Author Archives: Jay Trotman

Etape Acte 1 Modane-Alpe d’Huez

I don’t know how well I’ve managed to keep this secret but…

On Monday 11th July 2011 I was one of 7000 riders to do the first Acte of this year’s Etape. 109km, including the Telegraphe, Galibier and Alpe d’Huez. It was very hot, and very hard, but I did it :).

Should you be feeling bemused, I really didn’t tell anyone I didn’t have to that I was doing it. Hubby, the kids, my folks and bro’. My doctor, my sports physio, the most totally invaluable and essential Andrew (pit crew extraordinaire), my ride partner L2P Kevin (obviously!) and because they guessed (partially because I had to borrow Simon’s amazing bike box), George and Simon at the last minute. It’s not personal, I just didn’t want to have it be a big deal or to make a big fuss about it. The thought of announcing what I’d done only once I’d done it appealed to me so…that’s exactly what I did.

There will be more to follow soon, but my ride time was 7:05 with an avs of 15.9kph and a total length of 114km. My official time is 7:32 (with the 20mins knocked off due to a traffic jam). In my category of 188 old ladies (*grin*) I was 121st. And out of the 6461 finishers I was 5345th. Facts and figures to juggle with. Considering there were only 281 women all told, even turning up is pretty impressive! I will blog all the details when I’m home again. But I set myself a goal, and I achieved it and, not to put too fine a point on it, I ROCK! Hubby says I’m the awesomeist person he knows *grin*.

I want to stand with you on a mountain

Waiting, waiting, waiting…for the party to begin *grin*.

In 24 hours time I’ll be on my way up a mountain! I’m half very excited and half nervous. I don’t know if I’ve got butterflies or indigestion! Both I reckon 🙂

As I look out of the window, in any direction, all I can see is up. And some those ups have snow on. The Mendips are looking mighty small right now…*grin*.

In 20 minutes we’re off to the start village to sign in, and this afternoon will be a short jaunt to make sure the bikes are running ok.

It’s Etape Eve, and there’s one more sleep to go… 🙂

(written on Sunday 10th July)

Tour de France

Well due to the weather and other commitments I’m not on my bike this week. Normal service will be resumed shortly…

…in the meantime I’m watching the TdF and wishing I was on the bike!

So I’ve signed up for the Great Weston Ride, along with GB, just for something to do :). It was fun last year and will hopefully be so again this year. Anyone else fancy joining us?

You gotta be

After spending yesterday afternoon worshipping at the shrine of bicycle maintenance (aka Scorpion CS) I knew I was going to need a ride today to check that everything was shipshape and ready to go again. So I issued a call to arms, and arranged an impromptu ACG ride, mainly because I selfishly fancied a ride in company rather than on my tod.

It being “my” ride, I decided it should include very good coffee, and that of course, as my regular readers will know, means going to Heaphy’s Café in Glastonbury. I’d bore you with the details but, “it’s astounding, time is fleeting…” and I have other places to be, so to cut a long story short, I present you with my stats:

Cycling time: 2:08:49 hrs
Distance: 34.30 miles
Avs: 15.7 mph

There were three of us, fairly well matched: IH, a recent newbie GH, and obviously, me. Coffee included carrot cake, and the welcome return of Orangina, as well as all the usual joys of a Fairyland Saturday morning. It was a fairly flat, scenic, sociable, sun-blessed, relatively wind free ride. The sort of which dreams are made *grin*. Do you know how lucky we are to live somewhere where other people come on holiday? Lucky indeed :).

As for the bike, well the saddle seemed a little low on the way out. I was getting that “knees around ears” feeling so we tweaked it all of 4mm after coffee and it seemed much better on the way back. The new chain went ’round – always good – and the brake pads seemed to stop me. In fact the front break is proper vicious now which is nice as long as you remember that! My lovely new Kalas shorts were very comfy and, by virtue of being a bit shorter than my other pair, helped with my “fade to tan” goal – none of those razor sharp lines for me (see rule 7) *grin*.

