As is tradition (or will quickly become one), in the off-season I tend to start painting en masse, as the weather and lack of daylight keeps me from training. For this year's project, I'm attempting to get a Skaven army painted up in time for a tournament called Winter War...
...of course, I also need to learn to play the game, as this is Fantasy Battle, rather than the altogether different game of 40K. The very scale of the game is different...with 40K my "good" army consists of 31 guys and a series of red boxes (aka vehicles), while the skaven army I have planned has over 200 models, and a handful of warmachines. It's a proper horde, and so I've had to approach the painting a little differently to previously.
I'm using the Army Painter stuff again, and this time I'm going very much to basics. Typical unit sizes are of 30 models, and I'm limiting myself to 4-5 colours on top of the base brown spray-coat. No highlighting or shading at all, not even a quick drybrush, and when it comes to dipping they are being dunked and flicked, rather than paint it on and wiped down with a cloth. I have a strict schedule to keep of at least 10 models a night, and a target time of 1½ hours to get them done. So far I'm keeping ahead of the schedule, with 170 models completed in 14 days. There are another 20 in the queue, and then I'm waiting on eBay for the final 30. Once they are all done it will be onto the more interesting models...characters, warmachines and big beasties.
I'm fairly pleased with the initial results...the dip is doing wonders at turning hastily painted models into tabletop-passable miniatures, and once the bases are done (that's going to be a fun few sessions, just painting green, then glue onto 200+ bases) I reckon they will be fairly presentable, especially given the sheer volume of models.
I'm hoping to have a playable army for the start of January, giving me a few practice games before the tournament. I also need to come up with a way of transporting much a volume of models, with the current favourite being magnetised bases onto movement trays, with a removeable ferrous sheet holding them on tightly. That will be a trip to B&Q at some point, and a bit of fun with a saw. Once that is done I'll get a couple more of the KR Multicases I use, and build up the innards in such a way as I can just slot the various units in.
Fingers crossed that I get a good amount of production done over Christmas, so that I can hit 2011 with my 3rd completed army!
Tuesday 14 December 2010
Tuesday 14 September 2010
Thus endeth the season...
It's been a long, long race season for me this year. Certainly a tough one, and one that finished on a great high with Reading Triathlon, which pretty much goes thrgouh my village. A perfect day, no need to travel (it was a 15 minute roll downhill to the start) and a great course, as well as plenty of people in the race who I knew, giving it a bit of a competitive kick...
This really has been a year of cycling for me...to date I've racked up approximately 7,000 miles in the saddle, even taking into account the atrocious weather conditions in January and February. I've managed to drag myself from being an OK cyclist, to one who can reasonably expect to finish in the top 5-10% of any cycling event I choose to attempt (so long as it's not an off-road one...I've learnt painful lessons regarding that!)
So what have I done this year? It's a fairly long list of events...
1 - Reading Half-Marathon
2 - Merchant Taylor Olympic Traithlon
3 - Fritton Lake Olympic Triathlon
4 - Deloitte Ride Across Britain
5 - Dorney Lake Sprint Triathlon
6 - Bournemouth Olympic Triathlon
7 - London Olympic Plus Triathlon
8 - Woodcote Sportive
9 - Vitruvian Half-Ironman
10 - Reading Olympic Triathlon
Given that last year was my first season of triathlon, and I only did a single olympic distance event (which, in case you're not sure, is a 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run) to get myself upto half-ironman distance is fairly good, even moreso given that I've had real trouble with my knee.
I'm now officially in my off-season, and I intend to take a couple of weeks taking it easy, and let my body start to repair the various niggly injuries I've inflicted on myself. once thats done it will be looking ahead to next year, and working out the best way of improving my times. The most obvious areas will be my neglected swimming and running, and building up core strength and ability in those areas. I'm also going to give rock-climbing a go, hopefully as a way of improving my flexibility and upper-body strength a bit (which should all improve the swimming). My ideal goal should be to trim 3-4 minutes off both the swim and run legs, while keeping my cycling in it's current form, which should then see me edging towards 2:20 times for an Olympic triathlon, which is normally considered a good time.
For now though, it's a fortnight of laziness, relaxing and (probably) painting models...
This really has been a year of cycling for me...to date I've racked up approximately 7,000 miles in the saddle, even taking into account the atrocious weather conditions in January and February. I've managed to drag myself from being an OK cyclist, to one who can reasonably expect to finish in the top 5-10% of any cycling event I choose to attempt (so long as it's not an off-road one...I've learnt painful lessons regarding that!)
So what have I done this year? It's a fairly long list of events...
1 - Reading Half-Marathon
2 - Merchant Taylor Olympic Traithlon
3 - Fritton Lake Olympic Triathlon
4 - Deloitte Ride Across Britain
5 - Dorney Lake Sprint Triathlon
6 - Bournemouth Olympic Triathlon
7 - London Olympic Plus Triathlon
8 - Woodcote Sportive
9 - Vitruvian Half-Ironman
10 - Reading Olympic Triathlon
Given that last year was my first season of triathlon, and I only did a single olympic distance event (which, in case you're not sure, is a 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run) to get myself upto half-ironman distance is fairly good, even moreso given that I've had real trouble with my knee.
I'm now officially in my off-season, and I intend to take a couple of weeks taking it easy, and let my body start to repair the various niggly injuries I've inflicted on myself. once thats done it will be looking ahead to next year, and working out the best way of improving my times. The most obvious areas will be my neglected swimming and running, and building up core strength and ability in those areas. I'm also going to give rock-climbing a go, hopefully as a way of improving my flexibility and upper-body strength a bit (which should all improve the swimming). My ideal goal should be to trim 3-4 minutes off both the swim and run legs, while keeping my cycling in it's current form, which should then see me edging towards 2:20 times for an Olympic triathlon, which is normally considered a good time.
For now though, it's a fortnight of laziness, relaxing and (probably) painting models...
Monday 19 July 2010
RideAcrossBritain - The Epilogue
It's been about a month since I got back from Lands End...a fairly banal train journey from Penzance, and Gill met me at Reading station (still dragging that damn bag!)
The injuries were more painful rather than physically debilitating. A tear on the fascia of the right kneecap, and minor tearing to both quad muscles. I've had a couple of physio sessions to loosen the muscles up...for the first week I couldn't bend my knees past 90', however now they are about 90% there. There are a couple of sore points remaining, but even they are fading. Having access to daily physio and massage treatments definitely kept me on the road. No saddle sore at all (thanks to Assos Chamois cream, a Selle SMP saddle and clean shorts every day!)
The bike came away almost completely un-scathed. 1006 miles, and no punctures. The chain never dropped, and apart from some expected wear on the chain, cassette and brake pads it's been fine...just a quick wash and grease up the drive. Given it was one of the cheaper bikes on display at RAB (there was apparently one bike there in the £10k region, complete with Shimano Di2 electric gears!) I'm really chuffed at how it performed...
...which was to get me in with the 7th fastest time overall, and 5th in the amateur stakes (Sarah Storey and Andre...both amazing pro-cyclists, but they can't be counted in the paying guests "it's not a race!"). 5th out of 600 starters is something I can be more than happy with. Chris and David came 1st and 2nd (and if I was going to be picky the guy who came 4th has a couple of questionable results). An official time of 62 hours and 25 minutes, and from the Garmin 58 hours and 44 minutes of actual cycling over 9 days (taking the results of someone I cycled with on day 2, as mine died). Thats an average moving speed of just over 17mph, with rest stops in the region of 10 minutes each.
The results really do show how effectively cycling in a group is...for my training rides I was doing 100 miles in about 6 hours. Average speed for 100 miles for the ride was about 5 ½ hours, and that includes way more climbing than I could ever do in Berkshire. As the trip went on my average heartrate went down, and average speeds went up, which also shows how the body adapts to stuff like this. I've done a couple of triathlons since coming back, and while the run and swim have been mediocre, I've PB'ed the bike legs both times (at 20km and 40km). Doing my normal training hills I've now got a couple of extra gears spare when I head up them (for example Sulham Hill, the steepest in the area, I can now do with 2 spare cogs, and I have a new aim to get up it using the large chainset).
I'm really glad I did it, and I'm totally chuffed with the result...given that 18 months ago I had never ridden a road bike, and 12 months ago I hated cleats (clip-in shoes) it's been a fairly impressive performance. I did approximately 10,000 miles of training over 10 months, of which about 40% of that was my daily commute to and from work. The rest was mainly long rides in the evenings and weekends, and "hours of power" during my lunchbreaks. It was worth every second, from the cold hours over winter, to changing tyres in the rain. Gill has been sterling support, having to come and pick me and a broken bike up on more than one occasion...she's probably sick of me cycling by now!
Next up I have London Triathon in a fortnight...I've gone for the extended cycle option, so it will be 1.5km swim, 80km bike and 10km run. As such the next couple of weeks will be heavy on the time-trial work, looking to push myself hard for 2-2.5 hours on the bike. I've treated myself to a bit of bike bling for the TT bike (carbon deep-rim wheels and a funky helmet)...they may help a bit with speed, but they certainly make you <i>feel</i> faster!
The photos I do have were from random sources (some stills from the headcam, some from the phone, and some from the end when Rob took over photo duties!). There are some more on FaceBook for those who have me linked up on there...
The injuries were more painful rather than physically debilitating. A tear on the fascia of the right kneecap, and minor tearing to both quad muscles. I've had a couple of physio sessions to loosen the muscles up...for the first week I couldn't bend my knees past 90', however now they are about 90% there. There are a couple of sore points remaining, but even they are fading. Having access to daily physio and massage treatments definitely kept me on the road. No saddle sore at all (thanks to Assos Chamois cream, a Selle SMP saddle and clean shorts every day!)
The bike came away almost completely un-scathed. 1006 miles, and no punctures. The chain never dropped, and apart from some expected wear on the chain, cassette and brake pads it's been fine...just a quick wash and grease up the drive. Given it was one of the cheaper bikes on display at RAB (there was apparently one bike there in the £10k region, complete with Shimano Di2 electric gears!) I'm really chuffed at how it performed...
...which was to get me in with the 7th fastest time overall, and 5th in the amateur stakes (Sarah Storey and Andre...both amazing pro-cyclists, but they can't be counted in the paying guests "it's not a race!"). 5th out of 600 starters is something I can be more than happy with. Chris and David came 1st and 2nd (and if I was going to be picky the guy who came 4th has a couple of questionable results). An official time of 62 hours and 25 minutes, and from the Garmin 58 hours and 44 minutes of actual cycling over 9 days (taking the results of someone I cycled with on day 2, as mine died). Thats an average moving speed of just over 17mph, with rest stops in the region of 10 minutes each.
The results really do show how effectively cycling in a group is...for my training rides I was doing 100 miles in about 6 hours. Average speed for 100 miles for the ride was about 5 ½ hours, and that includes way more climbing than I could ever do in Berkshire. As the trip went on my average heartrate went down, and average speeds went up, which also shows how the body adapts to stuff like this. I've done a couple of triathlons since coming back, and while the run and swim have been mediocre, I've PB'ed the bike legs both times (at 20km and 40km). Doing my normal training hills I've now got a couple of extra gears spare when I head up them (for example Sulham Hill, the steepest in the area, I can now do with 2 spare cogs, and I have a new aim to get up it using the large chainset).
I'm really glad I did it, and I'm totally chuffed with the result...given that 18 months ago I had never ridden a road bike, and 12 months ago I hated cleats (clip-in shoes) it's been a fairly impressive performance. I did approximately 10,000 miles of training over 10 months, of which about 40% of that was my daily commute to and from work. The rest was mainly long rides in the evenings and weekends, and "hours of power" during my lunchbreaks. It was worth every second, from the cold hours over winter, to changing tyres in the rain. Gill has been sterling support, having to come and pick me and a broken bike up on more than one occasion...she's probably sick of me cycling by now!
