Saw this in my local bike shop www.raceforchase.co.uk. Lands End to John O Groats in 5 days - that's bonkers. I did it in 20 days which is quite leisurely, but still very tiring, average mileage 50 miles a day. OK on the flat, fatiguing over hills. I reckon taking it seriously and with heavy training I could do it in 8 to 10 days, so double the daily distance, say average 100 miles a day - I can do a one-off day of 130 miles now relatively easily but am shagged for a few days afterwards, can't face going near a bike let alone doing another 100 miles the next day, and the next...
BUT THIS IS DOUBLE AGAIN! Average mileage 180 miles a day, 5 days in a row - and the first day does Cornwall, Devon, Somerset - and they ain't flat, nor is Scotland. The training schedule they put together covers 5,000 miles between Jan and June. I think I've been training pretty heavily for the E'tape, I've covered a mere 1,000 miles so far this year. NUT NUTS NUTS.
Did a really nice ride last weekend, 200k around Suffolk and Essex - this time for the first time ever I managed to hang on to the shirt tails of the front running club riders as they set off in their normal pack and amazingly 199k later I was still there with them, they were averaging 17 to 18 mph which is a lot faster than I normally ride so I was really pleased to have kept with them all day. Every hill they came to they kicked up the hill leaving me & several others plodding along behind - and a few times I thought that would be the last I saw of them - but they were a very nice bunch of guys who then slowed the pace down once over the hill and let everyone regroup into a pack again. So really happy at the end having flown around at an average speed of 17mph - if I can do that in the E'tape I'll be easily home & dry. Funny moment at the end was when I was still sitting on the back of the pack (of about 20 others) and the front 18 or so took a wrong turning, all of a sudden leaving me pretty much on my own, just a few hundred yards from the end - so I finished the ride in third place, out of a start of about 100 or so. A pyrrhic victory maybe but funny nonetheless.
Off to the Cotswold's this Saturday for 160k over some bumpy countryside. hm.
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Dustman Daves Demon Hilly
Subtitle: 7 hours of pain
Sub sub title: never again
I guess the title should have acted as a warning of what was to come, but hey, it seems that the 25 of us that set off maybe didn't think closely enough about that. We still weren't thinking all that much about it after the first 10 miles which were a little stiff but nothing too nasty.
Dustman Dave organised 4 rides all setting off from the same place, a small village just outside Taunton - the diddy doddle, 64k, the doddle, 110k, the double doddle, 200k and the demon hilly, 110k. A couple of hundred people were doing the other rides, 25 of us the demon hilly.
The first ten miles were a reasonably continual perpetual climb up and over the quantocks, crossing over some roads I cycled along for the lands end to john o'groats ride (http://www.chrisride.blogspot.com/) which brought back some nice memories.
The next 15 miles then went up and over exmoor ending up at Blue Anchor at the seaside. By this time we were starting to feel a little tired. 25 miles gone, 50 to go. The next 15 miles went back up and over exmoor and ended up at a nice pub for a bite to eat. Now we were all really tired, 45 miles down, 30 to go.
Nibbling a sandwich over lunch however a couple of things struck us:
i) Some of us commented that no-one on the ride seemed to have done it before. We found this a little odd, but didn't think too much about it.
ii) One of the riders had a "work done" altimeter (i.e. that records every metre climbed). It was registering total climbed meters of about 1,100m so far. We knew however that the rides total climb was 3,150m. So we had done well over half the ride and only 1/3 of the climbing. And we were pretty knackered. We all agreed that the altimeter must be dodgy, there was no way we could climb the remaining 2/3 of the distance in the remaining 1/3 of the ride, that just wasn't viable given how tired we were all feeling already.
OH MY FUCKING HELL we were wrong. The next 20 miles were just sheer pain, just 20 miles of huge climbs up a perpetual string of 1 in 3, 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 hills. On and on and on they went. I will happily confess to being a broken man on a few occasions. I did make it up the monster 1 in 3, albeit I will admit to using quite a nice zig-zag technique - as the road was wide and empty with no traffic so I just spent the whole time cycling across the road, turning, coming back across again, zig-zag all the way up - and that was painful enough. After 60 miles I was wiped out and even the bottle of full fat coke and BIG slice of coffee cake at the rest stop didn't help. Thankfully the last 10 miles were all downhill, a nice cruise back into the village, where we were met by a number of the 200k riders, who had thus done just under twice the distance (on the flat...) in the same time.
By this time we figured out why we hadn't met anyone else on the ride who had done it before. BECAUSE NO-ONE EVER COMES BACK TO DO IT AGAIN.
There are few rides I would never do again. I'd quite happily cycle up Ventoux again (http://www.nastyhills.blogspot.com/), although I'd probably check the weather forecast first but I will never do this again. At the end my body ached all over, my hands and feet were swollen, my ribs and lungs hurt from the exertion, my arms were knackered (from the climbs), my legs felt detached from my body and when I got home I found out I'd lost around 6 lb in weight. I also felt nausious for 3 days afterwards.
Dustman Dave said to me at the end:
i) You must have enjoyed it in a sort of sadistic sense. Nope
ii) Give it a few days, you'll feel great about having done it. Nope
iii) You'll be back next year, trust me. Nope.
Ride stats: Mileage: 70 Miles
Time: Just under 7 hours riding, 5 of which were painful beyond description.
Average riding speed 11.2 mph. Dismal.
