5 Days and we're off

I just realised that I said nothing about this weekends rides being the last training I plan to do before the ride.

With less training this weekend, I had more time at home. Jules and I used the time to prepare for the race. I've packed my kit-box & bought a few spares (tyres, tubes, brake blocks etc). We ran through the route which Dave has done and excellent job on. We sorted the house out so people have places to sleep on Friday night. I think we're pretty much ready.

Each day that goes by now, another thing happens which feels like a step closer to the race. On Friday, the team shirts arrived & Ciaran, Simon & I tried them out on our ride. It's going to look SO cool when the whole team gets together!

This time next week, we'll be cycling past Wales!!!!

Yikes

Ciarans winter warmer!

I did the same 40 mile route twice this weekend. On Saturday with Ciaran, and on Sunday with both Ciaran and Simon.

I had wanted to show Ciaran the route that Rich's friend Fraser had taken us on a week ago, but Ciaran had also wanted to show me a route he does over the winter for base training. Basically it takes in a bunch of hills.

Funny thing was it was largely the same route that Fraser had done (except we did not do White Down hill on Ciarans route, instead looping back on ourselves and heading back the way we had come.

I felt rubbish on Saturday - especially on the hills. Not sure why, maybe lack of sleep. I was out late on Thursday night at the Times Charity awards where CHASE had been nominated for a prize. Thankfully I felt much better on Sunday. So, apart from not drinking I will now need to make sure I get enough sleep up to the ride!

The Garmin was also not on top form on Saturday. When I loaded the route onto my computer when we returned, the route itself looked right, but the elevation was way off. It was quite wet and cloudy, so I wonder if it could not get a good enough signal. I've included the two elevations below so you can see how far out it was (the top one is Sunday and looks right to me)!

No more alcohol

On Thursday night we had a work function, and I decided it would be nice to have a few beers. BIG MISTAKE! I didn't have loads of beer; probably 4 pints of Guinness. I got home in relatively good time, slept well, and didn't feel too bad the next day. Little did I know I was going to regret drinking that much on my next ride.

During the day on Friday I emailed Ciaran, Simon & Paul to see what they had planned for this weekend. Turned out Simon was planning to cycle to the Cotswolds, so the rest of us decided to join him for the first 50 miles or so, then turn back.

We set off at 6am, but the forecast was good, so I only had a single layer on. It was quite cold to start with, and I was pleased that we began the route with a climb up the Farnham road out of Guildford onto the Hogs back. Once on the Hogs back, we set off at a cracking pace and before long we were in Farnham. I'd noticed it being a bit hard work along the Hogs back, but put it down to the speed we were going which was much faster than normal. However, as we climbed up the past Hale and towards Odiham, I noticed my heart was pounding away much faster than normal. I was taking it fairly easy on the hills (because of the heart rate), but still my heart was going at 185. Then, even worse, at the top, where my heart rate usually quickly recovers to 130-140 or so, it stayed at 160.

This was fine for a little while, but after a few more hills I was exhausted. We were still managing a fairly good pace, and north of Odiham we went through Basingstoke, Newbury and on up to Wantage. By this point we'd been going pretty much non-stop for 3.5 hours and had just under 60 miles under our belt.

For the last 10-15 miles of this, I had not been enjoying it at all. The scenery was fantastic, the weather was good, the roads were quiet, but I felt rubbish.

When we stopped, I said I needed a bit of a rest. I was even thinking of just getting on the train home.

After 15 minutes or so, a short snack, a good drink and a little lie down, I made myself set off again. Ciaran, Paul & I setting of in one direction and Simon the other.

From where we stopped the road was a little undulating, but generally down hill for a few miles. I found myself at the front, and decided to try and set a good pace. Suddenly Fraser came into my mind (as he has done on a couple of times when I've felt low during training), and I had a little cry.

Next time we came to an uphill, I felt much better. My heart was more normal (160-170), and recovered quickly afterwards. So I much more enjoyed the route back through Reading, Wokingham & Bracknell. By the time we got home, we'd done 111 miles in 6.5 hours cycling which we were quite pleased with. The whole ride took a little longer than we planned due to the longish stop at Wantage, but I was so glad I pushed myself to do the rest of the ride.

