I’m pleased with my ride at yesterday’s Prince’s Risborough sportive. I beat the gold time target by a decent margin, doing 126km in 4hrs 20, the same time as I posted for the 114km Burgess Hill Classic in late March. The BHC was admittedly a lot hillier, and that day I spent a fair amount of time solo whereas yesterday I was able to work with small groups of strong riders to draft on the flat. Check the results – I’m around 33 out of 232 finishers. (more…)
Great Edinburgh street scenes on this video. Huge trials skills as well, clearly.
By the way this video is turning into a big viral hit, even Lance Armstrong tweeted it. Massive bonus for Band of Horses.
A gentle climb on the way to Codicote.
Today, thanks to the flexible working policy of my employer, I was able to ‘cheat the week’ and go on a sunny 4hr ride straight from my flat in north London.
The expression ‘cheat the week’ originated when Andy and I used to ‘work from home’ (whilst working for former employers I might add) and head out riding off-road during office hours when the weather was good.
Well this one was guilt-free. A fantastic loop from my door, provided by Tim C at London Phoenix, that heads north through High Barnet and Potter’s Bar, getting quieter and more rural all the way. The above shot was taken near the northern limit of the route, in some stunning countryside with barely a car to be seen.
I rode completely inside 80% max HR (with only a couple of exceptions slightly over, see below), in readiness for Sunday’s sportive, and rightly so because even then my legs felt heavy after 2hrs. I’m now going to have 3 days rest before Sunday – a little experiment to see if I feel better or worse for not commuting. Although there are supposed benefits to ‘active recovery’ I’m not sure whether in fact my daily commute just wears me out and results in general staleness. TBC.
These tyres are top. They are certainly lighter than the Ultra Gator Skins I previously reviewed, and in fact they seem more resistant to cuts and general wear & tear. This begs the question: why settle for less, especially since CRC are currently offering them for only £7-8 more? Velodramatic uses them, so they must be OK – although he’s got the limited edition white ones of course…
Reliving the old times: me, Tom and Andy taking in the view from Holmbury Hill.
On Saturday, on my last chilled weekend before the sportive season closes in, I did some laid-back off-roading with some old riding buddies from the University of York Cycle Club. It was the first time I’d turned a fat tyre in anger since my Kona Muni-Mula had a Captain Oates moment on a snowy ride in Edale in November 2007.
Tom, Andy, Ross and I have ridden together many times since we first met at York in 1998-9, from the Yorkshire Dales and Moors to the Peaks and the Lake District, and abroad to France and Slovenia. When I joined UYCC Ross was club captain; I succeeded him the year after, and Tom took over the year after me. So the day was a nostalgic reunion one decade on, a muddy festival of banter on the trails of the North Downs.
While Andy was christening his new Trek Fuel EX 8, I took a trip back in time to ride Ross’s old Marin full-suspension. Now 10 years old, the Marin is in good nick but feels dull to ride. These days there are stiffer, lighter, more ‘XC’ full-suspension bikes available but I remain to be convinced that the way forward is anything other than hardtail. But then I’m a climber / endurance rider – I don’t need to go any faster on the downhills…
We picked a favourite route from Dorking station up through the vineyard, over Ranmore Common, down into the valley and up and over Holmbury Hill and Leith Hill before a final descent down Summer Lightning. These trails are among the best I’ve ever ridden in the UK, especially when bone dry in the summer. Tom binned it pretty badly coming down the berms from Holmbury Hill, then I stacked it first into a holly bush then into barbed wire on the singletrack further down.
Me and my shredded back.
Tom's generally shredded body.
We followed up the ride in style with a curry at the Indian Moment on Northcote Road, which I am now convinced is the best Indian restaurant in London. And with that, it’s getting serious. The Prince’s Risborough sportive awaits.
I combined long miles with quality rest and a hard workout over the long Easter weekend.
Part 1: The miles
Friday was a gruellathon, 110 miles from home to Sevenoaks. It followed the same route as last Saturday as far as Ardingly, then followed this extension route.
View Century 2 (extension) in a larger map
I flatted just outside of Cobham, then from the 2 hour mark the rain came down, and it came down almost unremittingly for a further 5 hours. Thankfully I had my waterproof but Carne was wearing just a light jersey and was soaked to the skin. The route has some healthy climbs in the first two-thirds, but from Ardingly the hills just keep coming. I followed Carne’s back wheel doggedly over most of them, until we got to Toys Hill and my eyes started to glaze over.
These 2 long rides have been really good prep for the 110-mile Fred Whitton on May 10th.
Part 2: The rest
I went to Norfolk for Saturday and Sunday nights, and got in some quality rest – more than I would have allowed myself normally. Long nights of sleep and general lounging in the day saw me progress from exhaustion on Friday night to a full recovery by Monday morning.
Part 3: The workout
Fully recovered, after a muggy 4-hour drive back to London on Monday I was chomping at the bit. I went for a Regent’s Park / Swain’s Lane quality session – the below graph shows my heart rate over 2 hours.
Heart rate graph for a 2-hour quality session. Ignore the blip at the start...
I went hard, evidently. After a 25-minute warmup I did 4 laps of the park, 4-5 minutes at brisk-to-hard (85%-95% max) on 2-3 mins steady. My chest started hurting at the top of the inhalation, which is something that tends to happen to me when I go off too hard, like a lung-strain.