I did however bag 4.25 "hill climbing points" - Audax have a scoring system that encourages riders to do hillier, tougher rides. Their scoring system is herewith - as you will see 3,150 metres of climbing for a 100k ish event is genuinely off the scale... http://www.aukweb.net/aaa/index.htm. Looking down the list, there are only 15 rides out of several thousand that offer more points than this. And nope, I'm not going to do any of those either.
Sub sub title: never again
I guess the title should have acted as a warning of what was to come, but hey, it seems that the 25 of us that set off maybe didn't think closely enough about that. We still weren't thinking all that much about it after the first 10 miles which were a little stiff but nothing too nasty.
Dustman Dave organised 4 rides all setting off from the same place, a small village just outside Taunton - the diddy doddle, 64k, the doddle, 110k, the double doddle, 200k and the demon hilly, 110k. A couple of hundred people were doing the other rides, 25 of us the demon hilly.
The first ten miles were a reasonably continual perpetual climb up and over the quantocks, crossing over some roads I cycled along for the lands end to john o'groats ride (http://www.chrisride.blogspot.com/) which brought back some nice memories.
The next 15 miles then went up and over exmoor ending up at Blue Anchor at the seaside. By this time we were starting to feel a little tired. 25 miles gone, 50 to go. The next 15 miles went back up and over exmoor and ended up at a nice pub for a bite to eat. Now we were all really tired, 45 miles down, 30 to go.
Nibbling a sandwich over lunch however a couple of things struck us:
i) Some of us commented that no-one on the ride seemed to have done it before. We found this a little odd, but didn't think too much about it.
ii) One of the riders had a "work done" altimeter (i.e. that records every metre climbed). It was registering total climbed meters of about 1,100m so far. We knew however that the rides total climb was 3,150m. So we had done well over half the ride and only 1/3 of the climbing. And we were pretty knackered. We all agreed that the altimeter must be dodgy, there was no way we could climb the remaining 2/3 of the distance in the remaining 1/3 of the ride, that just wasn't viable given how tired we were all feeling already.
OH MY FUCKING HELL we were wrong. The next 20 miles were just sheer pain, just 20 miles of huge climbs up a perpetual string of 1 in 3, 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 hills. On and on and on they went. I will happily confess to being a broken man on a few occasions. I did make it up the monster 1 in 3, albeit I will admit to using quite a nice zig-zag technique - as the road was wide and empty with no traffic so I just spent the whole time cycling across the road, turning, coming back across again, zig-zag all the way up - and that was painful enough. After 60 miles I was wiped out and even the bottle of full fat coke and BIG slice of coffee cake at the rest stop didn't help. Thankfully the last 10 miles were all downhill, a nice cruise back into the village, where we were met by a number of the 200k riders, who had thus done just under twice the distance (on the flat...) in the same time.
By this time we figured out why we hadn't met anyone else on the ride who had done it before. BECAUSE NO-ONE EVER COMES BACK TO DO IT AGAIN.
There are few rides I would never do again. I'd quite happily cycle up Ventoux again (http://www.nastyhills.blogspot.com/), although I'd probably check the weather forecast first but I will never do this again. At the end my body ached all over, my hands and feet were swollen, my ribs and lungs hurt from the exertion, my arms were knackered (from the climbs), my legs felt detached from my body and when I got home I found out I'd lost around 6 lb in weight. I also felt nausious for 3 days afterwards.
Dustman Dave said to me at the end:
i) You must have enjoyed it in a sort of sadistic sense. Nope
ii) Give it a few days, you'll feel great about having done it. Nope
iii) You'll be back next year, trust me. Nope.
Ride stats: Mileage: 70 Miles
Time: Just under 7 hours riding, 5 of which were painful beyond description.
Average riding speed 11.2 mph. Dismal.
I did however bag 4.25 "hill climbing points" - Audax have a scoring system that encourages riders to do hillier, tougher rides. Their scoring system is herewith - as you will see 3,150 metres of climbing for a 100k ish event is genuinely off the scale... http://www.aukweb.net/aaa/index.htm. Looking down the list, there are only 15 rides out of several thousand that offer more points than this. And nope, I'm not going to do any of those either.
Thursday, 17 April 2008
Hate & inspiration
The Witham 200. April 13th
Sometimes I hate other cyclists, part 1... So there I was, pedaling along, when a German cyclist cruises up to me. His opening comment was "excuse me, may I ask if you are into long distance rides". I thought of retorting with "so what the hell is this 200k ride we are on then, idiot" but felt the humble response would be "no, not really". It turns out he wasn't trying to score points, just get some information and in particular about the guys we were following who had "got the shirt" for having done "The PBP" last year, an amazing 1,200 km (750 miles) ride from Paris to Brest and back to Paris which must be completed within 90 hours. Basically cycle for 22 hours, sleep for 2, cycle for 22 hours, sleep for 2, for 4 days solid. HOW????? I am totally shagged after 10 hours, 125 miles. Very inspiring to talk to the guys who've done the ride though I can never see myself doing it.
http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/EN/index.php
On other HOW???? notes, I just read this book, it's quite an inspiring read. On holiday I read it and thought "sod all this 100 mile bike rides, let's step it up to 200 or 250 miles". Then I did 125 miles on Sunday on the flatlands of east anglia and thought "125 miles is quite enough, thanks". This guy is into running rather than cycling - but check out his bio (about -> bio) - this guy RUNS 350 miles non-stop and has just run 50 marathons in all 50 states in 50 days. Then he ran back home again, another 1,300 miles EH??? Again very inspiring & very humbling.
