200 miles in a month!

This is the second month that I've managed to do over 200 miles, which I'm really pleased with seeing as my target was only 132 miles a month.
I'm still gutted about only doing 81 miles in May, but I have made up for it by pushing my average up to 161 miles a month.

I did go out for my second ride with Fareham Wheelers at the start of the month. I was extra keen and cycled the 8 miles out to Wickham rather than drive. This, with the ride home took the total distance to 49.8 miles. My bike computer showed over 50, but when I checked Strava later it showed only 49.8. If I had known I would gone round the block to hit the 50 miles mark.

It was a nice ride out, I went with the "Social" group, but some of the hills weren't that social. But is was great to find some new routes and get the experience of cycling in a group. Drafting or sitting close behind someone makes a massive difference, you just get pulled along without much effort.

I've also managed to get Haribo Joe back out on his bike a couple of times this month, which was great. One of the rides was with two other friends, Chris and Paul who are also just getting back into cycling. The plan was to make it a regular ride, but it has only happened the once so far, wrong time of the year to be starting things like that.

I keep looking at my total figure of 1770 and wondering if hitting the 2000 mark will be possible this year. It would mean doing my second highest total for a month, in probably the worst month of the year, bad weather, going away for Christmas and any other excuse I can think of. 

It might be the wrong attitude but I often prefer not to set massive targets, because I prefer to hit my targets. This limiting belief, as they call it, is probably holding me back in a lot of areas, so it is something I need to think about.

As always please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions that you think might help me or other readers.

Still on track!

 

Its been a while since my last update, but I'm glad to report that I'm smashing last year figures.

There has only been one month, May, where I didn't hit my monthly goal of 132 miles but that was down to my dodgy knee keeping me off the bike for a few weeks.

But my monthly average is at 157 miles, which I'm pleased about.

 

A lot of the extra miles have been cycling to my new job, it's about 4 to 6 miles depending upon which route I take. During the summer I can't think of a better way to end a day at work than a nice bike ride with part of it along the coast.

It wasn't so nice last week when it was dark and I had a basic light. There are two types of lights, see and be seen.

I had a "be seen" light and I was confident other cars could see me, but it was a bit of guess work along some of the country lanes I go down.

Since then I have borrowed Haribo Joe's Hope Vision One light and it makes a massive difference, I could see where I was going.

 

I have been for a couple of rides with the local cycling club www.fareham-wheelers.org.uk/ which was really good. Nice to find some new routes and get the experience of riding in a group, which is quite daunting. There are usually only about 12 people in a group, so you have to be careful about what other riders are doing but you do get dragged along at a good speed.

 

I used to go to the doctors to get weighed, but I haven't been for a few months, but I'm confident that I'm still losing weight, or maybe my clothes have just got that little bit bigger.

I've almost reached the worst part of losing weight where I need to go shopping for new clothes, can't think of anything worse.

 

It is getting harder to get out due to the weather but I just need to man up and deal with the rain, you can only get so wet.

A Few Of My Favourite Things

Last Monday I had a lovely day off work going for a bike ride with my daughter and then a pub lunch with my wife.
Just missing a few rain drops on roses and whiskers on kittens.

The bike ride was along the Hayling Billy which is an old railway line down the side of Hayling Island.
It's pretty flat but not suitable for road tyres so I had to go on my brother in law's bike.

Most of the way you get lovely views of Langstone Harbour. It is possible to cycle all the way around the harbour, you need to get the ferry across to Eastney, and back up a cycle path along the Eastern Road. I think it is about 15 miles.

We've done it before where we've cycled all the way to the bottom of the Island, had lunch at a pub on the beach and cycled back, about 10 miles in total.

Unfortunately Mrs B's knee was playing up so she waited on the beach for us with our dog. So Lilly and I only went as far as the bmx track, where I had to have a go over a few of the jumps.
Heavy bloke on a heavy bike doesn't equal much air.

We then cycled back, found the wife and drove to The Royal Oak for fish and chips in the garden.

On the bike ride I said to Lilly "I love spending time with you and I love cycling, so I'm having a great day".

She replied "I love spending time with you and I don't mind cycling".

We're getting there!

Blissford Hill Smashed!

I completed the The New Forest Rattler last weekend, which includes the 25% Blissford Hill aka The Wall!



Apparently registration starts at 7:00 with the first groups of riders setting off at 8:30. So when Haribo Joe and myself arrived just just after 8 we were surprised to be "stuck" behind a load of cyclist. So we're not sure when they set riders off.

Anyway we went through the simple registration process, deciding to miss out on the free porridge, instead opting for the festival experience of the dreaded portaloo. It wasn't to bad, but I should have just waited and used a bush.

So we lined up, hoping the slight drizzle was going to pass, planning on beating our time of 3:38 for the 47 miles.

I suddenly realised that my Strava wasn't working and stupidly crossed the start line, therefore starting my official time. I should have held back and gone with the next bunch, rather than setting off and wasting valuable minutes at the side of the road getting it sorted.

