AFter skipping riding Saturday, I felt quite relaxed at the start of today's ride and rolled through the first 30km able to hold conversations and generally have a good time. It was all to change as soon as the first hill arrived - a bloody monster and it was hear that I felt how crap my legs were actually doing.
A few miles later and a few guys turned off to do an easier ride. I should have joined them, because all the usual instigators and masters of pain were at the front of the group, all too happy to turn my Sunday into misery. After getting dropped on the next two climbs (and being brought back by Vince and then Dominic), I knew I was ready to ask the guys to just leave me on the roadside - I'd happily dig a nice little grave and just die in it.
Steve's back wheel was playing up and after a couple of stops to try and fix it he indicated that he would just wheel back home slowly by himself. At about 75km covered I took this opportunity to ride back with him. We shared the pace making back to London into a horrible headwind, with my legs turning more and more to lead. It was a death March, and to top it off, when we had to ride up Muswell Hill - a real bastard of a climb.
In all, today was a reminder that hell is always just around the corner. I now feel dead, and will now die on the sofa in front of the TV.
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Sunday 24 February 2008
Sunday 17 February 2008
EF-Dane End-Whitwell-Little Berkhampsted-EF (127.1km)
Today the club went out on a Reliability Ride - the Finsbury Park 100km. We met up at the usual spot and rode up to Potters Bar to start the ride. After signing in and getting our ride numbers, the 'fast' group of about 50 riders left Potters Bar at about 9.20 at a casual pace. There were about 10 Finchley guys on the ride including Werner, Vince, Steve, Andy, Patrice, Kevin, Nick and also the Irish guy who's name I can never remember. Darren was also mixing it up.
After about 5km we came across ice on the road and had to dismount to cross it. 2km further on, without much warning appeared another ice patch on a descent - both the Irish rider and I came down pretty hard. My left knee was scraped and my right hand was bruised from softening the fall. The Irish rider was in about the same shape. After getting my chain back on and re-adjusting my rear caliper I was ready to ride again. almost everyone in the group had not waited for us - just Vince, Werner and a few others had stayed back for us - kudos to them.
The next 20 minutes were spent chasing the pack, the six of us rotating the lead very well. Once we caught them we managed to take a breather for the next hour or so as the sort of casual pace continued. The reason for the easy pace was due to the amount of ice on the road - nasty little patches all over the place, forcing us to slow down then speed up continuously.
On the outskirts of Stevenage at the halfway point of the ride, some of our guys started attacking at the front - pushing the pace harder on the little rollers - eventually the pack split and I managed to stay with the front group of about 10 riders. Werner was on the front and I secretly wanted to tell him to slow down - I was almost at my maximum and just holding the last wheel in the group. Then on a fairly largish climb my body just stopped going hard and I started loosing the pace - riders started overtaking me. I rested up for a minute or so and then latched onto the last riders wheel and dug in, making it to the top with the main group.
On the descent everyone came back together, but the pace was still fairly high. The next climb started straight away - a 3km mofo that gradually steepened from 4% up to 9% for the last 1km. It was on this last steep part that my legs again started failing and I saw a gap opening a couple of riders ahead of me - there was nothing I could do about it. Over the top went me and 2 other riders. We took the descent at a recovery pace and then spent the next 15-minutes chasing a couple of riders ahead of us. 5 minutes later, on a steep but short climb my legs once again gave up and I lost touch with the two other riders - I could see that they'd caught the other two and were now a group of four. I was gutted, but kept the pressure on.
Luckily I caught them again 10 minutes later as they were stopped at a round-a-bout, looking at the course map. Once we knew where we were going we continued on and caught some more riders up ahead - guys that had been dropped off what looked like an exploded main pack. We pressed on together at a milder pace - everyone knew that we weren't going to catch the front guys, so we might as well keep everyone together and work for each other.
The alliance worked quite nicely and we ended up arriving back in Potter's Bar only 2-3 minutes behind the front group. I was nevertheless absolutely knackered and my hurt knee was paining me badly - the blood from the injury had clotted against my leg warmer and hardened - taking it off in the bath later was an interestingly painful experience! The surviving Finchley riders rolled back to Whetstone for a coffee and cake and then our separate ways after.
I think I'm going to have nightmares tonight - screams of ICE! waking me in a cold sweat!
View this ride data at Motionbased
After about 5km we came across ice on the road and had to dismount to cross it. 2km further on, without much warning appeared another ice patch on a descent - both the Irish rider and I came down pretty hard. My left knee was scraped and my right hand was bruised from softening the fall. The Irish rider was in about the same shape. After getting my chain back on and re-adjusting my rear caliper I was ready to ride again. almost everyone in the group had not waited for us - just Vince, Werner and a few others had stayed back for us - kudos to them.