http://www.ultramarathonman.com/flash/
Sometimes I hate other cyclists, part 2... So I pull into the first checkpoint on the weekend ride and the controller says to me "it's nice to see you taking your time". Felt like saying "piss off you turd, I was going as fast as I could!". It's interesting though how things work out over a number of hours on an endurance ride - I was definitely a little slower on the road than most other riders and when I pulled back into the carpark at the end I expected there to only be a few cars left, but it was still pretty full. Somewhat confused I asked the controller out of interest how many people had done the 200k ride and how many had finished so far (there was also a 150k and 100k ride that started & finished in the same place and shared some of the route), he said I was 12th home out of 34 - so that I was very happy with. I think what it is is whilst I'm a little slower on the road than average I linger a lot less in the rest stops, I typically just fill up my water bottles and set off again, eating energy bars etc whilst I cycle along. Who knows, all a bit confused about that.
Off to Taunton this weekend to to Dustman Daves Demon Hilly, the title says it all...
Sometimes I hate other cyclists, part 1... So there I was, pedaling along, when a German cyclist cruises up to me. His opening comment was "excuse me, may I ask if you are into long distance rides". I thought of retorting with "so what the hell is this 200k ride we are on then, idiot" but felt the humble response would be "no, not really". It turns out he wasn't trying to score points, just get some information and in particular about the guys we were following who had "got the shirt" for having done "The PBP" last year, an amazing 1,200 km (750 miles) ride from Paris to Brest and back to Paris which must be completed within 90 hours. Basically cycle for 22 hours, sleep for 2, cycle for 22 hours, sleep for 2, for 4 days solid. HOW????? I am totally shagged after 10 hours, 125 miles. Very inspiring to talk to the guys who've done the ride though I can never see myself doing it.
http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/EN/index.php
On other HOW???? notes, I just read this book, it's quite an inspiring read. On holiday I read it and thought "sod all this 100 mile bike rides, let's step it up to 200 or 250 miles". Then I did 125 miles on Sunday on the flatlands of east anglia and thought "125 miles is quite enough, thanks". This guy is into running rather than cycling - but check out his bio (about -> bio) - this guy RUNS 350 miles non-stop and has just run 50 marathons in all 50 states in 50 days. Then he ran back home again, another 1,300 miles EH??? Again very inspiring & very humbling.
http://www.ultramarathonman.com/flash/
Sometimes I hate other cyclists, part 2... So I pull into the first checkpoint on the weekend ride and the controller says to me "it's nice to see you taking your time". Felt like saying "piss off you turd, I was going as fast as I could!". It's interesting though how things work out over a number of hours on an endurance ride - I was definitely a little slower on the road than most other riders and when I pulled back into the carpark at the end I expected there to only be a few cars left, but it was still pretty full. Somewhat confused I asked the controller out of interest how many people had done the 200k ride and how many had finished so far (there was also a 150k and 100k ride that started & finished in the same place and shared some of the route), he said I was 12th home out of 34 - so that I was very happy with. I think what it is is whilst I'm a little slower on the road than average I linger a lot less in the rest stops, I typically just fill up my water bottles and set off again, eating energy bars etc whilst I cycle along. Who knows, all a bit confused about that.
Off to Taunton this weekend to to Dustman Daves Demon Hilly, the title says it all...
Thursday, 3 April 2008
Guilty M'Lud
It's been a funny old month, mowing the lawn at the beginning of the month and building snowmen on it at the end of the month. Most of the rest of the month was either wet or cold and didn't tempt me out on my bike too much.
Highlight of my month was seeing my cycling accident from last summer resolved, finally having my day in court. It was quite a surreal and bizarre day, starting off being very stressed waiting around to give evidence and then becoming more relaxed and in due course comical. The car driver, let's refer to him as "Low IQ" turns up (a) in t-shirt and jeans and (b) representing himself, without a lawyer, neither of which is likely to go down terribly well with the magistrate. So myself and the two other witnesses in turn give our evidence and in turn Low IQ then cross examines us, the best question being "So, Dr Kirk, do you agree that it was a main road on which you were cycling". Dr Kirk "yes, it was a road on which we were cycling". Low IQ "thankyou, no further questions". It then comes to Low IQ's turn to give a statement in his defense. Low IQ "I do not wish to make a statement in my defense, I accept everything that the prosecution says. This whole thing has just been such a complete waste of time, really stupid. Just give me my sentence". Magistrate at this time looking somewhat bemused. Low IQ's brother (let's refer to him as Really Low IQ) then stands up at back of court and claps and cheers Low IQ's statement of defiance and is promptly removed from the court by security guards.
Magistrates then give Low IQ 9 points on his license, to which Low IQ goes apoplectic, pleading for mercy as he'll lose his license and no longer be able to afford insurance. Low IQ ushered from court, his parting shot to me being "you, you're just a fucking idiot" before being bundled away by the security guards, which was quite a fitting ending to an amusing morning.
