Riding Update (this won't take long..)!

Well, there has been a distinct lack of posting around these 'ere parts - for one reason - there has been a distinct lack of riding! The main reason for this has been the weather - every time I've ridden this year, I've gotten the beginnings of a cold about three days later - I've prevented most of them taking hold through a combination of echinacea tablets and sauna sessions, but whenever they have taken hold, they've prevented me from getting to the gym for the three weekly sessions that I've been aiming for - not good.

So I've basically blown out riding for what has now been about 6 weeks. In that time I've continued my gym sessions, with two personal training sessions a week, which has done wonders for my fitness - I can't wait to get out on the bike and see the benefits. I've also been on holiday to Gran Canaria, where I tried to make up for the seven straight nights of drinking vodka and seven straight days of eating a full English breaky ; )with a few sessions in the hotel gym - these weren't anywhere near the usual intensity though.

I've just sent off my cheque for entry to the Randonnee, but there are a few changes over last year. Firstly, I'm doing the June event (with Will and his mate Ross - there may be a few more of us though), instead of the July one - this means that training will take up less of my Summer, important as a single lad ; ) Secondly, there will have been a lot less on-bike training in the lead-up - we'd already been training for two months by this time last year.

Other differences are that I (a) know I can do it and (b) know how long I've done it in before - this information has led to my goal of taking 2.5 hours off of my time from last year - I'm aiming for 12 hours.

To help with this, I'll be maintaining my three gym sessions a week, and am starting to draw up a training plan - starting with a 40 miler in the form of the Brighton to Eastbourne stretch of the South Downs Way, this weekend (weather permitting). I'll be ramping my distance up by about 10 miles each week, along with a Shoreham --> Guildford --> Shoreham ride (73 miles) at some point too. I'll be needing some new equipment for this, including a new Camelbak with a decent 3lt bladder and judging by the weather so far this year, a waterproof jacket!

In other news, I'm incredibly disappointed with my treatment of the new bike - I treated the Dawg as if it was made of gold for three years, and although the Primo is now my pride and joy, I didn't clean her up until a few days after the last ride - now half of the drive train has rust on it. I kind of guessed that this would be the case with the chain, so bought a new one yesterday - it's a SRAM 991 which I got for £20, and fitted last night. I am going to endeavour to keep her in tip top shape from now on - starting with a service which I may stretch to this month (I'm having my new scooter serviced tomorrow so I'll need to see how much that costs first).

Bank holiday singletrack heaven.. not!

It's been a bit of a rubbish year so far in terms of my riding.. I've been out much less than I'd have liked.. probably due mostly to the shite weather that we're still experiencing. I've been doing a lot of gym work to compensate, and have been using the services of a Personal Trainer too - that's mostly to shape up for the holiday I'm going on soon though ; )

I've not long been back from a ride today, accompanied by Will, Coatsy and Tom K - a new addition to the riding clan (hope it didn't put you off mate!).

As Tom hasn't been riding for a while, we decided on the Brighton --> Lewes --> Brighton route, which, as I've mentioned elsewhere on the site, is a good ride for getting back in to things, because if you're struggling by the time you get to Lewes, you can always get the train home.

The ground was predictably quite wet, and our bikes were caked in mud after a few hundred yards. After the road section from Swanborough, we stopped in Lewes while Will bought a cuppa from Caffe Nero, and then rode up the road to the prison.. at which point it started to bucket down with hail. We stopped to decide what we were going to do, and almost unanimously decided to push on, with the thinking being that the hail wouldn't last long.

How wrong can you be? The hail continued up to the point in the road where we turn left on to the Downs again, where we once again decided to carry on. We met another group of three riders at this point, who were riding to the Beacon and back from Lewes - they were also debating whether to go on or turn back - in their shoes, being so close to home, I know what I'd have done ; ). We started to ride on again, still expecting the hail to stop at any minute, which it didn't; the visibility just dropped right down and we started getting quite wet.

The hail then turned to snow, which was a slight improvement as it didn't sting when it hit your face, but it was still quite efficient at soaking us. We pushed on through the slush and the very cold conditions, with Will and I riding slightly in front but continuously checking back for the others. We got to the Beacon, having ridden 4 miles through slosh with either hail or snow the whole way, and thoroughly soaked. I bought a Coke at the Ice Cream van to provide a bit of energy, and shortly after, we saw Coatsy, who turned down a cup of tea to ride back in to Brighton down the Beacon road without waiting. Will and I waited for Tom to get to the car park, and we all started the ride back down the Beacon road.

I rode up through Withdean to get to Dyke Road, whilst Will rode down to the seafront - I had planned to do that, as we wash our bikes at one of the petrol stations along there, but with my hands completely numb, and the middle finger of my right hand, on which I had an operation to repair a tendon I'd sliced whilst clubbing, actually burning from the cold (the circulation is slightly impaired due to the internal scarring), cleaning my bike was pretty far from my mind.

