Had the perfect doctor for getting my Maratona medical form signed today.
First question was about the Marmotte last year after which he told me he cycled the route when he was younger.
This was followed by discussion of the Etape Caledonia he is doing next week.
Form signed with no questions
All week leading up to Kinross it was beginning to look like a repeat of last years miserable weather. Fortunately on the morning the sky was clear if somewhat cold and things were looking good.
I headed off with Alan who said “How do you want to do this” and after debating we should warm up for a short while he lasted about 50m before putting the hammer down and chasing to the next start group on the road.
We did have another group of friends who had started further ahead and set off to catch them. We caught on to a fast group coming past but after about 15mins and still not finding who we were looking for decided the pace was probably too hot for 90 hilly miles.
We continued on taking turns and a couple of others joined us but never came to the front. I don’t actually mind this as long as people say “hi” but it is annoying when they just sit and take a ride.
After about 15 miles on a downhill section a large group came flying past. I couldn’t resist but to jump on. I hadn’t realised at this point that Alan was trying to get food and gels in his mouth and had a panic to catch the group. It wasn’t to last long though as the feedstop appeared and the group fell apart, though we did now find the rest of our friends leaving the feedstop.
It was now time to move into the more hilly parts of the ride and sure enough we were soon creating the first hills that still had some snow lying. With the sun causing a melting steam effect it was like cycling through a freezer.
As we kept going over the hills I was beginning to struggle. We had been going a good pace (for me) and I hadn’t been eating enough. I was now hanging on to Alans back wheel in an effort to keep up.
Going along a quiet back road we suddenly saw about 30 people coming towards us with numbers on. We were going the wrong way as someone had removed a sign! This was everyone else who had noticed turning around. After a look at the Garmin map we decided to keep going. we could effectively go the other way around the side of a circle and arrive back on the correct course. The distance didn’t change but it did mean we missed the descent of Knockhill and instead had a slog into the wind.
Finally after just under 5 1/2 hours we made it back. it had been a good ride and well organised again by Kinross CC.
I went back to one of my regular hill climbs to practice last night.
Start at Wanlockhead, go down into the valley and then turn around back up the Mennock Pass. On arriving back at Wanlockhead keep going up to the top of Lowther hill. I would normally aim to do 2 or 3 repeats which gives a good amount of climbing.
On leaving the sunshine in the valley all looked promising. As I got through Wanlockhead it was a bit duller. Near the summit of Lowther hill the hail started!
Whilst the hail was painful it wasn’t until the way back down it really got sore, 65km/hr through hail hurts…a lot
I headed back down to the valley into teh sunshine again before coming back up to finish at the village. Once through the hail was enough.
The first good day of the year today and finally got out in shorts and on the summer bike.
An enjoyable 75 miles down to the borders with a bearable head wind to contend with on the way home. Legs felt good all day which I’m sure is more to do with the weather feel good factor than fitness.
I’ve now signed up to Strava and entered a few rides.
I have just done this one today and got my Arthurs Seat leaderboard moved from 16th up to 12th. This would be good if Roy wasn’t at 5th!
Unfortunately I didn’t actually get to train with Ben Swift I just decided on friday night to do one of his training sessions. It had appeared in Cycling weekly as one of the top 10 hardest sessions.
I had a limited time window on Friday night so I did a quick race for 30mins on the trainer and then decided with 15 minutes left I could cram in a little extra. Ben’s recommended session consists of doing a warm up (my race), then 20 mins of 20sec flat-out sprints with 40secs recovery between each. I had decided in my head that this didn’t sound too bad and so if I did 10mins it would be OK. How wrong did I get that! I finished after the 10 minutes and was hardly able to breathe and feeling sick.
I stood around in the garden in just my shorts on a cold Scottish evening with steam rising off me and my family laughing at me out the kitchen window. Nothing like moral support when you need it.
A quick tweet to Ben Swift to thank him for his session and he replied back to ask if I enjoyed it. Top bloke.
On Saturday morning I went out with Alan down the East Lothian coast. It is a flat ride so should have been fairly simple. I went to get my bike out the garage and found the rear tyre was flat. A quick change and i was ready to go but hadn’t had time for breakfast.