I can only think my body was still processing the alcohol or something, but lesson learnt! No more til after the ride.

Training ride 4 (Day 2) - dropping like flies

Having rested his knee as much as he could overnight, John was still in pain this morning. He took the bike out for a quick ride, but decided it would not be a good idea to accompany us today.

Rich, Paul & Simon all showed up for the 7am start, but Simon had some problems of his own related to some friction between part of his body and his saddle. Hopefully this is sufficient detail for you to imagine why Simon was not comfortable joining us today.

So then there were three.

Paul, Rich and I set off on the same 145 mile route that Paul and I had done a couple of weeks ago; Guildford-Brighton-Portsmouth-Arlesford-Guildford.

We set off at a cracking pace. Taking it in turns to go up front for 5 miles each, we were soon zipping along the coast from Brighton to Worthing. It took us 2 hours 50 minutes to do the first 50 miles, where we happened to cycle past Rich's grandad, so we popped in to say "hi" and have an energy bar.

Next stop was at just under 90 miles just outside Portsmouth where we stopped at a pub for some lunch. This had taken us 5 hours exactly, and we were ready for a break and some proper food.

I dont really want to dwell on the length of our lunch stop (see previous posting), but we stopped for about 1 hour. There was a great atmosphere in the pub, as everyone was ramping up for the FA cup final in which Portsmouth were playing.

Feeling refreshed (and somewhat full) we got back on the bikes for the home run.

From Portsmouth the route heads North-North-West up to Arlesford and then turns North-East up the A31. For the first section of this part of the ride, we realised that the "easterly" wind was actually a "north-easterly", and the going got considerably tougher with the last 30 mile stretch to look forward to entirely into the wind.

We still made pretty good time considering the hills, and we joined the A31 after 110 miles and 6.5 hours of cycling (ignoring the 1 hour break).

Pretty much as soon as we join the A31, there is a big climb from Arlesford to Four Marks. This was hard work and directly into the wind; it took us 30 minutes to go that 5 miles.

However, we knew that at the top of that climb it was a fairly easy and largely downhill run for the rest of the way home. Unfortunately at the top of the hill it started to rain, and suddenly got quite cold. Hence the next few miles were a real drag, and we just put our heads down and watched the back wheel of the guy in front (we were still taking it in turns to do 5 mile stints up front).

At Farnham there is a large junction called the "Shepherd and Flock" roundabout, and just after that the road starts to climb up the "Hogs Back". At this point Paul was up front, with Rich and I drafting close behind him. Suddenly Paul was on the floor, and Rich and I had both crashed into him; all of us lying on the inside carriageway of the A31 - not a nice place to be. Just at that point there is metal expansion bar where the A31 crosses a bridge, and it is at a horrible angle for cyclists. Paul's front wheel had caught in the gap & just slipped away from him because of the rain.

We got off the road as quickly as you can imagine we would, and shook ourselves down. Thankfully no-one was hurt too badly, but Paul and I both damaged our bikes. I could not get any of my bottom three gears, and hence hills were a struggle, also my gearshift had bent round at a strange angle. Looks like I wont by cycling tomorrow.

The last 8 miles or so were done at a very sedate pace while we allowed the adrenalin to work its way out of our system. We finally did the 145 miles in exactly the same time as Paul and I had done a few weeks previously; 8 hours and 45 minutes.

Lovely Jules had cooked me a roast chicken which I eagerly devoured after a good soak in the bath!!

Training ride 4 (Day 1) - complicated meeting up

Training ride 4 did not start well.

Initially it looked as though we would have between 6 and 8 of the team, but first Henry then Ciaran then Tim decided they would not be able to make it due to one thing or another. Of the remaining 5, only 3 of us could make the full 3 days we planned to do; Paul could make Friday and Saturday and Rich could make Saturday and Sunday.

