The Big THREE-OH..OH-OH

Its been ages since my last post, to be honest that's down to a combination of work constraints as well as a distinct lack of anything particularly remarkable to report. Now that I do have something to report, however, I feel almost duty bound to make this a ridiculously long post so that I can bring everyone up to speed.

The reason for the post? Well, I've just gone through the 3000 mile barrier today. That means I have actually achieved the target I originally set myself but haven't quite reached the increased target that I ended up setting myself. I guess I have a few more days in the saddle ahead then.

What else?

Well, I guess if I pick up the story from my last post then Team Gear and Loathing did the business at the 10 Under The Ben
event earning 9th place and handing Team Four Crank Redemption a royal spanking in the process (they claim that mechanical failures were the cause of their demise but isn't this part and parcel of an endurance event?). Full results can be viewed from here but Cris put together an excellent montage of the event on his photo blog site (look for the gallery titled Ten Under The Ben - Ben Nevis, Fort William).

Since then, the only other cycling event I have been involved in was Pedal For Scotland 2006 which took place on 27 August and was from Glasgow to Edinburgh this year. Initially I had assumed that I would be cycling the event on my own and was focussed on trying to beat my solo time from last year which was 3hrs 40 mins. Three days before the event was due to start I was given the happy news that my Team Gear and Loathing team mate, Cris, would be joining me for the event and we spent an excited couple of nights planning how we would break the 3hr 40min time barrier and discussing whether it was feasible for us to record a time around the 3hrs mark (remember that we ride heavy, steel framed, commuter, mtb hybrid bikes, not carbon fibre racing machines). Anyway, Cris had been on a strict diet of circuit training and 1/2 marathons for a good few months by then so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when he darted off at the start of the race and basically pedalled at top speed for the duration of the whole event. It was everything I could do to keep on his back wheel (I couldn't have suffered the humiliation of being left behind by the Walsh!) and thanks to his manic pace setting we managed to finish in the top 30 riders (we were the only ones on mountain bikes) with an incredible time of 2hrs 31mins!!! Victory pints were this time courtesy of Mike and Annie Walsh who met us at the finish line.... eventually (we had obviously arrived a hell of a lot sooner than we had expected to).

The rest of the time has pretty much been normal cycling days, nothing too extreme to report apart from hitting the back of a bus one morning (they are made of plastic panels now BTW, very bouncy and not too painful) and snapping my rear hanger another morning and having to convert my bike into a single speed machine in a day (thanks to the guys on the Cycling Plus forums for their info and encouragement. Single speed riding is pretty strange at first but then becomes rather addictive and fun - I didn't fix the bike for a week after that because I was enjoy it so much.

So, 3000 miles done with 2 months left in the year which means i need to cycle 500 miles a month if i am going to reach my actual target of 4000 miles... might be a bit tight, but lets see how close I get.

:o)

Overall Total: 3005 miles

Gear and Loathing

Cris, Pete, Jimbo and I are all entered in the 10 hour endurance race that is 10 Under The Ben. Taking place this weekend, the idea is that the team which has completed the most number of laps after 10 hours of competition, wins.

Simple really, but then I haven't mentioned the fact that as well as the individual challenge of mountain bike racing and the physical challenge that the 10 hour format will bring, we also have to face down a personal battle against our nemeses, Team Barlas (aka Four Crank Redemption). This team of young whippersnappers will be lead by their incredibly motivated captain, Simon Barlas, against the might of our own collection of finely honed athletes, lead out by our charismatic captain, Cris Walsh. The vitriolic verbal battle between these two captains has been in effect for the past couple of months now and has escalated to the point where the rest of the team members began to wonder if they would even be allowed to ride the event or whether the captains would simply choose to ride the full 10 hours themselves! Those concerns have been soothed however and the respective captains both appear fairly confident in their own teams abilities (although it would appear that Team Barlas have made a couple of team changes in the run up to the event).

Personally speaking, I'm just looking forward to a weekend of camping with friends, a good hard bike ride on Saturday and a lot of drinking on Saturday night. I've managed to borrow a bike for the event from a work mate, a Kona CinderCone which, after riding it back home last night, is quickly becoming my most favourite bike in my (very small) biking experience. I want one, even if it is only for blasting up and down the canal paths, it just makes everything so much more fun!

Anyway, because I have the Kona (and my computer is on my own bike), there are no more commuting miles to add on to the overall tally other than the couple of days I've done at the start of the week. We will be slapping a computer on the Kona at the weekend, so any miles I clock up there will be added to the overall total.

Here's to a cracking weekend.

