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Alex and I completed the Downs Link Trail ride, up to Guildford and back, as part of our training for the South Downs Way Randonnee. This was a total distance of 78 miles for me, including the ride to and from Shoreham to my home. We did get slightly lost, near the end of the Downs Link Trail, but ended up being much nearer to Guildford, and thanks to some really nice people from the Godalming Cycle Campaign, we got to Guildford successfully.
At this point, our average speed was just above 10.0 mph, but our trip to Marks and Spencer in the town centre to top up on food and drink, and the time spent eating it really affected the average. Once we started going again, our average was slowly bumping up, until we were asked by a couple out for a ride if we had a puncture repair kit.. we then spent about 35 minutes fixing the puncture (caused by a huge nail, and subsequent snakebiting, it seemed), and although we really gave it some on the way home, we only managed to get our average up to 8.4 mph, which was somewhat disappointing. An estimated (by my GPS) 3,830 calories burnt wasn't too bad though!
Our ride stats were a follows:
- Distance: 73.33 miles
- Time: 8:42:34 (h:m:s)
- Max Speed: 28.2 mph
- Average Speed: 8.4 mph
Although we were disappointed, and although this can't be classed as a comparitive ride to the South Downs Way Randonnee in terms of the terrain, it was still a very good ride in terms of getting on a bike and just pedalling for what amounted to about 7 hours solid (not including the main stops described above).
Anyway, we're planning on doing this one again a few times before the big day, so hopefully we'll cain that next time and subsequently. To Lyndsay and Bjorn, hope you got to where you wanted without any more trouble with punctures!
Got the Dawg back from Freedom Bikes, and rode home - don't know where it came from, but had an amazing ride, beating my previous stats in both directions by some margin, even though my rides to work are normally quicker. Stats are as follows:
- Distance: 7.81 miles
- Time: 0:27:48 (h:m:s)
- Max Speed: 23.6 mph
- Average Speed: 16.9 mph
I'm really please with these stats - this kind of riding has provided really good training for the South Downs Way Randonnee ride; looking forward to trying to beat them!
Rode the Dawg to work today, as it was booked in to Freedom Bikes for a few things - had a really good ride, especially compared to the last one, which was on a rather screwed Fire Mountain. Stats are comparable to the last time I rode the Dawg to work, with a slightly lower top speed bring the average down a bit. Incidentally, the differences in distances are caused by me forgetting to turn the GPS off at the same point each ride. From now on, I've decided to do this at the set of traffic lights that I cross the seafront road after leaving the bike track.. this should make it a bit easier to compare.
Stats are as follows:
- Distance: 7.93 miles
- Time: 0:31:31 (h:m:s)
- Max Speed: 18.7 mph (riding on the road)
- Average Speed: 15.1 mph
Rode the Fire Mountain to work, achieving some truly terrible stats. I left it pretty late leaving for work, and unwisely still hadn't checked the bike over since the last time it was ridden, when Will borrowed it a few weekends ago.
Unfortunately, the seat, which Will had lowered, has seized in the frame. Despite completely loosening off the quick release seat skewer, it was still stuck fast. So at full extension during the pedal stroke, my legs were still bent at quite an angle - not helping my bad knee! So my various stops to try freeing the saddle up had a bit of an impact on my stats, as did the fact that I had to stop pedalling and stand up straight on the pedals at various points to try stretching my legs out. On top of that, since my chainset was changed, the chain only goes in to the middle ring - that has a huge impact on top end - doh! Anyway, here they are:
- Distance: 8.06 miles
- Time: 0:40:00 (h:m:s)
- Max Speed: 17.1 mph (riding on the road)
- Average Speed: 12.2 mph
As I said, disgraceful, but the above factors really didn't help! I'm just off with a hammer to try freeing up the saddle in a "less gentle" way.
Saturday was my only opportunity to ride this week, so I asked around the guys, relaying the fact that my chosen route was to be train to Eastbourne, ride to Friston, ride round the MTB trail twice, then ride back to Eastbourne. Only Coatsy was able to ride, although Jon did show some initial interest. This had waned by Saturday afternoon, due to a hangover which unfortunately hadn't waned! I could only go riding in the afternoon, due to some work with the office phone system that I was planning.
So, we agreed to meet at Hove Station at 15:00. This turned in to a bit of a rush for me, as during the fitting of my new XT rear derailleur, I used the only spare pin for my chain, and had to buy a new one - I chose a SRAM model this time, due to the convenience of the Power Link - once you've shortened your chain down to size, you never have to unleash a chain link extractor on it again with this type of chain - bargain.
