Goals!

Behold King Bruce and Lady Chazzle McDazzle

This week's blog will be the usual format. A family update to start with and then the cycling stuff. We've had some good family time this week, I've got some great miles in and the Friday Night Summer Series has started.

Last night we were lucky to be invited to a splendid 70th party at the Ritz in Desborough. It was at this venue 23 years ago, that I first talked to Lee's Dad about us getting married. It was also the night we introduced Lee's Mum to vodka and red bull...she couldn't sleep that night! Thankfully the espresso martini didn't have the same effect this time!

We were near the toilets not in them!

The party 23 years ago was in memory of...no one at this stage can remember! Jean is Lee's Mum's friend, her daughter Sonia is Lee's friend. Sonia organised the party and did a fabulous job! They have lots of shared memories and we have had our kids at a similar time to Sonia and Graham. (Graham is also Lee's friend, I missed out on all this not being local to Rothwell and Desborough.) As a family they have faced far more than their fair share of adversity and on the night it was poignant that there was collections for cancer and stroke charities. What also struck me was that as an extended family: Jean, Sonia & Graham, and the kids, Alex, Robyn and Jude...they were all on the dance floor having a good time together. It was truly lovely to see.

Traditional 70s selfie...

Lee had a good time but contained herself to dancing in her chair. She was already exhausted after a busy time making cakes for the party. This is when it's most difficult for her because she wants to do these things. Her hands were cramping badly and her fingers ended up locked in a bent position. I did my best to remember my days as a physio assistant and gave Lee a hand massage. I'll try to do this daily now in the hope that it will help.

The cakes Lee made were magnificent and I am always proud of her creative talents. That doesn't always show though. I've realised that because I'm always worrying about her energy levels I get moany and critical around Lee. That's not a great look so I've set myself the goal of reducing this behaviour!  

Lee knows me so well that she knew what my reaction would be to realising I'd completed 133 miles of activity this week. She correctly predicted I would go out for a 17 mile ride to get to 150. I did suggest I might not and she told me I'd hate that because I like the sense of achievement from hitting my goals! Lee was right...it's been a lovely day and just perfect for a gentle spin!

On Monday my friends in the Cyclasylum had a bonus bank holiday ride. This was great for me because I now work on Saturdays when they usually ride. It was great to catch up with old friends and start the week on a positive note.

There was one incident on the ride which I'm still in shock about. On a single track road between Cottersbrooke and Brixworth an inpatient driver decided to use the grass verge to undertake us. It was stupid and dangerous...we were just working out how to get out of the way...often in this situation I pull off the road to let a car past! If I'd done this the car would have hit me. Thankfully such incidents are very rare with mostly good relations between cars and bikes.

On Tuesday I was out with RFWCC for the Good Bean Cafe ride. The plan was to go to Cafe Ventoux but this was closed. So was the pub in Tugby near Ventoux so we ended up at Launde Abbey!

Going to Launde made an already lumpy ride even hillier! As you can see we climbed pretty much the equivalent of Scafell in the Lake District...it undulates round here!!!

On Thursday it was my first week of leading the RFWCC mountain bike rides. However everyone was needed elsewhere so I was on my own! No worries though, I tested the route. I'll lead again next week and I'm now more confident we won't get lost! It was also nice to ride in the woods with a back brake!

Friday night was the first FNSS MTB race of the season. 8 of us competed in Rocko colours giving it a real team feel! We also got good support and photos from Dave Hill! 

I had low expectations as I still don't feel race fit. Nothing replicates race intensity and I've not ridden like that since the end of the cyclocross season. 

I hate the start at Delapre because the grass kills my legs. So I was pretty much last by the time we entered the woods. But wow...in those woods was an excellent technical course and we didn't go back to the nasty grass! Congratulations to Outkasts for a great race venue!

There are things I can't explain on a bike but after slogging round for 3 laps being continually passed by faster riders...my legs switched on. I passed 5 riders and started to go for it...then I hit a slippy bit, landed in a heap and the 5 riders came back past! I got back up, continued to be lapped by quick people and did my best to finish! I wasn't disappointed, I didn't break my bike or body and had a thoroughly enjoyable race! My first goal is always not to come last and I was 22 out of 25 in the v50 category. My second goal is to be in the second group for laps. In v50 the winners did 6 laps, the next group did 5...I did 4...so only 1 goal achieved! Big congratulations to Jon competing on his first FNSS for Rocko. It's a big deal tackling these races. Jon said he fell off more times than he did laps! Yep that's FNSS. He's a very fit man though so I expect a rapid improvement and others need to watch out!

My good friend Clint Bhoodist tells me that running lengthens hamstrings, which is good because cycling shortens them! With that in mind I took my battered body out on Saturday morning for a run. My weekly goal is 10k and as I hadn't been for a run earlier in the week I did all 10k yesterday. It was a nice run and I did feel better for it. Clint is a wise man!

