The Jodrell Bank Sportive...almost

Had signed up for the 80 mile route on this sportive (actually 78 according to the route map), I wasn't sure the promised very flat Cheshire roads would be my thing as I am crap on the flat but the last third or so had a few lumps in it and I wanted to get some miles in.

The start was at 8am in Poynton which meant getting up at 5:45 am to make sure I got there before registration closed. In the end it was a clear drive, though I was feeling far too sleepy to contemplate riding which was worrying me, particularly as I had just come off a pretty easy week, I expected to be raring to go even given the early start.

Picked up number by about 7:20 then had a bit of a wait til the start. I didn't see the point of getting Bianco ready much before 8 so sat in the car with my coffee to try to wake up and watched the usual shenanigans that always seem to go on around these events (see last post).

Managed to skip most of the queue to start without realising (oops) and set off on the first few miles quite fast (for me) to warm up my fingers a bit and just to get away from the potential carnage at the start. I also got a bit carried away by being on Bianco again I think, its the first proper ride on it this year. As usual on these things I caught up with some big groups of riders doing silly things which I tried to pass as soon as possible, thankfully being so early traffic was non-existent.

There was very little wind which I was pleased about as to me big flats mean headwinds. I decided early on I was going to ride on my own, I like the confidence of knowing I can do long rides off my own effort, seems like cheating to sit on a wheel (wrong attitude on the road I know, Jez is forever giving me grief about it). I was also not feeling particularly sociable or indeed "on it" to be riding with others. Once the route split I realised that it may be a very lonely ride at times as not all the field would be doing the 80 miler so latched onto three guys who came past.

I sucked wheels for ages but did a few turns on the front, mainly when they seemed to be going too slow and allowing gaps to form (ooh get me!).

To be honest most of the ride is a bit of a blur, we rode around the telescope which was nice...which is about as interesting as it got actually. I could tell my head really wasn't in it as I was actually a little bored. I arrived at the feed station having averaged 18mph, which bothered me for some reason as it is quite a bit faster than I had been riding lately, even though it was clear from the average HR that I wasn't thrashing myself. After the feed station (before or after the telescope I can't remember but about 35 miles) my legs really seemed to wake up.

So I did some more catching and passing but no more wheel sucking, then it started to get a bit more lumpy and interesting and actually enjoyable as I passed even more people on the climbs. Bianco was great up the hills, who'd have guessed a bike without guards, rack or pannier would be easier to get up a hill.

I often find I pass a lot of people on climbs on events like this, particularly if there has been a lot of flat, its not because I am a great climber, more that I use my gears appropriately or don't get carried away pushing some gear I can't handle. Though it is satisfying to pass some strong looking bloke, who's probably just battered past me on the flat, me spinning away in a girly gear whilst he tries to grovel up in some monster flat riding ratio.

The big climb of the day was Pott Shrigley (I think, I called it Wiggly, Jiggly, Shoogly and all sorts in my head on the way round) there was a cut off just before it if you were late getting there - no danger of that for me. I could see the hill was getting close, straight into Bollington (I think) on a fast descent, follow the signs....and all of a sudden I missed the hill????

I basically ended up on the 50 mile route, by the time I got my bearings I was only 2 miles from Poynton and CBA going back, which isn't like me but there it is. I missed the route split sign somewhere, somehow. I had the route in my Garmin but all ride it kept blanking then redrawing the map a few minutes later and it decided to do it just around the route split. Signage had been great til then so I just followed the first sign I found. D'oh. I had a page map but it wasn't detailed enough for me to get back on track.

So back to the car, 61.5 miles on the Garmin instead of 78, 3:30 ish on the time and an overall average of 17 mph which means I didn't lose that much on my own or on the climbs. I think I would have got round the full 78 in under 5 hours which was my "good day" target.

So, lessons learned: I'm lazy, I can ride harder than I think and keep it going. Need some better map back up! Flat rides are not my thing when training for a hilly event but I think doing this course with a well matched group would see a fast time and probably be really enjoyable (the hard bit is getting a few more matched riders). Flat roads make eating easy, my nutrition was actually pretty good for a change. Cheshire has some very good traffic free lanes, just a little flat.

I appear to be fighting a bit of a cold at the moment so that probably explains the meh attitude on Sunday.

Stupid Knee...

Been hiding a bit as feeling sorry for myself the last few weeks, due to ending up on the injury bench. My left knee has been causing problems, I spent almost a whole week where I could neither fully bend or straighten my left leg and back of the knee was swollen...the cause of this injury...sitting at my desk!

Ok, it was after a busy and very, very long day (0900 - 2350) in which I barely moved from my desk (very unusual for me) and I could barely walk to my car afterwards. As I'm quite paranoid about knees I rested for a week which helped a little but tried a two mile run and it all swelled up again so sorted out some physio. Cycling was a bit painful, as was swimming too - which seriously peed me off! Possibly the most annoying thing was I fancy having a go at another half marathon early next year to motivate me over winter, had drawn up a rough plan and didn't even get to do the first run.

Its likely its really just some inflammation around the knee, not helped by tight calves (stretching) and possibly tight hamstrings, though at the same time I have pretty good range of motion in them? No ligament damage or anything and am slowly building things back in, single leg squats are my future.

Have now managed up to four pain free during and after running miles. Commuting is fine as its flat though at first had to drop quite a few gears for pulling away with the panniers. Swimming is ok now too (pushing off the wall hurt) and I've done a couple of MTB rides. Riding the On One was still giving me a few problems, I ended up sitting right on the nose of the saddle (not particularly comfy).