Did the Stevenage Start of Summertime Special ride at the end of the month - the miserable weather we had for the rest of the month finally clearing up to give us a really lovely day - this was a very interesting ride for me particularly from a physical and psychological perspective - the event has three rides available - 50k, 100k and 210k, basically loops of increasing diameter so all the rides generally share the same start and end of the course. I did (tried to do...) the 100k ride several years ago and failed miserably, turning for home after about 80k so it was interesting to see how I would get on with attempting the increased distance, 210k (130 miles) being a lot more than I've ever ridden before (105 miles being my max to date). The first 100k was fine, starting in Stevenage and ending in Lavenham but the return leg was tough, into a headwind all the way. I started to really struggle at 150k up to around 180k, getting both really hungry and really thirsty - also for all of this stretch we were just doing a lazy loop around Bishops Stortford so for at least an hour it was "turn left, 10 miles to my home" or "straight on, 40 miles to the end". Felt better after a food and drink stop outside of Thaxted and then in Manuden where all those years ago I conceded defeat and turned left for home I turned right for Stevenage and with 50k to go started to feel really good, knowing I could make it. Made it back to Stevanage fine, albeit with very tight legs and butt, jumped in a cold bath when I got home, that always does the trick for me.
Total ride: 210k / 130 miles
Cycling time: 8 hrs 45 mins, average speed 14.8mph
Elapsed time: 10 hours
Off on holiday next week and then another 200k ride at the weekend, another flat one, this time from Chelmsford.
Bye for now.
Highlight of my month was seeing my cycling accident from last summer resolved, finally having my day in court. It was quite a surreal and bizarre day, starting off being very stressed waiting around to give evidence and then becoming more relaxed and in due course comical. The car driver, let's refer to him as "Low IQ" turns up (a) in t-shirt and jeans and (b) representing himself, without a lawyer, neither of which is likely to go down terribly well with the magistrate. So myself and the two other witnesses in turn give our evidence and in turn Low IQ then cross examines us, the best question being "So, Dr Kirk, do you agree that it was a main road on which you were cycling". Dr Kirk "yes, it was a road on which we were cycling". Low IQ "thankyou, no further questions". It then comes to Low IQ's turn to give a statement in his defense. Low IQ "I do not wish to make a statement in my defense, I accept everything that the prosecution says. This whole thing has just been such a complete waste of time, really stupid. Just give me my sentence". Magistrate at this time looking somewhat bemused. Low IQ's brother (let's refer to him as Really Low IQ) then stands up at back of court and claps and cheers Low IQ's statement of defiance and is promptly removed from the court by security guards.
Magistrates then give Low IQ 9 points on his license, to which Low IQ goes apoplectic, pleading for mercy as he'll lose his license and no longer be able to afford insurance. Low IQ ushered from court, his parting shot to me being "you, you're just a fucking idiot" before being bundled away by the security guards, which was quite a fitting ending to an amusing morning.
Did the Stevenage Start of Summertime Special ride at the end of the month - the miserable weather we had for the rest of the month finally clearing up to give us a really lovely day - this was a very interesting ride for me particularly from a physical and psychological perspective - the event has three rides available - 50k, 100k and 210k, basically loops of increasing diameter so all the rides generally share the same start and end of the course. I did (tried to do...) the 100k ride several years ago and failed miserably, turning for home after about 80k so it was interesting to see how I would get on with attempting the increased distance, 210k (130 miles) being a lot more than I've ever ridden before (105 miles being my max to date). The first 100k was fine, starting in Stevenage and ending in Lavenham but the return leg was tough, into a headwind all the way. I started to really struggle at 150k up to around 180k, getting both really hungry and really thirsty - also for all of this stretch we were just doing a lazy loop around Bishops Stortford so for at least an hour it was "turn left, 10 miles to my home" or "straight on, 40 miles to the end". Felt better after a food and drink stop outside of Thaxted and then in Manuden where all those years ago I conceded defeat and turned left for home I turned right for Stevenage and with 50k to go started to feel really good, knowing I could make it. Made it back to Stevanage fine, albeit with very tight legs and butt, jumped in a cold bath when I got home, that always does the trick for me.
Total ride: 210k / 130 miles
Cycling time: 8 hrs 45 mins, average speed 14.8mph
Elapsed time: 10 hours
Off on holiday next week and then another 200k ride at the weekend, another flat one, this time from Chelmsford.
Bye for now.
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Things to do when you are jet-lagged.
1) Go on the razz all night long until you are too tired to care
2) Get all sulky in investor meetings because it's 3pm and you've been awake 13 hours already
3) Lie on your comfy hotel bed at 8pm and write your blog.
4) Turn on the TV and remember just how shite American TV is.
Being the eternal (?) party animal I'll admit to 2) and 3) but alas not 1), not this time around anyway. 4) I did, but only for 3 minutes.
Came over to NY on Silverjet, cracking airline and I'd recommend them to anyone - they take a normal plane, rip out all the economy seats, fill it with business class seats and charge £500 a ticket - not much more than you pay normal economy, half the price (and three times as good) as BA premium economy and about 20% of the price of BA / Virgin business class. OK, it's definitely business class on the cheap, sort of Essex chav business class, and flying out of Luton doesn't help this image. You know you are in chavvy company when there's people sitting in business class seats wearing England football shirts and shorts and other people taking photo's of their business class experience. My dear, it's just not the done thing... The cabin crew are all very chatty and polite but definitely in the honeymoon period where they enjoy coming to NY every week and aren't yet really fed up with being continually in either a small metal tube in the air or a cruddy hotel room waiting for the return leg. The girl that was serving me had been working in a shoe shop until 4 weeks ago...The airline is losing bucketfuls of money, will certainly be bust within a year but if you are going to NY or Dubai in the near future I'd recommend you give them a go.