In elite cycling it's been a fabulous day. At Chur Evie Richards and Tom Pidcock took the MTB XC wins. Evie is like sunshine in a human form. In her post race interview she described just wanting to have fun, be like a child and it just worked! Yep that's me on a bike too Evie, just not quite as successfully 😁. Here's the link to the interview on instagram. Pidcock was his usual dominant self, he blew the others away! The Giro was also good today although I suspect that the teams are still trying to influence the commisaires after a crash 3.4km out wrecked the day for a lot of contenders. For those who don't know, if you crash out 3km from the line you get the same time as the riders you were around at the time of the crash...that .4km is a real pain. For me the big disappointment was that on a sprint stage Mark Cavendish was caught in the crash! I'm also embarrassed to say I really haven't kept up with the women's Vuelta Femenina. You can't keep up with everything!

Happy Pedalling 

More ups than downs

The joys of modern life...I was 5 minutes from finishing this week's blog when it mysteriously wiped itself and I lost the lot!!! Here we go again...this week's blog will start as usual with a family catch up and then some cycling stuff! What we learned this week is that Lee is far from free of Long Covid, my new lifestyle works and cycling lots means lots of repairs!!!

We've had a good week with lots of time for family and friends. For Lee this has been boom and bust in terms of energy levels. On Wednesday she had a good day with her Mum, Aunt and Cousins. However this caught up with her at a family meal on Thursday when she rapidly hit exhaustion.

I knew our Saturday with good friends Martin and Vicky would be good so I did everything I could to help Lee rest on Friday. Im lucky that my new lifestyle allows me to do this. Then yesterday Lee and Vicky went for afternoon tea whilst Martin and I had a proper man lunch followed by a trip to the pub! It was a great day. Predictably Lee is shattered again today! It's not even 7pm and she's already in bed. Lee says that sometimes this boom and bust is worth it and at others it's not. It's a learning process! To help me recover from my long days Niamh took me for breakfast in the pub!

On Tuesday I went for an overdue gravel ride with Ian aka Clint Bhoodist.

He's a like minded person with a similar outlook so the miles flowed by. We headed out on The Brampton Valley Way to Market Harborough and then by tow path to Foxton Locks.

From there we circled back to Harborough where we had a pitstop at Wesses bakery. We set the world to rights over sausage baps!

 
After that we cycled home via Harrington. It was a beautiful ride on a beautiful day. I very much look forward to doing it again!

On Thursday it was time for another RFW mountain bike ride. Having had issues the week before I checked my rear brake and it seemed okay. However as soon as I started the ride my brake failed completely...it was long overdue for bleeding...lesson learned (probably!)

We seem to attract mechanicals so Giles had to use a cx bike. I do approve of his socks though. (For balance we all arrived by car, these were a joke present!)

As ever it was a great ride around the woods, led by Alan. I still enjoyed myself just would have preferred a back brake! 

On Tuesday I had to replace a rear mech cable. Today I did the hydraulic bleed on my MTB. I'd not done this before but as with all repairs there was a good you tube video to help me. It's quite a satisfying job. I went for a test ride afterwards and my bike definitely stops now! I enjoy fixing my bikes nearly as much as riding them!

I made many big decisions this year. The work one appears to be working. I have plenty of appointments, I enjoy it and I no longer have a relentless inbox. Another decision was to become a first claim member at Rockingham Forest Wheelers. The club is fantastic with a range of cycling activities and a good social scene. There is a real team feel. My new working pattern has opened up the Tuesday and Thursday morning rides. I can't join the Wednesday evening TTs but then they're not my favourite way to race a bike. The Friday Night Summer Series starts next week where RFW will be strongly represented, we are also putting lots of pairs into the Marston mega cross event. It looks like we will have a good summer!

Happy Peddling

St. George's Day

I didn't realise until this morning that it was St. George's Day, it's brought on all sorts of reflections, some a bit political but I'll expand without getting too soap boxy later on. As ever the blog will be a family catch up followed by some other stuff and finishing with all things cycling.

Left to right: Bruce, Charity and Timmy

It's been a quiet week in The Lindsley household. The main news is that I can confirm that my lack of oomph was viral not tree pollen related! How do I know? Well, Lee, Mrs Lindsley got it next and as per usual she developed a chest infection. This brings back all kinds of bad memories of those dark covid19 days! Thankfully Lee has responded well to antibiotics and apart from a  residual cough is on the mend. Also poorly this week is Timmy the dog! Poor thing has a tummy bug and not to be too graphic, he's a bit loose! In summary, it's not been a great week but we're okay!

Happy St. George's Day everyone...is a phrase not often heard. Our Celtic cousins celebrate their patron Saints enthusiastically but in England it's not quite the same. National pride is not something we do well in England due to a mixture of post-colonial shame and well...the polar opposite! The only time I really remember celebrating St. George was as a scout at the St. George's Day parade. It's with some of those scouting values that I wish we could celebrate a national day in England. Those values are about helping others, being inclusive and also being: trustworthy, loyal, courageous, considerate and respectful. With that in mind I've been reflecting on the reaction this week to asylum seekers being placed here in the Rothwell House Hotel. The more extreme reactions were escalated by irresponsible remarks from our local MP and the BBC who chose to report those remarks with no balance or counter argument. I would prefer if my representative in the House of Commons would remember the UK's responsibility to refugees and share my pride that the UK is bound by international law to provide a safe place in which to seek refuge. Climbing down off the soap box now!