So, not the best ride I've been on - it started off well, but the weather soon turned it in to a bit of a nightmare - I was glad to be home!

Stats for the ride were:

• Distance: 20.53 miles
• Average Speed: 5.6 mph
• Maximum Speed: 27.4mph
• Ride Time: 3 hours 38 minutes
• Likelihood of getting a cold in the next few days: Extremely high ; )

I've just realised that I'd put "2007" as the date for all of my posts this year - this has now been changed ; )

Sunday afternoon ride

Went out for a quick ride today, all on-road unfortunately, due to time constraints. Rode up to and then around Hangleton, then down to the bottom of King George IV Avenue (Snakey Hill), up to the top of Dyke Road, then down to the seafront, along to Southwick and then back home.

Just a quick one, Distance: 12.45 miles, Average: 9.1mph (stopped to talk to an ex-colleague for about 20 mins), Max: 28mph.

I installed my GPS before leaving (had to move the bracket to the Primo), hence the stats. Also took advantage of the Pro Pedal feature of the rear shock, which works really well!

Downhilling at Wild Park

Duncan and I had been discussing doing a bit of downhilling locally for quite a while - it's not normally my thing, but I thought I'd give it a go - so, we arranged about two weeks ago to meet at Wild Park to ride the downhill course there.

Will also said he'd be up the ride too, so we agreed to meet at 9:00, to ride to the park.

We made it there in about 40 minutes from Hove Park, and accidentally ended up at Stamner Park instead - it only took 5 minutes to correct that mistake, and we were along the road at Wild Park, where Duncan was getting changed in to his Robocop Suit body armour ; )

There are two main courses at Wild Park; one is quite open, enabling you to improvise your route each time - there are berms and jumps aplenty. Needless to say, I chose the "chicken runs" - I prefer my wheels to stay firmly on the ground, especially when it's as soggy as it was, but still had great fun riding the berms. The second consisted of mainly singletrack through the trees, again with plenty of jumps, and then quite an extensive section of North Shore. I found the singletrack difficult going, because I'm very tall and quite broad, and the gaps between the trees were a bit too small for me to ride without ducking an awful lot. As for the North Shore, I chickened out of that too, but enjoyed watching the others ride it.

After riding for a while on each of the trails, we went back to the first; on one my descents, I found myself dodging round a tree to avoid a jump, and completely lost the back end of the bike - I hit the deck at about 20 miles an hour, but once I'd confirmed that my bike was fine, I decided it'd been quite good fun! I haven't crashed for quite a while.. we went for another run after this, but I'd lost what confidence I had with hurtling downhill on soggy ground, so went down pretty slowly.

After a few hours we decided to call it a day, so Will and I rode down to Brighton seafront and rode along in what was staggering heeat considering the time of year - there were loads of people out on Brighton beach! We stopped off for a Coke first, and then went along to the Texaco garage, where we used the free water on tap to clean the majority of the crap off of our bikes.. I also gave the bike a good wash when I got home, but it was good to have given it it the initial wash with running water.

I'll be doing the course again soon, when the ground's a bit drier, and will get some photos for the site when I do!

Devils Dyke to Brighton - the long way round

Last Saturday, Will and I did a ride from Devils Dyke, heading east, aiming to take it pretty easy, and see where we got to. Friday night for me had turned in to a "get home at 5:30 in the morning" drinking session, yet somehow I managed to fit my rear Crud Catcher and my DMR V8s on my new Dawg Primo and be at Devils Dyke for about 11:50 (OK, so we'd agreed to meet at 11:30, but hey).

I still have a few housekeeping tasks related to the Primo, including removing the reflectors, removing the bell, and installing my GPS bracket, but I didn't have time to do those.

I could definately feel the effects of my late night drinking session, but I'd stopped to buy plenty of water, and some delicious Fruesli bar type things on the way, which definitely helped.

We got to the Lewes turnoff of the South Downs Way, and both decided that we'd rather go on than go to Lewes, this being due to the fact that it was only 2:30 in the afternoon. This track was a complete quagmire, and very difficult to get through. Having negotiated that, we made our way on, crossing the A27 in fairly good time. It was shortly after this, however, that the effect of all the vodka from the night before really started taking its' toll.. we rode up the long continuous hill after the forest on the south side of the A27, having basically decided to go on. However, what looked like storm clouds were looming to the east, and the thought of going on to Southease, where they may be a considerable wait for a train, was too much. We cut the ride short, turning west towards Bear Road and descending down in to Brighton.

I'd started the GPS (which sat in my pocket for the whole time) at the beginning of the ride, and it read about 30 miles by the end, with a top speed of 32mph, which I was pretty surprised at, considering how sloppy the ground was. The Dawg behaved flawlessly (I'd put more pressure in to the rear shock, and let some out of the fork), but it did attract a hell of a lot of mud around the pivot area. The drivetrain was also caked, and I did have a few cases of skipping gears, but overall everything was cool.

South Downs Way Randonnee Challenge Posts..