Next up I have London Triathon in a fortnight...I've gone for the extended cycle option, so it will be 1.5km swim, 80km bike and 10km run. As such the next couple of weeks will be heavy on the time-trial work, looking to push myself hard for 2-2.5 hours on the bike. I've treated myself to a bit of bike bling for the TT bike (carbon deep-rim wheels and a funky helmet)...they may help a bit with speed, but they certainly make you <i>feel</i> faster!
Photos
One downside was that my headcam didn't perform as expected...trouble getting it to charge, and a seeming in-ability to take video meant I didn't capture some stuff I had hoped to... Also the official photos were less than great, typically being taken in the first half hour when we were all wrapped up against the elements and cold, rather thn later in the day when we were in full flow...The photos I do have were from random sources (some stills from the headcam, some from the phone, and some from the end when Rob took over photo duties!). There are some more on FaceBook for those who have me linked up on there...
Friday 16 July 2010
RideAcrossBritain - The Home Straight - Part 3
The 3rd part of the notes on my cycle ride from John O'Groats to Lands End. The previously, and fairly un-exciting, episodes can be found here and here.
It was an early start, as we needed to be on the start line and ready to go by 6.30am. Breakfast was thrown down our respective gullets, overladen bags chucked on the lorry, drinks bottles prepped, and pockets filled with gels and bars. A bleary-eyed bunch assembled on the start line...it was the full crew of Chris, David, Stuart, Toby, Simon, Tom and myself. We'd all been advised to wear the official ride tops, and those who didn't have them were changed. We were briefed by the PR lass that it would be about an hour of filming, and the pace would be "no more than 17 or 18 miles an hour", which is a perfectly acceptable speed.
Cracknell turned up stylishly late, had a quick chat to the camera team (we had one camera on a motorbike, and a couple of outriders to keep the roads clear, tehn we saddled up, headed over the start line (the only time we were allowed to cycle over it, all the other starts were on foot, and saddling up on the nearby roads, and then Cracknell powered off at 25mph. A sensible bunch of people would have not tried to keep up, and make sure the pace stayed down in the manageable region...
...so of course we all sprinted off after him, and hunkered down into a chain as we screamed through the deserted Ludlow streets. The pace that Cracknell set was fairly brutal, moreso as we were all carrying wear and tear injuries of one description or another. The camerabike meanwhile zoomed up and down the line, capturing what may have been quite good shots, but probably look like a bunch of amateurs being hauled along by a double-olympiad. After the initial burst james peeled off, and we started a rotation at the front of the chain, which basically turned into a "who can drag the chain along at the most painful speed" competition, which quickly degenerated into a game of survival, as in ones and twos we started to lose riders. I dropped off at the 45 minute mark, leaving Toby and Stuart to tuck into Cracknells wake and vanish off into the distance...
We reformed about 6-7 miles before the first pitstop (minus Tom and Simon, who I suspect were broken by the stupid pace), and carried on a a slightly more sedate pace for some more shots, as the camera crew had set themselves up for some stationary drive-by sets. We finally rolled into the pit stop totally blown, wioth the realisation that we had another 70-odd miles to go today. Cracknell said his goodbyes, and dashed off into the distance, catching up with Alan "Ex Ironman UK Champion", while we planned a more leisurely pace...
...only there were some signage issues. As we were on the road so early the route had not been fully checked, and it turned out that there had been a road closure overnight. David (who was local to the area) nipped off down a road, followed by Chris, while the rest of us hesitated, and lost them very quickly. 10 minutes of "where do we go" discussions ensued at the pitstop, until a local friend of David offered to guide us back to the main road and the route. Toby, Stuart and myself hared off after his Land Rover, and we dashed through some back lanes before re-appearing on the main road again...about 20-30 minutes later we came across David and Stuart, and it turned out that we'd been taken a fairly easy way around a bit of a hill!
The middle of the stage took us briefly into Wales, and then over the Severn Estuary on the bridge (a fairly spectacular bit of cycling, and most of us were wobbling along with phones out try to capture the view), and then over the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This was Stuarts home area, and he had a load of supporters out to cheer him on, so it was fairly awesome we were first out on the road by such a distance (nothing like a half hour head start to make you look fast!).
The finale of the day was a fairly brutal ascent of the Meddip Hills...a 5-mile constant drag upto base camp. Chris led Stuart into a stage victory (his parents were at the base camp), while the rest of us ground our way up to a finish. A tough day, especially given the brutal first hour. The filming was for Cracknell and Fogles next BBC TV programme, which I believe is a massive off-road cycling race in Mexico...keep an eye out for a training sequence where there is a little chap with red sleeves on a bike...that'll be me :-)
Lots of people had this one flagged as the toughest day...the third longest by distance, and the second by total ascent, however rather than the long sweeping climbs of Scotland we would be entering Devon and Cornwall, with it's notoriously sharp, steep sections.
Stuart had come down ill overnight, and while he was cycling, he was definitely taking it easy, and Toby was still not 100%, so he stayed back as well, so 3 of us set out at 7am...it started pretty sedately, with the descent from the Mendips (we didn't do the gorge road...it simply wasn't safe for so many cyclists), but after some nice roads we hit a stretch of flat, and put in some good time... Soon though, we hit the Quantock Hills, and with that a series of fairly brutal climbs, and with that the tone was set for the day.
That said, we'd done enough hills now that we weer able to get into the right mindset, and grind our way up them. We came across some early-starters (including one unfortunate enough to be wearing a polka-dot "King of the Mountains" top that we destroyed on a hill. Rule 1 - Never wear a cycling top that proclaims you to be excellent unless you can back it up), and typically dropped them in our wake. The tactic, as always, was not to sweat the hills, and work the flatter sections. As we made our way into Cornwall the climbs continued, and we just concentrated on keeping energy levels high, and protecting the various knee injuries.
At the final pitstop we bumped into Johnathon (who I cycled with on day 2)... He'd not been able to fit into a group throughout the week (I said he was a bit weird...), but asked to cycle with us. (I'm aware the next bit makes me seem like a bit of an arsehole...but fuck it...) We begrudgingly accepted, however then went on a bit of a go-slow, riding three abreast and chatting. After a while he headed off by himself, at which point we formed up into a chain and hammered past him. He absolutely killed himself to get back onto our tail, at which point we slowed up, claimed exhaustion, and started chatting again. He, quite probably slightly miffed, went off ahead again (while we sniggered like school children)...
...about a mile later there was a surprise food stop. I pulled up to grab a chocolate brownie, and got split off from Chris and David. Fortunately we were approaching a slightly less hilly section of A-Road, which is really my speciality, so I put down the hammer and did a bit of TT work. I very quickly caught up with Johnathon...not wanting to give him a free ride, I claimed my knee was starting to go, and I needed to take it gently, and dropped back to about 100 metres behind him (you can probably see where this is going already). I waited until a decent bit of road, while he picked up another straggler, and tried to get a bit of team-work going with him, and then dropped down onto my aerobars (my roadbike is set up to emulate a Time Trial bike, so in expense for a bit of comfort I can add 2-3 miles per hour onto my cruising speed) and smashed past them. Neither of them had anything left in the tank, and I quickly left them standing.
I caught sight of David and Chris in the distance, and spent the next 10 miles slowly reeling them in (they had thought I was Cracknell in the distance, and so gave me a bit of a chase). I finally caught them, then we had a run into the base camp (up a final series of viciously sharp hills), and overtaking a final couple of riders (including one right at the end...he must have been gutted). Thus ended the day of childish one-up-manship. Childish? Yes, however great fun. and remember kids...it's not a race!
The final day, and we were greeted with glorious sunshine. Everyone knew that today was going to be just a little bit daft...by now there were 20 or so "hardcore" types, who all had a bit of a race-head on.
Everyone set off in the same pack, however almost immediately we hit a 20% hill on a narrow farm lane, and lots of the weaker riders got off to push their bikes, splitting us all up. David And Chris pulled off ahead, and I killed myself to catch them, however then lost them again over Bodmin Moor...those 2 were on a mission, and I couldn't quite keep up on the hills. I settled into a Time-Trial mentality, which basically involves me riding to my heart rate. The vast majority of my training was solo, so I was fairly comfortable keeping a steady pace.
As far as I can work out everyone rolled through the first pitstop without a pause, I know I did. I'd stocked up to do the entire 95 miles without a break if need be...and with that I carried on. I caught and overtook one pack, and while it was tiring work (this was the first time I'd done a section fully solo) I was making good time...unfortunately though, my bowels decided that I really needed to stop at the second pitstop (and I was the first person to do so)...
...which was lucky in a way, as the second and third people to stop were Toby and Stuart. Company for the final 30 miles was just what the Doctor ordered, and as an added bonus Toby was on top form, pushing us to the finish. Stuarts parents were on the road as well in a car, so we hammered toward Lands End!
Rolling into Penzance (with a glorious view of St.Micheals Mount) we thought "nearly there", only to discover that we were being taken out of Penzance up the pig of a 20% ascent. After that it was a series of other sharp inclines and declines, and some comedian in the road department had decided to start signposting Lands End in half mile increments, effectively slowing down the approach mentally...
Coming round a corner, thinking "where the hell is this place", we saw the crowd of people and the big blue arch. Off goes the sprint, and we all power over the finish line, while one marshal screams at us to slow down before we plough into the barriers. Man hugs all round! Rob was at the finish line with Kate and felix to watch us come in as well, which was excellent, thought I was properly pumped and almost certainly making no sense.
We were then dragged off for some publicity photos (we made the newsletter), and a series of daft photos were taken around the iconic sign. After calming down, having a cuppa and a bit of cake, it was then the slightly anti-climactic dis-assembly of the noble steed (1006 miles, no mechanical issues or punctures. I love my bike), and a bus trip to the base camp, where I chilled with Rob, Kate, Felix, Stuart and Toby for a few hours, eating pig and ice-cream.
Next time (the epilogue) I'll go through the highs and lows. one thing I would say that if you ever get the chance to do something like JOGLE, you should! An utterly life-affirming experience!
Day 7 - Ludlow to Cheddar
Distance - 174kmIt was an early start, as we needed to be on the start line and ready to go by 6.30am. Breakfast was thrown down our respective gullets, overladen bags chucked on the lorry, drinks bottles prepped, and pockets filled with gels and bars. A bleary-eyed bunch assembled on the start line...it was the full crew of Chris, David, Stuart, Toby, Simon, Tom and myself. We'd all been advised to wear the official ride tops, and those who didn't have them were changed. We were briefed by the PR lass that it would be about an hour of filming, and the pace would be "no more than 17 or 18 miles an hour", which is a perfectly acceptable speed.
Cracknell turned up stylishly late, had a quick chat to the camera team (we had one camera on a motorbike, and a couple of outriders to keep the roads clear, tehn we saddled up, headed over the start line (the only time we were allowed to cycle over it, all the other starts were on foot, and saddling up on the nearby roads, and then Cracknell powered off at 25mph. A sensible bunch of people would have not tried to keep up, and make sure the pace stayed down in the manageable region...
...so of course we all sprinted off after him, and hunkered down into a chain as we screamed through the deserted Ludlow streets. The pace that Cracknell set was fairly brutal, moreso as we were all carrying wear and tear injuries of one description or another. The camerabike meanwhile zoomed up and down the line, capturing what may have been quite good shots, but probably look like a bunch of amateurs being hauled along by a double-olympiad. After the initial burst james peeled off, and we started a rotation at the front of the chain, which basically turned into a "who can drag the chain along at the most painful speed" competition, which quickly degenerated into a game of survival, as in ones and twos we started to lose riders. I dropped off at the 45 minute mark, leaving Toby and Stuart to tuck into Cracknells wake and vanish off into the distance...
