Out with the old, out with the new and out on my own!!!

Having not quite had enough to blog about last week, this week it feels like I've got too much. I've got the ride around the Leicester circuit with KCC Cyclones, a lovely return to the Saturday club/shop ride with C&D Cycles CC and a bit of solo off road action. In addition there's an update on SuperSam and I and the early morning indoor training AND a lovely find on YouTube regarding the rivalry between Chris Boardman and Graeme Obree. Best get on with it!

On Friday 16th March we headed to Leicester with the KCC Cyclones for a whizz around the circuit at New College newcollege/ccircuit/ It had been a lovely warm day with beautiful Spring sunshine. So of course at 7pm the weather had turned and we were freezing our socks off. Earlier in the week I had enquired if "extra help," would be required from the parents? As the answer was yes I loaded my bike on the car too! Like most people attending this venue, even though we'd been there before we allowed ourselves to be fooled by satnav and got a little bit lost. I worked it out but then we passed Eddie and Ken going the wrong way too. Ken would get his revenge on me (in the very next paragraph,) for figuring it out quicker!

Once parked up there were some technical issues which took me from hero to zero in short order. First of all there was a Cyclone frustrating their parents by creating a flat tyre. He'd decided to try and pump his tyres up to max pressure with a hand pump. Inevitably he cracked the valve stem and it was time for a tube change. Then the frustrated Dad snapped a tyre lever trying to get a VERY tight tube off. I came to the rescue with my well practised levers (I mean who has more punctures than me?) I'd also remembered my Scout motto and was super prepared with track pump and spare tubes (long valve as their spare was also too short.) All very ironic given that I was on my very well set up tubeless tyres. Hero status was however short lived as another cyclone asked me to help with their brakes. The cyclones have loan bikes which come with on and off road set ups. The brakes are cantilever and I find them very pesky. The cable either slots back in first time or its hours of fiddling. After a failed few unsuccessful minutes I conceded defeat and let Ken have a go. As predicted the ridiculous contraption went back together incredibly easily for him at first attempt.

one of those annoying things

Once the technical things were sorted I helped out with Brian's group of the older kids. They had a great session and Brian should know that Sam said the following:

"I like Brian as a coach, he really knows how to encourage everybody!" The kids did really well to ride with determination on a freezing cold night.

By Monday night wintry conditions had once again set in and the regular cyclones sessions were cancelled. Sam and I continued with our early morning indoor training sessions. Sam now fits on my road bikes and therefore I've set him up on the ever dependent 'Clive.' Strava shows that I've done over 14 000km on that bike. Sam continues to use the GCN training videos on the turbo and I'm making it up as I go along on the rollers. 

Clive needs new bar tape...I tried to clean it...it's impossible!!!

I like to do some intervals and also some longer sessions at a set pace. I mix these up by practising no handed which after a couple of days of losing this skill it's inexplicably back better than ever. I'd been trying things out like taking things out of my back pockets and taking selfies. Then I went one further to see if I could get a rain jacket from my jersey pocket, put it on and take it off and then away in a jersey pocket. It turns out I can! Next time I'm going to try the trick below.

Yesterday I decided it was time to get back to the Saturday morning shop rides which changed my whole cycling world. Prior to discovering C&D Cycles I'd done a lot of cycling but this was mostly on my own. I'd encouraged friends to ride but mostly they weren't as into it as I was. Then I took my bike in for a service and I was invited to try a shop ride. It was here that I discovered that it's easier to make friends with cyclists than it is to get your existing friends to cycle! There was a couple of years when the thought of not riding on Saturday morning would just have seemed ridiculous. However things happen and despite getting out with the club for off road rides it's been months since I've ridden with this group.

The gathered mamils

Tony with his ingenious tri-bar spot light arrangement

On arrival it was like old times. Banter flowed and questions were asked such as: "is that really you?" A large group of us set out in horrible damp and dirty conditions for a well ridden route. 30 seconds into the ride and two thirds of the group blindly following each others malfunctioning Garmin's turned right when the route was straight on. 6 of us went the right with a mixture of worry about the correct course of action and the usual splitting of our sides. We were mostly re-united by Geddington but still missing some of the group. However the following rescue plan worked. We called Andy at the shop who called the missing cyclists. We then arranged to meet up in Rushton and continue on together. 

Jamie effortlessly glided up the hill, he denies this,we all saw it!!!