We are so darned proud of you

Wednesday’s child is full of woe. Or at least he was threatening to be if I didn’t take him for a ride. So I did the only thing to be done in such circumstances – I took him for a ride. Well, I would have, if he was better at sitting on my ar*e and getting a tow…

As it was I mostly sat behind him or in front of him, wherever was most useful to make us visible to the inattentive car drivers. It’s clearly very important that they get home as quickly as possible, and they’re doing it on auto pilot. This is the downside of cycling after school – it may be light, but it clashes with rush hour. In fact we were very nearly run off the road by a flat bed truck with van on the back on the single track back road into Banwell. I don’t know what he was doing, but I don’t think he saw us at all…and he certainly didn’t move. Luckily he missed us. This however implies that he did something in order to avoid us. All it actually means is that the gap that we were forced into between him and the hedge happened to just fit us. And it was bl**dy close! We had to pull over and take stock for couple of minutes afterwards. Which is one of the reasons letting MiniMe cycle on the road is so scary :(.

Other than that it was a perfectly pleasant ride, though MiniMe was on a bit of a go-slow, and his gears means he was struggling going up hill, though he did his best. There was a bit more wind that we’d have liked, but lots of low evening sun – which has it’s pros and cons. Yes it’s pretty, and the views are long, clear and lovely, but the light tends to blind the aforementioned drivers.

As we came back up the hill past the Webbington, MiniMe informed me that he wants to be as good as me. Which is sweet. I pointed out that a) I wasn’t really very good as these things go and b) it won’t take him long since young boys get better faster than old women do. He said I wasn’t old. Aw bless *grin*. I wonder if he’s after something? ;).

Cycling time: 1:35:11 hrs
Distance: 20.01 miles
Avs: 12.5 mph
ODO: 9268 miles

I know I should probably be taking it easy, so this was a good ride for that, but I was champing at the bit slightly. My legs were feeling the need… It would appear that my DOMS isn’t Delayed, it’s just not coming, not that I’m complaining you understand! Anyway, I never have been renowned for my patience, but I, like MiniMe, did my best :).

I’m not the easiest person you ever got to know

I’d just like you to know that my body rocks. And I don’t mean that in an immodest, hey, look at me way. I mean it in a biological mechanical sense. It’s just amazing what it can do.

It got up at 5:00am and cycled the hilliest sportive it has ever done on Sunday – 106 miles, 3407 metres of climbing – on the hottest day of the year so far. All I fed it was a a bar and a half and the best part of a couple of bananas, washed down with a lot of water/Torq. I drank my recovery, and wasn’t even in the mood for a good meal when I got in, and I’ve not been all that hungry ever since. Thirsty yes, hungry no. And oddest of all, I didn’t even sleep well Sunday night.

Yesterday morning I will admit that my get up and go hadn’t bothered getting up at all. And I had a tendency to lose my train of thought halfway through… But my legs were feeling ok, and by the end of the day I was feeling a lot better mentally too. So I was dreading today. Day 2 can be the worst, as it was post Somerset 100. Especially as, yet again, I didn’t sleep well last night. So this morning I was expecting DOMS and a very good zombie impression.

But no. Nothing of the sort. To put this to the test I went for the ride I had planned with Mim. Nothing fancy. A few “hills” to start with – round the Webbington and the back of Loxton way – and then mostly flat with wind, round Brent Knoll, Burnham, the Levels and home. Now I’m not saying I’d have liked to be doing a long sportive today. Or that I went up the hills with any great panache. But it was pretty much like any other training ride – as my stats demonstrate.

Cycling time: 2:10:13 hrs
Distance: 34.28 miles
Avs: 15.7 mph
ODO: 9248 miles

Isn’t that just amazing? Considering the pretty constant talking going on, it was even fairly fast. I’m still feeling pretty good – no sudden come down or anything. I told you – my body rocks! :).

Maybe Day 3 will be the charm this time ’round…. 😉

As for the Dartmoor Classic – my overall position was 509th, out of about 760 finishers. Average. I was 12th out of the 33 women though – which is better. I sent them an email, including a link to the blog entry, to say how great I thought it had been, and they’ve put it on their home page – which totally made my day, and means that I’ve had lots of lovely visitors popping by and agreeing with me :).

