Not the ride I wanted but still good to get out...

I knew I wasn't 100% but hoped getting out on the bike would sort me out. The man flu I'd had two weekends ago has left me with a bit of a productive cough which is more irritating than debilitating. I hadn't been out on a club ride for ages so I thought stuff it I NEED TO RIDE! Unfortunately my best Bob Fleming impression came back and it became clear that a trip to Neville Holt was unwise. So I bailed and came home. It was nice to see everyone though. I've missed those guys!

Those of you who don't know Bob Fleming please see here...

riders gather

Steve has a new sponsor...don't tell Andy

So this is how my ride went. I'd swapped the road tyre back on to "Whanau," my beautiful Giant Propel, yesterday, determined that all this winter bike nonsense can be forgotten again until November. It felt great as I zipped down the hill and then bunker hill didn't feel too bad so I thought I'd be OK. I left the shop with the banter bunch and we hadn't left Kettering before Neil's tyre went bang! The poor chap didn't think it was a good idea to continue and I don't blame him, that would have been a disaster on a descent and at least he wasn't too far from home.

Obligatory mechanical shot

1. Rule #49//

   Keep the rubber side down.
   It is completely unacceptable to intentionally turn one’s steed upside down for any reason under any circumstances. Besides the risk of scratching the saddle, levers and stem, it is unprofessional and a disgrace to your loyal steed. The risk of the bike falling over is increased, wheel removal/replacement is made more difficult and your bidons will leak. The only reason a bicycle should ever be in an upside down position is during mid-rotation while crashing. This Rule also applies to upside down saddle-mount roof bars.23

   

Lovely gloves Neil

Leaving Kettering we encountered some curious driving practices before the first minor slope at Rushton. At this point I started to doubt myself. Then going into Desborough, which is not the north face of the Eiger my lungs felt on fire. I was completely shattered, so soon after that I called it a day and limped home. Pathetic I know! Also it denied my hero Pete Squires his mention in the blog. Hard luck Pete.

1. Rule #5//

   Harden The Fuck Up. 2,20

With very little cycling of my own to talk about it's time to discuss the exploits of others. At the height of my manflu Cav and Wiggo were rounding off a great Track World Championship for Great Britain. The road season is in full flow with the Spring Classics and a big win for 'G' and team Sky last weekend. Even better though was the exploits for Sport Relief last night. There's stuff we haven't seen yet though and I'm looking forward to seeing how James Cracknell got on in his Raleigh Chopper hour record challenge.



His inspiration is this other crazy geezer who did Mont Ventoux on his chopper and holds the current hour record.



Via the 'Selfie on a bike,' twitter feed I found out about a very inspirational man. Ernest Gagnon was over 500lbs had type two diabetes and was losing circulation in his legs. What did he do? He got on his bike. He's lost over 200 lbs and has participated in 25 cyclocross races. Check out his blog here: http://ernestgagnon.blogspot.co.uk/


Finally if you're into road bikes and you've never watched it, check out the GCN show. It's  great watch.



I'm hoping for some happier pedaling. Until then, at least there's always recovery cake.

Easing back into it...

Oh look it's the lads!

After weeks of turbo training I decided to venture out today. One of my regular short rides of just under twenty miles. Nothing much to get excited about but it was definitely good to be out. Whilst out I bumped into some good friends from my club who appeared to be having one of those puncture mare days. Quite ironic that hopalong Pendred was in that group as it was him having the recurrent holiness on D2D. Good to see them though!

I haven't been on a club ride yet this year. There's a few reasons for that. Firstly I've been doing two jobs since September and I'm just knackered. Dragging my butt out of bed on the weekend has for the first time in my life become hard work. I'm naturally a lark rather than an owl so that early morning lethargy is a bit of a warning sign. Secondly, the queen of cakes and I have a rather important wedding to attend in April. We both have outfits to get into and it's about time I supported my wife a bit. So we've been going for walks when I'd normally be out with C&D Cycles CC. Finally I've done this rule 9 malarkey, I've wrecked my bike twice on ice and it's getting a bit old hat. So I'm waiting for some nicer weather. Even if today was the day for me to return to group riding I couldn't. Despite Jeremy Hunt's bizarre claims the NHS isn't a 7 day service, Mrs Lindsley was on call for court duty and I couldn't go anywhere until I knew if she was required in her capacity as Community Psychiatric Nurse Specialist. I can't return next week as I'm running a Saturday assessment clinic.

