LBL - London to Brighton and return!

In an attempt to get my miles up I and five others attempted to ride to London to Brighton return.

The route was again "borrowed" from the very useful Dirty Wknd club. I'm thinking I should join since I've now used a few of their well curated routes.

When I say "attempted" we were hampered by a very eventful day. Getting to the start was difficult for some because of broken trains. Completing the event was difficult because of a broken bike and crazy heat. Somehow London managed to pull a 32 degree day out of the hat. Ice baths became a stop requirement, but even so people slowly wilted. As time went by the six that started slowly dwindled down to two. And even then we had to give up at Dorking as the thought of Box Hill in the dark didn't sound like fun.

However it's all good, 174km for the day is my personal high score, so very happy. It was a great day

Fundraising

We're getting there with the sponsorship! A few more donations will push it over the line. Cancer is a worthy cause, one that touches us all in some way. I'm working hard to make this charity ride a reality, so I'd really appreciate any help you can give to get me to my sponsorship goal. Please see my sponsorship page for details on how to donate. 

Thank you!

London 2 Paris in 24 Hours - Two more weekends training

Dirty Wknd - Bakery 2 Bakery

Dirty Wknd is a cycling club with a difference. Most clubs in London seem to be pretty hard core and concentrate on racing or really long rides. Dirty Wknd concentrates on being more accessible and having fun. It does have some hard core rides, but all the rides are tagged with a colour, much like a ski slope. Different colours annoyingly. A red ride will kill you, unlike a red run on the slopes!

Bakery 2 Bakery

 

 For my first ride I wanted something not too challenging as I was unsure of how much my usual solo average speed would be affected by riding in a group - riding in a group is much easier than riding by yourself.

So a Yellow ride made sense. Unfortunately none were available when I came to book, so I managed to talk myself into thinking I could keep with an Orange ride (one under red).

I met up with the group in Victoria Park and was surprised to find that there were only four others on the ride. Apparently the previous days atrocious weather and the amount of wind we'd be riding in had scared everyone away. It turns out that there was a red ride starting from the same point as well but the ride hadn't happened. Two of the riders were refugees from the red ride.

We took off with a hiss and and a roar. These guys were fast. The ride was supposed to achieve an average of 24km/h and we were sitting on 28 - 30, which for me fast. However while it was hard, being in a group made a massive difference and I was able to keep up. At the half way bakery we had averaged a massive 27km/h!

Heading home that all changed as we had a headwind all the way back. The speeds tumbled and the two red riders eventually disappeared into the sunset, the speeds were obviously too show for them. I had to console myself with the fact that we were still well above the planned ride average.

The ride leader told me at the end that it was a "pacey" introduction! Apparently if the group had been bigger we would have been under the average speed, given the amount of wind we had. The take home; There's hope for me yet!

Rowe and King South London Rideout

Rowe and King are the training organisation work has used to try to whip us commuting cyclists into some kind of shape. Surprisingly they seem to be succeeding. 

This ride was the latest in a series that have included a Velodrome session (loads of very fast fun), the Chiltern 100 and an earlier ride out.

There were three rides: short, medium and long. I decided that given the L2P is getting close I should be doing the long ride of 125 kms. The sentiment was good, however the thinking-it-through bit was sadly lacking. I already knew from the velodrome session that we have some spectacularly fast cyclists at work. It didn't occur to me they would all do the long ride.

I soon realised my mistake! I found the pace quite quick from the off but was comfortable keeping up as long as I was in the group, however all that lovely wind assistance disappears when you hit a hill. The pack simply vanished. I wasn't the only one having difficulty. Fortunately the downhill speeds were fairly low so I was able to catch up, but I wondered how I was going to last the day.

Fate to the rescue! The medium and short groups had left before us and we caught the medium group before we turned off to our longer route. I quietly switched groups and found a pace that I could cope with. Annoyingly I was still one of the slowest up the hills, but with the slower pace it was much easier to catch up after the hill.

Then the heavens opened. It was really, really wet. Proper rain, the likes of which England rarely gets. We were in the middle of tiny lanes through hills and the edges of the road quickly turned to mud. The result was a couple of crashes. One we all stopped for while it was sorted, however the second the message didn't get through. Two of us stopped to help and when we got going it was clear that we were on our own. It was slower going as we didn't have the benefit of a group, but the sun came out and we had a lovely ride for the last half of the ride.