Been very tired over the last few weeks, probably as a result of slight overtraining, not having enough recovery between sessions / rides so I made the decision not to bring my gym kit with me to NY and have the week off doing any serious exercise. I think it's about 18 months since I did no exercise for a week, so it will be interesting to see the effect, usually I start to get huge amounts of pent up energy and frustration after a few days.
4 months to go to the Etape. Need to start getting some long rides in which will become easier as the evenings get lighter. Signed up for a few more audax rides in the weeks ahead. Alas with being here in NY I'm going to miss my next Audax which is on Saturday, just as I'm flying home. Oh well.
Reading Ranulph Fiennes Mad Bad and Dangerous to know at the moment. Just startling. "So there we were, trekking across 300 miles of the Antarctic that had never been crossed or charted before, we were about 120 miles from the nearest help and my colleague was 1 mile behind me when I fell through the ice. I tried to clamber out but the ice kept breaking, all the time my body was shutting down in the frigid water. I'd been in the water about 40 seconds and probably had another 10 seconds to live before my bodily functions collapsed when I managed to clamber out, but then the minus 120 degree air froze me instantly to the ice pack and I had to stay there unable to move or speak for 10 minutes until my colleague stumbled across me. And then after a cup of tea and a cucumber sandwich we set off and did the remaining 160 miles arriving in camp before nightfall..." And that's just an average day. Makes my "cycle ride from hell up Mt Ventoux, the hardest thing I've done in my life" look a bit shabby to be honest.
The no drinking campaign came to an end early this month, but only drinking weekends now generally, and still trying not to eat top much crap. Even resisted the La Caprice prepared bakewell tart and cream that they brought round on the plane.
Stats for month:
Mileage: 250 miles
Spin sessions in gym 10
Pump sessions in gym 4
Weight pretty static through the month, down a couple of pounds to 11st 11ish.
Wow, 20 past 8 now, been awake a mere 18 hours. Feel rather crappy.... Caffeine intake today more than I usually have in a week - bottle of coke before breakfast, two coffees over breakfast, can of red bull in the afternoon. Red bull may give you wings but it has such a kick inside me that it gives me palpitations. Maybe that's not such a good line for the advert.
TTFN.
2) Get all sulky in investor meetings because it's 3pm and you've been awake 13 hours already
3) Lie on your comfy hotel bed at 8pm and write your blog.
4) Turn on the TV and remember just how shite American TV is.
Being the eternal (?) party animal I'll admit to 2) and 3) but alas not 1), not this time around anyway. 4) I did, but only for 3 minutes.
Came over to NY on Silverjet, cracking airline and I'd recommend them to anyone - they take a normal plane, rip out all the economy seats, fill it with business class seats and charge £500 a ticket - not much more than you pay normal economy, half the price (and three times as good) as BA premium economy and about 20% of the price of BA / Virgin business class. OK, it's definitely business class on the cheap, sort of Essex chav business class, and flying out of Luton doesn't help this image. You know you are in chavvy company when there's people sitting in business class seats wearing England football shirts and shorts and other people taking photo's of their business class experience. My dear, it's just not the done thing... The cabin crew are all very chatty and polite but definitely in the honeymoon period where they enjoy coming to NY every week and aren't yet really fed up with being continually in either a small metal tube in the air or a cruddy hotel room waiting for the return leg. The girl that was serving me had been working in a shoe shop until 4 weeks ago...The airline is losing bucketfuls of money, will certainly be bust within a year but if you are going to NY or Dubai in the near future I'd recommend you give them a go.
Been very tired over the last few weeks, probably as a result of slight overtraining, not having enough recovery between sessions / rides so I made the decision not to bring my gym kit with me to NY and have the week off doing any serious exercise. I think it's about 18 months since I did no exercise for a week, so it will be interesting to see the effect, usually I start to get huge amounts of pent up energy and frustration after a few days.
4 months to go to the Etape. Need to start getting some long rides in which will become easier as the evenings get lighter. Signed up for a few more audax rides in the weeks ahead. Alas with being here in NY I'm going to miss my next Audax which is on Saturday, just as I'm flying home. Oh well.
Reading Ranulph Fiennes Mad Bad and Dangerous to know at the moment. Just startling. "So there we were, trekking across 300 miles of the Antarctic that had never been crossed or charted before, we were about 120 miles from the nearest help and my colleague was 1 mile behind me when I fell through the ice. I tried to clamber out but the ice kept breaking, all the time my body was shutting down in the frigid water. I'd been in the water about 40 seconds and probably had another 10 seconds to live before my bodily functions collapsed when I managed to clamber out, but then the minus 120 degree air froze me instantly to the ice pack and I had to stay there unable to move or speak for 10 minutes until my colleague stumbled across me. And then after a cup of tea and a cucumber sandwich we set off and did the remaining 160 miles arriving in camp before nightfall..." And that's just an average day. Makes my "cycle ride from hell up Mt Ventoux, the hardest thing I've done in my life" look a bit shabby to be honest.
The no drinking campaign came to an end early this month, but only drinking weekends now generally, and still trying not to eat top much crap. Even resisted the La Caprice prepared bakewell tart and cream that they brought round on the plane.
