Category Archives: General

The winds of change

I went cycling with a guy I know this morning, which made a change.  As did the whole two days in a row thing, but I’m trying not to waste the last remaining days of tolerable weather.  If I head out tomorrow as planned, I may even make it three days in a row!

It may have still been dry, but it was noticeably colder than yesterday.  Long sleeves and the windproof gilet today which, unlike yesterday, stayed on.  The seasons are changing…  As we came back from our coffee stop in Glastonbury an unwelcome chilly head/side wind had appeared too, which we both agreed hadn’t been there on the way out.  If it had been, I’d have been going much faster!

Cycling time: 2:04:49
Distance: 32.9 miles
Avs: 15.8 mph
ODO: 2186 miles

We followed the KISS principle (that’s Keep It Simple, Stupid) and stuck to the usual kinda route – out to Glastonbury for coffee and back again.  For various reasons, not least of which was me being lazy, we kept it mostly flat.  My knee was twinging a bit by Wedmore so that was just as well.  Nowt wrong with flat!  I think the speed was pretty good, he thinks we were pootling…ah well.  My standards are clearly lower *grin*.  Still, all in all, it was a pretty good couple of hours in the saddle.

In other mental meanderings, I’m trying to find a way of making money out of my cycling obsession.  Which may mean applying for a job (shock, horror)… or “thinking outside of the box” and trying to find another way of doing it.  So if you’ve got any ideas for me…fire away!

Tour of Britain

Being the Mayor means getting invited to a whole heap of civic things.  This time it was a VIP breakfast before the start of Stage 6 of the Tour of Britain in Frome.  Well, as the Cycling Mayor, I could hardly turn that one down, now could I?!  Even if it did mean not cycling down with the ACG to watch it – duty calls and all that, right? *grin*.  I took Dad as my Consort, figuring that I’d never live it down if I went without him 😉

I wore my long sleeved custom cycling jersey, over smart trousers and killer heels, with the “Bling” over the top – which went down really well.  Breakfast was lovely, but that really wasn’t the point… We headed out into the sunshine – it was a truly gorgeous morning – and wandered around the gathering spectators.  After picking up a few freebies, we spotted the VIP area – a fenced off area right by the start line – which it turned out we were entitled to be in.  Result!  Not only did that get us a great uncrowded view, but there was also a large catering trailer with a covered upper deck to it so that you could watch from up above.  Very cool 🙂

Nearly as cool as the fact that various of the cyclists and their drool-worthy machines wandered in and out, nonchalantly parking up for coffee, and generally looking way more relaxed than I would have thought they’d be.  Talk about bike envy!  I was a bit reluctant to just go up and talk to them but I did get my photo taken with a certain Russell Browning – which was a tad groupie ish but hey…  He wasn’t chatty, but at least he was obliging enough to stand still for 2 minutes and to smile 🙂

All the teams, vans, extra bikes, etc all arrived a bit after 10.00am for signing up.  A few of ’em got lost and they had to delay the start a little, but with remarkably little apparent effort, there they were all – ready to go. There was a real sense of atmosphere. Lots of press, commentary, sunshine, school kids waving flags…a final countdown (guess the music playing…) and that was it – off they went!  It was fab to watch all that colourful lycra going past and heading off.  I felt kinda jealous!  Mind you, I think they’d have dropped me quite early on…*grin*.  I followed the race online for the rest of the day, and Russell came in third – which was quite clearly due to my Mayoral influence… 😉

More of my photos to be seen here, and one of me doing my thing here 🙂  Nearly famous? 😉

As perks of the job go – this one was the best ever!

Don’t go chasing waterfalls.

Yesterday, being Tuesday, Dad came over and the two of us headed out for a ride, between showers.  We headed out fairly directly to Brean Down where, as it turns out, Dad has been before even if he didn’t think he had!  I’ve been avoiding hills to try and get my knee sorted, but we did throw in the hilly bit past the Webbington and also the “Bleadon” Hill.  I’m still much better going up hills…where I leave Dad…than down…which is where he catches me easily.  I can see I’m going to have to do some practice…can’t be having that! *grin*.  😉

Everywhere we went we could see weather ooming, clouds gathering, rain falling.  As we got to Brean, without having inconvenienced too many intolerant tourist drivers on the wiggly route, it was clear that quite recently the skies had dumped their contents all over the roads and the tourists.  But not us.  In fact having the sand that is all over the roads there be wet was a good thing – much less treacherous.

