Guildford Peloton Challenge Week 8

I had all good intentions of riding my bike this weekend even though it was forecast to be cold but I have an excuse as to why I didn’t get any miles on the board.

 

Friday night and Saturday morning my Achilles was playing up badly after a 3 Km run at the gym on Wednesday and a 90 minute turbo in the cold garage on Thursday night. Friday night I was going to do another turbo but instead I caught up on the ironing and Saturday morning I could hardly walk (I think it was the gym and the turbo, but it might have been the ironing, do you think I should avoid ironing in future?).

I can see that this Achilles which has been a problem now for 6 months is going to continue to be a problem

Because my Achilles was so sore Saturday morning I knew I couldn't ride and so I sent Big G a text first thing (about 08:00 am) asking him to ring me when he woke and I then got on with my chores: dry cleaners, ironing shop, greengrocers, pick up key from garage where it has been sitting waiting collection for last 3 weeks (the spare key, not the car as I p[icked that up three weeks ago), and drop some clothes off at the child-minders. At 11:30 I was on my way back from Tesco’s where I had had my car hand washed by the Polish/ Ukrainian/ Albanian crew when Big G rang me back.

By this time my Achilles had eased up a bit with the aid of drugs and stretching and running about doing chores and so Big G and I agreed on a romantic snowy walk along the North Downs Way from Box Hill towards Reigate and back before indulging in a feast of bacon sandwiches and coffee and walnut cake at the café in what used to be the shop on the top of Box Hill (when did that change?).

Sunday morning I was in Sainsburys towards Heathrow at 09:30 am doing the weekly shop.  Then I had to pick up The Wife and Son from Heathrow (on their way back from a half term week with the mother-in-law and cousins) so that meant I wasn’t able to ride (and I was very nervous about the Achilles). Then later in the day I had more chores, like fixing the wooden airing horse that was broken which involved a trip to B&Q.  The airing horse itself was a wedding present to my Mum and Dad when they got married, I am too tight to buy a new horse when it only cost me £1.44 to fix the old one (plus the petrol, the time spent trying to navigate B&Q to find dowel, the injury from bad tool handling etc, the unwanted advice from my wife and son).

Monday morning was back to school after half term and my son tried every excuse under the sun not to go to school.  By the time I got him there I was late for work.

Another stage win for the machine that is Steve W but he was pushed hard this week by Mike who was ‘oop North’ and put in a great climbing performance to take the Polka Dots easily. Spare a thought also for Craig with 2000 ft of climbing in only 16 miles, ouch.

Mini Strava Challenge
Week 8 - Monday 18/2/13 - Sunday 24/2/13
Name	No. of Rides	Miles Ridden	Climbing (ft)	Ranking - Miles	Ranking - KoM
Steve W	6	118.4	6,291	1	2
Mike R	3	109.9	8,818	2	1
Justin C	2	100.3	4,485	3	3
David C	1	76.1	3,193	4	4
Craig S	1	16.1	2,159	5	5
Duncan S	0	0.0	0	6	6
Michael C	0	0.0	0	7	7
Jon S	0	0.0	0	8	8
		420.8	24946.0

 

Mini Strava Challenge
Totals
Name	No. of Rides	Miles Ridden	Climbing (ft)	Ranking - Miles	Ranking - KoM
Steve W (Milton Keynes)	36	753.7	37,831	1	1
David C (Herts)	13	608.2	25,940	2	2
Justin C (Herts)	15	471.9	21,693	3	4
Mike R (York this weekend)	11	427.6	25,287	4	3
Duncan S (Surrey)	10	302.2	17,724	5	5
Michael C (Scotland)	12	229.8	12,643	6	8
Jon S (Herts)	3	202.0	13,932	7	7
Craig S (California)	5	158.0	14,136	8	6
		3153.4	169186.0

 

Week 7 Guildford Peloton Challenge

As The Wife is away with my son seeing her mother over half term it was my intention this weekend was to get in two 58 mile rides as I saw that as a way to make up some ground, or at least not fall so far behind. I would achieve this mileage cycling to Bognor Saturday, and cycling back Sunday. The weather forecast was good with winds from the SW which meant a headwind Saturday and a tail Sunday.