Dartmoor Classic

Today was, if nothing else, a lesson in how a sportive should be organised. Since we have established a baseline disastrous standard against which to compare all other events, (yes, still moaning about the Dragon), we know what we’re talking about! This was the opposite end of the scale – everything was superlative.

Since kick-off was from 7:00am onwards, we, being GB and I as ever, stayed over at a b&b in Torquay last night, which meant we could sign in yesterday too, and do all the start villagey stuff. We thus established that there was plenty of parking, loads of toilets – both in the car parks and at the start village – and a timing chip to fix to your helmet that was scanned there and then to check it was working. (Mr Lusardi take note…).

We rocked up at 6:30am ish this morning, were marshalled to park in one of the outer carparks, rode in, used the facilities, and were near the front of the (minimal) queue. They penned the riders up into groups which were set off at intervals, and we were underway by 7:10am. See, it is possible…

It was initially so foggy that sunglasses were a waste of space as they got covered in water, and I was grateful of my arms. At some point, after a hill (there were a lot of hills) we popped out above the cloud cover into the sunshine, so I adjusted my glasses, bashed my left eye wrong…and my contact lens fell out! I stopped asap, no doubt giving the riders around me a moment, and was massively relieved to discover it was sitting on my cheek where I think the sunglasses had trapped it. *Phew*! Well when you’re as short sighted as I am, riding without a lens is not an option. And let’s face it, binocular vision is quite important when you’re riding a bike… To be fair it’s quite important a lot of the time!

GB was off ahead of me, which is pretty much where he stayed all day. The only difference being that after a while he stopped waiting for me! He says that G is for Git… ;). We do not climb hills at the same speed, and he descends faster than me. Given that today’s route was all about going up, or going down so that you could go up again, this was never going to be a ride where G being for Group worked.

The first 4 hours were hard work. This is not to say that the 2nd 4 hours were easy. Bear with me, all will be explained. There were LOTS of big long hills. According to the website, 3407 m of climbing in all. And the sun was out, the fog burnt off, and the temperatures were rising. The wind was a blessing and curse in that it got in the way, but it cooled you down so…rock and a hard place. The BBC forecast had said white cloud, 19C and 7mph wind. Really, beats me why they bother. Sunshine, 28+C, and a bit windier than that – all day! I know, I have the tan lines to prove it. I had left my Torq refill in the car and it’s just as well as it meant I just diluted that which I had, and I think today it was more important to get water in than energy drink. Funny how these things work out isn’t it? :).

I was suffering for various reasons which I am indeed going to bore you with. I started off the day dehydrated, which tends to give me cystitis like symptoms – not comfortable on a bike. My painkillers are a necessary evil – they keep the knee in check, and the shoulder (although less s0) yet they upset a tummy that is already not that happy with energy bars and drinks. So I tend to have tummy ache too. Plus GB had spent so long telling me I’d be fine doing this ride that my constant inability to keep up with him yet seeing him in the distance was getting me down… That’ll teach me to fall for the hype! G was for a little bit Glum and Grumpy :(.

At the 4 hour mark it was time to take more pills, so I stopped after yet another hill, under a shady tree, dosed myself up, ate and drank, and had a word with myself *grin*. After that it got a little easier. Well, there’s caffeine in some of the pills, the painkilling element stopped the twingeing knee, I was drinking more than enough, which helped with that, and since 8 hours was my goal time, I knew I was over half way done – which is quite motivating.

So I perked up a bit. So much so that I even overtook GB at one point and made it up the very very long climb back up to the foodstop at Princeton (just as well stocked and friendly 2nd time around) and had to wait for him! :P. Ok, that was it really as far as competition goes. After that he drew away…not to be seen again until after I’d crossed the finish line, looking slightly sheepish and rather apologetic. Maybe I shouldn’t have beaten him up the hill… ;).