Stats for month:
Mileage: 250 miles
Spin sessions in gym 10
Pump sessions in gym 4
Weight pretty static through the month, down a couple of pounds to 11st 11ish.
Wow, 20 past 8 now, been awake a mere 18 hours. Feel rather crappy.... Caffeine intake today more than I usually have in a week - bottle of coke before breakfast, two coffees over breakfast, can of red bull in the afternoon. Red bull may give you wings but it has such a kick inside me that it gives me palpitations. Maybe that's not such a good line for the advert.
TTFN.
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
The Cotswold Corker
Minus 2 degrees, that's what the temperature was when we set off at 9am
33 percent, that's the gradient of the hill we tried to climb (notice the word tried...)
2, that's the number of times I seriously rued my decision to do this ride.
I'd been looking forward to this ride for a few weeks since booking it, and I was interested to see how Audax rides were organised as this was the first one I'd done - basically a bunch of around 150 guys (and 2 girls, as far as I could see) turn up in a car-park, are given a routesheet and off they go in batches of roughly 25. I could sense that there was somewhat of a competitive spirit in some of the riders when they started jockeying for position to ensure they would be in the first batch of 25...
In hindsight the ride seemed to comprise of around 30 or 40 pretty serious club riders, people who do this type of ride every weekend come rain, sleet or snow and around 100 less serious riders. The club riders just quickly vanished into the distance, the last time I saw them all day was as they left the car park at the start.
So after a 6am start from home I arrived just outside Cheltenham at 8.30, set the bike up and off we go, freezing cold with 4 layers on top (cycling shirt, t-shirt, thermal jumper and cycling jacket), along with thermal hat, gloves and overshoes (they fit over the shoes to protect against cold and wet). I've never cycled in sub zero temperatures before, it was a real struggle - every hill you climb quickly has you baking hot, but then as you go over the crest and speed up down the other side you quickly get very cold. I struggled with this continual hot / cold / hot / cold all day long, found it very energy sapping.
One of the reasons I did this ride was to get back into the practice of climbing hills and OH MY GOD were there some hills. Up and down, up and down all day long. I can't remember more than about 10 miles out of the 70 mile ride that wasn't hilly. The biggest, nastiest hill of them all was just 3 miles into the ride, a one mile long 25% rising to 33% shocker.
I'd like to say that it was because I wasn't warmed up yet (I usually take around 45 minutes or so to properly warm up, this hill was only 5 minutes into the ride).
I'd like to say that it was because it was so cold and the roads were very icy.
I'd like to say that it was because I wasn't really feeling 100%, fighting off a bit of a cold.
All the above are definitely true. But what's also true is that I just wasn't man enough. The hill beat me fair and square. I got half way up but knew I had issues when I found myself cycling slower than the people who had already dismounted and were pushing their bikes up the hills. For the first time in my life I had to get off and walk. It would have been nice to think I got somewhere near the top of the hill before being beat but alas it was half way, max. Mind you, I didn't see a single other person cycle up it, everyone was walking, although I suspect some of the club riders ahead of us made it.
The rest of the ride was scattered with a selection of nasty hills in the region of 15% to 20% and I found just how out of practice I was - I cycled for mile upon mile on gradual inclines, slowly reeling in people ahead of me only to be faced with another steep hill where they left me for dead. I didn't walk up any of the others but came close.
Something else I wanted to do for the first time as well was to see how well I coped with keeping breaks to a minimum i.e. just dashing in to a drink stop, filling up water bottles and then setting off again - previously on my Lands End to John O'Groats trip and my week in the Alps we all had very leisurely breaks both for elevenses and lunch but alas on the Etape that's not possible with the sweeper van chasing you down all the time. I was mainly interested to see whether I would manage to be able to eat and drink enough on the move to keep the body properly fueled and watered and I think I did OK. This was a ride not a race but that aside I think I finished around 30 to 40th out of 150ish, behind all of the club riders but ahead of most of the less serious riders. I finished about 30 minutes behind the club riders I think which isn't too bad over 70 miles, that's just 30 seconds per mile.
So, overall the ride was 68 miles with a cycling time of 5 hrs 25 minutes and a total time (i.e. including breaks) of 6 hours. So an average speed of 12.5 mph, or 11mph factoring in breaks. Looking back at last years E'tape the course was 122 miles with a sweeper van time of 12 hours, so 10 mph. I suspect this years van will be a little faster (as the course is a little shorter) but at least based upon how I did on this ride I feel it will be fine - this ride was also my first decent ride since the Alps last September, it will take a while to build the miles up in my legs again.
The next ride I'm doing is local, so no hills, but longer, 100 miles, that will be an interesting test, I usually only do a 100 mile ride once or twice a year, and towards the end of the year, end even then it's a struggle, so we will see...
33 percent, that's the gradient of the hill we tried to climb (notice the word tried...)
2, that's the number of times I seriously rued my decision to do this ride.
I'd been looking forward to this ride for a few weeks since booking it, and I was interested to see how Audax rides were organised as this was the first one I'd done - basically a bunch of around 150 guys (and 2 girls, as far as I could see) turn up in a car-park, are given a routesheet and off they go in batches of roughly 25. I could sense that there was somewhat of a competitive spirit in some of the riders when they started jockeying for position to ensure they would be in the first batch of 25...