We reformed about 6-7 miles before the first pitstop (minus Tom and Simon, who I suspect were broken by the stupid pace), and carried on a a slightly more sedate pace for some more shots, as the camera crew had set themselves up for some stationary drive-by sets. We finally rolled into the pit stop totally blown, wioth the realisation that we had another 70-odd miles to go today. Cracknell said his goodbyes, and dashed off into the distance, catching up with Alan "Ex Ironman UK Champion", while we planned a more leisurely pace...
...only there were some signage issues. As we were on the road so early the route had not been fully checked, and it turned out that there had been a road closure overnight. David (who was local to the area) nipped off down a road, followed by Chris, while the rest of us hesitated, and lost them very quickly. 10 minutes of "where do we go" discussions ensued at the pitstop, until a local friend of David offered to guide us back to the main road and the route. Toby, Stuart and myself hared off after his Land Rover, and we dashed through some back lanes before re-appearing on the main road again...about 20-30 minutes later we came across David and Stuart, and it turned out that we'd been taken a fairly easy way around a bit of a hill!
The middle of the stage took us briefly into Wales, and then over the Severn Estuary on the bridge (a fairly spectacular bit of cycling, and most of us were wobbling along with phones out try to capture the view), and then over the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This was Stuarts home area, and he had a load of supporters out to cheer him on, so it was fairly awesome we were first out on the road by such a distance (nothing like a half hour head start to make you look fast!).
The finale of the day was a fairly brutal ascent of the Meddip Hills...a 5-mile constant drag upto base camp. Chris led Stuart into a stage victory (his parents were at the base camp), while the rest of us ground our way up to a finish. A tough day, especially given the brutal first hour. The filming was for Cracknell and Fogles next BBC TV programme, which I believe is a massive off-road cycling race in Mexico...keep an eye out for a training sequence where there is a little chap with red sleeves on a bike...that'll be me :-)
Day 8 - Cheddar to Lauceston
Distance - 190kmLots of people had this one flagged as the toughest day...the third longest by distance, and the second by total ascent, however rather than the long sweeping climbs of Scotland we would be entering Devon and Cornwall, with it's notoriously sharp, steep sections.
Stuart had come down ill overnight, and while he was cycling, he was definitely taking it easy, and Toby was still not 100%, so he stayed back as well, so 3 of us set out at 7am...it started pretty sedately, with the descent from the Mendips (we didn't do the gorge road...it simply wasn't safe for so many cyclists), but after some nice roads we hit a stretch of flat, and put in some good time... Soon though, we hit the Quantock Hills, and with that a series of fairly brutal climbs, and with that the tone was set for the day.
That said, we'd done enough hills now that we weer able to get into the right mindset, and grind our way up them. We came across some early-starters (including one unfortunate enough to be wearing a polka-dot "King of the Mountains" top that we destroyed on a hill. Rule 1 - Never wear a cycling top that proclaims you to be excellent unless you can back it up), and typically dropped them in our wake. The tactic, as always, was not to sweat the hills, and work the flatter sections. As we made our way into Cornwall the climbs continued, and we just concentrated on keeping energy levels high, and protecting the various knee injuries.
At the final pitstop we bumped into Johnathon (who I cycled with on day 2)... He'd not been able to fit into a group throughout the week (I said he was a bit weird...), but asked to cycle with us. (I'm aware the next bit makes me seem like a bit of an arsehole...but fuck it...) We begrudgingly accepted, however then went on a bit of a go-slow, riding three abreast and chatting. After a while he headed off by himself, at which point we formed up into a chain and hammered past him. He absolutely killed himself to get back onto our tail, at which point we slowed up, claimed exhaustion, and started chatting again. He, quite probably slightly miffed, went off ahead again (while we sniggered like school children)...
...about a mile later there was a surprise food stop. I pulled up to grab a chocolate brownie, and got split off from Chris and David. Fortunately we were approaching a slightly less hilly section of A-Road, which is really my speciality, so I put down the hammer and did a bit of TT work. I very quickly caught up with Johnathon...not wanting to give him a free ride, I claimed my knee was starting to go, and I needed to take it gently, and dropped back to about 100 metres behind him (you can probably see where this is going already). I waited until a decent bit of road, while he picked up another straggler, and tried to get a bit of team-work going with him, and then dropped down onto my aerobars (my roadbike is set up to emulate a Time Trial bike, so in expense for a bit of comfort I can add 2-3 miles per hour onto my cruising speed) and smashed past them. Neither of them had anything left in the tank, and I quickly left them standing.
I caught sight of David and Chris in the distance, and spent the next 10 miles slowly reeling them in (they had thought I was Cracknell in the distance, and so gave me a bit of a chase). I finally caught them, then we had a run into the base camp (up a final series of viciously sharp hills), and overtaking a final couple of riders (including one right at the end...he must have been gutted). Thus ended the day of childish one-up-manship. Childish? Yes, however great fun. and remember kids...it's not a race!
Day 9 - Lauceston to Lands End
Distance - 150kmThe final day, and we were greeted with glorious sunshine. Everyone knew that today was going to be just a little bit daft...by now there were 20 or so "hardcore" types, who all had a bit of a race-head on.
Everyone set off in the same pack, however almost immediately we hit a 20% hill on a narrow farm lane, and lots of the weaker riders got off to push their bikes, splitting us all up. David And Chris pulled off ahead, and I killed myself to catch them, however then lost them again over Bodmin Moor...those 2 were on a mission, and I couldn't quite keep up on the hills. I settled into a Time-Trial mentality, which basically involves me riding to my heart rate. The vast majority of my training was solo, so I was fairly comfortable keeping a steady pace.
As far as I can work out everyone rolled through the first pitstop without a pause, I know I did. I'd stocked up to do the entire 95 miles without a break if need be...and with that I carried on. I caught and overtook one pack, and while it was tiring work (this was the first time I'd done a section fully solo) I was making good time...unfortunately though, my bowels decided that I really needed to stop at the second pitstop (and I was the first person to do so)...
...which was lucky in a way, as the second and third people to stop were Toby and Stuart. Company for the final 30 miles was just what the Doctor ordered, and as an added bonus Toby was on top form, pushing us to the finish. Stuarts parents were on the road as well in a car, so we hammered toward Lands End!
Rolling into Penzance (with a glorious view of St.Micheals Mount) we thought "nearly there", only to discover that we were being taken out of Penzance up the pig of a 20% ascent. After that it was a series of other sharp inclines and declines, and some comedian in the road department had decided to start signposting Lands End in half mile increments, effectively slowing down the approach mentally...
Coming round a corner, thinking "where the hell is this place", we saw the crowd of people and the big blue arch. Off goes the sprint, and we all power over the finish line, while one marshal screams at us to slow down before we plough into the barriers. Man hugs all round! Rob was at the finish line with Kate and felix to watch us come in as well, which was excellent, thought I was properly pumped and almost certainly making no sense.
We were then dragged off for some publicity photos (we made the newsletter), and a series of daft photos were taken around the iconic sign. After calming down, having a cuppa and a bit of cake, it was then the slightly anti-climactic dis-assembly of the noble steed (1006 miles, no mechanical issues or punctures. I love my bike), and a bus trip to the base camp, where I chilled with Rob, Kate, Felix, Stuart and Toby for a few hours, eating pig and ice-cream.
Next time (the epilogue) I'll go through the highs and lows. one thing I would say that if you ever get the chance to do something like JOGLE, you should! An utterly life-affirming experience!
Wednesday 14 July 2010
RideAcrossBritain - Back to Blighty - Part 2
2nd part of the recap of my protracted cycle from John O'Groats to Lands End. The rivetting (and fairly cycling-based) installment can be found Here!
Another massive day on the road, and again riders were being sent off from 6.30am. The Unit assembled at the start for a 7am kick-off, minus Tom and Simon, who had both suffered fairly serious knee injuries the previous day. We started off with more tough, undulating terrain, so worked through it at a sensible pace. The weather had truely turned for the better by now, and I spent most of the day picking up a decent level of suntan and sunburn, and ended up with a comedy checkerboard across my body.
Past the first pitstop, and the terrain changed to some fantastic sweeping downhills. Toby, who knew the roads in this area very well, led us through some fantastic high-speed descents, and once again we started to move up the field. The second pitstop was at Gretna, just on the border, and approaching the town for about 10-15 miles was a long, flat section of road, and we could see small groups of cyclists strung out ahead of us. Spirits were high, and we formed up into our (now standard) chain-gang, and truly put the hammer down...we shot past about 60-70 cyclists, and over a 20 mile period averaged about 23-24mph. It was a real "in the zone" moment (and one all 5 of us still talk abut with massive grins on our faces). Whenever we had a new person at the front of the chain we expected the pace to drop back down to sensible levels, but everyone was feeling really good, and we ended up shooting into Gretna's pitstop about 20-30 minutes earlier than we expected. That section was one of the high points of the trip for me...a fantastic feeling of flying through the Scottish countryside, while watching other cyclists try (and fail) to stay with us!
Past Gretna we hit the border (hurahh!) and, after negotiating the urban area of Carlisle (going through big cities and towns were my least favourite sections...far too easy for groups to be split up) we were welcomed to the lake District with the vicious climb of Fell Hill, our first encounter with a properly steep bit of terrain. the climbs continued as we headed inwards, until we reached the descent towards Ullswater, and once again fantastic, sweeping roads with the fantastic views of the lake, while the sun beat down. We came flying into the base camp as a unit, completing one of the best days yet.
The base-camp was at the foot of the rather infamous Kirkstone Pass, one of the only ways through the Lakes, and renown as a tough ascent (the Sport relief £1,000,000 cycle had passed this way, and there was a famous clip of David Walliams coming to grief on Kirkstone, an image that stuck in many RAB'bers minds). I had a visit from a mate (Harry) in the evening...he was on holiday in the Lakes, and was (is currently) doing the ride from Lands End to John O'Groats the month after...only there would be 3 of them, not 600, and they wouldn't have all the support crew RAB had. I sensed jealousy as I showed him the base camp, with the massage crew working flat out!
After the huge distances and ascents of the previous two days, day 5 promised to be fairly gentle...once we had Kirkstone out of the way. In all honesty it wasn't as bad as I feared...it was long, and it was steep, however it was never un-manageable, and it occasionally levelled off a bit, to give some respite. The best indication I can give is that that it took us 20 minutes to do the first 5km of the day, and 6 minutes to do the second 5km (as we flew down the other side!), and quickly (once again) became the leaders on the road.
As we departed the Lake district the roads levelled off, and we made good time. David, in particular, was on form, and did some huge lead-outs...hauling the rest of us along at 20mph while one of the support motorbikes acted as an outrider for us, keeping traffic clear. Compared with the previous 2 days there was very little ascent of note, so we had a fairly comfortable cycle into the more urban areas of Bolton...
...where it all kicked off a bit. A couple of riders had killed themselves to catch us, and during the broken trip through Bolton they got past us and sprinted off into the distance. As a group we made a decision to let them go, rather than try and sprint to catch them, and instead do what we did best, and set a decent pursuit pace. this led to us regaining sight of them with 2 miles to go. For their part they thought they were well clear, and failed to spot us until we were about 100 metres behind, at which point it was too late, and we wolf-packed them and shot towards the finish in a group sprint. I probably would have lost, only a marshal mis-directed us, and sent us all into the service entrance of the Base Camp...I was fastest to turn round and complete the 50 metre sprint to the correct entrance, so comically stole the stage victory in a comical way (and I claim it still, despite the whinging of the other racers!)(it's not a race!)