The next 20 minutes were spent chasing the pack, the six of us rotating the lead very well. Once we caught them we managed to take a breather for the next hour or so as the sort of casual pace continued. The reason for the easy pace was due to the amount of ice on the road - nasty little patches all over the place, forcing us to slow down then speed up continuously.
On the outskirts of Stevenage at the halfway point of the ride, some of our guys started attacking at the front - pushing the pace harder on the little rollers - eventually the pack split and I managed to stay with the front group of about 10 riders. Werner was on the front and I secretly wanted to tell him to slow down - I was almost at my maximum and just holding the last wheel in the group. Then on a fairly largish climb my body just stopped going hard and I started loosing the pace - riders started overtaking me. I rested up for a minute or so and then latched onto the last riders wheel and dug in, making it to the top with the main group.
On the descent everyone came back together, but the pace was still fairly high. The next climb started straight away - a 3km mofo that gradually steepened from 4% up to 9% for the last 1km. It was on this last steep part that my legs again started failing and I saw a gap opening a couple of riders ahead of me - there was nothing I could do about it. Over the top went me and 2 other riders. We took the descent at a recovery pace and then spent the next 15-minutes chasing a couple of riders ahead of us. 5 minutes later, on a steep but short climb my legs once again gave up and I lost touch with the two other riders - I could see that they'd caught the other two and were now a group of four. I was gutted, but kept the pressure on.
Luckily I caught them again 10 minutes later as they were stopped at a round-a-bout, looking at the course map. Once we knew where we were going we continued on and caught some more riders up ahead - guys that had been dropped off what looked like an exploded main pack. We pressed on together at a milder pace - everyone knew that we weren't going to catch the front guys, so we might as well keep everyone together and work for each other.
The alliance worked quite nicely and we ended up arriving back in Potter's Bar only 2-3 minutes behind the front group. I was nevertheless absolutely knackered and my hurt knee was paining me badly - the blood from the injury had clotted against my leg warmer and hardened - taking it off in the bath later was an interestingly painful experience! The surviving Finchley riders rolled back to Whetstone for a coffee and cake and then our separate ways after.
I think I'm going to have nightmares tonight - screams of ICE! waking me in a cold sweat!
View this ride data at Motionbased
Tuesday 12 February 2008
My new bike - the Battaglin Project!
My newly acquired Battaglin frame which I finally got round to building up, but its not quite what I was hoping for. As soon as I can find them, I'll be replacing the following:
1. Wheels. Ventos work nicely, but some more traditional non-G3 looking wheels would be better.
2. Handlebars. Couldn't for the life of me find silver handlebars, although I have seen them on ebay - will get round to replacing ...
3. Seatpost. Ditto as with the handlebars - no silver around.
4. Hoods. Black hoods and white bar tape just look odd, so I've ordered a set of white Hudz for campy.
She rides like a dream, by the way - very comfy and surprisingly light and fast up the hills...
...and these were a little gift from my bike shop guy - no cobaltos unfortunately (either he'd sold them a while back or found them then realised how much they could go for on ebay!), but very nice nevertheless - a set of Chorus calipers from 1989 supposedly
1. Wheels. Ventos work nicely, but some more traditional non-G3 looking wheels would be better.
2. Handlebars. Couldn't for the life of me find silver handlebars, although I have seen them on ebay - will get round to replacing ...
3. Seatpost. Ditto as with the handlebars - no silver around.
4. Hoods. Black hoods and white bar tape just look odd, so I've ordered a set of white Hudz for campy.
She rides like a dream, by the way - very comfy and surprisingly light and fast up the hills...
...and these were a little gift from my bike shop guy - no cobaltos unfortunately (either he'd sold them a while back or found them then realised how much they could go for on ebay!), but very nice nevertheless - a set of Chorus calipers from 1989 supposedly
Sunday 10 February 2008
EF-Redbourn-Gaddesden-Watford-EF (89.6km)
Another lovely day for riding and another huge club turnout for today's foray into the Chilterns. Feeling very sluggish at the start, my body felt like it was paying from yesterday's efforts, but as the ride went on I started feeling better and stronger. Despite this increase in energy I'd only planned to do about 75-80km as I didn't want to overcook myself after just coming back from sickness.
As with Saturday's ride there was another new guy who didn't really know what he was doing and had to be guided as to the workings of a paceline. There were a few nasty comments from some of the regulars and Dominic kept grabbing this guy's jersey and placing him in the right spot on the road. Poor guy looked like a nervous wreck!
Once we went over Gaddesden, Dave, Graham and I turned off from the group ride and rode nice and smoothly through Hemel Hempsted and Watford back to London. We kept the speed fairly high but manageable, sharing the pace making almost all the way. I felt great and thought I could keep turning those pedals forever...