We had a coffee stop at the café there – tea and very lovely sultana scone in my case – whilst watching the less fortunate wring out their clothes and get changed.  We came back a slightly different way – via Brent Knoll – to keep things interesting, and had a good run along the flat back roads.  Again, the omnipresent threatening rain missed us!  2 minutes after we got home, it p*ssed it down.  Deeply satisfying. 😀

Cycling time: 2:01:51
Distance: 30.88 miles
Avs: 15.1 mph
ODO: 1691 miles

It was a really enjoyable ride – I’m still loving being out on the bike.  The knee was twinging a bit but nothing drastic.  The left shoulder blade said “hi” towards the end.  The right shoulder is completely unnoticeable on the bike – which is fab!  Any ride where I a) stay on the bike and b) don’t get rained, on is a good one as far as I’m concerned *grin*.

In other news:

  • earlier this week I finally got my act in gear and contacted Schwalbe about my defective tyre.  They got in touch yesterday and will be sending me out interim Stelvios, and then the new Ultremo R1s when they come in September.  How fantastic is that?!  🙂
  • I saw the Doctor yesterday re: the wreck (me!).  I’ve been referred to the physio for help to get the shoulder back to 100% and to work on the left knee.  I was advised to look at my cleat position which, following advice from Cycling Plus, I have done, so it’ll be interesting to see if that helps.  And I also have new pink pills for when it doesn’t and I’ve got a big ride and it hurts! *grin*.
  • I’ve signed up for the Cheddar Cyclosportive.  Only the 100km, which I’ve convinced Dad to sign up too.  Several of the ACG are doing it too, so it should be good. 🙂

There.  That should do you!

Two days…

Two days to go, and I’m not panicking.  Much!  Do you have any idea how much stuff I have to take with me?

  • Passport
  • Various paperwork – details, insurance, hotel reservation
  • Helmet, shoes, gloves, 2 * socks, 2 * jerseys, 2 * shorts, 2 * jackets, 2  * sports bras.  Waterproof.  Torq bars & gels.  Small decanted tubs of Torq Recovery and Torq Energy.  2 bottles, 1 recovery mixer bottle.  Spare inner tubes.  Multi-tool.  High visibility jacket (legally required by the French powers that be).  Mp3 player, trip computer.  Spare batteries for both.  Sunglasses & lenses.
  • Toiletries.  Clothes for 4 evenings and the final day.  Sandals.  Suntan creams.  Tiny bit of makeup and jewellery.  Remedial bits and bobs – painkillers, vaseline, sudocrem, ibuprofen gel, vitamins.  Tampax (yes – that’s due – my biological timing is great!)
  • Towel.
  • AMR t-shirt for the final hurrah.

All this has to go into one bag or on me or the bike.  Except it’s two bags because we need a small subsection bag for the first night on the ferry.  Which then has to go back in the big bag.  As does all my cycling kit, helmet included, during your final day in Paris.

Oh yes and :

  • Birthday gift for my niece who I’m seeing when I get back.
  • Bike!!

In case you were wondering, there is a distinct possibility that my bag is not big enough.  I really am packing the bare minimum.  Only two sets of gear, interchangeable clothes, etc etc.  Hey – I’ve only packed one pair of shoes (well, sandals), and that’s proper restrained for a girl *grin*

Getting better all the time

My brand new helmet arrived first thing this morning, which is pretty cool as I only ordered it on Sunday using the free – not express – delivery option.  Thanks Wiggle!  It’s the Black/Pewter colourway this time – just to make a change.  It will also match my kit and the new black handlebar tape that A in his Scorpion CS role fitted for me today.  Well – the white stuff was looking distinctly shabby pre-accident, and worse afterwards.  He also adjusted various bits, cleaned out the bottom bracket and re-greased it, fit reflectors (obligatory for the L2P), and even washed it!  He’s put a lot of hours into sorting me and my bike out, and I’m very grateful.  My bike is all shiny and ready to go now 🙂

I’m not feeling quite so shiny as my various aches and ows are taking their time to clear up – I have NO patience – so I’m going to stick to the gym for today at least 🙂

Doing the rounds

The family car needed looking at, and I was due to cycle so, in a two birds with one stone kind of way, I bunged the bike in the back of the car, drove to the garage, re-assembled the bike, and headed off.

I headed out from Cheddar, ’round the back roads to get to Nyland Hill, and then back up to the main Wells road.  A little wiggle off the main road via Westbury, and then left in Easton to go up the long hill and then ’round the back down to Wookey.

