Skegness & back. Ride review

Bank Holiday Monday's are literally designed for cycling. I am convinced.

This summers Bank Holiday was no different. Five of us set out to make the trip to Skegness and back with varying results.

The five of us (Me, James, Ash, Hayley & Faye) set off just after 8 from Lincoln city centre. We stayed altogether for the first 5 miles or so feeling like a pro peloton roaming the lands. Ash dropped back after a while, preferring to stick to his own steady pace whilst the four of us ploughed on.

When we turned we waited for Ash so he didn't get lost and carried on our way. We got to Horncastle uneventfully and headed through Mareham and out towards Spilsby. Somewhere on the way to Spilsby James turned off to pack in an extra hill and Ash fell behind and missed a turning. Hayley, Faye and me rejoined with James in Spilsby though we had no idea what had happened to Ash.

We carried on through some back roads and got lost a few times.. (stupid Garmin) but eventually made it to Skeg feeling hungry and rather warm! Ash turned up not long after and it transpired he followed the busy A-road to the beach and probably did a few less miles too.

After lunch we headed back through the north of Spilsby to get in a few of the climbs for the upcoming sportive. These weren't too hard and even the long drag up one hill was relatively simple once I got into my rhythm. Doing the most amount of miles on the bike recently that I can remember so relatively pleased with my progress and feeling of strength!

Ash disappeared off down the main A road again and we had a bit of a stop-start time through to Horncastle. At Horncastle Faye decided to carry on a bit slower and eventually got picked up by her mum. The last 20odd miles were just Hayley, James & me and we soon got a bit of through and off going, though once the pace was high James fell behind and we carried on towards Bardney.

We stopped for a drink and rejoined James and collectively decided to abandon plans that added a further 10 miles to our trip and included the 1/6 (16%) climb of Michaelgate. Will save that beast for another time..

Got home after a full day of cycling, being very burnt and feeling rather good about it all. Garmin stopped a couple of times so inaccurate Strava records but I think we came in at just over 100 miles for the day - my first ton!

Been off the bike this week since but very excited about this weekend. Have 85miles planned tomorrow and then something super exciting on Sunday which I hope to report on Sunday evening or early next week. Stay tuned!

Here are a few photos from Monday:

Standing on a hay bale with Hayley

Standing on it by myself

And here are my cracking tan/burn lines :)

Le Petit Grand Prix - Sportive Preperation

Well, I have signed up for my first sportive - Le Petit Grand Prix in Lincoln. It is the 'baby sister' of the Lincoln Grand Prix sportive held the day before the Univeristy of Lincoln Grand Prix in May each year. (Won this year by Sky rider Peter Kennaugh.)

Le Petit Grand Prix is 110 miles (176km) across the Lincolnshire Wolds and it include 5x Cat4 climbs. After my recent trip to the Isle of Wight I feel I am hopefully well equipped to tackle these hills. They shouldn't be too tough - they are Cat4 after all - but they do come fairly late on in the day. At 50km, 65km, 104km, 112km & 131km. With the first and last being the hardest of the 5. None of them are over 3% in average gradient though and the longest is just 2.78km long I'm confident they won't pose too much trouble for me.

I'm looking forward to this event - my first mass cycling event that isn't part of a triathlon. I have stepped up my training recently on my new bike, to be doing some interval stuff as well as longer rides - with the aim of my rides to be a bit more focused, rather than my usual style of a casual ride.

I'm also going to get the Bianchi on the turbo as much as I can to work on some top end power and keep the legs ticking over when it's not possible to get out on the bike for various reasons.

The event is just under 3 weeks away and in that time I plan to cycle to Skegness and back with a group of friends (100 miles/160km in one day with a break in the middle), and complete either the short or medium version of the course.

Realistically my first target for this event is to finish (!) and my second would be to come in under 7 hours. (Average about 15.7mph) Hopefully with a biggish group and/or adrenaline etc I should be okay.

Although 3 weeks isn't the longest time to get ready for an event like this I'm sure that I will be okay if I stick to my training plan (hill repeats tonight...yay.../sarcasm) and my base fitness is up a bit from when I came back from honeymoon.

Will update after Skegness ride next week with an update on training.

New Bicycle!