In the meantime I've put the turbo tyre and skewer on my Giant Propel and I've mostly been using GCN training videos. That's when I've not been watching my heroes. From the comfort of my turbo I've watched both the Saints and Everton win, I have to confess I like a turbo session. It feels like you get a lot done with a minimum of fuss. However I also think it's no substitute for time on the road. Turbo's can increase speed and power, they can aid weight loss but for me, they don't seem to build road stamina. The first 'real' hill today was a shock to my legs despite what Dan Lloyd told me on the GCN hill training video.

Anyway the blog is back, some decent road rides will be back and I absolutely cannot wait to unleash that beautiful bike when the spring arrives.

Happy Pedaling

Soggy Sunday

My every intention this morning was to join my good cycling mate 'Big Steve,' for 40-50 miles of wit and banter at a steady pace. Well that's how he advertises his Sunday ride! I got up, got everything ready and then time just wandered off and I ended up leaving the house late. So when I arrived at C&D Cycles it was 9:05 and no one was there! On the way in I got a friendly wave from the KCC lot sat in the bus shelter.

No time to say hello, goodbye. I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!

This was possibly for the best because Steve and I would have stuck to the plan and smashed out a half century. That wouldn't have been a ride to write home about. Parts of the UK are experiencing a month's rain in two days and parts of my body are currently experiencing a month's worth of calories consumed over the same two days. So all things considered the little 24 miler I did was a good result all round. My kit was just starting to fail as I got home. Water was starting to get through my gloves, my feet were getting damp and my rain jacket had reached the limit of it's resistance. Much as I like to observe rule #9 I also don't really enjoy being cold and wet.

Below is the Ise running just south of Arthingworth, it's little more than a brook most of the year so that show's the rain we've had. I think today was probably a better day for a canoe.

We really shouldn't grumble though because parts of the UK are in a terrible state with many people losing their homes to floods. That rarely happens in Northants with the last time being because the council forgot to open the flood gates!

Jimmy's End Northampton 1998

I also doubt very much that cyclists have had much fun in the north of England with famous cycling areas sitting under water. 

The picture above is a bridge in Cumbria which is part of a CTC route. It was destroyed on December 7th. In another part of Cumbria people are having to use a cycle route because the road has gone, here's a link to the Road CC article Road CC. Have a look around if you follow the link, I wish I could build a site that impressive.

On my return home I noticed my back wheel rubbing again. I think it has a problem as the same loose spoke is causing the buckle. That combined with a bit of play in the front wheel suggests those faithful hoops need a bit of TLC. Not a massive surprise as they've done over 8000 miles. There's a quick solution here. The wheels on my Giant Propel can go on Clive whilst I get it sorted. If my back wheel is ready to retire I've got a spare so it's all OK. 

Which leads me to my thought for the day. Having been bought my dream bike I straight away began to desire better wheels for it. What a spoilt brat! I'm not Fabian Cancellara what do I need better wheels for? I'm sat here in my very comfy house, in front of a lovely fire, typing this on my laptop with the cricket on my massive TV. I've got a great bike, I've got other bikes too. I'm enjoying a week off work with my family. People in the UK have been flooded out of their homes, millions are living in poverty and I'm worrying about wheels! Sorry if that's a bit miserable but I always get like this at Christmas. I just think at times we should stop and grateful for what we've got before thoughts drift onto what we want next.

Enough of that, back to cycling. I've got a lot of work to do if I'm going to complete the Festive 500. However it looks like much better weather during the week. look below there's a strange yellow symbol on the forecast!

Happy Pedaling

Christmas Day Ride

Merry Christmas everyone. Mine is going splendidly so far. More presents than I deserve because I've already had the best present ever in my beautiful Giant Propel. Because my wife bought me a bike I bought her one back. Looks good doesn't it!

I managed to get a few miles in this week with three commutes, The first of which led to the great trouser trauma where I arrived at work to discover I had my much slimmer son's trousers which look very similar to mine. His are a 30" waist and as a consequence I couldn't get them up over my athletic cycling thighs. Oh well it certainly gave everyone at work a laugh.

I managed to get a few miles in today too! I didn't risk my best bike though as the pictures will show the roads are filthy. They might be bearable to ride with the right kit on but my Garmin virb objects and takes rubbish pictures. Anway they do prove I wasn't the only Lycra Loony out today.

I was trying to get a snap of the MAMIL behind the car but I suspect the motor is also a Christmas present because a nervous youth was behind the wheel, L plates on and a bloke I presume was his Dad pointing at stuff. Enjoy it young man and remember to be kind to cyclists.

