Its been a while & Tour Of Cambridgeshire
I think another entry is long overdue in my blog.
Yes I've been epically quiet for several months, not to say there hasn't been much going on. Oh no far from it. I've had up's, down's, progressions and set backs. But thats everybodys life in general.
Cycling really has taken over now, so much for finding balance like I put in a previous post. Keegan and I went to Kaprun in the February half term. It had its moments for sure however 2019 in my opinion wasn't as good as the 2018 holiday we had. Maybe 2018 was better because I'd never had a winter sports break before. But a second holiday doesn't exactly fall into the realms of something becoming "old hat", not already?
The weight is still bouncing between 12 stone and 12.5 stone. A little while ago I stepped on the scales and was extremely surprised to see that I had gone under 170lbs. 169.40 which is 12 stone 1.4 lbs. For you metric lot thats 76.8kgs
Tour Of Cambridgeshire
The fitness is still improving on the cycling front too.
Sunday 2nd June I did the Tour Of Cambridgeshire with two friends that I'd met through Woking Cycling Club. It was a really long day with a 3am alarm call. My friend Tori was looking after Sasha that morning so I was mindful to not put all the lights on in my flat while pottering about getting ready to go.
I've never struggled to get Sasha looked after. Not that I ask all the time, I guess she's that sort of dog that people just love to have around. The 3am wake up made things a bit tricky as it was too early for me to give Sasha her breakfast and take into the garden. Not that she wouldn't have done her "business", but I suspect she'd also have done another lot if not taken out later on. Anyway, I left with Sasha in the spare room with Tori. It wasn't until I'd already left when I realised that I'd forgotten to measure out Sasha's breakfast! Lets blame a lack of coffee.
We all took part in the 100 mile route. I was using it as a quasi dress rehearsal for the Prudential RideLondon in August. The target for RL this year is a sub 5.5 hour time (a challenge to take off half an hour from the RideLondon time of 2018... actually it meant taking off 37 minutes and 27 seconds, but who's counting? Given that the route was significantly flatter than the RL route, I was viewing it as if I couldn't do it there, then I'd not stand a snowballs chance in hell of managing it in August with an extra 3,000 feet of ascent (2,119 in Cambs Vs 5,456 for RideLondon - according to my strava entries). The weather conditions were pretty good I must admit aside from a really strong wind. No, not coming out of me, well not at the start anyway.
Lucifer (yes my bike has a name) had been given its pre-sportive clean, degrease and relube which I always do, leaving it with a very nice if I do say so myself, showroom shine.
We'd gotten to the venue REALLY early for registration, walked about the "bike show" which, took all of 10-15 minutes as it was quite small. It was a first for me as I'd never had a participant number before with my name on it. Not even for Ride London!
We grabbed a second breakfast at the event centre and then started to get ready (putting the timing chip on, pinning the number to our jerseys, etc) then trudged off to the start after about 4 toilet breaks. Not that we were absolutely gagging to get to the toilet everytime, but when you know you've got 100 miles ahead of you, you really do want to ensure your bladder is as drained as possible...
We were meant to start at the earliest 10:30am, but we managed to set off at 10:15am. Jamie was in Meatloaf and literally went off like a bat out of hell. I was really surprised as I was expecting to be the quickest of the three of us round.
As I mentioned earlier, there was a North-easterly wind (Assuming that means its blowing TO the North East and NOT from). It made some parts of the route easy when it was a tailwind, but having an 18mph headwind or sidewind, well thats not fun especially with deep section rims.
I'd lost Jamie before the first checkpoint and was finding it challenging as always to find people to draft behind that were going at my pace. Its all good and well sitting on someone's back wheel enjoying the slipstream, but pretty pointless if they're doing 3 - 4mph less than you were travelling. Ironically its because they were slower which is how you can catch up to them and sit on their back wheel.
Still, we were really exposed to the winds, but it was nice being on a closed road event. The first checkpoint was hard as we were riding directly into the wind so I felt like I was really giving it everything I had but my speed was 7mph less than before.
