Rain Stops Play And Inspired By Others..

When will this awful weather give up? I was marshalling at the Team MK racing at Milton Keynes Bowl last night. If the weather had been different recently I would have been racing myself. As it was I was sufficiently inspired by what I saw to make an effort to get into some kind of shape for the race in two weeks time. I won’t be able to ride next weeks event as I will be away so it gives me time to try to get into some kind of shape. It’s been over a week again since my last decent ride but it’s good to have a purpose to ride and a reason to train. I have worked out a schedule that should get me almost back into shape by then

The weather should really have improved by now. I guess I will just have to grit my teeth and get out whatever the weather. I have had enough of messing about with bikes in the garage with the sound of rain falling on the roof, I need to get out there on a bike.

With a bit of luck I should get two of the weekly, evening races in before I leave for my month in France. Hopefully I will at least get some decent conditions down in the Alps. Most of the distances will be of a more vertical nature down there but I really like that. To see the scenery and breath the mountain air.

When I return from France there will still be six races of the Team MK, Bowl series left. I need to shake off my weather induced lethargy and satisfy my competitive urges.

Apologies For Absence..

I finally got back out on a bike again this morning after over a week with no riding.  The weather has just been far too wet, I blame the government for allowing a drought to be declared throughout the UK about three weeks ago.   Since then it has hardly stopped raining.

Click Image For Detailed Ride Stats

Today though dawned sunny as forecast, which is quite an unusual occurrence! It was quite windy but warm too.  I set off fairly early on a well used ride of mine through the villages around the west and south outskirts of Bedford.  As I was going through Wootton I was passed by another cyclist who appeared to be on a ‘mission’.  I passed the time of day as he passed me with the usual ‘Hi!’ but there was no response from him.  I thought to myself ‘Miserable @%&*(+ ” and kept up my steady cadence.  He stayed ahead of me at varying distances of about two to four hundred metres.  As he was wearing a bright red jacket he was quite easy to spot.  Every time he came to a turning I was going to take, he took it ahead of me so we were obviously on the same route, convoluted as it was..

Going through the village of Stevington there is a very tight left turn and immediately on the turn was a ‘ROAD CLOSED’ sign ( obviously didn’t apply to cyclists !! ) and a digger making a big hole in the road.  I spotted my ‘friend’ on the left walking with his bike around the machinery  and I headed for the right side of the very narrow road and hopped up onto the pavement and kept riding without dismounting.  I was now ahead.. I kept riding and waited for him to catch me again, which he did and this time we got into conversation,  apparently he came from Newport Pagnell.  I asked if he was maybe doing interval training as that might explain the concertina effect of our ride.   He explained that he was doing a hundred mile ride today in preparation for a similar distance in the Lake District in a few weeks time.  Every time he came to a hill he was pushing on and then relaxing when he came to the flats.  He knew the hills around here were nowhere near as steep or as long or as exposed the as The Lake District but it was the best he could do.

That part of the ride was hard going as I was riding at his pace but the conversation made the miles pass quickly and practically unnoticed.  I am guessing he was in his mid to late thirties and he was quite surprised when he learned my age and was quite flattering with his remarks.  We eventually went our separate ways in Carlton.   Me to complete my 31 mile ride and him to do his 100.   He was going at quite a pace and if he kept that up he must be pretty fit.   I knew where he was going and the return leg was directly into a south-east wind so I forewarned him as I had been struggling against it for the first part of my ride.

I rode my Specialized bike today not sure why but it was OK.. the extra couple of pounds increased the training benefit I guess.. It was quite  a hard ride anyway on a tough day but at least a brief sunny interval.

Stop Press:  I just heard on the weather news that April 1st was the only day this month that we didn’t have any rain at all and it has been the wettest April on record.  That should go a long way to solving our alleged drought problems !!

Bike Ride And Blogs…

I managed another ride today but the weather is really interfering with progress on the riding front.. I did 37 miles this morning and completed them before the rain started.

Maybe a good thing, maybe a bad thing but the delivery of my new camera and all the weather enforced time indoors has led me to create another blog.  This time a Photographic one.. Brians Photo Blog.  Very much a learning curve at the moment but at leads I have made a start..

I have also been at work on my other non-cycling blog.. Brians Blog.. hopefully all three will be kept up to date and I can specialise more on my varying interests, pastimes etc.. in specific blogs..

You will also notice that I have reverted to my original theme for this blog.. it somehow didn’t look right with the new theme.  So now I have 3 different themes for the three blogs..

So its all change.. hopefully the weather will improve and I can start doing more things to blog about instead of just creating new blogs !!

A Quiet Week

Its been a very quiet week, cycling wise this week.  After my ride with Team MK last weekend we went away for a few days near to Wells Next The Sea in Norfolk with the caravan in tow on Monday.  I almost took the bike with me but the weather  forecast was not good so I decided against it and sure enough, just when you don’t want it to be, the forecast was accurate.

