Upgrades: New pedals across the fleet!
Mileage: 180miles
Weight: 12St 7lbs (3lbs loss)
The only way is up surely?
Saturday, 17 January 2015
Sit Rep 1
Saturday, 10 January 2015
Must Do Better
Interesting when I look at the last post and realise that it was over a year ago... Oops!
2014 then - it was a busy year: a building project, a wedding, overseeing ongoing changes in my role as Senior Leader of Oak Grove Community Church and a medical procedure that wound my year up a month early.
Consequently I am weighing in at 12st 10lbs and feeling unfit.
Weight loss target - at least the odd 10lbs.
Cycling target - many more kms/miles after a disappointing show last year, specifically a side to side attempt & the Dunwich Dynamo.
More soon...
Will I post more this year - I hope so
Will anyone read what I post - no idea
Friday, 3 January 2014
New Year, New Bike
Happy New Year!
I think my first resolution must be to post more on this blog - did not realise that nothing had been written for quite so long!
It's 2014 and sounds like a great excuse to get a new bike, which Santa duly responded favourably with the same notion, so I am now the proud owner of an On-One Pompino (generally as pictured below, although mine has drop handlebars)
I have wanted a fixie for ages - no extra gears, derailleurs, chainwheels, cables etc to worry about makes for a brilliant winter ride - simple as?
Stating the obvious, being fixed if the pedals move so does the back wheel and vice versa so cornering and starting / stopping needed a bit of an adjustment, but 4 rides in and around 100km covered its working quite well.
I have still retained the other 2 bikes and so am hoping that I can maintain at least one bike all year round to ride! :-)
Traditional to set some goals / targets at this time of year so here goes:
I have wanted a fixie for ages - no extra gears, derailleurs, chainwheels, cables etc to worry about makes for a brilliant winter ride - simple as?
Stating the obvious, being fixed if the pedals move so does the back wheel and vice versa so cornering and starting / stopping needed a bit of an adjustment, but 4 rides in and around 100km covered its working quite well.
I have still retained the other 2 bikes and so am hoping that I can maintain at least one bike all year round to ride! :-)
Traditional to set some goals / targets at this time of year so here goes:
- At least 3 century rides this year
- 10,000miles to be covered
- At least one "stupid" cycling challenge
- Watch at least one of the TDF stages in the UK
- Have fun doing it all
More soon....
Friday, 19 July 2013
I won again!
I am a winner!
Not a jersey or classification, nor a world record but nonetheless chuffed to win the latest road.cc Schwag comp
Not just one prize but three!:
Not a jersey or classification, nor a world record but nonetheless chuffed to win the latest road.cc Schwag comp
- An under saddle bag
- A Multitool
- A pump
All via those lovely people at Cube
Hoorah
Saturday, 22 June 2013
The longest day / midsummer madness #TdN
The Tour de Norfolk #TdN
Well we did it!
200 miles, 322km, a fairly decent ride by anyone's measurements?
Ivor Simon and I arrived in Cromer to be greeted by thick fog, nonetheless we set off and were on a pretty fast average pace for the first portion due to a favourable tailwind. The oft forecast rain, finally arrived at Winterton and stayed with us till our first cafe stop at Bungay - soaked through but spirits not quenched.
Earlier a slight detour in the Yarmouth area had gained us some mileage, but lost us time.
Bungay to Brandon was windy, as the former tailwind was now in our faces, but with the thoughts of lunch in our minds we pressed on. Upon our arrival in Brandon, we found Trisha, Ivor's wife had laid on a spread of sandwiches, cake, chocolate, drinks, gels, towels, blankets - the whole 9 yards! The rain long since gone, meant that it was time to shed layers and rearrange our dress!
Refuelled and knowing that the halfway point had been and gone we set off North, for the top left hand corner of Norfolk. The road between Southery and Wereham was being resurfaced so loose and interesting terrain plus heavy machinery were our adversaries for a few km's. Onwards we cycled, missing our preferred route, and ending up taking the main roads to King Lynn and Hunstanton - fairly fast sections interspersed with horrible rises in the road all with traffic thundering by!
Hunstanton, was to be our final pitstop and heralded the beginning of the home straight, a nicely timed mocha / capucchino's did the job and although it seemed a shame to leave what was a beautiful evening in Hnstanton, we knew there was a job to be done.
Needing 40 miles to hit the double century, quick calculations informed us we needed a detour to gain a couple of miles (those earlier gained miles, negated by our more direct route via Kings Lynn). So a right turn inland at Brancaster, and then back left round to Burnham Market we felt should do it. On we plodded towards Cromer - a coast road that rolls most of the way. Josh, my Nephew appeared along the road at Cley and a few other places along the way, shouting encouragement and taking the odd snap. With Cromer in sight we knew that we would be about 1/4 - 1/2 mile short of our target so waving at the welcome committee a ride down to the garage at the end of the promenade and back as in order to make the 200.
