Category Archives: Training

World keeps spinning

For the first time since the L2P, post re-medial service which turned out to be barely necessary, me and my best bike were reunited today.  After a morning of rain and wind, the clouds lifted, and I was able to get out around lunchtime.  I only did an hour and half, around the usual pootling bits, but it was lovely to be back out there.  Using the old bike on holiday did nothing to restore my confidence, being too dissimilar from this one.  I won’t say I’m all better – I’m still disastrously slow going downhill – but the rest of the ride went pretty well from that respect.  Oh – and I stayed on.  That’s gotta be good *grin*.

Cycling time: 1:35
Distance: 24.65 miles
Avs: 15.4 mph
ODO: 1626 miles

However, as my gym sessions this week had already suggested, my left knee is still gebuggert.  Just as well I’m off to the doctor next week with that, the shoulder, the wreck that is me…  Fitness wise I can see that, post holiday and 3 weeks of smoking (which I’ve stopped), I’m going to need to build up the stamina a bit, but again, pretty good really.  The best thing of all?  The head space.  Being out in the world, with the wind and the weather, and away from it all.  I love my bike 🙂

It’s the Final Countdown…

My last ride before the “big one”.  I managed to find a member of the ACG to join me – my instincts were telling me that going out on my own was a bad idea, but I needed to test out the bike post-service and me post-accident – so I was really pleased to have company.  Instincts are there for a reason you know, and whenever I ignore them, well, that’s when I come a cropper, and I can live without doing that again for a while!  *grin*

We did one of my usual easy training loops ’round the levels, not pushing it, just enjoying being out and having a chat.  I felt a bit wobbly early on, especially going down a wet Winscombe hill, but after a while I got a bit more into it.  I’m still a bit more cautious than I was I think, but hopefully that will wear off.  We nearly missed the rain…but not quite, and got soaked from Wedmore home.  Ah well…I guess that will have washed any dirt off the bike!

Cycling time: 2:01:47
Distance: 29.76 miles
Avs: 14.6 mph
ODO: 1263 miles

I don’t plan on getting on the bike again before the L2P now.  I need to get my kit all washed and sorted, and my packing done.  There’s a pile growing in the front room…which I plan on finishing tomorrow night.  So, nearly there now then.  3 whole days and that’s it…and in a week’s time, it’ll all be over already.  How weird is that?!  🙂

Sunshine on a rainy day

OK girlfriend, time to get back on the horse.  Well, to be fair, I had to, because I was picking up the car we’re borrowing from my folks and the most sensible logistic solution to this was to cycle over there, bung the bike in the bike and drive home.

So at 9:30am this morning, I headed out, somewhat apprehensive as to how this was going to feel.  Having resolved to take it easy, my aches eased as I warmed up a bit, which is what going up the hill to the Webbington does to you.  Out and over and up Bleadon Hill, getting into my stride now.  I noticed a tendency towards increased caution, and a little less nerve than usual, but nothing too dramatic.  Through Uphill, along the main seafront road at proper head down speed, and out ’round Sand Bay to Ebdon Cemetary where I was due to meet Dad.  A pretty good hour really, nice warm weather, with what wind there was mostly behind me, and an avs of 16.5mph.  Nice 🙂

I rang Dad, who said he wasn’t far off…and between then and him ringing me to confess to a slight case of location malfunction, the heavens opened in a big way.  Just what I wanted today – wet muddy roads! *grimace*.  We arranged to meet again and actually managed to this time, up by the main road to Yatton.  We zoomed along to Yatton as the rain cleared (too little too late!), and then through Congresbury to cross the levels to Clevedon.  Up the final long hill from the valley and there we were, in Portishead, in time to drink coffee and drip all over the furniture 😉

Cycling time: 2:04:11
Distance: 32.42 miles
Avs: 15.6 mph
ODO: 1230 miles

I actually hurt more now than I did this morning – I think some of the aches are surfacing as they settle in.  My shoulders hurt – both sides oddly, though more so on the RHS, recalling echoes of my broken collar bone… My cuts are ouching up a storm – I think I may still be carrying some road in my elbow one somewhere so I’ll be dealing with that later.  I could carry on, but I think that’s likely to be quite boring…*grin*.  I’m pleased the ride went well though, and I’m pleased to have stayed on the bike – especially as it brakes really badly on properly wet roads!  I’m off to A to get a pre L2P bike check tomorrow, which is clearly more important now than it was before, and I’m tempted to just stick to the gym for the rest of the week and wrap myself in cotton wool.  We’ll see 🙂

Hit the road, Jack…

… should that be Jennifer?

