A chain is only as strong as the weakest link!

The week has been very busy for me so not a lot of opportunity to hit the roads so yesterday during the royal wedding I spent 2 hours on the spinner doing simulated hill climbs. Today was back in the saddle for a 55 mile ride up to the coast. I had an issue with the powertrain as soon as I left the house. I thought it was the indexing so stopped and made an adjustment but still every so often the chain would appear to slip a tooth. I eventually stopped and checked the chain properly and found one of the links had snapped off on one side and was just hanging onto the pin. Luckily my multi tool has a pin remover attachment so I was quickly able to splice out a couple of links and get going again. Pace was ok for the ride. I was pushing the pace especially on the hills. The wind from the NE was a big factor today.
Yesterday after my 2 hour sesh on the spinner I had a couple of beers and of course they went straight to my head and then for some reason I thought it was a good idea to go on Wiggle and order some stuff for my bike. I saw the confirmation order this morning and I had spent £600 on a variety of stuff!! Holy moley. I am now changing my SPD MTB pedals to the SPD SL pedals so going to be walking like a duck in my graphite soled shoes. I have also ordered some top of the line bib shorts with a huge padded insert that makes you look like a Belted Galloway horse!!
More miles coming up tomorrow and Monday .... wunderbar.

bank holiday sunshine

A great weekend of cycling. It goes without saying that I still have no back wheel, it's currently residing in a big bike shed in Germany. Hopefully it will turn up in a week or two... but I aint holding my breath. Rather than carry on with Tims big bike I am just using his back wheel on my bike. It felt great to be on a bike that fits. And thanks Rob for showing us all your shiny new wheels!

Friday took in 100 miles around my beloved Cheshire (flat) coutryside. A fantastic sunrise and glorious sun all morning, and I was back in time for lunch - double portions. Rob had warned me that I was falling behind on the pub training, and by all accounts Dave is also a seasoned pro, so on Friday night I had some intensive beer (and G&T) trials. As suspected, I can hold my own. However, I still took Saturday off.

Another 100+ miles on Sunday and I felt really good. I could of happily carried on for another hour. Yet again the weather was great - was it really a bank holiday weekend. Finally I did a 50 mile ride on Monday morning. It felt really short after the 2 prior rides and I again felt strong after the ride - I know I could have done a full 100 if I'd planned for it. It's been a good confidence-boosting weekend for the trip.

Only 1 near miss over the weekend. A MAMIL (Middle Aged Man In Lycra) came out of a T juction and didnt see me until he stammed on his brakes in the middle of the road causing a perfect road block. I managed to swerve round him and carry on, I assume I was going so fast he just didnt see me!

As much as I love cycling in the summer sun I did forget about all the flies that it brings with it. On the plus side I swallowed so many that it sorted my protein intake for the whole weekend.

BBQ and Bianchi

Great to get my summer bike back after it's pre-LEJOG maintenance. The winter bike feels like a butchers bike in comparison. The Bianchi now has some fantastic new wheels, new chain, cassette, bottom bracket etc etc. As modeled by Daisy and Jake it now rides like a brand new bike. It's been a pleasure to be out in the 26C weather. I led the faster half of a club run on Saturday down to Rye. There was 12 in our group and we averaged 18.4 mpm over 83 miles. A good few miles blasting over the flat expanse of Romney Marsh helped the average speed! With the ride in and back to my house it was 108 miles in 6hrs 19 mins of riding time.
A quick 25 miles on Sun and Mon morning before family things took over completed the weekend of cycling.
It was encouraging to note that my time for the 25 miles on Monday morning after a 3pm to midnight BBQ and party on Sunday was 1hr 26 mins 19 secs compared with Sun morning's time of 1hr 26 mins 18 secs. It shows that a good pub cyclist is not affected by a few beers the night before a ride!

Easter Weekend Round-up

The Bank Holiday weekend is coming to an end and time to re- cap...
4 days of cycling; 85 miles Friday, 50 miles Saturday, 30 miles Sunday and 85 miles Monday. Total mileage is 250 miles for the 4 days. In the actual LEJOG ride this would need to be 400 miles for 4 days. On Friday I could have done an extra 15, Sunday could have been an extra 20 and today could have been an extra 15. Saturday was not a good day and I bonked at 50 so no extra for that day. The extra 50 miles I could have then done raises my total for the 4 days to 300miles. This makes me around 75% fit for the LEJOG ride in 6 weeks time.
There is another long weekend coming up fast but I am on call so mileage will be limited. From here on in to the ride I think I need to be doing 300+ mile weeks.
I made 2 adjustments to the bike today. One was the angle of the saddle and the other was to raise my handlebars about 1 inch. I certainly noticed the difference and my ride today was more comfortable as a result.
6 weeks to go and still 10lbs to lose to get to target weight!
Details of today's ride can be found on both Garmin and GPSIES website under the username of Braveheart99.

