Ride Entry – 30th August 2010

Bike: Chameleon
Distance: 39 miles

Last mountain bike ride before Keilder. This was the last bug out point for my back. Luckily everything seemed to go reasonably well with me and the bike. I’ve actually had to transplant my handjob wheel across because the hub on the original wheel has died (again), this time I dunno what it is at the moment. The chain tug is pressing the bearing cover/axle end piece against the freehub bearings so hard it doesn’t allow the freehub to turn, this is with a new freehub in. Can’t see where the problem is or what is different but after a few hours trying to work it out yesterday I’ve given up. This wheel works fine with the SS kit on it.

Anyway, today was a race trim ride. No camelbak, no camera, GPS or other non-essentials. Just a saddle bag with tubes and tools in, my pump in my back pocket and no coat. For the actual race I’ll fix my pump to the frame and use a bungee cord to attach my coat to the seatpost.

My legs and the bike were fine, could have ridden for days. my back though, . I stretched every half hour or so, stretched when I was rolling along and tried to be gentle but it just felt stiffer and stiffer as time went on. Not actually painful, just stiff. It’s really pissing me off. Thinking back I know of 4 races where I’ve given up because of my back, I really should get a professional to look at it I think.

Too late for Keilder though. I’ll do the race, take it nice and easy, carry a lot of painkillers and just try and finish. Really pisses me off because I’m confident my fitness is high enough to make me reasonably competitive, I was churning up the hills today and was barely out of breath at the top of them, even the lead mine clough climb was a cinch. Bah!

Ride Entry – 27th August 2010

Bike: Roadlite
Distance: 55 miles

Just the same cycling weekly route but this time fast, no stops, no messing about. It was really windy in places so quite hard at times but I did it 3.5 hours. 15.7mph average which might *seem* slow but don’t forget, it’s almost 1300m climbing.

My legs were properly goosed afterwards, don’t know if it’s because I’m a bit unfit or because I’ve been overdoing it, I have done 216 miles in the last week, but that’s just what normal people do. Fat people who eat nothing but Macdonalds probably ride 216 miles a week, all the time. Anyway, it screwed me up for any ride Saturday, when I did spot a gap in the rain I really couldn’t be arsed.

Hopefully I’ll get a ride in tomorrow and Monday , maybe commute in on Wednesday, I really should give a rest then till the race on Saturday though. I’m hoping I can try out my no camelbak on a mountain bike theory tomorrow, see if that helps my back, I’ll do some stretches too.

Ride Entry – 26th August 2010

Bike: Chameleon
Distance: 40 miles

YAY! Mountain bike ride! I thought I should get a few in before I do Keilder 100 next weekend. I’m still worried about my back, even after this ride it was giving me quite a bit of pain.

Anyway, I set off and headed for Rivington, up to the tops where I met Matt, no doubt churning out a 50 at warp speed. His legs look like Chris Hoy’s whereas the rest of him is skinny. We chatted for a short while but I was cold and wanted to get going so we split and I headed up to Winter Hill. Very, very windy on the top there, properly hard work riding up to the mast.

Then I had a banana and some porn sweets.

Then I completed the smoothest and cleanest run I have ever done of San Marino. It was virtually flawless, I probably only touched the ground twice. Brilliant. Then I climbed back up to the top but forgot to check my time at the top, it wasn’t fast though. Over to the Hordern Stoops descent which is the only descent up Rivington where I would ever drop my saddle. However, bouyed up on my previous run and the relatively painless climb, I decided to leave it up. This would bite me.

Now I did the hard bit no problem, but then I reached the bridge at the bottom. Here’s the approach.

Nothing a riding god like me can’t handle, eh? Well there’s a drop that’s bigger than it looks followed by one of those slats on the bridge which caught my front wheel, all my weight was forwards so when the wheel flew sideways, I flew over the bars and landed head first in some of the oldest, stagnetest, stinky water I have ever come across.

My head was in the water where that wooden plank is on the top right! How the hell did I get that far? I was absolutely drenched in this stuff and spent a few minutes trying to wipe as much of it off as I could on the grass. URRGH!

Then I carried on riding, godlike, down the ICR, past the barns, past simon’s and matt’s houses and took the canal home to Hindley followed by MX trails to ours. Good ride but I’m properly bothered about my back. My camelbak was heavier than I thought it would be, I might try and forgoe it altogether for Keilder, fit a saddle bag and just carry my coat in my back pocket.

Ride Entry – 25th August 2010

Bike: Roadlite
Distance: 55 miles

“We’re going out riding today whether it’s raining or not!”. And it didn;t rain and it was ace!

Me and my son went out on the cycling weekly route from last weeks copy around Bury, Bolton, Darwen and Ramsbottom. Very good route, lots of hills and my son handled themn admirably. 1276 metres of climbing, I’m well proud of him. He even put a a spurt on near the end in an attempt to drop me, bless.

I really enjoyed it too, I’ve ridden a good part of this ride a number of times in various sections before but it did show me some new stuff which was quite nice, especially the road from Darwen to Edgerton, that’s a good ride.

Ride Entry – 22nd August 2010

Bike: Roadlite
Distance: 66 miles

Exactly the same ride I did last month. Over to Ramsbottom, up over the tops to Blackburn, back via Preston, Bamber Bridge, Anglezarke, home.

It’s a good ride and this one felt a lot easier than last time, rain threatened a couple of times but nothing worth getting my coat on for.