One of the shortest days on the ride, and with statistically the least ascent, however there was one major feature of today's ride...a hill called Lond Mynd. Chris was local to the area, and had been advising us that it really was " a bit of a ramp". I knew the stats...about a mile long, and 25% gradient. Chris was going to ride ahead of the group today, as he had arranged with various local's that if he was first through towns etc, and ahead of James Cracknell then his sponsorship would be doubled. Toby had been taken down with a stomach bug, which was gutting for him, so Stuart, David and myself set off into the country roads near the welsh border.
The first 60-70 miles were fairly un-eventful...we were loathe to really hammer along as we had far more work each to do, and we were all mindful of the Mynd.
We hit the hills at about 100km in...there was an initial ascent of a minor foothill, which was tough but doable, then a long descent towards the foot of Long Mynd. As we got closer we could see the road heading up the side of the mound...it looked steep even from there...
Reaching the bottom you turn a sharp left, go over a cattlegrid, and then begin a fairly straight ascent on a single track road. I made in about 100 metres before my knee started to scream with pain, already in my lowest gear, out of the saddle, and my heartrate shooting up. Stuart was ahead of me, still in the saddle and forcing the pedals round. I made a call, hopped off and began the long push. David went past me, looking fairly paced, however after a couple of minutes I saw them both hop out of the saddle and walk up.
I really can't describe how vicious Long Mynd is, and I take my hat off to the few who beat it. I know Chris, Tom and Simon did, however I don't think I was mentally or physically prepared for that beast. My heartrate was well above my average "effort" level just walking up...the gradients varied from 21% to 28%...there is nothing in Berkshire like it (as examples, Sulham Hill at the back of Tilehurst is a mere 15%, while Walbury Hill, the highest point in the South-East has one ascent of 18%). The three of us reformed at the top of the main ascent, made a few comments regarding the geography, and then set off along the "looks flat, but was still a 10% gradient" remainder, before suffering a fairly terrifying descent into Church Stretton (I had both brakes fully locked, and was still at 20mph down the single-track, hairpin-laden road). Long Mynd had beaten me, but maybe sometimes it's good to know there are challenges out there.
The approach to the Base Camp was a sedate affair...we met up with Chris to find that he had beasted the course (locals had sprayed his name on the Mynd on the way up ala Tour de France...he had great support in his home town). We were based in Ludlow race course, so it made a nice change to eat under a proper roof in the clubhouse. As we were preparing to call it a night, we were approached my Mr. Cracknell with a proposition...he needed to do a teelvised training sequence for his next challenge with Ben Fogle, did we want to be the training pack? It would mean an early start the next day. Big cheesy grins all round ensued. Early day tomorrow then!
One more instalment to go...the trials and tribulations of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, those well-renowned flat areas?
Day 4 - East Renfrewshire to Ullswater
Distance - 210kmAnother massive day on the road, and again riders were being sent off from 6.30am. The Unit assembled at the start for a 7am kick-off, minus Tom and Simon, who had both suffered fairly serious knee injuries the previous day. We started off with more tough, undulating terrain, so worked through it at a sensible pace. The weather had truely turned for the better by now, and I spent most of the day picking up a decent level of suntan and sunburn, and ended up with a comedy checkerboard across my body.
Past the first pitstop, and the terrain changed to some fantastic sweeping downhills. Toby, who knew the roads in this area very well, led us through some fantastic high-speed descents, and once again we started to move up the field. The second pitstop was at Gretna, just on the border, and approaching the town for about 10-15 miles was a long, flat section of road, and we could see small groups of cyclists strung out ahead of us. Spirits were high, and we formed up into our (now standard) chain-gang, and truly put the hammer down...we shot past about 60-70 cyclists, and over a 20 mile period averaged about 23-24mph. It was a real "in the zone" moment (and one all 5 of us still talk abut with massive grins on our faces). Whenever we had a new person at the front of the chain we expected the pace to drop back down to sensible levels, but everyone was feeling really good, and we ended up shooting into Gretna's pitstop about 20-30 minutes earlier than we expected. That section was one of the high points of the trip for me...a fantastic feeling of flying through the Scottish countryside, while watching other cyclists try (and fail) to stay with us!
Past Gretna we hit the border (hurahh!) and, after negotiating the urban area of Carlisle (going through big cities and towns were my least favourite sections...far too easy for groups to be split up) we were welcomed to the lake District with the vicious climb of Fell Hill, our first encounter with a properly steep bit of terrain. the climbs continued as we headed inwards, until we reached the descent towards Ullswater, and once again fantastic, sweeping roads with the fantastic views of the lake, while the sun beat down. We came flying into the base camp as a unit, completing one of the best days yet.
The base-camp was at the foot of the rather infamous Kirkstone Pass, one of the only ways through the Lakes, and renown as a tough ascent (the Sport relief £1,000,000 cycle had passed this way, and there was a famous clip of David Walliams coming to grief on Kirkstone, an image that stuck in many RAB'bers minds). I had a visit from a mate (Harry) in the evening...he was on holiday in the Lakes, and was (is currently) doing the ride from Lands End to John O'Groats the month after...only there would be 3 of them, not 600, and they wouldn't have all the support crew RAB had. I sensed jealousy as I showed him the base camp, with the massage crew working flat out!
Day 5 - Ullswater to Manchester
Distance - 186kmAfter the huge distances and ascents of the previous two days, day 5 promised to be fairly gentle...once we had Kirkstone out of the way. In all honesty it wasn't as bad as I feared...it was long, and it was steep, however it was never un-manageable, and it occasionally levelled off a bit, to give some respite. The best indication I can give is that that it took us 20 minutes to do the first 5km of the day, and 6 minutes to do the second 5km (as we flew down the other side!), and quickly (once again) became the leaders on the road.
As we departed the Lake district the roads levelled off, and we made good time. David, in particular, was on form, and did some huge lead-outs...hauling the rest of us along at 20mph while one of the support motorbikes acted as an outrider for us, keeping traffic clear. Compared with the previous 2 days there was very little ascent of note, so we had a fairly comfortable cycle into the more urban areas of Bolton...
...where it all kicked off a bit. A couple of riders had killed themselves to catch us, and during the broken trip through Bolton they got past us and sprinted off into the distance. As a group we made a decision to let them go, rather than try and sprint to catch them, and instead do what we did best, and set a decent pursuit pace. this led to us regaining sight of them with 2 miles to go. For their part they thought they were well clear, and failed to spot us until we were about 100 metres behind, at which point it was too late, and we wolf-packed them and shot towards the finish in a group sprint. I probably would have lost, only a marshal mis-directed us, and sent us all into the service entrance of the Base Camp...I was fastest to turn round and complete the 50 metre sprint to the correct entrance, so comically stole the stage victory in a comical way (and I claim it still, despite the whinging of the other racers!)(it's not a race!)
Day 6 - Manchester to Ludlow
Distance - 173kmOne of the shortest days on the ride, and with statistically the least ascent, however there was one major feature of today's ride...a hill called Lond Mynd. Chris was local to the area, and had been advising us that it really was " a bit of a ramp". I knew the stats...about a mile long, and 25% gradient. Chris was going to ride ahead of the group today, as he had arranged with various local's that if he was first through towns etc, and ahead of James Cracknell then his sponsorship would be doubled. Toby had been taken down with a stomach bug, which was gutting for him, so Stuart, David and myself set off into the country roads near the welsh border.
The first 60-70 miles were fairly un-eventful...we were loathe to really hammer along as we had far more work each to do, and we were all mindful of the Mynd.
We hit the hills at about 100km in...there was an initial ascent of a minor foothill, which was tough but doable, then a long descent towards the foot of Long Mynd. As we got closer we could see the road heading up the side of the mound...it looked steep even from there...
Reaching the bottom you turn a sharp left, go over a cattlegrid, and then begin a fairly straight ascent on a single track road. I made in about 100 metres before my knee started to scream with pain, already in my lowest gear, out of the saddle, and my heartrate shooting up. Stuart was ahead of me, still in the saddle and forcing the pedals round. I made a call, hopped off and began the long push. David went past me, looking fairly paced, however after a couple of minutes I saw them both hop out of the saddle and walk up.
I really can't describe how vicious Long Mynd is, and I take my hat off to the few who beat it. I know Chris, Tom and Simon did, however I don't think I was mentally or physically prepared for that beast. My heartrate was well above my average "effort" level just walking up...the gradients varied from 21% to 28%...there is nothing in Berkshire like it (as examples, Sulham Hill at the back of Tilehurst is a mere 15%, while Walbury Hill, the highest point in the South-East has one ascent of 18%). The three of us reformed at the top of the main ascent, made a few comments regarding the geography, and then set off along the "looks flat, but was still a 10% gradient" remainder, before suffering a fairly terrifying descent into Church Stretton (I had both brakes fully locked, and was still at 20mph down the single-track, hairpin-laden road). Long Mynd had beaten me, but maybe sometimes it's good to know there are challenges out there.
The approach to the Base Camp was a sedate affair...we met up with Chris to find that he had beasted the course (locals had sprayed his name on the Mynd on the way up ala Tour de France...he had great support in his home town). We were based in Ludlow race course, so it made a nice change to eat under a proper roof in the clubhouse. As we were preparing to call it a night, we were approached my Mr. Cracknell with a proposition...he needed to do a teelvised training sequence for his next challenge with Ben Fogle, did we want to be the training pack? It would mean an early start the next day. Big cheesy grins all round ensued. Early day tomorrow then!
One more instalment to go...the trials and tribulations of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, those well-renowned flat areas?
RideAcrossBritain - A Rambling Re-Cap - Part 1
It's about a month since I finished Ride Across Britain, which I will henceforth refer to as RAB. I've attempted to type up a sort of review of the event before, however I think I exceeded Blogger's character count for saved drafts, and it was comprehensively eaten...
From Wick airport we were met by a double-decker bus (that was to follow us down the country, and act as a sweep wagon, office and portable hospital as we cycled) to take us to Base Camp 1, right at Jogn O'Groats. We were met by a sea of 1-man tents, a series of marquees, and a vicious wind from the west (the way we would be heading off the next day).
The first evening consisted of prepping my bike (which had travelled up by lorry the previous week), settling into my small tent, checking out the facilities (which were pretty good...plenty of showers, decent loo's, and a massive catering tent, as well as a chill-out marquee and a host of medical facilities), and attending the initial briefing. the weather, for it's part, got slowly worse, and when sensible people retired to bed (about 9pm), some tents were in the process of collapsing. Mine stood strong, though the conditons were so bad I reckon I got 2-3 hours sleep...not the perfect prep for a long cycle ride!
The real challenge here was not the route, but the weather. I set off in the first wave (for better of worse I had been flagged as a top 50 rider based on some arbitary quizzing over the phone), and we had the first 40-50 miles into a 25mph headwind, with occasional rain. Within a few miles we formed a pack of about 10 riders (pack riding improves efficiency massively, as only the front riders take the headwind...in normal conditions you are talking about a 25-30% efficiency saving, though with headwinds that can easily go upto 60-70%), and I quickly spotted I was in with like-minded people. After about a couple of hours riding we spotted a small group ahead of us, and determined that it must contain an olympiad of one flavour or another (the famous people had set off first). We put the hammer down (a phrase that was used repeatedly over the 9 days), and were soon overhauling Rebeca Romero, gold medallist in Beijing.