It was a stunning route – way nicer than the Dragon was even in years gone past. Amazing views, Dartmoor, ponies and very cute foals, Highland cattle and calves, suicidal sheep. In fact a great deal of free ranging not quite wildlife! We even had to slow down and let a black cat nonchalantly cross the road…which I believe is good luck. Well, running it over would certainly have been bad luck, for the cat if no-one else…

After the final killer hill at Moretonhampton and some lovely descending, it was more rolling terrain, and then the last 10 miles were mostly flat. I do love a “10 miles to go” sign. And I got a “5 miles to go” one too – bonus! I found a wheel to suck for the last couple of miles, since by this time I was feeling lazy and I knew I was going to make it in in under 8 hours. Indeed, as I rolled across the finish line, I made it 7:49. I joined the queue for the formalities, where they scanned the tag and told me my official time was 8:14 and easily qualified me for a Bronze! ‘Rah! Go me! Turns out the goodie bag is cool too – bottle, medal, trophy, inner tube, recovery, nice t-shirt… Yet again, proof of how it should be done 🙂

Cycling time: 7:49:00 hrs
Distance: 106.14 miles
Avs: 13.5 mph
ODO: 9213 miles

GB was pretty euphoric about what a good ride he’d had. He got in 10 minutes before I did, but, probably because he’d hung back for me early on, he missed out on Silver. I didn’t, to be honest, have the same kind of post-event buzz that I usually get. I guess it was a bit lonely, and unlike recent events I didn’t get to join any groups, or team up much with anyone – it’s not a course that lends itself to that kind of thing. My shoulder thing was also agony by the end, and I was kinda tired, so it was just good to not be riding any more! I think I’d describe myself now as just quietly content to have achieved what I set out to do. I’m also very very pleased with myself for getting up all the hills, from the longest to the steepest (although steep wasn’t really the issue today). I didn’t walk, or even stop for a breather, I just dug in and plodded up. Did I mention I’m stubborn? 😉

Dartmoor Classic – done! 🙂

All together now

Variety is the spice of life, or so they say, which this week meant that MiniMe and I gave our Wednesday ride a miss, and went out today instead. Which gained us a couple of degrees and dropped us a couple of knots, so it was clearly a pretty good call.

Now it’s all very well cycling in circles around the Levels, but after a while it does get a tad boring, and whilst it puts miles on the wheels, it does not put hills in your legs. The time had come, the walrus said… Unfortunately that makes me a walrus and I’m not sure I’m very happy with that! Having said that I have heard that walruses are grumpy creatures, so perhaps there’s a grain of truth to be found there… And according to wikipedia, it’s a long lived and social animal, so there’s something to aspire to. So maybe I am the walrus? Goo goo g’joob! *grin*.

Now, where were we? Ah yes. About to take eldest up hills. It had to happen some time and I did warn him in advance so as to give him plenty of time to throw a teenage tantrum and refuse to go. He didn’t, we did.

Out of Axbridge we went, up the hill to the bypass, and then up the A38 to go up Winscombe hill. Round the back through Barton to the Webbington and then up the hill past there to go back to Cross. Through Cross, over the A38 and up Notting Hillway. We did consider going the longer less steep way but, ignorance being bliss and knowing no better, he chose the short (ish!) sharp shock way. I think he ground to a halt half way up and had to get started again, but he did a fine job of getting to the top without complaining half as much as I would have done in his place!

From there it was past the windmill, down Rughill, and back home the usual way. Apparently it wasn’t his back that was hurting as we went up the Cheddar Road this time, it was his legs! So there’s progress for you ;).

My cycling PC has new bunny batteries – both halves of it – so hopefully my figures will be a little more accurate. Having said that, they didn’t seem to add up, but maybe I set it up wrong, so I’ll give it one more chance…

Cycling time: 1:21:13 hrs
Distance: 17.43 miles
Avs: 12.9 mph
ODO: 9107 miles

It was good for me because I’m supposed to be tapering, and just spinning my legs. It was also good for me to go up hills at someone else’s speed, sort of a reminder that it’s ok to go up them really slowly, and that actually, if you do, they’re easier! I guess I tend to try and go up them the best I can, which is all well and good, but sometimes it’s just not necessary :).