At this point we decided it was impractical to go to Eastbourne, as it was pretty late in the day. Instead we decided to do the
Chanctonbury Ring to Cissbury Ring Loop.
I just about made the train, and got to Hove station where I met Dave. We rode up to Old Shoreham Road, and up Shirley Drive, riding up in to the 3 cornered copse to make things a bit more interesting than riding up Woodland Drive. From here, my knee had starting hurting again - this a recurrence of the ache that had started on the ride detailed in the "6 go riding" post, below. Not good! We carried on up to the Dyke, riding over the hills to Truleigh Hill and then down the long road section, on which we got our top speed up to the 40mph mark. A good impact on our average, no doubt! From here we took my standard route following the South Downs Way up to Chanctonbury Ring, then completing the hugely fun descent down over the rutted chalk path.
We continued on up to Cissbury Ring, and for the first time, I actually rode over the rutted track between the two rather than pushing. It's a good feeling, pushing yourself a bit harder to do something in order to reach a specific goal. We rode down to Cissbury Ring, where in the carpark, I gave myself a 5 minute time limit to take a bit of air out of my forks, which were running with a bit too much pressure; I was starting to feel the effects of the fork not really doing its' job as a result of this. We were on the move again within 4 minutes, me with a somewhat more forgiving fork.
We continued along the route, completing the loop back to the River Adur, where we rode down the east side of the river after crossing it at the junction of the South Downs Way. We got to Shoreham Town Centre, the end of our ride, with the following, rather satisfying stats:
- Distance: 26.96 miles
- Time: 3:15:00 (h:m:s)
- Max Speed: 37.9 mph (riding on the road)
- Average Speed: 8.2 mph
Bargain. Although the distance isn't anywhere near that of the South Downs Way Randonnee Challenge, the pace is getting closer to the target, than say, the 7.1 mph average over the same distance that I achieved on my solo ride back on the 19/3.
In all, there are nine of us training for the South Downs Way Randonnee. Sunday, the 25th March, 6 of that number went for a ride, taking the Arundel to Brighton route. Dave, Alex and myself had already been training for a while, having been on a quite a few 30 or so milers between us, whilst Tom, Jon (who previously didn't have a bike - now the proud owner of an '07 Kona Hoss), and Will had not done so many.
Jon's Hoss was one of a number of new bikes recently purchased, with Dave now owning a 2006 Kona Kula (go, Kona!). Will, who has yet to purchase a new bike, met me at 8:00 in the morning to pick up my Fire Mountain, which he was riding for the day.
I was quite surprised at the turnout - especially given the fact that the clocks had changed the night before. The impact of this was alleviated by Will texting round as many peeps as he could, and me doing the same once I found out, making sure we didn't miss anyone. Unfortunately, Dayna ended up not being able to make it due to a late night the night before, and Chris, who I've still yet to see out training, didn't show either.
So, at 9:17, as planned, and with 6 (almost) fully functional bikes loaded on the train, we set off. We arrived at Ford (where you change for Arundel, with the train leaving from the other platform) slightly late, to see the train for Arundel just leaving the platform. Because trains only leave every half hour on Sundays, we decided to ride to Arundel, which we were reliably informed was only 3 miles away.
We got to Arundel relatively trouble free, apart from Mr. Morphy taking a different exit from the roundabout (it still ended up at the same place, the exit being "Town Centre", whereas I preferred to take the exit for the "Wetlands Centre", to be on the safe side.
A mobile call later and we were reunited, with me stopping off at the Co-op to buy some more food, having accidentally left the £10 worth of cereal bars, flapjack and water that I'd bought, at Brighton Station.
The ride through Arundel Park went by quickly, with a brief stop off to remove the plastic pedal platforms from Jon's SPDs - bike shops have to put these on to meet EU regulations - pedals have to be sold with reflectors, as well as a bell. I started my GPS as we got on to the off-road section - otherwise, average speeds for the journey get bolstered by the higher speeds that can be achieved on-road. This ends up giving a less accurate picture of where you are in your goal for 10mph.
We got on to the South Downs Way relatively quickly, following the trail and crossing over the River Arun. There's a lot of uphill in this section of the SDW - it's quite a hard section. Once you've climbed about 700 ft from sea level though, things level off again and the opportunity is there to boost the average speed once more.
As some people had been out training more than others, there was a degree of waiting to regroup, which was done at several points - once at the bottom of a very large descent down to the A24, which you have to cross over.