After the first pit stop (she skipped it, and gained a lead again) we headed back out, already first pack on the road, and as the weather cleared up a bit we started to spit up. Being the over-competitive swine that I am I held with the front group, and ended up riding with 4 other chaps for the rest of the day. I shall introduce some of the protagonists now;
...I should probably do a bit of an aside here. Those who know me probably know I have a bit of the competitive spirit about me.one thing I learned during RAB was that as a pack of riders we were extremely strong...each person had a role they could play...David could haul us along for long periods at a very high pace, Chris and Stuart were good on hills, whereas I was good for bursts of speed, which was used for shaking free-riders off our tail. As we overtook people, we noticed that they would try to catch a free drag, though without offering to do any work...my job was to goto the front and put down 5km at a pace that was uncomfortable to live with, and "snap the elastic". This way we could keep the team at a manageable size. I should probably say now that while it wasn't a race, sometimes it certainly felt like one!
...anyhow, Toby was obviously a great rider, and cheerfully did stints at the front to help the pack, so we quickly invited him to join the Unit :-) As a full pack of 5 we quickly set to cleaning out a team of 10 who were trying to draft us, resulting in me hauling us down the banks of Loch Lomond at 22-23mph for a while.
The final part of the day was very, very tough...the outskirts of Glasgow consisted of a seies of sharp and steep valleys, where getting a rhythym going was impossible, and by then we had already ridden 100 miles. Getting into basecamp was a relief, and I had the first signs of knee pain at the end. A visit to the Physio (often referred to as Sue the Miracle Worker) revealed a tear to my right knee fascia, and binding on both quads (where the muscle sheath is sticking to the muscle, causing tearing). Neither were terminal, though the knee-tear would mean the rest of the ride would be on painkillers.
Next time...we'll actually get out of Scotland!
Day 0 - Reading to John o'Groats
I set off with me, a bag which weighed considerably more than the specified 15kgs, and Gill, who accompanied me to Basingstoke Train station. From there it was to Southampton Airport (where I bumped into my first fellow RAB'bers, each dragging equalled over-weighted bags) to begin the flight upto Wick. At the plane swap in Edinburgh the number of cyclists heading northwards became very apparent, and Logan Air (who run the flights to Wick) were struggling with the volume of luggage (which all had to be pre-booked, so not sure why it was a surprise). The small plane was entirely composed of RAB cyclists, with an air of apprehension and eagerness.From Wick airport we were met by a double-decker bus (that was to follow us down the country, and act as a sweep wagon, office and portable hospital as we cycled) to take us to Base Camp 1, right at Jogn O'Groats. We were met by a sea of 1-man tents, a series of marquees, and a vicious wind from the west (the way we would be heading off the next day).
The first evening consisted of prepping my bike (which had travelled up by lorry the previous week), settling into my small tent, checking out the facilities (which were pretty good...plenty of showers, decent loo's, and a massive catering tent, as well as a chill-out marquee and a host of medical facilities), and attending the initial briefing. the weather, for it's part, got slowly worse, and when sensible people retired to bed (about 9pm), some tents were in the process of collapsing. Mine stood strong, though the conditons were so bad I reckon I got 2-3 hours sleep...not the perfect prep for a long cycle ride!
Day 1 - John O'Groats to Kyle of Sutherland
Distance - 167kmThe real challenge here was not the route, but the weather. I set off in the first wave (for better of worse I had been flagged as a top 50 rider based on some arbitary quizzing over the phone), and we had the first 40-50 miles into a 25mph headwind, with occasional rain. Within a few miles we formed a pack of about 10 riders (pack riding improves efficiency massively, as only the front riders take the headwind...in normal conditions you are talking about a 25-30% efficiency saving, though with headwinds that can easily go upto 60-70%), and I quickly spotted I was in with like-minded people. After about a couple of hours riding we spotted a small group ahead of us, and determined that it must contain an olympiad of one flavour or another (the famous people had set off first). We put the hammer down (a phrase that was used repeatedly over the 9 days), and were soon overhauling Rebeca Romero, gold medallist in Beijing.
After the first pit stop (she skipped it, and gained a lead again) we headed back out, already first pack on the road, and as the weather cleared up a bit we started to spit up. Being the over-competitive swine that I am I held with the front group, and ended up riding with 4 other chaps for the rest of the day. I shall introduce some of the protagonists now;
- Chris - chap from Shropshire...extremely good cyclist.
- Tom - Chris's brother. again a good rider, but not quite as strong as Chris
- Simon - cycling journalist for the Independant newspaper
- David - a chicken farmer no less. Able to hammer out a crazy pace without showing any pain!
Day 2 - Kyle of Sutherland to Loch Linnhe
Distance - 160km the Garmin refused to record the ride today, due to the conditions On the plus side the wind had died right down, and swung into a gentle tailwind. On the downside it was raining...a constant heavy drizzle. I met up with a couple of lads at the start-line from the original pack of 10 from yesterday;- Stuart - a mountain biker from Bath
- Johnathon - a slightly weird chap, who would feature again later in the ride
Day 3 - Kyle of Sutherland to East Renfrewshire
Distance - 210km The biggie. Today we'd cover 130 miles, and go over Glen Coe. Due to the length of the stage they started setting people off from 6.30am, so when we formed up at 7am there were already plenty of people on the road. The weather had finally cleared up, and we had a fantastic view of Ben Nevis as we set out. Despite plans to take it easy, David decided we wanted a bit of clear road, so hauled us along at 20mph for a while, then we kept a steady pace until we reached the base of the Glen Coe ascent. once climbing we held a steady pace...to be honest the climb was nowhere near as bad as we expected...long but not overly steep (about 5-6% for those who understand such things). We reached the top, and were greeted with some fantastic views, and even better some amazing descents, which we took full advantage of...nothing quite like flying down a mountainside at 40mph! Next up was the banks of Lock Lomond...once again great views, and where we met up with the final member of the team (or "the Unit", as we referred to ourselves)- Toby - a lad from Edinburgh who was on home soil here
...I should probably do a bit of an aside here. Those who know me probably know I have a bit of the competitive spirit about me.one thing I learned during RAB was that as a pack of riders we were extremely strong...each person had a role they could play...David could haul us along for long periods at a very high pace, Chris and Stuart were good on hills, whereas I was good for bursts of speed, which was used for shaking free-riders off our tail. As we overtook people, we noticed that they would try to catch a free drag, though without offering to do any work...my job was to goto the front and put down 5km at a pace that was uncomfortable to live with, and "snap the elastic". This way we could keep the team at a manageable size. I should probably say now that while it wasn't a race, sometimes it certainly felt like one!
...anyhow, Toby was obviously a great rider, and cheerfully did stints at the front to help the pack, so we quickly invited him to join the Unit :-) As a full pack of 5 we quickly set to cleaning out a team of 10 who were trying to draft us, resulting in me hauling us down the banks of Loch Lomond at 22-23mph for a while.
The final part of the day was very, very tough...the outskirts of Glasgow consisted of a seies of sharp and steep valleys, where getting a rhythym going was impossible, and by then we had already ridden 100 miles. Getting into basecamp was a relief, and I had the first signs of knee pain at the end. A visit to the Physio (often referred to as Sue the Miracle Worker) revealed a tear to my right knee fascia, and binding on both quads (where the muscle sheath is sticking to the muscle, causing tearing). Neither were terminal, though the knee-tear would mean the rest of the ride would be on painkillers.
Next time...we'll actually get out of Scotland!
Tuesday 1 June 2010
The Final Countdown (cue 80's big-hair music)
10 days until I fly out, and this will probably be the last blog I do before I head off...
I'm fairly certain at this point that I haven't trained enough. We received the route details a couple of weeks ago, and the amount of climbing is immense. The hardest day (day 3, Monday 15th June) will see us cycling 130 miles, and doing the equivalent of cycling up and down Snowdon 3 times. The next day is the same distance, but "only" up and down Snowdon 2½ times. My training has been mainly in the Thames valley, and while I've been hitting the available hills, over 100 miles I struggle to fit a single Snowdon equivalent in (I've decided that "a Snowdon" is now a viable unit of vertical measurement).
The bike gets packed off on Sunday, and I've going through the kit-lists and doing some last minute orders. The provisional weather forecasts are out for Scotland, and currently they are favouring "chilly and wet", though I'll take more notice middle of next week, when predictions will become a little more accurate. I fly out Friday morning from Southampton (with a stop-over in Edinburgh before heading onto Wick), and should arrive in John O'Groats mid-afternoon.
I did my last race on Sunday...an Olympic Triathlon over in Norfolk. Predictably my swim and run were sub-par (29 minutes and 47 minutes respectively, bringing me in mid-field), with the bike leg dragging me up to a semi-respectable 54th overall out of 200. I clocked an average speed of 22.5mph on the bike over 25 miles, though the course was fairly flat. My next race is at the end of June,l and it's a sprint distance...once JOGLE is out of the way I intend to do some work on the running, which is pretty pants right now. I reckon there is 6 minutes to gain in the run, and a minute on the swim.
While I'm cycling down the country I won't have access to a PC, so will be attmepting to run updates from my phone. A group of the more geeky of us are on Twitter, and will be using the tag #RAB10 . There will also be personalised oens based on our numbers, so I will also be using #RAB10-208. Expect photos, whining about sore legs/bum/feet, and if I'm particularly cunning video (though don't expect it to be exciting!)
I'll be back in the land of the living on the evening of Monday 21st June...hopefully. So long as I don't die or something silly like that...
I'm fairly certain at this point that I haven't trained enough. We received the route details a couple of weeks ago, and the amount of climbing is immense. The hardest day (day 3, Monday 15th June) will see us cycling 130 miles, and doing the equivalent of cycling up and down Snowdon 3 times. The next day is the same distance, but "only" up and down Snowdon 2½ times. My training has been mainly in the Thames valley, and while I've been hitting the available hills, over 100 miles I struggle to fit a single Snowdon equivalent in (I've decided that "a Snowdon" is now a viable unit of vertical measurement).
The bike gets packed off on Sunday, and I've going through the kit-lists and doing some last minute orders. The provisional weather forecasts are out for Scotland, and currently they are favouring "chilly and wet", though I'll take more notice middle of next week, when predictions will become a little more accurate. I fly out Friday morning from Southampton (with a stop-over in Edinburgh before heading onto Wick), and should arrive in John O'Groats mid-afternoon.
I did my last race on Sunday...an Olympic Triathlon over in Norfolk. Predictably my swim and run were sub-par (29 minutes and 47 minutes respectively, bringing me in mid-field), with the bike leg dragging me up to a semi-respectable 54th overall out of 200. I clocked an average speed of 22.5mph on the bike over 25 miles, though the course was fairly flat. My next race is at the end of June,l and it's a sprint distance...once JOGLE is out of the way I intend to do some work on the running, which is pretty pants right now. I reckon there is 6 minutes to gain in the run, and a minute on the swim.
While I'm cycling down the country I won't have access to a PC, so will be attmepting to run updates from my phone. A group of the more geeky of us are on Twitter, and will be using the tag #RAB10 . There will also be personalised oens based on our numbers, so I will also be using #RAB10-208. Expect photos, whining about sore legs/bum/feet, and if I'm particularly cunning video (though don't expect it to be exciting!)
I'll be back in the land of the living on the evening of Monday 21st June...hopefully. So long as I don't die or something silly like that...
Wednesday 19 May 2010
Transient Updates
Once I've finished Ride Across Britain I'd like a bit more than sore muscles to show for it. Quite aside from being slightly damaged in the head department, I'm also a card-carrying geek, so it's to be expected that I shall be logging and blogging the trip.