So, roll on Sunday. The forecast is currently ok, but I have little faith in forecasts…so we’ll see :). It’s a very hilly ride *gulp*.

When we dance

Yesterday was a rest day which I finally felt, having had a successful event, that I had earned. Not that I really felt like I needed it. Which’ll larn me. I really should remember that these days it’s day 2 post-event that makes me feel like I’ve been hit over the head with a blunt instrument. However yesterday I felt fine, although I did discover that if I prodded my thighs my muscles were pretty painful. Simple – don’t prod your thighs ;).

So, as I was feeling ok, it was time to go ride the bike again, a ride that I’d arranged last week with Mim. Details were finalised by txt as usual, and I picked her up at her place at 9:10ish. The plan was to spin our legs for a couple of hours, nowt more, since we both have events on later in the week. It was warmish and dry, but as windy as ever, and as we headed out into it, it was definitely making life harder, which was a tad concerning considering our goal to take it easy…

First off – out to Wedmore. I must have ridden that stretch of road literally hundreds of times now. Every time I ride down, or up, it, I find myself trying to work out precisely how many times, as such mental meanderings get you at least half way to where you were going. I can point out all the potholes & obstacles, have my “racing” line down pat *yawn*. However this is probably a good thing when you’re really just out for a spin and a chat and not to concentrate too much. There are worse roads to ride down. Like the A38 for example.

By the time we got to Wedmore, my knee, neither strapped up nor drugged, was quite keen to remind me that at least one of those things would have been a good idea considering that it had not really been rested since Sunday. As usual though I was travelling equipped, and popped a pink pill as we headed out of Wedmore towards Blackford and Mark, which did the trick soon enough. I hit Somerset 100 deja-vu as we turned left to go through Bason Bridge and up the climb through Woolavington which I didn’t even try to do well up. I just engaged pootle mode and got to the top.

We wiggled along the pretty roads to Shapwick, and then straight back through Wedmore on that same road and out to home. Which did involve going up Mudgelely Hill. Another hill I have no doubt done better in my time, by which I guess I mean faster. However I started at the bottom, and I got to the top, and that’s the point right? Yes it was harder work than sometimes, but it wasn’t too bad… Besides which detouring around it would have made our ride take even longer, so it was just the easiest thing to do.

We may have been re-tracing our pedal strokes from thereonin, but with the wind behind us my favourite road was even more blissful than usual, even without racing down it :).

Cycling time: 2:19:33 hrs
Distance: 35.96 miles
Avs: 15.4 mph
ODO: 9090

Considering that I really wasn’t trying hard, quite deliberately, even going so far as to ease off the (metaphorical) gas if I felt like I was pushing it at all, it turns out that we were going fairly fast. Interesting…

However pretty much ever since I walked back through my front door I’ve been a complete waste of space. I’m knackered! Practically asleep on my feet, and that’s even after a little while spent being asleep on my sofa! *grin*. On the upside my cat likes me more since she can clearly sense that whenever I sit down I’m liable to be there for a while, so she can sit on me :).

I’m thinking I need to make a conscious effort to take it a little easy between now and Sunday, which as some of you know, is not something that’s going to be easy…

Somerset 100

Finally! An event that went according to plan! About bl**dy time too, I hear you say. Thus probably proper jinxing the next event but hey, one event at a time ;).

There is something inexplicably yet smugly satisfying about cycling to an event, taking part, and cycling home. I can’t explain it, but there it is. So I met GB in the Square at a positively civilised 7:45am to ride over to the start of the Somerset 100 at Sweets Tea Rooms. Unlike the forecast, which had unrealistically stated that it would be sunny and a bit windy all day, it was cloudy, quite windy, with showers to be dodged all day. Having been a bit under the weather for the last few days, due to a reaction to antibiotics, I was feeling a tad fragile and even started out with more layers on than GB, which is virtually unheard of! Clearly he’s more badass than me…

There was this plan that the whole ride would be cycled in pelotons, which had me a little nervous, and distinctly under-convinced about my ability to keep up. However this did not happen – ‘rah! We headed off at 8:30am ish, and by the time we got to Weare everyone had spread out a bit. GB was with a group a bit ahead – he always goes off faster than me and I’m used to it by now – and I was happily on my lonesome between his group and the one behind. We were, courtesy of his courtesy, reunited around Brent Knoll, which is also when my layers came off, and stayed together as a peloton of two for the rest of the ride.