Hopefully I can coax my son out for a couple of days touring tomorrow and Tuesday. My wife is looking after her neice’s spawn of satan kids for the next couple of days so I’m buggered if I’m hanging around to watch the mayhem. These children could best be described as ‘feral’ and despite being only 2 years old (I think), have already displayed alarming theft and vandalism skills. We saw the lad prize open a locked cupboard at his own home with a screwdriver that he no doubt keeps down his nappy for such events and it was like watching a master burglar at work.

Ride Entry 21st August 2010

Bike: Roadlite
Distance: 27 miles

Just a quick, easy road ride to loosen my legs up after two weeks of inactivity. I say inactivity, we’ve just got back from holiday in Devon and while the hills round there are always small, they’re often very steep so any walking usually involves some real effort. My calves were killing me for the first couple of days, but no bike riding for two weeks. It’s good to be back on a bike. Now I need to dig deep to get rid of the defecit that’s built up, not to mention get some last minute training in for Keilder 100 in a few weeks which I’m woefully unprepared for.

Ride Entry – 7th August 2010

Bike: Roadlite
Distance: 37 miles

It has to be said, my legs are starting to get a bit tired now. I’ve been giving them some welly this week, something like 170 miles and the commutes have been very fast and hard.

So I wasn;t happy when I set out today and the wind was in my face really hard all the way to Dave’s in Coppull. Once I’d picked up the phone I was buying off him, I headed over to Parbold to video myself setting the speed camera off. I can set this camera off every single time without too much effort. It’s in a 30 zone and I can roll through it doing 37 if I’m not trying and 45 if I am. Today, with the video camera, not a blink. Not a solitary flash. I can only assume it’s been turned off of the camera has been moved.

watch?v=1ka6PqNN7ew

Never mind, I’ll try again another day. Did it twice with no joy and my legs were killing me so I set off for home with a nice tailwind. I was taking it easy but then some joket passed me in Ince going pretty fast so I had to get up on the pedals and chase him down, that was hard work! I caught him quickly though and once I was on his back wheel he stopped trying. Passed him a mile or so later.

I am now *very* close to going negative on my deficit, just before I go on holiday.

Ride Entry – 6th August 2010

Bike: Pimpino
Distance: 40 miles

Commute

Tried taking a different route home and got completely lost. Rode all the way from Newton to ST Helens before realising where I was going and had to turn round and ride all the way back. Good ride though, hard!

I am fucked! But then I’#ve not slpet much all week. I need a good sleep,. but I’ll not be getting it any time soon.

Still,holiday coming up, two weeks off. That’ll be cool.

Ride Entry – 5th August 2010

Bike: pimpino
Distance: 35 miles

Another nice weather ride plus I extended at the end. TWO punctures! Mind you, the front tyre was looking a bit threadbare so I replaced it when I got home. Had a brand new 38mm conti lined up at home, it’s MASSIVE! Like riding a mountain bike but it’s pumped up to 100psi. Felt great this morning on my ride in.

I think I must have swallowed some poo on the way home or something because I felt awful all evening (even at the cinema) and this mornings toilet visit required much nose holding followed by a wide open window and much wafting.

Later one we all went to watch Toy Story 3. It’s alright, not much in the way of 3D jump out and grab you effects though, I was a bit disappointed. However, the adverts before it were insanely good. My wife was ducking and screaming the footballs and cars and trains and things all came right out at us. Properly ace.

Ride Entry – 3rd August 2010

Bike: Pimpino
Distance: 35 miles

Lovely weather. Not windy, a bit sunny, perfect! great ride in too, no issues at all.

Coming back there were 8 bikes all stacked up in the bike shed, it only has racks for 4! There’s a dirty great massive bike shed a whole 100 yards away where they could lock their bikes up but they’d rather just lean them against the wall, unlocked in this one! Bizarre. A couple were not bad bikes too, although I noticed the guy who turns up on the Ribble locks it up in the main bike shed when there’s no room.

Going home, much of the same. Quite nice weather, no problems on the road, all good. I had plenty of time so added about 4 miles of offroad on the end of the ride and caned it back into Leigh along the canal as fast as I could ride, proper good workout keeping a rigid fixie going very fast along a rutted path like that both for my legs and my arms. I bet all the people who slate canal towpaths off couldn’t have done it. One thing that did happen was this kid and his mum were meandering along a path near the motorway. Wide path, some old tarmac, big potholes in places. As I catch up with them (they’re going the same way as me) I start saying hello to alert them to my mpresence but they ignore me. As I get too them there’s this big pothole so assuming neither of them are going to ride through it, that’s where I’ll pass them.

As I get there the kid suddenly veers into the pothole right in front of me. I brake hard abnd shout at him, which makes him brake hard almost to a stop and then fall sideways. he lands softly on the ground and clearly isn;t hurt but he starts crying.

Do I…

a) Go back, apologise and make sure he’s OK accepting full blame for the accident and spend the evening agnoising over it?
b) Shout sorry back but on seeing he’s OK, carry on regardless?
c) Not really give a shit, they should have paid attention, ride home without a care in the world and have a nice cup of tea and a biscuit when I get there.

Answers on a bourneville cream.

Woke up this morning at 3am with the cat meaowing outside the bedroom door, no idea how she got it in the house, we normally lock them both out but she’s very sneaky and hides as soon as she gets in nowadays. Anyway, went downstairs, into the conservatory where she was waiting at the outside door. The rain was proper hammering down on the roof so anticipating the cat having a change of heart, I shut the inner door. Opened the outer door and the cat darted back under the table.

No! You woke me up at 3am to go out so you’re going the fuck out!

Anyway, seeing that proper hard rain put me off commuting in today so I’ll do it tomorrow and Friday hopefully. I’m starting to need to be offsite more and more though at work, it’s hard to organise commuting.