Much celebration, hugging and amazingly plans for an annual event followed before loading up cars and going our seperate ways home. Sausage and chips on the way home, made for an "ideal" recovery meal and so the longest day ended.
Shattered? - Yes but elated and proud of our collective achievement
Well we did it!
200 miles, 322km, a fairly decent ride by anyone's measurements?
Ivor Simon and I arrived in Cromer to be greeted by thick fog, nonetheless we set off and were on a pretty fast average pace for the first portion due to a favourable tailwind. The oft forecast rain, finally arrived at Winterton and stayed with us till our first cafe stop at Bungay - soaked through but spirits not quenched.
Earlier a slight detour in the Yarmouth area had gained us some mileage, but lost us time.
Bungay to Brandon was windy, as the former tailwind was now in our faces, but with the thoughts of lunch in our minds we pressed on. Upon our arrival in Brandon, we found Trisha, Ivor's wife had laid on a spread of sandwiches, cake, chocolate, drinks, gels, towels, blankets - the whole 9 yards! The rain long since gone, meant that it was time to shed layers and rearrange our dress!
Refuelled and knowing that the halfway point had been and gone we set off North, for the top left hand corner of Norfolk. The road between Southery and Wereham was being resurfaced so loose and interesting terrain plus heavy machinery were our adversaries for a few km's. Onwards we cycled, missing our preferred route, and ending up taking the main roads to King Lynn and Hunstanton - fairly fast sections interspersed with horrible rises in the road all with traffic thundering by!
Hunstanton, was to be our final pitstop and heralded the beginning of the home straight, a nicely timed mocha / capucchino's did the job and although it seemed a shame to leave what was a beautiful evening in Hnstanton, we knew there was a job to be done.
Needing 40 miles to hit the double century, quick calculations informed us we needed a detour to gain a couple of miles (those earlier gained miles, negated by our more direct route via Kings Lynn). So a right turn inland at Brancaster, and then back left round to Burnham Market we felt should do it. On we plodded towards Cromer - a coast road that rolls most of the way. Josh, my Nephew appeared along the road at Cley and a few other places along the way, shouting encouragement and taking the odd snap. With Cromer in sight we knew that we would be about 1/4 - 1/2 mile short of our target so waving at the welcome committee a ride down to the garage at the end of the promenade and back as in order to make the 200.
Much celebration, hugging and amazingly plans for an annual event followed before loading up cars and going our seperate ways home. Sausage and chips on the way home, made for an "ideal" recovery meal and so the longest day ended.
Shattered? - Yes but elated and proud of our collective achievement
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
The TdN cometh...
Tour de Norfolk
So after musing about it, "planning" the thing over beer fuelled BBQ's and a barrage of emails to arrange we are on to circumnavigate Nelson's county on Friday - It's not called the longest day for nothing!
Circa 190 miles or so starting / finishing at Cromer, we depart from the clifftop car park at 5.30am.
"We" are the normal gang of three (musketeers?) Myself, Simon and Ivor, and we will hopefully be joined by Josh (him of Norwich Paris Duathlon fame) and for the last push by Steve who unfortunately is in London in the morning but will return to Norfolk and then head out from Cromer to meet us!
It's a long way round...
Lunch is being served in Brandon, before we head into the wastelands of West Norfolk and round the top corner, and onto the home straight (well it wiggles a bit actually).
Aiming to finish 8pm-ish dependant upon conditions etc
Full report to follow
So after musing about it, "planning" the thing over beer fuelled BBQ's and a barrage of emails to arrange we are on to circumnavigate Nelson's county on Friday - It's not called the longest day for nothing!
Circa 190 miles or so starting / finishing at Cromer, we depart from the clifftop car park at 5.30am.
"We" are the normal gang of three (musketeers?) Myself, Simon and Ivor, and we will hopefully be joined by Josh (him of Norwich Paris Duathlon fame) and for the last push by Steve who unfortunately is in London in the morning but will return to Norfolk and then head out from Cromer to meet us!
It's a long way round...
Lunch is being served in Brandon, before we head into the wastelands of West Norfolk and round the top corner, and onto the home straight (well it wiggles a bit actually).
Aiming to finish 8pm-ish dependant upon conditions etc
Full report to follow
Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Halfway before halfway
Clocked up 5000 miles for ytd this morning, halfway towards target of 10,000, and almost a month ahead of time!
