Schorchio!

My brother and I joined seven other riders for another training ride organised by Richard on Saturday.  It was an absolute scorcher (just how I like it) being 20c when we started at 9.00am and increased up to 30c :) The route Richard planned had us basically going up and down hills for the first 30 miles before leveling off for the last 20 miles so it was quite challenging.  I had been concerned about Box Hill as I had not been there before and had heard others saying it was hard, however when we got there (around the 20 mile mark) it turned out to be a breeze as the road to the top winds up the hill (instead of going straight up) and has been resurfaced in preparation for the Olympic course which includes nine laps of the hill.  We saw fantastic scenery pretty much the whole ride and the great weather made this ride so much better than the last organised ride when it never stopped raining.

Really pleased with my performance on the ride, I still have a long way to go to before ready for the Paris to Guildford ride but can see improvements week on week so it’s starting to look achievable now.  Course taken is here for those interested http://connect.garmin.com/activity/184068291

 Spot Justyn's skinny legs!!

edit, having just seen how skinny my legs are in the above picture I don't understand how I am cycling as far as I am let alone do 200 miles in three days!

New Personal Best

When I started cycling to work twice a week back in January 2011 it took me 32 minutes to do the 7.5 mile commute.  That was on my mountain bike which I swiftly stopped using as I then purchased my hybrid bike and immediately dropped the time to 28 minutes.  By May I had my personal best (PB) down to 24:10, June dropped the PB to 23:37 and my September  PB of 22:14 seemed to be unbreakable until yesterday when I smashed 44 seconds of my PB and managed the ride in 21:30
Absolutely stoked on the level of support on the sponsorship front.  Really appreciate everyone’s donations, its giving me a whole different perspective on the ride

New longest ride

Prior to today my longest ride had been just over the 40 mile mark but today I have extended that to 49 miles.  I was looking to do 50 miles but having already gone past my road twice (was only at 46 miles the first time so went round the block) I decided to just call it a day as nature was calling.  Really impressed with the ride as deliberately took it easy for the first 20 or so miles in view of the plan to cover the 50 and looking at the data I managed an average of 16mph so really pleased with this considering the distance.  I say we took it easy but apparently I also reached a new top speed today at 40.1mph

No, I have not taken up ballet!

This is the answer for those at the office witnessing my new found routine of balancing on one leg doing 10 squats once an hour and wondering what on earth I am up to.

For those who are not aware I have hyper mobile knee caps.  This means that my knee caps do not stay in track as I move my leg, and in fact my right knee cap moves completely out of line each time I move my leg.  The movement of my right knee cap causes rubbing on all the other parts in my knee so it pretty much gives me constant pain whenever I do anything which involves moving.

You may therefore think that my planned cycle to Paris is completely bonkers, however riding my bike has vastly improved the muscles which control the knee cap so in spite of the initial excruciating pain I was experiencing back in February when training began I am now feeling less discomfort both during and after rides.  I went and saw the doctor about the excruciating pain back in March and finally saw a physiotherapist last week and he has given me an exercise to do to specifically target an area of muscle to further reduce the knee caps movement so I am quite hopeful for the potential outcome.

If the cycling and prescribed exercises work to rid me of this pain it will be the long awaited miracle for me as I have lived with the constant ache pretty much constantly since I was 14. 

The pain first arrived when I was heavily into skateboarding as a teenager.  I use to be out skating somewhere or another all the time if it was dry from around 13 years old until around 16 years old when I stopped because of the pain it as causing in my knee.

Me at my second home (1989ish)

I always kept my board and would have a couple rides at a local skatepark or out with my wife’s younger brothers, particularly around March as the dry concrete and warm sunshine instinctively draws me to want to skate.  One such time in 2002 at Harrow Skate Park (which had been like a second home for me as a teenager) I came across a couple of other old time skaters as well as a few guys I had really looked up to when I was a teenager, and turned out had never stopped skating.  That day was the beginning of my nine year reunited obsession with skateboarding.   

One of the best days of my life (2007)

Those nine years have been the best of my life so far; I made some fantastic friends and did things I never thought I could accomplish.  I have skated at some of the best parks in the world (Northern California, Florida, South Carolina, France, Spain, Australia) and it was after my last skate trip with my friends to Florida in March 2011when I decided I had to stop.  I twisted my bad knee on day 2 of the week we had out there and the pain prevented me from enjoying the rest of the trip or be able to do anything properly involving my legs for about a month after.  I did attempt to ride my board on a local ramp last summer but the tricks I like to do instantly brought pain to my knee so I have basically substituted my skateboarding with cycling. 

What a difference………..

Stacey and I set off at 08:00 again on Saturday to do the same 40 miler as we did last week, but other than being around the same time and the same planned route there where very little similarities

What a difference sunshine makes

Thoroughly enjoyed being out on the bike in sunshine.  It was only 7c when we set off but felt warm in the sunshine and having the clear skies and being able to look round at the scenery was great, it also helps the miles just pass by when you are looking around taking in the view.

