More riding..

It's been a long while since the last post - mainly because I've been studying my arse off for the MCSA - a Microsoft Certification for which I'm doing a 9-day bootcamp at the end of June.

The riding has been steady, as have the gym sessions. Firstly, two weeks ago, Will, Jonny and myself repeated the Shoreham to Eastbourne ride again. Jonny ducked out above Brighton, at the 20 mile mark, due to pain in his knees (guess which pedals he uses..), with Will and myself continuing on to Eastbourne.

I wanted to beat the average speed that Coatsy and I achieved last time we did the ride, and we got to the top of the hill above Southease a whole 0.4mph faster than Coatsy and I had! We didn't gain or lose anything by the time we got to Alfriston, with the average speed sitting at a solid 7mph. Sweet. However, we had to eat lunch, so found a spot with a bench after getting food / water at the newsagent. Unfortunately, our stop was in total about half an hour, so the average had plummetted by the time we got going again.

We had a slight mishap again, when on the road section at Jevington, with me in front, Will rode straight past the entrance to the next bit of the SDW, but within a few minutes we were back on track again. Once we got to the top, we were at a frustrating 6.5mph, exactly the same as Coatsy and I had been. So at this point, I absolutely bombed it along the track through the golf course, to get the average up by that 0.1mph - almost sarcastic, but as least we beat the last attempt! He he.

In other news, Dayna and I completed the Shoreham to Guildford ride last Saturday; 45 miles in total, and about an 8mph average speed - nothing to write home about, but that wasn't really the point of the ride.

Long distance riding tips..

Throughout my training for the South Downs Way Randonnee, I've been making observations about how best to approach such an event. Having never taken part in such events before, I thought it might be useful to note these down for other riders thinking of doing the same kind of thing.

• Take loads of water. In fact, shiteloads of water - it's hard to have too much unless you go silly
• Use a hydration pack. Previously I've relied on bottles of drink in my bag, stopping every time I needed a drink. definitely not condusive to efficient riding
• Drink lots of water.
• Check your water levels every once in a while - one of the negatives about hydration packs is that you can't see the remaining levels
• On practise rides, take note of the sections of trail where the gradient starts flattening off on up-hill sections - when this happens, it's time to get in to a harder gear ratio for more efficiency - otherwise you'll find yourself pedalling in the granny gear on flat sections before you realise it
• Whenever you hit a slightly downhill section, roll using your existing momentum, rather than pedalling the whole way - as long as your speed is higher than your average, this will conserve energy without impacting too negatively on your progress
• On practice rides, take note of the flat sections - examples for this ride are the top of the first hill after the A286 on the South Downs Way, and shortly after Ditchling Beacon. Make the most of these, as they are few and far between.

I'll make not of more tips when I think of them, and start to categorise them - hope these help!

New saddle..

The argument about the link between erectile dysfunction, low sperm count etc, and regular riders has been going on for years, but as my riding has relatively recently gone from "mid-distance-but-with-regular-stops-because-after-all-it-is-a-hobby" to "ride-as-far-as-possible-without-stopping-as-training-for-the-Randonnee", I've started thinking more about the possible risks involved with this.

As I've been considering the purchase of a new saddle for a while - as I've had the Dawg for two years now, so figured that the saddle can't be providing optimum padding still, I decided that I'd purchase a saddle with "anatomic cut-outs", which are supposed to alleviate the above risks, just to be on the safe side. The obvious choice is a Specialized Body Geometry, which I knew were stocked by Evans Brighton.

However, although my boycott of them mainly involves them carrying out work on my bike, rather than buying equipment from there, I thought I'd try out BikeHut, just in case. In there, I saw a saddle that I'd readabout in a supplement supplied with my subscription to What Mountain Bike magazine - this is made by Selle Royal, whose saddles I've seen on bikes for years. "Respiro" is the model name - the nose of the saddle has a fine mesh grid which forms the entrance to a cavity inside the saddle, and leads to another grid inside the cutout - this allows airflow from the front of the saddle to the point where you sit on it and basically keeps your knackers cool. Great idea, because the increased temperature from cycling is one of the things purported to have a negative effect on sperm count etc.

The jury is still out on whether or not this risk even exists, and whether or not this type of saddle is simply a gimmick designed to play on peoples fears (a bit like insurance..), or if there is actually a use for it. However, I'd rather not take any chances, to find out in a few years that this was a really big issue and I didn't do anything about it.

I'll be paying very close attention to seeing how long the saddle lasts, and will get a review in the reviews section once I've been out on a few rides with the saddle - I also promise a photo or two as soon as I get a chance.

For those who can't/won't buy this style of saddle, it seems the general advice is to stand up to pedal frequently during rides, have rests quite regularly, and move about on the saddle whilst sitting down pedalling - these measures will avoid oxygen starvation etc, which is another of the causes of these types of problem.

South Downs Way Randonnee Challenge Posts..