2 Weeks 200 Miles

Well its been 2 weeks since I started riding again and I'm just coming up to 200 miles back on the bike.

After starting off with gentle one hour rides for a week I started mixing it up a bit more with 1.5, 2.5 hour rides in the second week. This week I started off with a three hour ride and then 1.5 hours tonight - I'm looking at time on the bike rather than miles ridden at the moment to build my base up.

The Tower 2 Tower ride is just over two weeks away now and preparations are going well although we're still short of a driver and none of us can speak French.

I still have mixed feelings about the event - I'm looking forwards to the laughs but its going to kill me not riding so I'm figuring on using it as a rest week off the bike before two weeks being beasted in Dorset by the brother in law.

First hard ride.

Well last night I went out with a few of the T2T riders for a two hour ride to kind of see how I'm doing.

The first few miles saw me on the front then straight out the backdoor and a hard fight to keep in touch. Each time I got back on and started to recover I would lose the wheel but I kept at it.

Near the end of the ride I hit the front and decided to push the pace until my legs went which happened about a mile from the end.

Stats for the ride were 30.42 miles in 1:38.

Legs felt a bit stiff this morning but I'm really happy. Back to low hr rides for a few days then same again next Wednesday.

The view from the car.

Well this weekend I've had my first experience of driving behind the T2T cyclists over two rides based out of the Old Sawmill which was out lodgings for the weekend.

Friday even saw the cyclists setting off for a 23 mile ride around Derwent Water which turned out to be a pleasant but thankfully uneventful ride for everyone. On getting back to the Sawmill everyone showered whilst I gave the bikes a quick wipe down after the ride ended in the rain before we walked the mile down the road for refreshments and replenishment in the pub to end the day.

Saturday dawned wet, cold and miserable but with the promise of brightening up later on. There was a choice of a few routes for the day, a couple of hilly rides or a flat 'bad weather' option. The flat option was mentioned and seemed to be the choice until just before setting off when it was switched to a ride up Honsister Pass. After packing the car with everyone's kit we set off and straight away Jon snapped his chain. We tried five different chain tools and were unable to break the chain as it appeared to be riveted and not pinned. If was decided that I'd run Jon down into Keswick to get a new chain whilst the rest of the riders rode to Keswick and we'd meet up and collect butties for later in the day. After fitting a new chain we met the others with Jon's chains jumping on his gears a bit and stocked the car with butties.

We set off along the Borrowdale Valley and realised the Keswick Sportive was taking place so there were plenty of other cyclist out on the roads. Jon was still having trouble so we adjusted his indexing and things seemed a little better. As we hit the Honister Pass the pace obviously slowed right down and the group split up as everyone rode at their own pace. At the top of the pass the riders regrouped and took on board some food before starting the descent but Jon was still having trouble with his gears so we checked everything was indexed correctly and it was.

On the descent it was difficult keeping up with the riders in the car and mentally challenging keeping and eye on them, an eye on the road and an eye behind for all the sportive riders (yes I'm aware that's three eyes). After the descent and some undulating riding Jon was still having trouble so we loaded his bike into the car and arranged to meet the riders in Cockermouth after I'd dropped him back at the Sawmill. I think the issue with Jon's bike may be that the chainrings were quite worn so his cassette is probably worn too (hard to tell with all the crazy profiling these days) so under power his chain was slipping.

After a spirited drive back to Cockermouth I met up with the riders again and we had lunch. Then we set off for a lap around Bassenthwaite Lake before heading back into Keswick and the trip back to the Sawmill. By this time the weather had really cleared up and my car was filling up with more and more sweaty clothing (it stank last night).

All in all a good weekend with some things to think about for the event itself.

I've been back out riding today doing an hour and a half which is my longest ride since recovering from my abscess. It seems really weedy but I'm just returning slowly and not rushing things so six hours bagged for the week isn't a bad start. I'm going out for a couple of hours with the T2T riders on Wednesday night so will get a good picture of where I am then.