A bit of tactical drafting without being a wheelsucker (someone that always sits in the slipstream and doesn't do their share of work at the front) not only got me round the course in a half decent time by my standards
The wind was really taking its toll on me and I could see my average speed start to slip downwards. By the time I got to the first checkpoint I was averaging 19.7mph, fortunately the flatter part of the course was approaching and I managed to get it back up to 20.2mph. My attitude was to build up some credit so I could eat away at it in the later stages of the route. Overall I knew I had to average 18.2mph to do 5.5 hours over 100 miles.
At the final checkpoint I was in the high 19's (mph) with about 14 miles left to go. By the way, the 5.5 hour target was complete time to finish the 100 miles, including stops at checkpoints, so I was treating them as pitstops. Think I stopped for about 8 minutes in total.
The final 10 miles was really difficult as we were heading back into the wind (again!). I had an unhealthy obsession with my bike computer, ticking away at the distance. Getting ever closer to the 100 miles. But then it hit 100 miles and the finish line wasn't in sight! Where was it???? I spotted a Woking CC top in the distance and chased after it, realising when I was close enough that it wasn't Jamie or Terry. So with a "COME ON WOKING!" shout as I went past him that gave me the final spur on to the finish. The final time...
Jamie was close on my heels, finishing about 10 minutes after me. He was absolutely exhausted. Being a good friend I moved his alcohol free (yes it really was) beer next to him.
Terry finished a little while later and was by the car already when he phoned me. So it was a quick clean up for everyone (I had a collection of dead flies on my forehead to go with my post ride "cornrows"):
and another toilet trip before the long journey back to Woking.
I can tell you what though... the car seat that was really comfortable on the drive up was not at all comfy on the way back.
But from this, it has boosted my confidence to know that a sub 5 and a half hour pru time is attainable for me. In fact, because of the 5 hours 15, I've been challenged to do it in that time! Only 8 weeks to go until the Prudential RideLondon event. As I said in a previous blog entry, knowing that not everyone gets to do this event means I will need to give it everything I've got and I now really do believe that I have got a sub 5.5 hour time inside me, 5 hours 15 if everything is going well :-)
Yes I've been epically quiet for several months, not to say there hasn't been much going on. Oh no far from it. I've had up's, down's, progressions and set backs. But thats everybodys life in general.
Cycling really has taken over now, so much for finding balance like I put in a previous post. Keegan and I went to Kaprun in the February half term. It had its moments for sure however 2019 in my opinion wasn't as good as the 2018 holiday we had. Maybe 2018 was better because I'd never had a winter sports break before. But a second holiday doesn't exactly fall into the realms of something becoming "old hat", not already?
The weight is still bouncing between 12 stone and 12.5 stone. A little while ago I stepped on the scales and was extremely surprised to see that I had gone under 170lbs. 169.40 which is 12 stone 1.4 lbs. For you metric lot thats 76.8kgs
Tour Of Cambridgeshire
The fitness is still improving on the cycling front too.
Sunday 2nd June I did the Tour Of Cambridgeshire with two friends that I'd met through Woking Cycling Club. It was a really long day with a 3am alarm call. My friend Tori was looking after Sasha that morning so I was mindful to not put all the lights on in my flat while pottering about getting ready to go.
I've never struggled to get Sasha looked after. Not that I ask all the time, I guess she's that sort of dog that people just love to have around. The 3am wake up made things a bit tricky as it was too early for me to give Sasha her breakfast and take into the garden. Not that she wouldn't have done her "business", but I suspect she'd also have done another lot if not taken out later on. Anyway, I left with Sasha in the spare room with Tori. It wasn't until I'd already left when I realised that I'd forgotten to measure out Sasha's breakfast! Lets blame a lack of coffee.
 |
| Terry (left), Jamie (centre) |
We all took part in the 100 mile route. I was using it as a quasi dress rehearsal for the Prudential RideLondon in August. The target for RL this year is a sub 5.5 hour time (a challenge to take off half an hour from the RideLondon time of 2018... actually it meant taking off 37 minutes and 27 seconds, but who's counting? Given that the route was significantly flatter than the RL route, I was viewing it as if I couldn't do it there, then I'd not stand a snowballs chance in hell of managing it in August with an extra 3,000 feet of ascent (2,119 in Cambs Vs 5,456 for RideLondon - according to my strava entries). The weather conditions were pretty good I must admit aside from a really strong wind. No, not coming out of me, well not at the start anyway.