 All went to plan Saturday. As tradition dictates I stopped at 37 miles at the Tote Café for a bacon sarnie and tea. Got to Bognor feeling good. Spent a pleasant evening with a mate and his kids.

Sunday morning felt OK. Went to the beach café for breakfast and a read of the papers, then on to the bike.

I struggled to start with but assumed that was the tiredness from the day before and the breakfast. The wind seemed against me which didn’t make sense. After 20 miles I was exhausted. At 30 odd miles heading up from Ockley to Coldharbour (Leith Hill) I did get off and walk a hundred metres (to stretch my legs and my Achilles which was killing me).

I got to Dorking, less than 17 miles to go, but the train station in the sunlight looked so inviting. I got a coffee and an Eccles cake and waited for a train. It was an hour before the next Worcester Park train was due so I caught a train to Cheam from where I had to cycle the 3 miles home. This enabled me to get in an extra couple of miles which at least took me over the 100 miles for the weekend.

I see this morning from Strava that whilst I was waiting at Dorking Station, Mike R was cycling past on his return journey.  He had cycled half way to Bognor and back and was just behind me on the road.  Good job I stopped or I would have had the indignity of being overtaken.

I don’t know what it is about the ride back but it always seems harder than the ride down (even though there is more climb on the way down) and this is my second successive return failure (last time I phoned The Wife from the top of Box Hill for a lift home, this time I didn’t have the energy to get up Box Hill and The Wife wasn’t around for rescue duties). This means that from a psychological point of view I definitely need to succeed next time and not attempt it if I am not determined.

When I got home from Bognor (Via Dorking & Cheam) I ate, slept for an hour then struggled all the evening. At one point I was on the phone to Graham and had to cut off because I was so exhausted. I pecked at the ironing during the evening, just doing enough to get me through the first couple of days this week. I also had to clean the fish tank as Mick, Murphy and Molly were due their fortnightly clean. Early to bed (alone).

The bike is filthy if anyone wants to come around for a cleaning session. Additionally, the chain was squeaking all weekend as I forgot to lubricate it after the last ride.

This morning I am still exhausted. Don’t think my turbo plans for this evening are practical.

The frustrating part is that if I had got all the way home, that extra 15 miles would mean that I would have caught up with Mike on mileage which would mean that next weekend all I would have to do is sit on his back wheel then add an extra couple of miles on the way home to stay ahead of him.

A Positive take away: At least I got the Polka Dot.

 

Keep on rollin.

Results Courtesy of David C
 
Lovely weather in the south of the UK this weekend saw most people out on their bikes and the result was collectively the biggest weekly totals posted so far on the challenge - 545 miles and nearly 30,000 ft of climbing.

Steve wins his 4^th yellow jersey and retains the lead in the GC. An impressive performance from Duncan with the highest weekly climbing total of the mini challenge so far sees him take the Polka dot jersey this week. Most impressive ride this week though surely goes to Craig with 4,549 ft of climbing in

Week 7 - Monday 11/2/13 - Sunday 17/2/13
Name	No. of Rides	Miles Ridden	Climbing (ft)	Ranking - Miles	Ranking - KoM
Steve W	4	113.5	5,648	1	2
David C	1	104.0	3,537	2	6
Duncan S	3	101.7	6,664	3	1
Justin C	2	77.4	3,715	4	5
Mike R	1	69.0	4,453	5	4
Craig S	1	47.5	4,549	6	3
Michael C	1	31.8	1,416	7	7
Jon S	0	0.0	0	8	8
		544.9	29982.0

Mini Stava Challenge
Totals
Name	No. of Rides	Miles Ridden	Climbing (ft)	Ranking - Miles	Ranking - KoM
Steve W	30	635.3	31,540	1	1
David C	12	532.1	22,747	2	2
Justin C	13	371.6	17,208	3	4
Mike R	8	317.7	16,469	4	5
Duncan S	10	302.2	17,724	5	3
Michael C	12	229.8	12,643	6	7
Jon S	3	202.0	13,932	7	6
Craig S	4	141.9	11,977	8	8
		2732.6	144240.0