I persuaded S to come for a ride this morning, being a tad bored of cycling the same old routes with the same old company – just me and my mp3.  We met in the Square and headed off around 8:30am.  It’s always lovely to leave the route to someone else, so I just followed S…down the main road, round Brent Knoll which he meant to go up but missed the turn (darn…) over to Mark Causeway and off towards Bridgwater.  We were aiming for Pawlett Hill.  S likes hills and fancied trying a new one…there’s no accounting for taste you know 😉

On the way we came across a group of that particular kind of gentlemen who wear a certain kind of clothes and take photos of obscure things, standing by the side of the road on a bridge over something.  Was there a special LBJ (little brown job) bird lurking?  Were we going over a river?   No, a railway line.  Little neurons fired inside my brain, and it occurred to me that…yes…confirmed by a gentleman walking towards the bridge – this would be a train thing!  I convinced S to come stand on the bridge with me, and 5 minutes later the Tornado came steaming down the long straight and under our bridge.   Totally made my morning 🙂

Off we went again, pootling around unfamiliar lanes perfecting the art of the U-turn and dismally failing to find the aforementioned hill.  We did find an “up” eventually, but I’m afraid it didn’t live up to its billing (darn again… ;)).  So we headed back for home, out Cossington way and back across the levels along one of those roads that you just know is going to join up with somewhere familiar sooner or later.   Sure enough, we popped up on the Burtle road and headed back towards Mark, having a brief chat with another Tor rider we encountered.

Up into Mark, out the other side, where we took the left towards Chapel Allerton…followed by a white van.  (I’m starting to think white vans have it in for me).  There’s a bend at the bottom of the little hill there with a little bridge over water and a fairly sharp right…   Down on the drops, little bit too much speed, farm dirt (let’s call it “dirt” anyway)…and bye bye back wheel, hello road.  Instand Thud.  Right hand side of me meets road.  Hip, shoulder, head…in that order.  Hands still on drops, in vaguely foetal position.  Although I closed my eyes briefly and spent a couple of secs mentally checking I was still here and it was ok to open them again…I stayed conscious this time.  S was right there to help check me out, and luckily, considering my time frame, I appear to be pretty much ok.  Some great road rash, gonna have a kick ar*e bruise on my right thigh, and there’s a gash on my arm.  My head has a minor bruise and popped an interesting vein in my right temple…and yet again I have totalled a helmet – cracked right through again.  I think I should take out shares in Giro at this rate…but hey, they seem to do the job!

After a little while of checking me and the important things out – like the bike – we headed back.  Poor S, it’s clearly not a lot of fun watching people fall off bikes.  To be fair, it’s not much fun doing it either! *grin*.  However apart from an increased element of caution near bends on the way back – the roads were recently wet – I seemed to be ok.  And it would have been a shame to waste my favourite stretch of road, so (however ill advisedly) I put my foot down and kicked it back from Wedmore to home 🙂  I really do enjoy getting up some speed down there, though I prefer to be in front, cycling close behind someone was worrying me even more than usual, even if the drafting was helpful! 😉

Cycling time: 2:46:43
Distance: 44.67 miles
Avs: 16.0 mph
ODO: 1198 miles

S saw me to my door, in true gentlemanly fashion.  It’s hardly his fault I’m inept – (so stop blaming yourself!) – and it could have been a lot worse.  I have ten days to recover in and the bike is due to be checked by A on Tuesday anyway.  I’m all cleaned up, am a bit ouchy and am looking forward to seeing how the bruises develop but on the whole, I think I’m ok 🙂

Which is good because I’m supposed to be on the bike tomorrow morning….I guess we’ll see how I feel when I stiffen up.  Apart from that – it was a pretty good ride.  It was nice to catch up with S and I enjoyed the route.  Well…you gotta laugh *grin*.

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*.

Speed machine

As the Merlin Ride looms large on Sunday, I’m supposed to be taking it easy this week – tapering down in preparation.  So I deliberately planned out my shortest training route – very nearly the original loop I started on all that time ago when a bike was a new thing…

I headed out in the already warm weather this morning, grateful of the fact that I would at least be generating my own head wind, and thus gaining some cooling effect from it.  It was warm and humid, but not that sunny, which wasn’t too bad.

Apparently, knowing that I was only planning on being out for two hours, and that it was a flat route, my brain subconsciously decided to make up for this by swapping distance for speed and going faster instead!  I was trying not to push it, but there wasn’t much wind, and it was mostly flat, and…ah well, best intentions and all that…  I blame being down on the drops – that’s gotta be it, right?

