Spinning circles

Edward has bought himself a new helmet and some overshoes. Truly the cycling bug has bitten (although his enthusiasm may have been helped by the pictures of Rebecca Romero and Victoria Pendleton, both naked, in this week’s Cycling Weekly). To try them out (the new kit, not the naked cyclists) we were due to take a spin around Beausale together. But he, being a teenage boy, failed to get out of bed in time, so I took a spin on my fixie instead. It was a bright fresh morning, freezing again with thick ice covering some of the roads. I was only out for 45 minutes but was glad of the endorphin rush and the fresh air.
Monday morning brought more freezing temperatures, so I dug my mountain bike out, thinking fat knobbly tyres would be more protection against the ice. A wise move. Fat tyres enabled me to take my route to work along the canal towpath. It’s a while since I’ve done this and I had forgotten how pleasant it is. A sprinkling of snow covered the frost causing my wheels to crunch beneath me, an orange sun filled the sky ahead of me and glistened on the frozen water of the canal. I had also forgotten how much like hard work it is turning knobbly tyres and low MTB gears. But I enjoyed it never the less.
I think my MTB only came out twice last year, once for the Rough Ride (http://www.roughride.co.uk), which despite the fact that I moaned continuously for the 5 hours it took us to complete, I thoroughly enjoyed, especially the fast singletrack descent to the finish line and once for a spin around Kenilworth bridleways with Peaches to break in his new MTB (which he bought from me….).
So, in the last four days I’ve ridden my gazelle like road bike, rocket like singlespeed (man and machine welded in zen like oneness) and my full suspension mountain bike. Who says I can’t justify them all? Here’s to spinning circles, whatever the dynamics of the bike.

I came home along the canal, in the dark. Night riding is a big thing in MTB circles but it has never appealed to me. Now I know why. Its really scary!

7500km

7500km. Seven thousand five hundred kilometres exactly is what my odometer read when I felt the bump bump bump of the first puncture on my road bike. Today was a cold, damp day but I’d had a pleasant enough ride. I had thought to head out to Canons Ashby but time didn’t allow. I still fancied the fast descent off Burton Dassett hills into Farnborough though, so I thought I head down that way and then circumvent the bottom of Burton Dassett before heading back along the main road from Warwick to Banbury (discounting the M40!) in a quick 20km sprint. So far so good.

Climbing Burton Dassett was treacherous, slippy under wheel, with a hard frost still covering the ground at the top and a close freezing fog. However the sun trying to burn through from above and the silence that fog engenders made for actually quite pleasant riding. The descent into Farnborough took me out of the fog and I guess because it’s east facing the frost had melted too, meaning I didn’t need to back off the speed.

I hadn’t been this way before. The route requires you to circumnavigate around Farnborough Hall, which the pretty village presumably serviced at one time. I hadn’t banked on another climb though although I was rewarded with a steep descent into Molington for which my caution was rewarded by a gravel strewn hairpin half way down. Still, dreams of alpine descents filled my head. As I turned onto the main road from Warmington I headed up a lengthy but shallow climb and it was just as I got into my stride at the top that the puncture hit. It was to get worse from herein. I txted Beth to say I’d be late, whipped the wheel and tyre off, found the offending thorn and promptly snapped it off, leaving the heel of the thorn buried in the rubber, to puncture again. After struggling for 20 minutes to remove it I had the bright idea of leaving it there and sanding back the sharp edge with the sandpaper from my puncture repair kit, to at least get me home, where better repairs could take place.