I’m not good at descents, and I’ve been trying to practice…so was hurtling down the hill into Wookey Hole…trying to be a little less cautious…only to go ’round a bend and find the road completely blocked by a horse box lorry coming towards me squeezing past a parked van.  I braked…a lot…a small part of me becoming aware of the fact that the back wheel has locked up and is skidding around and…haven’t I been here before…?!  Only this time I managed to come to a stop without coming a cropper, which is nice.  Still, I think I’ll stick to descending my way – I appear more likely to stay in one piece that way!

I took a quick five minutes to visit hubby at the prison camp and nick some of his coffee whilst regaining my sangfroid, before heading off into Wells, round the back to Glastonbury, back via Godney to Wedmore and back to the garage in Cheddar where they were just finishing off my car.  Result!  Bike back in car, and me back home 🙂

Cycling time: 2:02:55
Distance: 33.13 miles
Avs: 16.1 mph
ODO: 1153 miles

I was trying to go faster, and was flying on the flat…but sadly it wasn’t all flat *grin*.  It was however pretty scenic, without too much wind, nor too much sun, so fairly ideal cycling conditions really.  There can’t be many training rides left now…!

I’ve made an appointment with a physio person for next week, and decided to save the massage for another time.  My ouchy thing is twinging but a couple of the stretches that she’s given me seem to help so that’s good.

Jeremiah was a bullfrog

Time to get back on the horse…well, clearly the bike in this case.  Yesterday’s gym session was not a good one, so I approached today’s ride with a certain sense of trepidation.  Having done my flat loop a couple of times last week, I decided to do a seaside loop today and just to take it easy and see how I got on.

Cycling time: 2:05:41
Distance: 34.36 miles
Avs: 16.3 mph
ODO: 1118 miles

As you can see, it went pretty well.  It took a good 30 minutes to get warmed up, as opposed to the usual 20 or so.  The wind was stronger than I’d been expecting, but I managed to avoid it a lot of the time, as well as enjoying it when it was behind me 🙂  I deliberately wasn’t pushing it – I dropped right back on the hills and just took it easy – but my legs have clearly recovered ok, hence the speed…  About half way ’round I started to feel like my cycling mojo was back – the Merlin Ride really did knock the stuffing out of me a bit – which came as a relief.

On the downside – my left hand side shoulder pain thing cut in REALLY early on and is still there now.  I guess it’s not had time to recover, though I was hoping yesterday’s yoga class would have helped.  There’s a distinct possibility that I have a trapped nerve thing going on there, as suggested by G from the ACG a while ago, and I’m hoping to see someone about that and try and get it a bit more sorted before the L2P.  I’m going to treat myself to a massage too…ooh, the decadence *grin*.

PS: In case you were wondering Jeremiah was a Bullfrog…is aka Joy to the World.  Joy to the World – because I can still cycle and enjoy it! *grin*.

One of our cyclists is missing…

It occurs to me that I ought to do yesterday’s ACG ride, before I do tomorrow’s Dragon Ride, otherwise it’ll never get done, so…

The ACG gathered in the Square at 5:30pm as planned, but with a larger turnout than expected.  We had two groups – 4 “slower” and 6 “faster” – which worked out really well and means that hopefully everyone had a good ride.

G had volunteered to do the route, so I and the latter group headed out following him towards Cheddar, round the back and across to Nyland and then Wedmore.  We were doing grand until we got on the main road out of Wedmore towards Wells where we all got a bit spread out due to the traffic and hills etc. and started losing people.

Three of us at the front took the planned right turn near Bleadney…and lost the three behind us.  One of us went back looking…  In the meantime the other three had taken an earlier right turn at Panborough and were doing, so to speak, the other two sides of the square.  Fairly shortly we could see them coming across the levels, so we went up and met them at a crossroads.  If you’re keeping count, you know that this means one of our cyclists was still missing…  After a reasonable while, I and G from the original front party decided to redo the square, one each side) to see if we could find him…and just as we met at the apex, the missing bod appeared on the main road there too…all very formation cycling, Red Arrows type of stuff 🙂  We hurtled back to join the other three where we’d left them.

Only now there were two (this is getting very Agatha Christie), as one had gone ahead, reckoning that we’d catch him up soon enough…  Oh dear.  Well…we tried…but we got to one of those crossroad things, and he and we could have gone either way, and instead it all went a bit pear-shaped…  To got a long story short, we never found him…again, one of our cyclists was missing.  (Sorry J!).

The remaining five of us went round Godney way, to Westhay, where we went past the “slow” four, who’d seen our missing bod but didn’t know where he was…  Onwards to Mark and back via Chapel Allerton and Notting Hill before coming back up via Cross to the Square all over again.