What a difference knowledge makes

This was the second time we did this ride and I think that whilst it meant that we took the correct route without incident, it did mean that we both knew what was coming!!.  In this I am referring to the killer of a hill at the 20 mile mark in Holybourne.  It’s a mile long climb over which we rise 100 meters, may not sound like much but it really hurts.  It had left such a memory for me that I had been deliberately taking it easy before reaching the hill just to conserve energy for this climb.  What was particularly interesting was how I had completely forgotten about the climb before it (17 mile mark) and was rather surprised when we came across it.

What a difference 3 kilos makes

Last week I did the ride on a racer which is just shy of 3 kilo’s lighter than my hybrid bike and despite the constant rain I managed the killer hill without feeling like I would collapse and I still had energy to push on at the 30 mile mark.  This week on the other hand back on my hybrid the killer hill made me feel like I was going to puke (those who have seen semi pro know what I mean) so I actually used the granny* about 80% up the hill and I felt completely pooped come 30 miles and am not sure how I managed to continue to 40 miles.

What a difference in street cred

There is quite a bit of camaraderie amongst cyclists, I always give a nod to other riders I see going in the opposite direction or say hello if I pass someone or they pass me and most of the time people smile / nod / say hello back and I have even struck up conversation for a mile or so which is really nice but occasionally I come across cyclists who just plain ignore me or almost sneer at me.  Last week everyone said hello back but this week there was quite a few (all clad in team type clothing) who chose to completely ignore me so  guess my hybrid has such low street cred that you become tainted with it if you say hello to someone riding one.

*Granny, for those who don’t ride the “Granny” is the smallest front cog on a triple chain ring crank.  Using his means you spin the crank a lot more but reduce the torque (effort) required.  Most racing bikes (including the one I rode last week) don’t have them but my hybrid does, however I have no recollection of using the granny on my hybrid before Saturday.  I don’t know for certain where the term derives from but guess has something to do with the fact that even an 80 year old granny could ride a bike up a hill using this gear.

Will it ever stop raining????

Looking at the weather reports on Friday it looked like we should have had a dry spell for Saturday morning so Stacey and I organised to set off at 08:00 from his place on a 40 miler.

We set off from my brothers just gone 08:00 and it was overcast but dry so we left the waterproofs behind.  Needless to say 5 miles down the road it started to spit and by the 7 mile mark was steadily raining.

Despite the rain and lack of waterproofs we carried on.  I had planned a route to go past Frencham Pond as well as a few other places I have never been to before.  As with last week’s ride we went past some lovely scenery but didn’t get to take them in as was too busy looking at the road to avoid the puddles (it’s not the puddles you avoid it’s the pot holes they’re hiding).

We took it pretty easy as I was riding a racer for the first time in 22 years so was quite nervous about the handling and the drenched roads made it doubly so.  Early on in the ride (before the rain) we had accelerated up to 39 mph down a nice stretch of straight hill and could have gone faster (2 more gears) but I made the bike twitch as I changed gear and was instantly aware of how unfamiliar I was with the bike and the speed we were doing.  4 miles later, lesson not quite learned both Stacey and I skidded on the now wet roads as we went round a bend to find a car coming towards us.

Rest of the ride was less eventful, tackled a long steep hill and realised very quickly how I need to adapt my riding style for climbing hills on a racer compared to the hybrid.  Still I will earn and in the meantime really appreciated being able to accelerate without using as much effort.

We had a quick flapjack break at 30 miles and I forgot to put the timer on for a couple of miles so the route looks a bit weird and doesn’t show the full distance covered but it’s here if you’re interested

Have I found the steepest way out of Guildford?

Seems like a miracle happened yesterday as it was not actually raining!  Part of my training plan is to ride on longer routes home from work a couple days a week, but the weather has been so lousy recently I have not done so for about a month, but yesterday despite being overcast I decided to try out a completely different route home on the bike and see some more of the local area I have yet to explore.

I set of at 4.30 on a route I had plotted into the sat nav a few weeks back and its nice and flat for the first mile or so but then once I got over the other side of town I started to climb.  I knew about the first hill which peaked at the 1.5 mile mark of my ride, but had not expected the next big climb at 2.5 miles or the one at 5.  Needless to say the muscles where not best pleased with these climbs and I even contemplated dropping down to the granny gear at one point but am pleased to report that I resisted.

The route out of Guildford was interesting to see, and very scenic at points.  Really liked seeing the architecture for the buildings at what I think was a private school and it always makes me happy when I see rabbits and there was plenty of them about.
I had a 14 mile route home plotted into the sat nav but around the 10 mile mark having reached the roads I have been doing a few training rides on recently and feeling pretty good and enjoying the ride I decided to extend the ride to a 20 miler.   The roads around Seale are great from a no traffic point of view which helped make it an enjoyable ride.

If you know the area have a look at the course I took and let me know if I took the steepest way home