By now I was starting to get cold (despite the magnificent long sleeve Rapha top Beth bought me for Christmas which is easily the best bit of bike kit I have ever owned, if not the best item of clothing full stop)
as the temperature was barely above freezing.
Anyway, this seemed to work so I slipped in a new inner tube and prepared to use my CO2 canister inflator. When I bought my fixie for commuting on, Halfords kindly gave me £90 to spend on accessories. Now, £90 is a lot of money, but of course most of the stuff Halfords sell is crap (*personal opinion) and because the voucher only had a few days t run I bought loads of stuff I didn’t need (including the worst bike computer ever, which packed up first time it rained) but I was chuffed to get the inflator. No more carrying a pump for me, just a handy little canister of compressed air and a removable valve. Easy. Except I couldn’t get it to work. So after a further 20 minutes (by now an hour had passed) I gave up and rang the emergency services (Beth) to come and get me. Only to find my phone was nearly out of battery, so I had about 30 seconds to explain my position and hope she could find me. Luckily she did, but by which time I was seriously cold, the sweat on my body haven frozen (not really). The car thermometer confirmed an outside temperature of 2 degrees centigrade (36F). Humiliated and embarrassed we trundled home. It took me a further 20 minutes to remove the remaining thorn from the tyre. I’m sure I don’t need to spell out the lessons learned.

Still, if it’s another 7500km until my next puncture I’ll be happy enough. Happy New Year.

Read any training manual and it will say that rest is as important as exercise. I’ve been focussing on the rest aspect of my training for the last week or so.

I haven’t cycled to work (well once) because I’ve needed the car and I haven’t been to the gym because it’s easier not to. I missed spin. both atthe gym and at the Tri club. To be fair Beth has been working so I’ve needed to muck in around the house, which takes precedence over training. So, what with the weather being unpleasant and life going on around me not much has happened.

After last weekend’s very wet ride in the floods, this weekend I got out with Mark and Edward on Sunday morning. It was a glorious day, almost Spring like (which is odd as it was the winter equinox, so about as far from Spring as you can get). We headed out of Warwick to Charlcote and marvelled at the fact we could be on a quiet country lane, after only five minutes on the bike. We deliberately headed this way to test Edward’s legs over Loxley hill. Which he of course shot up like it wasn’t there (although I was first to the top – declaring myself King of the Mountains, but I had the advantage of knowing the hill and anticipating the fact that it kicks in much steeper for the last 50 metres or so, which of course Edward didn’t.) This is also the hill Mark trained for Mount Ventoux on, doing reps up and down in his lunch break! He says his record was 9 in an hour (including getting there and back – in the car).
We managed a steady 45km in total. Riding back on long the Avon valley towards Warwick was a breeze. Wind at our backs, flat road, it felt like we could cycle for ever. Shame Peaches missed it due to a dodgy ankle.

And I made it to spin today. Big up the new magnetic bikes at the Warwickshire!

A little time for reflection. Last year my bike computer recorded 5200km in total. This year I’ve managed 2182km to date and I reckon I’ll add 100km before year end. Not bad really given that I haven’t trained for anything specific. Add to that approximately 1200km a year commuting, I think that’s pretty respectable. But, I do need to focus now for June. I don’t want to be embarrassed on the road to Paris!

Weakened

I haven't cycled to work this week which I find frustrating. I've needed the car although I did make a conscious decision not to ride on Tuesday because the roads were sheet ice. probably just as well, Lee, Edward & Ganny all fell off their bikes that day and I heard stories of a few more. I made it to spin on Monday, although Tony wasn't there to take it, so it wasn't as hard as usual, but still a good session. Friday I made the gym and did some reps on the static bike and some weights. Saturday I had a ride planned with Tom & Mark, my fellow L2Pers, plus Ed and Paul. The weather was foul (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7782157.stm) but we went out never the less. Cold. Heavy rain. I say we, Mark and Paul cried off. I'll give Mark the benefit of the doubt because I know he's hard core. Paul was still in bed at 9:30am, draw your own conclusions!



Now, I actually enjoy riding in extremes of weather (maybe not strong winds) and Saturday reminded me of the day we rode into John O' Groats (see me in Thurso traffic below), but we sensibly cut the ride short (27km) as the roads became increasingly flooded.

Never the less once showered and changed I felt great and Tom and Leanne joined us for a magnificent brunch cooked up by Beth. Worth any amount of wet riding.

