It’s been a mixed week.  I had a very pleasant ride with Sandra,  a new cycling friend on Wednesday in which I clocked up my 1000th mile of 2013 and managed my first proper long ride of the year too.  We set out in a fog which fortunately lifted to reveal the big yella thing which provided a welcome bit of heat. Ironically, it actually became quite irritating as we found ourselves travelling the final ten miles or so looking directly into it.  We also, bizarrely, cycled along one piece of road where clearly the sun doesn’t shine as was evident from the little piles of snow along the road edge.  47.5miles cycled in total with about a third of that being on undulating terrain an with a couple of steepish ascents thrown in.

Saturday saw another excellent session with Scott Contessa Road Race Academy, the culmination of which was a 3-Up TT along the Georgetown Road. And our team in the 3-Up TT did pretty well – all four of us. 😉   We managed an average of 17.5mph along the route, and although I was the weakest link in the chaingang, I managed to keep with the riders sufficiently and even took my fair share of the work at the front.

So, what was so bad then?  Well, today saw my first ever attempt at riding a track bike.  Walkers CC had arranged a club session at the Chris Hoy Velodrome and although I hadn’t seen myself ever really getting too involved in track, I thought I’d give it a go just to say I’d done it.

Sadly the session did not go well or me.  I have never ridden a fixed gear bike in  my life, and the combination of that plus the unwelcome return to Look Keo pedals that was needed for the hire bikes proved just too much for me.   There was no time before the session to do any sort of practising with the bike/pedals before we all got moved up to the trackside, and I’m afraid I just froze. I was completely unable to get the bike moving and since all I had was a split second to make a decision whether to continue or not, I felt it was better to err very much on the side of caution and call it quits.   There were 22 others in the group and I quite honestly felt that I would be a colossal liability out there.  I am of course very disappointed in myself, but after watching the others whizzing around, I am a bit more reconciled that it just isn’t for me. I am quite comfortable with the clipless pedals on my other bikes, but I also recognise that I click out at the first sign of trouble. Not being able to do so on the track bike is a problem; nearly as much as the lack of ability to freewheel.  To be honest, I got a feeling in the short time I was “on” the track bike (I use the term very loosely) not unlike the claustrophobia I get in lifts and other enclosed spaces. It was not a pleasant feeling.

I will take up an offer of putting flat pedals on a friend’s track bike and going round the local supermarket car park. But it will be just to say that I have ridden a fixie. I think I will stick to trying to get better at the couple of things I can do on a bike.

Ah well. At least there’s no danger of my buying a track bike now.  N+1 remains an ideal.

Well, dear friends, you’ll never believe what the next part in the story is? I’m certainly finding it hard to take in at the moment and I know that my friend Harriet is as well.

I mentioned in my previous post how wonderful it would be to do the MS150 ride with Duncan one day, but that was with the thought that although he has made such great progress, he is a long way away from getting back on a bike. However, just to bring things round “full cycle”, Duncan had no sooner read my comment than he took it upon himself to arrange it for  Harriet and me to go across this April so I can do the ride for real. I am delighted to announce that I will be part of Duncan’s company team and we will tackle the 150mile ride from Houston to Austin over the weekend of April 20th and 21st. We will be in Texas for a few days on either side so hopefully I will be able to see a bit of the state before heading back to Scotland. I have only been to the US once (a holiday visit to Washington DC in 2003) and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am so looking forward to the “tourist” bit as well as doing the ride.

This time a year ago I don’t think anyone really would have put any bets on Duncan being able to do much physically. But his determination to make it through and his spirit throughout have been an inspiration. We have no doubt that he would much rather be doing the ride himself (although we wouldn’t blame him for never wanting to sit on a bicycle again) but having the opportunity to do it in his stead is a a dream come true as the cliché goes. And, at least this time it’ll be warm and sunny.

We will be doing our bit to raise money for the MS charity appeal, and my target is currently set at $500. Because of the generosity of three friends, I am already at the half-way point – a mere day after announcing it. I don’t expect to get anywhere near last year’s amazing amount. But I’ll have a damn good try.

We are really looking forward to this all happening – how could we not be? In fact the only reservation I have is that it is unlikely I will be able to cycle through anywhere on the Texan route with as comic a name as the wonderfully picturesque village that we just had to stop in a few miles from last year’s finish line. Tesas, can you throw up anything as wonderfully named as Pant?

