At this time of the year cycling takes a bit of a backseat, but I’m still able to clock up quite a few winter miles. Every mile helping to boost that very long term project of improved fitness for 2015. If you’re wanting a quick fitness fix and noticeable improvements in form, winter miles are a very hard and slow way of going about it. Every time I go out, there is part of me which thinks – it wouldn’t really matter if you missed today. But, then there is the other part of me which thinks, if I do 50 miles today, perhaps that will knock 2 seconds off a 100 mile time trial time in July.

Fortunately, I would be out cycling even if I never planned to race in 2015. I’m happy to clock up the miles for the sake of cycling – rather than as a means to an end. Today was a steady 60 miles towards Kilnsey Crag and Littondale; in terms of enjoyment it was one of the best rides of the year. I could get used to being a cycle tourist. Perhaps I could grow a beard and get a touring bike with proper mudguards – not these lightweight, aerodynamic, clip on ‘I’m a racer at heart’ type mudguards jobs.

The weather is remarkably good for December in Yorkshire. Just 6 degrees, but warm enough to make it pleasant; and dry. Of course – when I say dry – I mean the absence of rain. There’s still enough water on the road to get soaked through – especially when you leave your front clip on mudguards in Oxford.

I arrived in Yorkshire with minimal packing. I didn’t pack any cycling energy bars, so have been relying on ‘normal’ food that you might find in the kitchen. It’s amazing that, to cycle, you don’t actually have to spend a small fortune on proprietary cycling bars. I found a honey sandwich was enough to get from Bursnall to Halton Gill. Yes, it made me feel like a real cycling tourist to be eating kit-kats and honey sandwiches.

 

For mid-winter, I’m in pretty good shape. I managed close to 900 miles in November. The hours spent is even more impressive. If I spent that time on a time trial bike on the A50, I could have done twice the mileage. I have an old saying ‘Yorkshire winter miles count double.’ Because it can all be painfully slow at this time of the year. But today I managed to keep a reasonably impressive average speed; and as the light began to fade, I upped the effort to get back before it was really dark. Four hours on the road, 60 miles on the log.

The whole ride was pretty undramatic. I would like to say the roads were exceptionally quiet – they were in places, though in recent years I’ve noticed a big increase in Yodel and white vans, making frantic last minute Christmas deliveries. I know the convenience of internet delivery is very useful, but for the cyclist trying to enjoy quiet roads, it’s not the best development.

Still that’s the only complaint. Mostly it was enjoying the Yorkshire Dales scenery and clocking all those all important miles for the winter mileage saving bank. If I get to 700 miles by the 25th, I might give myself Christmas Day off.

A few more photos

Littondale

Rainbow over Grassington

Low level sun near Grassington.

Kilnsey Crag with mud on the road.

Related

• Yorkshire Dales in winter
• Winter miles cycling

Before the national hill climb championship, the Cyclist magazine commissioned me to write an article on the national hill climb championship. The article is published in this months edition (Jan 2015), which came out recently. – There are some good photos of the hill climb championship too.

If you’re looking for some more in-depth articles on cycling, it’s worth checking out the Cyclist Mag. It’s mainly pro-cycling, but hopefully, the essentially amateur hill climb championship makes an interesting counterpoint to the other road racing.

Talking of hill climbs check out this video by Thom Heald featuring Bristol South CC rising hill climb star Robert Borek. Robert is one of the many new converts to the discipline of hill climbs, and in this video he talks about his enthusiasm for the strange attraction of riding fixed gear bikes up steep hills.
 

Up Up Up from Thom Heald on Vimeo.

Hill climbing is a niche within a niche. It was one of the original tests of a cyclists skill, the proving ground before time-trials and road races. Now somewhat forgotten, a hardcore band of thin-limbed riders spend their Autumn sacrificing beer and cake for a shot at amateur bike racing glory.

