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Got the bike back yesterday, total damage for the service £161, just over half what I'd budgeted for. Bargain. Replacement parts were two sets of brake pads, XTR bottom bracket, a free hub body, and a full strip and rebuild, included in the service.
Went out today and bought some new bike riding shorts, also budgeted for this month. The Endura Singletrack got a 10/10 in the most recent MBR magazine, so popped to Evans and snapped up a pair. I wasn't sure whether or not they had a liner included. They didn't, so I got a compatible Endura padded liner short too - these have poppers which enable you to fix the two garments together.
Also started stocking up on some energy gels; bought 7, although with my riding this month I envisage these'll be used up during training so my supply will have to be replenished before the Randonnee.
Rode to and from the bike shop yesterday, so am boshing another 10 miles on the total distance ridden this month; I don't, intend making up my target distance with small rides like this but it all counts I guess!
- Distance Goal: 200
- Miles so far: 48
- Miles remaining: 152
The Dawg has gone in to Freedom Bikes for a service today - before I left the shop we'd established that the drive train was OK; the bottom bracket was screwed and needed replacement (Shimano XTR on the way), and brake pads were needed both front and back. I've budgeted £300 for the service so hopefully it won't come to more than that, but the above mentioned items plus the cost of the full service tot up to about £140, so there's room in the budget for a little more ; )
Rode the 35 mile Devils Dyke (Brighton) to Eastbourne route on Saturday. This was treated as more a recreational bike ride than a training ride, but due to the blistering temperatures, will serve as good practice for the Randonnee, which, being in July, usually takes place on a hot day.
We didn't realise when arranging the ride, but it happened to be the day of the years first of two Randonnee's - we met a fair number of riders along the way, but these were mostly doing the 35 mile event. We'd got to Devils' Dyke at about 12:00, so had a fair old start on the 100 mile riders, although a few did catch us towards the end of the day.
Based on this ride, I've decided that 250 - 300 miles training before the Randonnee may lead to excessive fatigue once the event arrives. I've therefore decided to do 200 miles max, keeping the 50ish mile off-road rides on two of the remaining weekends, with 20ish mile road rides in the evenings, and a 20-30 mile off road ride on the last weekend before the Randonnee.
So far then:
- Distance Goal: 200
- Miles so far: 38
- Miles remaining: 162
So, only four weeks to go until the Randonnee. I have to confess to once again, having done a minimum of on-the-bike training again this year, which doesn't lend itself well to an attempt to complete the ride faster.
I've been going to the gym more regularly, and working harder whilst there, than I did last year, so I'm hoping that my improvement in general fitness will have some effect.
I've now put a plan in place. To kick off, D and I are riding Brighton to Eastbourne tomorrow. This will enable me to re familiarise myself with the difficulty level of the hardest stretch of the ride.
I'm aiming for a 50 miler next Saturday, which will be another stretch of the SDW, undecided at the moment which stretch this will be.. may make it Amberley to Eastbourne, which should be about right distance wise.
That will leave me with just two weekends of training - the 3rd week will be a 50-60 miler, with the fourth reducing the distance to around 35.
I'm also aiming for at least one 20 mile+ ride each week, during the evening, although I'm not sure how practical that will prove to be.. with 5 gym sessions a week I'll need to be wary of burnout too.
So all in all, I'll be aiming for at least 250 miles of riding in total during July, with 300 the preference.
I'll log my training miles here to keep track. Gulp.
Rode the Downs Link Trail with D on Saturday. We decided that it would be best to start in Guildford and ride back to Shoreham, the "home" end of the trail, rather than go from Shoreham to Guildford and have to mess about with trains on the way back. Definitely felt like the best way to do it.
We caught the 9:19 from Brighton station up to Clapham, and then another train to Guildford from there. I wasn't entirely sure of the route from the station to the start of the ride, having only ridden it the other way before, but we got there within 10 minutes and promptly set off.
The trail is pretty well signposted, so most of the route was easy to follow, which is as I remembered it. There was one point (Southwater), where we had a bit of a mental block and couldn't work out where to go - asking a local soon sorted that and we were quickly on our way.. as you come out of the tunnel, follow the sand coloured cycle path ; )
We stopped fairly regularly for food and drink - I took some random photos, but nothing suitable for a route guide.
At the beginning of the ride we'd decided to aim for two separate targets - one according to the average speed of my GPS, and one that of D's cycle computer. The difference is that a cycle computer only counts time when the wheels are moving towards the average speed, whereas the GPS is constantly calculating the average. So the GPS is more realistic, and better for determining how well you're doing towards a distance goal in a certain time, and the speedo is better for morale ; )
The difference over the 5 hours or so was about 2mph, with the GPS recording 8.2 average and the speedo abut 10.2mph. Total distance, including riding to and from the stations, was 40 miles, a good start to my training for the Randonnee.
Finally got my hands on a new Maxxis High Roller. I originally went in Evans Brighton for one of these, but they didn't have a *single* off-road mountain bike tyre, apart from a few folding models. They offered to order one in but if I was going to do that, I'd rather order it from the web. So I eventually got it from Halfords Hove, along with three slime filled inner tubes - Halfords were doing 3 for 2 on all tubes, bargain.
I think the highly worn tyre I had on previously was at least partly to blame for the puncture nightmare, so this should go some way to improving puncture resistance for the near future.
Also got the bike booked in at Freedom Bikes for a full service on the 1st of July, in preparation for the 100 mile South Downs Way Randonnee (now booked!), which is on the 25th. Gulp.
Had a slightly eventful bike ride with D - our planned route was to get the train to Chichester, ride to Cocking to join the South Downs Way, then head to Arundel once we got to Amberley.
I ended up suffering the second worst puncture nightmare I've had yet (the first one this one) - half the valve cap was blown off of the valve by air pressure as I undid it. Relying on the fact that I'd have plenty of spares, I threw the top half of the valve in to the bushes.
I ended up regretting this when, for some reason, the only spare tube I had, despite having 1.75-2.1" printed on the side, wouldn't inflate nearly as much as was needed - we gave up on it and had to stop a rider as he came down the hill, to ask if he had any spare inner tubes that he could sell. Thankfully he did have a spare - which I proceeded to puncture severely - I'd thought the flattie had been due to a faulty valve, so hadn't checked for thorns - of which there were several.
After 3-4 puncture fixes, with the tube still going down, we got fed up and stopped a second rider to ask the same thing. We eventually got going, but due to plans for the evening - simply rode back down to Chichester and got the train from there.
Not the most successful mountain biking ride ever - a distance of about 23 miles in total with only about one of them actually off road!
Completed the 10k Superheroes run in 48m 47s - dressed as Bananaman instead of Spiderman. This, I thought, was slightly more original, and as a two piece outfit, resulted in less chaffage than the one piece Spiderman jobbie.
Had a ride with D, consisting of a train ride to Eastbourne, from where we rode to Friston Forest over Beachy Head to ride round the mountain bike Trail. This has evidently now turned in to the "Red" mountain bike route, rather than the "Purple" route - the colour of the arrows on the trail markers has changed ; )
Really good bike ride - the day was pretty overcast, but the rain held off, so riding conditions were spot on.
Have just signed up to a 10K run along Brighton / Hove prom - with all participants dressed as superheroes! I'm going as Spiderman - if I can find a suit big enough to fit my 6'4" frame!
This is in mid May, and I'm aiming for the June Randonnee this year, so I'm sure the training for the event will be beneficial for that [note to self: need a new rear tyre!].
I normally only put links to external sites on my Links page, but I thought this one worth breaking the rule for - for routes around Brighton and the surrounding areas, including both road and off-road rides: Bikely.
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