Author Archives: Jay Trotman

Just hold on

I couldn’t decide what to entitle this entry. I was torn between “Welcome to the Jungle” (a.k.a Bridgwater) or “Just Hold On”, being what you do to SH’s back wheel when hurtling up the A38. Bearing in mind I spent more time doing the latter than being in the former, “Just Hold On” won…

So, as you’ll have gathered, SH and I went riding in the typically balmy English spring weather. Yep – the minute I got to the Square, the drizzle started. Seriously, if you have a water shortage, just call me in – I’m gifted…

SW had an ambitious plan to go to for a coffee at some place in the Quantocks the other side of Bridgwater. As ever he had under-estimated my sloth, and by the time we’d slogged across the Levels into a headwind, fought our way through the wild streets, and got lost coming out the other side, there really wasn’t time to get up the big ascent to coffee that awaited us. Darn, what a shame. I felt just terrible about that…

So it was back down into Bridgwater, where the rain began in slightly more earnest, and stopping at traffic lights allowed you to become properly aware of how wet you were getting. Being time poor, (my fault), our only real option to get home was straight up the A38 and then the A370. And what a joy that was. Well, to be fair, to start with the wind was gloriously behind us, the road surface was smooth, and we were fair bombing along – the stuff cyclist dreams are made of. However, after a while, due to the monotony of the road, the rain, and the continuous traffic – of which a large number were scarey lorries – I did flag a little. I picked up a bit when we reached Brent Knoll, which I hadn’t been able to see due to the low cloud, as I realised precisely how close to home we were. I think I’d been thinking it was a lot further, which wasn’t doing a whole heap for my motivation. And I may be seeing SH’s back wheel in my sleep for a while – it was oddly hypnotic.

Cycling time: 2:41:36
Distance: 44.37 miles
Avs: 16.5 mph
ODO: 3663 miles

When SH pointed out how far we’d gone, I was a tad gob smacked. I’d lost track of time a bit, but mostly it’s due to the average speed! Not bad for me. That’s what comes of going riding with a whippet *grin*.

Little Bird

I hitched a ride on GB‘s coattails today. He had a long ride planned, and what with the wet & windy weather forecast, I couldn’t really face it. Not four hours of it anyway. But I decided I could probably do a couple of hours, and duly met him in the Square at 9:15am. 9:15 being neither 9:00 or 9:30 to save either of us having to decide what we’d meant by 9:00ish.

As the wind was still coming from the South we headed out towards Glastonbury – from where I could head home with the wind behind me, and he could head off into the hills. Which is pretty much how it worked out, only minus the forecast rain. Not that I’m complaining you understand 😉

We had coffee at the cafe at the bottom of the high street, sitting outside and huddling protectively around the bikes. The gentleman at the table behind us was having a great, wide-ranging and in depth, conversation with………….himself. I rarely have conversations that interesting with other people, let alone myself. Glastonbury never disappoints *grin*.

Duly cappuccino fueled, we parted company, and I headed straight for home. Like a bullet – on to the drops, head down – straight down the main road. Places to go, things to do, you know how it is. I wiggled a bit to get across the Levels and add the odd mile, and I’m glad I did because I startled up a gorgeous Great Spotted Woodpecker. Kingfishers are quite common down there, but this was a novelty 🙂 And considering it’s “great” – it’s quite a little bird really…

Cycling time: 2:00:21
Distance: 32.21 miles
Avs: 16.0 mph
ODO: 3619 miles

The wind was behind me a lot of the time on the way back. You can tell – if I’m going that fast on the flat (20+mph) and not feeling it – it’s not because I’ve suddenly turned into Lance! *grin*. I was pushing a bit though – hence the average speed, with which I’m moderately chuffed 🙂

Courtesy of Wiggle I bought more Muc-Off stuff this week – more of the Bike Cleaner and the Bike Spray, and also some Chain Cleaner. I used all of ’em when I got back. My bike is now cleaner than a post-confessional Roman Catholic soul *grin*. And shiny too 🙂

I think I can, I think I can

I didn’t want to go out today. However I had no good excuse and the alternative was two hours in the gym which was no more attractive. So I got myself together, plugged in the mp3 and headed off this morning. I had a rough route planned out, but as it turns out, I didn’t really stick to it. I figured since I had no-one to please by myself I could do what I liked and go where I liked. Very liberating, n’est-ce pas?