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/TXHBikeEvents?px=11126818&pg=personal&fr_id=20226

Today was a good day. Not only did the yella thing make a very welcome appearance in the sky, but my first attempt at a 2-up TT went remarkably well. The event was the Fullarton Wheelers’ annual late-winter open TT event – the Icebreaker TT. My partner was clubmate Paula, also a 2-Up novice. We had intended to get out for a couple of practice sessions but this quickly became impossible when first Paula hurt her back and then I got stricken by a lurgi. So we rather went into today’s race untried, untested and, to put it bluntly, somewhat bricking it to use the technical term. We are of similar ability, with Paula probably being a little bit faster, mostly on account of being a BIG bit slimmer 😉 She is also an extremely good runner, is very fit and is very experienced in pacing herself. Although I can, it seems, go on for quite a distance, I still tend to tire too rapidly when trying to do short distances at speed. Today’s course was as flat as you will get on a public road so there was no issue with hills. The worst case scenario would have been a strong headwind as I am absolutely pants in that particular weather condition. But as it was, one major advantage of being an untried partnership was that we got to go off second at just after 9am – a good hour before the headwind got up to anything more than a mild annoyance. We didn’t really notice it until we noticed its absence (if that makes sense) when we turned at the half way point. We did the 10miles in 34minutes 12 seconds – 18 seconds quicker than I’d predicted – although our time did earn us the Lanterne Rouge. (Hey, it’s a prize! Don’t knock it!) I am reasonably happy with the performance. Having done several training sessions on the VR turbo over the route, I had decided on a strategy of trying to keep a decent cadence at a gear level I knew I could keep constant over the distance, with this averaging out at about 17.5mph. it would have been nice to get nearer the 30minutes but that would have meant pushing myself quite a bit more.

So what has it told me? It has told me first that I have made some progress in that I haven’t really averaged 17.5mph on a flat course previously. it also told me that, based on the simple fact that I felt good after the event, I probably have a fair bit more to give. This is backed up with my experience at the Scott Contessa Road Race Academy and in a couple of rides recently. The game plan therefore is to work towards doing a 10-mile TT in 30 minutes in 2013. The means to the end is to try to ride as often as I can with riders who are a bit better than I am. That way I can push myself to travelling faster. I will also do turbo sessions in which I will try to boost better power for the same level of cadence as I can do now. I have the club’s TT series starting in March and I will ride as many as I can although the April one. The target date I have for my 30minute triumph is Tuesday August 13th – the Chapeltoun 10mile TT. A more undulating course than today’s, it has the advantage of being more sheltered. I also know it reasonably well. It’s a good challenge to have and one I shall certainly relish.

On my bike then.

Off we go

I have been chinned by a friend for not having posted about an event I did last June. So I am about to redress that balance, but in doing so I do feel a little uncomfortable about how boastful it might sound.

I heard last April that a friend’s brother had been quite seriously injured when he was hit by a car while training for the Austin-Houston section of the MS150 charity ride. So severe were his injuries that he was airlifted from the accident site to hospital where he underwent emergency surgery on his legs, pelvis and neck. He had one surgery on his pelvis which has now been fixed, and numerous surgeries on his leg as it was badly crushed. The bone in his leg was replaced with two metal rods to act as his “bone”. He has since had a skin graft on his leg to help close the wound. He was also fitted with a “halo” neck-brace to help sort out the torn ligaments, and while this all left him pretty much immobile for 4 weeks, he made remarkable progress and was discharged from hospital three months later. My friend Harriet had flown right over to Texas to see him within days of his accident. What she didn’t tell us at the time was just how much of a real chance there had been that he would not make it, and if he did, there was no immediate way of knowing what the future might hold.

Now Duncan is a remarkable character and one of his big worries was not being able to ride in the event – a 150mile ride between Houston and Austin – and do his bit for helping the MS charity. He had been part of a team entered by his workplace and he’d decided he wanted to be the top fundraiser in the team. He had raised around $400 at the time of his accident and was still well short of what he’d hoped for.

Enter a wee plump middle-aged Scot stage right.