Lucifer (yes my bike has a name) had been given its pre-sportive clean, degrease and relube which I always do, leaving it with a very nice if I do say so myself, showroom shine.
We'd gotten to the venue REALLY early for registration, walked about the "bike show" which, took all of 10-15 minutes as it was quite small. It was a first for me as I'd never had a participant number before with my name on it. Not even for Ride London!
We grabbed a second breakfast at the event centre and then started to get ready (putting the timing chip on, pinning the number to our jerseys, etc) then trudged off to the start after about 4 toilet breaks. Not that we were absolutely gagging to get to the toilet everytime, but when you know you've got 100 miles ahead of you, you really do want to ensure your bladder is as drained as possible...
We were meant to start at the earliest 10:30am, but we managed to set off at 10:15am. Jamie was in Meatloaf and literally went off like a bat out of hell. I was really surprised as I was expecting to be the quickest of the three of us round.
 |
| A nice little Woking CC 1 & 2 |
As I mentioned earlier, there was a North-easterly wind (Assuming that means its blowing TO the North East and NOT from). It made some parts of the route easy when it was a tailwind, but having an 18mph headwind or sidewind, well thats not fun especially with deep section rims.
I'd lost Jamie before the first checkpoint and was finding it challenging as always to find people to draft behind that were going at my pace. Its all good and well sitting on someone's back wheel enjoying the slipstream, but pretty pointless if they're doing 3 - 4mph less than you were travelling. Ironically its because they were slower which is how you can catch up to them and sit on their back wheel.
Still, we were really exposed to the winds, but it was nice being on a closed road event. The first checkpoint was hard as we were riding directly into the wind so I felt like I was really giving it everything I had but my speed was 7mph less than before.
A bit of tactical drafting without being a wheelsucker (someone that always sits in the slipstream and doesn't do their share of work at the front) not only got me round the course in a half decent time by my standards
 |
| Taking a turn at the front |
 |
| Having a bit of a break |
The wind was really taking its toll on me and I could see my average speed start to slip downwards. By the time I got to the first checkpoint I was averaging 19.7mph, fortunately the flatter part of the course was approaching and I managed to get it back up to 20.2mph. My attitude was to build up some credit so I could eat away at it in the later stages of the route. Overall I knew I had to average 18.2mph to do 5.5 hours over 100 miles.
At the final checkpoint I was in the high 19's (mph) with about 14 miles left to go. By the way, the 5.5 hour target was complete time to finish the 100 miles, including stops at checkpoints, so I was treating them as pitstops. Think I stopped for about 8 minutes in total.
The final 10 miles was really difficult as we were heading back into the wind (again!). I had an unhealthy obsession with my bike computer, ticking away at the distance. Getting ever closer to the 100 miles. But then it hit 100 miles and the finish line wasn't in sight! Where was it???? I spotted a Woking CC top in the distance and chased after it, realising when I was close enough that it wasn't Jamie or Terry. So with a "COME ON WOKING!" shout as I went past him that gave me the final spur on to the finish. The final time...
 |
| Total moving time was 5 hours 22! |
Terry finished a little while later and was by the car already when he phoned me. So it was a quick clean up for everyone (I had a collection of dead flies on my forehead to go with my post ride "cornrows"):
and another toilet trip before the long journey back to Woking.
I can tell you what though... the car seat that was really comfortable on the drive up was not at all comfy on the way back.
But from this, it has boosted my confidence to know that a sub 5 and a half hour pru time is attainable for me. In fact, because of the 5 hours 15, I've been challenged to do it in that time! Only 8 weeks to go until the Prudential RideLondon event. As I said in a previous blog entry, knowing that not everyone gets to do this event means I will need to give it everything I've got and I now really do believe that I have got a sub 5.5 hour time inside me, 5 hours 15 if everything is going well :-)
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