It's a real shame this picture is so poor. It was clearly a bloke on his Christmas present wearing his brand new cycling clothes. His smile was as wide as any I've seen so he was obviously enjoying himself. I also met some jolly joggers and got wished Merry Christmas by dog walkers. The funniest thing I saw was a white Mercedes flash past. It was filthy and some cheeky wag had written on the bumper: "I wish my wife was this dirty!" I hope it's ages before he notices.

Finally in Old I met Santa walking through the village ringing a bell. He was stopping at each house and waving at the kids. What a great idea.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Pedaling New Year

Cold, wet, muddy...still loving it!

On another day when the sane and sensible of the cycling world fired up their trainers, stuck on a motivational video and stayed warm, we the supposedly intelligent folk of C&D Cycles Cycling Club went for a ride. Well four of us anyway, the rest of the club can sit with their smug satisfied smiles that they're marginally more wise than us. Worse still we deliberately chose to add mud to the cold and wet. The pictures tell a tale but they're not going to win any awards due to the lens permanently being wet, muddy or both.

The others; Steve, Nat and Heather met me on the Market Square in Rothwell. This was a kind act because it gave me time and for an extra cup of tea. It was my plan apparently so the first thing we did was go up the hill to Orton and then follow the quiet lane. Yes ladies, gentlemen and Jonesy, that picture above is us on a road. 

From Orton we headed back towards Harrington and then followed the road down past the Carpetbagger Air Museum Link. We then followed a fun muddy trail to the old WWII runway. On the way Heather had her first tumble of the day. She missed a great chunk of concrete by millimeters and thankfully got back on unhurt. 

By this time I was soaked through and knew I'd made an error in my clothing choices. My MTB shoes are good, I've had them for about ten years but they are not waterproof, nor were my socks. Frankly I may as well have wrapped my feet in Plenty (other kitchen roll is available.) Really my sealskin overshoes and waterproof socks would have been a good choice. Another poor choice was my MTB trousers. They are showerproof but when it's raining above and you're splashing through puddles all they did was get wet, cold and flappy. It might not be the done thing on a MTB but my winter tights would have been a much better choice. The right choices I made were to wear a C&D winter jersey and glasses with clear lenses. Had the picture not been so poor I could show you how effective Heather's eye-wear was because she was totally panda eyes!

Ineffective for cycling footwear

Heather wanted proof her rear tyre was not going down...there you go

Nat inexplicably was way cleaner than the rest of us

Barely a splodge!

See...that's me

From the old airfield we zoomed through Draughton and onto the Brampton Valley Way. For a surfaced track I have to say it's in pretty poor condition and became a bit of an oppressive puddle fest. The first 100 or so were funny to splash through but once it felt like frostbite in my toes it wore off. Thankfully there was a way out and we took Merry Tom Lane up to Pitsford Res. 

Would be a great photo with a clean lens

A bit better

Onto the track around Pitsford Water you realise just how poor the Brampton Valley way is. It's a much better quality gravel track with better drainage and far less puddles. Heather took another tumble on one of the unofficial off track sections. I never had the video running at any of these times which seems a waste!

Heather has fallen in the distance!

After that it was back to the roads and home via Scaldwell, Old and Loddington. On our route we barely saw another cyclist which again either suggests we're particularly hardy or just 'sharp as a tennis ball.'

Steve was amused by the pub sign

So was it worth it? Of course! Good miles, good company and a great sense of achievement. I have the rest of my life to sit by the fire, so until I'm no longer capable I'm going to ride as often as I can.

Apparently the picture doesn't do it justice

Filthy boy!

The Queen of Cakes was highly amused by the state I was in when I got home. Everything was taken off and discarded by the washing machine. She also handed me a towel but there was no way I was getting in the shower because it would have stung. It was still pretty painful when I got in half an hour later. At least parts of me that disappeared are starting to re-emerge.

I have got some video footage but no time to do any editing today. If I get round to it I'll probably do a bonus blog.

Everyone got frozen today. Nat was unsure how she was going to get her dirty bike back into the flat and Steve was planning to warm up with a Minestrone Cup-a-Soup! Poor Heather has Hypothermia in her Strava ride name.

Recovery drink of champions!

That's my cycling for the weekend.

Happy Pedaling

Shivery Soggy Saturday Club Ride

The weather forecast for today was wet and cold so the wiser cyclist would have dusted down the turbo trainer or rollers, stuck on some tunes and stayed inside. Well no one has ever accused the hardy souls of C&DCCC of being sensible so obviously we went for ride.