Always a sucker for a story like that, I got the craziest notion in my head about cycling the 150miles for him. A trip to the Lone Star State was out of the question and anyway we’d missed the actual event. So, on June 5th and 6th I substituted the Texas roads with a stretch of the A6 corridor between Penrith and Shrewsbury, a route chosen not just because it is a section of the well-mapped Lands End to John O’Groats route but also so I’d end up at Harriet’s house in Crew Green for a slap-up meal and a bed for the night. Harriet drove the “support vehicle” alongside me every bit of the way which was a great comfort blanket to have. It was not a very difficult route but there were some hills along the way (including Shap) which meant it was certainly not a teddy bears picnic either.

We had named the event Doin’ the Distance for Duncan and we were overwhelmed when with the support of friends and family, we got Duncan’s initial total up to over $3200. MS is a terrible disease and it is nice to think our money could play a small part in finding the cure for it. We were also totally unprepared for the amount of support and love generated by the ride (Philipe and Albert’s amazing online ops room management was something to behold) and it certainly helped me up Shap and that unexpected big bugger of a hill a few miles from the end.

Duncan has made significant strides (metaphorically and literally) in his progress and we wish him all the best for a full recovery. He is a remarkable character who has suffered the pain of a major accident and the boredom and frustration of a slow recovery with great resolve and endurance. I am glad I played a part in this story, but my part pales when compared with his. Am I a “hero” as some of my friends claim? I don’t think so. I did what I’d like to think most decent human beings would do in the circumstances. And I will confess to a little bit of selfishness in that the event gave me a focus that I was missing at the time, as I was in a period of not knowing whether I had a job to return to after the summer break. It also helped cement a number of newer friendships, not the least with Harriet, Duncan’s sister, and her lovely family. Duncan’s kind words in his Christmas message also meant a considerable amount to me, and all of these things make me feel quietly proud.

I have in my head now an even crazier notion that the only way to round off this particular circle would be for me to go over to Texas and do this or next year’s event alongside Duncan, even if his part is only a few yards. We will need to see however. I’m told it’s just a little bit warmer in Texas than it is here ( 😉 ). That’s one heat I could stand though.

Duncan a week or so after the accident with the “halo” in place

10 weeks later. Upright and with his halo missing

Ridiculously (but typical) it was cheaper to travel First Class to the start point in Penrith.

Setting off. My bum looks big in my stars and stripes shirt

Shap. The highest point on the route.

Well-earned Mars Bar at Lancaster

The finish line

The official mileage. I should really go back and do that extra half mile.

It was a typical Scottish winter day today – wet (when it wasn’t trying to snow that is) and cold, although admittedly we got it easy in that it hadn’t gone for the full house and thrown in a howling gale as well. Typical weather too for a cyclocross event as the constant rain for a week had created rather a lot of that cyclocross essential.

Mud.

Now as it happens, I was not riding today, since this was the Scottish Championships and therefore was for the good riders and not for slow beginners. And when I saw the course, it became immediately apparent that neither was it for Great Big Jessies like me. For those not versed in the patois, a jessie is probably the Glasgow equivalent of a mixture of a sissy and a wuss but with extra frilly bits thrown in for good measure. Although the insult loses something when hurled at a female, it still holds its impact while simultaneously giving sufficient comedic effect to avoid the insulter being on the receiving end of a good old Glasgow Kiss, which believe you me is not at all the gesture of endearment its name suggests.

My role today was as chief-photographer-who-is-prepared-to-brave-the-elements-to-take-pics-of-even-dafter-club-members. Five Walkers Cycling Club stalwarts (that’s Euphemistic for total nutters) were competing on a very muddy course that included a short woodland section that looked as it the RAF had been using it for bombing practice, a grit track, a strange ziz-zag section through a car-park, an 8% uphill ride of about three quarters of a mile followed by a sweeping descent on red shale leading to a tight bend. And all that interspersed with, yup, you’ve guessed it:

Mud.

But here’s the strange phenomenon: every single one of the competitors had a thoroughly great time such is the camaraderie and atmosphere at Scottish Cyclocross events. I suppose one just accepts that it is going to be, to use the correct technical term, shite weather when one cycles in a Scottish winter. And that is doubled when you throw in the cross-country aspect. It should also be pointed out that this was a rescheduled event as at the time it was supposed to be held last November, the ground was deemed too icy to be safe, coinciding as it did with our only real prolonged period of frosty and icy weather. Today’s event did resemble a bizarre form of skating at times, but at least it was the sort that led to a soft landing for those who ended up on the ground.

