#Shutuplegs

Apparently people do a few years of 10’s and then maybe a 25 or two and if there feeling REALLY brave they might have a go at a 50. It takes a special kind of idiot to jump straight in to 100 miles having never used tri bars for more than an hour before.

Hello *Waves* I am that idiot, or at least I am in the eyes of the Icnield road club.  I left out the fact that I have actually done three time trials in my life, the Welsh 12hr champs, an interclub 30 and this 100; and I’ve figured it out already – are you sitting down? Time trialling is simply an exercise in pain management, as a friend of mine put it “Its that point where the stabbing pain in your legs is no longer a pain its normal” right then, glad that’s cleared that on up…

With a push off at 06.06 on a Sunday morning it became clear that a I would have to leave the very nice, warm and (Key point this) non saddle shaped confines of my bed very early, as luck would have it my housemates were on their way back in from a night out. Suffice to say breakfast was a surreal event – a combination of alcohol and lycra not normally seen outside of certain nightclubs…  Rolling in to the event HQ it became clear that I had missed the memo that stated I needed a full aero TT bike, silly helmet and skinsuit to be considered serious. I had not only got a set of clip on extensions but had managed to borrow a pair of wheels, the rear being a carbon tri spoke; how could this fail to turn me into Wiggo?

As I have said, pain management pure and simple, when it hurts keep going and if it doesn’t hurt then your not trying hard enough. Only when you have worked through the pain and reach the ‘zen’ on the other side do you know you have reach pure testing nivarna. Or a 25mph plus average on an E1/2…

I won’t go into detail about the next 4 and a bit hours, suffice to say I know the bit of A1 between Stevenage and Cambridge very well indeed. I rolled past the finishing line for the first time and stopped, unfortunately there was another 8 miles to go – this I’ve decided is one of the flaws of not having any form of milometer, after a few seconds, well minutes of faffing I realised that having got this far it would be daft not to finish. So knowing  that I had 9 miles left it should have been a case of burying ones self but after 98 miles and a stop it really took every last little bit of effort to get the legs turning never mind sprinting – I managed to catch one of the three people who had passed me during my faff but a *lot* of time lost…

The timekeeper reckons on about 4.31 without the confusion.

That’ll do Gromit, that’ll do…

Am I going to do another one? Probably.

Am I going to become a full time tester? Probably not.
Do I want a fully fledged time trial bike? Hell Yeah…

 

 

 

Blast from the past!

''XC Racing'', an element of mountain biking that I have passed by for the last couple of years, why, well a disappointment with the format of the races as they became more akin to a cyclocross race with some being over and finished in less than 75 minutes. There is the value for money aspect as well, paying out £30 for a short xc race or paying that for a 4hr plus endurance race.Contrary to popular belief I wasn't born in Yorkshire but it's really difficult to justify travelling halfway round the country, forking out on hotel (my other half doesn't do camping!), food, short race and then back home. Plus there was the fundamental point of my lack of xc race fitness, especially at Expert level.

Last weekend though saw a very welcome return of the WSSMTB xc series. In a previous life this was the Whipstakes Mountain Bike Series that ran back in the 90's when a privileged few had full suspension and I had a fully rigid Zaskar.....yes you young 'uns I said fully rigid! These were always well organised, friendly events on proper old school mountain bike courses on local farmland and woods, none of these manicured trail centre tracks here.

My last race in this series was in 1999 in Expert category, now lets be realistic here. Back then I was young and permanently attached to a bike, getting out on the bike now is based upon what time I get back from work, when the kids go to bed, etc etc. Two rides in a week is a luxury at present! So as I looked down at the riders in Expert category and saw Ian Field (GB cyclocross rider), Alex Paton (former GB academy rider) I quickly stepped back into reality and put my name down in Masters category....just one year till veterans though!

Now the Masters category only consisted of nine of us, hopefully more at the next round, but on the plus side I was guaranteed to get gridded at the next race as long as I finished the race.

The course went straight into a climb to get the lungs open, and a stairlift would have been beneficial as I assumed my position at the back, not by choice, more by fitness, or lack of. Now I had set myself some realistic goals for this race....number 1-Finish,.....number 2-Don't come last.

The course was a 20 minute blast through bluebell woods, farmtracks, couple of big bombholes before climbing back up along a rumble strip of a farm track that shook every part of you body, before back into the woods for a couple more bombholes and back to the finish. The On One Race 29er was ideal on this course, my tyre choice not the best on the greasy wooded tracks that involved a couple of semi stacks and 'contact' with the saddle. It was on this same part of the course that I came round the corner on the 3rd lap to find veteran rider Jon Lyons has parted company with his bike and had come down hard. After making sure he was ok and picking his bike up out the way I set off once more and passed another couple of riders before Jon came hammering by, fuelled by adrenalin and at the same time giving me a wheel to hang on to. As he pulled over at the finish with his laps completed' I headed off for my last lap with a guess that I was probably around 5th place, and just gave it my best effort, spurred on by ''go Daddy'' from my two little boys.

