Cycling through the rain photos

Some selected photos from the wettest winter since King Canute went on a canoeing trip up to the fjords and waterfalls of the Lake District.

wrapped-up-against-rain

Nice mac and Wellington boots to keep dry.

sun-raind-close-up

There must be a rainbow somewhere. This delivery guy rides through the rain, with the sun shining through in the background.

rain-buggy-carriage

It’s alright in the buggy carriage

fast-wet

One way to avoid the rain – cycle faster.

Welcome to the floods

flood-car-park

Please keep access clear for the flood waters.

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Spontaneous training plans

I spent most of Saturday morning trying to weigh up the relative options of going outside and facing the stormy weather – or staying inside and dealing with the challenges of staying on rollers for two hours.

hebrides-touring
Where I would like to have been – cycling in the Hebrides in summer.

It was a pretty close call, but in the end I choose to avoid the relentless gales of this crazy winter and spent two hours on the rollers.

One reason for staying indoors was to avoid corrosion to the TT bike. My speedplay pedals are vulnerable to water, and seem to need greasing every ride, unless you want to be spending £230 for a new pair of X1 every month. Ironically, the sun was out and my conservatory got pretty hot – up to 26 degrees, and when you’re cycling indoors that’s pretty warm – there was a steady flow of sweat to corrode the bike in a different way. It did later chuck it down which at least made me feel vindicated in being a southern softie and choosing to stay indoors.

If you’re going to spend two hours on the rollers, you might as well make it a hard session, and hope the effort takes away from the tedium. The initial idea was to ride for two hours close to threshold because I have a 50 mile race in April (Circuit of the Dales) that I want to do well in. My training can be very spontaneous – I never really know what I’m going to do until I start cycling. I perhaps try and have a idea, it would be good to do intervals tomorrow, then steady, then rest, then sweet spot or some kind of plan like that. But, it can change and depends on what else is going on in life.

Anyway, today was about preparing for longer time trials at threshold pace. I did 280 watts for first hour, and decided I couldn’t keep that going for two hours. So I went down a gear and did 260 watts for the next half an hour. After 90 minutes I though that was more than enough threshold training for mid February. It was still a pretty big effort for this time of the year.

Sunday was a day off the bike, down in Bristol. Bizarrely the weather was so good, we were sitting outside on a cafe terrace admiring Clifton Suspension Bridge. It was ironic that the only good day of weather in 2014, was a day with no bicycle in sight. Not that I was complaining, I’ve forgotten what it was like to sit in the sun.

The only downside of having a complete day off after a really hard day, is that your legs can suffer the following day. They are a bit stiff today; they would be in better shape if I had done even 30 minutes easy riding or perhaps some stretching.

But, overall, it was a good week – nearly 300 miles (if you include the artificially fast miles on the rollers) 2 hours in 56*15 on the rollers, I give myself 50 miles. Why not? no one is counting my miles, and I do get some joy from filling in virtual mileage charts. I may have a power meter, but I still am enamoured of the old school ‘get the miles’ in approach.

Related

The cost of congestion in the UK

 busy-cyclists-high-street

Congestion in Oxford encourages people to take an alternative. Cycling into the centre is significantly quicker at rush hour. Will the forecast increase in congestion lead to a rise in cycling rates in the UK?

crowded-roads

No one likes sitting in a traffic jam, cycle lanes help avoid the worst of the congestion.

lone-survivor-bus-undertaking

Traffic congestion costs include:

  • time lost
  • increased vehicle operating costs (brakes, fuel costs)
  • Stress of sitting in traffic jams
  • There are both internal costs (to driver) plus external costs to other road users and society.

The CBI estimate that traffic congestion costs the UK economy £20 billion a year. (link) Other estimates of the costs of congestion widely significantly, but you don’t need to be an economist to realise traffic jams going nowhere are an inefficient use of resources.

The big concern is that congestion is expected to increase over the next 20 years, due to rising population and increased use of cars.

Road use and time lost due to congestion

costs-congestion-cbi
CBI – UK Road congestion

In 2010, an estimated 19 seconds per mile were lost due to congestion.

By 2035, this is estimated to rise to 32 seconds per mile. This is a 68% increase in congestion from today’s levels.

Solutions to congestion

1. Build more roads. This has been the primary objective of government transport policy from the 1960s to 2000s. The number of roads has increased. But, the limitations of this approach include:

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Going to the Gym

Gym-titanic

Back in December, I wrote about trying to deal with left-right leg imbalance. (which has often been cause of annual knee problems) On a leg press, the maximum weight I could push was:

  • left leg 56 kg. Right leg 64 kg.

