A hard truth

There is such a thing as too much data. This was brought home to me a few days ago when my obsession with data and numbers rose to bite me in the rear.

For those not in the know here's a little catch up. In early September I decided it would be nice to get the road bike's lifetime road mileage up to 5000 miles before 2013. And looking at the data that meant riding another 1000 miles before the end of the year. Correspondingly I set my target, worked out what I needed to do and got on with it. Then, just as I was getting close to completing the task, I decided to check out all my road rides on said bike. To find, to my horror, that some of my early turbo sessions and other stationary trainer work had got mixed up in my road miles. To the extent that I was going to be 100 miles short when I passed my 1000 miles. Not a fun moment, that one.

That explains why, on Christmas Eve, I was up at 6 a.m. getting ready to go out on the road. And after a weekend of wind and driving rain I wasn't exactly looking forward to the puddles but I was determined to sneak in a ride while it was dry and relatively wind free. Apart from having to change my route when I saw the Road Closed sign at the end of my return leg (on the way out, luckily) I got the miles I wanted in for this morning. The roads I travelled were relatively dry, which is more than I can say for the fields on either side. North East Fife has taken a soaking over the last month or so. It's damper than my chest strap at a spin class!

Now I have 59 miles left and a few days in which do them. Wit ha few days off between Christmas and New Year I'm hopeful I can find a weather window (or two) where it is not too bad and I can knock these miles down. Please keep your fingers crossed for me (and the weather....).

Have a Merry Christmas!

The Ride

Not so glamorous

I got an interesting response to a Facebook post the other day that got me to thinking about the glamour of cycling and the lack of it in my version of the sport. For anyone who has watched the track and road cycling this year will have seen the fancy bikes, riders with immaculate kit and the support cars etc. And, above all, the riders look so comfortable on the bikes often riding along like it is the easiest thing in the world. Of course occasionally we see a long break or some serious effort on a hill, but again it still looks pretty good. Maybe it's all the sunshine they seem to get.

Compare this with my efforts. And perhaps yours especially if, like me, you are relatively new to this lark. I make my own flapjacks and prepare my own drinks. If I'm out for a long ride I have to carry replacement energy powder and find water supplies and more food (or carry it with me). The shopping cuts into the riding time I assure you. Comfort stops are ok, they are relatively short but shops take time. I carry tools and spares just in case I have a "mechanical". Or I find a bike shop as I had to when I broke a spoke.

And then there's the actual cycling. A mate of mine said he'd seen me the other weekend. Actually he said he'd seen me working hard. When I asked where he'd seen me I didn't remember working hard there at all. So goodness knows what I look like when I am working hard. I'm guessing it doesn't look good. Let's be honest looking good isn't easy when there's some spit dangling from your mouth as you put in a hard effort. And I bet my face is red too.

That brings me to the subject of food. Easy to carry. Less easy to eat. I'm fairly adept at getting it out of my pockets and unwrapping it. I can even rip the top off a gel and get the sickly liquid out. Not so skillful(and the subject of the above Facebook post) is my ability to breathe in what feels like large lumps of flapjack and then spend the next mile or so coughing until it pops out. Or doesn't as it goes. That probably makes my face go red too.

And at the end of it all, I come back home and have to clean my own bike, put it on the stand and fix it up as best as possible so I can do it all again. No racks of replacement bikes and parts with expert mechanics for me.

Definitely not glamorous, is it?

However, I was made to feel happier when I watched the excellent documentary about Bradley Wiggins, A Year in Yellow. He still has to get up and go out training on his own. He suffers away on the turbo trainer in his shed. It didn't look so glamorous either.

Fancy that, I may have something in common with Bradley Wiggins. I'll take that.

Disclaimer

I have to make it clear that I have excellent home support. My Significant Other much more often than not provides recovery drinks, food, clothes washing services and great, great encouragement. And I was humbled by the support she provided on my trek across Scotland earlier in the year. A couple of days when I did feel a little like a pro. The support car had just about everything I would ever need in it and even a spare bike on the roof. So I really can't complain on that front.

And I love being out... If you don't do it already, try it and find out if you can find your own love for a lack of glamour.

Post work ride

Generally I like to ride my bike in the morning. Often before work which, at this time of year, entails riding in the dark. I've found I quite like riding in the dark but I've always wondered if it is tempered by the fact that I know it is going to brighten up because by riding in the morning I have the promise of the dawn. Last night I got a chance to test this. A set of circumstances meant that if I wanted to get this week's mileage under way it would be best if I rode in the evening, after work.

As going home time arrived I began to get quite excited. I was looking forward to the new experience. It certainly was a very new experience as I arrived home (in the dark) and then got changed, put the batteries in my lights, grabbed some food and drinks and headed out. Normally this process is done straight from sleep and has become a bit a routine but there was less routine about this and more adventure.

As I cycled off it was still pretty similar to my early morning sojourns. But, of course, this didn't last long as there were more cars and people around in town which gave the start an unusual air. Despite being lit up like a Christmas tree (more about that later) three girls still managed to cross the road without looking and I had to swerve around them to keep us all safe. While ninja cyclists (no lights, black bikes dressed in black) are the bane of many motorists lives, ninja pedestrians are becoming the bane of mine. Please, please, look both ways before crossing the road.

Another pedestrian gave me a bit of a fright as I exited town and the comforting street lights. On a piece of road with no pavement suddenly this pedestrian loomed out of the darkness. At this point I thought it was going to be one of "those" rides. A little later on I realised why I had been caught so unawares; my front light has 4 settings and I had only set it on 2 for my trip round town; there's no need for much more light in town. Out of town this meant I was sadly deficient in the light down the road department. Once corrected I was pleased to see I had plenty of visibility.