Related

• National hill climb championship 2014

A friend was talking about a theory that the mind can have a big impact on the body. In particular, some niggles in the body can be a result of mental issues. The example they used was stress – manifesting in the form of back pain. The back may be perfectly strong, but to deal with the mental stress, the body deals with it by having pain in the back; furthermore it is claimed releasing this stress in the back is actually a good thing.

If you have have a fall, and injury your knee, it’s pretty certain what the cause is. But, if you wake up the day after a ride, and find a mysterious injury / pain – then it may be some mental cause – often unconscious, and not an underlying physical cause.

I’m no expert on this kind of thing, and I’m sure there are doctors who would disagree – but it is interesting. In particular, I’m sure there have been times when I’ve gained some kind of minor niggle, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the enforced rest did a lot to improve my long-term form.

One thing I should add, when I have had persistent niggles in knees – Physiotherapy did a  very good job in getting it better.

I also often think about to my early 20s, where I was injured for several years – meaning I only took up cycling in the late 20s. From a cycling point of view, this was hugely significant. If I’d taken up cycling 10 years earlier, my cycling career might have been quite different. I don’t have any regrets though because, in this lifetime, I am glad I didn’t become a professional cyclist.

Colds

The other interesting thing is that I nearly always get a cold in November / December. During the racing season, I try to hold off any cold. But, once the season is over, I let go of any resistance and almost invite a cold. It’s the best time of the year to have one. A week off the bike, and I’m enjoying it; it’s amazing how much time you have when you don’t cycle 250 miles a week.

It doesn’t always work. I’ve had inopportune colds, just when I don’t want it. But, I think there is something in the idea we can have a mental influence over the body – either positive or negative. My feeling is that we are only just touching the surface of this mind-body link. I’m sure in hundreds of years time, people’s awareness of this will be greatly expanded and we will gain greater intuition and ability to influence this link.

But, at the moment, it’s back to the Vicks vapour rub and snotty handkerchiefs – and dreaming of cycling up Col du Tourmalet in the Pyranees next summer.

The racing season presents many dilemmas – how many days rest do you need in between intervals – should you do intervals at 100% or 99%?

The winter season presents a very different kind of dilemma – not least – how often are we to clean our winter training bike?

There are two main schools of thought in this direction. The first school suggests religiously cleaning the bike after every ride, with at least once a week complete strip down and degrease.

The second school of thought suggests the best interval for cleaning the winter bike is roughly once a year in early April before retiring the winter bike to the loft.

Those who follow the first school of daily cleaning are either professional bike riders or those who actually do very little winter training. They may pop out on the roads, should the weather be suitably inviting, but generally they prefer to keep their bike out of the wind and mud. No point risking anything when its 5 degrees outside and winter slime covers the road.

Unfortunately, most of us are more likely to fall in between the two. We don’t quite want to commit to cleaning the bike after every ride, but once you put it off once, it’s very hard to get round to ever cleaning it – because you know within 12 hours it will be just as muddy as it is already. So you rationalise it by saying, well I might as well leave it another day. I’ll clean it when there is a week of dry, sunny weather forecast (i.e. never). Instead, we just learn to grow accustomed to the muddy winter bike; it starts to become a badge of our ‘old school’, cycling in any weather kind of mentality. It’s a strange logic and hopefully one that doesn’t spill over into personal hygiene. Though, I did have a school friend who claimed after three weeks his hair would start cleaning itself. We were a bit dubious, though we never got too close to inspect for ourselves.

Perhaps that is the next development in bike technology, forget electronic 12 speed which no-one needs – what about the self-cleaning winter bike with automatic greasing and repair maintenance? I’d buy one of those.

The problem with writing this piece is that the more I write about cleaning my winter bike, the greater the growing guilt about the layers of mud on my own down tube. It’s really not that hard to clean a bike, and it does give a wonderful sense of satisfaction when we rediscover the frame colour is a bright blue rather than a muddy brown. It’s just fortunate that I’m going to go out on  a winter training ride in a couple of hours – I might as well leave it until I get back….

Related

• Winter training rides