I've had a much better week of cycling. On Tuesday I joined the RFW Good Bean Cafe ride. On a blustery day we headed out to the excellent Mint and Ginger coffee shop before taking on some of the Welland Valley's best hills. We went up the infamous Neville Holt and Stoke Dry hills and then followed this up with another beast out of Harringworth...whoever said Northants was flat, never cycled around the place! I coped a lot better than the previous week but the group did still have to wait for me on the hills.

Harringworth viaduct

Around Eyebrook Reservoir and briefly into Rutland!

Mud loving mountain bikers

On Thursday it was back to mountain biking. The trails are drying out and becoming more rideable but there's still a lot of thick mud around. I was more tired after 15 miles mountain biking than I was from 55 miles road cycling earlier in the week.

To finish the week I did my standard 17 training route. This finished off my exercise goals for the week with 80+ cycling miles, 6+ running miles and 12+ walking miles.

Happy Peddling

 

Hmmm...Tree Pollen or the Lurgy???

It's going to be a brief blog this week without too much family stuff to report. I did get a fair bit of cycling done, despite feeling 'not quite right,' and I got a couple of 5K runs in too!

Top: Niamh Bottom L-R: Me, Sam, Amy, Joe and Lee 

On Sunday night after a good roast dinner we had a family outing to the Red Lion, poor old Niamh was working but the rest of us had a jolly nice time. In recent weeks I've mentioned how proud I am of the kids. What struck me on Sunday in the pub was that there was no doubt that Niamh was in charge! Then on Monday all four generations made it to my Mum and Dad's for a Easter Monday dinner. Just a lovely family time. My Mum pulled off an astounding feat, she made gluten free sausage rolls which were nice and a vegan alternative which was also nice! Good work Nanny Chris. As I type a Pork shoulder is slow roasting for today's family meal.

I'm starting to think that my hay fever might actually have been a bit of virus of some sort. On Sunday night I felt dreadful and Lee wondered if I was having an asthma attack. The nasty cough persisted through Monday but seemed to subside by Tuesday. So I headed for the RFW Good Bean cafe ride with the aim of seeing how it went...well not so good. A nice group of 8 left the clubhouse but the first significant hill out of Medbourne saw me dropped and exhausted...so I called it a day and headed home. The 'Hill,' at Middleton really was a unnecessary addition to my short ride!

Why is the defib at the bottom of the hill?

I avoided all further exercise (if you don't count dog walks and housework,) until Thursday when I joined Alan for the RFW mountain bike ride at Wakerley and Fineshade Woods. 

Alan and I had a good muddy ride. The trails had kind of a top surface of slick mud. For me I felt better than Tuesday but still not my full self. It was just good to be out! It was also nice to see that the bluebells are coming! As ever one of the highlights of my day was giving my bike a good clean!!!

Bluebells

This is what my bike looked like...

This is how it looks now! Rinse and repeat...

For the rest of the week it was lots of dog walks and I also managed a couple of 5k runs on Friday and Saturday. 

Out with the pack...

The traditional Saints selfie

With a run, a dog walk and a trip to Northampton Saints, yesterday I topped 19000 steps. As ever it was great to catch up with people at Franklin's Gardens and a good win means the Saints are still in with a chance of making the play offs.

Yes I do need a shave...

Today I still had that lurgy lurking at the back of my mind so I didn't want to be a burden to another group ride. I decided to do a reduced version of the WVCC spring gravel ride. The full distance to and from Great Bowden was 100km and I knew I wasn't up for that. So I said I'd meet the group near Rothwell but not to wait for me if I wasn't there. I arrived at the top of Violet Lane in good time but the group were going well and had passed there earlier than expected. This was no worries for me, I wasn't feeling sprightly and could roll at my own pace.

On the way I bumped into my old friend Ian Bird who was marshaling the NRCA road race, using the Old circuit. I got some pictures of the race action too as I passed in the other direction. It's great too see road racing featuring as part of our local cycling activities.

With a slight shortcut I caught up with the group at Brixworth Country Park where they'd stopped for coffee. I then had company for a good chunk of riding as we went back around the reservoir, down Merry Tom to the Brampton Valley Way and then by bridleway through Haselbech to Kelmarsh. I let the others head off to the pub as I rolled home with a good 40 miles in my legs!

Great gravel

In elite cycling I was typing during Paris-Roubaix last week, which for me, finished poorly with MVDP winning somewhat unfairly. Today Amstel Gold has just finished. An absolute masterclass from Pogacar, a nice second for Healy and then Pidcock holds onto 3rd. Earlier in the day the women's race was good too with a win for Demi Vollering. Lots more to come next week with Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. 

Happy Pedaling