Vroom Wednesday Strava Fail!

The happy few

I did two rides today. The first was a ride to work. The first ever on the bike I bought through 'bike to work' and only 8 months after I got it! Strava recorded that 5 miles which is nice. I was able to bike in because it's school holidays here. Better still as the kids had no activities tonight I was able to make a rare appearance at C&DCYCLES Vroom Wednesday.

Vroom Wednesday is the clubs faster ride. It still works on the principles of the club where no man is left behind and as the slowest rider in the group I was thankful for their patience. I can only imagine how many PRs I got tonight because I had a Strava fail! This happens from time to time and it's always frustrating. 

Strava has a lot to answer for. It's an obsession. In some ways it's a really good thing. I like knowing how my ride was and I like doing the challenges. In other ways it's a menace. Take tonight. I had a great ride in lovely company. I definitely ride faster than I normally do which can only help my riding. I also can really feel it in my legs now which is more evidence that I had a good ride. It's all money in the bank for my personal journey of cycling improvement. So why so glum? Well I smashed my legs off on the Warkton to Stamford Road climb. I'm convinced it was a PR and it might have got me in the top ten. Now I will never know. I'll just have to smash it again won't I?

Tonight's fuel of choice was lidl jelly babies, great value at 59p.  I like sweets on a ride. Often they have the same energy value as energy gels but they're way cheaper. I've heard that just 8 jelly beans is the same amount of sugar as a standard gel sachet. So for most rides I'm on the sweeties. I also tend to drink standard blackcurrant squash However like most people I'm a sucker for the nutrition pseudoscience especially when it's free. On sportives where they give away gels and isotonic drink tablets I can't get enough. I doubt they help my ride significantly but the placebo effect is strong with me and I always believe on the day. In between organised rides I like to get my sugar rush the cheap way!

Happy pedalling. 

This view was familiar

Another impressive skyline

I deserve a pint!

Another approach to hill training

Tonight was a beautiful evening to be on a bike. A total contrast from yesterday and isn't that typical for this country. Anyway I wanted hills and I wanted to see if valley traversing to maximise the ups and downs was as good a workout as hill repeats. My verdict is erm...I think it's better. Obviously you get longer recovery times but the variance feels more challenging. I'm really pleased with the PRs tonight especially  my old adversary Bunker Hill. I also didn't need to drop to granny ring so that feels good.

I was trying to think up something interesting tonight so it wasn't just "did some hills blah blah blah,'' when a chap on an old colnago came past me. I wanted a closer look at the bike which he told me he'd been given to replace a Masi he snapped! The previous owner of the Colnago has apparently taken up golf. Then he said he needed a flat bar bike because reaching the brakes had become difficult. At this point I noticed he had a prosthetic arm and was holding an adapted handlebar with a metal loop! Wow I said now I have something for the blog, I do hope he's ok with that!

Collecting information about people who overcome difficulties is a bit of a hobby of mine. It's been useful for work to show kids examples of people who succeed despite everything. Things like Sir Steve Redgrave and his diabetes, Richard Branson's dyslexia, Daniel Radcliffe with dyspraxia, Billy Connolly and his abysmal childhood...you get the picture. I get a bit excited about it all and I try to share this with as many as possible. Possibly the worst example of this was when talking to a lady who's son has dwarfism. I tried to give examples of successful people such as Warwick Davis unfortunately her response "yeah yeah he won't be out of work at Christmas," left me a bit red faced!

Back to the ride. I really enjoyed this route, it's a good distance for a quick evening spin and this could become a bit of a regular.

Happy pedalling

Typical Northants valley

Sunset

Spring sky in England

Forgive me Velominati for I have sinned

So I'm BACK in training. After the gash horror riding ban I feel I need to make up for lost time otherwise I'm going to look a right pansy on Star Wars day. The aborted plan for this evening was more hill training but instead of ten goes up one hill I decided to do some valley traversing. It would have been a killer but then the rain came!

Look it's bad right?