Well, well. After not really looking for a new bike I found one! Oops! Browsing gumtree one morning I found a fully carbon Ridley bike with Ultegra groupset (+ upgraded Dura Ace crankset and Dura Ace brake levers) at a very reasonable price.

After some quick negotiation with the DS/Wife we agreed I could purchase said bike if we went ahead and bought ourselves a dog. So now we have a new bike and a puppy on its way to our marital home.

Here are some pictures of the bike.

More can be found here

 From first riding it feels a bit quicker but perhaps a bit less sturdy in the drops than my Bianchi - though having the gear levers behind the brakes is an absolute God-send compared to the awful thumb shifters of Sora. I went and did 50 miles on it at the weekend and really enjoyed riding it. I've got my position almost spot on with very little trying so I am very pleased.

Around the Isle of Wight - Ride Report

Whoops - took a while in coming. This ride was from Saturday 27th July:

Well, where to start!

This was a great day and make no mistake. It wasn't the fastest round the island trip you'll ever hear about but it was a lot
fun!

To start with I'll introduce everyone to make things easier. There was:
Me - riding Bianchi road bike
James - riding generic road bike
Matt - riding borrowed Raliegh road bike after his nice Scott bike got stolen
Nathan - riding Boardman hybrid
Dan - riding a MTB(!)

We all met (minus Matt) at James' house at 7am on the Saturday to head down to Gosport and get the ferry across to Portsmouth harbour. We cycled down the new bus/bike lane which is 3miles of glorious traffic free, smooth tarmac. Then through some estates before entering Gosport. We managed to catch the 7:30 ferry and got over to Portsmouth Harbour with plenty of time to spare...
...which was lucky because it turned out Matt had gone to the wrong ferry terminal! Doh! He'd ended up at the car ferry which was just round the harbour - but he got to the right place in time to catch the boat.

The boat was full of cyclists - at least 5 groups of cyclists who were all apparently heading off to circumnavigate the Jewell in the solent.

We got off the Cat & headed down Ryde pier to start out day-long tour. Straight away we were a bit surprised with the steepness of the hills, nothing like pan-flat Lincolnshire! There were a couple of drags which we were a bit too eager on but kept a good pace to start with. We were a bit at odds with the directions on my Garmin and the 'official bike path' but for the most part they agreed with each other.

Before long we came to the first, and probably hardest big hill of the day. It was going out of Ventnor I think and it was a twisty hill with lots of tree cover and hard to see where the climb might end. I led the climb the whole way up with James stopping to let Matt & Nathan catch up and Dan & myself plowing on, too afraid to stop that I might not be able to start again!

When we finally reached the top I felt a good sense of achievement. It was the first major hill I've probably ever climbed, so I was pleased with myself and especially pleased with the view out the south of the Island and to the sea.

When we were waiting for our two stragglers 3 older-ish guys came up the hill and proceeded to stop for their 4th man. This guy turned out to be in his 40s, massively overweight and wearing the Giro d'Italia's leaders jersey (at least an XXXL - full kit wanker anyone?!) but give the guy his due he pedalled up the whole climb which should have thoroughly embarrased my two young and sprightly friends. Those chaps then headed off whilst one of our bikes had a slight mechanical.

A little while later and we were headed through a small town, myself leading when I looked back and no-one was following me. I turned round expecting them to be gathered around a flat tyre when I saw Dan & Matt on the floor! It turns out some guy in a KA overtook them and immediately turned left into a side road with the result Matt & Dan both hitting the deck and one of them taking off the guys wingmirror. Did he stop though? Did he heck! Just drove off and no-one could get a number plate. Luckily both guys were more or less okay and even better news - the bikes were fine too.

The next slight hiccough we had was going down a descent which had a right turn junction, then a left bend with a left turning before the road went round to the right. This was a bit confusing and I lead us all left into a small village which was in a bit of a valley! After being a bit confused we cycled up the hill (28%!) and out the other side of the valley, to repeat the small section we'd just done and go the correct way this time!

All this time we were waiting for 'the big climb'. I'd spoken to Tim Wiggins who said he thought the Black Gang Chine hill was the highest and hardest on the Island so we were all waiting for this climb to come and to be over with.

