Hills!

                                                                          Hills!

If you look closely you can still see snow on the tops of the ones in the distance :) The valley far below is where I had just come from.

The reason I had come from there is due to the idiot writing this blog not checking the map before deciding tojust go for a ride...

I had a few hours on the Sunday and decided that although cold 3-4 deg..it was dry and therefore it qualified as cycling weather, so a ride out is in order. Now, having completed 60 miles the previous week I decided that a shorter ride was in order but that since the 60 was fairly flat that this one should at least start to involve some hills. Where can I find some hills to start practicing on? Oh I know there are plenty up around Buxton, lets head off up that way, if they are too steep I can always just come back :) So without so much as a glance at a map, off I trundled into the chill.

Marple to New Mills, all good. Slight hills coming into New Mills that once outdid me were put to the sword that is my middle chainring. Ha! Onto the A6 and off towards Buxton.....oh look Whaley Bridge, lets take that turn.....Whaley Bridge, all fine, feeling good........hmmmm signpost for Macclesfield.....oh that's a nice run home from there that will make a nice loop.......and off I went up the Macclesfield road........except........it goes through the Peak District Park, up past Pott Shrigley and takes in 2 cat 5 climbs! oops!

So here are some very fit looking young men in team colours taking in some winter hill training and me, 47 year old idiot who didn't look at the map before she left home! "Bit lumpy up here chaps!" lol
I hit 38.5mph coming down the other side and damn near froze to death! All the effort of getting up there had got me a bit warm and coming down was Baltic! Be a nice run in the summer but it was still snowing up at the top.

So that, dear reader, was my "introduction" to hills. Bit of a cock up on the planning front and by the time I had got into it there was no real point in going back. But you know what?

I did it :)

60 miles.......oh yes!

                                                The end of the very first 60 mile ride.

Yes, we made it! 60 miles :)

We started bright and early if a little chilly from Poynton, topped up with carbs and for the very first time I was able to ride in only two layers of clothing rather than the three I have been cocooned in over the winter months. We got a positively balmy 8 deg for our ride out and a lovely sunny day. Can't complain about getting that in Feb in the UK!

So at 9am with timing tags afixed Gary and I set off along with over 500 other riders for the Cheshire Sportive. The route took us out from Poynton through the outskirts of Alderley Edge where we hit out one and only real "bump" on the route. Up that in one piece we headed off to our halfway refuelling stop.

We got there on target for the time we were trying for. I say trying rather than aiming because doing something like this for the first time, my aim was simply to get round it! So 30 miles in and I'm feeling surprisingly fresh. My legs feel good, no real niggles or pains and we have averaged 15.5 mph over the first 30 miles. Now I know the route in places and I know that the last 10 miles back to Poynton we are both capable of winding up the pace on the relatively flat last stretch. We have done it before on shorter rides, covering the last 6 miles of a hilly 35 miles at 17.5mph. So all we have to do is get through the next 20 miles at a decent pace and by golly, I think we can do this ;)

Except that is not what happened.....poor Gary got cramp in his quads and was really suffering, so we slowed right down. It became a case of just getting to the finish and forget the time, there will be other days. :) And then coming into Prestbury we both hit a pothole. I say pothole but this thing was the cycling equivalent of the Mariana Trench! ironically we hit it trying to avoid the two others on the exit of a roundabout. In taking the inside supposedly safer route we hit this huge hole. It immediately blew out Gary's back tyre making a dent in the rim that pushed a chunk of metal 3cm long, 8mm into where the tyre should be. Had to be straightened out with pliers! One new tube later and off we went.....for 250 yards when my front tyre went down......I managed to just blow it up again and it got me back but I got up the next morning to two flat tyres as did Gary.

Really, we should not be going out for a ride and all four tyres get wrecked like that. The state of our roads are appauling and if you try to navigate to the right of these holes you run the risk of being taken out by the next Range Rover driving way too close.