Now I do like the rules and I also like to abuse them. Yes I have a saddle bag and yes I have the wrong brand of mini pump attached to Clive and finally I really don't care for all this kilometre malarkey. That final one is to me just a way of making it look like you had a longer ride. One rule I do like to stick to is Rule #9 if you ride in bad weather then you are badass. Period. Click the link it's worth it. However I decided tonight wasn't the night for badass. It's just a training ride. Had it been a sportive or a club ride I may have pushed on. For me. It was too risky. For starters it went dark and even with wipers on full, drivers visibility would be impaired. Then the roads were like rivers and as much as I trust my gators I really don't think I need another incident. One more tumble and I'm sure Lee will take my felling axe to Clive. I'm not risking her wrath. Finally with the roads this full of water you can't see the potholes. In short, you're asking for it. 

On my return home, Mrs Lindsley was standing nervously in the window bay. She remarked that her concern for my safety had nearly provoked a bowel movement but in words more associated with the Major. I guess my common sense might be appreciated on this occasion.

I found some other interesting stuff. Firstly this crazy man decided to ride a cobbled spring classic route on a penny farthing. Check it out as he hilariously asks Sean Kelly if he's done the ride before. Joff Summerfield the penny farthing geezer

PS if you don't know who Sean Kelly is: 1.You're a dufus as he's a legend and 2. Click here

Another interesting blog I read talked about the pros in the spring classics going wider with the rubber. No one has gone for my mad 23mm rear and 25mm front combo but they're going up as high as 28mm and finding less, yes less roll resistance. I have to say I really like having a 25 on the front and when I need a new rear I'm definitely going 25 there too. Anyway don't believe me check it out.

Road CC blog on wider tyres

 Oh well the forecast is better for the rest of the week so I'm going to have more chances.

So I led the Saturday Shop Ride

Following the all clear from the practice nurse and a MTB test run it was so great to get the opportunity to lead the C&DCYCLES Saturday Shop Ride. The route for today has some of my very favourite local roads. Plenty of ups and downs and pleasant quiet country lanes. 

18 of us left the shop but unfortunately a newbie who'd bitten off more than he could chew retired in Rothwell. Having set off in two groups the quick lads caught us by Kelmarsh after ruining the unfortunate chap. Today's ride was the perfect mix of regulars and newbies. One ride virgin was my good friend and former housemate Nigel. We had a riot as single men in the 90's but for the sake of both our livers it's probably a good thing that Mrs Lindsley stole his wife (yes I did Nigel's ironing too!) On top form today Nigel exceeded even his usual standards of confusion. When asked about the other rider in white Nige said he'd only seen one person, then realised as he was also wearing white 1+1 might still be 2. 

Thanks to brother Dunkley, the coolest of cool beans. Whose mere presence today brought amorous attentions of lady horse riders "you all look so handsome," she said...oh yeah sorry...thanks to Darren we had a route deviation. Lord only knows what Steve had in mind when he announced "we like to be deviant." The deviation in question was to go through Braybrooke, over the river Jordan and the up Griffin Road, a pretty testing climb for Northamptonshire. Excellent detour Darren!

The point of this blog, well one of the points of this blog is to bang on about how good the riding is round here. Once you're out of the towns, away from the traffic lights and the potholes there's just miles and miles of top quality action. That's why the number of other Lycra clad groups we see is definitely on the rise. It might also be why The Women's Tour is gracing us on May 7th with a stage from Oundle to Northampton. The club members lucky enough to have that day off are planning a ride to see the start and finish, if you can I'd advise you to join them.

On return to the shop we were supplied with drinks and cake by Andy. Now he was clearly disappointed not to ride today so we sympathised in the only way we know. Yes that's right unsympathetic banter. We're lucky he has a sense of humour but also he benefits from the character building effects and of course anyone who can't needs to #rule 5.

Tomorrow, they say, tomorrow is just another day. Well not for me. It's Sam's 9th birthday and I can't wait to see him on his new bike! 

Happy pedalling!

Ubiquitous action shot

Nigel

Quick stop at Naseby

Well earned rest at the top of Griffin Road

No worries dude

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Back in the Saddle

So I got the all clear from the practice nurse, my wound has 'healed' and the swab came back clear so no infection. Now to look at that ugly gash on my leg you'd be forgiven for thinking neither of those facts was true!

It's a Friday so it was time to do my Pitsford loop whilst Joe had football training. Now there's a thing with Pitsford and the thing is for a couple of weeks in Spring there are hideous clouds of black flies. Guess what...this was one of those weeks! The clues were all there, Pitsford was crawling with anglers because the fly hatch sends the trout into a feeding frenzy. I even saw a lucky angler land a not so lucky fish. The flies are in dense clouds and there was a pop pop pop as they bounced of my helmet. I was very glad of my glasses but also wished I had my buff to use as a face mask.