Because of this imbalance, I was working on different exercises to make the left leg stronger. But, then I fell off in Portugal and damaged a muscle (near the left glute / buttock). I was hobbling around on my right leg, and not using my left leg. During recuperation, I could feel my right leg getting even stronger and left leg weaker. (kind of a shame I didn’t fall off on the other side…)

Gym-titanic

Since the injury got better, I have cautiously been trying to do exercises to strengthen the left leg. These are exercises you can do at home. One good exercise is to sit on a chair and then stand up, using just your left leg. I’ve been finding this very hard, and can only manage a couple.

Tues, I went back to the gym, to retest my leg strength. Six weeks after the crash it was:

  • Left leg 54kg. Right leg 71 kg.

It’s not as bad as I feared. But, when I went on the glute machine, here, I could feel a much bigger difference between left leg and right leg.  It was interesting the right leg got stronger from all that hobbling around on one leg. It’s still a significant imbalance, especially in the glutes where I damaged the muscle.

I’m not a great fan of gyms, but for 20 minutes I worked at a number of gym machines – mostly the leg exercises.

I would tend to do double the number of repetitions for the left leg. e.g. 10 with left leg, then just 5 with right leg.

I’m not trying to be an Arnie look alike (like most other people in the gym). so I wasn’t try to force heavy weights. I was just pushing manageable weights and going for a good number of repititions. I preferred the exercise machines to the exercises I was doing at home, which generally involves lifting your own body weight.

The next day, I felt a little stretching of muscles in left leg, so I think I had a good balance and not overdoing it.

Tuesday was actually dry and sunny and usually I would have jumped at chance to go out on bike. but I still chose the gym. Going to the gym for me is like taking unpalatable medicine. You don’t really enjoy doing it, but you hope  it’s good for you.

I only took 20 minutes, so it’s still an expensive £35 a month. But, if it helps avoid injury, it will be money well spent.

Related

10 things that annoy the cyclist

A random selection of 10 things that can make life difficult for cycling on the roads.

1. Mobile phone user

waiting-narrow-road-parked-cars
You better not be using a mobile phone when you get to end of road

Last Saturday, I was feeling in a good mood, so pulled over to let a van drive on a narrow road passed many parked cars. He was driving on wrong side of road, but, sometimes it’s good to give way. After waiting for him to pass down the wrong side of the road, I looked into the van to see if he might acknowledge my action. I’m not desperate for thanks, but a brief wave is a nice gesture. Alas, the driver was completely oblivious of my presence on the road, being more interested in his mobile phone call. It’s probably a good job I did wait on the pavement as he had no concentration on the road.

2. The slam dunk

 

car-turning-left

Another thing that annoy me is when a car overtakes you and then turns left (or slams on the brakes going down hill) You have to be pretty alert for things like that. Bicycle brakes are not always as powerful as advanced car brakes.

3. The cycle path to nowhere

This cycle path could easily be continued straight on. Instead you’re force onto a road with cars coming off a dual carriageway roundabout at over 30mph.cycle-paths-to-nowhere

 

Integrated transport is a buzzword rarely applied to British cycle paths.

4. Give us room

big-bus

When big vehicles get too close breathing down your back, tailgating is the technical term. Give us space to brake

5. Passing too close

oxtube-bike-passing-too-close

 

This happens everyday, all the time. It’s worse when the vehicle is fast moving and large. What happens if the cyclist needs to swerve to avoid a pothole?

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Cycling through the floods

Usually, after a race, I take it easy on Monday and have a rest day or light training. But, looking at the weather forecast for the next 10 days, I thought I ought to jump at the opportunity to ride the bike, before more battering from the weather comes shortly. – ‘Making hay whilst the sun shines’ and all that. Or at least, riding when only light showers are predicted.

cyclists-water

Today wasn’t too bad. It still rained for 20 minutes, leaving my feet cold for the rest of the ride, but with only light winds it’s all relative good for 2014.