Eventually we did hit the climb out of Chale and it really wasn't that bad. It was 6-8% for a mile or so but it was a straight line so you could see the top which defiantly helped psychologically. I saw in 2nd wheel for at least half the hill before Matt blew up and had to stop (I did ask him if he wanted me to sit on the front..) but I pushed on to the top and had a quick rest whilst Matt caught up with us. I think this hill may have been harder going the other way but I may never know..

We were then on Military Road which is dead straight, mostly flat, newly resurfaced with low volumes of traffic. So pretty nice. We zoomed down this stretch of road for 11miles at 18mph and made really good progress. We could soon see the Needles in the distance and decided we'd head round the bay to Freshwater for lunch - almost exactly half way round the Island.
After a semi-technical decent and climb over a cliff into Freshwater Bay I spotted a cafe with an outside garden which looked just perfect to stop at.

When we got to the chosen café the guys from before were just finishing up their lunch. It was nice to see they were struggling a bit but were also feeling fresh after the break. The lady behind the counter was kind enough to fill up all our water bottles (James was insistent that one would be enough for the whole day... he was wrong!)
I ordered a scone with jam & also a chocolate milkshake for my lunch. Which I proceeded to spill all over the tray, my shorts, my socks, the floor and my scone :-(
This meant I had a chocolate-y scone and had to go and buy another milkshake! Not ideal but I was hungry so just ate it anyway.

The last 25miles or so were fairly steady, uneventful and thankfully flat. There was a small issue with Nathan's bike where the chain wouldn't stay in the top gear and would just fall off and we had a period of time where we were stopping every minute or so to put it back on. Eventually James got it sorted at the cost of his clean hands and we went into north Newport before heading up to West Cowes. We got to the chain ferry which I was surprised to find out was free to pedestrians & cyclists (Good guy operator) and we got off the ferry within 7 miles of Ryde.

Unfortunately for those who weren't quite as fit there were 4 largeish hills left to go over before we completed our ride. The last miles were a bit stop and start due to being tired/others walking but we eventually made it to the most important place on the Island ride... the pub! We saw the same guys from before in the pub who told us none of them walked all day which is an important lesson for Matt to learn ;)

Our final stats were 63.9miles in 04:28:48 of moving time. Averaging 14.3mph which isn't blisteringly quick but very steady.

We caught the next Caterman back to Portsmouth and cycled home along the gloriously flat bus route.

Overall we had a great day, the longest I've ridden in a long time (82miles including to & from the ferry) and I'm actually glad that we had to stop quite a few times because it meant I got a sneaky rest whilst waiting to be caught up!

Hopefully we'll do a similar thing next year with slightly higher levels of fitness and without spilling my lunch!

Big thanks to the 4 guys who cycled it with me - wouldn't have been anywhere near as much fun without you.

Link to the Strava ride: http://www.strava.com/activities/70214429#

Round the Isle of Wight Preperation

Well it's been a while since my last update and the most noticeable change is that I got married!! Yes my Directeur Sportif, or Wife as she prefers to be known, has put a ring on my finger and made an honest man of me!

We had a glorious honeymoon which unfortunately got my bike involved a lot of eating and drinking and I'm now feeling the effects of that when I'm back on my bike. 

This Saturday is my first post-Wedding bike ride challenge: going round the Isle of Wight. It's a 62mile trip with a few thousand ft of climbing. Doing it with 4 friends so should be quite casual and good fun to boot!

I am currently debating whether to shave my legs or not for the rest of the summer - go full on cyclist for a bit before the hockey season starts in October (where non-cyclists may judge me ;)) 

I will update with pictures if this happens! I think the deciding factor will be my wife...we all know she has the ultimate say. See, I'm good at being married already! 

Follow me on Strava (Adrian Snow) to see my past rides and my ride on Saturday. 

First coached swim session

At the finish line of the Lincoln Tri last weekend I saw a guy from work who was there supporting his son. I spoke to him about my terrible swim and he invited me along to his masters swim session tonight at a local school, where the Lincoln Pentaqua squad train.

I went down and was a bit in awe of the guys going up and down consistently like a train. I followed the board of drills as best as I could, with the coach watching me and giving me tips. I used floats for the first time and learnt some helpful drills with getting my elbow high and getting the 'catch' better along with the roll of my shoulders.