Despite the filthy conditions it really was lovely to be out. This is a splendid route with a challenging climb through the village of East Farndon. Having not been out much on the road recently I was a bit nervous of the climb and decided to take it easy. Bewilderingly by doing that I completed the Strava segment in my third best time. Don't be deceived though, I was out of breath and knackered way before the top. This is about as tough as it gets in Northamptonshire. For anyone reading this from somewhere genuinely hilly like Yorkshire or Wales, East Farndon Hill is a difficult flat bit.

wonky glasses, wonky helmet, filthy face...yes I'm quite the catch!!!

Kelmarsh Hall

Harrington

more Harrington

Last pic at Harrington. It's usually such a pretty place. Looked grim yesterday!

After the hilly bits it was nice to have a blast into Loddington before saying goodbye to the group. I really enjoyed getting back out with the club so I better try to make it a habit again!

In the week I discovered this gem on YouTube. It's a documentary concerning the rivalry between Chris Boardman and Graeme Obree. It's fascinating to see the contrast of Boardman supported by a professional team with all the latest equipment and Obree who built his own bike and got his brother in law to give him a hand. It was also amazing to see that British track cycling used to hold it's championships on an outdoor velodrome in Leicester. It was demolished in the 90's but here's some history: Cycling Weekly I also got excited when I read that Obree's film about the land speed record for a self powered vehicle, Battle Mountain was available on the BBC iplayer. It's not...it was there only until early March!

seriously good watch, warning: it's an hour long

In Northamptonshire we have our own historic velodrome but many people don't realise. Built in the 1930's it's currently the go-kart track in Wicksteed Park. Every now and again they let us cyclists on it but attempts to make this a regular thing have been unsuccessful. We'd love it to be a safe tarmac venue for Cyclones. Here's a link but it's difficult to find more info! Anglia TV I know my Dad trained on the velodrome with Invicta Road CC (Northampton,) and that KCC held events on it. It would be awesome if we could get this resource back.

Today has been a simply beautiful Spring day. I decided that the best plan was off road and even better was to make use of the longer day that British Summer Time has blessed us with and wait until later on. So first things first we needed a dog walk. East Carlton park was the venue and it was superb.

I also had jobs to do such as a tip run and re-felting the shed roof. Can't let the water in, six of our eight bikes live in there! Finally though I got out at about half past three. 

First up I tried my nearest woods where I plan to do a lot of training over the coming months. It was too wet still!There are really steep slopes I want to test myself on but with soft ground it just wasn't good riding...

So I nipped over to Desborough where they have a fantastic greenspace. It's a lovely leisure area around the new estates that have been built there.

It's got nice signs

Some bird spotting advice...Red Kites are ten a penny around here

I had a couple of goes around the area the kids call "the trails," which is good off road riding in the summer but there too it was too muddy still. My tyres just caked up with mud and the lack of grip made it disappointing.

muddy tyres

Nice shot of the trails...oh yeah and of that loveable bike!

Having discovered it's too early in the year for proper fun I headed off to harder trails. I went down the disused roads around Desborough to Harrington. On Green Lane my high speed fun was ruined by dog walkers. I will get a clear run at it one day! It was still very very nice to be out!!!

Ubiquitous shadow shot

So that's a great couple of weeks cycling. If I pull the inner tube on the rollers trick off I will get Sam to do a video. If I post in another cast, you'll know something went wrong.

Happy Pedalling! 

Has Spring sprung?

The world this week has a very different feel to last week. We've gone from a winter wonderland to a definite feeling of new growth and a return of 'shorts weather!'

My opportunities for outside bike rides have been very limited. In fact today was the only day I got out for a short spin. It was great to be out though!

Church at Arthingworth

This is one of my 'before work,' regular rides. I would normally go for a longer ride on a weekend day but hey it's been a busy one. My wife Lee, the Queen of Cakes, had her birthday on Friday and it's Mother's Day today. So as you can imagine we've made the most of it. The healthy eating plan has been put on hold until Monday and you know we've been spoiling our special lady!

Handy smartphone friendly glove

The picture above was possible without removing my glove due to the handy hole in my right index finger. This intrigues me...is there a commercial opportunity for someone to design a cycling glove with an adaptation for smartphone use? I'm not revealing the rest of my ideas because I plan to make my millions designing the ultimate winter cycling gloves...Back in the real world, these are still  my favourite gloves ever. I can't find another pair like them and this makes me sad!