Since John was coming down from Hertfordshire, Paul, Simon and I decided to cycle up and meet him half-way so he could cycle back with us and join us for the ride on Saturday. We decided to set off at 9:30am aiming to meet up near Amersham/Chesham around midday.

When Rich heard of our plans, he decided he could join us after all, at least for the morning, and since he lives near where our intended meeting up point was, we decided to meet at his house.

So Rich set out at 7am to cycle to John's house, and Paul, Simon and I set out at 9:30am to cycle to Rich's. Rich & John met up at 9:30, and then cycled back from Johns to Rich's, where we all met up. Keeping up?

Hence, having cycled just over 45 miles, we stopped for a snack & a cup of tea at Rich's house, and then set off back to Guildford.

There has been some debate within the team about the length of lunchstops on the ride itself (some want to minimise them to 20 minutes or so so we get there faster & can rest more in the evening, and others think we should allow 60 minutes to allow us to rest, feed & digest properly en-route). It was interesting to observe therefore that we stopped for around 55 minutes; especially as we were at Rich's house, and Rich was towards the 20 minute end of the spectrum! It was also observed that one reason our stop was as long as it was was because we were waiting for Simon to complete a business phone-call: Simon was more towards the 60 minute end...

Anyway, far be it from me to stir up tensions within the team, so probably best not mention the length of our lunchstop if you happen to talk to anyone on the team....

After another 20 miles or so we stopped for an energy bar and took a look at John's chain which had been making some clicking noises. It looked as though one of the links was almost sheared, and we decided we needed to go back via a bike shop to get it looked at before the big ride tomorrow.

After about 80 miles John's knee (which had been niggling all day) began to get extremely painful. So the last 10 miles to the bike shop we had phoned were not at all comfortable for him. The good news was though that having been to the bike shop, they told him that the chain, front socket & rear socket were all "completely b*ll*x*ed". They did a temporary fix so he could do the ride tomorrow, but that it would need a proper repair. When they told him what this would cost, John got a good hour or so respite from his knee.

On returning to Guildford we were greeted by Val & Belle who had volunteered to help us with some stretches after our ride and cake cooked by Gilly. What a FANTASTIC way to finish a bike ride. The shoulder and leg stiffness that normally coincides with finishing a long ride were noticably improved by Val & Belle's attention, and the cake was delicious!! Thanks to them all!!

By this time, John's knee was sore again (or rather he had got used to the idea of the work necessary to his bike and noticed his knee again), and he had a long soak in the bath. Not looking good for a ride tomorrow.

My longest ride yet

Following a week of not quite getting around to doing much training (at least, after my ride on Monday), I was keen to get out for a ride again this weekend.

Paul had suggested we go for a longer ride, and Ciaran and Simon were going to join us for part of it. I google-mapped a route from Guildford to Brighton, along the coast to Portsmouth, and then back up the A31 to Guildford again. This looked like it would be something between 140 and 150 miles, and offered Simon and Ciaran the option of turning back to Guildford at Worthing or Chichester depending on how time was going.

Paul, Simon & I set off around 7:30am; Ciaran couldn't make it.

It was a slightly different route to Brighton than our previous ride. This time we went over "Devil's Dyke" instead of "Ditchling Beacon". We had some debate over which was worse. Ditchling goes from 130ft to 750ft in a mile. Devil's Dyke goes from sea level to 170ft in 3 miles, then down to 120ft and back up to 460ft in 2 miles then down to 320ft to 460ft in a mile; a total climb of 670ft spread over 8 miles. I still say Ditchling is harder, but Devil's Dyke definitely took longer!

After that it was a nice cruise down into Brighton where we (ok...Simon) found a cafe which served sausage sarnies & cups of tea. We convinced ourselves this was the right thing to do, and sat down enjoying the summer breeze from the seafront.

Refreshed, we set off with the wind behind us along the coast towards Portsmouth. Going through Arundel we were reminded it was the bank holiday weekend by the amount of traffic. I'm sure our journey was quicker than many of the people sitting in that queue!

Between Arundel & Chichester, Simon turned of towards home and Paul and I continued towards Portsmouth.

