First “outing” for the Tacx satori turbo trainer on the route that I’ve now christened The Midegeskitchen. I’m bloody knackered – way more tiring than a normal ride and that without any real hills. Some interesting readings on the Garmin: average speed 14mph-ish which is fine, good healthy dose of calories used (fillet steak justified for dinner tonight), but according to the elevation, I spent a long time underground! There you go then – those who say I am a troglodyte may have a point. Also causing much amusement is the fact that my route map looks a bit like a splatted alien. As I said knackering, but hey it was fun and felt a lot more like a “real” ride than the spin bikes at the gym!
Bicycles
The Boncyclist’s New Toy
We have had snow on the ground now since December 21st 2009 – more snow than we’ve had for the past fifteen years put together I reckon. And, of course, it’s been below freezing so we are living on one enormous skating rink. Every time I look outside I fully expect to see Torvill and Dean Boleroing their way up Main Road. What it has meant is that it will be well nigh impossible to get the bike on the road until we have had a major thaw and some good west of Scotland rain to clear the muck away.
So, in the interim an emergency measure was needed if I was to make any headway on my target of 5000 miles before Hogmanay 2010. The result – yet another gadget to play with, this time in the shape of a Tacx Satori Blue turbo trainer.
I’ve been keeping an eye on these ever since I saw one being used at the gym by a girl who is a budding champion triathlete. I have previously viewed them as a bit of a gimmick (turbo trainers that is not triathletes), but she seemed to be making good use of it. Further investigation showed me that they have come a long way from the rickety devices of the past and so I decided to take the plunge. Not literally on this occasion.
So here is my bran’ noo toy – currently set up in the kitchen as it is way too cold in the garage where it will normally reside after I’ve negotiated a deal on repositioning a Honda Blackbird.
Right. Here we go! On yer bike Wallace!
The Midge's new toy
Buddy wonders if he'll be expected to run alongside
The shirt's off - no pain, no gain!
After the Snows
In case you all think I’ve been posted missing in action (or indeed just posted inaction) please take a look at the pics – this is how the cycle tracks have been for the past week. Before that there were a few days of solid ice – all of which has put a serious dent in my cycling activities outdoors. It’s all very purty, but I’d really really like it all to go away now so I can get back in a real saddle as opposed to a spin bike at the David Lloyd.
The upper track at Elderslie
The lower track
Buddy guards a waymarker
The fork of the R7 and R75
Before the Snows
As the yella thing was back again minus its pals fog and ice, I lycrad up and toddled off down the Lochwinnoch track. The plan had been to do the full loop (minus the acrobatics of the last attempt) but I felt a bit sluggish so decided just to come back on the track rather than do the full loop. Dunno why I was sluggish – possibly the effects of my flu jags? Or doing too many spin classes (I did do a 2hours-plus session of gym yesterday). Average speed 13.4 but average cadence down at 76. Not disastrous but less good than I’m aiming for. Want to get to average speeds of 15+ over the Christmas break. Cadence hasn’t been too bad of late so as long as I keep it fairly constant around 75-85 just now I’ll be happy. Trip stats: 23.53 mi in 01:47:00 hours at 13.19 mi/h on Dolan Mythos.
Braveheartbabe of the most bodacious kind
A certain bicycling bonsai buddy of mine gave me the heads up on a pic that appeared on a website after the Braveheart ride gala dinner which I didn’t go to, or at least I didn’t think I’d gone to. Now there are certain aspects of this pic transaction that concern me. First because the said website has a section entitled Daily Distractions which is in effect the equivalent of Page Three of The Sun, featuring as it does pictures of dolly birds submitted by a load of dirty old (and probably also dirty young) men. My boncycling buddy quite clearly must have been grubbing about in this section which I have now christened Lechers’ Lane. The second aspect is of course that it is just a tad sad that in this day and age that sports still are so misogynistic that they feel it necessary to have testosterone fuel in the form of glamour pusses. Some years ago this whole thing would have bothered me almpst to the point of staging a protest. Nowadays I take a broader approach to it and I was glad to see that at least of half of the pics provided were of women who were obviously cyclists. They also for the most part it must be said looked bloody good in cycle wear, thus dispelling the myth that we are all a bunch of lesbians with more balls than a pawnbroker’s sign. So I am not enraged but still ahve a desire to submit a couple of pics of some male cycling tottie just to even thngs up. After all, why shouldn’t I be allowed a daily distraction? Now then. I wonder how much of a sense of humour the lovely Mishan who takes my Tuesday spin class has?