I have moved it forward quite a bit now and the back of my knee no longer hurts. This is slightly "amusing" as I had a problem with the VMO muscle on my left knee a few years ago that resulted in me moving all my saddles back and buying layback posts for the MTB, ho hum.

This has resulted in geometry and layback comparisons on all my bikes. Most of my bikes are around 74 degree seat angle apart from the On One with is a super slack 71 and the Kinesis which is 73. I also wasn't aware that seatposts can have different laybacks, up to a whopping 25mm on my Bianco (which compares to 10mm on the commuter). No wonder I had problems when I tried to set the saddles into same position on the rails!

Next thing to try is some road hills, hopefully this weekend, if the annoying cold I now appear to be nursing disappears.

On a cheerier note, my new commuter is built (Jez did end up doing it but I stripped and cleaned the Ribble components, which took ages). I love riding it, love commuting with the panniers, it just feels so much more relaxing not having the weight on my back, it changes the whole feel of my commute. I love the mudguards and it seems more comfy on the rough roads than the Ribble it replaced. Not sure whether that is the frame or the 25mm tyres (find it hard to believe its the tyres).

Speed wise I think its about 1mph slower overall than the riding the Ribble with a rucksack, but I am slower at this time of year anyway. More importantly it is probably about 2mph faster than the Spesh...probably triple that in a serious headwind as I can get down on the drops. Stealth black to a bit of more visible colour (my Garmin now matches):





Physio tonight, hopefully will be more in the land of the active now!

August - meh

Not had the best August I have to say, I think its been the lowest activity month this year with a measly 158 miles ridden and one solitary, very short swim. I did somehow manage to run 40 miles which is the most in a month this year. Currently feeling a bit unfit and out of sorts.

The reason is a combination of things all ganging up on me at once. Niggly injuries, a bout of sinusitis which caused a headache so bad I was sofa bound for two days and wasn't fit to drive as my balance was shot to pieces.

This was closely followed by a parental visit, which to be fair did allow me to recover nicely but then I was straight into the first period of on call I've done in a very long time. This was over the bank holiday weekend which meant I couldn't stray too far out into the wilds. Though the weather wasn't that great anyway.

Jez and I did squeeze in a quick blast on the mountain bikes on the Sunday where I tried my hardest to stay right on his wheel. Pretty much managed it too particularly uphill, though on some of the fast open downhills he gapped me a bit even though I was pedalling hard but that's momentum for you.

I indulged in a bit of retail therapy to cheer myself up and the extra money from the on call means I could finally start building the commuter/winter road bike with full guards and a rack I meant to build at the beginning of the year (spent the money on Bianco then instead).

The plan is to move the bits from my old Ribble frame to this new Kinesis frame. I foolishly said I would build it...that may or may not go well. It will certainly take me a lot longer than Jez would. I think he had Bianco built in about an hour, including the gears and fork steerer sorted. Somehow think its going to take me a lot longer....if I don't get banned from it due to lack of mechanical sympathy.




September has at least got off to an ok start with a swim (which went better than it had any right to), a run and I managed to squeeze in a bit of an MTB blast on Friday morning before heading north for a weekend in Edinburgh with friends. Its good fun being a tourist in your "home" city, saw stuff I've been meaning to for years.

Got another steady run in today up around Darwen Tower with one temporary misplacement incident in Tockholes woods which was hilarious. Somehow I managed to dodge the rain only have to run about a mile and a half out of 7.2 miles actually directly into the stupidly strong wind.

Going indoor skydiving tomorrow which should be interesting! Then starting the packing process for our trip to Switzerland (similar trip to a couple of years ago). I can't wait but just wish I was feeling a bit fitter for the hour long climbs.

The Cycling Gods Hate Me!

Been quiet lately, suffering from a few niggles and an accompanying case of the blahs. Not helped by the weather seemingly bypassing the rest of August and heading straight for October last week. Have a bit of a stiff left shoulder and my old feeble left knee/tight left hip problem is trying to make a reappearance (the latter is actually causing the former).

So not much swimming at all and to be honest St Annes pool is so incredibly busy at the moment that its pretty unsatisfactory anyway (unless you want to do very slow breast stroke). The downside of its location at the seaside and an large elderly population I suppose. Actually thinking of trying out Leyland pool for a bit until the kids go back to school and hoping lunchtime swims become feasible again.

I did sod all this weekend in spite of grand riding plans and eventually had to force myself out the door on Sunday evening for a bit of a run. A promise to myself to do only 3 miles turned into 7 pretty enjoyable miles (apart from the first 2 that is). its probably what I needed as this morning, despite massing black clouds of doom I got up to cycle to work with Jez.

One mile into the commute and I nearly fall off my bike just after pulling away from a junction, my foot had slipped off the left pedal. Try in vain to get it to clip in and pull over thinking my cleat must have fallen off. As soon as I put my foot on the floor I knew that wasn't the case. A quick look at the pedal (Crank Bros Candy) and the spring has jammed open, great. Leave Jez to get on with his commute and I ride back home to get the fast road bike.

Get it down, get air in tyres and change shoes to roadie clogs then head off again. I don't know why I let it enter my head but I hoped I wouldn't get a puncture going through the messy road works on Strand Road as I had fast rather than durable tyres on. Banished the thought. The rain starts in earnest, I was hoping it wouldn't be too long a shower as I have no guards on the fast bike.

Got through the road works ok...just heading to the cinema on the docks and rear tyre start squirming, bloody puncture! Pull over at a handy bus shelter so at least I'm out the rain. Change tube ok after a serious check of the tyre, could feel the air whistling out of the punctured tube but struggled to locate the hole, manage to actually get the tyres on and off the rims with just my thumbs.