Just outside Portsmouth, we turned off towards Wickham for a nice bit of cross-country riding out of the traffic. This was really enjoyable, although we lost our way a couple of times because I had not put enough way-points into the Garmin. This didn't really matter though, and we made our way through the country lanes eventually ending up at Arlesford.

Now on familiar ground, we upped the pace a bit for the homeward leg of the journey. We lost about 20 minutes because I got a puncture between Four Marks and Alton, but other than that we are well-used to the A31 and it is good fast easy-going. Having said that, the up-hills were getting harder and harder the more miles we did, so I was extremely glad to get home.

This was my longest ride yet at 145 miles and we did it in a good time of 8 hours 45 minutes!! Rest day tomorrow!

London bound

Today was the London marathon, and Jules had volunteered to help the CHASE support team look after the 50 or so people who were running in support of CHASE. Hence I had the whole day to go out on the bike! (although I had promised to get back by 2pm to do a few things around the house).

Paul & Simon both said they could come along for a while, and we all met up at 7am. Paul had to be home by 10am, so we thought we'd gad about a bit on the hills around Dorking again. We were a little late setting off, and Paul had yet another puncture just outside Guildford. By the time we'd fixed that and got going again, it was 8 o'clock already and we'd only done about 3 miles!!

Simon showed us a less steep route up Ranmore, which was a really nice climb. Then we went down via West Humble towards Boxhill.

Paul & I were much faster up Boxhill this week than last time we did it, and we stopped at the top for a quick snack & a drink. We then took a lovely route off Boxhill, again guided by Simon, and found ourselves at the base of Boxhill where we'd started.

At this point, Paul & I went ahead, and returned up Ranmore the same way we had come down.

At East Horsley, Paul had to head home & I was on my own. My plan was to cycle in towards London. I had a route planned, and was keen to try it out. It went from East Horsley to Cobham, and then past Claygate towards Esher & Kingston. I made good time, but by the time I'd got to Claygate it was pouring with rain. I carried on to Kingston but by then I was soaked & quite cold, and I decided to head back towards Guildford.

It was a good decision, because the storm was travelling west to east and I was soon out of the rain. Back at East Horsley, time was ticking on, so I decided to go home.

Another 70 miler, although a lot slower than yesterdays!!

The morning of the first training ride

It's 7am. John & Tim stayed over last night, and we managed to go to bed before midnight and without drinking any alcohol. This may not sound shocking to you reading this, but to me the idea of either of these two staying over and the ideas of an early night & no alcohol are somewhat incongruous.

At 8:30 we'll be setting off on our first team training ride. Simon has planned the route, but I think it involves cycling to Chichester. Take a look on the map....Guildford to Chichester & back....it's going to be great!!

I've had a bad week as far as training is concerned (hence the lack of posts). Monday was a rest day. I intended to Turbo train on Tuesday, but I spent too much time trying to readjust my saddle (it had been moved during the service) and fit my new cadence sensor (which works, but seems to stop the speed sensor from working). Wednesday I'd arranged to meet up with a friend who I haven't seen one on one for ages. Thursday Jules and I went out for a meal for valentines night, which was lovely. We went to Vivat Bacchus; fine wine, lovely food, great service - recommended!

Friday was spent preparing for the training ride today. Jules had been trying to get some tee-shirts done for the team photo, and we ended up buying blanks & printing our own transfers. It took ages!!!

Anyhow - wish us luck!

Life begins at 40

Today I turned 40 years old. I started my new year with a 50 mile bike ride (what else) - hence the first person to see me that old was Simon, who seems to be my de facto training buddy these days. He didn't say I looked old or anything, and none of my joints suddenly gave way on the ride, so maybe being 40 isn't so bad after all.


We set out around 7:30, and the temperature was -2 degrees celcuis. That's quite cold if you haven't tried it. We managed almost exactly 50 miles in just a little over 3 hours, so I was quite pleased with that pace; especially for an old fella.



This is a picture of me on my return when Jules presented me with a pile of cards which all appeared to have the objective of rubbing it in how old I was.