Bit disappointed that I didn't keep going with the main group over the nastier climbs (Toms and Ivinghoe), but happy that I was able to restrain myself for the "greater good" and ended up having a sweet ride overall.
View this ride data at Motionbased
As with Saturday's ride there was another new guy who didn't really know what he was doing and had to be guided as to the workings of a paceline. There were a few nasty comments from some of the regulars and Dominic kept grabbing this guy's jersey and placing him in the right spot on the road. Poor guy looked like a nervous wreck!
Once we went over Gaddesden, Dave, Graham and I turned off from the group ride and rode nice and smoothly through Hemel Hempsted and Watford back to London. We kept the speed fairly high but manageable, sharing the pace making almost all the way. I felt great and thought I could keep turning those pedals forever...
Bit disappointed that I didn't keep going with the main group over the nastier climbs (Toms and Ivinghoe), but happy that I was able to restrain myself for the "greater good" and ended up having a sweet ride overall.
View this ride data at Motionbased
Saturday 9 February 2008
EF-Colney Heath-Radlett-Whetstone-EF (57.6km)
Finally - back on the group rides!
Big turn out today in the glorious weather - must have been 25-30 riders. The pace was fast from the start, with the leaders making sure that a nice double paceline formed. Although my HR was pretty high I felt OK and contributed to the pace making.
On the first hill in Radlett I didn't feel like blowing, so started it at the front and worked my way back. Half the field was dropped on this climb, so there weren't too many riders to drop in behind and ended up loosing a bit of ground at the top which I made up on the way down.
Surprisingly I managed to stay in touch for the rest of the ride over the nasty little climbs around Shenley and the fast decent on Mays Lane and furious flat area into Whetstone. I was pretty knackered by the coffee stop and was coughing a bit, though overall I felt fine. A good ride, and looking forward to going some longer distance riding tomorrow.
View this ride data at Motionbased
Big turn out today in the glorious weather - must have been 25-30 riders. The pace was fast from the start, with the leaders making sure that a nice double paceline formed. Although my HR was pretty high I felt OK and contributed to the pace making.
On the first hill in Radlett I didn't feel like blowing, so started it at the front and worked my way back. Half the field was dropped on this climb, so there weren't too many riders to drop in behind and ended up loosing a bit of ground at the top which I made up on the way down.
Surprisingly I managed to stay in touch for the rest of the ride over the nasty little climbs around Shenley and the fast decent on Mays Lane and furious flat area into Whetstone. I was pretty knackered by the coffee stop and was coughing a bit, though overall I felt fine. A good ride, and looking forward to going some longer distance riding tomorrow.
View this ride data at Motionbased
Sunday 3 February 2008
EF-Colney Heath-Radlett-Whetstone-EF (54.9km)
After months of hard training with the Finchley group and my fitness peaking very nicely, I finally came down with a pretty bad flu in the 2nd week of January and spent 2 weeks almost completely off the bike. Although I was still able to commute to work, my weekend rides just didn't happen and I definitely felt myself loosing fitness. I was feeling better last weekend, but as fate would have it, the bearings in my bottom bracket ceased last Friday and I couldn't ride that weekend either.
So, after basically 3 weeks without any hard riding I came into this weekend without an excuse not to ride and went out for a solo 55km to see how I was doing. I didn't want to go out with the group because I didn't want to embarrass myself by getting dropped within 15 minutes...
As it turned out I did OK, flying out to Colney Heath with a strong tailwind, averaging 34kph for the first 25km, but paying over the next 30km with fierce head and cross-head winds. The windy conditions made riding very tough, but I managed to keep my HR smooth and paced myself over the nasty little climbs that make up the 2nd half of this route.
With 8km to go I spotted Edgar, the Columbian rider from the Finchley team up ahead and did everything to get on his wheel. Once I'd recovered, we chatted a bit and we shared the work over the last few miles back home. My legs are sore from the hard effort, but it feels good to be out riding again!
View this ride data at Motionbased
So, after basically 3 weeks without any hard riding I came into this weekend without an excuse not to ride and went out for a solo 55km to see how I was doing. I didn't want to go out with the group because I didn't want to embarrass myself by getting dropped within 15 minutes...
As it turned out I did OK, flying out to Colney Heath with a strong tailwind, averaging 34kph for the first 25km, but paying over the next 30km with fierce head and cross-head winds. The windy conditions made riding very tough, but I managed to keep my HR smooth and paced myself over the nasty little climbs that make up the 2nd half of this route.
With 8km to go I spotted Edgar, the Columbian rider from the Finchley team up ahead and did everything to get on his wheel. Once I'd recovered, we chatted a bit and we shared the work over the last few miles back home. My legs are sore from the hard effort, but it feels good to be out riding again!
View this ride data at Motionbased
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