Fundraising

As usual, there is the usual request for sponsorship! Cancer is a worthy cause, one that touches us all in some way. I'm working hard to make this charity ride a reality, so I'd really appreciate any help you can give to get me to my sponsorship goal. Please see my sponsorship page for details on how to donate. 

Thank you!

London 2 Paris in 24 Hours - Training Update

Prudential London Ride

Well, 19 miles of it anyway! On the Thursday before the event I received an email saying that there were still places on the Pru19, which completely surprised me as the main 100 mile ride fills up almost a year out. Because the short ride was the same route as the last 19 miles of the 100 miler I assumed everyone would be tired and it would be a fairly slow meander back into London, so I to get to the start line I headed through the hills to the south of Croydon to add on an extra 40 miles. At the start I joined a colleague, Trevor Carden and his son, and we set off for the ride into London. It was anything but a slow meander! I ended up having the highest average speed ever! I've never ridden in such a fast, large group before and I was surprised how much help you got from slipstream from so many cyclists around you.

Bike Fit!

If only this meant the bike had become more fit. Instead it is a two hours session in a bike shop to fit the bike to you:

"Using 3D motion capture technology, the Retül system accurately measures every degree of movement and millimeter of distance, providing you and the fitter with data to support the choices made during the fit for your cycling equipment and personal riding experience"

I was strapped up with data dots and then had to ride my bike in front of a camera and have my every wobble and defect recorded and analysed by the Retul system in excruciating detail. Apparently my knees move in an oval when I ride, and that is probably why I am starting to get knee issues. I really didn't like hearing about all the things that were wrong. Still, this is why you do this, to find out what isn't working. So after changing the length and angle of the handlebar stem, moving the seat and seat height and adding a few degrees tilt to my left foot the computer said my position and movement was much improved. How much only time will tell. In spite of all the computing accuracy, the human body is even more complex and takes a while to settle to any changes.

Fingers crossed.

The Goal

Of course there is a reason for all this activity, The London to Paris Ride in 24 Hours in support of The Teenage Cancer trust. It would be great if you could help me reach my fundraising target (28% so far) by donating through my sponsorship page. 

To those who have already donated; THANK YOU!

It's been a while, time for something new!

It has been a very long time since I've posted anything here. It's not that I haven't been doing anything, it's I'm not great at blogging... Anyways it's time I posted something new, and this time, different. Introducing:

London to Paris in 24 Hours!

I like my cycling and cycle to work most days, however it hasn't been much more than that. While over the past few years I have done a few rides outside my commuting comfort zone, they haven't been especially long or taxing.

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but somehow someone at work has talked me into this crazy venture. I guess part of the appeal is that it is a bit different and more than a little crazy. On top of this those that know me are aware that I really find fundraising challenging and would rather do anything else. Anyway here goes:

Who's got a new bike then? And the full Mamil regalia to boot

In the afternoon on 13 September I and 300 colleagues will leave work in Canary Wharf and ride 100kms to Newhaven on England's south coast. From there we catch a 4 hour ferry to Dieppe. It will be my only chance to rest and hopefully get a bit of sleep.

From there it is merely another 170km's to get to Paris!

The reason for all this craziness is a worthy cause, The Teenage Cancer Trust. The £300k raised will go towards a new, pioneering hospital ward in London and a team of community nurses, enabling the charity, for the first time, to reach every young person with cancer in London and the South East

I would really appreciate it if you could sponsor me in this effort! I have £1000 to raise. Both the fundraising and the ride are no minor undertaking (I'm not sure which will be the hardest!), so it would be great if you could help me achieve my fundraising target. Please! 

Donations should go through my Charities Trust Fundraising page. 

 

This might look slow. It isn't!

Training!

Well of course! Cycling 10km to work each day wasn't going to cut it. The guys at work who are organising the whole thing know it too, so they have arranged a training program that will hopefully help get fit.

Some of the training has actually been fun!  This is the Herne Hill Velodrome where we got to practise going fast while ridiculously close to the rider in front

No overlapping wheels!

It was dangerous enough that before we went out we got some serious briefing. Apparently it can go bad very quickly!

Surprisingly the training is actually having some effect, my rides have been getting longer and the times have been getting better. Below are some of the more interesting/longer rides.

Stay tuned for further updates!