I started off with Shipham Hill. As you do. Oddly it was noticeably better than usual, and considerably faster. From home to the top usually takes me well over 20 minutes, and it was more like 16 this time which is weird but did set me off on a very positive note. Down the lovely hill to the traffic lights at Churchill, left turn to hurtle down the main road at Sandford. I decided to use more main roads than usual today – trying to avoid all the bone jarring potholes on the back roads you see. Right turn at Sandford and a very lovely hurtle out to the seaside down on the drops with the wind behind me. If you can’t hear the wind…”it’s behind you”! *grin*

I headed through Kewstoke the way I used to go before I added the extra loop, which made a nice change and meant I got to go up a different short steep hill. Out along the work-in-progress promenade in WSM playing dodge the pedestrian, and through up and out at Uphill. Where I surprised myself by going straight over the main road and up the big Bleadon Hill and over the top. It would appear that what I actually mean when I say no when other people suggest going up a hill is not no I won’t go up hills. I mean I won’t go up hills with you. Left to my own, very slow, devices, I’m fine! *grin*.

Down into Bleadon, up out of Bleadon on the normal hill, along and up, up, up, past the Webbington Hotel to head for home. No heavyside layer though. (don’t worry, Dad will know what I mean).

Cycling time: 2:04:13
Distance: 29.57 miles
Avs: 14.1 mph
ODO: 3587 miles

My actual route turned out as follows. Quite a good training ride I think, if only because it showed me that I’m getting better at getting up hills, and was all the more enjoyable for being that little bit unplanned.

Best of all, I came home just in time for the courier who was at my door… And inside the box he brought was…my lovely white stripe replacement Ultremo R.1s! Arrived direct from Schwalbe, complete with lebekuchen cookie iced with “Sorry” on it! How cute is that? *grin*. Ok, it’s taken a long time, but hey, better late than never!

(if you’re confused as to why I needed them, do a search for “bulge” up there on the RHS, be amazed at the fact the bulge does not in a single instance refer to the effect of any of us wearing inadvisable lycra, and read up on it).

New shoes, new tyres…I’m good to go 🙂

Blowin’ in the Wind

Temperature in double figures. Light Southerly breeze. Sun shining. At least that’s what the forecast said. And to quote Meat Loaf – two out of three ain’t bad… Inevitably, the odd one out was the wind. Light breeze? I think not… Ah well, at least GW was on her shire-horse. We did my normal loop and spent a happy couple of hours shooting the breeze whilst waiting for it to be behind us. I’d like to say it made me go up Mudgeley Hill faster, but we all know I’d be lying… It did make the last stretch a whole heap more enjoyable though.

We finished off our loop by taking the scenic route around the reservoir where the wind very nearly took me out as I cycled past a gap in the small wall…not nice!

Cycling time: 1:52:22
Distance: 28.01 miles
Avs: 14.9 mph
ODO: 3557 miles

It was a nice ride as these things go. I must get the bike in for a service though as the gears are still playing up which is annoying. The best thing is cycling in slightly fewer layers – today was the first day with the normal jacket and not the winter one. Ooh, and I christened my new shoes too, which I got in the January sales, and very lovely they are too. Possibly a bit of cleat tweaking required, but other than that, very comfortable, and very lovely. I do like new shoes… 🙂

Climb every mountain

I’d been off form all week post ear-infection so hadn’t been on the bike at all. So, after a non-abstemious Saturday night having a Ball, if the weather had been anything less than lovely on Sunday morning, I’d have rolled over and gone back to sleep… However the curtains went back to reveal bright spring sunshine, with apparently little wind, so I dragged myself out of bed. Having warned the ACG that it would be a hilly ride, I wasn’t expecting a huge turnout, and I wasn’t wrong. For a while it looked like it was just going to be DM and I, but we were joined at the last minute by MD, so then there were three.

Well – as it turns out, there were 4, but KG had failed to pay attention to my oh so informative emails and apparently turned up half an hour late and had to go do hills by himself…*grin*. So 4 of the ACG were doing hills, 3 of them together. DM, being a renowned mountain goat, had created the route, leaving MD and I to follow apprehensively in his wake.

We set off and headed for the first hill – out of Rodney Stoke. No, not THAT hill, the other one. Which is about 15 minutes of climbing. At least we’d kinda warmed up by then. In fact so much so we’d had to stop before the climb to remove various layers as the spring sun was proving warmed than expected. I’d never been up that way before – let’s face it I don’t go out of my way looking for big hills – and it was quite a nice way up.