After seeing the long run weather forecast, I was tempted to do something crazy and impulsive and buy a Ryanair flight to Tenerife or Majorca.  Anything to get away from the sensation of being surrounded by water, – water, water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. ( Coleridge’s line from the Ancient Mariner was my unwarranted mantra for today’s ride. Sometimes you get a song in your head, you don’t really want. But, it gets stuck. Today, I got this line in my head, going round and round. I guess it was appropriate). But, before I get carried away with my poetic side (there is none) the grim reality is that there is no spring training camp for me. Just a relentless plodding through the puddles, and doing my best to improve fitness for the upcoming hardriders, sporting courses and hilly time trials.

water-legs-apart

The race yesterday at Kingston Wheelers, left me fairly energised and motivated to train. Today I managed 83 miles up and down the Chiltern Hills around Henley and Marlow. It was quite good. But, the only problem with racing on TT bike, is that it does feel a bit of come down to go back to ride my clunking winter hack. My winter training bike seems to be more akin to a 3 spd, 20kg, Boris Bike than a sleek road racing machine.

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Kingston Wheelers 14 mile hilly

puddle-hungry-hill

In a rush of blood I entered my first race of season this weekend. It’s only a few weeks since getting back on bike, but I still felt keen to get out on the race bike and get back in the rhythm of racing. The Gil Jessop memorial – 13.56 mile TT was promoted by the Kingston Wheelers near Ripley, Surrey, and involves two laps around East Clandon and West Horsley. It begins with a steady climb up ‘Hungry hill’ a 200 ft ascent at a gradient of nothing more than 4-5%. Traditionalists in the ‘Hill Climb Union’ may take issue with the title hilly TT – it’s certainly not the most mountainous time trial. But, on the day, with a stiff S.W wind it was plenty hard enough – I certainly didn’t hear anyone complaining there weren’t a few more hills. I did see quite a few  riders getting punctures, probably a consequence of all the debris on the road.

puddle-hungry-hill

A bigger test than the gradient was the pools of water streaming off the Surrey hills. The south of England is currently seeing rain and flooding of Biblical proportions. The organisers had a difficult dilemma about whether to proceed with event, but after pointing out the hazards of the course they said it would be go ahead.

tricycle-puddle
I’ve used this photo a lot recently. But, it sums up the state of British roads quite well.

Unusually, I woke at 4am, rattled by the gusts of wind sweeping around Oxford. At that point, I was pretty tempted to turn off the alarm clock and do some thing more comfortable on this supposed day of rest  – like a rollers session in the conservatory. At 4am there seemed many good reasons not to do a cold, wet hilly time trial in early Feb – especially when I’m still trying to get back to form. I could think of very few reasons to go, but fortunately or unfortunately – I wasn’t in the mood for thinking so just got in the car and drove to Ripley.

First impressions of the circuit were wet, cold and windy. Reminded me a bit of my last race up the Stang. I was grateful to be able to warm up on the rollers. At least I didn’t freeze with my back to wind.

I was wearing 2 pairs thermal socks, 4 thermal underlayers, overshoes, legwarmers, and my northern friends would say it wasn't even properly cold!
I was wearing 2 pairs thermal socks, 4 thermal underlayers, overshoes, legwarmers – and my northern friends would say it wasn’t even properly cold!

I didn’t ride to my power meter. But, looking at data later, I seemed to have paced it reasonably well. Average power for the ride said 305 Watts.

On some sections of the course, there was heavy flooding – so on the first lap, I took most bends and corners with considerable circumspection. By the second lap, my legs were tired, but more mentally confident about the course, so wasn’t quite such a tourist going around the bends. Though the second time through the large puddle, I probably arrived a little too fast, and felt the water act as a mini brake on the momentum of the TT bike.

(As they would say on Childrens’ BBC – don’t try this at home. You have to be very careful cycling through puddles, when you don’t know the potholes that might exist below.)

The course record was 30.50, set by Wouter Sybrandy (26.4mph) I was pleased with my time of 31.50ish. (25.6mph) But, Robert Sharland of Kingston Wheelers went even faster with a very good time of 31.24 ish. If Rob keeps improving, he will be one to watch in the time trials this year. I haven’t seen the full results yet.

Thanks to all the (many) Kingston Wheelers marshals and timekeepers who stood by all the large puddles on the road to help make event go ahead. It would have been easy to cancel. But, I’m kind of glad to get the first 13 miles racing out of the way.

I have two weeks of training before my next race – North Road Hardriders, which I believe the Hill Climb Union say is compulsory for any hill climber to do at some time in your career.

Thanks to Thomas Jenkins of the Kingston Wheelers for photos

 

A traffic jam of cyclists

long-line-cyclists-high-st

I’m impressed at the patience of these Oxford cyclists in rush hour. Who says the British can’t still queue?