Then the riding started in earnest. A headwind made for slow progress, but I didn't know how slow. This is part of the fun of riding in the dark. You ride on feel and not by the numbers. In the light I would be checking my cadence and my heart rate were ok for the terrain, and checking the speed to see if I could compete with the pros yet (it's never going to happen...). But in the dark, even with the computer on, you just ride. In general I think it makes going up hills slightly easier. There's less incentive to look up the road so less chance of being dispirited. I find I just ride the gradient. Downhill is a different matter. There's no doubt about the fact that you have less visibility so I find that I temper my speed on descents where I might otherwise really go for it. I don't find this a problem; I tend to freewheel or just keep the pedals turning over but with no real push to increase the speed. I just let the bike run and if I feel the need I can scrub some speed off using the brakes. It's all part of the fun.

Last night's ride brought another bonus. There seemed to be less traffic than I meet in the morning. And what there was treated me with such respect. I was genuinely surprised. In the morning I seem to get caught in traffic that's in a hurry, desperate to pass under, seemingly, any circumstances. Not so last night. lots of space, slower speeds. All good. The only traffic surprise was meeting another road cyclist going the other way. A nice bright light on the front of his bike so I suspect we saw each other's beams long before the realisation that we were two bicycles. I was glad to know I wasn't the only other idiot.

After riding roads punctuated by a good number of settlements, Strathkinness, Blebo, Pitcottie, Ceres, Cupar and back to Pitscottie, I headed away from civilisation towards Peat Inn and a trip across a very un-populated road. I have to say that this was the highlight (and where I met my friend the cyclist). The views of the stars and distant Edinburgh made such a change from how I normally perceive this bit of tarmac. Just fantastic. I think it also helped that by this time I had the wind at my back.

On my descent into St. Andrews I was treated to the sight of a fox bounding across the road and then jumping over the wall on the other side. Agile, graceful and the only bit of wildlife I saw all evening.

This ride was a serious amount of fun and I would really recommend lighting up and heading out into the night. Perhaps across Scotland at night next time?

The Ride

The Tech

In case you're interested, and even if you're not, here's my choice of lights.

• Front main - Hope Vision 1. With good spread and distance. I've just got another one and that should give me plenty of seeing power and some redundancy.
• Front backup - Cateye HL-EL220. I use this in both steady and flashing mode
• Front flasher - Small emergency flasher on the fork. Hopefully it helps people see the bike. It also lights the wheel up.
• Rear main - Cateye TL-LD1100 - double light. At night I used both strips in fixed mode, but there's all sorts of combinations. And it is seriously bright.
• Rear backup - Fibre Flash strip light. On the seat stay this lights up the entire rear of the bike.
• Rear emergency - Cateye TL-LD130/150 . Attached to me I have this in flashing mode.

I usually also carry my head torch which has both white and red modes in case of absolute emergencies. And also if I need to repair a puncture or the like.

The dark and the mud

Goals and challenges always seem like such a good idea at the time. The idea in the pub that refuses to go away, that kind of thing. So when I decided a couple of months ago to try and get the mileage for my road bike to 5000 miles before the end of the year it seemed like a really good idea. The reality is a little different. It means riding every few days or so just so I can get the weekly distance I need without the necessity of riding silly distances all in one go. After all the idea was to maintain my consistency of riding!

On the other hand I should be honest. I actually quite like riding in the dark. I like to ride in the mornings before work. Up at 6 and away as soon as I can get my body into the lycra and out of the house. This operation usually takes 15-25 minutes. So it's somewhere between 6:20 and 6:30 when I arrive at my usual start points. And then it's off for 20, 25 miles of fairly sedate riding usually. I've decided that I'm just going to concentrate on getting the miles in until the 5000 mark has been reached. Then I will re-focus and start doing the silly hill repeats etc.

This decision is probably a good thing. It also lets me decide where I want to ride and, more specifically, which roads I want to ride on. And this brings me to the unpleasant part of riding at this time of year. Mud. Actually, a lot of mud. Around here that also includes a lot of sand. Both earthy deposits have similar characteristics that I've become aware of. When wet a brown film covers the road and makes some of the riding rather slippery and sometimes a little slidey as well. Still, that should improve my bike handling and road condition awareness. And then sometimes you get really large deposits of mud or sand on the road. As far as I can see, regardless of whether these are wet or not, they serve the purpose of trying to dismount the rider. And sometimes they cause the bike to give you a really good bashing around the backside. It all adds up to tremendous fun. Around here right now most of the back roads have at least one large stretch of mud and most of the main roads are prone to some run off from the fields.

I live, and ride, in a rural environment. And my biggest gripe is that no-one seems to care about the state of our roads. While mud and water are unpleasant and dangerous for the cyclist I don't think we are the only ones at risk. Cars can easily slide and some of the larger pieces of mud would do serious damage to any vehicle unlucky enough to have the vehicle in front pick one up and sling it out the back of the wheel. It isn't just short-term neglect that bothers me either. There are a couple of stretches of road now that have had mud and sand on them for around a year now. Being fair those stretches are not too bad because I know where they are. I hope no-one comes across them unaware though. In both cases it could be really nasty.

So at the moment I'm in a pattern of ride, clean, ride, despair, clean again..... Here's some evidence.

Chainstays after yesterdays ride

And the front forks

I cleaned it and brought it up to a nice standard of whiteness again. I don't really know why I bothered. This was the result of this morning's ride!

Dirty again

Rides

I'm not going to say much about the rides themselves. Different in flavour, as almost every ride is even if it is on the same roads, but since I last blogged here's the summary and a little description for each one.

A real tester this one. We had a fog which left me able to see more without my glasses than with. On the first trip up to Strathkinness I had no idea where I was on the road at one point. The bike was truly filthy after this one; the front wheel rim was black. That's the problem with local rides like this; I use the brakes more. Not so good in the wet.