Still behind totals for last year but temps are finally up and sun is shining now, so may make hay for a month or two...?!
Still behind totals for last year but temps are finally up and sun is shining now, so may make hay for a month or two...?!
Monday, 13 May 2013
Suffolk Sunrise - the report
Not flat, but not what you would call hilly either, the Suffolk Sunrise offered a different century route to the Norwich 100, in unfamiliar territory.
"Sunrise" was a bit hopeful, I think we saw the sun, but not for long all day.
We started gently, as you do on such events, and then Simon got a puncture about 5 miles in, bit of a setback and took longer than planned to fix, but that did mean that from that point on we were overtaking all day, and almost didn't get overtaken ourselves!
The trio of Ivor, Simon and myself, worked really well together, taking turns to pull on the front, 3 stops in all - 2 for coffee and cake, and the middle one for lunch - a smorgasboard buffet of carbs. (Strangely we had to remove cycling shoes at 2 of the 3 eating establishments!).
The last couple of miles saw a late attempt to rain, but it held off, and although we got done by a young whippersnapper on a Trek to the end (the only overtake that stuck all day), there was enough in the tank to even go for a sprint finish at the end - hmmm wonder if anyone got that on film :-)
Finish time 5.40 and some seconds - happy with that! - and all for a great cause
Tour de Norfolk next...
Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Progress Report and achievements to date
Not entirely sure, but this may well be the first proper progress report for 2013...
4 months in with a target of 10,000 miles - I make that, I should have completed 3,333miles by end of April, so where was I... 3,662 - all good so far then?
Lots of challenges, for prizes and for fun around at the moment, aside from the MapMyTracks one that I won referred to in a previous post, there has also been the Velobici Spring Classics Challenge, in which I finished 31st out of 649 participants with a total of 2,613km covered - Prizes for this to be drawn on Saturday May 4th!
There was also the very similar but different Strava Classics Challenge, for which i covered 1,708km's and erned myself the badge opposite on my Strava Profile - kudos all the way!
May has now begun, and with only 11 days until the first sportive of the season - Suffolk Sunrise a 100 or so around Suffolk no less the other virtual challenges coming on stream are perfectly timed!
And the People's Grand Tour Rosa (PGT Rosa) - designed to coincide with the Giro d'Italia - simply ride as many day as you can throughout the three week period May 4th - 26th - I only went and won the test event a few weeks ago! - Reputation to uphold me thinks?
4 months in with a target of 10,000 miles - I make that, I should have completed 3,333miles by end of April, so where was I... 3,662 - all good so far then?
Lots of challenges, for prizes and for fun around at the moment, aside from the MapMyTracks one that I won referred to in a previous post, there has also been the Velobici Spring Classics Challenge, in which I finished 31st out of 649 participants with a total of 2,613km covered - Prizes for this to be drawn on Saturday May 4th!
There was also the very similar but different Strava Classics Challenge, for which i covered 1,708km's and erned myself the badge opposite on my Strava Profile - kudos all the way!May has now begun, and with only 11 days until the first sportive of the season - Suffolk Sunrise a 100 or so around Suffolk no less the other virtual challenges coming on stream are perfectly timed!
The Strava May Massive - ride as many km's as you can in May - does exactly what it says on the tin then!
And the People's Grand Tour Rosa (PGT Rosa) - designed to coincide with the Giro d'Italia - simply ride as many day as you can throughout the three week period May 4th - 26th - I only went and won the test event a few weeks ago! - Reputation to uphold me thinks?Friday, 5 April 2013
Norwich Paris Duathlon
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| At the Recruiting Sargeant, Coltishall (ready for the off) |
My Nephew, Josh Brighty and his mate Andy Mulligan are cycling Norwich to Paris, running the Paris Marathon and then cycling back to Norwich, all in the space of 10 days! Raising money for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.
I, plus 4 other of their friends, met them at the Recruiting Sargeant pub in Coltishall, just North of Norwich for Le Grand Depart with each of us riding a portion of the route with them to see them on their way.
2 riders had left the "peleton" by the time we were just south of Norwich to get to work, and the other 2 left us at New Buckenham. That left three of us, making the most of the lovely tailwind all the way through to Lavenham, just south of Bury St Edmunds for lunch.
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| Last minute bike tweaking |
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| Brief pitstop in Tombland |
The boys are on their 3rd day now, and should be within 50 miles of Paris when they stop tonight - perfect preparation for running a further 26 miles on Sunday before turning teh bikes around for the homeward journey!
If you would like to keep up with their endeavours then you can follow them on Facebook here but more importantly, if you could sponsor them, then please click here and follow the instructions!
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