Start of the summer!

Brilliant, clocks forward at the weekend and summer is here!  The weather has been great for a week or so now and its been great for getting out and doing stuff.  At the weekend just past I was out for a training run on Saturday morning with shorts on!  OK it was still a bit chilli at times, but when the sun came through it was feeling warm.

Sunday the weather was even sunnier, although a bit windy.  Since it was a bike free day we got the canoes loaded onto the car and headed through to Loch Ard for a paddle out to the island and a picnic.  It was quite a workout driving the open canoe* up the loch into the headwind with Oli and Gus onboard, but they also help trim the boat better into the wind, and we made better progress the Laura in the Dagger*!  She seemed to really enjoy her paddle too, although found it pretty hard work.

I had a go in the Dagger after lunch and took it for a short spin round the island.  Its a great wee boat, really manoeuvrable with the skeg retracted, but if you pull the cord to lower the skeg it tracks well and its got adjustable foot chocks so you can drive it forward and steer a bit with your hips.  Next time we go out to the island I want to take some camping gear and stay the night.  Its perfect for it, there's even a small bothy.  Probably not quite enough loose wood lying about to make a great fire, but easy enough to chuck some fuel in the canoe, of pop across to the forest on the shore to stock up with more wood.  The trips we've had at Loch Morrar to the islands up there have always been brilliant fun, but being able to do something similar just half an hours drive from home is cool.  Much better than Loch Lomond too, as we found the islands there a bit busy with noisy party boats in the summer.

Cycling wise things are going pretty well I think.  The Saturday run was good, 100 pretty fast miles with some good hills, and my legs seem to be strong.  I've been keeping up the hill reps, but will need to find ways to maintain my motivation for them as they're pretty hard work.  Now the clocks have changed we're back out for chaingang on Tuesday nights, starting tomorrow night.  Really looking forward to it, and hopefully the weather will stay dry!

*Boats are a 17ft! Mobile Adventure 'Peace River Cruiser' Canoe, and a 10ft Dagger Approach Kayak

Milan San-Remo Vs The Dick Londragon Memorial RR

The race season is still only just getting started and the action from last weekend will already take some beating.  La Primavera, the first monument of the year lived up to its pre race build up with an action packed finale on Saturday afternoon.  Come Sunday it was the turn of the Scottish amateurs in the Dick Londragon RR.  Same sport, bicycle road racing, but in reality the two were not really anything like one another.  The weather near Aberdeen was far better than Italy for starters!

The finish of MSR included some of the biggest names in the sport, but once they had the final selection of 10 riders after the Poggio there was no cooperation between the riders.  Out of a 300km race the main contenders had been almost unseen, with their team mates working on the front keeping the peleton moving and chasing down any breaks getting more than a handful of minutes.

The Londragon RR on the other hand, the selection for the break was made in the opening 20km, and included all the usual contenders.  After a lot of jumping about pretty much everyone you'd expect to get in the break had got in it, and they then proceeded to work together to ride away from the bunch.  The finale was, from a participants perspective, more exciting than MSR.  Getting away from the final group of 5 with about 2K to go, thinking I was going to win, getting caught by Evan and coming home second.  It was a great race.  The circuit, the roads, weather, result was all good.

Races like MSR and pro cycling provide inspiration, but its races like Sundays that are the best.  Taking part yourself rather than just watching.  Training, thinking about the next race, wanting to do better.  2nd place on Sunday, after the opening race at Gifford was a relief, and a motivation.  This season can be a big success, with some more work, its still early and things are looking good!  Pic at the top is taken by Emma from Granite City

Training, training, training

Having had a few problems recently fitting much training in, this week I've been busy trying to find a bit extra.  I've bit the bullet and started doing some intervals since I've not been doing anything like that up till now.  Basically i've been doing hill reps - riding repeatedly up the same local climb.

This week i've mainly been going up the Back o'Hill by Stirling Castle.  So starting at the bottom by the fire station roundabout i time the climb from the lamp post at the bottom to the lamp post by the entrance to the grave yard where it flattens out.  The climb is a steady 10%+ with the upper section 15%+ (Garmin gives gradient stats!).  Its about 0.4 of a mile and the elevation gain is about 170ft.  I did it a few times last year when I was going pretty well so had an idea what time I should be getting up in.  First session this year I was well off the pace, although to be fair the climb was covered in sleet and barely ridable.  Todays session was a huge improvement though.  Times are almost up there with last year, and I managed 8 reps without collapsing!  8 reps all under 2mins, and best times last year were around 1.50ish

Other climb I use quite a bit is the Logie Kirk climb up to Sherrifmuir.  Although I ride the climb several times a week going to and from work, I've only managed one interval session up it this year.  The climb is a lot longer, taking almost 5 minutes, and its significantly steeper for longer.  This one I start by the telegraph pole at the graveyard entrance, and finish at the road junction.  6 reps of it and you're done!  Best times on the Logie Kirk last year were around 4.30, so maybe need to do a proper session up there next week.

The training is giving my old Trek 1000 a bit of a battering, but its still going well.  The new wheels from Dave Hinde seem really good.  They're pretty standard training wheels - Mavic Open Sport on Tiagra hubs.  I gave them a wee true up myself after their first few hundred miles, and they seem really solid.  32 spokes mean truing is possible for a novice like me and costing £100 delivered I think they're great value.  The bike is going well, although without mud guards its pretty manky!  Pic at the top taken at the top of Sherrifmuir this afternoon.