It was kinda weird doing an event on roads that I train on all the time, so much so that it was almost hard to take it seriously. Which probably explains the speed we spent the first half of the ride at. By the time the roads had become less familiar and we pulled over at Castle Cary station for a break, around 60 miles in, we’d averaged 17.8mph! Silly speeds! Having said that up until then it had really been fairly flat, and the wind had been in our favour for quite a while. Still…

Neither of these two things were to last. And just as hills should not get steeper at the ends, the last chunk of a sportive should not contain the hills and the wind! OK, so the wind is an unpredictable variable, the hills tend not to be ;). Long slow sloggy hills at that, for the most part. Inevitably we slowed down a bit. I’m really pleased of how well I plodded up those hills though, and I’m pretty sure I’m getting better at descending too – and there were some corking descents. Best of all was the last down from the top of the Mendips, through the Horringtons, to Wells. Proper enjoyable :).

By this point both my knee, even painkiller fortified and strapped up, and my shoulder were proper hurting and concentrating on speed was, bizarrely, helping distract me from it. The mind is a funny thing. And mine possibly more so than most ;). Besides which by now my legs could sense “home” and the last 10 miles or so were familiar, flat, and fast! We even towed someone home with us – very good cycling karma *grin*. Mind you I was only allowed to go on front if I “wasn’t stupid” by racing for home. Spoilsport :P. Of course now I get to look as if I was holding back. Bonus!

We got back to Sweets in the burgeoning sunshine, and hubby and the mob were waiting for me, ready to fortify me with coffee and possibly the best cupcake ever. Well ok, that probably depends on how much you need a cupcake, but I really needed a cupcake! How else was I supposed to summon the energy to cycle home again? *grin*.

It was a lovely small well-run friendly event. Friendly riders, friendly “staff”. The broom wagon was the photographer was the food stop was the outrider, and did all jobs well. Sweets is always nice, and the fact that they were having a family day too meant that there was a bustle and atmosphere independent of us cyclists which was lovely. Usually when I arrive at the end, well down the ranking, there’s nothing left to enjoy! And let’s not forget, it was all for charidee. Win win :).

9.19 miles there. 12.07 miles back. This I know from bikeroutetoaster, because I’ve just worked it out. However my stats and GB’s vary considerably, and as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not 100% happy with how my bike PC is working (new batteries will be going in asap). The route itself was supposed to be 91.85 miles. Since GB’s gadgets are, inevitably, more expensive and accurate than mine, then I guess the truth is more likely his, or at the very least somewhere in-between…and when you add it all together, it makes for a total of around 113 miles cycled by me today.

Mine are as follows:
Cycling time: 5:41:29 hrs
Distance: 95.69 miles
Avs: 16.8 mph

GB’s are:
Cycling time: 5:33:26 hrs
Distance: 90.89 miles
Avs: 16.4 mph

ODO is therefore: 9055

The ride home was a little slower, but we didn’t do a very good job of pootling even though we both avowed that we were going to. We did however, thanks to my knee, bail on coming straight home over Mudgeley Hill, and instead wiggled home via Blackford. I wasn’t allowed to race down the Wedmore road either, which is just as well, as I wasn’t planning on it. Honest…

So now I’m home. I cycled 113 miles on a bar, some Lucozade jelly beans, and a banana, though I did drink more than usual. Hubby made me drink my recovery when I got in, which was a darned fine idea, especially as I was feeling more than a little bit spacey. I even managed to eat dinner which I wasn’t sure I was up for – my appetite is always off post-event. However I am now officially zoned and zen-ed out. Quiet, tired, but happy 🙂