Cycling time: 1:55:52
Distance: 31.77 miles
Avs: 16.4 mph
ODO: 928 miles

By the time I got in I was dripping, and I actually had to cool down for 15 minutes or so before there was any point having a shower, as the sweat continued to pour off me.  I’m also getting bored of scooping out small dead black insects from my cleavage…  It’s even worse when you get a biter on board – you try fishing one of those out from inside a sports bra as you’re riding along!

I saw the cutest family of stoats/weasels out crossing the road with me on the levels near Mark – that’s my third such sighting this week.  This summer seems to have less birds than usual, but more mammals, and butterflies.  Oh, and suicidal insects.  And sometimes you got past a garden or corner and get the most amazing scent of roses.  Odd how things change from year to year isn’t it?

I’ll do my cycling in the rain

Today’s ride was less of a training one, and more of a functional one.  I had to go over to Portishead to feed the cats, and figured that I could combine a training ride with that, thus also saving myself petrol money.  Last night I planned myself a route there and back with the odd wiggle and hill to make it more enjoyable.

Well, when I got up this morning it was raining, had clearly been doing so for ages, and equally clearly wasn’t going to stop any time soon.  Hrmph.  That’s what happens when you combine Glastonbury Festival with Wimbledon…talk about tempting fate!

However, hungry cats were still waiting, and I still needed to get some exercise in so…out in the rain it was.  Due to the continued downpour I seriously tweaked the route.  Ain’t no point going up Shipham Hill in weather like that – it metamorphoses into a river bed.  There was also no point including the Clapton-in-Gordano loop, as that’s dirty and muddy at the best of times.  So it was fairly directly there, and even more directly back.

Cycling time: 2:33:10
Distance: 40.83 miles
Avs: 15.9 mph
ODO: 858 miles

On the way back I really put my head down and pushed it, and as it dried up and brightened up, I even got to stash the waterproof in the bag and stop boiling in it.  I was fair flying for a while there…which dragged the average speed up nicely.  I was however wetter than a very wet thing when I got home – the kind of wet that means all your clothes weigh twice as much, as you sling ’em straight in the washing machine.  And instead of tan lines you have dirt lines 🙂

Fly away with me

Time for another training ride.  G was off for a long one so I started off by riding on her coat tails for a while.  Sadly this meant starting by going up Cheddar Gorge…which I half expected.   I guess it doesn’t hold too much fear for me these days, which says something.   It’s still a slog though – and an interesting way to warm up…

Once up the top, it was across the Mendips and down again using the steep hill that comes out near Ubley, and then a really nice fast stretch out via the lakes towards Bristol.  At this point we parted company, as I foresaw more hills in G’s future…and not in mine!

Instead I swung a left towards Winford and Dundry, and made my way to the airport.  I had intended on going down Brockley Coombe, but changed my mind and took a left before that happened and went around the airfield.  I went down one side and watched an Easyjet take flight and then took a breather the other side to watch a bigger Continental head for the skies.  Great vantage point, and kinda impressive to watch.  I’m still quite amazed by flight 🙂  Hey – at least I wasn’t standing on a ladder taking photos and noting all their details, unlike the other strange folk up there!

After that it was a lovely long down hill down to Wrington, across to Langford, before coming back from Churchill by the back roads to come up through Sandford and Winscombe and then home.

Cycling time: 2:17:46
Distance: 33.84 miles
Avs: 14.6 mph
ODO: 818 miles

The weather was lovely, and considering the heat now I’m glad I went out then.  The wind wasn’t so nice, but that’s only to be expected.  There were a lot of up and downs en route which I think explains the speed, and my legs, though ok, weren’t feeling speedy.  It was nice to do something a little bit different too 🙂

The long and winding road…

…that leads up from Dinder to the top of the Mendips.  Which is the route that G took us on this morning.  We wiggled over to Wells, and out the other side.  Up and up and up, across to Priddy, back across the top of the Mendips into a stonking head wind, and down the wind tunnel that was Cheddar Gorge.  Nice – not!

Cycling time: 2:17:27
Distance: 34.6 miles
Avs: 15.1 mph
ODO: 743 miles

G was on form, as ever, which put me back in my place good and proper.  So much for getting faster – it’s still never as fast as the competition *grin*.  Oddly there was probably less in my legs today than there was on Tuesday.  I also realised, on the way out of town, that I’d forgotten to put my gloves on and couldn’t be bothered to go back and get them, which made riding a little different.  Not as bad as I’d thought it would be though actually, which is good.

This Sunday is Bristol’s Biggest Bike Ride which I’m doing with my Dad and G, from the ACG.  If you’re not doing anything else, why not come along and join us?