After the previous ride this was a delight. Dark, slightly cold but super. I can't really put it into words but all the way around this I was thinking about trying to write a poem about riding from the dark into the dawn and beyond into the light. I might have to try at some point and you can all have a laugh.



This ride was a real mudfest. Especially on the roads north of Cupar. Perhaps the farmers south of Cupar clean the roads, but the ones north certainly don't. I couldn't blame run off here for the state of some of the tarmac. In fact in one place near Rathillet there was no tarmac to be seen. Just a lumpy, wet 100 yards or so of mud. I have to admit to taking it rather easily through this section and even then the bike was threatening to throw me off. Scary, very scary. And it made the bike filthy!



Back out for a slightly lighter morning run as I enjoyed the fact we have turned the clocks back an hour. A ride notable for two things: my rear mudguard sheared in the middle (the back half is now in a bin in Ceres), and the Idiot Road User award for this blog entry. A real cracker.

Idiot Road User for the Post

I had begun to think I'd seen it all. Apart from actually being hit which I'd rather not experience thank you. But no, apparently I hadn't. I'm one closer now I think.

Coming up the hill from Cupar to Pitscottie I was getting closer to the top of the long drag. And there was a fair amount of commuter traffic. I'd rather be on lesser used roads but I refer you to my comments above. A white van was coming towards me nicely positioned on his side of the road and I'm occupying my usual, slightly assertive position about 1 meter to 1.5 metres out from the gutter. This hill isn't the best road surface (I prefer to go up it rather than down for this reason) and I'm aware of a vehicle coming up behind. The next thing I know is that a motorcyclist has overtaken me by going between the van and me. And not slowly although I'm not sure how much of a difference that would actually have made. Even now, later in the day, I still shudder to think what would have happened if I'd hit a pothole and bumped a little to my right. A very, very frightening thought.

For me what makes the above incident even more annoying is the amount of education car drivers (of which I am one) have had over the years about respecting motorcyclists on the road. And then this. I have to say that it isn't an isolated case either; the case for friendly overtakes by motorcyclists is distinctly underwhelming. If you read this and ride a motorbike, please help to redress that.

Bad blogger!

I am ashamed at how long it is since I last blogged. I think some of the impetus to blog left me after the Lighthouse to Lighthouse ride. Until then I was very focused with the riding and blogging to make sure that those who had sponsored me got something for their cash. Since then riding has become much more about me and my desires rather than keeping all you out there abreast of my cycling exploits. I agree, it's a pretty feeble excuse.
And, while this blog will be more of a personal diary I'm determined to keep it current. Starting now.

Catch up

So, what have I been doing since August. The short answer is some cycling, some golfing and I even went on holiday. I've also set a couple of cycling challenges to keep me turning the pedals until I think of something really stupid to do. You may consider one of these challenges really stupid anyway. They are

• To get my road bike up to 5000 miles covered before the end of 2012
• Ride 200 miles in one day sometime next summer

When I started set the first of these I had 1000 miles to go. And with some holidays and some slack built in that means I have to ride 80 miles or so every week to make the target. You can track my progress with this link: 1000 mile challenge. If you want...
The second challenge is pretty much firmed up but I need to work a little on the route. When that is confirmed in my mind I'll create a page much like the one for the lighthouse ride and the you can see it in all it's glory. As a teaser I'll say this. 200 miles in one day doesn't scare me per se but the terrain I wish to cover is giving me pause for thought. And I suspect that it will require some hard work on my part.
Both of these challenges are for my pleasure only, no charity calls this year or for the foreseeable future for that matter. I feel quite strongly that one should only ask people to donate for sponsored events every now and again. Otherwise these things become less special and the opportunity to effectively promote the charity loses its effectiveness. I'll climb back off my soap box now.

Vic's Century

I have no intention of boring you with details of all the rides I've done since last blogging but one deserves a small write up. My colleague, and friend, Vic was keen to ride a 100 miles so we did. To put this in some perspective Vic commutes 20 miles every day but only rides longer distances very occasionally. Usually with me when I drag him out so I can get some company. For all that he always rides well and climbs far better than me. Mostly due to differing body make-up. He is lean and lithe whereas, to put it politely, I am not.
The route was left to me. That was Vic's mistake. Mine was picking this route. I decide to use the excuse of having company to do a little exploring further afield. So we crossed the Tay and enjoyed the flat roads across to St. Maddoes. Then a steep, vicious but ultimately rewarding climb from Glen Carse to above Perth. I wish I'd taken a photo of the view across the Friarton bridge but this day was photo-free. I hope this view courtesy of Google Maps shows adequately what you missed.

View Larger Map

From there we went on through Perth with a shocking loss and regain of hard-earned height required. The exist from the city saw us climbing up Necessity Brae. It may have been necessary but did it have to be so steep.

What followed was a lovely ride across rolling terrain towards Dunning with the only niggle being the stiff breeze in our faces. This had been with us since we crossed the Tay but we knew (or at least I knew - Vic was on a bit of a magical mystery tour) once we got to Dunning we would at least not be riding into the wind for most of the rest of the trip.

That may have been true but I had picked the hardest way out of Dunning. I blame the Kinross Sportive. Their route descriptions mention this hill in particular and it had been on my list of things to do for a while. I actually thought I was gong to have to get off and walk and it wasn't helped when another cyclist breezed past me as if I wasn't moving at all. Or the fact that Vic was up the road as well. Still, I got to the top even if my bike did try and do a couple of wheelies on the way. Scary. I must remember to keep some weight over the front wheel. After the hill we some pleasant miles across the top, a sharp descent and then another wee climb.

Then we had a maintenance issue. Right at the high point of our ride Vic noticed he had a flat. His spare inner tube was a repair job too so I gave him a fresh one and using my pump we had him back on the road. I wish I could say it took us no time but that would be stretching the truth. I think it cost us about 20 minutes. It's amazing how you cool down when you've just got lycra on. The descent to Milnathort soon warmed us up and I was back to familiar roads.