Back on the bike

Well I've just done my first ride back after all the issues with my abscess.

I've decided to go right back to basics and use the rest of the summer to build up a really good base fitness but this means really boring rides to start off with.

It's all about building up the hours on the bike at a low heart rate. Today was supposed to be an hour but ended up being 1:17 with my heart rate on the border of zone 2/3 (70-75% of MHR). These rides are horrible as you have to sit there in an easy gear trying to keep the heart rate down whilst spinning the gear - it's just really hard not to put more effort in.

Legs felt fine today and my heart rate was back to the levels it was before the issues with the abscess but my arse complained all the way round.

Same again on Monday.

About the Tower 2 Tower ride

30 cyclists will be cycling from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to the Blackpool Tower from Thursday 14 June to Monday 18 June 2012 in aid of Brainwave & Donna’s Dream House, two local Northwest Charities and also the international charity WaterAid.

'Brainwave' is a national charity with 3 centres in the UK. There Northern centre is at Birchwood, Warrington. They work with families to assist them in home based individual therapy and exercises to help children with development delay, brain injury or genetic conditions to achieve their full potential.

Brainwave effectively provides parents with self help through six monthly assessments where they work with parents on an exercise/therapy routine enabling parents to undertake this with their children on a daily basis. At its simplest this includes techniques for different muscle stretches and work on core muscle stability which has been very successful in mitigating the increased muscle tone and helping build core muscles, which in turn enables improved motor skill ability.

Donnas Dream House in Blackpool is a locally based trust providing free holiday experiences for the children and teenagers with life-threatening illnesses and their families, and for recently bereaved siblings and their families.

Whilst the voluntary team of Donna’s Dream House provides the expertise, enthusiasm and administration, it is the generosity of many companies, organisations and individuals in raising and donating money, that makes it possible to bring not only sunshine and fun into children’s lives but a sense of wonder, adventure, laughter and much-needed holiday in Blackpool for the whole family. They suffered an arson attack at the beginning of the New Year 2012.

WaterAid is supporting many opportunities in the worlds poorest country’s supplying clean water and effective sanitation and has a long established relationship with the water industry.

Good news at last

Well this mornings visit to the nurse has been the best.

The packing that was put in on Saturday had worked itself out and the remaining opening has knitted itself together. I've still got have visits to the nurse to keep an eye on things to ensure no infection returns but I've been infection free for nearly a week now so pretty sure nothing will go wrong.

Seeing the doctor again this week so hoping to get the all clear to start training again - you watch we'll have no sun for months for ages now.

Really looking forwards to getting back in the saddle again now.

Time for a rethink.

Well the abscess on my neck has caused me to pull out of riding the Paris to Blackpool T2T ride in June.

The wound is looking better each day (I'm told) and Tuesday was the first day without any puss coming out of the wound which is a bit of a landmark. I finish the antibiotics tomorrow so the next week will be critical in how long it takes me to get back on the bike. If I have no infection from now on the doctors thinks I'll be back riding  by the week commencing 14th May so fingers, legs etc crossed.

The upshot of this is that I'll have had five weeks without riding and with a month to go until T2T from my projected recovery date there is no way I'll be able to get back up to speed for the 100 mile day and taper in that period. On the plus side I'll be driving one of the support vans so I can still support the team and not be sat moping around like a bear with a sore head.

Basically I've had to start thinking about revised goals for 2012 and it's still a work in progress. I have two weeks away after T2T which was originally meant to be a recovery period but now I'll be treating it as a training camp hopefully and Richard will sort out some rides (quite fancy Isle of Wight regardless of summer traffic). I've also got the Lancashire Loop sportive at the end of September so I think for the rest of the year I'm going to concentrate on building up a fantastic endurance base.

Looking towards 2013 I'll be 40 so fancy doing something really special on the bike and also intend to take up time trials - watch this space.