Pump a little bit of air in the tube with my mini pump to check all is seated ok before unleashing the CO2, all well. Unscrew the mini pump and the entire valve core comes with it. FFS!!!!! Never had that happen before, now seriously, seriously peed off. Now no spare tube at all.

Get the other one in, go straight for the CO2 and I did think about just going for it but I the way things had gone today I'd just end up puncturing again half way which is 9 miles from home and 9 miles from work and a good few miles either way from civilisation.

I then ride in a fairly angry manner towards home. Thinking that I could just jog if I get another puncture as its only about 4 miles max...then remember I've got roadie clogs on now so start riding a lot more sedately scanning the ground constantly for pointy things. At least the sun had come out.

Get home, try to touch as little as possible in case it breaks, drive very carefully to work. Unfair!

Wot MTB Tyre Pressure? (For the girls really)

Can't believe I'm actually asking this question but it was suggested to me last night that perhaps the reason I'm pinging around so much on the hardtail and losing traction really easily on the slightest hint of gravel on a climb is that my rear tyre is perhaps a little too hard at 40psi....it did feel rock hard to squeeze tbh.


So...who runs what psi on the rear of their MTB? For info I use tubed Kenda Nevegal/Blue Groove combo on both geared MTBs all year round/in all conditions and usually have 30psi at the front and 40psi in the rear. Minimum pressure is allegedly 40 psi for both tyres (oops) but I've run the front at 30 for a good few years now with nary a problem (touches all the wood I can find).

I just have this irrational fear that lowering the rear to 35psi or below will result in a sensation of riding through treacle with a squidgy tyre, making everything harder, particularly climbing. Though I have at least realised these days that much more than 100psi in my skinny road tyres only feels faster as I'm pinging off everything on the road as opposed to actually travelling faster.


No point asking Jez as he runs closer to 50psi in his and thinks my front tyre in particular is too soft. No I don't generally let him inflate my tyres unsupervised and yes he has pumped mine up to 50psi before..just before setting off on a ride with lots of wet limestone, hilarious it was not.

Lazyish June

Feels like I've not done that much since the EDD, though looking at the stats its not quite true. It was no surprise (at least to me or Jez) that riding that far in that weather and taking in the best part of b*gger all calories did leave me somewhat lethargic for at least a week. What was a surprise was the fact that it took over a week for any sort of appetite to come back but hey ho. Enough time has passed that I have at least cycled in a headwind again..and a bit of rain.

June saw my motivation take an upturn when the weather did, though for some reason I have been hit quite badly a couple of times with hayfever. Not continually but has left me with a bunged up nose, streaming eyes a slight wheeze which made any sort of activity difficult.

It didn't occur to me that swimming would be affected but it was as I try to breathe out through my nose continually when my face is in the water. The chlorine actually irritated things even more and my nose unblocked just enough to allow a constant stream of snot out.

I decided that swimming through chlorinated snot wasn't a great idea (though at least it was my own I suppose), grim. Swimming was further kiboshed later in the month due to the world heading to the beach on the scorching days..I couldn't get parked within a mile of the pool in any direction those days.

I did manage a little bit of running, but hayfever and the heat meant I CBAd with it a lot. The totals don't look too bad though for the month:

24.5 miles/3:44 hours of running
5.41 miles/5:00 hours of swimming
325 miles/22:33 hours of cycling

31:18 hours overall which isn't too bad. I've had a rough goal since the beginning of the year to try to average out at an hour a day of exercise to help shed the lard jacket and I've managed it every month so far.


I should update on how that all went really, I think I've just about come to terms with my starting weight on the 1st of January this year...or maybe not but I've taken my eye off the ball slightly since the EDD and I don't want to head back to being that lardy again.

So scores on the door:

Weigh in 1st Jan.....66.7 kg (FFS, I'm only 5ft 4)
Weigh in 14th May....60.4 kg much more like it, glad I didn't have to haul those 6 kilos round the EDD.

I'm not flying up hills on the bike at all but they definitely require less effort than they did, I've got a good bit of free speed in running (what I noticed the most actually) and all clothes fit really well again.

On the slight downside, headwinds got a lot harder on the bike as I lost some power, I don't roll as fast downhill and I get pinged around a lot more on offroad descents than I did, especially on the hardtail but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I started being sensible again last week and as usual I felt really sluggish once I cut out the extra crap (I'll get used to it again) and was starving for my whole 50 mile road ride on Saturday and ended up with:




In my defence I didn't put all that cream on and I had to scrape most of it off to eat the scone (then ate the cream, oops). Incidentally I still seem to be struggling to get out of the training for EDD mindset as every road ride still has me seeking out as many chevrons as possible. This didn't amuse Jez on our recent ride around Pendle Hill, that and I'd forgotten how lumpy it actually was.

Washout Weekend

Didn't get out on a bike at all this weekend. Saturday was awful, heavy rain and gales and I was actually feeling a little tired so wasn't too fussed about heading out. Thursday's swimming lesson was a bit of a fitness session rather than out and out teaching and I think it nearly killed me (certainly felt like I was going to inhale the pool at some points).

I have not built up any swimming endurance yet, not surprisingly only being at it a few weeks and the session started with 24 lengths as a warmup, the first 12 front crawl, 8 back stroke then 4 breast stroke. Up until that point I hadn't done 12 solid lengths of crawl. It then progressed onto sets with attempts at sprint swimming which finished me off totally. Fortunately we were mixing strokes as I got to the point I just couldn't get another length of crawl out of my arms. The swim down at the end consisted of head above water breast stroke..I wasn't the only one knackered. 52 lengths and dead arms, it took quite a bit out of me.

