Review – March 2012

2012 continues to be a good year for riding and in March I was able to put in plenty of time on the bike.

Here’s the evidence:

• mileage goal – 250
• miles cycled – 413
• total ascents – 36,843
• rides –  14
• turbo sessions – 0

February highs – getting to the top of a few hills that, less than a year ago, would have sapped all my energy and forced me to head home.  Two midweek rides in the sun and my full summer kit.

February lows - Being teased by my final destination at the end of an otherwise enjoyable ride.  I was able to see the village I was aiming for but the map I had consulted before setting out indicated a road where there was nothing other than an incredibly steep morass of mud and debris.  I wouldn’t have walked down.  Some back track ensued and, after a while I felt better about the situation.

All for now.

No Moor, Please: In Profile – 25 March 2012

I’m feeling pleased but fairly tired.  This morning, clocks moving forward and all, I managed my biggest ride of the year so far.  Until the very end I maintained a pretty good pace too.  The best bit, it was a glorious day up on Dartmoor.  

In Profile – 9 March 2012

This is the first of what I envision to be an irregularly recurring feature.  To give my readers and supporters some idea of what I’m up to in terms of training I plan to post the occasional screen shot from my cycling computer showing the stats and profile of one of my training rides.

Like this shot from earlier this afternoon:

Today I was able to get out for an extended  weekday session in the mild and dry weather.  All in all it was a good ride though you probably won’t catch me running up the stairs for the next hour or so.

Don’t forget that you can sponsor me in my folly by donating to Action Medical Research via the link on the right.  The fundraising ball has started to roll.  Let’s keep it revolving.

Have a good weekend!

Review – February 2012

For the most part February has been another good cycling month for me.  There was a period when the weather turned cold and temperatures remained below freezing making my turbo trainer my constant companion and hated nemesis.  Even that had a silver lining though as I downloaded a couple of the Sufferfest videos.  They turned out to be something of a paradox.

The video footage and music were a welcome distraction to the monotony of staring at the walls while cycling in one place.  The music wasn’t bad when I could hear it.  The structure of the intervals gave me a good workout.  These were all improvements on last winter’s turbo sessions.  At the same time the workouts were fiendishly taxing and frequently left my legs twitching.  Sometimes I felt as if I might vomit.  Frequently the sound generated by the turbo’s flywheel drowned out the music accompanying the video.  Invariably I was begging for the end of each session 10 minutes before it arrived.

I haven’t used these videos since the stretch of icy weather, but I have felt their benefits and I WILL be introducing them into my training programme.

Remember, I’m doing this all to train for an incredibly difficult ride up some of the most infamous mountains in road cycling history.  Follow that link on the right and give me a penny or two.  It’ll be good for your karma, soothe your soul and quiet those demons.  In all seriousness, donations are always welcome as are questions about the charity I’m fundraising for etc.

February 2012 in numbers:

• mileage goal – 200
• miles cycled – 268
• total ascents – 21,449
• rides – 11
• turbo sessions – 5

February highs - despite some very icy weather 2012 has continued to be dry and relatively mild allowing me plenty of time out on the actual roads.  Leap day, the 29th, was a real bonus which saw me out for an extended ride dressed in light kit.  Early flowers were in bloom as I desperately tried to keep the rear wheel of my riding buddy within striking distance.  I still have a long way to go in terms of climbing but I’m feeling stronger uphill than I ever have.  That’s nice.  The Sufferfest videos were a real boon as well.  

February lows – The Sufferfest videos kicked my butt and made me feel like crap every time I used one.  Despite the mainly mild weather there was a stretch when the temperature remained resolutely below freezing.  Days that look sunny when viewed through the window but that a brief journey outside reveal to be bitter and icy can be hard on a cyclist’s morale.  On two occasions I made a decision that, no matter what, I’d spin my wheels outdoors.  Both times, a brief walk with the dogs saw me heading home, tail between my legs, to setup the turbo, turn off the central heating and crack a window open.  

All in all the training is still going well.  If I hadn’t been forced to spend a week inside in February my mileage and ascending totals would, at the least, have matched January’s numbers.   I’m hoping to get some serious miles in on Sunday and I even managed to get a ride in today.  My fundraising has yet to get off the ground, but I’m sure that will change. . .

Review – January 2012

For the most part the past month has been a good one for me in terms of my cycling.  There were highs and some real lows; more on those in a minute.  First, I think it’s worth stating my intention for this post to be the first instalment of a monthly feature in the run up to my l’etape ride.  If there’s anything I’m leaving out that you’re curious about let me know.  Other than that, donations are always welcome.  Just follow the link over on the right hand side of the page.

January 2012 in numbers:

• mileage goal – 150
• miles cycled – 324.04
• total ascents – 24,126 feet
• rides – 15
• turbo sessions – 0

As the last two numbers suggest, the weather has been kind to me this month.  In January 2011 I only made it out on the road 8 times.  On top of those rides I put in 4 sessions on the instrument of soul-destroying torture known as a turbo trainer.

January highs - apart from the general pleasure I had in being out in decent, mainly dry weather and making a good start at getting into climbing shape I saw some fantastic wildlife this month.  The top three critters I spotted were an otter frolicking in the river around midday, an owl gliding to its perch among the trees I was climbing through before sunrise and a herd of 7 or 8 wild deer  who found my huffing and puffing a mildly alarming interruption of their late-morning breakfast.

