Archive for July, 2011

Ooch – that hurt!

After the musical number my knees performed on me (see the dunwich post) , I did some slow rides and found that if I secure my legs in a straight position the pain is gone.
So yesterday I went to a bike shop and bought Clits and shoes , Got home,fixed them on the bike and set out to learn how to use them.
The main issue with clits is the fact that you are SECURED to the bike and when you stop , if you don’t unsecure yourself fast enough , you’ll hit the floor .
My count for the first day is 3 hits on tarmac and 6 on grass (out of 14 stops).
The shoes are3 still not best fit top my flat-foot legs , I’ll need to put in the pads , but I will need to get used to them FAST .

Dunwich Dynamo – ✓

Well , another item is done and another ride under my “belt” .
To those of you that posses a sane mind ( Who are you and why are you reading my blog , do I know you ??? ) here is some information about what is the Dunwich Dynamo .
The main concern with this ride is staying sharp and not too sleepy , i sorted that issue with a very simple and elegant solution , when I arrived to the Pub , I stepped in and ordered a pint of Coke.
Considering the fact that my Caffeine intake is … none , the amount of Caffeine and suger in coke usually holds me up for more the 16 hours .
Then the wait began, we had to have a map but the guys with the map only arrived at 20:00 and then the queue form fast , so getting a map was time consuming.
I got on the bike with a large group that formed , and we headed out at 20:30 , cloudy skies but still plenty of light , we wanted to clear the forest part while there was still light.
The pace was good , but during the wooded part I tried to point my torch to the road , not just sky high , and it promptly fell of the bike.
I was more upset about the loss of the 4 rechargeable size AA batteries then the torch itself .
First stop was at the 50k mark , and to our surprise it was 22:15 when we got there , one of the guys said we need to slow down as this a very fast pace.
Considering there where the “greyhounds” in the event , those riders that do 35kph uphill, I thought we were doing ok .
As night fell the clouds cleared and the full moon came to shine on us and it was a beautiful night, a bit cold, to ride through the rural English country side, lovely houses and small villages and hills and more hills , now I finally have a full understanding and comprehension to all those books with the landscape description of “rolling hills” , they are not steep hills or even high ones, but they just seem to go up and down forever.

The main food stop was in the 86k mark and was good, and after that just on to the end.
At the 140k point we came to a riders pile up , at first we suspected an accident , but the a sign, a miraculous and wonderful sign came in to view “Bacon rolls , Vegie Rolls , Tea + Coffee , Water” , We Stopped !!!
My wall arrived at the 8mile before the end , my right knee started to protest with a very load “pop” and from then on it was a horrible pain to push down the peddle, I had to get off the bike and walk for a bit until the knew will ease up and then climb on the saddle .

I reached the finish line at 5:57 AM with the ride computer calling it a 186k.
My bum was so sore sitting is painful , but i have accomplished this task too.
On the way home the crash happened, the body no longer high on Adrenalin and Caffeine just felt drained and now sleep is coveted .

Oh , as usual when I do this rides I have my Sport tracker application active , this time when i checked it in the first stop it said we did 8k , the gps link was not working – Annoying !!!!

Jury is still out …

Today I did my (hopefully) last Esher to Hove cycle challenge. The weather was good, is started out with a cloudy day, windy and some dripping but as the morning progressed and turned to noon the sun came out (although the wind did not die).
I attached myself to a couple of riders and kept pace with them, we where doing good time and keeping a nice pace (an average of 26 kph /16mph) even in the hills (going downhill we broke the 50 kph some time) .
We were passing riders and getting good time, but something felt odd , when we reached the 50k mark ( half way point ) we planned to stop at the refreshment stop, but and this is the twist of the story, there was no stop !!

After looking around for a while we came across some other riders and we learned that we took a wrong turn in one of the junctions and we are now at least 16k /10 miles off route.
Turns out that there were 2 events happening in the area on the day and both were using markers that were black arrows on yellow background, and in one of the T junctions we followed the wrong one.

Calling the event help line was no help at all as they could not even tell us where we went the wrong way or how to get back on the main route, so one of the guys opened the GPS on his mobile phone and we started the ride toward the end point .
After several hours we actually found the event route and rejoined the correct route, at that point we covered already 80k/50miles (the whole event is 100k/60m) only to learn that we are now on the route 27m marker.
So grunting and with a bit of complaining we soldiered on, knowing that near the end Devil’s Dyke awaits us.
When we reached the base of the hill my computer said we already covered 125k /77miles , while everyone else is just shy of 90k/53m .
The first leg of the hill went slow but I conquered it, then the big dip and the steep climb, and this is the part where the jury can’t make a decision, on the short steep climb (150m ) I was unable to cycle and walked it, then got back on the bike and finished the hill, if I was fresher of that extra 30k, I think there is a strong possibility I would not have paused.
After that it was all down hill and relativity smooth and easy ride, when I reached the finish line the computer said 133k/82.6m (out of 100k/60m route).

So have I beaten Devil’s Dyke or was I defeated again ?

What do you think ?

Sports Tracker record of the ride