Thursday 30 January 2014

January Stats

Time on bike: 18hrs 24mins (10hrs 17mins on the road)
Distance: 525km (247km on the road)
Total climbing: 3,287m

Saturday 25 January 2014

Reverse Gear

Wimped out of doing a long ride in decent conditions to do jobs around the house instead.

The Marmotte finish line just got a little further away. Pretty soon it'll be out of reach

Monday 13 January 2014

Eat, Sleep, Ride, Repeat

A shorter ride on Saturday down to Surrey, but with no let up in the pace. Climbed Ranmore, Crocknorth and Box in a 90km loop. Felt the strain towards the top of Ranmore, found Crocknorth OK on the middle ring and could only manage 8mins 30secs up Box (some 1:30 off my best). A combination of being about 5kg over my race weight and still having a lack of top-end power continues to temper my performance.

Went to Richmond Park with Emily on a gorgeous Sunday morning to spin out the legs and do some short bursts of power climbing. Stayed in the big ring for all 3 laps, so some good work done.

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Finding Form

Another couple of sessions on the turbo trainer over the past week, as the weather continued to thwart any plans to get on the road. A lack of hangover on New Year's day allowed for a 30km spin session - a positive way to start the year. I followed this up with a new PB for average speed whilst spinning away to Sufferfest's 'Angels' workout on Saturday. Good stuff.


Alberto's been at the beef again...
Sunday gave me the first half-decent weather of the year, so I finally got out on the road for a lone ride down to Surrey. Felt good on the way down so zipped straight to the village of Mickleham and a quick ascent of Box Hill. My pace was good, and the view of the low mist over the Sussex/Surrey border from the top was spectacular. From there I followed the familiar route down to Gatwick before circling round to Leith Hill (stayed on the double ring all the way up), then White Downs Lane. The thighs began to hurt on White Downs, and I was struggling to stay out of the saddle for any length of time. Once over the top, I picked up the pace again across Ranmore Common (slowed only by a bit of Cyclocross to get around a flood in the road). A second, slower, ascent of Box Hill before pointing the bike homewards and driving the pedals as hard as possible.

Having kept the pace high for the whole ride, I was shattered when I got home, but happy to have pushed myself and found that the training is working.

Frank knows how I felt

Stats for the ride:

Distance: 125km
Time: 5hrs 5mins
Average Speed: 24.7km/h
Total Climbing: 1,639m

Another hour on the turbo tonight, to keep up the good work