My favourite gate at Harrington

I've taken this picture a lot. I love the view across the valley from this gate. Just around the corner there's a barn conversion with an uninterrupted view of the valley. Whoever that's being built for is a very lucky person!

Selfie

 At the same gate I decided to take a selfie. As per usual my helmet is on wonky! Everything else is great about that Kasc helmet, so it's probably just that I have a wonky head! Whilst taking this a fellow cyclist stopped to check if I was okay, mistaking my confused picture taking for a ride busting mechanical. I like that us MAMILs look after each other out on the road!

Keep me rolling kit

A story has emerged from the C&D Cycles club ride yesterday regarding punctures and being prepared and all that. Someone has helpfully found a video of the essential things to put in your "saddlebag!" I don't use a saddlebag and I'm not alone in this practise, as many follow this rule from the Velominati:

1. Rule #29//

   No European Posterior Man-Satchels.
   Saddle bags have no place on a road bike, and are only acceptable on mountain bikes in extreme cases.

   

Now, the big thing about these rules, are that they're even looser than the pirate code. Less a set of guidelines, more some nonsense to aid cycling based banter. They've even decided to go back on this one themselves! Velominati u-turn based on sponsorship deal...

All packed away

My solution is this really handy 'road caddy,' from Lezyne. You're supposed to put your phone in it but I get mine out too often to use it that way. However I do manage to carry the basics with me should I get a flat or need to do running repairs. The whole thing neatly fits in a jersey pocket. I swap the pump for the CO2 inflator when I have a cartridge!

Rim repair

The other reason for getting out on my road bike today was to test out those tubeless tyres. Andy and Chris from C&D Cycles had another crack at setting these up for me. I probably wrecked the rim tape by putting a tube in after I couldn't re-inflate (because a. it was wrecked, b. It's me that meddles with my bike and c. I read somewhere that needing to use a tube is likely to wreck the rim tape.) Anyway those marvellous chaps have done the job superbly yet again. Those American Classics wheels were super smooth today!

After the ride we headed to my Mum's for the best roast dinner in Northamptonshire. You might think it's mean to get your Mum to cook on Mother's day but my Mum, like everyone in our family, enjoys cooking and as my Nan was there, she was cooking for her Mum too! It was great for all four generations to catch up and also really nice to see the progress of 'Charity,' my parents latest Guide Dog puppy. Charity is the 5th puppy they've had. Like her predecessors, Charity will stay with my parents for about a year until she is ready for her training at Leamington Spa. It's hard to see them go but it's also rewarding to know that as Guide Dogs they do a fantastic job.

Charity the guide dog puppy, she doesn't stay still for long so it's hard to get a focussed picture!

The rest of the week has been about regular sessions on the indoor trainers. Having developed the skill of riding no handed on rollers, I've lost it again. For reasons I can't explain I tip over to the right when I take my hands off. I've tested this out on the road today and had no such problem. It's both frustrating and curious! Sam has been joining me in the mornings and it's been good to hear him yell at himself in encouragement.

So this weekend may have been one of indulgence but since Christmas both Lee and I have been using MyFitnessPal. I've always found this weight loss app to work despite recent claims that calorie counting is ineffective. One of the good features on the app is the clean eating links. We've made loads of new healthy foods and have discovered other helpful resources such as FitFoodieFinds on Instagram. Both of us are over a stone (14 pounds or 6.35kg,) lighter and for the first time since 2015 I am currently 13stone 12lbs (88kg, 194 pounds.) 

Okay that's all I have time for .

Happy Pedalling!

The Beast from the East? Storm Emma? Snow what? It's great to ride in!

The weather this week has not been kind to us cyclists. It would've been beyond foolish to get the road bikes out this weekend and so for many it was turbo's and rollers, zwift, sufferfest and all that in their dedicated pain caves! Some of us though had other plans.

Andy P proposed a snow ride on Friday night which filled me with excitement. I mean what could go wrong? Well apart from the fact that a few of us have broken bits of ourselves! Nah it'll be fine, there will be a soft landing right? I arranged to meet a few others in Geddington for a snowy assault on the chase and a bit more besides. However those plans were curtailed once I'd walked the dogs.

There was no way for me to get to Geddington without using some roads and I just thought it was too risky to be sharing the highway with slippy slidy cars!