Once we got to Devils' Dyke, Tom and Jon decided to ride back in to Brighton - fair enough, this was after 20 miles of off-roading with a LOT of uphills, and they'd not done much practising - it was only Jons' second off-road ride in 10 years! Alex, Will, Dave and myself pushed on, despite the fact that myself and Alex had both developed quite substantial pain in our knees, undoubtedly from incorrectly set-up SPDs.However, after crossing the A23, Alex decided to call it a day as the pain had become quite severe. After leaving him to ride back down to the A23, from where he hoped his girlfriend would pick him up, Will, Dave and myself pushed on up to the Beacon. Although we were discussing going to Southease or even Berwick after riding to Alfriston, we decided to call it a day and ride down to Lewes. This ended up being a wise decision, as Southease and Berwick were both closed!
As for our ride stats, these didn't end up being great; this mainly due the differing levels of bike fitness between us.
- Distance: 33.54 miles
- Time: 7:00:58 (h:m:s)
- Max Speed: 33.6 mph (riding on the road)
- Average Speed: 4.8 mph
So, as a group, we have a fair way to go between us.
This is the section about the South Downs Way Randonnee Challenge - a ride along the entire 100 mile length of the South Downs Way, from Winchester in Hampshire, to Eastbourne in East Sussex,
in not a minute more than 12 hours. The Randonnee requires a minimum average speed of 8mph for the entire duration of the ride, but an average of 10mph if we're to succeed in the 10 hours that we're aiming
for.
Taking part in this ride are myself, my regular riding buddy and great friend Dayna, and some friends from work - Alex, Chris, Dave C, Jonny, Paul, Tom, and Will - some are regular riders,
others, up till now, not so regular. This section will be dedicated to our efforts to train for the ride, which started approximately three week ago. I'll record all our ride stats here, such as total
distance, average speed (which will hopefully both increase - we're screwed if they don't), and the trials and tribulations along the way.
To start with, I've cheated by poaching all my regular blog posts related to the ride and plonking them here.. I'll update as and when I can! Latest posts first.
Got the Dawg back from Evans - apparently the grub screw which adjusts lever reach had come loose, explaining the lever pulling back so far it changed gear. So Evans have redeemed
themselves slightly.
As for the ride home, stats are as follows:
- Distance: 7.70 miles
- Time: 00:44:19 (h:m:s)
- Max Speed: 18.8 mph (riding on the road)
- Average Speed: 10.4 mph
So, the riding on the way back was loads slower than the way to work, with a very simple explanation - the wind. The prevailing winds come from the west, so I ride more or less with them on
the way to work, and against them on the way back - the wind is pretty strong at the moment and I ride along the seafront, where it's pretty exposed. As for the 1 mile discrepancy in distance - I took a
slightly different route on the way back - had no idea that it'd make so much difference to the total distance though.
We've already decided on our next training ride - this will be from Arundel to Alfriston - about 43 miles over the South Downs Way, plus another two miles to the nearest train station, which
is Berwick - so the distances are slowly creeping up; hopefully we'll be able to get close to about 7 mph as our average speed.
As I'm training for the South Downs Way Randonnee, I'm going to record ride stats for all of my rides here, so I have my own record. This will include my riding to work, so here are the
stats for this morning:
- Distance: 8.79 miles
- Time: 00:33:52 (h:m:s)
- Max Speed: 20.7 mph (riding on the road)
- Average Speed: 15.6 mph
Pretty pleased with the average speed there, considering it was achieved on my Dawg - full suspension and wide tyres with low pressures don't exactly help when you're trying to ride fast on
the road.
On Saturday, as part of my training for the South Downs Way Randonnee Challenge, I rode from Lancing to Alfriston.
In order to finish the South Downs Way Randonnee ride in exactly 12 hours, you need to ride at an average speed of 8mph over the 100 miles. As we are aiming to do it in less than 12 hours (which would be
cutting it slightly too fine), we are planning on maintaining 10mph.
Having only ever ridden for fun, rather than doing any kind of ride like the South Downs Way Randonnee before, I was interested to see what kind of speed I could maintain, riding at my own pace, over some of the South Downs. My route followed the Downs Link Trail up alongside the River Adur until the point where it is intersected by the South Downs Way. From here I turned East and rode up to Truleigh Hill.
After riding non-stop over all but the last hill on the way to the Dyke, I stopped because I was overheating; I was using a layering system consisting of cycling jersey, fleece jacket and wind-proof jacket;
as it was a fairly pleasant day, this was overkill and despite the copious amounts of water I was taking in, it was just too hot.
This is where I made a bit of an error; I clicked "Stop" on the GPS, which I'd done before, and had been able to restart from where I'd left off, effectively making the "Stop" button a
"Pause" button. Unfortunately, when I came to press "Start", the GPS started again with both time, distance and average speed. My average speed up to that point had been 8.9 mph, with a top speed of 23mph
or so - that was a stint on the road though.