I actually had my bike serviced this week at John Atkins. I was politely scolded for using such a quality bike in the winter. Whilst it seemed sound advice, that the cost of maintaining an expensive bike through poor winter weather was greater than buying a cheap winter steed, at the end of the day I bought it to ride, not pamper it. For heaven's sake it already lives in the house with us, not like my other bikes which have to settle for the shed (incidentally, on Thursday, as I put the bins out I noticed a flashing light in the garden. I traced it to my bike lights, which were on, in the locked shed, and as I said, I haven't used my commuter bike this week, so its lain locked up for a week. Now the batteries would've gone by now if I'd left the lights on last Friday when I put it away and surely I'd have noticed before. Spooky.)

Still, I best start my PR campaign to get myself a new bike...

Ice dancing

Quick post - Edward and I did 40km together round Aston Cantlow 1hr 40mins. Very cold, lots of ice on the road. We both struggled for traction on some of the hills, but he paced me again and even sailed past me on a couple of the big climbs. Show off. Beautiful day though, clear blue skies, no wind. Shame it can't have been warmer than 0 degrees.

The worst anniversary

Today is the anniversary of Tom’s death.

And that’s why I’ll spend 4 days cycling to Paris to raise funds for SIDS in his memory. Please help me http://www.justgiving.com/craigmorrisfsid

No training this week. I only cycled to work one day too.

Soon the time will come to focus.

Cold weekend

I had planned to do a short ride on Saturday, but when I got up after a poor night's sleep and looked at the frost and fog outside I was sorely tempted not to bother, justifying it to myself by way of the gym the previous day and the spin class the day prior. As I sat in the window seat shaking off the Friday night Jack Daniels I saw Tom, next door, all togged up and leaving for Barby, 40km away. It was this that inspired me to go out, but boy was it cold. I wore 3 layers of merino (howies vest, howies baselayer, rapha sportwool top and howies softshell) which kept me warm but my feet, even in two pairs of socks, were frozen. Literally. So I managed 38km, but didn't particularly enjoy it and felt like I'd turned squares. Never the less its more miles in the bank.

More excitingly, whilst chatting with Mark Fothergill on Friday evening, he offered to lend me a bike, so Edward, my son, could come with us on the L2P. This was great. Edward has been quite keen but I haven't got £500 plus to buy him a suitable bike and without one it would be a tad tricky. So, Mark dropped the bike around on Saturday and off we trolled to buy Edward some shoes, and a saddle clamp (I had a saddle). Its a long story but basically John Atkins in Leamington (http://www.johnatkinscycles.co.uk/) excelled themselves in terms of customer service, selling us some top of the range carbon soled Specialzed shoes, cleats, new pedals (it was impossible to get cleats for the pedals Mark had supplied unfortunately) and a new seat pin with clamp (you can't buy the clamp alone :-( ), for less than the price of the shoes alone. They even fitted the lot and put the bike on a rolling road to set it up and get Edward used to the clipless pedals.

A massive big thank you to Mark for the loan of the bike and John Atkins for going the extra mile and a bit more.

So, when we went out Sunday morning for a spin, he was the first person I know, who first time out on clipless didn't fall off. And he paced me round a 22km course and beat me in the final sprint for home (boys will be boys). So lets hope he keeps it up. I know he enjoyed it and whilst I was extremely nervous taking him out (into traffic...) I also thoroughly enjoyed it and I look forward to covering many km together in the future.

Cutting another long story short, in deference to Tom (Beth's Tom not Tom next door - this could get confusing, I might have to refer to Tom next door by his nom du guerre, {Peaches}) and because Beth pointed out the inherent dangers (no-one pointed them out to me!) we decided it was perhaps too soon for Edward to take part in the L2P, due to his inexperience. However, I am looking forward to training with him and maybe one day we can do an epic together. Who knows what the future may hold, may be one day soon this will be Edward leading the charge for the line:

(I'm pretty sure this picture is copyrighted by AP, so if you want a copy you'll have to go here and buy one http://www.pictopia.com/perl/gal/ap?request_id=1193162d43, like I did )