Royal Wedding Weekend

Me and Callum met up for a couple of pints back home at Christmas and decided we needed a least one weekend of riding together before the big trip in June. The Lake District is about halfway between Cal in Glasgow and me in Hinckley so it seemed like the logical choice. Plus it would give us some decent hill training. The 4 day weekend of the Royal Wedding and May Day holiday seemed the perfect opportunity to get in some riding.

Day 1: Oxenholme to Ambleside
I took the train from Hinckley via Birmingham up to Oxenholme and met Callum there. After changing into the obligatory lycra we plotted a rough route and set off. From Oxenholme we headed back into Kendal and onto the A5284 towards Crook. This was the first time we had ridden together and it took about 5 minutes before I went right at a junction and Cal went straight on. Think we need to work on communication and navigation! We joined the A592 and headed south along the shore of Lake Windermere. Although the road followed the shore, it was relentless series of ups and downs and the road surface was really rough. Running tyres at 90 odd PSI really transmits every bump into your hands. Taking the A5092 from Newby Bridge to Broughton-in-Furness was a superb idea. Although we had a pretty nasty climb, the downhill into Grizebeck was well worth the effort and saw us hit speeds of 44mph (Cal) and 48mph (me). That's the quickest I've been on a push bike and what a buzz it gave me! Target is now the big 50. Heading North along the A593 we had a nasty headwind all the way to Ambleside.

The Ambleside YHA was our accommodation for the night and provided us with everything we wanted. After some beers and a rather expensive burger in the nearest pub we turned in for the night knowing that, in the morning, we were heading up the fearsome Kirkstone Pass.

Day 2: Ambleside to Derwentwater
After a surprising OK sleep in the hostel we saddled up and headed for the Kirkstone Pass (we stopped for breakfast in this wee shop and fuelled up on home made flapjacks the size of bricks). For those of you who don't know it, the Kirkstone Pass is a well known climb in road cycling circles and regarded as one off the toughest in the UK. Check out Kirkstone Pass and The Struggle. The Struggle starts from Ambleside and is significantly tougher than tackling the pass on the A592 from Windermere.

Beginning of "The Struggle"

The 3 mile climb is totally brutal and almost killed us both. The last bit up to the pub at the top is easily the steepest road I've ever ridden up. Although the climb was miserable, the feeling of achievement of getting to the top without resorting to pushing the bike was overwhelming. Unfortunately the pub at the top was shut so a victory pint was out of the question (also might have been a bit early seeing as it was 10.30am). The descent down the other side towards Patterdale was really sketchy. The northerly wind was really gusting and blowing us all over the road which I must admit was pretty scary. We eventually ended up stopping for lunch in a small pub near Newbiggin.

We had a change of pace in the afternoon and explored the rolling back roads of Cumbria. After a quick stop to tighten the bolts on my pannier rack, we hit another cracking 40mph+ downhill past Uldale. Joining the A591, we headed for Keswick then down the B5289 towards the Derwentwater hostel.

Training update - Easter Weekend

Right, a fair bit has happened in the last few weeks so an update is well overdue. Two 4-day weekends in a row  meant getting time to put in the miles was fairly easy. This post gives a bit of detail about the Easter long weekend and I'll make another post about the 4 days we had in the Lake District over the the Royal Wedding weekend.

So, Easter weekend. The plan was simple, 200 miles over 4 days, 2 of which would be with panniers and about half the kit I would need for the end to end attempt in June.

Friday - Day One.
A work mate was heading out for an "easy, 35 mile" ride with some old uni mates so I tagged along. Turns out these old uni mates are pretty serious roadies churning out regular 80+ mile rides. The weather was amazing, 24 degrees and hardly a breath of wind. Ended up on some of my regular roads I use for training but also found some new places and roads to ride. One descent was particularly good and needed only a short climb to get the reward of a 40mph downhill. We parted ways at 40 miles and, feeling strong, I did another 20 on my own to bring a first day total to a nice round 60 miles.

Saturday - Day Two
Back on my own after riding with 3 others yesterday. Turns out riding in a group is much easier and pretty good fun. I ended up venturing a bit further a field and re-visited some of the new roads I discovered the day before. Weather was really good with blue skies and glorious sunshine again. I always knew I would end up with tan lines from my lycra shorts after 14 days in June, but I didn't expect these lines to be appearing after only 2 days riding in April! Even my hands didn't escape and I ended up with lines from my fingerless gloves on my wrists and knuckles. Not a good look. Mental note: pack sunscreen for the trip in June. Ended up doing 65 miles which equalled the most miles I had done in a day.