Anyway. here is the aforementioned pic, and also another version which appeared later and has given me to question my memory of the dinner event. Dunno how my buddy failed to notice the significance.
The babes
the REAL braveheart babe
Oh God – Has it been THAT long?
12.34 mi in 51:28:00 hours at 0.24 mi/h on Dolan Mythos. I had a couple of my private pupils to see this morning so headed off on the bike. Normally I do my teaching at night and take the car, but as the yellow thing had snuck back into the sky for the first time since mid-November I thought it was time to get back in harness as it were. Not the best of rides but was good enough to get myself back in the saddle after a week’s flu-type illness plus a load of crap weather. Thank goodness for the spin classes I’ve been to – don’t think I’d have kept a decent fitness level up otherwise. Speed etc was OK but that’s as far as it goes today. Forgot to switch back on at Linwood so missing a couple of miles off the reading. My story and I’m sticking to it
Willowbog TreeWheelers
I headed off down to Willowbog Bonsai Nursery last night to participate in a workshop led by the rather splendid Marc Noelanders. I’m a bit uncertain of workshop attendance these days as I don’t generally get what I need just now in terms of teaching and learning experiences. However, Peter and Jean Snart have been good to me over the past few years and I do like to support them in their ventures. Also, there’s a very special atmosphere at Willowbog which makes me go down as often as I can. It’s very similar to that prevalent at Burrs last weekend (I’ve just realised, I forgot to post anything about the bonsai side of that. Bugger!) and is best described as camaraderie to the point of feeling like family.
Today’s workshop was more routine than Burrs and I took down my achilles heel tree – a San Jose Juniper I got from Dan Barton about four years ago and which has caused me endless grief ever since. It simply won’t do what I want it to do and I have spent an eternity wiring and rewiring it. (If God had wanted us to spend our time in this way, the lines in the Karate Kid would be “wire on, wire off” and nothing to do with wax!) Branches have died, fallen off or generally been a pain. And it just keeps growing which you’d think would be a good thing. But the new growth is like very small javelin – each one of them aimed at my fingers, eyes and any other body parts which get in the way. I’m tellin’ ya – the tree got attitude!
I did my best with the tree – extended a couple of sharis and so on – but at the end of the workshop I was so fed up with it, I traded it in against a nice shohin Korean Hornbeam. Nicer tree, easier to maintain and a helluva lot easier to carry! I came away satisfied.
Cycling-wise, I had taken the MTB so an early morning cobweb run from Willowbog Bonsai nursery was effected. Jean had suggested the route she uses for her 10K runs, so I set off down the road. I did quite well although on wetter sections I was somewhat wary after last week’s tumble. A lack of ability to read a road sign led me to taking the wrong road – instead of heading back through Stonehaugh I ended up in Wark. No matter – just makes the route 10 miles longer! Nae borra! Sort of. All in all a nice route with plenty undulations of all shapes, sizes and forms – some gentle 1%,2% and 3%, a number of 4-7% and then some challenging 8-12s. There is a long (c. 1 mile) stretch on the single track road up over Willowbog that is an 11%. A combination of too much traffic that was not interested in leaving room for cyclists, a slippery surface where leaves had fallen and a colossal amount of knackeration caused me to call it quits and get off and push for a while, which kind of put paid to any chance of a decent average speed reading. The knackeration was mostly (I believe) the result of not having had anything substantial to eat for over 24 hours – i.e. a real proper meal instead of chocolate and crisps. That’s something I’ll need to bear in mind in future. Next time I’m down, I shall make it my challenge to ride the entire route, but I think I’d probably take the Dolan instead of the MTB as it felt just a tad heavy today. The Dolan would have laughed at the bulk of the hills and would certainly have made lighter work of the grade 11 stretch. Next time!
