A Reunion

Many moons ago, when Take That were topping the charts the first time around, Britpop was cool and having a bike built to your specification was the way forward, and carbon bikes were something that hadn't been thought about, two girls called Heather Roberts and Cath Cockram met at the North West Centre of Excellence, at Kirkby Sports Centre.

We had competed against each other at Kirkby Track League and the ACT Track League at Manchester Velodrome and at various 'Juvenile' (do you remember those days?) events across the North West. 

We became good friends, taking part in various competitions, including the annual 'Children in Need' event at Manchester Velodrome, where we would put on fancy dress outfits and race, all in the name of charity.

I went to live in Italy and France in 1999/2000 as part of my university course and after that, I drifted out of cycling and lost contact with Cath.

However, many years later, we got back in contact through Twitter.  A lot had happened during those years apart - I had married Fred Bamforth and Cath had married Bradley Wiggins.  We had both struggled with various health issues and Cath is now a mum to two beautiful children but we both shared a common bond - we had used cycling to get back to somewhere where we wanted to be.

So, when I heard on Twitter that Cath was organising some crits at Salt Ayre (which used to be called 'Scale Hall' when we were younger), I knew straightaway that I would support her event and couldn't wait to get there.  Admittedly, Fred and I possibly turned up slightly early, but it was great to see Cath again - straightaway it was as if we hadn't lost contact and we started chatting about how cycling had changed since we first got involved.

I really enjoyed Saturday's race, especially since Cath and I are now back in contact. 

And so it begins

Tomorrow, I will be riding at Salt Ayre, where I used to race as a young girl.  It was called 'Scale Hall' back then, not 'Salt Ayre' and I don't think the sports centre was there either.  I'm looking forward to riding, as it will be the first time ever in my cycling career that I get to wear a long-sleeved skinsuit (yes, I am that materialistic)!

I have had a really bad couple of weeks, so it isn't the best preparation, but it is something different nonetheless.

Come back tomorrow to find out how I get on!

Pre-Season Warm Up

Tomorrow sees the return of Deloitte's involvement in the Fit for 2012 challenge. It involves a health assessment and 2.1km of either spinning, running or handbiking. Yes, you've guessed correctly, it will be the spinning for me! I did the first one, last May, in 3.23mins although I didn't go fast on purpose. I then did 2.50 mins in October, both without any real training. I am currently second overall with an average of 3.12 mins. I would like to beat 2.28 mins tomorrow as that is the fastest bloke's time but I'm not sure that's possible - the men are on a higher gear and therefore go further quicker. It should be interesting.

Good news is that my thighs are half the size they were and I have lost 13lbs since New Year. I also kept up with Fred going up a steep climb yesterday so improvements are being made. Roll on tomorrow!!!

Welcome back!

Well, after the rather long break, I'm now back to writing a blog. Firstly, I feel a lot better now that I've changed medication and have a lot more energy; secondly, the weather isn't as cold as it was this time last year.

Fred's in the middle of building my new track bike (which looks nice and shiny) and I've been ordering bits and bobs to get ready for the coming season. I now own a long sleeved skin suit, which I think is ace, so I'd better look after that.

I've lost weight too, after putting some on pre-Christmas, so things are looking up. I've devised my racing calendar for this season, so I'm nearly good to go! It can't be any worse than last year - I got knocked off my bike in July then ended up in a car crash on the way to the Track Nationals in October - all extremely annoying! Anyway, the resulting injuries are finally on the mend (hopefully) so onwards and upwards!

We have a VC St Raphael training weekend to look forward to, which should be fun, although I think I might need a new tyre on my training bike, after riding through smashed glass this morning. My tyre currently has a piece of plastic from a choco dip tub in it to prevent it puncturing again where the tyre is slashed! Such fun!

Anyway, check out our new VC St Raphael blog at http://vcstraphaelwomen.blogspot.comfor info about the women's team.

RAB Training Ride - the Manchester Team together

Yesterday I organised a ride for all of the Manchester riders, although unfortunately not everybody could make it.  The main purpose was to give those riders who haven't had much experience of group riding the chance to ride with other people of mixed abilities - admittedly it was never going to be like the RAB itself, but we managed to get 12 people out in total, which is pretty good.  The weather was fantastic - about 20 degrees Celsius and not a cloud in the sky, although there was a bit of wind every so often.