Sunday was supposed to be less windy but that turned out not to be the case. Spent a productive morning on bike maintenance. I gave my Ribble a good clean and we did a bit of wheel swapping, my old wheels are now back on the Ribble the RS80's are to be put on the new bike, they are too good to be banging into potholes and grinding the rims away with winter crap. The Ribble is as winterised as I can make it at the minute.

The long term plan is to move the bits from the current Ribble onto a winter frame (once I find one) that will take proper mudguards and a rack to make a proper winter bike. The Specialized is just too slow for commuting duties, especially as the back brake often binds and its crap in any more than a slight breeze, not good heading out to the coast where there is almost always a breeze. Its a great bike for fubbing about on though so will be staying.

As the rain came in in the afternoon I eventually ended up on the turbo. Then got off again after twenty minutes as the tyre kept slipping. The tyre was a littel soft so got the track pump on it and tried to pump it up. Our pump has been playing up a bit and decided to suck all the air out instead. Then spent an hour with Jez taking it to bits to find out what was wrong with it. Sorted in the end but I'd given it up as a bad job buy then.

Normally I swim on a Monday but Jez has my car so I was planning a lunchtime run, however the wind is beyond stupid here at the minute, think heading to the beach would just entail being blown off my feet and having my face sand blasted so I'm thinking of running to Warton this evening to meet Jez, six miles with a whopping tail wind, could be fun!

Mmm shiny

January in numbers

January was not too bad a month really, was a bit meh at the start due to the cold. I seem to be struggling with riding in the very cold, last Saturday Jez and I went out for a ride in the beautiful sunshine but I wheezed my way round and we had to cut it short.

So

307 miles /23 hours of riding only 45 turbo miles but need to pick this up more

35 miles / 5:15 hours of running

5 miles / 9 hours of swimming (ratio of actual swimming to faffing/drowing/blowing water out of nose in the middle of the pool improving lots now though)

2:30 hours of dangling on the climbing wall

2 kilos of lard lost (yay, a good few more to go, boo)

0 units of alcohol drunk, continuing this to my birthday on 5th March.


So roll on February...lost more actual swimming hopefully, more hilly rides though won;t be doing much longer than 3 or 4 hours at the minute and keep running ticking over. Oh and some more lard blasted would be nice.

Not waving but drowning

2011 is well underway and I've set myself two (or is it three) challenges for the first half of the year. The main one is the Etape Du Dales in May, I was supposed to be entering this with Jez and another friend but the event is now full and their names are conspicuous by their absence from the entry list..buggers. So that means lots of grovelling up hills for the next few months, I kind of figure it doesn't matter whether I'm on road or off I just need to get lots of hills in my legs.

Challenge two is to acquire some swimming ability. I signed up for lessons at the beginning of January. I have no real background in swimming, I did all the school stuff, jumping into the water wearing pyjamas and all that gubbins but I was never one for swimming club or such like. I used to love playing in the pool so I'm not scared of the water as such but I am aware I am a poor swimmer. I learned to dive into the deep part of the pool before I could really swim out of it. However, I do have an achievement badge for a 2000m swim somewhere so god knows how I managed that.

The swimming should be complementary to the cycling, especially when the mileage ramps up. I can do it without hammering my legs, unlike running. The lessons started on the 6th January, which was the first time I had set foot in a pool for about six years, prior to that I used to do a few lengths of breastroke before heading into the steam room when I was a gym member.

So far...I have a slow breastroke, arms are actually ok but kick is awful. Front crawl I had never done but am now relaxing and able to string together without stopping four very, very slow lengths together as long as I don't kick too hard (too much oxgen required for that!). A lot of chlorinated water has rinsed my nose and mouth to get to this stage. I've been purposely doing bilateral breathing from the start so that should help things and it now seems almost automatic so I can start thinking about something else instead of counting to three all the time.

However, at last nights lesson I discovered I have a mean backstroke. It was ace, moving through the water at speeds I didn't think I was capable of. Shame it would need quite an empty pool to do outside the lesson, I'd probably hit some poor old dear at ramming speed otherwise. My main focus is the crawl but I am actually quite enjoying doing the other strokes, give me something else to think about when progress on crawl if frustrating, which it will be I have no doubt.

The other driver for the swimming is that St Annes pool reopened last summer, it's only two miles from work and has a good long public/lane swimming session every lunchtime so it's easy to get some practice in. It's also on £83 a year for unlimited off peak swimming which is quite frankly a bargain. I'm currently aiming for two 30/40 min sessions in there and the hour lesson a week. I've been advised to keep sessions on my own short and stop before I get too tired to make sure I don't reinforce sloppy stroke technique.

The third challenge is to shed some of my lard jacket I have been carrying around. Jez bought some scales late last year, I stood on them, it wasn't a nice number (bit of self delusion going on) but it is on the way down thankfully. The EDD is going to be hard enough without too much excess lard. I'm making a big effort now and next month, mixing up training with runs/swims/SSing offroad/turbo/Shorter road rides/climbing wall, once the long rides start I'll need to keep fuelling up so it will get harder.

So..just need to sort out some build up events. Currently thinking Cheshire Cat, 100 mile this year perhaps(Jez not at all keen!) Lakeland Loop and the Brian Robinson Challenge as Jez's sister lives near Huddersfield so we can tie in a visit. Lots of hills in those to be going on with.