Eventually we got going.

The course is described as being fairly flat, which it is, once you get up to the flat bit. To start with there are a few little hills to wake up your legs.

It is a nice route, mostly on pretty quiet roads. But you need to watch out for the wildlife, horses, donkeys, cows and this year pigs.

Once again there was a well stocked feed station, where I tried to get my monies worth of jelly beans and flapjack.

We were setting a good pace, taking it in turns to lead, even passing other cyclists, which is always nice. You can see on my strava that it was PR's all the way for the first half.

Then things turned sour for Joe.

The major surgery earlier in the year and resulting lack of time in the saddle caught up with him and he started to struggle.
The course didn't help. It had been fairly sheltered, but then goes across the top of the New Forest, which is open, and there was an eternal head wind.
No cyclist likes a head wind, especially larger framed gentleman like Joe and myself. We're not the most aerodynamic shape on a bike.
A road, with a slight downwards gradient, that we should have cruised along, suddenly became soul destroying. And it just kept on going.

To make matters even worse, Joe's chain came off.

Eventually we made it out of the New Forest and got some shelter from the wind and started going down hill.

But what goes down must go up.

Blissford Hell!

It's only a very short hill, but at 25% and after 42 miles it is nasty.

But I made it up in one go this year.

After that it is quite an easy couple of miles to the finish, just dodging more wildlife.
We snuck in just under 4 hours.

At the end you get a certificate and a food voucher for the bbq, but there was a massive queue so we just grabbed a couple of bananas and drove home.

It is a great sportive, really well organised, just as good as the Wiggle events, but on a smaller more relaxed scale.

Hills and Head Winds.....

This basically how it felt all the way around the Mega Meon Sportive

Haribo Joe, my brother Pete and I arrived at South Downs College just before 8. It was very well organised, quick check in etc. We even got a High5 energy pack worth £12, not bad when the entry fee was £18.

We then set off in a group of about 20 riders for 55 miles up and over the South Downs.

Almost straight away we were onto nice quiet roads which was pretty much how it stayed for most of the route.

It started off fairly flat to start with, but once past Hambledon you've got the long, steady climb up to the Bat and Ball pub. This is the start of the South Downs, so no more flat roads.

The feed stop was at East Meon at a church hall. Well stocked as you would expect, I was asked to move away from the jelly beans.

The feed station is well placed, just before one of the hardest climbs up to the top of Old Winchester Hill.
But the views made it worthwhile.

We were all working well as a team, every now and then letting Pete have a rest at the back.
We were also calling out if junctions were clear or not, apart from one junction where I was sure I heard Joe call out "Clear........sort of"
Luckily I checked for myself and saw the massive Land Rover bearing down on me. It was the first time I've had to unclip in an emergency.

Just after we saw the 10km to go marker I heard a strange noise but everything felt ok. A few minutes later I heard a tapping noise so stopped to check and realised I had broken a spoke.

This can be game over.

Luckily Pete managed to do enough for me to get me going. So I shot off more concerned about getting to the finish line than my team mates.

As I was steaming up to the top of Portsdown Hill my brother just glided along side me, had a quick chat and then reminded me that he is my older brother by powering away from me up the hill.

About a mile from the finish we turned left and for the first time got a tail wind.

We finished in 5 hours 18, a bit slow but we finished and enjoyed it.

Mega Meon Sportive

It's been a busy month, cycling to my new job and then getting over gout in both feet and one hand. But it's all good now.

The Mega Meon Sportive is my next challenge, this Sunday.

I'm doing the "short" course, which at 55 miles will be my longest ride to date. But it is lumpy with 3000 feet of climbing.

I'm doing it with Haribo Joe and my brother Pete, so will be fun.

With my many excuses, dodgy knee and gout I haven't done as much training as I would have liked, but I'm going to take my time and enjoy it.

Complete rather than compete!

I'll do a full write up after the event.

Back on Track!

 

Yes, I'm back on track, I did 137 miles in June, my target is 130. It should have been more as I was due to go out for a ride with Haribo Joe today but my gout as flared up again, so I've had to sit and watch the Tour de France.

 

This time last year I had only done 420 miles, so nearly double that so far this year.

 

A lot of the miles this month are due to the new job which I can cycle to. It's only 4.5 miles, but they all count.

I take the shortest route in the morning, but I will do different routes home taking in a hill or two, or do some sprintervals training.

 

Sprintervals or HIIT training involves cycling hard out for a short set time period and then easing off for a rest period. I keep it simple by doing a minute on and a minute off, but you can vary it.

The main reasons I do them is to get me used to cycling faster, and also it burns more calories than steady cycling.

 

This month I need to get in some more hills, because at the end of the month I'm doing The Wiggle Mega Meon Sportive with Haribo Joe and my brother Pete. We're doing the "short" course which is only 55 miles, which will be my longest ride, but there will be 3000 feet of climbing, such fun.