We had a bit of a gathering in the evening which was fun, and I even managed to stay awake after the ride, through setting the house up with balloons and food and drink, through partying til 1:30 Sunday morning.

Got some great presents including 6 bottles of Scotch. Simon got me a head-warmer thing to go under my helmet when cycling....would've been nice this morning! I also got some compressed air canisters for quickly re-inflating a tyre which are very cool.

It's light at 07:30 now

Simon and I set out around 07:45 to meet Rich in Windsor at 09:30. We get there in fairly good time, although we did a slight detour via Horsell which added a couple of miles. Tried my first energy bar. Quite tasty.

Rich sets off at a fair old pace (seemed like 18-19 mph, where we had been doing 14-15 mph). I think Rich eased off a bit, and also we got used to the faster pace, and we cycled round for an hour or so ending back pretty much where we started in Fifield.

To be fair to Rich, we met at 09:37, and said we needed to be back at Fifield to head home at 10:30. He got us there at around 10:32. This is most out of character for Rich. Lucy has trained him well!!!

Poor Simon was getting a bit tired towards the end, but he did twice as many miles as I did on Saturday (he cycled to Twickenham and back).

Enjoyable ride. Pretty much 60 miles in 4 hours (ok just under 60 miles and just over 4 hours, but near enough to feel like progress).

So thats 90 miles this weekend, and over 400 miles so far.

Now we're getting somewhere!!

It's getting light earlier now, so we set off sharper today. Mad Paul still insists on cycling from his house to mine, so he ends up doing an extra 14 miles or so on me. I'd like to say he needs the extra training, but in fact the reverse is true; I'm sure I used to be fitter than he did. When did that happen? :-)

Anyhow, we set off at 8am with promises from the weathermen of rainshowers later in the morning. It seems that whatever the weathermen say is pretty much the most likely thing not to happen. So it was today. The rain never materialised, although it was a bit blustery. Largely the same route as last weekend via Haslemere, but with an extra 10 miles added at the southern end. 55 miles!!!!! Feeling good now. 50 miles was a mental objective for me. Better think of another one now. And that blummin hill at Hindhead felt a lot better today.

Ciaran, having told Simon we were starting at 8, woke up at 8 for an 8:30 start. So we set off without him and he promised to catch us up. We took a slight detour 8 miles in at Cranleigh, and it must have been at that point that Ciaran caught up and overtook us. I'm obviously not taking any pleasure thinking of him pushing himself for 50 miles trying to catch us up, but he got home about 30 minutes before we did!!!

Going for another ride tommorrow morning. Will be interesting to see how my bum feels...

40 miler!

Ciarán, Simon and I set out for a longer ride this morning. The weather was better than it was supposed to be according to the weathermen, but nonetheless quite blustery which made the going a bit tough at times.

We set out in a similar direction to my 35 mile route, but continued on into Bramley, then Chiddingfold, Haslemere, Hindhead then up to the Hogs Back back to Guildford. It was a good ride, with a particularly horrible hill out of Hindhead right on through Haslemere. According to my Garmin, we went from 200 ft to 850 ft. I need to work on my ascents - but I'm definitely getting better the more I do. The best thing was coming down the hill the other side - we hit 35 mph at one point.

I'm still not quite used to the distance you can achieve on a road-bike. I can't believe I cycled to Haslemere today....

The 2nd week

Although I was back at work on 2-Jan, last week was my first full week back since Fraser died. I'm realising that the trick to this challenge is going to be finding the time to get the miles in. Sunday morning was easy enough. Simon joined Paul and I on our 35 mile route via Dorking. I felt great after that ride - much stronger than on New Years day. Could it possibly be that this training is paying off already?

I had a work function on Thursday night, and planned to keep Friday clear, so I turbo-trained on Monday and Wednesday with a break on Tuesday. Because I had a shortened turbo-training session on Wednesday due to working late, I also went out for a short 15 mile ride on Saturday morning.

This brought my weekly total to 72 miles (including the turbo). Thats 4 miles further than the first week which is good, but not as good as I had hoped. Having said that, my average speed is up 1/2 mph and my average cadence is up 5.