2010

How can we be at the 12th January 2011 already! 2010 had some good stuff in it for me. A fantastic five days in the Cairngorms in March in superb snow and mainly blue skies and low winds (fingers crossed I haven't used up my good Scottish weather quota). Riding the Etape Caledonia on closed roads, riding my first 100 miles on the Trossachs Ton. Riding coast to coast across Scotland was superb, I think I've finally forgotten about the headwind.

The ice and snow at the end of the year put a bit of a dampener on road riding but I got quite a few offroad rides in. On the first ride with ice on the ground (on the 12th of December, marked the date) I even rode over a three or four metre long sheet of ice that boys rode around. The look on their faces was priceless.

I actually did this not through bravery but because my back brake was not working very well so I was faffing with the lever as I was riding and not paying attention and looked up just in time to see the now unavoidable ice but even the big feardy that I am knew that the best bet was just to keep things as straight as possible and ride it out.

It did help things though and I was quite happy to head out in the snow though the first ride in the fluffy stuff saw us take about two hours to cover five miles, was beautiful though:






Some slightly less successful snow rides followed this as I couldn't get my front wheel to behave on anything less than well packed snow. It would just wash out continually. A suggestion from Jez, which I actually paid attention to for once, was to put a lot more weight over the front wheel and shockingly it did help a lot, who knew.

Fingers crossed I stop being quite so pathetically panicky around ice now.

I set some mileage goals for 2010. They were 700 running miles and 2250 bike miles. The scores on the doors are....

Running 342! So less than half, total fail on that one then.

This was partly due to finding running not very relaxing cross training for cycling then being plagued by a persistent calf niggle from the end of June onwards.


Cycling: 3149! That's a bit more like it. Road riding really does boost the mileage totals somewhat.

Scottish Coast to Coast...bit late

Confession time..I had actually written some stuff regarding this a week or so ago in a Word document that I cannot find anywhere, on any computer I come into contact with. As someone who looks after databases and other people's data for a living that is a a bit of an embarrassment, lol.

In summary, it was a great trip, some stunning scenery, some pelting rain, some sun, some clag, some bog to park bikes in, some great riding, great company and a not so great a raging permanent headwind for about 6 of the 7 days. Will get some more detail out soon.

Highlight for me were the Corrieyairick Pass (or River Corrieyairick as it was that day) and the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, I will be going back there again, definitely.

Photos are on Flickr and get noticeably more numerous the further west we travelled.

GRRRRRRR!

Just about sums up the last few weeks for me....in no particular order:

Car trouble, more car trouble, calf injury and hobble of shame back to car after half a mile of running trouble, suspension fork trouble, even more car trouble, moron runner trying to push me off my bike trouble, car basically dead trouble, buying another car trouble, surfing forums relating to "new" car today to find it is also prone to injector problems trouble and nowhere near enough riding and no running.....thank god I'm off to ride across Scotland on Saturday.

Car has spent most of last three weeks in garage, with a week of respite when it worked properly but was soon back in...diagnosis, new fuel pump, injectors and possibly turbo which would cost about twice as much as the car was worth to repair. The fuel pump thing is not unknown in 02 Mondeo's but I was a bit p*ssed off that a car that has done just over 100, 000 miles is basically scrap. It was not a good car at all, I managed to limp it to webuyanyshed to offload it. It smoked like crazy all the way there but behaved itself when being "inspected". Not a great result.

Not having a car has had a real impact on my riding, I've done a good few rides to work and the odd offroad ride if Jez is around but the amount of faffing and working from home has made it surprisingly difficult.

I decided to pick up the running to make up for the lack of riding but my left calf decided to go ping after a mere half a mile of my inaugural run so hobble of shame back to the car (which was actually working that day). I think it is due to singlespeeding/pushing harder gears and the wrong kind of stretching. I think it is just being loaded a bit more with all the out of the saddle riding (and low cadence sitting sometimes), my usual stretches don't seem to touch it but handing my heel off a step seems to so I've been doing that daily though it is still not right. My knees aren't bothered at all on the other hand.

Sent rear shock and TALAS fork off the Titus to TF Tuned for servicing...shock needed new body but otherwise ok TALAS are apparently dead, anodising all worn off down in the lowers, deep joy. They were actually working ok so the guys at TF Tuned suggested running them into the ground then replacing with a set of Revelations, lol.

Last Sunday headed over to Hurstwood for a bit of a Calderdale ride, my car worked perfectly on the way over. Very windy day but sunny. I was having one of those days when I couldn't ride for toffee, felt dead and had no control over the bike at all. Had a proper girly strop and sat on a rock for a while, hee hee. Been years since I did that. Day was not improved when we encountered the runner on the canal towpath.

He was jogging along the canal towpath towards Hebden Bridge, wearing MP3 player and totally abd utterly oblivious to anyone or anything else. He was also apparently incapable of running in a straight line which made getting past somewhat difficult as he couldn't hear our shouted "excuse me's". Eventually he seemed to settle on the left side to Ed and I went to pass him on the right when he decided to jump a puddle. Well not only jump it but completely jump to the other side of the towpath without a backward glance, bloody numpty.

Of course he landed on Ed's front wheel, got a bit of a fright because obviously noone would be passing then started bawling at us, we weren't offended as it was clear he thought he was talking at a normal volume, just his music was obviously on pretty loud. We did point out he was prancing about like a fairy on a public towpath and perhaps he should pay attention as he wasn't running so fast that nothing was going to pass him. He let all 6ft 3 of Ed go past but as I went to give him a wide berth on the left (away from the canal, thankfully) he stepped over and tried to push me off my bike, fecker.