Not really riding weather

You'll note my technology challenges have improved as there is a ride to show you but not resolved as I did this today and not as Strava claims on Thursday night! I left my phone at work, I can't trust my cateye stealth (don't buy one they're rubbish,) and so today's data was provided by my Garmin virb. The file on the virb has the correct time and date so I have no idea what happened in the transfer to Strava.

Lets not muck about here. It was cold and wet. Horrible cycling weather. I loved it! However I couldn't ride in this every day. We picked a well known and easy route because it didn't need to be any more difficult.

Raindrops on the lens...

Damp, damp, damp

Murky winter day

Steve looks imperious, he didn't five seconds earlier when he fell off his bike whilst stationary

Not a lot to say about the ride other than rules #5 and #9 were observed. All of my equipment failed after about 5 miles. My waterproof gloves were soaked, my water proof socks were holding the water in and my shower jacket was holding up a white flag. Back at the shop a disheveled bunch of lycra loonies forlornly wrung out bits of clothing.

C&D now stock bikes for hobbits like Frank

Mrs Lindsley provided the cake

One consolation today was cake by my wife, the queen of cakes. It was too very popular choices with coffee and walnut and my very favourite 'Guinness,' cake. This cake is actually made with my very own stout as opposed to Dublin's finest and the recipe comes from domestic goddess Nigella Lawson.

Exquisite taste

Leaving the shop in soggy cold clothes was tough, I limped home. Back at Lindsley Home Sweet Home, Christmas is in full swing. The Queen of cakes goes to town and another magnificent tree graces our bay window,

Tomorrow we're going mudbashing off road. I can't wait. Best get carb loading then!

Happy Pedaling.

Brass Monkeys! A very cold C&D Cycles CC Saturday clubride

Here's a screen grab of the route for today's ride. I'm unable to do a strava embed because once again I've had a ride recording fail. This one is unbelievable really. Yes I forgot to start my phone but as back up I'd zeroed my cateye stealth. It recorded the 43 miles I did today. However after three hours of messing about with the hopeless cateye sync software I've given up. The stealth is good for basic feedback when riding and a pile of old pants for everything else. Oh why does it have to be so annoying? Well it doesn't does it? I had a great ride in good company wearing my shiny new club winter jersey.

The route today was created by me. I've not done that for a while so it was a fun thing to do. I incorporated one of my regular training routes with the extra bit to and from Kettering to create a 33 mile ride. Knowing these roads I knew they'd have a bit of everything. Enough hills to keep even Andy Brown happy, some quick bits and some beautiful countryside. Highlights include the set of hills from Maidwell to Lamport via Draughton, fast sections from Kelmarsh to Maidwell, down to the causeway and that lovely quick road into Loddington.

New Jerseys on display

 It was a big day fro the club with the launch of the new winter jerseys. The previous incarnation of this is excellent, its almost waterproof, windproof and very warm. I'm glad to say the new one is exactly the same. A little bit different colour wise as the new ones are gold with back as opposed to the old yellow and Everton blue. Extra detail this time includes reflective stripes and a zip on a back pocket. Nice touches, as is the strapline 'keeping it social.' Big thanks to Chris and Andy for sorting out these quality bits of kit.

lovely day...but cold

Those winter jerseys were very welcome this morning. It was a cold morning with a touch of frost. Nice and bright to start with but with a sharp wind. As the morning wore on it got gradually more dull and it got colder. The other bits of kit I was thankful for were my endura winter tights, sealskin full finger gloves and my overshoes.

Stunning countryside

This route is the type that showcases the county's rural beauty. Rolling hills, quiet roads, picture perfect villages with stone cottages, thatched roofs, impressive churches and plenty of old fashioned red phone boxes. Talking of which, many are retired phone boxes and often they are used as unofficial village libraries where people swap books. The best use of seen of one such box was to hold a portable defibrillator. That's a clever idea that could save someone's life.

Chris believes he can fly + the boss in splendid new top

It was nice that Andy the C&D Cycles manager was able to ride with us today. It was also good to be out the club, blowing away the cobwebs of a couple of weeks off the bike AND pedaling out a stressy week at work.

Back at the shop we were treated to cake by Justin. The latest edition of the George Duke stunt show also took place. This week Steve's teenage dare devil was balanced on top of a greasy broom wearing roller skates whilst refilling the coffee machine. Oh OK he wasn't really but he did have a bit of a dodgy climb on a stool again. Also visiting the shop were Nathan who along with his mates had just recovered a stolen car and Simon who was picking up the fastest looking frames I've seen. More winter jerseys were purchased and I feel very sorry for anyone who misses out because they're going fast.

That's what happened in my bike world today. It's time to stay cozy by the fire and recover from another cracking ride.

Happy Pedaling