I found it fairly easy to push my HR up over 170, whereas I’m sure during similar sessions in February I found it harder to achieve (and sustain) such a high rate.
My HR went even higher on the hills. I did 6 repeats on Swain’s Lane, alternating standing then seated. The first one I hit really hard (could I have gone harder?), standing up. Overall, going hard felt good, I felt strong and fine sustaining such a high HR.
Today was a triumph for the independent London bike store. I got better service and more straight-talking from Mosquito Bikes in about 5 minutes of phone conversation than in 6 weeks with Cycle Surgery.
First of all, a disclaimer – I’m not out to pan Cycle Surgery. They’re good for what they are, i.e. convenient, accessible, capable, multi-purpose, inner-city bike stores. I buy plenty of kit at CC (including my bike, let’s face it) and on balance they have the edge over Evans. However on this occasion they fell short of what I expected.
Rear wheel bearing
In late Feb I discovered play in my rear Fulcrum 7 wheel. The Fulcrum 7s came with my bike, so they’d had about 18 months of active service. I called CC, who advised me that the cartridge bearings could not be serviced, they could only be replaced with a new bearing. I placed an order on March 4th for a new bearing. CC even called me back to confirm the order had been placed, and to inform me I should receive a call in a few weeks’ time. Thankfully I already had my Neutrons by this point, so I just rode those.
Weeks passed, no call from CC. I phoned a couple of times: the estimated time went from ‘2-3 weeks’ to ‘28 days’. I called a month after I initially placed the order, only to be told that actually, because orders to the suppliers were only made once or twice a month, I could have been unlucky i.e. my order was only placed with the supplier in mid-March.
I was annoyed, but figured I would get a call at some point, I still had the Neutrons so what the hey. I considered calling Condor, but they’re being refurbished, and apparently refurbishment means you can’t even provide a phone number (even a voicemail service?) on your website. Another sad chapter in the chronically bad Condor website saga.
Cut the crap
This morning I cracked and called up Mosquito. Dean at Mosquito was helpful. He said they would be doing an order to the bearing supplier tonight, so could I bring my wheel down this afternoon to confirm exactly which bearing was required? I said I couldn’t, but would do the next morning. 5 minutes later I got a call from (mechanic?) Bertie at Mosquito, who, reasoning that my bearing could only be one of two possible types, had ordered both bearings, and would fit one of them tomorrow if I brought the wheel in first thing.
Totally awesome.
Clearly, for specific parts and fast, dedicated service, indie is the way.
Millsy debates Boonen’s legendary status on his new Ironman365 blog.
Poster design by Cricket Press.
Another bike-related find courtesy of Christian’s Colourschool blog. The poster is hand-printed by Cricket Press, and you can buy direct from their website (although, sadly, this particular poster is no longer available).
I like the mention of ‘Al’s Bar’ at the finish.
Do zombies’ legs feel pressure or do they ride without pain? I’m thinking of Tom Simpson’s final moments on the Ventoux during the 1967 Tour de France. Ripped on amphetamine and half a bottle of brandy, he demanded to be put back on his bike when he fell off the first time. The second time he fell off he was probably already dead from heart failure, his hands gripping the bars so hard his fingers had to be prised off by the Tour doctor. My guess is Simpson had long since stopped feeling pain on that brutal mountainside – his ascent was indeed the Ride of the Living Dead.
A few weeks ago I upgraded my old heart rate monitor and bought Garmin’s most basic HRM, the Forerunner 50.
First impressions were good. The screen is clear, the watch and chest-strap fit well, the watch buttons are big enough, and it’s pretty easy to get used to the functions after a flick through the manual.
The Forerunner 50 also comes with a USB stick so you can upload saved sessions to your Garmin account and chew over the data. I found myself stumbling around the Garmin websites on a few occasions, so I’ve tried to figure out why. I ran into problems trying to download the software required for pairing my USB stick and watch on a new machine.
Software download
I log in to ‘myGarmin’, then click ‘Downloads’ – and it says I have no downloads available for my product. Confused, and after heading down several other dead-ends, I return to ‘View your registered products’, and click on ‘Forerunner 50′, which I have already registered. I hit-and-hope on a link that says ‘Accessories’. Now I’m on a shop page, but I see there are some Quick Links on the right, one of which is ‘Garmin Connect’. Is this what I’m looking for?
Yes. I’m pinged over to connect.garmin.com, and a new page called ‘myConnect’, where I can easily navigate to download the Garmin ANT Agent software. Why can’t I do this directly from myGarmin via a self-contained admin area? It seems that from Garmin’s point of view, there are different types of download – software downloads for upgrades and add-ons, and software downloads for pairing – but from my point of view, I want all downloads in the same place, clearly flagged from a central ‘myWhatever’ page.
Once downloaded, the ANT Agent software makes pairing the computer and the device, and uploading saved workouts, very simple. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover it worked with Mac / Safari, and I really like the myConnect dashboard interface – it makes me want to upgrade my hardware to use more data (e.g. distance / speed, and maps).
The Garmin myConnect 'workout details' page.
The whole experience is very good overall. The Forerunner 50 is excellent value, and I feel good about buying in to the Garmin technology. A few aspects of the online interface are a bit frustrating, and I think these could be improved if the different zones of Garmin’s web environment were better integrated.
Update 5-4-09
After a couple of months’ regular use I’m still a fan of this HRM. Couple of points worth mentioning though:
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