I had an attack of the red mist, skidded to a halt and as he ran past I thumped him in the chest as hard as I could, don't think he expected that. To be frank, neither did I and it didn't escape me that it probably wasn't the most sensible thing to do. I have a feeling he also thought things had gotten a bit out of hand and he left the towpath a few metres later. Nearly ruined the ride for me and really wasn't clever but I do get quite p*ssed off at a certain type of bloke who wouldn't say boo to Jez or Ed or any of the lads as they ride past but will voice their "disapproval" at me (whatever it happens to be at the time, just being a woman on a mountain bike seems to annoy some of them I think) , had it loads of times.

Had to fight a raging headwind all the way back to Hurstwood, including having to pedal all the way down the Gorple Road, don't think I had to touch my brakes once. On the way home my car decided to start packing in.....

Anyway, happy thoughts, 3 miles of mainly downhill back to the car:





Picking up a VW Passat tomorrow, more injector problems heading my way it would seem. This time it'll be Jez's fault, he insisted on a Passat or an A6 (out of my budget).

Stuff....running...and a bike project...

Been a bit quiet lately, my hip/lower back has been annoying me quite a bit since my topple onto the rocks last month. It didn't hurt at all during the Trossachs Ton but ached quite a bit for a few days afterwards and I was aware of it aching when riding the MTB's.

Jez and I had a few days away to Wales taking it easy, a quick blat round the Marin Trail for the first time in a few years was fun though I had forgotten just how much fireroad there was on the bloody thing and how much the singletrack doesn't actually decend. However it was dry and dusty and we were both on full suss for first time round there too and it was faaaaast.

A bit of a toddle up Snowdon (on foot) and some touristy stuff wandering round Caernarfon Castle and Newborough beach. We were lucky with the weather as it didn't start tipping down until we headed back home.

In the last couple of weeks I have resumed running, yay just in time for the wind and rain! No more than 6 easy miles and mainly all offroad, hip was achy afterwards for the first two runs but it now seems ok. I am now a complete convert to running in compression tights/shorts, I bought them for recover after my long mara training runs and I am now wondering why I wasn't wearing them when I was running, really stopping the little calf niggles I get when doing more cycling than running.

I had a visit to the chiro at the beginning of the week and my pelvis is moving fine and not hurting after short rides/runs now so it's time to start getting some good rides in again, will leave the runs short for a while yet.

Tonight I'm heading out to test out my new project....been feeling guilty about my old 456 frame just hanging in the garage so have assembled various bits from our garage/flea bay/singletrack classifieds/Merlin and Jez just finished building it before he bogs off for another few weeks. I did originally intend building it myself but he offered as he was servicing forks/faffing with brake hose/servicing hubs anyway.

Anyway photo and report of pain to follow.....

Etape Caledonia

Been doing a few road rides since my last post but haven't really posted about them....think I'm actually in denial about how much I'm enjoying the tarmac.

Anyway, official result: 4:41 for the 81 miles, an average speed of about 17.3 including stops which I am pretty chuffed about. I was hoping for around the five hour mark but thought we would both have to be having a really good days to make it.

Both of us really enjoyed it (yes, even Jez), the closed roads thing is just fantastic. The organisation was superb, marshalling was superb as was the local support. I'm not really a fan of bagpipes but the pipers dotted around the course really raised a smile. Pitlochry had a real buzz about the place, don't think I've ever seen so many cyclists in one place as I did at the start on Sunday morning.

Actual ride time on the Garmin was 4:34 with an average speed of 17.8, we didn't stop much! As can be gathered from the time it was a fast course and a fast day, bit of a wind on the outward section but pretty fast other than that.

We did take advantage of a group for a while on the outward leg into the wind, cruising along at about 20mph effortlessly, which was nice. I was a bit wary but was getting quite happy in the group until suddenly the guy next to me seemed to be resting his right hand shifter on the guy in front of him's arse! A bit of wobbling and they separate but not without them nearly taking me off, I was a bit more cautious after that!

The Schiehallion climb wasn't too bad at all though I messed up my KOTM stage timing due to me not stopping when Jez had a comfort break. I rolled on a bit, crossed the timing mat without thinking then stopped to wait, d'oh. No real matter, took it quite easy anyway as not sure exactly what to expect. The scenery up there was stunning and it was nice to get a good look at Schiehallion as it was the first Munro I ever walked up.

Even though we weren't really tagging on to groups the sheer number of cyclists around just spurred us on to keep pedalling hard and coming up behind people before overtaking them must have been giving us some slipstream benefit.

My legs were certainly feeling it on the last 5% climb to the finish, I thought that was uncalled for. Jez coped with that one better than me but waited til I caught him up before we crossed the finish line..aw.

Would I do it again...definitely!

Bleurgh!

This weekend was almost a complete write off for me. Gran plans for a hard road ride over Waddington Fell and Nick 'O Pendle, perhaps with a circuit of Pendle Hill thrown in if legs up for it. Plotting the route out on Friday evening and I suddenly had no enthusiasm for it whatsoever, tucked up in bed by 9:20 pm barely able to keep my eyes open and woke up with a very dodgy tummy on Saturday, just great.

Managed to eat and move around until Saturday afternoon when I was sofa bound for most of the afternoon, couldn't face food and any movement just made me feel queasy. Lots of (boringly mild) curry and I felt human again that evening.

I felt up for a bit of ride on the MTB on Sunday, had to take it very easy on hills as stomach not happy if pushing hard and heart rate would just rocket to silly levels, however dry conditions and a full suspension bike made pedalling most things fairly easy. I had another hour or two of sofadom afterwards but was able to get out and spend some time cleaning bikes later. My On One was so filthy it took most of the afternoon, that'll learn me not to take the DirtWorker. My plans of getting several bikes done failed, only got the On One and my road bike done.