And flatter ones too. Even the road through Glenfarg felt relatively flat after our earlier efforts. From there we cycled to Newburgh and stopped at the cafe at the garage. Having now tried this establishment I can heartily recommend it. The coffee was good, the cake even better. Suitably refreshed we headed over to Freuchie, with a little detour to make sure of the 100 miles for Vic; he was delighted at a mile or so into the wind again. And then we wended our way back to Cupar where I dropped him off. I had the last few miles on my own as he had at the start of his day. I got home after a great day in saddle.

Riding alone is great but company, especially on days like this, and company this good is special too. When you're ready Vic, let's do it again.

This weekend

I came back from holiday this week somewhat relaxed but also suffering from a nasty cold. So the week's riding didn't really go to plan. I got to Friday with nothing on the board. Having fitted the mudguards during the week I decided Friday should be a shake down ride just to see how the bike was and how I was faring as well. It also meant that if I got a few miles in the I wouldn't necessarily need to ride both days on the weekend to get my 80 in.

Friday was supposed to be nice but it didn't work out that way. So 20-ish local miles in the dark and drizzle. Not helped by the previous week's rain that has left big puddles, mud, gravel and worse on the roads. Both me and the bike passed the test and I was back on track.

Again the forecast for Saturday was for a dry cloudy day. I set out with the idea of covering just over 60 miles thus fulfilling my quota and perhaps leaving Sunday free for some golf. Or lying about. Imagine my surprise therefore on getting to Elie to see the mist well and truly down on the hills above. I was glad to have both front and rear lights attached.

I had a new hill to try and I headed for it. This was where I got my first real look at the damage that has been done by the recent rains. Large lumps of tarmac about 2 inches deep and 9 inches square were lying in the middle of the road along with lots of smaller lumps an inch to a couple of inches across. Now you need to imagine the potholes required to generate this debris. I was lucky that this hill is a really quiet back road and I was able to pick my way up using all the available width. At one point my best route was up the opposite gutter where the water was running freely. I guess it had cleared out the rubbish. And at another point I came up to a corner where I couldn't tell where the road was going to go because rubble stretched right across the road and a bit up the next rise.

It was an interesting ascent. On the plus side I wasn't really worrying about my performance. HR? Cadence? Speed? Gear? All went by the way side as I tried to keep the tyres from the worst of the conditions. At the top I was glad to have got up without a puncture.

My route took me back down to Upper Largo where I was supposed to be trying another new climb on another back road. I got there to find it was closed. Oh joy! Considering my options I plumped for going back up what I'd just come down. At least I knew it was clear. For the rest of the ride I tried to keep to bigger roads and apart from one small section just out side Largoward the roads weren't too bad.

I think the surfaces and constant route revisions took their toll as did my cold so in the end I cut my ride short and headed back home from Pitscottie. I didn't like this decision as it meant I would have to ride on Sunday as well so, in an attempt to minimise the next day's endeavours, I took a slightly longer way home and then rode a little circuit from St. Andrews to Strathkinness to break the 50 mile barrier. How sad am I?

With no surprise I woke on Sunday to find sunshine, no wind and absolutely no sign of the forecast fog. Still, it made riding far easier. I decide to ride the end of the planned route for Saturday. This should have been the climb from Pitscottie to Peat Inn followed by a ride across to Dunino and then home. My only issue was how to get there. In the end I decided on the simple ride to Pitscottie followed by a wee loop to Cupar and Ceres before setting off on the main event of the day.

With the tank being fairly empty it was easy gears on all the slopes up this stepped climb in an attempt to make it as easy for my legs, lungs and heart as possible. It turned out to be a great tactic as I got to Peat Inn feeling great. And from there the ride is mostly downhill. And fast on good roads. Fun, fun, fun.

Not a bad weekend in the end and I have to be pleased getting 100 miles. Just the act of getting back on the bike after some lean weeks has given me a much needed boost of enthusiasm. A bit like getting back to writing the blog!

Idiot Road User of the Day

Whilst I have lots of these for the intervening rides since I last pointed the finger there is a clear winner this week. And I'm afraid to say that it is me. Again!

They say familiarity breeds contempt. For me that was very true today. I'll see if I can paint the picture. I was coming up the tail of a Y junction which is served by a roundabout. I was intending to go up the right hand arm and had right of way from the cars coming down the left hand one. There were three cars, one of was already on the roundabout, so I was checking the others to see if they were going to stop while signalling and checking that the car behind me was not going to anything stupid. My error? It was only at the last second that I realised the first car from the left hand arm was going all the way round the round about and back to where they had come from. Some very fast avoiding action took me up the left hand arm followed by the car who quite rightly gave me the horn. In my defence I had already waved an apology and did so again. I'm sure I won't be making that mistake again. Live and learn. Quickly!

Hopefully anyone reading this will also learn and not make the same mistake I did. It could have been so much worse.

Not as planned

Plans

Today's ride wasn't at all as planned. Earlier in the week the weather forecast was for a dry morning and a mate had said yes to coming out for 20 miles or so as long as I kept them flat. Flat routes aren't exactly easy to find in Fife, but there are some flat roads in the Howe of Fife. You just need to avoid the main routes if you want to have a pleasant day. So I planned a route for me to and from Cupar and a flat route around the roads for the rest.

Reality

The first change in plans came on Thursday came when my companion called off. I left the route as it was. Then on Saturday I woke to wet roads and grey, grey clouds. It took a lot of internal wrangling before I actually decided to just go anyway. It did look a little brighter and I was hoping that the sun would break through the clouds. I didn't take a waterproof, the conditions were really hot and humid.