I have a “new” computer, but I’m not sure I wrote the stats down right before I went fiddling with batteries today – so here’s my best guess…

Cycling time: 2:02:55
Distance: 33.6 miles
Avs: 15.8mph
ODO: 556 miles

It was a good ride – though with a few too many evening bugs for dinner.  My legs were feeling pretty good, which gave me hope for tomorrow.  The weather and light held out – it was warmer than it looked when we set out, and I’d taken my lights with me just in case, but only put the back one on as a precautionary measure as we drew near home.   I’ll tell you something, an evening ride is much more pleasant than an evening gym session 🙂

Right, back to eating pasta, and more pasta, and more carbs and packing, and generally panicking in preparation for tomorrow…

To misquote: “May the road rise up (not literally!) to meet me, may the wind be always at my back, and may the sun shine (not too) warm upon my face”…

PS: in other news – there’s a good reason my tyre developed that bulge – see here.  Once tomorrow is behind me, I shall be taking the relevant photos, sending the email, and hopefully getting myself a new tyre.  Or two, since I’m not sure I’d trust the front one now!

High maintenance

I took my bike over to A today to get it tweaked as I’ve now done nearly 400 miles on it.  As I mentioned yesterday, it had developed a bulge in the rear tyre.   Well, it looks like there was a defect in the tyre – so he put two new tyres on to tide me over.   I rang the company I got the bike from and they’re going to send me out a replacement, no quibbles, which is nice.  Though it won’t have the white stripe the front one has.  Mind you, because the stripey ones came with the bike, I don’t think they can get those anyway, and I don’t see ’em sending me two new tyres just because I’d like them to match *grin*.

A also put the saddle from my “old” bike on instead as the new one had a few comfort issues…which you can live with for one ride, but on consecutive days, I think not….  He also adjusted the gears, disassembled and  re-greased the bottom bracket, checked my position…and it’s basically just like new again now.   Oh, and he’s going to get me a replacement for the duff computer too.  ‘Rah!  It’s not what you know, it’s who you know 🙂

I feel a little like I have my very own little support team – mechanic, domestique (sorry, team leader 😉 ), fan club (that’ll be hubby and the mob)…  It kinda makes me feel just that little bit more capable 🙂

No wind beneath my wings

Having taken advantage of a special offer for a day at the half-term KOW playscheme, I was child-free today.  This being the case I planned myself a nice long route, as I probably won’t get many miles in for the rest of the week.  I won’t bore you with the details, as you can see where I went for yourself here.

I set off a bit after 9 into the wind, down the main road, and then with the wind behind me, up Sparrow Hill, across to Wedmore, over the levels to Wells.  That took a bit over an hour, which was mostly fine – a tad chilly with the gusty wind, but ok.  My main challenge today was to go up Bristol Hill – the big hill out of Wells on the Bristol Road, which I’d never done before.  Well – I have now…and boy does it ever go on.  And on.  And on….  Still, I made it, and was kinda pleased with myself.

However after that it all went downhill, and not in a good way.  Up at the top I found the wind.  22mph+ WNW wind.  With gusts and squalls.  The rest of the ride was just a slog into it.  It was particularly bad getting to the airport hill, and I even had to pedal down Brockley Coombe – where’s the justice in that?  Or the fun for that matter!

Because it was a constant push, bits of me started giving up one by one.  As I hunkered down for hours, that bit in between the shoulder blades went numb and ouchy.  My lower back twinged.  My left knee kicked off again, which it’s not done in a while.  By the time I got home every downwards stroke with the left leg was excruciating.  (Oddly enough, the pain completely disappears the minute I get off the bike).  I started dreaming of a hot bath somewhere around Chew Valley Lake…and still had a long way to go!  It was very tempting to shortcut home from Puxton, but I stuck to my route – i’m stubborn like that.  Mind you, to add insult to injury it also rained on me in Banwell…

Rarely have I been so happy to see the Webbington, this time from across the valley in Christon…and by the time I got there, the wind was behind me again, which is probably the only reason I managed to get up the hill and home again! 😉

Cycling time: 4:06:32
Distance: 60.77 miles
Avs: 14.8 mph
ODO: 278 miles

Total climb 2744ft/836 metres.

The bath was as fantastic as I’d been hoping for and, having taken my Recovery and eaten some pasta, I’m feeling many shades better than I was…but still distinctly achey, and definitely quite tired.   Even my left little finger hurts!  That was bl**dy hard work and, whilst probably very good training, not what I would call a good ride! 🙂

One more thing – since I started cycling properly, on the “old” bike, if you count miles on that and miles on the new one…as of today, my legs have now done over 10,000 miles!!! (10,023 to be precise).  That’s very very cool 🙂