With just 11 days until my RideLondon event, I met up this evening with 7 other Pedallers for our 4th AVP 100 miler training ride. Tonight Buster led us on a 40 mile circuit, which had it been a wheel, Honiton would have been the hub. OK, so the wheel would have to have been the shape of Africa, but hopefully you get the point.
No video tonight as after feedback from earlier postings, I was trying a different camera angle and approach with the GoPro attached to my seat post. While I hope you enjoy the results, I will not be repeating the exercise any time soon as my jersey pockets had to carry the contents of my saddle bag and the camera bracket chafed my thighs - the things I do for my art!
Kelly at speed on my wheel
The training is nearing an end!
You can still sponsor me at justgiving.com/Jonathan-Read-Bone/ or by texting “JJRB64 £(amount) to 70070.
Well us Axe Valley Pedallers can't be said to be coordinated in our ride planning or may be we just have such numbers that we can enjoy the variety of rides. A couple of weeks back Curtis and Clive did a parallel Tuesday ride to that Buster was running and today, Andy, Kelly, my RideLondon buddy Jason and I rode out at 08:00 am at the same time as Rex, Curtis, Tim, Hovis and Nelly, our pelotons passing as we travelled in opposite directions .. I just wish I had my camera on as it would have been quite a shot.
When I started training for the 2013 AVP 100 miler, Andy picked out this great 40 mile route to Honiton through Sidmouth to Ottery returning via Stockland hill and it's become quite a favourite of mine since. Today, to mix things up a little, we cycled this route in reverse.
The highlight of this ride for me is always the cake stop at the Boston Tea Party, so this had to be included in the itinerary, as was my first ever cycle through the Sid ford, a bee in the helmet for both Andy and I, and a must for any ride concluding in Seaton during daylight .. a final coffee at the Broom Wagon! All of this has been captured, as you'd expect in stills and my latest video http://youtu.be/SIKunMB8XOw
Thursday night is cycling night in Seaton ... well there are other things going on in and around, such as the Red Arrows flying over Lyme Regis, but for me even the draw of an air display could not keep me away from from my training.
After Tuesday's epic ride, I was looking forward to a more gentle spin ahead of a longer weekend ride. Arriving in at the Kings Head rallying point, I could see in addition to the usual suspects that Quiff had joined us. Quiff runs a quick paced Sunday ride which I had the privilege of joining on a couple of occasions last year, before I accepted after being dropped on a ride back in November, that I needed more training to do them justice. This was the ride which actually started the more regular social Sunday rides which Andy and I still try to get out on.
We have, more recently, been known on Thursday nights to split into two groups, for a brisk and gentle paced ride. Ordinarily, I would not have entertained following Quiff out on the brisk ride but with Andy away with the Arrows, and an unexplained desire to test myself, following all this training I've been doing for the RideLondon, I thought, why not:
- double the distance,
- double the pain .. and hopefully
- double the gain!
Out with the speedy group!
The speedy group, in the end, actually only consisted of Quiff, myself and the Near Naked Man (Glenn, the proprietor of the Broom Wagon coffee shop and member of the MCAC), the remaining 8 or 9 riders chose the gentle paced route. If I ever thought someone knew something I didn't, this was one of those times.
We headed out briskly towards Colyton where some how I earned a Strava segment KOM and a flurry of PRs climbing Watchcombe Hill to Offwell .. this ride was really pushing me to my limit. In all we covered 41 miles to Uppotery, across the A303 to Churchinford and back through Membury and Axminster. I think it was out of Membury that we started a chain gang, rapidly rotating positions on the road to maximise our speed. I remember the last time I tried this I could not keep up, on this occasion I stayed on the wheel as we maintained a 20 mph plus average over the undulating couple of miles.
As expected this was a quick ride, but I survived. I also achieved a 20 km PB. Feeling good for London! If you've not yet sponsored me, surely I'm earning it now :) www.justgiving.com/Jonathan-Read-Bone/ or Text JJRB64 £x to 70070
Regular readers will have noticed that Tuesday evenings have become serious training rides ahead of the AVP 100 miler planned fro the end of August. Fortuitously this has enabled me to join these new club rides to up my mileage ahead of my earlier 100 miler .. yes the RideLondon just over 2 weeks away now!
Around 9 Pedallers met up at Seaton Health Centre bus stop for our third Tuesday ride lead by our master route planner, Buster. For this ride, Buster had a long and challenging circuit worked out with what seemed to be a tour of a Dorset .. we headed over to Lyme Regis, through Charmouth, Salway Ash, Broardwindsor and back via Marshwood to Axmister and home.
Phew, Tuesday nights are certainly becoming rides with an attitude. Around 45 miles covered, 3-4000 ft of climb, depending on whose Garmin you believe, and a need for lights as it was after 10:30 pm by the time we were cycling back into Seaton. Those last 10 miles were the fastest I ever ridden over that distance, as I achieved a personal best of 28m:09s which is a 1m:22s improvement on my previous record set in June while riding the Dartmoor Classic .. amazing what a difference it makes cycling over level ground, roll on London!
A big big thank you to all my sponsors for your kind support towards my RideLondon 100 mile ride in aid of Diabetes research. I am so pleased to report in this update that we’ve reached 90% of our target!
As the Tour de France enters its final week, I am myself just over two weeks away from my Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 event to pick up the cycling baton :).
