70 days to go - kneesy does it.

Chintastic

Well with 70 days to go I'd like to say I'm ready but I'm not.

I followed the doctors advice and rested for a week - well I lasted from Monday to Friday morning so it's practically a week. The knee has calmed down a lot and the medication is helping me sleep it's good news all round.

On Friday morning I got dropped off at Tewitfield and walked back to Bolton le Sands along the Lancaster Canal which was 11km with no knee pain. It was amazing being away from the hustle and bustle and just having the sound of the wildlife and the wind rustling through the rushes.

Saturday morning dawned with no after effects from the previous days walk and as my wife had an appointment in Morecambe we decided to walk. I walked to Morecambe and carried on to Heysham before returning to Morecambe to meet my wife and walk back to Bolton le Sands. All in all this was 25km in total and i had a few twinges in the knee but nothing unusual and linked to the pain I've been experiencing so I was really chuffed.

Getting out of bed on Sunday morning was interesting as my calves were really stiff but the great news was no knee pain and I could crouch for the first time in a few months with no real problem. I decided to go out on the bike for an hour to see how things were and if I could start training again. I didn't feel anything unusual with the knee and pedalling standing up felt less painful but much more like a dull stiffness (stop sniggering at the back) so I was really chuffed.

The plan now is to ride for an hour on Tuesday and Thursday this week and for two hours on Saturday and Sunday and see how the knee is and then hopefully increase the time on the bike each week - fingers crossed it will all be good and manageable with pain killers if needs be.

In other news I now have my Just Giving site set up for CancerCare so please give generously via the link on the top right of the page.

I'll try and update the blog each Monday up to the ride and daily on the ride.

2017 - A new year, a new challenge, the same old knees.

Being led astray again by Keith

So after 4 years of not doing any silly rides I'm blaming Keith (drinking/cycling partner and all round good guy) for this one.

At New Year he mentioned about us going down to his local pubs (Ring O'Bells, Nailsea) music festival on the last weekend of July and causally I just said "Okay - I'll ride down and I reckon it'll only be abut 200 miles".

So the plan was hatched and a couple of hours later I'd got the route down from 250 miles to 205 miles and with six months to train I was happy. On getting home I split the route into three sections:

• Day 1 Lancaster to Tarporley
• Day 2 Tarporley to Hereford
• Day 3 Hereford to Nailsea

That night I booked accommodation in Tarporley and Hereford and started planning where I could meet up with my wife to swap empty bidons for full ones and felt very organised. Then things started to go a bit pear shaped.

Firstly in January I found out I was losing my job at the end of June which was a bit of a shock but more time for cycling was the positive spin on it plus money for a shiny new bike.

In February the nice spa hotel I had booked for the first night went bust leaving me looking for somewhere else to stay. Now this wasn't really a big issue but we were looking forward for an evening of being pampered so it was a shame.

Along with this I've been having persistent pain in my right knee since June 2016 but being a bloke I thought it would go away (ironically this is my good knee having knackered my left on in a cycling accident in 1998). Kneedless (sorry) to say it hasn't got better and I've been unable to squat or cycling out of the saddle due to the pain but luckily I can ride sat down with no real issues although steep climbs are a bit interesting so all in all my training has been rubbish.

This week the doctor decided I either have tendonitis or its the degeneration of my knee joint that is causing the issue and I've been banned from the bike for a week (a week is 5 days isn't it?) during the best week of weather so far in 2017. All of this left me thinking that I really need the extra motivation when I get back on the bike so why not use this ride to raise a bit of money for a local charity as it will help me get through the pain on my ride.

After floating the idea around a fair few friends suggested a charity local to me here in Lancaster called CancerCare. They are an independent charity dedicated to helping families affected by cancer and other life limiting conditions living in the North Lancashire, South Lakeland and the Barrow and Furness areas.

So there you go - the blog is resurrected and will be updated on a regular basis and I'll soon be hounding you all for money.

A week to go.

Well this time next week I'll be off and riding the Vaujany Master. Hopefully by then I'll be excited instead of nervous.
I've just had 10 nights out in Spain and as you can see I took my hydration very seriously. I really relaxed and enjoyed myself and only put 4 lbs on despite the all inclusive loveliness. It was great not thinking about cycling 24/7.

37 days and counting.

From today I have 37 days until I ride the Vaujany Master - the number of training days is much less at 20 days.

The reason for the difference is we already had 11 nights in Spain booked before entering the Vaujany and obviously there are a number of days lost due to travelling to France. In Spain I'm intending to have 6 days were I don't think about the bike or training and even have a few drinks (not touched a drop this year yet), but I'll be eating sensibly and keeping to a more protein based diet but obviously I'll avoid Spanish steaks just in case I need a dope test!!! The rest of the time in Spain I'll be doing some gentle training more to maintain my fitness than anything else. Once I get home I'll have three days before we set off for France via Poole so I intend to do a long ride on the Sunday and then two days of recovery riding before heading off.

So how have things been going since my last post?

Well I'm now under 15 stone and enjoying the benefits of a lighter frame both on and off the bike.