Fred would lead the ride as he mapped out the route and I asked three friends to join us - Rusine and Dave Heald and Rob Wilkinson (who rode out to the ride and rode home, doing a total of 109 miles!) - with their job for the day helping those who hadn't ridden in a big bunch before.  We managed to go off course a couple of times, but nothing major (one being my fault) and we stopped at a cafe for lunch, which everybody enjoyed.  There was only one puncture and one person fell off near the end, but apart from that the ride went by quite well.  The roads were really quiet considering it was a sunny Saturday - even the main road into Middlewich was quieter than what we're used to riding through Carrington and Partington.

Rob, Fred and Dave all did a sterling job helping those who got a bit tired near the end, as did Jo Green but everybody was more or less smiling at the end of the ride.  We managed to ride 60 miles without too many problems, so I have no worries for those guys who are riding the RAB - bring it on!

Unfortunately, my Sportypal wasn't very helpful yesterday - it didn't start until after I had spoken to Fred on the phone - I think it's about 12 miles short in total as the battery ran out before we got to Knutsford so it didn't record the whole ride - the wonders of modern technology! I can't bear to part with £200 to buy a Garmin though....  Anyway, here is the link to the part of the ride that it did record:

http://sportypal.com/Workouts/Details/1044835

I also had my bike computer, however the magnet was proving to be less than powerful - at one point it was reading 0 mph whilst I was going downhill - how does that work?

The good news is that despite me not riding that distance for over 10 years, my legs weren't aching too much today - maybe I'm finally getting better?  Who knows?  Only time will tell.

Congratulations to everybody who took part on the ride yesterday - you were all great!

Before...

...and after!

Single file? Says who?

Fred and I now have VC St Raphael team kit, so the dream of racing again is slowly becoming reality!  I suppose 'racing' will be a bit of a loose term on my part as I am sure everybody will be that bit fitter and stronger than me however, it sounds like being out of the back of the bunch might be a good thing if today's Team Series race in Windsor is anything to go by (there were a number of crashes by all accounts).  It sounds like nothing has changed much since I was last racing!  My thoughts go out to all of those women who were caught up in the carnage - I wish you all a speedy recovery...

What is becoming more and more obvious to me the more rides I do is the number of ignorant drivers out there - both today and yesterday we had people winding down their car windows to shout 'Single file, it's the law to ride in single file'.  Err, since when?  Get your facts right, people of Manchester!  The best one was last week when we were in Cheshire and a bloke drove past us, saying 'Single file, that's the law, I should know - I'm a cyclist!'  Yeah, right, in your dreams, mate!  Maybe it isn't the fact that they don't know "The Highway Code" rather instead that they are so unskillful at driving that seeing a cyclist panicks them into shouting obscenities at the cyclist to cover the fact that they are such a pathetic driver.  Oh, it is sooo annoying!  I can see why there are so many horrific accidents, leading to so many people dying before they should - life is so precious, give cyclists space, car drivers and quit with the road rage!

And, breathe!  Right, rant over for the time being!  I went out both yesterday (with Fred) and today (with Fred and Yvonne) and despite what I have been told in the past, I can tell you that the wind definitely was not my friend this weekend!  Today was horrible - we rode for more than an hour into a headwind, which is very tiresome indeed!  The links for both rides are below:

Saturday 2 April 2011

Sunday 3 April 2011

The good news is that the time trial bike is coming together now and is nearly finished - it just needs some handlebar tape and I think it is nearly there.  Of course, it will be a different matter entirely when it comes to trying to ride it, but hey, I am a firm believer in the idea that if you persevere you will succeed.  I have got a skinsuit now, so I am more or less ready for my first time trial on 7 May 2011 - if I can ride the 10 miles in less than 30 minutes I will be happy, so the fingers will be crossed for that!  In the meantime, we have a training ride for the Deloitte Ride Across Britain next Saturday, which should be good!  Bring it on!

And so British Summer Time arrives

Well, I must say that I was slightly worried about doing a ride today with the clocks going forward last night, heralding the beginning of British Summer Time and the onset of lighter nights - it's never good when you've missed out on sleep!  Having said that, I still got out for a couple of hours and we didn't do too badly - we went up Tatton Wall faster than the average speed for the ride and we seemed to speed up the steeper it got - strange but true!  The link to the ride is below:

http://sportypal.com/Workouts/Details/1006208

I also did a sneaky 18 miles yesterday, without my phone and Sportypal app, to see how I would be after doing two rides back to back, as I am conscious that the Ride Across Britain is getting ever closer.  The good news is that I survived both rides and we weren't hanging around too much either.  I did find that despite the fact that there was not really any headwind, the cold wind seemed to be like a headwind for half of the ride on both days! 