Monday I felt a bit better, headed out for a run from White Coppice after work, running up the hills seemed fine and only had one slight queasy moment, oddly on a flat piece of track, the rest of the time things were ok. Amongst all the unusual dusty dryness I managed to stomp into a patch of ankle deep bog, strangely reassuring!

Tuesday, still felt a little out of sorts in the morning but decided to have an easy spin into work on the road bike. I didn't pay much attention to the forecast and was happily tootling along through a sheltered Preston when I turned off to the docks and straight into a raging headwind, think I went from 18 mph to about 8 in less than a metre. It was a long, long slog against it all the way to work, so glad I was on the road bike to at least get down on the drops a bit. Not really what I wanted that morning.

The ride home was obviously faster but the wind was more of a crosswind in parts and I got blown sideways into the main dual carriageway at one point, luckily no cars coming. Even with faffing through Lytham and Warton, almost wearing a bus and having to stop, being scared more than once battling to control the bike and often not pedalling too hard I was averaging 18.7 when I got to the roadworks at Strand Rd which I thought was quite impressive, wish I could do that normally. By the time I'd crawled through them I was at a more normal 17 and tootled home from there quite happily.

Almost wished I hadn't bothered.....almost.

Home after work, cycling gear on, waiting for Jez to get back to go out riding. Dragged the Titus out as it hasn't been out this year and it's an expensive bike just to be sitting in the garage. Pumps tyres up, air in shock, change Garmin mount...hear the racket of Jez's motorbike engine...Jez arrives with a big CBA to riding. I go anyway, thinking I'll get a good spin in before it gets dark, being on my own will mean minimum faff (yeah right!).


Drive off, a bit of thought about where to go, as I'm on my own decide to ride Great Hill but where from? Abbey Village is the closest and most sensible time wise so get there unpack bike, get rest of kit on, lube the chain. Whilst back pedalling the chain to lube it it falls off the cassette and jams between cassette and spokes, grrr. Had to undo powerlink to fish it out, get it out and make note to do some serious bike cleaning (of all bikes) as chain is black and so now were my gloves.


Put it all back together and linked it up but failed to notice between threading it through derailleur and joining the powerlink it had fallen into the spokes again, grrrrrrrrrrrr! Undo it all again, rethread, join it back up, gloves even blacker, put car key in jacket pocket, jacket pocket now covered in black, oily fingerprints. So much for a quick and faffless start!


Set off riding, a few pedal revs later the grinding noise tells me I've done my usual crap job of threading the chain through the rear derailleur, seriously, seriously tempted to chuck everything back in car and go home but the prospect of dry, moorland trails is too much.


Pull over at Sawmill, undo it all again, thread chain through properly this time and manage not to lose powerlink in the long grass, off again with no grinding and working gears. Quick map check to locate the first piece of cheek I was intending to ride and head off to it, getting used to a squidgy bike again which was creaking annoyingly from the swingarm. It felt a lot heavier than the On One, particularly lifting it over gates.


Off up a section of relatively well packed double track onto the moor, will be a bit of a grassy slog in the wet but only one section looked like it would get boggy, mainly due to tractor tyres. Get up onto the moor and pick up one of my favourite pieces of running singletrack. In the spirit of minimising faff I stopped to take some pictures, it was lovely:



On again towards Great Hill and I'm finding the rear suspension (and the front to an extent) a bit of a liability to be honest, was like riding a pogo stick. I remember that last time I rode it I found the same and it needs some settings tweaked, more rebound damping I think, the rebound adjuster on the shock is turned wholly to one side (technical description) so I turned turned it completely the other way to see what happened.


Onwards onto the big track to the summit of Great Hill, more photo faff and the creaking seems to have stopped from the swingarm. Cracking view of the sun dropping, more picture faff and general staring:


Up to the summit of Great Hill, stare a bit at the sun dropping then head down again. Just as I was setting off I heard the low battery beep from my mobile, oh great. So now if something does go wrong with bike or me the mobile is about to die. That did make me pause a bit, original plan was to head to White Coppice but maybe it would be more sensible to take the big track back.


I got to the decision point and headed to White Coppice, it looked more fun. I do ride more cautiously on my own (especially with a dying mobile) and fluffed a few things across the rutty moor that the application of a little more speed would have probably fixed but it was fun and mainly dry. The rear suspension seemed a bit better so will need to twiddle the forks a bit soon.


The sunset was gorgeous and one of the reasons I headed up here, I know from past activities that the view is pretty good from Great Hill and I did watch for a bit, however I had lights/layers and food with me this time, the working and charged mobile phone thing obviously needs some remedial work though:



The bit I was worried about was the rutty drop to White Coppice but I had a whale of a time on that and was briefly tempted to ride/actually push (let's be honest) back up and do it again. Sense prevailed and I pegged it along the new bridleway for a bit then back up through the woods to pick up the moorland singletrack. I got down, just, without putting my lights on but fired them up for the last short bit of road back to the car.

Quick drive home for Chinese after a mainly satisfying ride and a cat runs across the road in front of me, I stop in time, just.

March

Well March was an interesting month. The start was spent in the Cairngorms learning all about winter walking and enjoying the best snow for years and also, unusually for Scotland excellent weather. A fantastic holiday.

Mileage wise things have been good in one respect and a bit dismal in another. The good aspect is I managed 310 cycling miles, the first time I've broken the 300 mark since 2006 apparently. Almost 200 miles of those were on the road bike, all "rides". I also did my first roadie sportive, the Cheshire Cat which was suprisingly good fun. I'm seriously in love with my road bike at the minute, very odd.