Did all that spoil the ride? Of course not! It was great to be back in the saddle. I also clocked up a few PR's, which is nice. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow now and jointing the brothers and sisters of C&DCYCLES.

Happy peddling!

GASH

FLY

So I'm not in training...

There's no pictures and no route from Strava to post. I did have plans tonight. I had a 28 mile route around the Naseby battlefield site. I was going to tell you about the decisive battle in the English Civil War. I was going to show you Prince Rupert's and Fairfax's view, the monument, the churchyard in Marston Trussell where the atrocity happened and wonder about the weirdness of sleepy old Northants being the epicentre of a cultural change that shaped democracy across Europe. More importantly I was going to delight in the quiet roads and rolling landscape that make cycling here such a joy. But no! I'm sat on my arse drinking homebrew, filling my face with junk in the sulk to end all sulks. I feel like an OAP whose waited all day for countdown only to suffer a power cut just before it starts.

The source of my woe is the self inflicted gash in my right calf. I had thought it was healing well. They didn't tell me in A&E not to ride. I may how somehow forgotten to ask but they definitely truly 100% did not say stay off the bike until the stitches are out. I also did some research. I found a triathlon forum where an actual doctor said it was ok to swim in stitches so I assumed cycling was fine. I may have chosen to ignore the bit about cuts on muscles that move a lot during exercise (do we use calf muscles in cycling?) Anyway the practice nurse delivered the killer blow this afternoon. The wound is not fully closed, come back Friday and absolutely no cycling. Friday? I was going to do a big ride up and round Rutland on Friday, not massive only 80 miles(ish), although if I was going well I was going to push it to 100 to complete the 160km March Gran Fondo. This was met with disapproval. I don't think she understands. I also think it was exceptionally poor advice that I should:"take up being a couch potato!"

So now I'm in a bad mood. Cycling is addictive. Crack cocaine is probably easier to give up and possibly safer in my case (this is a joke kids, class A substances are not to be messed with.) How did it get to this though? Well this pleasant little hobby gets under your skin. You start out with a bike and a plan to get a bit healthier and before you know it you desire full carbon, bikes for every known two wheeled escapade, industrial quantities of Lycra and the latest scientifically proven nutritional products. You'll be signed up for every sportive going and wondering if you'd go ok in a time trial. Is this a problem? No! It's flipping fantastic. The only downside is every now and again you have to put your backside on a sofa instead of a saddle. Oh well I suppose I'll have to properly plan a few routes for when I'm fit.

Happy peddling people!

So I might be in training

My thoughts are turning to Sportives with my first of the year probably being the Squires and Spires on Star Wars day (May the 4th be with you.) Before that happens I want to be as prepared as I can which essentially means I'm now in training. You ask most cyclists what they want to improve and they'll say: climbing and average speed over a ride. We're obsessed with it and once again I firmly blame Strava.

Right now I feel I'm a bit of a slouch or as Ty Webb might tell me, I'm a tremendous slouch. For those of you not familiar with caddyshack, what on earth is wrong with you? For those who are please enjoy the full version of that quote:

Judge Smails: You know, you should play with Dr. Beeper and myself. I mean, he's been club champion for three years running and I'm no slouch myself.

Ty Webb: Don't sell yourself short Judge, you're a tremendous slouch.

Ok so that's the problem, I don't feel fully fit and I want to perform better in the sportives. I was pants in the 3 counties and everyone had to wait for me. It really was a case of: fail to prepare, prepare to fail. The quotes don't end there. This is the one I'm drawing inspiration from:

"Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't." - Jerry Rice San Francisco 49ers legendary wide receiver.

Right then let's get to the point of all this rambling. I decided to do hill intervals. I picked the hill from Rothwell to Orton because it's about half a mile, as steep as anything around here, leaves me out of breath and it's quiet. I did the hill ten times, riding to the top turning around and using the descent to recover. I thought doing this would be tough and it was but not nearly as hard as I thought. I either need a bigger hill (imagine doing this up Rocky,) or I took it too easy and need to ride as hard as I can on every climb. Either way I tried it, I can do it and I'm going to do it some more.

The enemy

View from the top

The awesome power of the one23 extreme bright light