Ribble Valley 10K Road Race (Sunday 28th)

I entered this race to make me do something over the festive period, I tend to give in to eating and drinking (and this year playing Mario Kart on the Wii for hours) around Christmas and New Year.

I didn't have any hopes of a time for it as I had done nothing since the 23rd run wise and I also figured it would be a much more undulating course than Wesham as it was in Clitheroe.

I got there in plenty of time, picked up number and was determined to warm up properly so once I was finished all the admin faff I set off to run the last mile of the course (reverse direction) then run back again. This went well, a little sluggish at first but I felt better on the run back. It also gave me knowledge of the last mile of the race, which had a nice amount of downhill but a very cheeky hill right in the finishing straight.

There were some public toilets near where I was parked so I made a pitstop in them on the way back to my car rather than queue at the race HQ. I think it was still around 10:45 am when I was doing the final faff at the car thinking I had loads of time still to get to the start.

I thought the race started where it finished, err no! I heard someone say that they needed to get a move on because the start was a fair way away. So I set off running to the start, and kept running and running.....3/4 of a mile later I arrive at the start where just about everyone else is already lined up. What an eejit!

I get a minute or two to compose myself then it was pretty much straight off. I wondered how I was going to cope having done the best part of 3 miles as a warmup, my legs felt like jelly for the first mile.

It was a closed road course which was good, it also had a field of about 1000 runners which is probably the biggest field I have raced it. It meant there was always someone to pace off all the way round, I never bothered with my Ipod.

I took it easy for the first 5k then speeded up a bit as I felt good and thought I was probably taking it a little too easy. I only checked my pace a few times and never paid attention to the time until I saw it as I climbed that bloody hill into the finishing straight.

I got round in 52:21 so not too bad, I enjoyed the run which is the main thing and a three mile warmup may not be such a bad thing in future! I forgot to change the Garmin to km so my splits are in miles but it was (can see what effect that last hill had):

00:08:34 6.99mph 8.70mph 169bpm 180bpm
00:08:40 6.92mph 8.13mph 176bpm 181bpm
00:08:34 6.99mph 8.50mph 176bpm 179bpm
00:08:15 7.27mph 8.25mph 179bpm 182bpm
00:08:00 7.50mph 8.45mph 179bpm 181bpm
00:08:03 7.45mph 8.95mph 180bpm 184bpm
00:02:11 7.13mph 8.56mph 184bpm 186bpm

Daylight!

As I was allowed to finish work at 1:45 pm today I got to cycle home in the daylight. What a difference it makes, it helps it was a nice afternoon too. There were lot of people out and about in the park I cycle through (probably trying to knacker their kids out for this evening).

It makes such a change from the night commute. I have started my usual obsessive checking of the sunrise/sunset calendars again to see how much daylight we get back over the next couple of months (it'll be light after work in March, it when it always happens!).

Came home to wrap the last pressie of Jez's that I had completely forgotten about and opened some chocolates.

Christmas Eve Commute

I had been kind of planning to cycle to work on Christmas Eve all month. If the weather had been minging I might have passed on it but it is perfect this morning and it frees me from having to deal with any potential traffic problems on the M55/M6 today. Obviously as I've cycled in the motorways will be absolutely clear.

It was a pretty mild morning and lots of mist about on the fields as I climbed the short hill out of Preston. There was a lovely sunrise happening behind me and I almost crashed into a lamppost trying to look at it, then wobbled into the main carriageway of the Marsh Road at one point too. As the Marsh Road is a dual carriageway with cars hooning down it at 70mph minimum it wasn't an intelligent thing to be doing, traffic was at least very light being Christmas Eve. It really was lovely, gorgeous colours all diffused in the mist.

It is a major drawback of cycling west in the morning and east in the evening, I miss all the sunrise/sunset action. I hadn't brought my camera with me this morning anyway which is just typical when there is actually something to look at.

The new tyres seem fairly quick rolling even though they are a little wider at 1.5, I think they should help the handling when the panniers are fully loaded. I actually averaged 16mph today which is the fastest for quite while, even carrying the laptop as well as my usual clothes etc. Legs will probably fall off on the way home now!

Muddy Run

I found some mud to run through in St Annes yesterday, made a nice change from tarmac or sand. I took my kit to work to do a bit of a lunchtime run and thought about having an explore of some of the tracks/bridleways south of Queensway. I had a look on the satellite image of the area on Fetch and could see I could make a loop out of them from work.

I did wobble for a while when I thought I couldn't be bothered but our office seemed to be stiflingly hot so if nothing else I wanted to get out into some fresh air for a while. The tracks were flat as a pancake not surprisingly but it was nice to be running alongside fields, very quiet. The tracks were generally muddy and grassy bridleway, some really soft sections were really entertaining in road shoes.

I think there are plans in the pipeline to put a big housing development in this area which is a shame. The ground seems to be a complete swamp though so they are going to have to spend an absolute fortune sorting the drainage out, do not buy a house here!

I eventually picked up the track through the little woodland and popped out by the crematorium onto millionaires row and back to work. It was four miles at about 9mm pace, definitely a good decision to get out there. I can do a little bit more exploring but I should be able to get some nice loops out this way.

Night Ride

We had a bit of a festive night ride around Gisburn forest last night followed by pub meal in Slaidburn. It feels like ages since I have ridden offroad (because it is ages since I have!), the mountain bike always feel really slow and heavy after lots of tarmac riding. It was really a social paced ride rather than the blast such a short non-technical ride would normally be so good to take it easy.

There were 7 of us in total for the ride (with a few more joining us for the meal), including Stu and Deb on their tandem (I have come to really dislike being stuck on the back of ours so it languishes in the garage). It was quite a mild night but there was a lot of moisture in the air as we were in the cloud for part of it, though visibility with the powerful lights wasn't too bad considering.

Some section of the trails have become quite eroded since I last rode round the forest, not just by bikes but some sections have had a lot of water run down them, lots of quite loose stuff and ruts on parts of it which added to the entertainment value.

Its only 10 miles or so round which was just perfect for a group ride, I was ready for my food afterwards.