The OWB - first two stand for Obnoxious Wee
Cobwebs and Dog Hairs
Took advantage of the wee bit of sunshine that poked its head above the rain parapet today to brush off a few cobwebs (or were they dog hairs?) by going out on the Dolan. This was the first time in the saddle since my arser last Saturday and I am happy to report there was no action replay of the event. As it happens, I would probably have bounced anyway as I had on 4 upper layers – baselayer (short sleeve), GoreTex baselayer (long sleeves), GoreTex windcheater (long sleeves with a natty way of wheeching off the sleeves to make it short sleeved) and my Hi-Vis vest. The latter was solely because I was planning on riding on public main roads for at least half the ride. As a result I looked like a cross between Chris Hoy and a binman. Went down to Lochwinnoch on the Beith Road then the A737 where the motorists were surprisingly good despite it being so busy. Then back home along the cycle track where the dog owners were equally surprisingly well-behaved despite my momentary anxiety on seeing an extending lead with owner on one side of the track and Fido on the other. He very kindly gathered the pooch in at the right time and we exchanged top of the morning pleasantries before I scudded off into the distance.
Overall it was a good enough ride, though I did feel a tad sluggish at times. I managed all the inclines reasonably well but did wonder if this was as much (if not more) to do with the spin classes I go to rather than getting more used to cycling again. I do feel that it’s a use it or lose it situation – if I don’t cycle more regularly I run the risk of not making the same degree of progress as I have done in the past two and a half months. Is it reasonable to expect to make that level of progress still? I reckon so: I am still far from cycle fit and my speeds are not constant enough. At best I am reaching an average speed of 12-13mph, and I need that up to 15 soon as – certainly before Etape Caledonia if I go ahead and do it. If I am still in the area after the end of the month, I will probably join the Kilmaurs club who operate out of Walkers Cycles. They have the reputation of being a friendly and active club, with good mechanisms for helping novices like me along. Sounds good to me. Walkers Cycles? Isn’t that an oxymoron?
Now, are those Gor Blimey trousers?
- Was test driving the new Rapha bunnet under my helmet.
Burrs, bicycles and bumps
Ah well. It just had to happen sooner or later. After an uneventful two and a half months back in a saddle, I took a tumble yesterday while on the MTB. I haven’t hit the deck quite as spectacularly ever in my cycling career, but if I’m entirely honest that’s probably because I’ve never really pushed it enough to have it happen. Let’s face it, I’ve not exactly been Evel Knievel when it came to derring do on the MTB. No, rows of parked buses were always quite safe from my attentions. Even the juddering emergency stops I’ve had to effect on the cycle tracks because of dozy pedestrians/ dogs/dozy pedestrians with dogs – delete as appropriate, have never resulted in anything other than a minor hop and skip as I hastily reclaimed my balance. I’ve put the bike down a couple of times but always remained upright myself. This was an entirely new experience yesterday, and one which, hopefully, I won’t be repeating in too much of a hurry. Again, to be honest it was maybe a bit daft going out in the rain. But it wasn’t that heavy and I was on a mountain bike for goodness sake. (Wouldn’t have gone out on the road bike in it though) I had negotiated round the canal path at Burrs Country Park and was in transit along a flagstone path to another part of the riverside track. I came over a bridge and had to make a sharpish right turn. A combination of the wet flagstones, leaves and the angle the bike was at as I turned all conspired to make the rear wheel just slide from under me. Right down – land on right knee, elbow and butt. It happened so quickly I didn’t have time to panic or do anything in fact. This was possibly a good thing as I suspect I’d have stuck out a hand and ended up with a broken wrist if I had. On the negative side – the bike is a bit clanky and I’ll need to investigate why. Additionally, it of course happened on the only bit of the path where I could be seen (typical). On the plus side, my feet came out the pedals without any bother (I don’t actually remember making any release movement so it must have happened automatically). And of course, equally on the plus side, I can say with all integrity and honesty that I do now know my arse from my elbow – my elbow hurts more just now! Joking apart, maybe I was a bit lucky this time, but it has taken the fear of falling away now that it has happened. I had a horse-riding pal who once said he was getting more and more anxious every time he went riding because he hadn’t had a fall in 20 years, which meant the likelihood of having one was getting greater all the time. Not sure if that’s statistically accurate but it sounds about right to me. So my completer arser was maybe a good thing after all. I’ll be out tomorrow if it’s at all decent. Not on the MTB though!