My original plan was to take a netbook with me, and spend a bit of R&R time in the evening getting everything checked in, however we've been advised that laptops are a bad idea (the luggage service is going to be bags in trucks, so in all probability delicate electronics will be bashed to death). On top of that we can expect only limited 3G coverage, especially in more northern realms of the country.
As such I've had to start re-working my e-geek strategy. In the absence of a laptop my next communication tool is my Nokia 5800, a fairly basic and robust smartphone. I tend to pick phones that are suitable for beating people to death, and still capable of working afterwards. I can use this to upload to various services and sites via Pixelpipe. I'll use Twitter as my main target, and build a small micro-site based around a twitter feed to a specific tag (something along the lines of #rab10pg), and this can include video, piccies and updates.
Of course, I need some way of capturing the media. I'll have my compact camera, however that will only be really useful at static locations (base camps, pit stops etc). For photos while cycling I don't really want to risk getting a camera out...in pack cycling thats just asking for it. I've been hunting round for a bullet camera, however I've struggled to find one that isn't either stupidly expensive (normally with a remote storage/power supply, or too heavy), or simply rubbish. I also wanted it to be able to take stills and video.
I finally settled on a Swann MDV 450. It's 60 grams, can do video and stills, is robust, and most importantly saves to Micro SD card, which I can put in the Nokia to upload. It also uses the same charger as my Garmin (unfortunately without a PC I don't think I can get stuff off that, as it's integrated memory).
I'll be testing the camera over the next few days, and then spend an evening whipping up a RSS feed page. While it would be handy to have the netbook, without it I get a couple more kilos of other stuff to take with me (weight limit of 15kg's in total)...probably in food form!
My original plan was to take a netbook with me, and spend a bit of R&R time in the evening getting everything checked in, however we've been advised that laptops are a bad idea (the luggage service is going to be bags in trucks, so in all probability delicate electronics will be bashed to death). On top of that we can expect only limited 3G coverage, especially in more northern realms of the country.
As such I've had to start re-working my e-geek strategy. In the absence of a laptop my next communication tool is my Nokia 5800, a fairly basic and robust smartphone. I tend to pick phones that are suitable for beating people to death, and still capable of working afterwards. I can use this to upload to various services and sites via Pixelpipe. I'll use Twitter as my main target, and build a small micro-site based around a twitter feed to a specific tag (something along the lines of #rab10pg), and this can include video, piccies and updates.
Of course, I need some way of capturing the media. I'll have my compact camera, however that will only be really useful at static locations (base camps, pit stops etc). For photos while cycling I don't really want to risk getting a camera out...in pack cycling thats just asking for it. I've been hunting round for a bullet camera, however I've struggled to find one that isn't either stupidly expensive (normally with a remote storage/power supply, or too heavy), or simply rubbish. I also wanted it to be able to take stills and video.
I finally settled on a Swann MDV 450. It's 60 grams, can do video and stills, is robust, and most importantly saves to Micro SD card, which I can put in the Nokia to upload. It also uses the same charger as my Garmin (unfortunately without a PC I don't think I can get stuff off that, as it's integrated memory).
I'll be testing the camera over the next few days, and then spend an evening whipping up a RSS feed page. While it would be handy to have the netbook, without it I get a couple more kilos of other stuff to take with me (weight limit of 15kg's in total)...probably in food form!
Tuesday 11 May 2010
Changeover - race season begins
First off, it's now only 32 days to go until I kick off on Ride Across Britain, which is both exhilarating, and terrifying. I go through daily fluctuations between wanting to get on with it, and being utterly feaful that I haven't done nearly enough training. I've been spending evening doing 4-50 mile rides around West Berkshire, and aiming for longer rides at the weekend, however I won't really know if it's been enough until about day 4 of the trip I suspect. For now it's case of keeping on with as much cycling as I can, and looking after myself, as injury now would be heart-breaking.
In other news, I have completed the rush job of getting a new Warhammer 40K army completed. On the last weekend of April I entered an event called SVA at Spiky Club. It was a campaign tournament, so not supposed to be really serious, and I was entered as Tau in a Xenos/Dark Angel domain. We finished mid-table, however my results were distinctly sub-average (1 draw, 4 losses). I've been getting better with Tau on weekly club nights, but they do suffer from a distinct lack of resiliance, which really showed at SVA. Next weekend there is another tournament called Rapid Strike, and this time it's going to be a little more serious. I decided that rather than enter the Tau, which I enjoy playing, but really don't have much confidence in handing out the hurt I would fast-track my new army, the Blood Angels. The last coupld of weeks have been a frantic dash to assemble, paint and finish a 150 point force. I have to finalise the list this saturday, so I'm going to get one game to practice, and one more week after that to realise all my hideous mistakes.
I've gone for a list which is as un-Tau as I can, and it consists almost exclusively of short-range guns and lots of fisticuffs, with the entire force equipped with jump-packs, so hopefully I can counter an absence of long-range offense with maneuverability and brutal assualt.
My other weekends before JOGLE are taken up with Triathlons. I have my first of the season this weekend at Merchant Taylor School, not a million miles from Watford. A fortnight after that I have a second one at Fritton Lake in Norfolk. After a few weeks of wimping out I finally did my first outdoor swim of the season this morning, with water temperatures of 12'C (which ,in case you're not sure, if absolutely brassic). I mananged the 1500m without stopping, and at a comfortable pace, however the last 2-300 metres my hands went numb, and I had trouble keeping my form. It's safe to say that Merchant Taylor is going to be cold (even more so in that it kicks off at crazy o'clock, so there won't even be a bit of sunshine to take off the chill. I won't even mention the complete lack of running training I haven't not done.
To briefly mention politics...I've been following the recent kerfuffle as an interested observer. I can't honestly say I can support any one party over another, however I find the election as a process fascinating, and the various curiosities of how a democratic vote can be run elegantly complex. It looks like we are going to have a co-alition government for the first time in my lifetime, which I don't find overly scary, more intrigued to see if various politicians who historically have been at each other throats can actually find some common ground...I'm aware that this sort of arrangement is the norm in several other countries, and perhaps it will be no bad thing to at least experience it here...
In other news, I have completed the rush job of getting a new Warhammer 40K army completed. On the last weekend of April I entered an event called SVA at Spiky Club. It was a campaign tournament, so not supposed to be really serious, and I was entered as Tau in a Xenos/Dark Angel domain. We finished mid-table, however my results were distinctly sub-average (1 draw, 4 losses). I've been getting better with Tau on weekly club nights, but they do suffer from a distinct lack of resiliance, which really showed at SVA. Next weekend there is another tournament called Rapid Strike, and this time it's going to be a little more serious. I decided that rather than enter the Tau, which I enjoy playing, but really don't have much confidence in handing out the hurt I would fast-track my new army, the Blood Angels. The last coupld of weeks have been a frantic dash to assemble, paint and finish a 150 point force. I have to finalise the list this saturday, so I'm going to get one game to practice, and one more week after that to realise all my hideous mistakes.
I've gone for a list which is as un-Tau as I can, and it consists almost exclusively of short-range guns and lots of fisticuffs, with the entire force equipped with jump-packs, so hopefully I can counter an absence of long-range offense with maneuverability and brutal assualt.
My other weekends before JOGLE are taken up with Triathlons. I have my first of the season this weekend at Merchant Taylor School, not a million miles from Watford. A fortnight after that I have a second one at Fritton Lake in Norfolk. After a few weeks of wimping out I finally did my first outdoor swim of the season this morning, with water temperatures of 12'C (which ,in case you're not sure, if absolutely brassic). I mananged the 1500m without stopping, and at a comfortable pace, however the last 2-300 metres my hands went numb, and I had trouble keeping my form. It's safe to say that Merchant Taylor is going to be cold (even more so in that it kicks off at crazy o'clock, so there won't even be a bit of sunshine to take off the chill. I won't even mention the complete lack of running training I haven't not done.
To briefly mention politics...I've been following the recent kerfuffle as an interested observer. I can't honestly say I can support any one party over another, however I find the election as a process fascinating, and the various curiosities of how a democratic vote can be run elegantly complex. It looks like we are going to have a co-alition government for the first time in my lifetime, which I don't find overly scary, more intrigued to see if various politicians who historically have been at each other throats can actually find some common ground...I'm aware that this sort of arrangement is the norm in several other countries, and perhaps it will be no bad thing to at least experience it here...
Tuesday 6 April 2010
I think Spring may have arrived...
It's not raining, and according to my garmin I've just been out cycling in temperatures in excess of 15'C, which is T-Shirt and Shorts weather in my book.
It's now (checks countdown) 67 days to go until I head off from John O'Groats. Training has been going well in the main...in March I maanged 50+ miles a day for 8 days straight, and apart from a little bit of sleep re-adjustment I managed fine, with no bio-mechanical foul-ups. We also managed a trip down to Exmoor, where the UK Half-Ironman is based, and did a day's cycling on the route...renowned as the worlds toughest half-ironman (I can see why...each 25'ish mile lap has a series of hellishly steep hills, including 3 20%+ ones). We did pretty well, even taking on the vicious headwind no the "easy" section of the course. I'm currently clocking up about 900-1000 miles a month, and all my spare weekends are now booked out until I set off, typically with 100-mile rides back-to-back.
Easter went less well...the first day started well, but deteriorated into a cold and windy rain-storm, and I started picking up loads and loads of punctures. This culminated with me trying to repair an innertube (I'd run out of fresh ones) 2 miles from Twyford in a mini-gale, while being lashed with rain. I called the cavalry (Gill), who very nobly came out as a back-up rescue, however surprisingly (especially to myself) the glue held, and I was able to roll back into Reading, where Sweeney Todd's Pie Shop rescued my plummeting body temperature with a pie and chips emergency serving.
Once I decided to look at the bike again I found out that the back tyre was blistered and cut up...the result of a hard winters use. The tyres are the originals, and they have racked up about 3,500 miles, including the tarmac-armageddon that was January. I spent yesterday cleaning/greasing the bike, and changing the tyres over to some fresh folding ones, which should see it through spring/summer. I also got the TT bike ready to roll, and hopefully I can start giving it some run outs, with an eye to the weather of course!
In the other world, I've started work on the Blood Angels 40k army. I was delaying until I had seen the official codex (released on Friday), and could work out what units I was to include. I ended up doing a decent sized order, and spent the easter weekend working on assembly and base-coating. I'm going to be using the same painting techniques as I did on the Tau, with a few lessons learnt. For a start, I'm trying to make sure that the models are flexible, and to that end wherever there are equipment choices, I'm adding magnets to allow swappable arms/backpacks etc etc. The house has resonated to the sound of a Dremel this weekend, and my initial supply of 150 magnets has quickly been embedded in the models, random arms and backpacks. There is a 1-day tournament at the end of May, and it would be good to have a basic force built up by then (though obviously it has to fit around the cycling...I'm in the decent position that if I miss the deadline I can always use the Tau instead, who have been performing much better recently, and have even clocked up a couple of victories!)
There is a photo project log of the assembly and painting of the Blood Angels here (typically not great photos, as they are taken with my phone as I work...). As with the Tau, the end goal is for about 3,000 points worth of army. I would expect to finish that late summer, and then look to start work on a new army for autumn/winter.
Everything would be much easier if I didn't have to work (quick work update...more redundancies, I'm not affected, and I'm so in demand that no-one is allowed any of my time...go figure). Easter shot by is a blur of cycling, drilling and super-glue, and my next weekend with nothing to do is the arse-end of June, a.k.a the brief gap between JOGLE and the Bournemouth Triathlon (my first sea-swim!).