My training has been progressing well. I’ve continued my Thursday night ride out with the club on the 20-30 mile rides and for the past two week we've been doing a Tuesday evening ride of 40 miles to help members train for a club 100 miler at the end of August, how fortuitous! With the exception of last weekend, which I had off to attend a Christening and am thus recording as a ‘rest day’, I have also been getting in a 50-70 mile weekend ride to build my longer distance stamina.
The video recording using the new camera I’ve acquired for the event and which you may have learned of in my previous update or via my blogging, has now been put through its paces such that I’m reasonably comfortable with its position on the bike and think I now know how to use it - so a good start. I’ve purchased additional batteries to ensure it lasts the distance and the next challenge is working out how to attach my entry number to the handle bars without then obscuring the lens .. now that would be a bit of a disaster! If you’re interested in seeing some of the test ride footage then click one of the links below:
Les Maillots Jaunes - possibly my favourite clip in which I’ve added a musical backing track (Kraftwerk’s ’Tour de France’ .. how apt I thought). Critical reviews have been mixed - as you’ll see from my write up - but see what you think http://tourdefitness.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/maillots-jaunes.html
Kelly’s Heros - here I was trying out a new mounting and left the background sound in. We also had Kelly, a fellow rider, join us with a helmet mounted camera. There is one down hill section where I’ve been able to have her and my video’s running together showing me descending both from my and her viewpoint. Apologies in advance for my language at the bottom of the hill, where I almost come to grief - I meant to edit this out but during the final edit this was somehow overlooked! http://tourdefitness.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/kellys-heros.html
I have now received my official Registration Form and confirmed rider number 25368. I will be starting from Area Blue, Wave Q at 07:55 on Sunday 10th August - the logistics surrounding this ride are incredible. Jason, my RideLondon buddie starts 10 minutes ahead of me from a different area so we’re now working out at which point along the route we can meet up. With 24,000 cyclists this, I feel, will be some challenge! If you are interested in seeing the the 100 route we are to take, you can check this out here. http://www.prudentialridelondon.co.uk/The_Events/Prudential_RideLondon-Surrey_100/Route.htm
I will drop you another update before we leave, and as ever, you can continue to follow the preparations and my general ramblings via my blog updates here http://tourdefitness.blogspot.co.uk .. and if you have any questions, please ‘ping’ me :)
Thursday night's ride was a ride with a difference. We didn't necessarily split into two or more rides, but rather formed - I like to think, in honour of the TdF - a number of break away groups. And rather than race on to the end, this front break away group stopped at the Harbour in Lyme for a mid session beer and why we may have balked at the non Seaton prices, the views and coolness of the beer were spectacular!
So back to the ride .. this, unlike more recent expeditions, followed one of our regular routes in and out of Lyme with a crazy piece of off roading that I'm sure resulted in me squaring my wheels off last time .. although I did avoid the horse jumps on this occasion, so think I got away with it. After a mere 20 miles we returned to Seaton at around 9 pm, just as the promised storm clouds started to rumble and spark with lightening. I don't know how many made it to the Kings Arms, but having already had our apres cycling refreshments, I for one headed on and avoided the drowning that those clouds were soon to deliver. Another fun ride out with the AVP
The Tuesday Evening .. "Preparation aid for the AVP 100" .. Ride numbered at least 10 Pedallers last night, as Buster led us over a 40 mile circuit out towards Honiton, up and over the hills through Upottery, Yarcombe and back through Membury and Axminster.
Meeting up for the ride
Last week we had half this number, so it's great to see the word getting out. Having two AVP rides in a week, I am getting to meet new club members whom would normally go out on the Thursday mountain bike ride or who are just not able to make the earlier Thursday slot. This week, as well as Buster and myself, we were again joined by Kelly and Shaun from last week, Bobble, Nelly and Ed from the Thursday ride, and Jeff .. my new bike mechanic who straightened my wheels the other day and who last night showed me how to get a chain back on without getting my hands dirty! What a treat!
During our rides, I like to share the latest piece of biking trivia, much to other's amusement or disbelief. Last week it was how Froome has cycled under the Channel .. see the evidence in the video below.
This week, the subject was that body hair conundrum .. do shared legs make you faster? I shared how the guys at Specialized have taken to the wind tunnel to answer this question once and for all. They ran a test 10 time on the bike with hairy legs and 10 times with shaved legs over a 40 km distance. The aerodynamic boffins found a maximum time advantage of 82 seconds on one ride, with an average saving of 70 seconds, when riding without hairy legs. As the actual gains will depend on the amount of hair - measured by the 'Chewbacca scale' - this time advantage might not be universally applicable to all, but when 'marginal gains' are at stake, I ask "should I now reach for the razor?" .. I guess the next question would be "where am I on the Chewbacca scale?". I think we'll leave it there!
So back to the ride. As we crossed the A35 at Kilmington, on our return, the sun had already dropped below the horizon and it brought back memories of the spring and autumn rides that we do under an ever darkening sky. Although unlike on those occasions when I've gone out expecting darkness, I was riding last night without my 2000 lumin lights and so needed to keep up with Ed and Bobble on the home run in order to see my way back to Seaton.
We ended the ride at around 10:30 pm, no apres beer and chips and it was all quiet and powered down at home. It was a good ride, but I'm kind of looking forward to getting my 100 milers done and dusted. Just 24 days to go!