Braveheart Ride 31 October 2009
My first real proper road cycling event! Not a race as there were no official times or prizes, but essentially a charity ride on behalf of the Braveheart Fund. There were two route options:20 miles or 44, and since I haven’t actually done more than about 30 miles in a session, I opted for the 20 miles. I had already done a practice run to get myself familiar with the route (and to see if I could cope in a decent time) and was feeling OK about it. On the morning, however, I woke up feeling shitty, mostly because it had been so crappy weather the day before and it was looking not a lot better at 7am. Went back to sleep and by the time I surfaced at 8.15 the rain had stopped, the wind had dropped and the sky was not so ominously black. By the time I got to the start point at St Joseph’s school in Kilmarnock there was actually blue sky. As I drew into the car park, I couldn’t help notice that it was full of very serious looking cyclists and goodness knows how much money must have been tied up in the array of bikes, clothing and other sundries on display. At this point I felt a complete fraud and could easily have turned round. That was until I saw the fat lad with “Wide Load” on the back of his cycle jersey across his more than ample posterior. Ah well. If he can do it, so can I.
In an attempt to make sure I didn’t come in last, I tagged alongside what I thought would be slow riders – some giggly girls and a young lad of about 9 and his mum. While I had played the right hunch about the giggly lassies, how wrong I was about Cameron the 9-year old! He rocketed away from the start line and left us standing before we were even out of the school gates. By the time we got on to the road, he was nowhere to be seen. Mum Teresa just told me to go ahead which I did.
And so out on to the route itself. Not overly challenging – undulating rather than hilly but with a couple of “interesting” bits around the village of Waterside, where I am pleased (well OK I’m immensely smug) to report that I overtook some blokes – on a hill too. The good thing about the route was the bulk of the “up” was on the outward leg which should have meant that the return would be a doddle. Not quite. A strong headwind actually gave me a slower return leg time than on the practice run, but I had bettered the outward leg by a good few minutes. Back at the event base, I met back up with Cameron who had all the resigned attitude a 9-year-old has about the fact that his mum was conspicuous by her absence. “Don’t worry” he said. “I’m used to waiting for her”. A cup of tea (what’s that? No, nothing with it. Well OK a small piece of caramel shortcake), a wander round the sales area and a bit of an oggle at Philippe Gilbert, and it was time to head back off home.
And overall I was pleased with how it felt. Inclines I’d struggled up on the practice ride were significantly less bothersome. The overall time was as I thought pretty similar to the practice run, and I’m sticking with the headwind excuse! I’m well chuffed! Next year it’ll be the 44 miler.
My cycling friends from Islay
The serious riders arrive
Proof that I've been certified?
looking coy. And also a bit sweaty
Brian from Islay shares a joke with Irish legend Sean Kelly
My next bike? Bet you don't get BOGOF deals on these!
The Boncyclist 