I passed riders on my last lap but wasn't sure what category they were in and it was only when I crossed the line I found out I was 3rd and about 40 seconds off 2nd with 1st place way out in front.

Mission accomplished and an enjoyable return to xc racing, and £22 in prize money for 3rd...bonus!

All in all a good day, the bike worked well, and I'm still impressed with the On One wheels that have taken a fair bit of abuse but perform and sound like they should cost quite a few quid more.

My only gripe being, where are all the xc racers? Oh yeah probably like me been put off xc racing. Well dust off your racing gear and get yourself up to the next round at Gravesend Cyclopark on the 23rd June. It's going to be a two race event in a superbike stylee...motorbike noises optional as you race...each of 45 minutes plus a lap, and double series points on offer. The bigger your elbows the less chance of being overtaken! Check it out at www.wssmtb.co.uk spread the word and see you there, as long as you promise not to beat me!

Trigger's Broom

My nice gentle season opening has been rudely awakened by 130 miles of time trials in a week, and no I’m not sure how I got talked into it ether…

Oh I remember; after 9 months of being overworked and a little bit lazy I’ve spent most of last month actually enjoying riding the bike and well this return of mojo has been accompanied by the only competitive cycle sport you can do round these parts, namely riding up and down a duel carriageway staring at your front hub…

Oh well there is an end in sight, mountain mayhem is a little under a month away and beyond that were planning an epic cycle tour down to Bikevillage in southern france. With any luck this should kick start my fitness ready for next years cyclocross season – were playing the long game this year…

If nothing else this mornings TT was a bit of a wake up call and highlighted just how slow you become after 9 months of relative inactivity and work. 1.21 for a little less than a 30 is pretty slow although it does give me something to work on I guess.

Oh and just so you’ve got something to laugh at, triggers broom of road bikes – I just cant break the thing!

Lost in the woods

Having not posted for ages on here, you may be thinking "lost in the woods" is a deep and meaningful blog post title about my inner mental state. Afraid not. I was out last night for a 40 minute trail explore type of session on foot (commonly called a run, but I was way too slow to be considered a runner last night). Ended up thinking I was back near the car park, when in fact I was on the other side of the woods. Got in 1 hour 20 minutes in the rain, but only means I had more fun and found some strange objects!

So what have I been up to, I hear you ask! Well, over the past few months I have gotten about a bit - racing in Strathpufferland was a brilliant way to kick off 2013, a really cool MTB skills session in the Peak District with AQR, a very muddy ride around Sherwood Pines,  an excellent bank holiday weekend in Afan, a few sessions on the excellent new trails at Tunstall (as made by TROG) and lots and lots of miles around Thetford Forest. The first big race of the year kicks off in a few weeks at the Glentress 7, followed by a team effort in Mountain Mayhem (with the formidable boys and girls from Loco Tuning) and thinking of having a "fun" crack at the Thetford Summer Enduro in a pair. Alps in August and Kielder in September! Pointer is talking about doing Relentless in October, and it am getting more and more persuaded by that :) So what have you been up to?!

19hr champs

Right put kids in bed a cup of tea in hand and a plate of buttered malt loaf, it must be time for a blog.

Saturday saw my third attempt at the Euro/UK 24hr hour champs. The first, '11, was my rookie 24hr and I was reasonably pleased with 16th.

Last year after attempting far too many events and a painful Strathpuffer solo effort a few months before, led to a very disappointing 21st.

So this winter just gone, I didn’t race, just spent months training with a couple of Duathlons thrown in and a tapered three months of training up to last week.

The general advice from fellow 24hr riders who had seen me racing was to slow down and think of the whole race.

So Saturday midday came there we were at the start line at Wasing Estate with a mere 24hrs of riding ahead.

I went off slow and let all the 12hrs riders do their thing and I plodded on, resisting the testosterone urges to chase the riders who passed me by.

All going well and about 10 laps in I was 10th, the top ten for me would have been a result so I was happy to plod on and try to consolidate this.

Then as the light faded and the heavens opens (I had planned for a shower, but not what followed) thinking this was just a shower, I didn’t pit, I just thought an opportunity to put a extra lap on my rivals as they sat it out or changed clothing.

This, I now know, was a disastrous move! Lap 1 of the shower I was cold and wet but the second I started to freeze and my body felt like it was shutting down and I started to wobble on the bike.

I came into the pit and realised it was the early stages of hypothermia and I had no choice but to get off the bike change and warm up before it got worse.

So fresh clothes and then in the car with the heater on full, a cup of tea, a pot noodle and wrapped in a space blanket and a tent groundsheet.