So I've done a total of 50 miles this weekend, at an average speed of around 15 mph, not too bad!

Out for a spin

Yesterday, I took my new bike out for its maiden voyage - the roads were reasonably dry and it was sunny, so I figured that there was no better time than the present to try it out on the road.  It is a bit different from my training bike, which has a longer wheelbase than my new one, and I need to get used to the Sram gears too - they're a bit different from the Shimano ones I have used for so many years now!  The other thing I noticed was how knock-kneed I am when I ride - you can't tell too much normally but because the Boardman bike is carbon monocoque oversize frame, the top tube is a lot wider than my training bike, so I kept hitting it with my knees!  My shoes/pedals also need moving slightly, but they're more fine tuning issues than your break glass in case of emergency types.

It was an interesting ride as I felt quite low down - the handlebars are quite a lot smaller - but the gears are different too - 36/50 chainrings, so I ended up doing the majority of the ride on the big ring - what's that all about?  I had no idea what speed I was going, so I was quite pleased when I uploaded the route when we got back:

http://sportypal.com/Workouts/Details/986125

Second fastest ride to date - not bad, although I think the big ring ride may have had something to do with it!

Wonders will never cease!

Despite the threatened rain, it was glorious sunshine when we went out today - although there was never a tailwind unfortunately, which was sorely missed!  The wind seemed to follow us around today and it kept changing direction, so that we always seemed to be riding into a headwind!  It doesn't help when you don't get much shelter riding behind the other members because they are so thin - no doubt it is good practice for when I get dropped in road races!

So, I am rather proud of myself today as the average speed on my computer (which only calculates it when we are moving) said 15.9 mph whereas my Sportypal application said 15.08 mph, which included stops - now I think that is progress, especially seeing as I am still nowhere near feeling any better.  The link is below:

http://sportypal.com/Workouts/Details/970798

I must say that I thought that my lungs were going to give up the ghost at one point in particular - namely when we were motoring up Tatton Wall, but I just tried to ignore it and kept going.  I did have some CNP Professional ProHydrate energy drink today, and I did feel better - I don't know whether that was psychosomatic or whether it did really work, who knows?  Having said that, I'm definitely using it again!

Could we finally be seeing some improvement?  Wonders will never cease!

Finally together as a team

The majority of us have known since October last year that we would be doing the RAB (apart from Rob Howells, who found out at the end of January, and Leanne Basson, who agreed to join us at the end of February) but it was only on Friday, 4 March 2011 that the Manchester-based riders all managed to get together to have a few photos taken.  Here is one of the best ones:

 The team is made up of (from left to right) me, Leanne Basson, Yvonne Lorimer, Jo Green, Matt Beaman, Rob Howells and Andrew Shepherd.  Jo, Matt and Andrew are riding the entire 950 miles by themselves, whereas Leanne, Yvonne, Rob and I are hiring a motorhome and doing it as a much more relaxed relay.  We are going to have such a laugh - I can't wait!

Leanne came out with me on my training ride this weekend and we did the traditional route around Lymm, High Legh and Dunham.  It was the first time out with us for Leanne, but we did really well - I even managed to do my cleats up on my shoes properly before we set off so I didn't have to worry about them falling off my shoes this time!  Wonders will never cease!

Here is the link to the ride:

http://sportypal.com/Workouts/Details/952361



Since I started training for the RAB, I haven't used any energy bars or drink, instead I have just been using water and a Kelloggs' cereal bar.  However, I have invested in some energy gel bars and some protein drink and this weekend was the first opportunity to try it.  Unfortunately, I managed to get more on my jacket and gloves than down my neck, so practise is needed I reckon!

I am organising a training ride for all of us at the beginning of April and Jo is going to include it in her Deloitte cycling newsletter too, I think - I am trying to get as many people interested as possible so that the ones who haven't ridden in a group can get some experience.  The aim is to ride to a cafe, have lunch then ride back again - it won't be too far.

I've also entered some more races now - a criterium and a road race in Dumfries at the end of May, as well as a time trial near St Helens, although the entry form for the latter is still on my desk whilst I try and find the organiser's address as it isn't on the website.  Hmmm.  We're also hopefully going to purchase a time trial bike tomorrow too - all very exciting!