Dealing with damp whilst building endurance.

It's been a while since our last post and we have been busy during the month of June.

I suppose most notable is that we've had to pay up for the trip, so now we are officially committed and all our training efforts are focused on "Le Grand Depart" on Tuesday August 26th.

June has seen Mark and I upping the mileage a bit and since we got back from a week in Croatia we have really hit it hard with a couple of shorter rides plus a weekend Sportive of 70 miles.

The sportive was a good test of our mental stamina, in that although it was relatively forgiving in terms of terrain, we were subjected to a really heavy and sustained downpour about an hour into the 4 hour ride together with some nasty gusty winds. The forecast had been for sunshine so although I had my waterproof jacket which I keep in my saddle bag, my hands and feet got absolutely drenched. Mark was worse off than me as he hadn't packed his waterproof so he must have been freezing. However after about an hour the rain stopped and by the end of the ride we were almost dry again. 


The reality is that as a friend once put it "cycling is an outdoor sport so you are going to get wet at some point".

You could spend a huge amount of money on sophisticated waterproof tops and leggings but no matter how good they are they wont let the sweat escape so you end up wet from within anyway. I've found the best thing to do is to ensure you can stay warm and then although it might be a little uncomfortable it won't stop you moving.  In Canada I got into the habit of packing a small zipper bag with a shower hat (liberated from various hotels) a pair of latex search gloves to wear under my cycle gloves and my waterproof booties. I could carry this in my shirt pocket so that if we unexpectedly got caught in some rain I could put the shower cap over my helmet which would keep my head warm and the gloves and booties prevented wind chill on my fingers and toes. I don't care what the manufacturers say I have yet to find a pair of gloves that remain waterproof for more than a couple of hours and once they get wet they can get really cold. You would be surprised how much more comfortable you are with warm extremities. Add in a decent lightweight waterproof jacket you can roll up and stuff into your saddle bag or pocket and you will find you can just carry on going without too much trouble.

Despite the weather we both enjoyed the ride. It was billed as a 100km ride but turned into well over that, I clocked 70 miles and NO we didn't get lost!

It was quite good fun being back in a larger group of riders again and being able to practice pace lining, something Mark hasn't done before coming from the triathlon world. He soon realised the importance of finding some young guns to ride at the front of the group and do the hard work and how important it is to look a little old and knackered so that you are allowed to hang around about 5th in line with the occasional visit to the front just to show willing. We managed to zip along for about 20 very quick miles before the group split as people waited for mates etc, we then hopped from group to group for another 10 miles or so until the food stop. After that we were largely on our own, although we were joined at this point by Mark's daughter Jo, and we just rotated the lead when into the wind and relaxed when the wind was with us.

We both finished really strongly, it was quite entertaining to spend the last few miles catching and overtaking several riders that had blasted past us after about 30 miles or so, obviously running out of gas near the finish. Although it was relatively flat we averaged a couple of MPH faster than normal on our longer rides and we both felt we had more miles in our legs so we were happy with our days efforts. The key point for us was that we know we can knock out 70 miles or so in 4 hours so when you think we have all day to do 80-90 miles we are confident we can manage that and have time to enjoy the trip as we do so.

July looks like it's going to be a busy month too. We have provisionally planned to try to ride at least three times a week, hopefully a couple of  40 miles plus higher speed rides with a longer more relaxed weekend ride each week. We have planned in a couple of longer sportive events for late July and early August. The first is 133km around the Peterborough fens area so relatively flat but apparently it can be brutal in the fens if the wind is in the wrong direction and then a tougher 75 mile Wiggle event in Cheltenham on the first Saturday in August. That should certainly test the legs as there are several lengthy climbs up and around the Cotswolds. Add in a couple of back to back rides and we are fairly hopeful that we will be ready to go in time for late August.

Onwards and Upwards!

Upping the mileage

Since our last post Mark and I have been putting in some steady training both on and off the bike. 

We started out about 2 months ago with a fairly organised training plan but a combination of foul weather, work commitments and weddings has meant it's not been as structured as we'd hoped. Never the less with both of us being involved in the fitness business we have been able to do a fair amount of running, gym work and swimming to keep the flab off. 

Having said all of the above we have managed two fairly lengthy rides of 45 and 78 miles in the last two weeks. Ride no 1 was a re-run of the trip out to St Neots and back. The weather was kind to us and with only a light wind we had a fairly pleasant trip.  Mark was a little delicate after his daughter's wedding and he found it took him a while to clear his tubes and get back into his rhythm again.After a fairly steady ride out we stopped to get a bacon butty in St Neots surrounded by motorcyclists, then wound our way back to Raunds via Grafham Water. I think we could have gone further but time was against us as we were heading off go a post wedding BBQ so had to be back by mid-day. 

Our second ride of the fortnight was our longest and toughest ride so far. Planned for 80 miles it was nearly 25% longer than any of our previous rides. I found a sportive route that started and finished at Silverstone racing circuit, so with a little tweaking we rearranged it a bit and started at Towcester Police Station, making the parking a bit easier, and set off joined again by Phill and also Colin Newport. 

Now, at this point I must record that the sportive guide described the route as 'a gentle rolling ride through glorious rural Northants, Warks and Oxfordshire with a stiff test of the legs after about 50 miles as you turn for home.'

Well, they were absolutely correct, it was glorious rural countryside however "gently rolling" clearly has a number of possible interpretations with my own and the organisers clearly being somewhat different. 

I knew that the guys were "enjoying" the hills when after about 30 miles Mark coined the catchphrase "Oh turning left and going uphill again is it?".  Upon reflection he was right, we did seem to be doing more climbing than rolling than I had expected, but I was hoping the scenery was making up for it.

After about 40 miles we managed to finally find an open pub where we could grab a coffee and sandwich, I hadn't realised how rural the area was going to be, none of the villages had any coffee shops so we were more than ready for a little break.

We didn't fancy hanging around for long as we didn't want to stiffen up, Phill in particular was a bit peeved because one of the waitresses appeared to have eaten his chips somewhere between the kitchen and his table so we only stopped for about 20 minutes.

Profile for our weekend ride

Back on the road again we had a steady run into Warwickshire and then came across the small matter of Burton Dassett Country Park and the  "testing" little climb as it was described in the notes. I think Mark would use other words, it certainly was tough but thankfully not too long. 

After Burton Dassett we made steady progress back towards Brackley; we briefly lost Phill and Mark when they didn't see Colin and I turn down an alleyway, but after we regrouped we headed south to Stowe then back to Towcester via Silverstone.

Safe to say I think we all (well not so much Colin who is a much stronger rider than us) knew we'd done a few miles and climbed 1500m in the process when we got back to our cars, as you can see from the profile there wasn't much in the way of flat.

Overall I think we are both happy with where we are.  There is plenty of time left to build our fitness further and we know that we are already capable of the type of day we should expect on our LEJOG trip. What the long ride did was to remind me of the importance of almost continuous eating and drinking so you don't run out of energy. The support crew on our trip will provide regular drink and meal stops along the way so as long as we get used to sucking down gels etc every 20 miles or so all should be ok.

We plan to get out again during this week if the weather holds and start putting some back to back rides together over the next few weeks. 

Onwards and upwards.