The ride out to Hill of Tarvit was pleasant and it did look like the weather might turn nice. However the view into the Howe of Fife from the top of the hill did not inspire that confidence. Grey clouds on top of the Lomond hills and a streamer low above the valley. There was definitely rain around. I carried on regardless. Sadly rain caught up with me on the road to Collessie but it wasn't too heavy, just annoying.

At Collessie I changed my plans slightly. I opted for the drier, and probably less muddy, main road to Lindores over the back road to Letham. This gave me an excellent flat drag from Lindores to the crossroads at the A92. I tried as much as possible to stay in the drops. I find this position difficult to maintain; my back doesn't like it much. However today I managed to longer sections like this, so maybe I'm getting more flexible.

I tracked for home through Cupar, which was a bit of a bottleneck today. Then more water from above on the road back to Pitscottie. I wasn't going for any detours this morning. Then the second section of rding in the drops on the road down to St. Andrews from Blebo.

The ride

Idiot Road Users of the Day

I think all the idiot drivers came out today so I'm going to list all the offenders here. Thanks to you all for deciding that your powered trip is so much more important than my feeling of safety.

• Heading around a left hand bend, after which I was taking a right hand junction, I was glad to be nearer the left hand side of the road as a car came the other way on my side of the road. Now I'd seen them coming down the road towards me, so what was their excuse?
• The car that overtook me just outside Lindores when we were approaching a blind bend. The clue is in the description. If I can't see round the bend, then you can't see round the bend.
• The taxi that decided to overtake me on the Lindores to Cupar road when I was tripping along at over 20 mph with a car coming the other way. I had loads of space, honest. The driver's time saving? About 5 seconds.
• The family people carrier who decided to overtake me and leave me around 6 inches of space. I could easily have knocked on the window. But I didn't really want to take my hands of the handlebars.
• The car that overtook me on the road out of Cupar, again on a blind bend. What's up with car drivers?

There were others that came close, but I'm less bothered by them. Those above though were un-excusable. And I'm going to continue being upset by them.

Idiot Cyclist of the Day

Me! On the hill from the crossroads on the A92 to Cupar I managed to drop my water bottle. Doh! I hate doing that. At least the bottle rolled safely into the gutter and I was able to retrieve it.

All about balance

For anyone actually interested in reading my blog I apologise for being away for so long. After the Lighthouse to Lighthouse ride my golf took priority for while as I tried to get ready for some competitions. That meant less bike riding and more time swinging a club and hitting little white balls. Not that I haven't been riding; I've just been doing slightly less of it. Which is probably no bad thing.

Before I did the L2L ride I had begun to get a little bored; certainly of training. It's hard to get up and "do the miles" especially if they are the same miles you've done for the last 10 months. And it was precisely this non-enjoyment of golf that led me to do the cycling in the first place.

The change to cycling can't be underestimated. For around 12 years I had been a highly driven competitive club golfer. For me that meant practice, games with mates and, most importantly, lots of competition golf. I was averaging over 50 competitive rounds a year. For someone holding down a full-time job that's no mean feat. I had stopped being obsessed by golf but I was still very keen.

Then my game started to slip away. Ironically it started to go after I started to go to the gym to get fitter to improve my golf. I lost some distance with my shots and, although my scoring improved for a while, I started to be unhappy with my game. Then it all went and I started playing worse. Of course competition golf is not the place to be when this happens. And eventually, in the summer of 2011, I found myself not enjoying the game at all. I still played because I enjoy the company and the banter as much as anything. But the golf, no, no enjoyment at all. And that's when I decided to do something else. You know all about the something else!

Now you might see my dilemma. I really don't want cycling to go the same way. However, I'm lucky. My golfing desire isn't finished, not at all. Having taken it back up (I never really went away from it completely) I'm enjoying it again. And you know what? I'm also playing better than I have in ages. It's like my body has re-adjusted itself and my brain has stopped tying me up in knots. I even managed to win a competition the other day. For me that is a complete vindication of my taking a break.

And here's the meaning of the title of this piece. I'm determined to maintain this balance. Golf and cycling as my main activities. If I've a cycling challenge in the offing, or a big golfing season coming up one or other of them might take priority for a while. But I never want to get in the position I was in last year; all out of balance.

Across Scotland

This is the full story of the Lighthouse to Lighthouse ride and, as such, it will be quite a long post. I make no apologies for this; it was a long ride. I've split the post into smaller chunks, just as did with the ride itself. I hope this makes it easier to read.
Apologies for the scarcity of photos. My camera ceased to function on the first day and the second day there wasn't much to photograph. The first day was also one of those days where the views were great but capturing them on camera would have been difficult with an ever present haze. So, you'll have to do with mostly words and your imagination.

Getting Ready

I'd like to start by writing about the days before the riding started. I was ready but on my last ride my rear derailleur was playing up. Some of the gear changes were sluggish and sometimes, especially in the lower gears, the mechanism threatened to change gear. Having the transmission sticking and jerking when you're trying to go up a hill does nothing for your rhythm. And I didn't want that spoiling my ride, or worse.
So into the local bike shop the bike went on Monday.They fixed it up as best they could but their assessment was that the derailler had failed. Unfortunately they weren't able to offer a replacement in time for me to have the bike back for my trip west on Wednesday. This left me late on Monday afternoon with a problem.
I have to praise Edinburgh Bicycle Co-op. I bought the bike from them last July and they've been very good to me so far. This time they were able to fit my bike into the workshop the next day to fit a new rear mech and all at short notice. It did mean I had to take another day off work and drive up and down to Edinburgh but, all in all, I felt it was worth it. Not only did they manage to fit me in but they did the job quickly too. The replacement worked fine over the two days although I do think it needs a little tune up now. But that's probably due to the abuse it took late on in the run to the finish line.
Bike sorted we (me and my Significant Other) packed the car up on Wednesday and set off for the west of the Ardnamurchan peninsula. The weather was beautiful and calm which belied the weather forecast which was for easterly breezes on the next day and worse for the day after. Suddenly I wasn't looking forward to it quite so much. Where was the planned south-west prevailing wind?
When we arrived at the Sonnachan Hotel we were set for the next day. Nothing more could be done except eat and get an early night.

