way to Milwich (only a short climb in the middle).

I'd dried out by the time I reached home - and only having done 950m of climbing in 50 miles I knew the Wiggle ride wouldn't have been for me.

Here is the Endomondo ride for today.

I think I've put weight on too - so, no goodies for me tonight. Next Sunday it's supposed to be the Blenheim Palace Breast Cancer ride. I'll see how I feel and what the weather is doing, it's only 60 miles and it'll be good training for the Tour Ride which is my main goal for the latter part of this year and is on 25th September 2011 starting and finishing at Trentham Gardens near Stoke.

Thats all for today, time for a shower and a cup of tea.

Safe riding folks.

Wednesday 3 August 2011

Stress, Cycling & Mistake's

There's been a bit of stress, a lot of cycling and one expensive mistake so far this week.
Following on from the BG-Fit session on Friday I tried out the new position on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday's ride was a steady affair out to the cafe at Fradley Junction. Tracey was trying out her bike this day to see if she could ride with a sprained ankle. She did a short ride and I met her at the cafe.



Here is the Endomondo workout for that Saturday.

Sunday, Mark and I had arranged to go out and do a 75 mile ride - well, we went out on Satruday night for a beer and had one or two to many! Sunday arrived and we both felt the worse for wear - so we decided to reduce the distance by about 25 miles. I'd a route in mind, up around Uttoxeter and then to Tutbury...some nice hills on that route. It was a hard, hot day and Mark seems to have his hill climbing legs fitted and he pushed the pace up most hills, harder than my weary body was willing to push - it's been a hard month on the bike for me this July.

I seemed to get my legs back as the ride went on - High5 works wonders. We didn't bother to stop at a cafe and just rode non-stop. A good day.






Here is the Endomondo workout for Sunday.

I went to see my parents on Tuesday - I've not seen them for a few weeks as I've been on holiday. Both have been recently diagnosed with Dementia, mum just has short term memory loss, but dad is getting worse by the day it seems. It's really heart breaking to see this dignified, clever and loving man degenerate in the way that he is. I find it hard to see him without crying and I get a knot in my gut on the way over every time I visit. Their house used to be immaculate, now it's just about livable, dark and untidy. Tracey and I are doing our best to get over once or twice a week to shop for them and tidy the place but it's not always possible with our shifts.

Cycling is a huge stress reliever, I came home yesterday a wreck, I just kept exploding with rage at the smallest of things, like the computer not opening a program fast enough, real rage too. Stupid things. I had to get out and calm down before I Trace came home or I had a heart attack so later in the afternoon I hit the road for a short ride in the warm weather. It helped, it always does.

And that leads nicely into the mistake - The BG-Fit indicated that I'd be better with a shorter stem so I ordered a nice Ritchey WCS stem in matt black from Ribble Cycles. It arrived yesterday and I eagerly fitted it - then realised it was a 110mm.......that led to me checking my order on the web (the computer not opening a program fast enough) and more rage as I realised it was my fault and now was too late as the sodding thing was fitted. Oh well, the bike ride sorted that out.

Here is yesterdays Endomondo workout.

Today I went out again, still feeling stressed and unhappy so I decided to hammer myself. I went a hilly route, I need to do hilly routes and mark and I are supposed to be doing the Wiggle Tour of the Peak a week on Sunday and this is the last time I can get some hilly rides in.

Nice ride today and very warm. Wonderful means of de-stressing oneself.

Here is the Endomondo workout for today.

Not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow - looks like rain is forecast so I'll see.