On the top, when we finally got there, we found some properly cold windy weather as it clouded over quite a while, and I hankered after the layers removed… DM led us around the top of the Mendips and down to Blagdon, before doing some interesting routes around Butcombe that involved a lot of ups, and included a little stinker that I’d never been up before – which was a stand up and pray your legs are going to last to the top one. Luckily they held out. From there it was pretty much downhill to the cafe stop at Bishops Sutton. I always forget how many hills there are in that Butcombe/Nempnet area. DM clearly doesn’t…

We sat outside and enjoyed the welcome return of the sunshine, admired another cyclist’s rather nice matt black Specialized, and DM and MD consumed bacon butties in KG’s honour.. I’d have done cake, but I knew the mob were home secretly making carrot cake for Mothers’ Day, so restrained myself. My cappuccino was very nice though 🙂

As we saddled up once more, DM decided a gel was a good idea. Now if he thinks he needs a gel to get up the next hills, that’s worrying…*grin*. We went up the Harptree hill, past a Bentley that probably cost more than my house is worth, slowly slogging our way back up the Mendips. We were, as ever, passed by a couple of other cyclists but to be fair, they didn’t exactly hare away into the distance, so it was less irritating than usual 😉

Up to the top again, and slap bang into the nasty cold wind. I got ahead a bit heading for the Gorge, as I knew the guys would overtake me going downhill as they have way more nerve than me!. And I wasn’t wrong… It was absolutely freezing going down there and still damp on the roads. There’s definitely a micro-climate thing going on there. I then got stuck behind various eejots in cars, and also got a stone or something in my front brake pads/rim, which didn’t help get me down any faster. Remind me to avoid the Gorge – silly season has begun and the grockles are back. Once at the bottom I headed for home, going as fast as I could all the way. The guys had waited in the Square for me – very chivalrously – and we all agreed it had been a darned good ride 🙂

Cycling time: 3:03:40
Distance: 37.95 miles
Avs: 12.3 mph
ODO: 3529 miles

Oddly I kinda enjoyed the hills. As long as the gradient isn’t too steep, I can get into a rhythm and plod along fairly happily in bottom gear. The winter lull seems to be over and my legs were feeling pretty good – like I’ve managed to build up the stamina a bit. Might as well get better at going up the hills since I’m still crap at going down ’em! *grin*

Mad March Hare

In order to avoid the early morning rush, I opted to stay over the night before the event. Which is just as well, since if I hadn’t, I’d probably have wimped out. For starters I came down with a cold on Thursday night. I hit it with everything I had – painkillers, vitamins, echinacea, coffee…the works. And it seemed to be working. I drove up to the hotel on Saturday afternoon, went out for Italian carbs with Jon and his partner Sam, and was feeling about 85% and pleased that I wasn’t feeling as bad as I’d expected to. So far so good…

Back at the hotel, about 10pm ish, I noticed my left ear was feeling blocked. Hm – historically not a good sign. Nowt I could do about it though, so I went to bed at around 11pm, all ready to get a good night’s sleep…and was up again at midnight with chronic earache. Ow! It took about another 90 minutes for it to build up, pop, rumble, pop, pop a lot, start oozing gunk, and then settle enough for me to go back to sleep. Not good. That’ll be a perforated eardrum for you. Nice.

Up at 7.00am to eat breakfast carbs and pink pills. Well, since I was there, I couldn’t just roll over, wimp out, and have a duvet day, now could I? My blackberry app tells me its -7C outside. Which it may well have been. It was certainly sunny and icy. I put on every layer of cycling I possess, wrapped my head and neck in Buffs, stuffed the mp3 player in the suppurating left ear and drove down to the start. Parking turned out to be around a very smelly cow shed – so the fact that it was freezing may have been a minor blessing on the olfactory front – high summer must stink to high heaven there!

I met Jon, who’d cycled down, once I’d put the bike together. I signed up and got sorted, at which point I bumped into some of the L2P Phuk.dis crew which was nice. It would have been nice to chat longer but hey, not the time or the place, and I didn’t see them afterwards. I’m sure I’ll see them at future events..

My cycle computer decided that it wasn’t working. Marvellous. But Jon, being a boy, had a Garmin gadgety thing, and I figured that would have to do, and could supply me with blog stats ok, so I decided not to fret too much about it. I couldn’t find the loos and it was time to head off, so Jon and I headed off at, by my reckoning, 8:36am. Just as we set off I got this massive sort of internal twang of the muscles in my neck/shoulder – enough to make me gasp – and lost the ability to look over my left shoulder without wincing.

As you can see, I was off to a flying start… It’s a good thing Jon was there since I was kinda woozy, and not really with it. That’s the side effect of having half your head blocked. It was very icy, and the low sun and long shadows made avoiding the ice and the potholes tricky enough, without having to try and spot the limited signage. Jon’s gadget pointed us in the right direction more than once. My PC was at least telling the time, so I could keep track of when to eat and roughly how long I’d been out.