It was so wet and cold that we came back on Thursday instead of the planned Friday return.  At least this allowed me a quick 30 mile ride on Friday morning before it started to rain again in the afternoon.  I had planned a ride with Team MK on Saturday but I wasn’t too keen on the route selected, it being a bit different from the usual.  Also I had ordered a new camera on Thursday afternoon after our return and I got notification on Friday that it would be delivered on Saturday so that was the clincher !

The camera is a Canon EOS 600d DSLR, I really spoiled myself.  I doubt you will see many pictures on here taken with it as its a bit bulky to carry around on the bike.  I do have my iPhone 4s though which has an excellent camera and my Nikon Coolpix L11 compact camera so if the mood takes me, that is where most of the ‘on the move’ cycling photos will come from.  I ALWAYS have the iPhone at least, with me when I go out on the bike so there is no excuse really, just my unwillingness to stop.  I am however, thinking of starting a photographic blog for posting my pictures on if all goes well

I know I keep promising to post more pictures here and failing to deliver but maybe the new interest with my Canon will get me into photographer mode more often.

 

Ups and Downs Of Riding “Shot-Gun”…

Today I had my first experience as ‘Ride Assistant’ on the Team MK ride to Carlton.  It was on one of the more traditional club routes to the venue, not the one that I made up.  I am guessing there were about thirty of us altogether although I didn’t really count accurately.  Quite a big group though.

Click Image For Detailed Stats

(Note: I did the ride from Olney to Stony Stratford first and I dropped off at Olney on the way back leaving them to do what I had already done)

I spent my time riding as ‘shot-gun’ at or very near to the back of the group as is the duty of the ride assistant.  It was my job to ride at the back to notify the group of traffic coming up from behind and to keep any stragglers in touch or to help with punctures or mechanical problems.  Traffic coming up from the rear and waiting to pass is warned about with a shout of  ‘Car Up !‘  Traffic coming in the opposite direction is warned of by a shout of ‘Car Down! ‘ from the front of the group. This call isn’t so necessary on the larger roads but on the smaller country roads its quite important.  Both calls are just to let other riders know they should keep well over to the left or ride in single file to allow the cars to pass.  The way to remember which call to use when is to remember that cars coming toward you are going down your throat and cars coming from behind are going up your a**e !  Any vehicle is referred to as ‘car’ be it bus, truck car or van.

As it happens the ride was quite uneventful as far as I was concerned, no problems to deal with of any consequence.  Two or three guys dropped off the back now and again for a ‘call of nature’ by the roadside but they were experienced club members and well capable of chasing back onto the group.

Back On The Road And Off Target…

I have been getting in the miles again this week since the ‘non-biking’ easter weekend in attempt to get back on schedule for my 500 mile monthly target.  I should have stuck with the 400 mile target like last month as I have another 5 days away in Norfolk next week.   I will take a bike and see what I can fit in, weather and time permitting.

I did a quick 20 miles on a local circuit on Tuesday and this morning I managed a 48 mile ride into Bedfordshire.  It is one of my favourite rides. Not too hilly but hilly enough and also some stretches where you can push on a bit.  There is one stretch I particularly like at Clophill.   The route winds through the village and then there is a sharp left into a narrow lane that winds up through the trees.  It reminds me of the sort of scene you see in the big continental bike races where the riders turn off a road and speed into a narrow lane just like mine and then they start a big climb.  Unlike them though my climb is only half a mile whereas their climbs are usually several miles..

It was a nice enough day, still a bit chilly so not into shorts yet, apart from that brief warm spell a couple of weeks ago.  There was also quite a strong south-west wind today which didn’t help on the way back.  I also encountered a couple of hail storms during the ride.  As usual, whatever the length of the ride, I ran out of the ability  to push on anymore so the last few miles were at a more steady 15mph.

I spent most of yesterday getting the rest of my bike stable back into shape as I have spent most of the time recently working on the Felt bike.  More details and pictures of the results of my endeavours will follow later in another post.

While In The Mood For Change….

While I am in the mood for change, along with changing the appearance of my Felt bike I also decided on a whim to change the  the theme of my blog…

Its not drastically different just a little more modern, it is called ” iTheme 2 “.  I have no idea what ‘iTheme 1′ looked like, it must have passed me by!  As you can imagine it is Apple based.    It seemed quite appropriate as my blog is now mostly written on an ‘ iMac’ desktop along with some contributions via my iPhone and iPad.

I happened to be browsing through the available theme options as I occasionally do, but haven’t done for quite a while when this one jumped out at me !  There is the ability to have a quick look at how it looks before committing to it, which I did and liked what I saw.

There were a few changes needing to be made once I installed it like re-applying the header and setting the background colour but that was all, all the other bits stayed intact.

So I hope you like it !