In hindsight the ride seemed to comprise of around 30 or 40 pretty serious club riders, people who do this type of ride every weekend come rain, sleet or snow and around 100 less serious riders. The club riders just quickly vanished into the distance, the last time I saw them all day was as they left the car park at the start.
So after a 6am start from home I arrived just outside Cheltenham at 8.30, set the bike up and off we go, freezing cold with 4 layers on top (cycling shirt, t-shirt, thermal jumper and cycling jacket), along with thermal hat, gloves and overshoes (they fit over the shoes to protect against cold and wet). I've never cycled in sub zero temperatures before, it was a real struggle - every hill you climb quickly has you baking hot, but then as you go over the crest and speed up down the other side you quickly get very cold. I struggled with this continual hot / cold / hot / cold all day long, found it very energy sapping.
One of the reasons I did this ride was to get back into the practice of climbing hills and OH MY GOD were there some hills. Up and down, up and down all day long. I can't remember more than about 10 miles out of the 70 mile ride that wasn't hilly. The biggest, nastiest hill of them all was just 3 miles into the ride, a one mile long 25% rising to 33% shocker.
I'd like to say that it was because I wasn't warmed up yet (I usually take around 45 minutes or so to properly warm up, this hill was only 5 minutes into the ride).
I'd like to say that it was because it was so cold and the roads were very icy.
I'd like to say that it was because I wasn't really feeling 100%, fighting off a bit of a cold.
All the above are definitely true. But what's also true is that I just wasn't man enough. The hill beat me fair and square. I got half way up but knew I had issues when I found myself cycling slower than the people who had already dismounted and were pushing their bikes up the hills. For the first time in my life I had to get off and walk. It would have been nice to think I got somewhere near the top of the hill before being beat but alas it was half way, max. Mind you, I didn't see a single other person cycle up it, everyone was walking, although I suspect some of the club riders ahead of us made it.
The rest of the ride was scattered with a selection of nasty hills in the region of 15% to 20% and I found just how out of practice I was - I cycled for mile upon mile on gradual inclines, slowly reeling in people ahead of me only to be faced with another steep hill where they left me for dead. I didn't walk up any of the others but came close.
Something else I wanted to do for the first time as well was to see how well I coped with keeping breaks to a minimum i.e. just dashing in to a drink stop, filling up water bottles and then setting off again - previously on my Lands End to John O'Groats trip and my week in the Alps we all had very leisurely breaks both for elevenses and lunch but alas on the Etape that's not possible with the sweeper van chasing you down all the time. I was mainly interested to see whether I would manage to be able to eat and drink enough on the move to keep the body properly fueled and watered and I think I did OK. This was a ride not a race but that aside I think I finished around 30 to 40th out of 150ish, behind all of the club riders but ahead of most of the less serious riders. I finished about 30 minutes behind the club riders I think which isn't too bad over 70 miles, that's just 30 seconds per mile.
So, overall the ride was 68 miles with a cycling time of 5 hrs 25 minutes and a total time (i.e. including breaks) of 6 hours. So an average speed of 12.5 mph, or 11mph factoring in breaks. Looking back at last years E'tape the course was 122 miles with a sweeper van time of 12 hours, so 10 mph. I suspect this years van will be a little faster (as the course is a little shorter) but at least based upon how I did on this ride I feel it will be fine - this ride was also my first decent ride since the Alps last September, it will take a while to build the miles up in my legs again.
The next ride I'm doing is local, so no hills, but longer, 100 miles, that will be an interesting test, I usually only do a 100 mile ride once or twice a year, and towards the end of the year, end even then it's a struggle, so we will see...
Thursday, 31 January 2008
5 months to go
Thought it may be vaguely interesting to keep a training diary leading up to the ride, just to chart in outline the training I've put in.
January 2008...
For the first time (and probably last time) in my life I made a new years resolution, it was made just as the room was beginning to spin round in circles at about 1.30am on new years day, my resolution was to stop drinking for a month and cut down on the amount of trash food I eat. Somehow when I woke up a few hours later I still remembered making the resolution and decided I would stick with it. The results so far have been pretty interesting - I certainly feel significantly less toxic and I've also lost a few pounds as well - my weight for most of the last 15 years or so has been 12 stone 3lb ish and it has now dropped to just under 12 stone. They reckon that ever Kg of weight (including body weight) adds 3 seconds per mile to a ride time, so over a 100 mile ride losing 2 Kg will save 10 minutes, which can only help in the bid to stay in front of the eliminatory "sweeper van".
I've also been looking at doing some proper (organised) training rides in advance of the event - some rides with proper hills. I came across AUDAX UK (www.aukweb.net) which are basically local rides organised by the local cycling clubs all over the country, you pay a few quid entry fee, turn up at some car-park, are given a route-map and off you go.
The first one I'm doing (and the only one I plan on doing in February) is the "Cotswold Corker", a 65 mile trip around the Cotswold's which starts off with a one in four 1km long climb right out of the starting blocks, which with cold legs will be really tough - I have a suspicion that not even my granny gear will get me up that one. Nice write-up of it here: http://www.cambridge-cycling-club.org.uk/pdfs/corker2000.pdf. I have three rides planned for March (albeit two of them are local, so no hills) and will hopefully do a couple in each of April and May. As a final preparatory ride have signed up to a 200k tough ride around the Hampshire downs in early June which gives 3000m of climbing overall - so whilst the profile of the course will be very differant to the Pyrenees (i.e. Hampshire will be lots of shorter, sharper climbs versus the Pyrenees which are less steep but much much longer) it is over a similar distance and climbs a similar amount of metres overall so will be a good "sanity check" if nothing else http://www.cyclegb.co.uk/index.php?main=sportives.