Having missed the loos at the start, at some point the requirement for one became more pressing. Public toilets are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, so after passing some closed ones, we stopped off and I asked in a little village shop… After ascertaining that I was a girl, and that I was not the first of a horde, the initially hostile shopkeeper let me use his loo, which was very lovely of him, and quite restored my faith in people 🙂 Plus, with it being that cold out there, hiding behind a bush and exposing myself to the elements had been even less attractive than unusual!

Jon and I stuck together for quite a while, but some time during the second hour he dropped behind on a hill, and we never managed to sync up again. I though he was behind me and waited up on Snowshill for him, but it turns out that a great many riders were wearing luminous yellow jackets, and the one behind me hadn’t been him at all…

…so after a while I decided to keep movin’ on, to keep warm if nothing else, and that was that. I couldn’t tell you much about the ride – I was definitely a tad zoned out – it’s just kind of edited highlights. The weather was glorious – wall to wall blue skies, spring sunshine, burgeoning British country side, lovely Cotswold villages, a great deal of seriously expensive property of dubious taste, and amazing views. There was a fab long flat stretch before the feed stop with the wind behind me that was very lovely indeed.

Other than that, there were hills. Plenty of ’em. More than I expected, and an annoying number of them in the last hour and a half. The largest hill took us up to Saintsbury (I think) and I did have to stop a couple of times. I didn’t walk though – unlike many others – and I think if I’d been at 100% I’d have made it up all the way. Mind you it’s easy to say that now 😉

Cycling time: 5:50 ish. Say 5:30 not inc stops.
Distance: 77 miles
Avs: 14.0 mph
ODO: 3491 miles

I got in around 14:20 and someone yelled something about 5:50 – so knock 20 minutes or so off for stops, and you get 5 and half hours, which means I probably averaged around 14mph – which is the best guesstimate I’m likely to get. Me and my hill weary legs walked the bike back to the car to pack it away, and to take a bit to regain my sangfroid, before queuing up for my exceedingly welcome bacon butty. Come to think of it, my sang was pretty well froid enough… 😉

I hadn’t wanted to take my leg warmers with me, but I’m sure glad I did. it would have been hard to wear them otherwise! And hey, pulling them up all the time can, oddly, be usefully distracting… It never really warmed up – the ice lasted all day – and even with all the layers my feet went walkabout around the same time Jon did, never to be seen again…well, until the bacon butty queue that is.

The official route is here – but I have to say that most of the time I had no idea where I was – I was just on the bike pedalling, and looking for arrows… Bearing in mind the scarcity of them, it’s a miracle I didn’t get lost, and not surprising that quite a few people did. More than once I saw people heading off into the distance past an arrow pointing the way they should be going. I’m just glad that wasn’t me 🙂

What with my state of mind and health, it was a good day to be cycling in the sunshine on my own, pleasing nobody but me. All told, and all things considered, it was a pretty good ride 🙂

UPDATE : official time is 5:48. 123rd out of 232. As the fastest was 4:15, I don’t reckon that’s too bad 🙂

(Just as an FYI – the doctor confirmed the eardrum this morning – so I have antibiotics for that, and also a number to call to get to physio treatment to look at my shoulder/neck problem, what with it being recurrent an’ all.)

Halo

For consistency’s sake, I should update this before I do the MMHare tomorrow. So. On Thursday I made myself go for a ride. I wasn’t feeling like it, as it looked cold and windy. But sunny. Which, to be fair, it was. I made myself go by decided to only do a short ride and to make up with an hour in the gym in the evening, which I duly did.

Cycling time: 1:18:51
Distance: 19.81 miles
Avs: 15.0 mph
ODO: 3414 miles

It was a fairly flat ride, so I should have been faster. The nasty head wind probably explains some of it. However, as it turns out, I was coming down with a cold, so that probably explains the rest. Due to tomorrow’s event, I’ve been throwing painkillers, echinacea and vitamins galore at it ever since. I just need to stave off the worst of it until Monday! *fingers crossed*.

Right now there is a pile of cycling gear growing in the hall. Plus drinks, bars, mp3 player, and so on. The bike is cleaned, tyres pumped, all prepped. And I’ve checked and it really does fit in the back of my little car – minus front wheel of course – so that’s cool. Today, I shall mostly be eating carbs… Roll on jacket potatoes for lunch! 🙂

Going through the motions

Technically speaking I should be tapering this week…but we all know how good I am at things like that. Besides which, the temperature was above zero and the sun was shining – how can a girl not go out on her bike?