Obviously Rome wasn't built in a day, and it will take a lot of time and effort to see results but I could already feel that I was a bit faster in the water and more confident.

Already looking forward to next weeks session! Even if it is bloody hard work!

Lincoln Sprint Triathlon - 21st April 2013 - Race Report

Yesterday morning saw me compete in the Lincoln Sprint Triathlon run by One Step Beyond events (Here) at the David Lloyd Gym in Lincoln (here)

I cycled to the start and although it was sunny it was freezing! I was praying the air temperature would warm up as I was not looking forward to stripping down to my tri-suit (incidentally the first time I've worn it for a race.) After I'd got registered and attached my race number to my bike and to my tri-belt I set up my kit next to my bike and avoided stripping down for as long as possible. After a quick race brief I made sure I had everything ready for T1 and walked across the car park to get ready for the swim. (Sidenote: I much prefer transition areas on grass rather than stony carparks.)

After waiting what seemed like an age I got lined up on the side of the pool and got in 30seconds before my start time. There was some dickhead in my lane swimming recklessly but luckily he had been in a while so would be getting out more or less as soon as I got in. The timekeeper shouted go and I was off on my 16 lengths of the 25m pool.

The first length seemed to be going really well - it was the best I'd felt swimming in a while until, oh no, my goggles started leaking in water. I got back to the other end of the pool and had a quick adjust - this happened again two lengths later before I finally got going. I couldn't hold on doing freestyle longer than length 7 so I breast stroked for the rest bar the last length, getting out of the pool in a respectable 12:36 (7 minutes and 24 seconds faster than the Southwell Tri 6months ago.)

Into the car park and I found my bike first time - result! I got my helmet on, tri-belt on and finally my shoes. Running out of the car park I got on my bike and I was off for the 24k route. Luckily I knew the route really well so knew where to pace myself and where I could afford to put the hammer down. Being one of the slower swimmers I had plenty of people who I could pass on the bike. I passed half a dozen going through Burton Village and a further 4 on the climb who were walking as I edged past. Along Lincoln Edge I caught and passed a few people although annoyingly my Garmin had stopped working - frequently showing speeds of 0.0mph and not recording the distance properly which was unhelpful to say the least.

As I headed down the hill towards Sturton I passed a couple more cyclists before taking the corner wayyy too wide, I was glad there was no oncoming traffic. Over the next few miles I was passed by number 94 - my first experience of being overtaken on the bike in a triathlon. I couldn't keep up with him and as drafting was not allowed I watched him sail off into the distance - his time was 4 minutes faster than mine so fair play to the guy. The straight down the A57 back to the gym was fast as I knew it would be and before I knew it I was back at the first roundabout. This roundabout was marshalled brilliantly by the guys who ran the day and as far as I know there were no incidents with people leaving for the bike course, returning from it or with any of the cars who graciously waited behind the STOP/GO boards held by the marshals.

I came in off the bike in a time of 49:41 which is a bit slower than I'd have hoped but still averaged 18mph which is okay considering the big climb at the beginning. I got into T2 quite quickly but struggled with tying my shoelaces up which was a bit annoying. I got out on to the run course but forgot to stop my watch after the bike and before the run so I was running 'blind' with no idea what time I was going for. This was probably a good thing as I thought I was doing quite a slow run but actually I kept a decent pace. I overtook plenty of people on the course with numbers lower than mine (meaning they started before me) and the only person I saw higher than mine was 94. The run course was left for 1.25k, turnaround, past the start and then right for 1.25k, turnaround and back to the middle to finish. It was along the river which was beautiful in the early morning sunshine and it brightened up to be a really nice day. I came in feeling fairly strong and I was disappointed not to have given it something extra in the final 100m or so as I did not realise the finish line was so close. I crossed the line with a PB of 23:16 (previous 23:20) and a total time of 1hour 28minutes 47 seconds. Good enough for 289th overall from 494 finishers.

A really enjoyable morning and I look forward to doing the course again next year if I'm still around and haven't made the step up to Olympic distance. Plenty of improvements to be made across the board I hope so watch this space!

My timesheet looks like this:

Swim: 12:36
T1: 1:46
Bike: 49:41
T2: 1:30
Run: 23:16

Total Time: 1:28:47