Only one cycling commute in to work jfor the whole month, ust after coming back from Scotland but I got the train home (and didn't have to pay). The rest of the miles are split between MTB (30 - rubbish) and fubbing about shopping.

The dismal aspect is running, in March I managed 21 miles! Partly being away for a week, then having the tightest lower legs imaginable for a week after, then a bit of running, then taking it easy for the Cheshire Cat.....Must do better!

I've kind of decided to do two runs a week for a while until after the Etape Caledonia and some fun trail/fell running is what I have in mind. I just need to keep it ticking over until the autumn where I'll most likely pick the running mileage up again.

Not much running going on

Not sure what has been up with my calf muscles since I've come back from the Cairngorms but they have not been happy bunnies.

A short get back into it run last Thursday was enjoyable, I expected possibly a little bit of soreness but my calves were very stiff on the Friday. I ended up doing some lunchtime hill reps on the bike on Friday due to car faff and working from home meant I had access to some hills.

The reps were about 1.4 miles long but not massively steep, more of a gradual climb interspersed with steeper bits. It wasn't ideal but I didn't have time to really get anywhere properly steep so decided to make sure I worked hard all the way up and resist the temptation to take it easy on the easier bits and push on over the top of the steepish sections.

I have to say, at least mentally, proper steep is easier, its just "get to the top". Making myself push where I wanted to back off was hard. They took about seven minutes each and I got slightly quicker each one but there is lots of room for improvement. I only had time to get three in before heading back home. Since I found them so difficult I should probably do them again.

A lot of stretching afterwards and I thought my calves would be fine, nope. Saturday I woke up and could barely put my heels on the floor. My calves and achilles were just solid, from my heels to just below the back of my knees. I wasn't 100% sure if it was the running or the hill reps but the pattern of tightness was slightly different on each leg which made me suspect running, my foot strike is slightly different on each leg. Maybe something to do with doing lots of walking as opposed to running?

An easy day of fubbing about on the shopping bike due to no car and an easy afternoon ride on the MTB did nothing to help but at least my calves didn't hurt when pedalling. It was too sore to stretch or bear the foam roller. They didn't hurt like that after the marathon so I rested on the Sunday completely.

They felt much better on the Monday, I could walk properly so decided to celebrate by going out for a run. I got less than quarter of a mile before my calves felt solid again, a bit of stretching and I decided to carry on taking it easy for a couple of miles to loosen them up.

They did loosen up a bit eventually but I was having to stretch them a lot at road crossings, or at the top of inclines, I should have taken the hint and cut it short but I carried on and did over 7 miles. I was hobbling for the rest of the night and the next morning so it was a bit of a stupid thing to do.

An easy spin out on the road bike on the flat on Tuesday, a fantastic dry trails and spring temperature night ride on Wednesday (so glad I made myself go) and a fantastic session at the Velodrome last night and I think, touch wood, things are heading back towards normal.

Catching Up

After tweaking my left backside slipping about in the dunes on the 12th I was hobbling the next day. The "next day" was the Mid Lancs XC at Hyndburn. The Chorley Harrier ladies were hoping for promotion and to get as many out as possible to help, I had said I would run (help make up some numbers rather than actually count for the team). On Saturday morning I did lots of stretching but it didn't help, a bit annoyed as the Hyndburn course is really enjoyable.

At about noon when it wasn't getting any better I did the sensible thing and necked a load of ibuprofen and went anyway. Once I warmed up a bit it only bothered me when my left leg slid sideways...which happened a lot on the stodgy course. I was over two minutes quicker than the year before but getting out of my car at home was not very dignified! I wouldn't have done it for a longer race (probably).

It seemed fine for cycling thankfully so got some road miles in on the Sunday....for some reason decided to go chevron bagging around Belmont way and got my backside kicked, even with a 30 * 27 lowest gear. I found the hills mentally hard too which wasn't good, I'm no climber but I normally just get on and grind them out without too much thought. 44 miles, 3800 ft of up and an embarrassing average speed of 13.9....more work needed.

I did some short runs in the week as bum was still tight, it started to ease off after a trip to the climbing wall meant some serious stretching of various tight muscles.

On Saturday I headed out to check out snow conditions around the moors. I was only intending to do about six miles but it was so lovely I ended up doing over 9. Lots of snow:

I ended up on the turbo on Sunday afternoon but probably should have gotten the MTB out really.

This week I've managed to get back to some better running, a quick 4 miles after work on Monday saw me set off with leaden turbo legs. Last time I did that after about two miles my legs were fine and sure enough I managed to up the pace each mile, really enjoyed it and no problems the next day.

Tuesday was some turbo intervals, hard but bearable now I have invested in a fan. It meant I was able to work harder without boiling myself or having to open the door and freeze the house out.

Yesterday was another set of intervals, running this time. Possibly not the most sensible decision but I wondered how my legs would cope. A little leaden at the start but changed into running mode after about a mile. I did 3 x 1200 metres as slowly building the interval distance back up to three miles. They went well, not having fresh legs meant I paced things more evenly and didn't tear off at the start though on the last interval I had to push hard to keep the pace as I got stopped at the one road crossing. First and second interval had the same time, third was two seconds slower which I thought wasn't too bad. Run back to work was fine after the first half mile.

Yesterday was finished off with a trip to the wall again, which was really good fun.

Today I'm taking it very easy, I did think of cycling into work but couldn't get myself out of bed. The cycling gods punished me for my laziness by having me sit on the M6 for ages, eventually took 1 3/4 hours to get to work as opposed to 30 minutes.