It's now (checks countdown) 67 days to go until I head off from John O'Groats. Training has been going well in the main...in March I maanged 50+ miles a day for 8 days straight, and apart from a little bit of sleep re-adjustment I managed fine, with no bio-mechanical foul-ups. We also managed a trip down to Exmoor, where the UK Half-Ironman is based, and did a day's cycling on the route...renowned as the worlds toughest half-ironman (I can see why...each 25'ish mile lap has a series of hellishly steep hills, including 3 20%+ ones). We did pretty well, even taking on the vicious headwind no the "easy" section of the course. I'm currently clocking up about 900-1000 miles a month, and all my spare weekends are now booked out until I set off, typically with 100-mile rides back-to-back.
Easter went less well...the first day started well, but deteriorated into a cold and windy rain-storm, and I started picking up loads and loads of punctures. This culminated with me trying to repair an innertube (I'd run out of fresh ones) 2 miles from Twyford in a mini-gale, while being lashed with rain. I called the cavalry (Gill), who very nobly came out as a back-up rescue, however surprisingly (especially to myself) the glue held, and I was able to roll back into Reading, where Sweeney Todd's Pie Shop rescued my plummeting body temperature with a pie and chips emergency serving.
Once I decided to look at the bike again I found out that the back tyre was blistered and cut up...the result of a hard winters use. The tyres are the originals, and they have racked up about 3,500 miles, including the tarmac-armageddon that was January. I spent yesterday cleaning/greasing the bike, and changing the tyres over to some fresh folding ones, which should see it through spring/summer. I also got the TT bike ready to roll, and hopefully I can start giving it some run outs, with an eye to the weather of course!
In the other world, I've started work on the Blood Angels 40k army. I was delaying until I had seen the official codex (released on Friday), and could work out what units I was to include. I ended up doing a decent sized order, and spent the easter weekend working on assembly and base-coating. I'm going to be using the same painting techniques as I did on the Tau, with a few lessons learnt. For a start, I'm trying to make sure that the models are flexible, and to that end wherever there are equipment choices, I'm adding magnets to allow swappable arms/backpacks etc etc. The house has resonated to the sound of a Dremel this weekend, and my initial supply of 150 magnets has quickly been embedded in the models, random arms and backpacks. There is a 1-day tournament at the end of May, and it would be good to have a basic force built up by then (though obviously it has to fit around the cycling...I'm in the decent position that if I miss the deadline I can always use the Tau instead, who have been performing much better recently, and have even clocked up a couple of victories!)
There is a photo project log of the assembly and painting of the Blood Angels here (typically not great photos, as they are taken with my phone as I work...). As with the Tau, the end goal is for about 3,000 points worth of army. I would expect to finish that late summer, and then look to start work on a new army for autumn/winter.
Everything would be much easier if I didn't have to work (quick work update...more redundancies, I'm not affected, and I'm so in demand that no-one is allowed any of my time...go figure). Easter shot by is a blur of cycling, drilling and super-glue, and my next weekend with nothing to do is the arse-end of June, a.k.a the brief gap between JOGLE and the Bournemouth Triathlon (my first sea-swim!).
Monday 22 February 2010
Hard Graft
The snow seems to have held off a little in the past month, so I've been working on getting some mileage out of the bike. It's still been stupidly cold, and wet, and windy, so it's been a long way from pleasant, but it's important that I get myself moving now, so I don't suffer too much in June.
On the last weekend in January I did a training ride with Threshold. Really good day, and great confidence builder for me. There were about 50'ish riders there, and after a number of talks (Halfords, who are providing the machanical support, SIS, who are doing the 'sports nutrition' aka liquid carbohydrate, as well as a little bit from Chris Boardman and James Cracknell) we all kitted up for a ride in the cold, slightly icy West Berkshire countryside. I bit the bullet and put myself in the fast group, along with about 14 other brave souls. We were being led by a local lad, a 9-hour Ironman (which is a pretty awesome time), an SIS athlete and Cracknell himself. We very quickly managed to lose the lad who knew the route (he dropped back to help a straggler, and we missed a couple of key turnings), and found ourselves about 10 miles the wrong way, and on a main A-Road. After a bit of discussion and map-pointing we decided to head up towards Swindon, then cut back to the route. The A-Road managed to contain a fair percentage of arse-hole car/va/lorry drivers, most of who received cheery waves and verbal abuse (it would have been quite funny if one of them decided to stop...Cracknell is a big fella, and some of the other guys were well-built too, and I'm more than happy to kick when they are down), but we eventually found our way back on route, just in time for a monster 16% climb. If I'd known it was coming I would probably have failed it, but as it was I ground my way up, which was a huge mental hurdle beaten (I've previously died on 11%+ hills). We ended up going past the slower groups (who had cunningly not taken an enormous diversion), and most of our group ended up staying back with them, so at the end only 3 of the riders finished as the fast team, and I was really chuffed to be one of them. We covered about 70 miles in total, with just under a mile of vertical climb, and an average speed of 17mph.
Since then I've ben doing the mileage I can, averaging about 150 a week. I'd really like to see that moved upto about 250-300, and hopefully once the weather sorts itself out, and we get a bit more daylight I can work on making that happen. As the big countdown on my blog reminds me, it's now 110 days to go...all the transport is booked up, and it's really time to knuckle down and get the mileage in. In March I have a week off, and I plan to do 9 days of 50+ miles a day (about 3 hours in the saddle), to put in some hard work on recovery and fatigue management. Towards the end of March I have a weekend in Exmoor planned with a mate, and we are going to do laps of the UK Half Iron-Man course, with a goal of doing 100+ miles in a day, with about 3 miles of vertical elevation as some hardcore hill training.
When I'm not cycling, running or swimming, really enjoying being back into 40K. I've been going down to Spiky Club in Reading, and finding out that;
1) I suck at 40K
2) Tau are a really un-forgiving army to play
I have an impressive loss:win ratio at the moment...perfect in fact. I am un-non-beatable. as such I intend to start work on a second, and more forgiving army to help me learn the game... This time I'll be working on a Blood Angels army, as they have a new Codex out in April. I've picked up a job-lot of second hand miniatures, and planning to begin work on painting them sometime this week. What I really need is another dose of snow, as that gets me painting in double-time, however it does affect the training somewhat!
On the last weekend in January I did a training ride with Threshold. Really good day, and great confidence builder for me. There were about 50'ish riders there, and after a number of talks (Halfords, who are providing the machanical support, SIS, who are doing the 'sports nutrition' aka liquid carbohydrate, as well as a little bit from Chris Boardman and James Cracknell) we all kitted up for a ride in the cold, slightly icy West Berkshire countryside. I bit the bullet and put myself in the fast group, along with about 14 other brave souls. We were being led by a local lad, a 9-hour Ironman (which is a pretty awesome time), an SIS athlete and Cracknell himself. We very quickly managed to lose the lad who knew the route (he dropped back to help a straggler, and we missed a couple of key turnings), and found ourselves about 10 miles the wrong way, and on a main A-Road. After a bit of discussion and map-pointing we decided to head up towards Swindon, then cut back to the route. The A-Road managed to contain a fair percentage of arse-hole car/va/lorry drivers, most of who received cheery waves and verbal abuse (it would have been quite funny if one of them decided to stop...Cracknell is a big fella, and some of the other guys were well-built too, and I'm more than happy to kick when they are down), but we eventually found our way back on route, just in time for a monster 16% climb. If I'd known it was coming I would probably have failed it, but as it was I ground my way up, which was a huge mental hurdle beaten (I've previously died on 11%+ hills). We ended up going past the slower groups (who had cunningly not taken an enormous diversion), and most of our group ended up staying back with them, so at the end only 3 of the riders finished as the fast team, and I was really chuffed to be one of them. We covered about 70 miles in total, with just under a mile of vertical climb, and an average speed of 17mph.
Since then I've ben doing the mileage I can, averaging about 150 a week. I'd really like to see that moved upto about 250-300, and hopefully once the weather sorts itself out, and we get a bit more daylight I can work on making that happen. As the big countdown on my blog reminds me, it's now 110 days to go...all the transport is booked up, and it's really time to knuckle down and get the mileage in. In March I have a week off, and I plan to do 9 days of 50+ miles a day (about 3 hours in the saddle), to put in some hard work on recovery and fatigue management. Towards the end of March I have a weekend in Exmoor planned with a mate, and we are going to do laps of the UK Half Iron-Man course, with a goal of doing 100+ miles in a day, with about 3 miles of vertical elevation as some hardcore hill training.
When I'm not cycling, running or swimming, really enjoying being back into 40K. I've been going down to Spiky Club in Reading, and finding out that;
1) I suck at 40K
2) Tau are a really un-forgiving army to play
I have an impressive loss:win ratio at the moment...perfect in fact. I am un-non-beatable. as such I intend to start work on a second, and more forgiving army to help me learn the game... This time I'll be working on a Blood Angels army, as they have a new Codex out in April. I've picked up a job-lot of second hand miniatures, and planning to begin work on painting them sometime this week. What I really need is another dose of snow, as that gets me painting in double-time, however it does affect the training somewhat!
Wednesday 27 January 2010
Getting back into it...
It's been a tough month if you're keen to be outside training. We've had just shy of a foot of settled snow in Berkshire, combined with a shortage of grit meant pretty much impassable roads. The snow has left (for now), but it seems to have left behind some fairly epic potholes, and vast amounts of crud on the road in the way of stones, grit etc, so cycling contineus to be a challenge... The trainig plan has gone out of the window, and right now it's very much catch-up and mileage building again. I have a training ride this weekend (Sunday), and overall I'm expecting to break 100 miles that day...
As the countdown cheerfully reminds me every time I head here or the RAB2010 website, we are now over halfway through the training, with about 135 days left to go...faintly terrifying. To aid me in my constant terror that I'm not doing enough I have a new toy (Christmas present from Gill ) that lets me keep very accurate track of how little I'm doing, and how badly I am doing it. The stuff it kicks out can be seen here. It's way more accurate than the old phone stuff, and includes other funky data points like cadence and heart rate, which has already proved very useful in working out how I react to fatigue (I now have it bleeping warnings at me if my cadence goes below 80)
Quite aside from the training, there is also the sorting out of the logistics of getting to and from John O'Groats and Lands End. The trains run as far as Wick, which is about 20 miles from JOG, and can deal with (wait for it) about 16 cyclists a day, which would be an issue when you consider that roughtly 650-700 will be turning up. instead our bikes are being shipped up separately, and we make our own way. I've decided to fly, as most other options involved a 6-7 hour coach ride from Edinburgh or Aberdeen (I don't travel well, and I can't think of anything worse than violent travel sickness the day before setting off on a 1,000 mile cycle). I'll be heading to Southampton, flying to Wick via Edinburgh, and then taking teh shuttle bus to JOG. It's all booked, and ready to go, and again makes it all sem just round the corner now...
While this year the focus is going to be on cycling, I'm also going for a fair number of triathlons. Currently booked up are the Merchant Taylor Olympic tri in May, the Fritton Lake Olympic Tri (also in May), the London tri (in August, doing the extended bike ride to 80km), and the Vitruvian Half Iron-Man (in September...season finale I guess). On top of that I'm doing the Reading Half Marathon (March...probably going to be rubbish again), and I'm looking at teh Human Race Evening Sprint Triathlon series at Dorney Lake as well. There has been some mention of giving bike Time Trialling a go as well, as Reading has a fairly active cycle club, and it would give me an excuse to give the TT bike a showing.