I shall give cyclocross a better go next season – indeed I have actually gone ahead and set up a couple of beginner sessions so I can get a better handle on what I should be doing. I love the friendship and general daftness that goes on around it. I reckon is it all to do with the mud – there really is nothing quite like it for cooling the blood.

So follow me follow…

Catherine in the “bombhole”

Mud

More mud

At the top of the incline

Oh look! Some more mud!

With my first proper kettlebell session yesterday having left me a tad knackered and somewhat sore of muscle, today’s 50-60 mile ride just didn’t materialise. Instead, I did a little work in the morning then contented myself exercise-wise with a long dog walk followed by a second recce ride looking for possible routes for the Scott Contessa Academy ladies.

With the sun doing its best to poke through the clouds, Buddy and I headed back over to Boden Boo community woodland down by the Erskine Bridge. Although the temperature couldn’t have been much above 4C we had a lovely time swimming, chasing sticks and leaping from log to log. Or at least Buddy did – I busied myself with the camera and general selecting of throwable sticks.

The recce ride was also enjoyable. I think I wrung the last of the “sunshine” out of the day as I discovered yet another back road that I was hitherto unaware of despite having lived in this area all my life. Today’s route took in the West Glen Road which is one of three single track routes that link the Barochan Road between Port Glasgow and Houston with Kilmacolm. OF the three, this one was probably in the best condition. or to be more exact this one was the least bad ;-). It was also less steep than the Finlaystone Road that I did last Sunday, although with a section in the middle that stayed in the 6-9% for a few miles, it certainly wasn’t a pushover. The rests of the route is relatively flat – seldom varying from between 0 and 2% – is on broader but quieter roads and is therefore a good route for taking a peloton of fairly inexperienced group riders along.

It does make me realise just how many decent routes I have right on my doorstep. And the beauty of them is that I can do a sort of “pick and mix” with them. By adding extra sections to two or three base routes, I can get rides of between 12 miles and 120 all within a 30 mile or so radius of my house. And when I consider that this takes in the very scenic Clyde area with its mix of flat fast coastal roads and varying degrees of hilly routes, I realise just how lucky I am.

Even if the weather is not brilliant.

I am now at the point where I want to soak up as much information, knowledge and practical training as I can in a desperate bid to be, well maybe not a racing snake, but certainly a far less slow, overweight, middle-aged cyclist. In furtherance of this, I have started some sessions with the Scott Contessa Road Racing Academy.

Now that all sounds mighty grand and gives me an air of being a right up there with the Pendletons, Cookes etc. In fact it is aimed at near beginner level and is intended as a way of getting more Scottish women cyclists involved in road racing. Several Scottish regions are holding regular training sessions leading up to a big event at the end of March. The west region is now in its third week of Saturday morning sessions and so far we have concentrated on basic skills – balance, basic group riding technique etc. The group is fairly mixed in ability and experience so we are working up gradually to faster speeds. In a couple of weeks we will be venturing out of the training track and on to the roads to consolidate what we have learned so far before we go back to the circuit for more skills development. As I know the area, I have been given the task of working out the routes for the two on-road sessions we will have. Since the group is so disparate in ability, the first route will probably be a simple 20miles on fairly flat roads to allow those who have not ridden in groups to gain confidence and skill without the added complication of hills. The second route will factor hills in and will let the group experiment with tactics for how to get the weaker hill climbers up in a group. I’ll be listening closely during the pre-sessions for that skill given that my climbing ability falls into the category of “determined but dreadful”. Ah well; at least I’ll have insider knowledge of the routes. And I may very well cheat like hell and use the Genius for some pre-session training rides.

All in all it is a marvellous opportunity for women in Scotland to develop skills and hats off to Scott for sponsoring the academies. No doubt Scott Contessa Epic have one eye on the proceedings to see where their next team members may be coming from, but hey, it benefits us all. I’ve no doubt the majority of the ladies on the course with me will never compete at a high level. But here’s the thing: I did two races last year in which I was in the very small slow group. if even a quarter of the academy ladies come and join me, then this year the slow group will be significantly augmented and we will gain confidence through having a number of competitors all working at the same level. And maybe next year we will have developed to be the next group up, while at the same time the new “slow group” will be stepping up to the starting line. If the academy offers that sort of continuity then we are in a very healthy place. That’s gotta be good for Scottish cycling. Now could somebody do something about this darn weather as I can’t cycle fast with all these clothes on.

SCRRA West region – Day 1