I have to admit I would have a temptation to sprint along the inside and then sprint away from the lights. But, when everyone is so well behaved it wouldn’t feel right to spoil the good natured patience. I tend to avoid the ‘cycling queue’ by going straight on and turning right later on. Definitely, when you see people acting courteously it influences other people to do the same. Similarly when some start flouting the laws it has a big influence on other people.

many-cyclists

Right hand lane waiting for lights to change. Left hand lane is straight on up the high street.

cyclist-feeder-lane-between2-lanes

The only problem with this feeder lane is that cyclists are coming up the middle between two lanes of traffic. But, at least the traffic is usually slow moving around here. (20mph speed limit, which isn’t exceeded by too much)

bus-wanting-to-squeeze-into-left-lane

This is a dangerous possibility. The huge and very long London Tube bus was wanting to get in the left hand lane, but cyclists were squeezing through on the inside (along the dotted cycle lane). It’s not clear who has right of way or who should give way in this situation. Eventually the bus driver got frustrated with waiting and started beeping his horn, hoping some cyclists would stop allowing him to get in left hand lane. But, if one cyclist goes on the inside, other people often follow suit. (same principle with car drivers overtaking  on the wrong side of road)

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5 minute max power output

I’ve enjoyed writing a few recent posts, – the joys of the turbo, old school cycling e.t.c.. But, I promise this post will be really quite boring. It’s the inevitable post-power-meter-purchase-data-examination-and-speculation. – Something many power meter owners are prone to do, but I’m fairly hopeful I will tire of it all pretty soon. If power meter zones and watt/kg numbers are not quite your thing, I have to warn there may be a more profitable way to spend the next 3 minutes. But, then I guess if you’re already on the internet, you’re not planning on doing anything too productive anyway.

Out_for_A_Spin

So, if you’ve run out of cuddly cat videos and with suitable apologies in advance, here are some power meter readings, which may be of marginal interest.

  • In September 2013 (when my power meter was first working) I did a few 5 minute all out tests up a hill near Stokenchurch (A40) On one climb, I averaged 445 watts for 5 minutes, and did the climb in 4.54. (19.2mph) – watt/kg 7.3
  • In February, four months later,  I could only average 345 watts, doing the climb in 5.43 (16mph) watt/kg 5.6

In November, Dec and Jan, I’ve done quite a lot of miles. Despite injury in Jan, I still did more miles in Jan than the peak of the hill climb season in  October

So after 3 months of endurance training / rest / bit of sweet spot/  Nov – Jan, my 5 minute peak power has fallen 100 watts.

Because I don’t know much about power meters, that seems an awful lot of top end power to loose. But, on the other hand, I do this test every year, and tend to always take just under 6 minutes for the first test of the season. So compared to previous early season efforts, it’s bang on track.

What does this show?

  • I guess power outputs in February are fairly unimportant in the bigger scheme of things (unless, of course you plant to tackle track hour records)
  • If you just do base endurance, you will become good at base endurance – but, no surprise, your top end racing power, will decline.
  • Stay tuned, who knows when I will next dig in to the power meter archives!

Custom cycle clothing alterations (cheap)

Recently, I sent a packet of cycle clothing to be altered by Alex Laycock. I had

baggy-arms

  • 3 Impsport skinsuits (with baggy arms)- You spend £180 on an Impsport custom body suit and it comes back with baggy arms like this.
  • 1 winter jacket (missing zip) back pockets getting worn
  • 1 pair of shorts (expensive Assos variety, ripped in Portugal)

The repairs and alternations were done for £40, plus £11 postage. I think that includes the cost of a new zip which was £10.

Alex has done quite a few time trials herself, and is used to mending lycra. Alex Laycock at Yell.com

Make do and mend

A comment by a reader, reminded me to post about this:

I had this problem with my Night Vision jacket and I wrote to Altura – not to complain (as the jacket was just over 12 months old) but to ask if they could repair it or recommend someone who could. Their reply was unhelpful,to say the least, effectively , “well, you need to buy another as we don’t repair them and we don’t know anyone who can”. Great jacket – rubbish after sales service. Can’t recommend them!

I don’t know if waterproof jackets can be mended, but it’s worth finding out. I might even get a new zip for my Altura jacket.

There’s a lot to be said for make do and mend. Especially when tights / legwarmers get ripped falling off.