January lows - despite being a good month over all, the end of January wasn’t the smoothest.  One Friday I had an absolutely disastrous ride mechanically speaking.  I started the outing with a broken chain.  It was quickly fixed and all seemed well until I was nearly home when my rear wheel suddenly stopped as I was moving just shy of 25 mph.  When I dismounted I discovered that one of the spokes had pulled away from the wheel’s rim taking sizeable chunks of the aluminium with it.  Even if I’d had all the pieces there was no way to repair it.

This past Sunday wasn’t great either, though not for mechanical reasons.  Having met with the group I do my best to follow around at weekends I was immediately and shamefully dropped.  I couldn’t even keep them in sight and, after one or more of the others had waited for me a few times it was only right that I told the group to go on without me.  I didn’t follow the planned route but I did get a decent ride in even if my pace did stay very low.  I know off days are going to happen, but it was still frustrating.

As I said at the outset of this post January has provided a decent start to my cycling year even with the occasional setbacks.  The plan is to build on that foundation in February and the months that follow.

UPDATE  – when this post was first made the numbers above were taken from a spreadsheet that I hadn’t yet realised was not following the rules set for it.  As of 01 March they have been amended to the correct figures.

On The Road Again

Hello everyone.  I hope the first fortnight of 2012 finds you all well, recovered from any (minor) over-indulgences during the holiday season and keeping any resolutions you may have greeted this nascent year with.  With 2012 well under way it’s time for me to hit the road again in both a literal and a figurative sense.

Regular readers will know that, in a fit of madness, I’ve signed up to follow the route of one of the mountain stages of last year’s Tour de France as a way of raising money for Action Medical Research (AMR).  This is where the figurative road alluded to above rises before me.

Yet again, I need to raise money.  I’ve set my sights on the lofty goal of £3,000.  During my involvement with AMR over the past two years I’ve been left in no doubt that they use the money raised by people like me to fund truly good work.  Lives are radically improved and often saved as a result.  Because AMR receives no funding from the government ever penny counts.  That’s why I’ve chosen to trace such a steep fundraising path; I want to help make sure the AMR can continue to fund the kind of life-saving and life-altering projects they’ve helped pioneer.

Of course, this means I’ll be asking for sponsorship yet again.  If you’re feeling generous right now you can visit my sponsorship page here or by following the link over on the right on the page.  More pestering via this blog, social networks and even e-mail, will follow as the year progresses.

The coming months will also see me doing stints outside local supermarkets, collection tin in hand pestering innocent shoppers for spare change.  I may host some sort of dinner party or quiz night.  If anyone out there has an idea for an event or activity I could organise to raise money for this cause let me know by leaving a comment.  What works?  What doesn’t?  How did your mate, colleague or neighbour convince you to donate to his or her cause?  Let me know.

As for the other, literal road I mentioned at the outset, I’m already on it.  I am going to have to train hard for this event.  The Galibier and Alpe d’Huez haven’t achieved their legendary status in the world of cycling because they are easy to get up.  Neither am I a natural climber.  So, I’ll be putting in plenty of miles and doing my best to keep my bike pointed uphill.  I’ve made a good start of doing so thus far.  Taking advantage of the unseasonably dry and mild weather this part of the UK has been experiencing I’ve already clocked over 200 miles and 13,500 feet of climbing during the first half of January.

As well as putting in time out on the road it’s also the case that I’m working to shed some serious weight.  Like many people I have a few extra pounds that I wouldn’t mind shifting.  This goes beyond that.  Way beyond.   Every extra ounce on my body is one that I’ll have to carry up those mountains in September.  Each gram I lose, without sacrificing power, will be a gram I’ll be glad to see the back of.  That power to weight ratio will be the determining factor in exactly how much weight I lose but it will be somewhere between 30 and 40 pounds.  To be clear, that’s not mass I need or would want to shift if I hadn’t embarked on this adventure.  Under the circumstances, I’d be foolish not to.

That’s about it for now.  Thanks for taking the time to read this far.  I’ll be posting regular, if erratic updates, as the year and my training progresses.  All your comments and support, financial and otherwise, are welcome.  Whether you’re able to join me out on the road or not, it’s nice to have you along for the ride.

 

 

Here I Go Again

The day I completed my London to Paris ride in July I was convinced that I was done with charity cycle events for a year at the very least.  Within a few days I started to wonder about the possibility of participating in next year’s London to Paris (L2P) event.  Then, it seems that I went and lost my mind.

I just signed up for the Action Medical Research (AMR)  Ride L’Etape event.  All you roadies out there are surely shaking your heads, agreeing that I have gone mad.  Fat so-and-sos like me don’t ride l’etape.  For all you non-roadies a little explanation is called for.  The etape is an event which takes place every year in which amateur cyclists get to tackle a stage of the Tour de France.  I won’t be taking part in the official, competitive version.  Instead, as you’ve gathered I’ll riding for charity and, I’m sure, struggling just to finish.

You see, we’ll be following the route of stage 19 of this year’s edition of the tour.  At only 109km it’s not all that long.  It is, however, steep and high.  I’ll be trying to pedal my bicycle up three mountains along the way and facing some of the most famous and infamous climbs featured in the tour.  The official programme for this years race describes this leg of the race as “The stage to be afraid of. . .”  Clearly I’ve brought my decisions making skills into question.

More will follow.  This site will need renaming and possibly redesigning.  I may offer some further explanation for my motivation for signing up for this event.  In the meantime I think I’ll probably spend a good amount of time wondering what I’ve let myself in for.

profile of this year’s stage 19 of the TdF and the route I’ll be trying to follow next September  ( found here).