Day 1

Ardnamurchan Lighthouse to Salen

Surprisingly I slept well until the alarm went off at 5. Time to force some instant porridge down for breakfast. Not my meal of choice but I knew catering at breakfast time was always going to be difficult, so we had tested this and it was something I could manage. Then up, shower, change, re-pack the car and off to the lighthouse at the Point of Ardnamurchan. The roads got ever narrow and we had to wait for the traffic lights just short of the lighthouse but we were soon in position for me to start.

The obligatory charity shot

What I was actually wearing

And then suddenly, just before 7, I was off. It was a bit of a release to be honest. All the preparation, all the training and almost everything else this year had led to this moment. The traffic lights turned to green as I approached and I really was on my way.
The roads weren't to be my only obstacle during the ride. I soon came to my first one, a flock of sheep. These animals were on the wrong side of the fence and at this time of year there were adults and lambs. If I had been in a car they wouldn't have been a problem; they'd probably just have moved out of the way. But they didn't know how to react to a bike and they ran down the road instead. Eventually they ran out of steam and broke off in groups to the side of the road. It wasn't the best way to start but it did stop me going off too quickly.
The first section through Ardnamurchan was a little lumpy but fabulous scenery and improving light let me enjoy the riding. And because of the early start I didn't meet much traffic on the single track roads. The only downside was the easterly breeze which was already beginning to nag away at me.
The first major climb out of Kilchoan went easily enough, then passed a loch before dropping back down to the waterside. From there the road followed the lochside to Salen going up, down, up, down repeatedly. None inclines were ever too long but it did mean plenty of gear changes. The new derailleur was busy!

Coming down a hill early on in the day

Salen to Ardgour

I met up with my support at Salen and refuelled with bottles for the bikes and eats for the pockets. The nutrition for this ride is the subject of another post. Suffice to say I wasn't trying anything new!
The roads got steadily wider during this section and I enjoyed the run through the trees to Strontian where I got to wave to my support to say all was ok. From there, though, the country opened up a little which exposed me to the breeze. As a double whammy this breeze was now being funnelled down from the pass I was heading up to. The long drag up to the bealach was rewarded with great views of the Glencoe mountains before a pleasant descent to Loch Linnhe. The descent was only spoilt by the requirement to pedal down the latter section of it to keep the speed up. That breeze again.
Then a nice flat few miles along the water's edge to Ardgour and the second meeting spot. Time for the first of many tortilla-wrapped rice cakes. Not the most pleasant food but they did the job over the two days.

Ardgour to Loch Eil Outward Bound

This was the flattest section of the first day and had the one advantage of giving me a spell with the breeze at my back. The irony was that I had been worried about this stretch tiring me out as it might have been into the prevailing wind. As it was the road led up the loch until I could see Fort William. This was the point where the route turned back to the west and was virtually flat all the way back to the main Mallaig to Fort William road. With the helping breeze it was a chance to build some easy speed and try to keep the heart rate down. This heart rate management was a theme of the two days. My theory was that in keeping the heart rate down I would preserve my energy and make sure I got to the end. So no racing; it was all about finishing and staying safe.
With the sun firmly in charge the views on this leg were fantastic. From Ben Nevis and the hills of Glenfinnan to the lochside vistas, this part of the ride was a visual treat. And exactly what I had hoped for. With scenery this good and ever changing aspects it is not hard to keep riding.
Back to the main road and the annoyance with traffic. Until this point traffic had been quiet, another plus point for cycling in this part of the world. The SO was waiting in the appointed car park and was a most welcome sight. Another rice tortilla, more sun cream and another refill for bottles and pockets before I set off again.

Loch Eil Outward Bound to Roughburn

Another short stretch of main road (and the attendant traffic) led to and through Corpach before I turned back on to the minor roads again. Although being slightly lumpy this road ran parallel to the main Fort William to Spean Bridge road but on the other side of the shallow valley. The Caledonian canal was in the glen below and I looked enviously at the tow path. Again the views were superb; the benefit of being slightly higher than the main road. I urge you to go to this part of the world and travel the smaller roads.
Of course, the views came with a price. The breeze! It did have one plus point I have to admit. It kept me cool. Although I had started with longs and arm warmers I had ditched those in Ardgour. I never did ditch the gilet though. It never got that warm! Which for me was just fine.
The road led into Gairlochy where I had my only nervous moment of the two days. A patch of loose gravel on a downhill bend caused the back wheel to slip a little. I kept the bike upright and myself off the tarmac. Phew!
A tough pull up led to the Commando Memorial. This is a popular tourist attraction and with the views across to Ben Nevis and the Grey Corries I can see why. I was glad to get this climb over with and enjoyed the descent into Spean Bridge. This small stretch was on a very busy road but when you're going downhill the traffic never seems so bad.
From Spean Bridge I had no option but to take to the main road across towards Newtonmore and Dalwhinnie. This road was to be my companion for almost all of the rest of the day. And it worried me a little as I know how fast traffic can flow along it. I was mostly hoping that traffic on a Thursday afternoon in June would not be too heavy.
Completing this section of the day required a long climb of around 9.5 miles to Roughburn. Never very steep, and with the occasional slight downhill, it wasn't too bad. But it was a little relentless. The views here were not so good either with trees obscuring scenery for quite a bit of the time. Eventually I arrived at the meet point. And there was the car containing more food and drink. And, of course, the SO.

