A Morning in Hell !

I entered Hell of the Ashdown for the weekend and as promised here is the post event report.

Alas it is a sorry report.
Crossing the start mat at approx 9:07 am, not even 100 metres down the road and my saddle slips and is uncomfortable pointing skywards.  A quick curse and out with the tool kit.  Levelled off, tightended up and on the road again, my fellow starters in the 9:07 bunch already well ahead.

I challenge myself to reel them in, the flat turns downhill and I start to pick up my group (a fundamental of cycling physics, when the road goes down, its got to go up again!).  It went up and I lost the group again and was passed by a few other riders.  Nevertheless I stuck at my pace and made it to the top.
A few more expletives as I feel the saddle shifting again but I shifted my weight forwards and tackled the next climb... A few more miles down the road and I could feel my hips tipping back.  Off the bike again and reset the saddle. Almost immediately the saddle slips again and my full blue vocab fills the air. 

The ideal position is to be rocked forward at the hips rather than an overstretched back, the more the saddle tipped my hips back the more my back took the strain and more I cursed under my breath.

Eventually after about 12 miles I realised it was a lost cause and I could ride the remaining 56 miles getting increasingly more cheesed off.
So I turned round and made my way back to the start, very broken spirited.

The only plus point I can take away from my morning in Hell was that I maintained a good rythm on the hills and more than made up my time on decents. It shows that I have made some large gains in ability since starting this challenge.

Commuting

I have joined the legions of cycling commuters on the morning roads!

Now first things first I am and probably always will be a fair weather commuter, I can't see the point in getting all soggy on the way to the office, even if there are shower facilities.

Last Monday morning,  I took the Mountain bike to the roads of Surrey and pedalled down to Guildford.  It was heavy going but I made better time than I expected.  Homeward bound was heavier still.

Attempting the ride on the Steel Chariot I beat my mountain bike time by 31 minutes (just an observation, no racing involved, its better to get to the office in one peice.) 
I have a short vid of my commute:

I am sure this commuter story will blossom into a rant about pot holes and careless motorists!

Entering Hell!

This will be my first Sportive Ride of 2011.  The Hell of the Ashdlown http://www.hell.gb.com/

My Start time is 9:07 but may get away with slipping off a little earlier as there is a large contingent of Kingston Wheelers attending.  Full report and hopefully some footage next week.



The Sporting 14

I am getting a bit lax in my updates at the moment....Trying to make the blog a bit more entertaining having read so many others, it will come with time I'm sure.

Stat since the last post:  21 Weeks until the Etape and it has been 84 miles since my last post.

On Sunday 13th I took part in my first time trial, see link for route and times.
http://www.kingstonwheelers.co.uk/2011sporting14.shtml

The weather was middling to miserable, It could have been worse it could have been better.  Leg warmers, arm warmers, wooly hat, long sleeves etc etc.  I was well wrapped up.  The bug did a great job of getting two bikes on the roof to the HQ at West Horsely Village Hall for a stiff cup of coffee and signing on before the drizzle really came down.

From the last post I mentioned the conditon of the first half of the course - Hungry Hill to West Clandon ish-was pretty poor road surface.  Alas there had been no re tarmaccing in the intervening week.

My Start was at 8:48, as I approached the line one of the marshals held my bike as the other started a count down.  Having no experience of a standing start and with 30 seconds to the off I had an image of the marshal letting me go and me just falling sideways.  So I started under my own steam. 

The first half lap was a massive drag just trying to gather some sort of momentum, however once onto the main/ better roads The speed picked up, I topped out at 34mph according to the cycle computer!

The second lap had more momentum up Hungry Hill, but still a hard slog against gravity, Surrey County highways and a headwind.  But when you know its the last lap it gets a little easier the closer you get to the finish.

Turning onto Ripley Lane I knew it was going to be over soon so your able to dig a little deeper and push harder knowing rest is on its way.  I really pushed myself and found more when I could see the Finish post.

It felt great when it was finished a real sense of acheivement, my final time was 45m 52s so I'm happy with that have predicted a 45min attempt.

Thanks to Charlie

22 Weeks to go

Its been a while and 168 miles since my last post.

I hope to make up for my lack over miles when the weather improves and I start commuting to the office - 32 miles a day..... although it probably won't be every day.

My use of the camera has also imp[roved and I include a couple of laps of Richmond park from last weekend.

Next weekend is the Gill Jessop 14 mile Time trial. I rode a trial on Saturday and it went ok - the rode surface is pretty poor for the first 3 miles but then the rest of the course was smooth road and alot quicker.

Oh well - full report next weekend.