Weekly Total: 44.61 miles
Overall Total: 1587 miles

World Cup 2006

Its started.

I know that because I've just got back after flying down to Luton over the weekend along with my mate Paul who is an avid England fan (well he's English, so he has little choice in the matter) to watch the England v Paraguay game in the heart of the motherland and to enjoy the fine hospitality of our excellent host, Mr Sweeper, who has just bought himself a fantastic little property in the lovely village of Chesunt, Hertfordshire. England managed to earn an unconvincing win.

Anyway, I broke through the 1500 mile barrier this week. I reckon I'm about 6 weeks behind where I should be if I am to reach my target but as long as I'm still cycling every week then I will certainly smash last year's total.

Weekly Total: 95.77 miles
Overall Total: 1542 miles

It's damn quiet around here...

It's been a while since my last ramble, but that isn't to say that I've stopped cycling, it's more a reflection on an increased workload at work (how dare they!) and also a lack of free time at home (which is a good thing). I guess my motivation for recording every single aspect of the challenge has dwindled and I'm less concerned about the days I can't cycle in (eg because I'm off to the beach for a kitesurfing session that evening) and enjoying the journey more as a result.


Total travelling over the past 4 weeks: 256.5 miles
Overall Total: 1447 miles

The Story of a Screw

Imagine, if you will, the minor existance of a small screw, whose primary remit is to tightly fix a small, shaped lump of brass (aka a cleat) to the bottom of a piece of moulded plastic and rubber (aka a cycling shoe).

Now this screw has no other real concerns in life, it really has nothing more to focus its energy on overcoming the deadly vibrations that try to shake loose its hold on the cleat and pedal along with the daily barrage of mud, water, dust and the odd sliver of dog poo (it happens). Its no wonder, therefore, that when it comes to the time for the screw to relinquish his duty and allow the cleat he has loved more dearly than a brother to be replaced by a newer, shinier version that the screw decides to put up a vicious resistance to the impending change, a resistance that ultimately leads to his complete demise (as well as the total destruction of his friend, the cleat).

Translation?

The cleats I had on my cycling shoes were so worn out that my feet were constantly slipping out the pedals. I hadn't greased the screws before I put the cleats on so a few months of day to day dirt has proved to be a better weld than some industrial glues and I eventual had to take a hacksaw to the cleat to get the damn thing off!!


Check the photo to see how much the old cleat has been worn compared to the new one and also the hacksaw action that I had to resort to after rounding the head of the screws (the new cleats have been installed with waterproof grease in the threads).

Weekly Total: 77.58 miles
Overall Total: 1264 miles

Whale of a Time

A busy week culminating in a strangely relaxing and ultimately enjoyable float in the North Sea.

It was a Bank Holiday and I had to take Thursday off work to look after my sick son (who then got very healthy rather quickly and demanded a game of football about lunchtime) so that was 2 days off the bike. The rest of the week was pretty nice, Thursday's storms didn't bring any more rain the next day and I was happy to finish off the week cycling home in glorious sunshine.

The 'floating in the North Sea' bit? That was something that transpired after the wind failed to make an appearance on Sunday afternoon and made all our kite kit completely redundant. Almost all of it, actually - I was (eventually) persuaded to clamber into my suit by the rest of the group and we all made a desperate attempt to imitate a collection of basking seals as we floated in and under and through and over the 8 foot waves that were crashing about us. Brilliant fun.

More sunshine forecast for next week, which means more excuses to let the world see how white my legs really are.

Weekly Total: 62.65 miles
Overall Total: 1186 miles

Guess Who's Back?

Apologies for the lack of updates - although its been fairly quiet on the blog front, its been pretty busy behind the scenes.

I got the bike back about two weeks ago, and have actually been enjoying a relatively trouble-free experience on it since it came back from Halfords, although I hadn't been aware that exorcism was a service option with them.

Anyhow, the bike's back and I'm back in the zone again and cycling almost every day. I don't seem to be as focussed on the whole 'challenge' thing however, I'm much more content to cycling the majority of the days but, if I have to go in particularly early or work late, then its back to catching the train or a taxi to complete the journey. Its not that I've lost the bug or that I can't be bothered to bike in, its just I've discovered that it makes far more sense to cycle whenevr possible, but sometimes its simply not an option without ridiculous effort and organisation. The new 'business casual' dress code at work doesn't help either - shirts and trousers do not tend to travel well when compared to jeans and t-shirts but I do seem to be getting the knack of (almost) crease free folding... any tips would be gladly received however.

Total since getting my bike back: 140.59 miles
Overall Total: 1124 miles