Roughburn to Kingussie

Refreshed I set off for the last section of day 1. The views opened up again and the hills to the south looked fantastic. At this point the road rolled along towards to just above the Creag Meagaidh car park. This high point of the day gave me great heart as I knew from here it was mostly downhill to the end point in Kingussie. From here though the views changed again as I rode through the trees on the twisty road. It was this bit of road I had been most nervous about from the traffic point of view but in the end it was relatively quiet and I was able to enjoy myself.
One last meet up with support, this time to hand over my camera which I'd found wasn't working and I rode on again. Now I was riding through more open countryside with views now of the more rounded Cairngorm mountains. These hills are nice in their way but lack the rugged grandeur of the western hills. There had been a significant shift in geology as I came across from Spean Bridge.
Arriving in Netwon more signalled just a couple more miles to go and these were nice and flat; perhaps even downhill a little. Despite the breeze I was able to get a little speed up and felt good as I rolled into Kingussie. I stopped the computer at the crossroads where I planned day 2 to start and then relaxed as I rode up to the Columba House hotel.
Day 1 done!

Day 2

Kingussie to Nethy Bridge

Given that I had another early start I was pleased that any aches and pains my legs might have had didn't keep me awake. The bad weather forecast also failed to disrupt my sleep which I was grateful for. The alarm clock went off at 5 and I was soon eating instant porridge again. This time I was just leaving from the hotel, and here I am at about 6:20, all ready to go.

Ready for day 2

Back up to the crossroads, started the computer, and I was off again. The road to Nethy Bridge went past Ruthven Barracks where I came across a highland cow and her calf in the middle of the road. My SO will tell you that I'm not a great fan of cows, and cows with horns I am very wary of indeed. Luckily she wasn't spooked by me and I was able to get past without any great problem.
This first section of day 2 was relatively flat and a delight to ride early in the morning. The odd deer in the fields and no cars to speak of made for a nice easy warm up. The only downside was the weather. The breeze of the day before had turned into more of a wind and the blue skies had been replaced by leaden grey clouds which were threatening rain. So much so I had my waterproof at hand in a small bag on my back.
Arriving in Nethy Bridge it was obvious that it was almost time for the school bus. Lots of teenagers were hanging around trying hard to look cool. Luckily I know I look cool or I don't care, I'll let you decide which! My look needed to change as the gilet needed to be replaced by the wind proof top. In June for goodness sake. The arm warmers stayed on for a while, underneath the top.
After another tortilla and rice snack and the usual bottle change I was off again.

Nethy Bridge to Archiestown

The road went onto Grantown-on-Spey and I passed the high school to which the teenagers were no doubt being taken. Then on along a back road above the river Spey, a source of some of the finest whisky in the world. The only problem with back roads is that they tend to be a bit up and down and this one proved to be the same. But I was away from the traffic and I had a delightful run.
Eventually the road headed once more up the hills and this took me past a number of the most famous distilleries. It was so disappointing that I couldn't stop for a dram. I will admit that it was a little early even for me. And this wasn't the only way I was staying dry. So far the rain had stayed off. But now the wind was really nagging at me and I knew they day was going to get tough later.
One last climb took me up to Archiestown where the most welcome support was waiting. I admit that I needed to spend a little time here with my feet up getting my energy back.

Archiestown to Rothiemay

This was the first of two longer sections. When I had set the route up I knew the last part would be difficult to navigate and I had decided to make it a little shorter. So that meant some slightly longer stretches between support meets.
The one bonus of meeting in Archiestown was that this stretch started with a fantastic decent to Craigellachie. As well as being a lot of fun it made for a few miles of better speed after the slow uphill miles that preceded them. Sadly, as ever, what goes down often needs to go back up again and that was true this time. And again the wind was into my face all the way to Dufftown.
This climb was just a warm up for the day's major single climb. From Dufftown I was heading to Huntly and I had choices. One was one big climb followed by mostly up and down and the other was a flatter route but I would have needed to spend some time on a bigger road. I had decided on the climbing fun. The climb started a little out of Dufftown with a very steep hairpin followed by a shallow incline towards the final climb to the pass. The problem was the wind. The air was falling over the pass and coming straight down the road into my face. So the 1 or 2 percent incline became a real battle requiring low, low gears. And then I arrived at the final bit of the climb. I selected granny gear and started up. I changed up a few gears and got out of the saddle, then back down again to the saddle and the granny gear. I got up in surprisingly good fettle given how tough it was. At the top I was able to wave at my SO and signal that I would meet them at the next scheduled rendezvous. Seeing my support was still a boost to my moral though. And knowing that I could have had a stop had I needed it was good indeed.
Then there was a stretch of mostly down, with the odd up, to the edge of Huntly. One amusement on this bit of road went like this. I spotted a cyclist on an upright bike exit from a driveway a few miles out from Huntly. I was pretty sure I would catch them and after a little while I did, but not quite as quickly as I might have thought. I caught them close to the bottom of a down section, passed them with a cheery "good afternoon" and headed on. Only to have this cyclist overtake me on the next hill. "This bike's electric" she said with a certain amount of glee. "Not fair" said I. Followed quickly by "give me a tow". I knew when I was beaten, gave in, and stopped for a comfort break. If I ever do anything as stupid as this ride again, I'm going electric.
The road to Huntly was easy enough and I found my way on the correct road out easily enough. When the next turning didn't materialise when I thought it should have I stopped and checked with the phone GPS. Turned out that I was in the right place, I had just run out of patience. So back on the bike, find the turning and on to meet up with my support in Rothiemay.
This was a meeting with a difference. Good friends of ours had come to meet us. Giff is an ambassador for Macmillan Cancer Support and one of the reasons I was using this ride to raise funds for them. It was great to see them and a lovely morale boost.