This weekend theres the Dick Londragon RR on Sunday, and hopefully I'll be going a bit better than the Super6 at Gifford!  Its a great wee circuit and hopefully the weather will be good again.  Not going with any great expectations as I'm still kind of unsure of my form, but hopefully i'll get round without suffering to much.

Garmin, and boilers

The last week has been totally bloody awful.  Last Monday we had a contractor from British Gas come out to fit a new boiler to our house.  The job was supposed to take two days, and be relatively hassle free.  Other than having to lift the floor in the downstairs WC, it was supposed to be easy.... it obviously wasn't!  On getting home on Tuesday expecting everything to be finished, the contractor informed me that the new Baxi boiler had a fault with it and wouldnt start up.  The earliest someone from the manufacturer could make it out to fix the fault was Thursday.  So thats four days with no central heating!  Snow on the ground outside, 8C in the house.  The guy that came out on Thursday got the boiler working, but on Friday Laura got home from work to discover a pipe was leaking in the dinning area and water was dripping from the light fitting.  Someone from the gas company came out at about 22.30 on Friday, but advised he was unable to sort the problem and it would need resolved by the installation team on Monday.  So we've had water dripping from the ceiling into a pan all weekend! >:-(

One of the effects of this is that is been work has been suffering a bit.  Lots of having to pop home to try and sort out workmen etc.  Training has been pretty difficult too, since my usual routine has been totally screwed, and the weather has been bloody awful (pissing rain, sleet, snow).  I've now also got a long list of DIY work to complete myself as well as this dam leak.  Not exactly hassle free.

The training I've been managing to get done, I've been trying to fit in some more intervals and get some use out of my Garmin (crap pic above).  Its a pretty cool bit of kit.  I've loaded on some maps you can get free off the net, but haven't really required then yet since I've just been riding the local roads.  Hopefully they'll be useful on the tour in May.  I've got the Heart Rate strap which is a good edition, but not got the cadence bit working on any bikes yet.  It's pretty easy to use it for laps for doing intervals - theres a big lap button on the front, and the unit records all the data so you can transfer it onto a computer later.  I've uploaded a few sessions onto the Garmin connect site, which is actually really good.  It displays all the metrics and maps of the course.  The player function is quite cool - allowing you to run through the session displaying the data as it was recorded.  I'm quite looking forward to trying it on a longer run. Heres a link to Saturdays short (2C + sleet) training ride including an interval session up the Back o Hill: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/72920453

First weekend of the race season

So Monday morning after the lows and highs of the first races of the year. Saturday at the super6 was a rollercoaster. New bike, new kit, lots of expectation, major let down. I felt pretty good at the start. We had a warm up rather than standing about getting cold and I felt pretty good. On the first lap I was really keen to get in the break and dug deep first time up the climb to go away with a few others. Unfortunately when we looked back at the top the bunch had obviously been chasing hard and our gap was tiny. After that I felt I was on the back foot a bit. I made another couple of attempts to break on the following laps but nothing was getting away. By the end of lap 4 I was struggling a bit and lap 5 my legs gave up completely. Out the back, dropped for probably the first time in a race!

I felt really low after and despite telling myself all the sensible reasons why it had happen I was pissed off about it. The idea of going to Knockhill for the MTT on Sunday was not appealing. But on Sunday morning I felt a lot better and Laura kind of encouraged me to go which was nice. The weather was pretty good. Bone dry and a bit of wind from the west. The first few miles are all up hill which was good as I almost immediately could see riders in front and start checking them off. Jamie Kennedy provided a good pacer as he was a minute ahead so p was able to gradually reel him in.

Surprisingly my legs felt pretty good and using the new garmin computer helped keep an eye on the clock, distance, heart rate etc. I'll maybe write a bit more about the garmin once I've used it a bit more.

Anyway I got round the 25mile course in a little over an hour which was good enough for 3rd place. After Saturday I was pretty relieved with that!

Pic at the top is another shot of my new bike which now has new wheels too! I rode it for both races and its an awesome but of kit!
Robin Wilkins
my blog: http://thewheelabout.blogspot.com

Switzerland

The trip to Switzerland has been great so far. We arrived on Saturday evening and although it was pooring with rain in Geneva up here in St Cergue where Tom and Nat stay it was snowing. Their Chalet is up in the Jura mountains to the north of Lake Geneva. The village is actually at about 1200meters so its quite a climb up from the lochside. I'm not a great fan of traveling even though it was a pretty short flight so it was great to get a warm welcome and some nice dinner from Nat Tom and Sunny the dog.

Overnight there was a big dump of snow which kept up all day Sunday. We managed out for a couple of walks with the dog and a trip sledging with Oli which was good fun. On the drive up to St Cergue I found myself looking at the winding road thinking what a great place it would be to bring the bike. On Sunday morning I was glad I'd left it at home as there was snow everywhere. Its been cold and wind since then so far from ideal for bike riding anyway. Definitely come back in summer or autumn though as the roads are perfect and loads of potential loops round the mountains from here.

This morning Tom and I headed out to one of the local cross country ski centres to give that a bash. Tom has a set of skis and it was cheap and easy to hire a pair for me. We had a morning doing Classic XC on one of the red routes. It was really good fun and although my technique was obviously poor I got the hang of it pretty fast and we managed about 16km in a couple of hours. It is something I've fancied trying for a while but never had an opportunity before. I think next time I'd like to try the skating skis and they appeared a bit faster but the classics were certainly beginner friendly! The pic at the top is Tom on one of the trails.
Robin Wilkins
my blog: http://thewheelabout.blogspot.com