This weekend (17/3) saw me get my legs ripped off in the HNCC 2up team time trial riding wingman with Andy Herbert around the Nomads' 25 hilly course. We clocked 1.03.09 which is pretty tidy given it was my first 25 for years and it was also lashing it down with rain. Andy was easily two minutes quicker than me so I thank him partly for hanging on but also balance that off for the beasting I got.
The following day, saw four Nomads take part in the Wiggle No Excuses Epic 80 mile sportive. We navigated the course in a sub-five hour "gold standard" time of 4.56. Twenty minutes of that time was occupied by flapjack eating and the casual pilfering of jelly beans (and really quite minging energy drinks) at the two feed stops. Many thanks to James Gomm, James Spence, Andrew Stevenson for the company. Even bigger thanks to Tim Wallis and Nikki Ollier for getting us there in the first place.
Bikie - a miscelleny of cycling related observations
Monday, 19 March 2012
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Race to the sun
March is here, the daffodils are emerging and the big yellow thing in the sky has returned. Since late October I think I have averaged over 100 miles per week in terms of chirning out steady miles. This has been made enjoyable by linking back up with my old club, the Hitchin Nomads and by renewing old friendships or making new ones - Mssrs Webb, Spence and Gomm, thank you.
Ultimately you have to turn your own pedals but sometimes it is easier to get to the start line if you have committed to a.n.other that you will join them. This has been the case over the darker and snowier days of winter.
The upshot is that I have lost around a stone in weight and also thinned out by two inches around the waist. The diet has improved, there is a focus to what I do and my bank card seems to becoming more of a cycling-kit-procurement tool than it has been over the last few years.
My near term goal is to put in a good shift on the Interclub 10 mile time trial event in April 2012. Getting a good time for that event will be a tonic as my PB of 21.52 dates back to the early 2000s and so cannot be used as a marker for current performance.
A good ride yesterday, in very pleasant Spring weather saw me put in a 51.09 in the Nomads Spring Hilly. This was enough to claim the top slot ahead of James Gomm, whom I really rate as a rider. I was chuffed with that but then chanted the "I could have gone under 51 if..." mantra. Roll on the rest of the season, there are some really good riders in the HNCC now and it may be a good year for racing.
Time triallists are never happy with performances so I must be reverting to type.
Ultimately you have to turn your own pedals but sometimes it is easier to get to the start line if you have committed to a.n.other that you will join them. This has been the case over the darker and snowier days of winter.
The upshot is that I have lost around a stone in weight and also thinned out by two inches around the waist. The diet has improved, there is a focus to what I do and my bank card seems to becoming more of a cycling-kit-procurement tool than it has been over the last few years.
My near term goal is to put in a good shift on the Interclub 10 mile time trial event in April 2012. Getting a good time for that event will be a tonic as my PB of 21.52 dates back to the early 2000s and so cannot be used as a marker for current performance.
A good ride yesterday, in very pleasant Spring weather saw me put in a 51.09 in the Nomads Spring Hilly. This was enough to claim the top slot ahead of James Gomm, whom I really rate as a rider. I was chuffed with that but then chanted the "I could have gone under 51 if..." mantra. Roll on the rest of the season, there are some really good riders in the HNCC now and it may be a good year for racing.
Time triallists are never happy with performances so I must be reverting to type.
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