Sure enough it didn’t take long for the pace to pick up and we cracked on down to Gullane. We stopped to head back and I shoved a banana down me as a group of 4 started headed back to Edinburgh having come out a cafe. Once Alan and I got going he headed straight after them to catch up. As you leave Gullane it is a very small incline and I was struggling to stay with him. he hit the steeper down hill before me and headed off and I couldn’t get back on his wheel, my legs had blown. Alan kept going not realising I was no longer there and the distance between us gradually widened.
Eventually he caught teh group in front turned to ask me if we should go passed them as they weren’t that quick and saw I was missing. He then came back to get me.
We headed back to Edinburgh with me struggling the whole way and tempering Alans top speed.
I got home in agony and having been dropped so early in the season.
When i put my bike back into teh garage later in the evening I did have another flat tyre. Maybe I had ridden hone the whole way on a flat. At least it gives me something to keep me going rather than being wiped by half of Ben Swifts training sesssion.
I went to give my Specialized Roubaix a spring clean last week and found one of the headset bearings was rusted and needed replaced.
I thought this was be simple but it wasn’t mainly due to being able to getting the correct bearing. The one I needed is marked 41.8x8x45 and is part number MH-P08F.
If you try and get the bearing from a specialized dealer then Specialized only provide a whole headset replacement i.e. 2 bearing+crown race+spacers+headset. Needless to say this is an expensive option.
On searching for the part number and bearing I was getting nowhere though fortunately through luck I found this FSA bearing document on a forum somewhere. This gave a clear detailed instruction of the FSA equivalent and P/N; TH870.
For those in the UK I found the cheapest at the time to be here
Headed out again this morning to do a loop over the two bridges (Forth and Kincardine) with Alan.
Whilst it is always good to ride with somebody there is a problem cycling with someone who works in a bike shop. I am still on my winter bike and Alan is on a new Giant TCR aero machine that he has as a test bike. For anyone that wants one it is only £3500 available here http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/products/giant-tcr-advanced-sl-3
We headed out at a comfortable pace which we kept going for the first 50km into the wind.
Once we turned for home though the pace changed considerably. I suspect we were both blowing far too hard but male bravado kept us going. So with all flat bits at 40km/hr and inclines not a whole lot less we battered on.
With our good pace home we got through 50 miles in just under 3 hours which is always a nice marker to break.
I have climbed Tourmalet for real 3 times on my bike with mixed emotions; twice I enjoyed it and once I ended up in a hospital tent on a drip!
Last night I decided to climb it again except from the comfort of my garage on my Tacx trainer.
I was using Tacx real live video so you see a film of the climb as you do it. It was surprising how the familiar sights brought emotions back.
As you see the signs telling you how far to the summit and the average gradient of the next kilometer it is still 19km to the summit and a long way.
The steep section at Bagneres still hurt as much though brought back happy memories of the two Frenchmen who came from their caravan and fixed my wifes puncture.
The worst moment was where the route forks to the right at 10km and follows the Etape route missing the flat car park section. This still brought back painful memories of a blistering hot summers day in 2010 and realising the route was not quite as expected.
Finally that 500m steep kick to the finish line. A mixture of agony and elation as the finish line is just around the corner. Wonder from my kids playing in the garden as to why Dad is shouting in the garage.
So after 1hr 25 mins it is over again.
Can I do it again? I now have a time to beat?
I took advantage of a family trip and the reported mild weather to get an early season long ride in.
Going from Edinburgh to Ayr gave a good 80 mile ride along some reasonably quiet roads.
The forecast was for 6 degrees and sunny but that didn’t materialise at all. The sun never broke through at all and it remained closer to zero all day.
Due to the weather at about half way through my attitude had to change, this was no longer a fun ride but had turned into a training ride.
After going through parts of central Scotland I had never seen before and some others where I wouldn’t want to risk going out on my own after dark I arrived in Ayr.
it wasn’t the ride I had been expecting but it was satisfying to get a big mileage in during January.
