A Diamond In The Gravel

Today was a beautiful day, and I just had to get out on the bike.

Unfortunately, I had a cold

And a hangover.

Therefore I decided not to do anything too dramatic, but just spin down to Box Hill with Emily. It was a great ride at a touring pace, and a reminder that cycling can be fun instead of just tiring.

Anyway, at the foot of Box I decided to give it full gas to see if I could improve on my performances so far this year. A flick back through this blog shows that my best time for a Box Hill ascent is 7 mins 1 sec, and so far this year I have been resolutely, and worryingly, around the 8:30 mark.

I jumped out of the saddle right from the bottom of the climb to get the pace up. Back out of the saddle around the 1st hairpin, and then again on the 2nd. Despite my cold-ridden lungs gasping for air in the winter morning, I kept the hammer down on the long drag to the 3rd hairpin, and then was again out of the saddle to the finish. 

Stopped the clock at the cafe at the top for a time of 7:26. A whole minute quicker than my best this year. Despite feeling like poo. On my heavy winter bike. With stock (and slightly out-of-true) wheels. This was a good marker to lay down.

Alas, it appears that my bad luck hasn't quite ended however, as I broke my chain again about 5km from home. I was so p*ssed off, I didn't even bother to retrieve it (so if someone wants an Ultegra chain in pretty good nick (probably just needs a new pin), it's on the road somewhere between Sutton and Morden!)

Temporary Pain Cave

With the kitchen being redecorated, I had to find a new location for the turbo trainer:

At least it has a built in sick bucket for threshold intervals

Must've worked - managed a new PB for average speed while powering through Sufferfest's 'The Hunted' video

Is It Friday The 13th?

An unheard of change in the bad weather, and a break in other activities for both Jon and myself (marathon training for him, DIY for me) meant that we could get a ride down to Surrey in today. So we donned our finest fluro clothing, and thus looking like a couple of Vini Fantini rejects, we pointed our bikes south-west.

On arrival we dropped down from Headley towards Box only to be waved down by a group of cyclists that had stopped ahead of us. They warned us of a huge amount of ice on the road which tempered our speed immediately, and therefore probably saved us from a nasty accident.

Our planned ride came to a full stop towards the bottom of Ranmore however, when we came across a puddle that was around a foot deep in the middle of the road. A quick conference, and it was decided that we'd backtrack to Box and do a few laps instead.

Fate farted in my face once more however, with a puncture at the foot of Box. Once the inner tube was changed, I decided to use a CO2 cartridge to re-inflate it, having never used one before.

It did not go well.

I opened the valve too far, which meant that freezing CO2 was sprayed over my fingers, giving me a couple of nasty blisters. The old-school method of using a pump was used to complete the inflation process, and we were on our way. Jon went away from me on the climb, as he was to do on the next 2 laps as well.

At the top, we continued on the road for lap 2, when suddenly I was on the floor. I'd hit ice on a shaded part of the road (albeit at a slow speed), and the front wheel disappeared from beneath me. As I picked my self up, someone else did exactly the same thing behind me.

We managed 2 more laps before hammering the 30km home in the sunshine. 91km ridden, 1,300m climbed and hopefully all my bad luck gone in a single ride.

Double Ton.... Almost

Set out on Saturday morning with the intention of doing my first 100-mile ride of the year. Pedalled down to Surrey and had a stab at Box Hill straight away, being sure to keep my heartrate low and not expend all my energy too soon. After that, I begun to work my way into the sussex downs only to find my route blocked by a flooded road (when will it stop raining?). A hastily-chosen detour turned up the same problem 2km later, so a major re-think was needed.

Ended up scooting along the A25 to Shere, climbing south to Ewhurst before looping round to Leith Hill. After the descent I went back along to Shere to do the climb to Ewhurst again before heading for Dorking then back up Box and home.

I struggled to remain mentally strong as the halfway mark of the ride passed as I continued to burrow into the very strong headwind, and with my thighs beginning to burn. But as soon as I reached Box I felt my spirits and energy levels lift (this may have had something to do with the gel I took). With the wind finally at my back I knocked off the 30km home quite comfortably. Was shattered when I got back, but was sure I had enough in the tank to have done another 15km which would've taken me to the magic 100 mile mark.

As it was, I spent about six-and-a-half hours on the bike, and did 145km and climbed 2,200m. Not bad for the start of February.

With very stiff thighs the next day, I welcomed a spin around Richmond Park with Emily. Didn't try to do anything other than turn the legs at an easy pace, and climb slowly but out of the saddle (needing to improve upper body strength)

A lovely afternoon in the sunshine, that bought my total km's ridden in the weekend to within a whisker of 200km. A good step forward.