In a nod towards tapering, I just did my usual training loop type of thing – though I did stretch it a bit. Not for training reasons, just because it was so nice out there that I wanted to be out there for a little longer!

The sun shone, the wind did not blow, and I didn’t push it. I just enjoyed the ride. And it was a ride 🙂

Cycling time: 2:18:39
Distance: 35.99 miles
Avs: 15.5 mph
ODO: 3395 miles

Ok, so not that fast. But not that slow either. It was lovely out 🙂 Lots of Somerset goodness – herons, newborn lambs, wide open blue skies, flat Levels… That sense of promise – of seasons changing. The thought of returning to shorts and mitts. To at least one layer less. Roll on summer 🙂

Of course, it was so nice today, that I can almost guarantee wind and rain for Sunday…*grin*.

Tonight’s gonna be a good night

I think I’m developing a cycling stutter..

Take 1: head up road in plenty of time to meet the ACG lot in the Square. Discover that front tyre is well on the way to doing a pancake impresssion. Turn round. Go home. Grab mechanic, inner tube and tyre levers. Change tube. Re-inflate tyre to more normal doughnut proportions and…

Take 2: head up the road and meet 5 of the ACG lot in the Square, being only marginally late, and not being the last to arrive either.

Hand reigns over to GB. Follow blindly off on very convoluted route towards the Walled Garden. Discover some of the muddiest pot-hole ridden roads possible. Curse GB for need to wash bike later. Admire GB for finding roads that we actually hadn’t ridden down before – not an easy task these days! Enjoy the sun, admire the views…

Arrive at cafe. Consume very expensive coffee and carrot cake. Contemplate ominous view. Will weather to pass by on either side. Watch weather approaching dead centre. Watch the rain getting closer and closer. Feel the temperature dropping. Leave just as the rain arrives and…every man (or woman) for themselves. Somebody up there clearly thought I shouldn’t have moaned about cleaning my bike and decided to do it for me… Rain like bullets, roads like rivers, head down, foot down and hammer it home. As Fast As Possible. Rarely seen rain like it. Be happy never to see it again. It was kinda funny though – practically laughable *grin*.

Cycling time: 2:04:30
Distance: 30.10 miles
Avs: 14.5 mph
ODO: 3358 miles

It’s amazing how fast you can get home when you have to…and I was soaked through by the time I got there. But the bike was indeed a lot cleaner. Though I still cleaned it. In the rain. Well, I couldn’t get any wetter…

Strange to say, the whole ride was oddly enjoyable *grin*.

Up to the highest heights

I decided to go hilly today. No idea why, only it seemed like a good idea…right until I got half way up Shipham Hill and realised that having hubby clean the chain had not fixed the gearing problem, and that I was never going to get to the top with the bottomest gear missing completely, and the rest of them jumping around at will. So I turned tail and headed for Paul at the LBS who, luckily, was free enough to have a look at it and then to replace the gear cable – it was all frayed up and nearly snapped inside the RHS gear lever.

Take two. Back up Shipham Hill, with all the gears this time – a huge improvement. All the way down to Churchill and out to Wrington. Up the long hill past the Walled Garden to the main road. Up and across that, down Row of Ashes, and along some truly hideously mucky roads to Chew Stoke. Unsuitable for HGVs? Unsuitable for almost anything! I had a quick break by the lake to admire the ducks and then headed off again to West Harptree. From there it was past Litton, with a wistful glance towards the Kings Arms there, to Chewton Mendip and the long slog up the A39 before the lovely drop down into Wells. I nearly managed to not brake on the way down…but not quite. It’s still a nice down though, and you can see for miles and miles…

Due to the earlier detour to see Paul I was running a tad behind schedule so tweaked my planned route a bit. I turned right to go through Wookey Hole, up the hill there to loop ’round and join the A371 at Easton. From there it was just a case of hammering it straight to Cheddar and on to home.

Cycling time: 2:55:07
Distance: 41.05 miles
Avs: 14.0 mph
ODO: 3328 miles

My actual route worked out thus. Quite a few hills in there. Which would account for my average speed. And the fact that I could eat a horse round about now. My bike was filthy when I got back, so I’ve duly cleaned it, and me! The Mad March Hare looks like it might be a bit hillier – but possibly those hills are more spread out than today’s were…here’s hoping!

At least it was that bit warmer. And dry. Which made up for the number of idiots who thought that6 inches gap when passing was perfectly reasonable… And the fact that it’s February so the fields are all smelly, and the roads are full of tractors trimming hedges and leaving the debris all over the road. Despite all of that – it was a pretty good ride 🙂