I've been buying new clothes for Spain as the ones I had for my last trip out there in September are way too big - no more X's on my shorts now and I'm hoping I'll need another shopping spree before Turkey in September to buy some medium shorts. I've also been able to buy fitted shirts from H&M and am amazed by how good I look in them compared to the baggy clothes that I've been hiding in.

On the bike the weight loss has made a huge difference to my climbing especially. I'm riding up climbs I used to try and avoid all costs for fun these days, I'm even starting to enjoy climbing to some extent. My fitness is also amazing me as my recovery from hard efforts is so much quicker than before but the down side to that is that I have to dig way deeper on the harder efforts now to get the work out - dizziness and feeling sick have become my friend.

Last Sunday I rode the Wight Riveria Sportive which at 169km with 2200m of climbing is the hardest ride I've done since returning to cycling. I have to be honest in that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I was really surprised to be overtaking other cyclists on some of the climbs who had the appearance of being more suited to climbing than me. Even though I had some legs soreness the following two days it was nowhere near what I used to suffer from and after 48 hours had settled right down.

I'm confident with the distance of Vaujany now but the great unknown is still the climbing so I'm going to be concentrating on this in the remaining training days I have. The climbs out there are much longer than what I have to train on so I have to work extra hard on the hills available to me.

Finally I've made some changes to the bike by fitting the SRAM Climbers Kit. This means that I have a 34x32 bottom gear now so can use this to keep my legs spinning rather than trying to push a big gear. I did notice on the Isle of Wight that by using this gear I can keep my heart rate really low.

I'll try and keep the blog updated more often as we get nearer the day.

April's Challenge

Well April is nearly upon us and signifies the start of the hill training part of my Vaujany Master preparation.

In January having a target of 400 miles to aim for helped keep the training fresh and my head in the right place so in April I have set myself the target of riding 1319 kilometres.

Why 1319 km you may ask, we'll if you take into account five of the most famous Spring Classics you arrive at this figure as below:

Milan - San Remo 298km
Tour of Flanders 256km
Paris - Roubaix 257km
Liege - Bastogne - Liege 257km
Amstel Gold 251km

I'm intending to do all this out on the road and not include turbo training miles but that's reliant on us having a spring.

Fit and 40

This Saturday I reach the milestone of my 40th birthday and I'm in much better shape than I was on my 30th birthday both physically and mentally.

The past month has involved longer rides than I've ridden before in my second coming as a cyclist and this past weekend I did the most climbing I've done this time around. The thing that surprised me the most is that my legs were fine it was issues with my back that were the main issue.

I'm now under 16 stone too which probably goes some way to explaining the small but significant improvement in my ability to suffer on the climbs.

Today I have completed my third threshold test of this training plan and again I have seen some good improvements.

Along with the weight loss my FTP (Functional Threshold Power) has increased by a further 8 Watts so that's an increase of 19 Watts since I started committed training. The loss of weight has also helped my power to weight ratio to increase by 1.16 Watts/Kg - I'm hoping for the same improvement again before France.

A big thanks to everyone who has sponsored me so far in raising money for the North West Ambulance by riding Vaujany Master but if you haven't sponsored me yet please do so by clicking HERE.

2012 Specialized Body Geometry S-Works Road Shoes

I've done about 2000 miles in these shoes since I got them and as I've never done a review before I thought these would make a good first subject.

The first thing you notice about these shoes when you pick them up is how light they are (that is until you fit Speedplay cleats to them), Specialized claim that they weigh around the 520g mark for a pair.

The uppers are made of a material called Micromatrix which despite the patent leather/shiny plastic appearance is a comfortably soft but tough material and I haven't suffered much scuffing. This material also has the advantage of being easy to wipe clean after the usual British summer ride. The mesh panels are highly breathable and keep the temperature down during the rare hot summer days but the down side of that is the they let in water and cold air when the weather isn't so nice. Compared to other shoes I tried on these did feel a bit minimalist to be honest and less inviting for your your foot but as you appreciate how comfortable they actually are as your ride goes on.

The shoes use 2 Boa S1-M closures for tailoring the fit to your foot - there is no putting these in the oven to mould to your feet. The Boa's work in a very simple way - turn them one way to tighten and the other way to loosen and for each click they pull in a couple of millimetres of cable. I have heard of people complaining that they have broken the dials but I've had no issues whatsoever with them. I do find that if you tighten the upper closure too tight it can dig into your foot and Specialized have move the location of the dials on the 2013 shoes.

The soles are high modulus, unidirectional carbon fibre and are very, very stiff - they're not shoes that you'd want to walk far in. The soles have the 3 bolt cleat pattern to accept Shimano SPD-SL, Time and Look cleats and also Speedplay cleats with an adaptor kit. There is a mesh vent in the sole under the toes and the heel is replaceable should you wear it out. Insoles are the BG+ High Performance foot bed featuring a 'metatarsal button' which is ridge running down the centre to help support the foot and I've certainly not experienced any hot spots on long rides with these shoes.

£200 may seem a lot of money for a pair of shoes but compared with the likes of Sidi they are extremely good value and with them being stiff, light and comfortable what else could you want?