Sunday - Day Three
I woke on the Sunday knowing that today would be the first day I had ridden 3 days back to back. To be honest I felt quite good and after a quick stretch and breakfast I was out spinning the legs. Weather wasn't quite was good with grey, overcast skies but my skin was loving the change from the relentless UV rays of the previous 2 days. I'd already covered 125 miles of my planned 200 so I decided to change my goal and aim for 250 over the 4 days. Today was also the first time I had ridden with both panniers, loaded with about 50% of the kit I need for the end to end trip. I noticed a massive difference in acceleration, handling and climbing ability with the added weight. I reckon packing as light as is physically possible is definitely the way to go. Even with the added weight I felt good and really pushed the last 20 miles covering 70 miles in the end, coming home in just over 5 hours including a couple of quick stops.

Monday - Day Four
I really shouldn't have pushed those last 20 miles yesterday. The legs were feeling pretty heavy on Monday morning. It would have been too easy to stay in bed so I dragged my body back onto the back for the last 50 miles to achieve the goal of 250. After about 35 miles I was getting a twinge in my right hamstring and, wanting to prevent injury before the Lake District trip, I bailed out and ended up covering just over 40 miles.

So, 240 miles in my first 4-day back to back ride seemed like a pretty decent effort even if I was shattered by Monday night. After a quick beer, I looked forward to my 3 day week at work and then 4 days riding with Callum in the Lake District.

Look at the shiny shiny!

Exciting times over the last 3 days. A bunch of new bits I ordered for the trip have started arriving. The new seatpost is here. Getting a comfortable position on the bike is crucial for serious road riding, let alone doing something as stupid as LeJog or JogLe. The post I went for is a KCNC Sc Pro. It's Scandium alloy so not only saves weight but does a decent job of damping out road buzz. The post also features a brilliant clamp design allowing independent fore/aft and tilt adjustment. All I have to do now is tweak the set up until I get the perfect position.

The pannier rack and rack bag also arrived. I went for the Topeak Super Touirst DX rack and Topeak MTX Trunk bag. The design of the Topeak racks and bags are really clever. The bag slides onto rails on the rack and clicks into place making the whole thing really secure. Rear racks are notoriously difficult to fit and this one did not break the mould. The M5 bolts supplied with the rack not fitting the M4 tapped holes in the frame didn't help the situation. After an hour of swearing, bending brackets and finding some new bolts in the shed I had the rack fitted. Really surprised how much weight the rack and empty bag add to the bike. Not looking forward to fitting panniers too and loading everything up with all the kit needed.....

The snow......

November 2010. The snow. The cold. The rain. The ice. The dark. The salt. All things that would deter even the hardest, most determined cyclists. Now, I like to think I'm a pretty hardy bloke but I'm also not stupid. There was no way I was about to ride £1000 of 3 month old shiny metal through snow, ice and grit. So the shiny bike was retired for the winter and I was back on the rusty hack bike for the commute.

Although I did cycle to work every day throughout the winter of 2010-2011, the training really suffered. Deciding to do something about it, I bought a turbo trainer in the run up to Christmas. I managed to get a bargain on  a Tacx Satori Stripes Ltd Ed trainer, picking it up for around £140. It proved very useful in helping to lose some of the excess weight gained by beer, turkey and boxes of Quality Street big enough to sink a battleship.

Although the turbo trainer proved useful, I did and still do, find staying in one place pretty tedious.

As the end of January approached, I hoped the weather would clear soon....

Training - the first months.......

Once back down south training began fairly soon. Using an old, bright yellow Ribble road bike ("donated" from my old man) I started putting in the odd 20 miler at the weekend and the occasional evening. This was fine to start with but it soon became clear this old steed wasn't up to the job.

One tax refund later (thanks HMRC) I was the proud owner of a 2010 Specialized Sectuer Elite. Training stepped up a gear with the new bike and 20 milers were being regularly churned out.

The aim of a 60 mile ride by Halloween didn't materialise (too many boozy weekends in London and Glasgow) but I did make a promise to myself to continue riding throughout the winter, no matter how bad it got......

The beginning...

June 2010. The middle of festival campsite by Loch Ness. Sitting smugly under a promotional gazebo. This was when and where the idea of cycling from one end of the country to the other was first pitched to me by an old friend. The reason? To do something a bit crazy, to push ourselves slightly further than the daily 2 mile, 2 wheeled commute and for us to have something to look back on after our knees and backs finally give up on us.

It was all Callum's idea but to be fair, I didn't take much persuading. With a rough date of Summer 2011 set for the trip, we left the comfort of the gazebo, stepped over the passed out neds, enjoyed a cracking weekend of music and beer and headed home to begin the preparations.