Whilst looking for rides I came across this guys write up of a 600km Audax ride he did. That's 600km non-stop - get up in the morning, get on the bike, ride 30 to 35 hours non stop, apart from a cat-nap by a stone wall... Heather often calls me mad but no, this guy is truly mad: http://www.audax.demon.co.uk/tall/brimstone99.html.
So what have I done this month. Well, no rides of any significance but I have hopefully done enough to carry my fitness through the winter and hit the ground running in Spring. I've been out on my new bike several times for shorter rides, it's really really lovely to ride. I've also been going to loads of Spin classes and also started body pump classes - basically circuits with weights - this will hopefully build up some muscle strength, except so far all I have achieved doing each of the three times I've been is to find *lots* of new muscles which then ache like hell for two days afterwards. After the first session I spent the next day in *lots* of pain and barely able to walk - not amused.
Spin is still proving really enjoyable, to the extent that I got withdrawal symptoms over Christmas, I really missed the classes. Ben (the main instructor) is excellent as ever. As testiment to his popularity he runs one class on Wednedays at 7am - 7am not being a terribly popular time for people to be killing themselves in the gym - his classes are invariably full and usually there are more people in his class then there are in the remainder of the whole gym.
So in summary:
Weight at beginning of month: 12st 3
Weight at end of month 11st 13
Longest ride in month - 30 miles
Total mileage in month - 150 miles on road bike plus another 25 or so miles cross country on my mountain bike
Spin classes attended: 13
Body Pump classes attended: 3
Times that body pump class has caused pain: 3
Alcohol consumed: Nil
January 2008...
For the first time (and probably last time) in my life I made a new years resolution, it was made just as the room was beginning to spin round in circles at about 1.30am on new years day, my resolution was to stop drinking for a month and cut down on the amount of trash food I eat. Somehow when I woke up a few hours later I still remembered making the resolution and decided I would stick with it. The results so far have been pretty interesting - I certainly feel significantly less toxic and I've also lost a few pounds as well - my weight for most of the last 15 years or so has been 12 stone 3lb ish and it has now dropped to just under 12 stone. They reckon that ever Kg of weight (including body weight) adds 3 seconds per mile to a ride time, so over a 100 mile ride losing 2 Kg will save 10 minutes, which can only help in the bid to stay in front of the eliminatory "sweeper van".
I've also been looking at doing some proper (organised) training rides in advance of the event - some rides with proper hills. I came across AUDAX UK (www.aukweb.net) which are basically local rides organised by the local cycling clubs all over the country, you pay a few quid entry fee, turn up at some car-park, are given a route-map and off you go.
The first one I'm doing (and the only one I plan on doing in February) is the "Cotswold Corker", a 65 mile trip around the Cotswold's which starts off with a one in four 1km long climb right out of the starting blocks, which with cold legs will be really tough - I have a suspicion that not even my granny gear will get me up that one. Nice write-up of it here: http://www.cambridge-cycling-club.org.uk/pdfs/corker2000.pdf. I have three rides planned for March (albeit two of them are local, so no hills) and will hopefully do a couple in each of April and May. As a final preparatory ride have signed up to a 200k tough ride around the Hampshire downs in early June which gives 3000m of climbing overall - so whilst the profile of the course will be very differant to the Pyrenees (i.e. Hampshire will be lots of shorter, sharper climbs versus the Pyrenees which are less steep but much much longer) it is over a similar distance and climbs a similar amount of metres overall so will be a good "sanity check" if nothing else http://www.cyclegb.co.uk/index.php?main=sportives.
Whilst looking for rides I came across this guys write up of a 600km Audax ride he did. That's 600km non-stop - get up in the morning, get on the bike, ride 30 to 35 hours non stop, apart from a cat-nap by a stone wall... Heather often calls me mad but no, this guy is truly mad: http://www.audax.demon.co.uk/tall/brimstone99.html.
So what have I done this month. Well, no rides of any significance but I have hopefully done enough to carry my fitness through the winter and hit the ground running in Spring. I've been out on my new bike several times for shorter rides, it's really really lovely to ride. I've also been going to loads of Spin classes and also started body pump classes - basically circuits with weights - this will hopefully build up some muscle strength, except so far all I have achieved doing each of the three times I've been is to find *lots* of new muscles which then ache like hell for two days afterwards. After the first session I spent the next day in *lots* of pain and barely able to walk - not amused.
Spin is still proving really enjoyable, to the extent that I got withdrawal symptoms over Christmas, I really missed the classes. Ben (the main instructor) is excellent as ever. As testiment to his popularity he runs one class on Wednedays at 7am - 7am not being a terribly popular time for people to be killing themselves in the gym - his classes are invariably full and usually there are more people in his class then there are in the remainder of the whole gym.
So in summary:
Weight at beginning of month: 12st 3
Weight at end of month 11st 13
Longest ride in month - 30 miles
Total mileage in month - 150 miles on road bike plus another 25 or so miles cross country on my mountain bike
Spin classes attended: 13
Body Pump classes attended: 3
Times that body pump class has caused pain: 3
Alcohol consumed: Nil
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)