Saturday Update

Plan was for around a 60 miler today. Weather was hot and my pace started off correctly but then I spotted 2 cyclists about 0.5 mile ahead of me on a long stretch of road from Wellney to Littleport. I managed to catch them just before the A10 junction at Littleport. The victory was short lived as I started my ride back North up the 10 mile bank road. I started to lose my energy reserves so my legs had no power left. My heart rate started to fall and I was unable to keep it up. I also became unable to take deep breaths of air. I rolled into the Hare Arms pub at Stow Bardolph barely able to ride. Luckily I was meeting Helen and Adam for lunch there so I could get a lift back in the car. At the pub my heart rate monitor was showing low 40's bpm so obviously I had pushed too hard and had 'bonked'. Easy to see i was not fully myself when i asked for water and left half my beer on the table! So, only 50 miles today and likely I will take a rest day tomorrow.

Good Friday Rideout

An 85 mile today up to the north coast of Norfolk. The picture was taken by my son Adam as he drove by. The Garmin GPS had a wobbly moment and for some reason recorded my position as being in the mid Pacific Ocean! Total miles showed as nearly 6000miles and the average speed would have put Concord to shame.

Weather was hot and sunny and the stop at the Ship Inn at Brancaster was most welcome.

I thought I would also show a view of what Rob is going to be seeing for most of the LEJOG ride!

getting fatter, not fitter... it must be Blobby Junior!

Its now 3 weeks without my bike. After 2 local shops finally decided they couldn't fix it my rear wheel quickly it's now somewhere between N. Ireland and Germany, with no imminent return on the horizon. I had a 4.5 hour ride on Tims bike on Saturday, but thats all I managed. Too busy with other stuff to get out on Sunday, which was a shame because the weather was fantastic and I saw so many of those fair weather bikers enjoying a nice Sunday ride - where were they in February, in the rain, wind and sleet (the sensible lot!). All in all, a pretty rubbish few weeks training, on the bright I've had a few nice lie ins at the weekend. Anyway, time to forget about the last few weeks and put best foot, or should that be pedal, forward. It's a long bank holiday weekend ahead and I am determined to get in 2 x 100 and 2 x 50+ miles over the 4 days. And as it's a bank holiday I'll have all my waterproofs ready. Gotta get that fitness up another level. The thought of 10 days looking up and staring at nothing but the backside of 'BR' or 'The Poet' for 8 hours at a time is pretty damn good motivation... must stay in front, must cycle faster!

Ode to Blobby Robby

Norfolk is as flat as Flanders,
So time in the saddle is sore on Anders,
LEJOG is now only weeks away,
Miles under the belt will carry much sway,
We can sit at home staring at the pot,
Or get on the bike and produce some snot,
Pints will be downed of that I am sure,
But with respect to Anders it is not a cure,
Our carbon frames will bend under the strain,
Climbing the hills will be quite a drain,
Blobby to the front, setting the pace,
He has said more than once, "It is not a race!"
The miles will come, the miles will go,
Where is the next pub? We dinnae know,
Blobby to the front, Si at the rear,
Me in the middle, nothing to fear,
Drafting behind Blobby will be quite a breeze,
Watchful of Anders getting too much of a squeeze,
Should he explode, while we are moving at pace,
I'll take a dive and Si'll get it in the face!

An easy weekend

A hilly club run on Saturday which tested most of us, but only 65 miles. My parents are visiting this weekend so it has been an easy weekend of walks and sunshine; I have managed to keep up the pub training though. I think Dave needs to slow down a bit- I am pretty sure I will be the Jenson Button of the group, Dave and Simon will be Lewis and Seb!

50 Miles in 2 hours 40 mins

Today was a planned ride of 40 miles that was not so well planned so turned out to be 50 miles. My intention was to push fairly hard for the first 2 hours then back off. Average speed for the first 2 hours was over 20mph and the final average was around 19 mph. Legs felt really good after yesterday's 80 miler so there is still hope for me! Average HR for the ride was at 79% of max.
Got some more pictures so will download them probably tomorrow or the next day.

A Place Called Fakenham

Today's training run was a little 80 miler through the countryside of Norfolk. I was going to a 100 but I was lonely out on the ride so cut it short at 80miles. When you have been cycling for nearly 5 hours by yourself you do tend to get a little doolally. My ride was basically a figure of 8 loop out to Fakenham and of course I managed to kiss the coast road and stop at the Ship Inn in Brancaster. No duck egg omelette this week but i managed a couple of beers and a packet of crisps. There were horsey people everywhere due to some trials going on. I did observe that they expect you to give them total clearance when passing them but when they pass you in their Chelsea Tractors pulling their smelly trailers they are not so generous in the road space they give you.