Four of my clubmates did however complete the ride as planned and I will admit to feeling like I missed out. I especially would have enjoyed seeing the Mark B face plant. So I'm going to include some of their ride in my blog.

So Graham, Mark B, Andy P and Danny did the ride above. Their pictures are fabulous and like I said I feel like I missed out.

Looks great doesn't it!

Perhaps not this bit!!!

Those drifts are supercool...they were car height on Friday on my way to work

Mark is down...someone, possibly Danny...celebrates! (or he could of course be warning others to slow down...)

My decision not to ride was a little bit of a blessing in disguise as my son Sam had a party to get to in Northampton. Remarkably NCC had done a great job of getting the main roads clear so as long as you could get out of your street then travel was very possible. I spent some time with my shovel as the rest of the local community looked on either confused or adding what they may think of as witty comments. (Sorry, personal bugbear, if everyone who is able, did a little bit to help we'd cope a lot better with the snow in the UK!) The other positive was that it looked like I would get to the Northampton Saints rugby match after all as one place the community had rallied was at Franklin's Gardens.

With my family safely on their way it was time for my fun! I only did an hour locally but oh my goodness...snow riding is amazing!!!

I took my bike back to where I'd dog walked earlier, much to the bemused entertainment of other dog walkers and people out for a snowy stroll. The snow wasn't fast to ride on but it was a whole load of fun. Early on I wondered if it was possible to ride through a snow drift. If you're wondering the answer is no!

This is Shotwell Mill Lane. There's a house about half a mile down here! A tractor was sorting it out for them and also a 4X4 with a team of shovellers. They laughed at me too!

These woods are part of my training plan for the MTB race season. Yesterday it was great riding. When the snow is gone they will be claggy mud again for a couple of months. I'm looking forward to it drying out and getting some hard work done.

The fields were the same. The soil here is really soft normally and horrible to ride on at his time of year. Compacted snow and ice sorted that out. It was a bit bumpy though and my camera fell off the bike a couple of times.

How could you not love that?

It was hard work on the uphill bits but still great fun.

I wondered if this field would be ridable? No...not really!

I loved the woods so much I went back in a couple of times

After the woods and fields I decided to go check out the local parks. Lots of families were out sledging and again I got the sort of odd looks reserved for a middle aged man on a bike in the snow!

The snow is looking soggy now and the big thaw is definitely on. The weather warnings have stopped and the flood warning have started. I'm going to take the dogs out again in a bit and if it still looks like fun I may have another snow spin this afternoon. I need to make the most of it or move to Finland, because we never know when this kind of snow will be back! My strava feed is full of people on their indoor trainers. However it's interspersed by others who had a go in the snow. To a person they express their joy for riding on the white stuff.

Later on the Saturday afternoon we did indeed make it to the Saints. The pitch and the stadium were amazing apart from the odd avalanche that came down off the roof! However the team didn't reward the hard work and played possibly their worst ever half of rugby. That is really saying something this season! A much better second half was too little, too late. However the result is only one part of it for me. Much like cycling it's about getting together with your mates.

Me and KCC Cyclone Charlie

Beauty and the Beast

The shorts club...every match no matter the weather...we can't remember why!

Back to the cycling and it's time for some epic shout outs. Firstly to Paul Mellon KCC Cyclones coach. He's just returned from a real adventure in Oman. https://bikingman.com/en/bikingman-oman/ Paul didn't complete the ride due to a mechanical issue but on return he's planning yet another ultra distance challenge. Another shout out goes to Bethany Spencer of KCC Cyclones. Bethany has had some injury issues from taking a tumble in a CX race. I was in that same race and witnessed the fall. The rumours are not true, I did not push her! Bethany has taken to riding indoors and competed in the Junior National Track Championships. we're very proud of her at Cyclones.

In utterly amazing news, Milton Keynes based rider, Steve Abrahams finishes his one year time trial today. The last big ride he posted on Strava was on 27th February and as usual was another huge 280kms. His water bottles actually froze up!!!! Today he has decided to spend the day in Weatherspoons, you really can't blame him!

Last day of 1YTT today. Feeling trashed and spending the day in Wetherspoons Milton Keynes if anyone wants to come and say hello.

— steve abraham (@steve_abraham74) 3 March 2018

Okay then, that's it this week. Here's to dry roads, sunny days and lots more miles...or can we have more of this snow stuff please?

Happy Pedalling