The hours past and I was in and out of a semi sleep state, then around 2am (five hours later) I decided to try another lap with some kindly borrowed waterproofs and some improvised plastic bags in my sodden Sidis (the worst thought of getting back out was the idea of putting them on again).

So after the first lap I felt ok and continued to knock a few more out incident free apart from a slowly deflating tyre which had to be pumped every few hours, low pressures weren’t a bad thing in the mud.

My carbon bottle cage broke and I replaced that but then around 4am going down a very muddy switchback my chain jammed and once I stopped to look I realised the rear mech hanger and rear mech had bent beyond repair.

This was about a mile into the seven mile lap, so I pushed the bike around the rest of the lap, all the time time thinking right im going to get the singlespeed out and MTFU and keep going.

And that I did, and another consistent 7 or so laps done on the singlespeed and finished right on the nail around 11:45am.

All this had led to a 8th position overall and I was happy with my effort to say the least, as it was the worst race I had ever had for issues, but also my best ever result/effort.

That’s the great thing about 24hr racing when it seems like its all over it probably isn’t and with some grit and determination you can still claw back as result even in the remaining hours.

Adventurous streak

Well continuing my rather sporadic blogs, and indeed rides, at the moment I think I might be getting some vague reminisce of form back. Rather than driving across the country catching up with all the old haunts riding seemed the transport de jour. In anticipation of Mike’s 200 mile cross country epic in a little over a month it seemed like a good idea to get some 100+ mile rides in on some hills.  I always seem to enjoy point to point rides more than out and back, probably the adventure in me – bailing out when your 80 miles from your destination is always more hassle than its worth…

So half past eight on Monday morning and two counties down, the day was going to be long but with enough tea and cake it was looking like a good one. 

The planned route took in Stratford upon avon, Worcestershire, the Malvern hills and then on down through the Forest of Dean through Chepstow and into Bristol, where I had a training date with Kim and some roller racing… The next day would see me heading back up through the Cotswolds (Deceptively hilly) back into the Midlands.

 I’m not going to bore you with a hit by hit account of the ride, just a few hastily grabbed photos from the few days. I think in total there was about 300 miles covered in a little over three days, not to bad but im still on the back foot compared to most on the Informal 200…

Peaking out at Worcester camp on top of the Malvern Hills.

 I miss the roads in South Wales, no one but the sheep and the odd tractor to distract you.

Deceptively big these Cotswolds, the long straight approach to hill climbing.

Next challenge, apart from cleaning the bike - 200 miles across wales. Gulp.

John Flitch Memorial Duathlon

If you like being beside the seaside in North East Kent, in your cycling/running kit as the icy wind blows in of the sea at the beginning of January then this is the duathlon for you. It's a fast, flat course consisting of 2.5 mile run/9 mile mtb/4.5 mile xc run. ''Flat'' I hear you say...sounds easy does it, well the first run is straightforward out along the seafront normally into a raging headwind, then back, hop onto the bikes for 2 laps of what can either be frosty, slightly muddy ground, or if its been raining a lot recently mud, mud, oh and a bit more mud before back along the promenade before doing one lap of the bike course as the xc run. The added bonus on the xc run is that you get to jump/wade/fall in about four dykes towards the end of the run, before four mounds to run up and down before the finish.Heaven!

I have done this event several times now and the earliest was in 2005. I have never been able to crack the top three, having had a few fourth places just to frustrate me even more. With family in tow we arrived a good twenty minutes before the start ( not bad for me! ). Suitably psyched up on several renditions of the ''wind the bobbin up'' song from my two boys en route to the race I was feeling fairly confident . I say fairly, as  I was ill at Christmas and then again during the week before this race, and it was 50/50 if I would race on the Saturday. Still, I had paid my entry all ready so here I was.

The 1st run leg kicked off and I set off, resplendant in my new Team Cycleaid Skinsuit, with several comments of ''that's not going to be white by the time you've finished''. Back towards the bike section and four of us were evenly spread at the front. A quick change onto the bike and we were off for the mud, and there was plenty of it. I had opted for cyclocross tyres for my On One Race 29er. I don't know if it helped or not, definitely not when the back wheel slid on a rut and I went head first into some brambles. Two laps of mud hell later and it was back along the seafront into the headwind into the transition for the last xc run. I was fourth and I knew I could make up the places on the last run, but I was feeling the cold. I caught the third place solo male and was feeling confident. Then my lace came undone so I had to stop to fix that and then the cold really hit me and the legs didn't want to co-operate, so my run turned to a shuffle. I lost third just before the dyke crossings and then fourth just after them. I kept shuflling as best I could even having to walk a few times as I was feeling that rough.

With just about enough energy I crossed the line....in 5th place for a change. Oh well, try again next year I guess. Looking back at my times, my last run leg was 9 minutes slower than last year, so that sums up how my body was feeling towards the end. Onwards and upwards!