So, with fleece tethered securely to my Hydration pack, I continued on my way. I followed the South Downs Way to Ditchling Beacon, where I was planning on finishing the ride, but I was
really getting in to my stride, so continued on to Southease. Once I got there, I decided that as there were two hours of sunlight remaining, I'd go for it "Itford Hill" from Southease, and over to
Alfriston. At Southease, my average speed had dropped to 6.7mph. After relatively slow progress up Itford Hill, I managed to claw this back to 7mph by the time I got to Alfriston, due to the fact that most
of the 6 mile distance is downhill going in this direction.
So, ride stats:
- Early morning ride (Lancing to Shoreham, up the Downs Link Trail from Shoreham to the South Downs Way and back):
- Distance: 9.1 miles
- Time: 00:42:08 (h:m:s)
- Max Speed: 20.6 mph (riding on the road)
- Average Speed: 13.1 mph
- Ride from Lancing, up the Downs Link Trail, East on to the South Downs Way then up to just before the Devils Dyke pub:
- Distance: 8.11 miles (accidentally restarted GPS at this point)
- Time: 00:55:37
- Max Speed: 24.8 mph
- Average Speed: 8.7 mph
- Ride continuing from the end point of the last ride, to Alfriston
- Distance: 25.71 miles
- Time: 3:41:36
- Max Speed: 32.2.mph
- Average Speed: 7.0 mph
- Total Stats for the Day:
- Distance: 42.92 miles
- Time: 5.3 hours
- Max Speed: 32.2 mph
- Average Speed: 9.6 mph
So I could cheat, and say that altogether for the day, my average speed was close to that magical 10 mph mark over a distance of 41 miles.. but I won't kid myself ; )
Instead, I'm happy sticking to the 7 mph over 25 miles, discounting the other bits of the ride, and using these stats to work from to gauge improvements in pace.
This was my first proper ride with my SPuDS, and my overall feeling is that they are absolutely great. I've not yet played around with adjusting the release tension, as this was fine
out of the box. The only problem is that I tend to point my feet downwards when pedalling, which I find puts strain on my knees; straightening my feet sorts this out though. I have to admit I've had a few
close calls with them, these were mostly at very slow speed. In general, I think wearing them helps you plan your movements a bit more, for instance when slowing down for a gate. Pics to come soon!
Again, have waited a fair time between posts - this has been mainly due to just having got back from
a holiday to Morocco (no MTB riding in the Atlas Mountains though, unfortunately).
In brief, the latest news is as follows: I decided to have a go at the South Downs Way Randonnee Challenge, which
entails cycling the 100 mile long South Downs Way in a day. I asked D if he wanted to have a crack, and he did. So
far so good. I then mentioned it to my colleague Alex, who said he'd be interested.. OK, cool.
The next thing I know, another 5 people colleagues have sent off their £30 cheque for the entry to
the event, some of whom didn't even have a bike yet (soz Jonny, had to mention you)! Classic..
In the time since we sent off our cheques, we attempted the Eastbourne to Brighton ride (me, Alex and
Dave on his classic 10 year old rigid Claud Butler).
I should have known that it'd be a disaster when Evans finally let me know that my bike wouldn't be
finished in time for me to pick it up for the ride. However, rather than giving up, instead, I re-off-road-prepared
my Fire Mountain, by:
- Buying 2 x off-road tyres
- Buying 1 x pair of DMR V8s - the current ones were mashed
- Buying 2 sets of new brake pads
This little lot ended up setting me back about £65. However, come the morning when I started riding to Lancing station, I realised that
something was severely wrong with my pedal - it was practically hanging off; I had over-tightened the pedal when fitting it, and fecked the thread on the
crank arm.
What followed was rather painful - we all met at 8:00 at Brighton Station, and decided to go to Eastbourne anyway. We ended up having to get another train to find the nearest Halfords, where
they replaced the chainset with a Suntour model - quite a cheap one, at £35. So the cost of this bike ride just in terms of parts replaced was £100!
We eventually got to the foot of Beachy head at around 12:00, a lot later than the proposed 9:00! As Alex and Dave weren't used to riding this kind of distance at the time, we took it pretty
easy; not a good idea with so little sunlight left. When it started absolutely bucketing down above Alfriston, we decided to cut the ride short at Southease - we got there absolutely soaked through and
incredibly muddy, but with grins (almost) on our faces. Here's to dryer weather!
- Ride stats:
- Distance: 17.0 miles
- Average Speed: 5 mph
All these figures are approximate, as my GPS battery ran out!
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