But make it we did, fairly respectable ride out for my first ever 60 mile ride. And it won't be my last. Although I am afraid to say that in the week and a half since my training has been aweful! I took a couple of days off, did a session on the turbo and only been out once on the road. But I did go and play with some hills :) More turbo time required. Next week. ;)

Ladies cycling.....what is wrong?

I was in Manchester yesterday for a client meeting and quite delighted to find their offices very close to the Pinarallo store.....once I stopped licking the windows I popped in. It was quiet, 5 staff and me. So I did not feel too bad about having a chat knowing I was not going to be buying one today....it would not fit in my bag.

So I asked about a ladies specific geometry......errrmmm nope, we can change the stem and you can put the seat down. Oh here we go again........"Yes but the top tubes are usually different lengths on ladies frames and how about the crank length and what gears is it running?" errrrmmmmm. So one of the top cycle manufacturers in the world and a shop with 50 bikes in it and there is not one that is made for us ladies. Do we not deserve a top bike then? Will we not spend that kind of money on a one off purchase? I beg to differ.

Sir Chris Hoy launched a range of new road bikes today.......none for the ladies.
Ah but Victoria Pendleton has a range.....if you want a kitten in a basket that is, no road bikes there either.

And I also popped into Evans to see what they had......not a single ladies road bike in the store.

So two stores, over 70 bikes and not a single one a ladies fit road bike. Two product launches from our former Olympians....same thing.

Now I do understand that there are certain market economics at play here and manfacturers and retailers are unlikey to want to end up with redundant stock if these things don't sell. But how the hell can we buy them if they either don't exist or you don't stock them?

So we are meant to buy online and not have the same opportunity to sit on the bike or even test ride it? Thank heavens for the few places around that DO recognise that us ladies would actually like to part with some cash and stock more than one model.

After all we are supposed to be very good at shopping, just give us a chance to buy!

Slightly nervous

It does not matter how many hours I have put in on the hamster wheel that is the turbo over the last couple of months, I get nervous making such a big step up in distance as I am doing this weekend.

Up till now the furthest I have ventured is 43 miles....slowly.....and Sunday I do my first 50+ mile ride. It's 60 miles around Cheshire. A reasonably flat route compared to day one of the C2C in May but this will be the first time I hit my target distance of 60 miles in a day. Now all I need to do is add hills......oh and do it three times in a row! Three months of training to add those other bits.

Just had a very nervous look at the weather forecast for the weekend, we have had 2 deg and sleet and snow for the last week.........8 eg, partly sunny and only 8mph winds.....Oh I do hope that is accurate!

Back on the hamster wheel tonight........

Feb update

Been a little while since I had the chance to update but here I am, still alive, not in a ditch somewhere...

So how has the training been going? Not too shabby is the answer, most of it has been on the turbo which is dull but it just works! I have now lost a stone in weight in just under three months and the legs are getting stronger each passing week. I am managing approx 75 miles a week on the turbo, topped up with the occasional 25 mile at the weekends over to Alderley Edge and back.

I did the 25 mile route again on Saturday and outward I was at 16.5mph and 15 on the way back though I did deliberately scale it back on the way home. It's still only 25 miles but if that is all I have time for then at least attacking it means I am getting some training benefit from it rather than just using it as a spin out. I'd love to be getting the longer rides in but time and weather are conspiring against me right now. Not for too long though, got a 60 mile ride in two weeks! eep! Not been that far yet! It's not too hilly so not a bad ride to do my first real distance. Hills will be added after I hit the target distance :)

Now, you know I was saying about the weather conspiring against us trying to train at this time of year (NOW I know why Team SKY bugger off to sunny climes this time of year!) I went out on the mountain bike today because the conditions were too bad for the road bike...

That middle photo, that is a solid lump of ice forming on the gears. I had to downshift because the chain was skipping on it, and it got bigger and bigger until it covered the top three gears and I was pedalling rather quickly and going rather slowly! I stopped at the coal merchants at the end of the track who kindly boiled a kettle to melt the ice off so I could cycle home!

Back on the turbo it is! and for my cycling friends, Rule 5 was applied!