So all in all a fairly manic year. I estimate last year I cycled approximately 5,000 miles... I would be shocked if I didn't top that by some margin this year. I also need to keep the running up (I need to be at least half-marathon fit throughout the summer, and into autumn) and also comfortable doing 2km+ swims in open water...so I could really do with the weather sorting itself out!
As the countdown cheerfully reminds me every time I head here or the RAB2010 website, we are now over halfway through the training, with about 135 days left to go...faintly terrifying. To aid me in my constant terror that I'm not doing enough I have a new toy (Christmas present from Gill ) that lets me keep very accurate track of how little I'm doing, and how badly I am doing it. The stuff it kicks out can be seen here. It's way more accurate than the old phone stuff, and includes other funky data points like cadence and heart rate, which has already proved very useful in working out how I react to fatigue (I now have it bleeping warnings at me if my cadence goes below 80)
Quite aside from the training, there is also the sorting out of the logistics of getting to and from John O'Groats and Lands End. The trains run as far as Wick, which is about 20 miles from JOG, and can deal with (wait for it) about 16 cyclists a day, which would be an issue when you consider that roughtly 650-700 will be turning up. instead our bikes are being shipped up separately, and we make our own way. I've decided to fly, as most other options involved a 6-7 hour coach ride from Edinburgh or Aberdeen (I don't travel well, and I can't think of anything worse than violent travel sickness the day before setting off on a 1,000 mile cycle). I'll be heading to Southampton, flying to Wick via Edinburgh, and then taking teh shuttle bus to JOG. It's all booked, and ready to go, and again makes it all sem just round the corner now...
While this year the focus is going to be on cycling, I'm also going for a fair number of triathlons. Currently booked up are the Merchant Taylor Olympic tri in May, the Fritton Lake Olympic Tri (also in May), the London tri (in August, doing the extended bike ride to 80km), and the Vitruvian Half Iron-Man (in September...season finale I guess). On top of that I'm doing the Reading Half Marathon (March...probably going to be rubbish again), and I'm looking at teh Human Race Evening Sprint Triathlon series at Dorney Lake as well. There has been some mention of giving bike Time Trialling a go as well, as Reading has a fairly active cycle club, and it would give me an excuse to give the TT bike a showing.
So all in all a fairly manic year. I estimate last year I cycled approximately 5,000 miles... I would be shocked if I didn't top that by some margin this year. I also need to keep the running up (I need to be at least half-marathon fit throughout the summer, and into autumn) and also comfortable doing 2km+ swims in open water...so I could really do with the weather sorting itself out!
Tuesday 5 January 2010
What I did do in my holidays
I've spent the last three weeks fairly housebound, mainly as a result of the weather. The downside of having transport with 2 wheels is that if the roads turn icy you are pretty much fuxored. I can't actually get the motorbike out at the moment, as my road is (as Gill describes it)a bit like Narnia, and constantly frozen (it's on the wrong side of a hill, and gets very little direct sunlight, so the frost and ice stays for ages). Cycling is a risky business, and I've had one friend trash his bike in the last week after hitting ice, so it's just not worth the risk.
As a result I've had plenty of time to progress a project I thought would take a couple of months at least, but has in fact been almost completed in a little under 3 weeks. After the fun of painting Space Hulk up, I decided to return to my teen years, and paint up a Warhammer 40K army. I appreciate that at this point many people will turn off, and I'm going to start spouting bollocks if you don't know what 40K is, so you can probably turn off now...
...back before university I used to play a lot (member of wargame club etc) with Space Marines, which at that time were getting fairly screwed over by the evolving ruleset. When I went to uni I left all the models at home (and as a result I no longer have them...probably binned along with the rest of my stuff...no matter, they were painted in garish colours that only a teen boy could constitute as "cool"), and I've never really had the time or inclination to build up a new army until now.
There is a new, and uber lazy, way of painting called "dipping", which basically involves;
1) Spraying the models a base colour
2) painting on simple detail
3) coating the model in pigmented varnish
See an example here of the painting sequence.
Whch speeds the process up a lot. the results are not display-case amazing, however they are more than acceptable for use, and en masse, which is always the point of armies, the results are pretty good.
After browsing the Games Workshop website I decided on the Tau Empire as my new army... I wanted to try something new, and they came across as a fairly un-complex and (in some sense of the word) realistic force (as in they don't have half-naked women as their elite troops, opting instead for massive robot suits). Did I mention I hate elf-dar?
Rather than pay GW's massive prices, I hunted around on eBay and bought up a job lot of various troops, and for equipment used a combination of Army Painter and Formula P3 Paints. Finally, I actually looked into what makes up a Tau army, and then filled in some of the gaps I had in my selection of minis. The end result is a good mix of infantry, vehicles, heavy weapons and elite troops, though a bit light on fast stuff...
My plan was to paint units at a time, with the aim of getting 1-2 done a week, and thus take about 2-3 months to complete the force. Then came the snow, and I was basically stranded at home for a fortnight. I sprayed up my first batch of minatures (36 Fire Warriors, 12 Kroot, 9 Battlesuits and 8 Stealth Suits, constituting 8 units), and had them completed within a week. By concentrating on the theory that all I needed to do was add enough detail to make them look painted, while leaving the models mostly base-coat colour I could fly through them. For each model I came up with a basic colour scheme based on 3-4 colours (mainly a yellow/tan base colour, brown/red contrast, black/silver mechanics, and a white detail), and used the template for every model. Each unit then had a colour assigned to it, and the shoulder pads were tagged. Each unit was painted in a batch, so I was doing the same thing on each model before moving onto the next one, which is both very efficient and a little dull when you have units of 12.
Once that was done I gave each model a layer of pigmented varnish (which I will refer to as "dip", even though I'm not actually dipping them, but painting it on), and left to dry out of the reach of the cat for 48 hours. As I had nothing better to do I was getting through 1-2 units a day, so I ended up spraying up more models while there was still snow outside.
I'm quite lucky to have a games room in my house, and as it's effectively free space I've been able to take it over for this project, with boxes of minatures all over the table, a nice big painting area that can be left out, and the all-important laptop for BBC iPlayer and cricket commentary. Spending 6+ hours a day hunched up over the minatures did give me some back trouble, but nothing my sports therapy lass couldn't sort out (even though it felt like she was trying to rip my arm off!)
Just after christmas I realised that I was probably going to be finished by mid-January, and I thought I should probably find somwhere to play. I've got the kit to start building a battleboard in my games room (large squares of chipboard, to be painted green, and some chunks of thick wood to turn into hills at some point), however I also tried to see if there were any wargame clubs nearby. I knew that there was a 'con at Rivermead in December, and a bit more investigation led to a group called Spiky Club, basically a bunch of peeps who play GW games in a non-GW environment. sent them an email, and had a cheerful and friendly reply that I was more than welcome, would they like to sort me out a game? So on the 14th January I'll be heading down there to have my arse well and truely handed to me by someone who actually knows what they are doing. I'll be spending the next week and a half swotting up on the rules, finishing my army (1 unit to go, and a handful of support models...I reckon a good days painting, which is handy as apparently it's going to snow tomorrow, so I'll be back in the Wardrobe for a few days) and spending far more time than is appropriate trying to work out what a good army for Tau looks like for 1,500 points (I suspect nothing like the one I will go in there with...)
It's been really enjoyable watching the army take shape, and it's taken my mind off the lack of training I've been getting in. I can see myself tackling another force at some point, probably at a more sedate pace...
As a result I've had plenty of time to progress a project I thought would take a couple of months at least, but has in fact been almost completed in a little under 3 weeks. After the fun of painting Space Hulk up, I decided to return to my teen years, and paint up a Warhammer 40K army. I appreciate that at this point many people will turn off, and I'm going to start spouting bollocks if you don't know what 40K is, so you can probably turn off now...
...back before university I used to play a lot (member of wargame club etc) with Space Marines, which at that time were getting fairly screwed over by the evolving ruleset. When I went to uni I left all the models at home (and as a result I no longer have them...probably binned along with the rest of my stuff...no matter, they were painted in garish colours that only a teen boy could constitute as "cool"), and I've never really had the time or inclination to build up a new army until now.
There is a new, and uber lazy, way of painting called "dipping", which basically involves;
1) Spraying the models a base colour
2) painting on simple detail
3) coating the model in pigmented varnish
See an example here of the painting sequence.
Whch speeds the process up a lot. the results are not display-case amazing, however they are more than acceptable for use, and en masse, which is always the point of armies, the results are pretty good.
After browsing the Games Workshop website I decided on the Tau Empire as my new army... I wanted to try something new, and they came across as a fairly un-complex and (in some sense of the word) realistic force (as in they don't have half-naked women as their elite troops, opting instead for massive robot suits). Did I mention I hate elf-dar?
Rather than pay GW's massive prices, I hunted around on eBay and bought up a job lot of various troops, and for equipment used a combination of Army Painter and Formula P3 Paints. Finally, I actually looked into what makes up a Tau army, and then filled in some of the gaps I had in my selection of minis. The end result is a good mix of infantry, vehicles, heavy weapons and elite troops, though a bit light on fast stuff...
My plan was to paint units at a time, with the aim of getting 1-2 done a week, and thus take about 2-3 months to complete the force. Then came the snow, and I was basically stranded at home for a fortnight. I sprayed up my first batch of minatures (36 Fire Warriors, 12 Kroot, 9 Battlesuits and 8 Stealth Suits, constituting 8 units), and had them completed within a week. By concentrating on the theory that all I needed to do was add enough detail to make them look painted, while leaving the models mostly base-coat colour I could fly through them. For each model I came up with a basic colour scheme based on 3-4 colours (mainly a yellow/tan base colour, brown/red contrast, black/silver mechanics, and a white detail), and used the template for every model. Each unit then had a colour assigned to it, and the shoulder pads were tagged. Each unit was painted in a batch, so I was doing the same thing on each model before moving onto the next one, which is both very efficient and a little dull when you have units of 12.
Once that was done I gave each model a layer of pigmented varnish (which I will refer to as "dip", even though I'm not actually dipping them, but painting it on), and left to dry out of the reach of the cat for 48 hours. As I had nothing better to do I was getting through 1-2 units a day, so I ended up spraying up more models while there was still snow outside.
I'm quite lucky to have a games room in my house, and as it's effectively free space I've been able to take it over for this project, with boxes of minatures all over the table, a nice big painting area that can be left out, and the all-important laptop for BBC iPlayer and cricket commentary. Spending 6+ hours a day hunched up over the minatures did give me some back trouble, but nothing my sports therapy lass couldn't sort out (even though it felt like she was trying to rip my arm off!)
Just after christmas I realised that I was probably going to be finished by mid-January, and I thought I should probably find somwhere to play. I've got the kit to start building a battleboard in my games room (large squares of chipboard, to be painted green, and some chunks of thick wood to turn into hills at some point), however I also tried to see if there were any wargame clubs nearby. I knew that there was a 'con at Rivermead in December, and a bit more investigation led to a group called Spiky Club, basically a bunch of peeps who play GW games in a non-GW environment. sent them an email, and had a cheerful and friendly reply that I was more than welcome, would they like to sort me out a game? So on the 14th January I'll be heading down there to have my arse well and truely handed to me by someone who actually knows what they are doing. I'll be spending the next week and a half swotting up on the rules, finishing my army (1 unit to go, and a handful of support models...I reckon a good days painting, which is handy as apparently it's going to snow tomorrow, so I'll be back in the Wardrobe for a few days) and spending far more time than is appropriate trying to work out what a good army for Tau looks like for 1,500 points (I suspect nothing like the one I will go in there with...)
It's been really enjoyable watching the army take shape, and it's taken my mind off the lack of training I've been getting in. I can see myself tackling another force at some point, probably at a more sedate pace...
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