Post Century Reflections

I think I have finally managed to add a photo to my post. This is ma bike and the picture was taken on Saturday by the river Nar in Norfolk.
After the 100 miles on Sunday I expected some stiffness monday and especially today but I have been surprised how good my legs felt. I was planning a 2 hour ride this evening but the wind was blowing from a bad direction and blowing fairly hard so I just did an hour on the exercise bike in the house.
So, with just under 8 weeks to go before the 'ride of attrition' I am fairly pleased with my fitness level. I hope to still continue to make progress and be able to do back to back century rides in 4 weeks time. Resting heart rate is 42bpm so the cycling is doing wonders for my cardio fitness. Weight is sitting at 225lbs (sorry for the lbs only but after living 10 years in Canada it is more natural to say it in lbs and not stones, or kilos) and target is to be 215lbs (15st 5lbs) by the start. I am 6'5 so my weight is not so bad!!
The pub training side is coming along nicely and though there is a risk of overtraining I think I am willing to take that risk!

'The rack'

My bike is in the shop, but the weather was looking so nice I was determined to get a ride in. I managed to scrounge a road bike off a friend so I could do a few miles at the weekend. Many thanks to Tim for the loan, however he is a bit taller than me and as a result his bike is rather large. It had also been stuck in his shed for the best part of a year so it needed a bit of TLC to get it moving. 3 hours on Saturday and the same on Sunday was all I could manage. By lower back and my a*se was killing me, felt like I'd been stretched out on a rack. Memories of when I was 10 years old again and getting my new Raliegh Grifter for Christmas... I could sit on the saddle but my little legs couldn't touch the ground. Looking forward to getting by bike back for next weekend Well done to Rob and Dave for breaking the 100.

1st century ride

The weekend presented a good opportunity for training. The big ride was scheduled for Sunday and Saturday was the warm up ride. I had about a 35 mile loop in mind for Saturday and I was determined to take it easy. I ended up doing 50 miles and racing round so no easy ride. My plan therefore was to have a 70 or 80 mile ride on Sunday. Robin came up from Kent intent on doing a 100 miles. The weather was perfect for cycling and we had a good route around the lanes of Norfolk so anything was possible. The obligatory pub stop came at 55 miles and whilst it was most welcome it was about 10 miles too soon so the second leg was going to be a long one. Rob 'the blob' had a full plate of fish and chips while I was a little more frugal with my duck egg omelette. As we set out from the pub I was still thinking we would only be doing around 80 but I felt a surge of leg strength from a combination of the beer and the duck egg omelette so a new route was decided upon on the hoof and the end result was a 100.1 mile ride. Now, one 100 mile ride is all fine and well, but, we are going to have to do it 10 times in a row!
With reference to Simon's previous post about his freewheel mechanism sticking I had a similar event on my mountain bike in Cape Breton. Stuck out in the wilds I had no luxury of 'phone a friend' so I had to strip the mechanism down using the tools in my bag. I managed to get it to engage as long as I kept tension on the chain and had a difficult ride home but made it.
So, my plan this week is a couple of 40 mile rides in the evening then a 100 miler on Saturday with a 60 miler on Sunday.

My Brooks saddle has come into its own. It gave me a lot of pain breaking the leather in but now it is working really well. The 100 mile ride over nearly 6 hours left no discomfort so whilst it looks like an old boot sat on top of a stick I don't really care.

I have some pictures to download but the iPad does not allow so I will need to wait until I am on the laptop.

Thanks to Blobby Robby for providing the motivation to break my first century ride.

D'oh!!

25 miles into my Friday ride and I am happily zipping a long at a decent pace. I stop at some traffic lights and then put my foot down to get a quick start from the junction. After 3 or 4 revolutions of the pedals it all goes a bit wrong. I am still trying to speed up but it feels like my chain has come off, que a quick few gear changes to try and re-engage the chain. No luck. Eyes down and I see the chain is exactly where it is meant to be but I still have no 'drive'. I'm no bike expert but it appears that the rear hub has lost connection to the cassette. Simply put, the pedals turn but the wheels dont go. So technically I am now the owner of a very expensive scooter! Its Manchester weather again (cold and wet) and I wait 40 minutes to get found and picked up - cold, wet and grumpy. No more cycling for the rest of the weekend. The race is on to get my bike fixed before next weekend. My usual weekend cycling is always tough going, but missing a weekend through technical issues is almost as painful.

Getting back to riding, 79 miles on Saturday so things looking better. Not so long to go now so need to get more miles in this week. It's time to finish off booking the pubs from Kendal onwards. Also time to give my bike a birthday and get a new bottom bracket, chain and cassette, plus a pair of wheels after hitting a Kent pothole at 25 mph whilst riding on someones wheel.