Despite it being all his fault we're still enjoying a laugh

After more of the usual stop place rituals I was on my way. 50 miles to was all I was thinking. It was to be 50 hard won miles.

Rothiemay to New Deer

This was the second long section and it proved to almost be my undoing. From Rothiemay I had chosen back roads to take me to Turriff. These roads wound their way around and went up and down, up and down. No really long climbs (bar one perhaps) but it seemed to me that all the inclines started to be around the 5 to 7 percent mark. And this late in the ride this became a real bug bear. The weather wasn't helping either. The easterly wind was strengthening and the roads became more exposed. The rain that had been threatening all day was finally on the horizon and I could see that it wasn't a question of if but when.
I arrived in Turriff realising that I was slowing down. Exiting Turriff was also tough; a short sharp incline passed the hospital. I didn't need that kind of symbolism. Just out of Turriff the rain started and the wind picked up again. I had to let the SO know I was slowing down. There was nothing good about the riding now, just a determination to get to New Deer.
Sadly the road wasn't done with me. The rain came down and every time I rode over a hill there was another one on the other side of a small dip. And no sign of New Deer. This was definitely my lowest ebb. I stopped at one point to put my waterproof on, changed my mind and rode on. In retrospect this was an error and an indication of how tired I was becoming. If nothing else the waterproof would have made me warmer. And while I felt I was warm enough I suspect I wasn't. Being too cold always creates a performance hit. One to remember if I ever do anything like this again. And a lesson for anyone reading this.
Eventually I arrived in New Deer. With the rain getting harder I put the waterproof on and put the windproof in the car. I wasn't going to worry about changing back if it stopped raining in the last 22 miles.

New Deer to Boddam

This should have been a short, mostly flat or downhill section. I said should. It all started alright and I was happier than I had been in a while. I did know that this section was probably the hardest navigationally because I wanted to avoid the really big roads. And I wanted to go in a relatively straight line.
Sadly I missed my first turning. My inner guidance had gone wrong and I went on for a few miles before I realised. I had spotted a smaller road a mile or so back going in the direction I wanted so I checked my map (I'm not entirely stupid) and saw I could take it. I knew it meant some more climbing but I felt ok in the legs so I turned and went back.
It turned out to be fine, narrow and steeper than I would have liked but it did mean I was travelling in the right direction. I still had some route finding to do and had to follow my nose (with map for guidance) for a couple more miles yet. All this meant I had to let the SO know I was going to be late again. Finally I was able to wave a car down and check. I was in the right place and on the right road. Excellent.
A little more riding brought me to a place where I was finally happy once again that I was on the right road. More communication necessary and then on once again. I took my time and made sure I got it right. Though this made me slower still.
I'd like to add here that this was all done in very unpleasant conditions. The wind was in my face, the rain was on and off, and the roads were hard to find. Road signage in Aberdeenshire is not good. Often the roads have no signs and if they do they often point to places not on the map. Very annoying.
Eventually I could see my destination. Boddam lay directly in front of me. That could only mean one thing. One more turn, one more hill. This was all to get me in the right place to make a left turn onto the Peterhead to Aberdeen road to follow it for a very short distance before tuning into Boddam itself.
Down to the seaside and along the road towards the lighthouse, which I could finally see. I almost had a comedy off with a dog walker and one of those extendible leads but between us we managed to avoid an embarrassing situation.
Then there was no more road. I rode to the lighthouse gate and stopped. Job done.

The wind now making me look fat... (ter)

And the charity shot at the end

Afters

After the photos and recovery drink we put the bike on the car and headed down to Aberdeen where we were expected at friends in Aberdeen. After a clean up and change we had the most delightful evening. I even managed not to fall asleep over dinner. Good evening, you know who you are, thanks...

If you've got this far, thank for reading. I salute your persistence. It has been nice to write about the trip and all the training. Please come back I'm not done blogging.

Road user awards

Gold Stars

Thanks to all of the really great drivers who gave me space and respect. Your driving is much appreciated.

Not so good

The good number of drivers over the two days who made decisions for me, made me hug the kerb or hedgerow and just generally made my life uncomfortable. Your driving is not appreciated. At all.
Surprising I have to include a large number of motorcyclists in this category. Given the call for us drivers to give them more respect I was disappointed I didn't get theirs.

Idiots

Two real idiots I want to bring to your attention. I'd love to think that they might read this and change their ways but I'm more of a realist than that.
On the first day I was going along on the single track road between Ardgour to Loch Eil when a camper van came into view. They were right beside a passing place and had I been a car I'm sure they would have stopped in it and waited. Of course a cyclist doesn't warrant that and they kept coming. I needed to stop just off the side of the road for them. I do not regret the question I asked through their open window. And, yes, it was polite. And, no, I haven't got an answer.
On Friday afternoon I was overtaken by a van bearing the legend and crest of Highland Couriers. They were too close by a very long way, there was something coming the other way and the road markings clearly showed that no overtaking was allowed. The company will be being contacted.

The Rides

In case you've missed the earlier posts here are the rides from the two days.

Day 1

Day 2

L2L Day 2

In a similar vein to the post on day 1 of the challenge ride this one will be short. Although I'm posting it the day after I'm still a little tired so will recharge and put all the thoughts of the two days on a single longer post tomorrow.
Suffice it to say that this was a hard day of cycling. The easterly breeze of the day before had turned into an easterly wind and the weather had also turned for the worst. Luckily the rain stayed away for most of the day.
Missing a turning in the last section of the ride also didn't help. That cost me 5 miles extra, some extra ascent and quite a bit of time as I sorted myself out.
Here's the horrible truth....

L2L Day 1

This will be a short post about day one of the Lighthouse to Lighthouse ride. I'll do a bigger one describing the whole thing when I've recovered.
Day 1 has gone pretty well. The weather was nice with a mixture of sunshine and clouds; no rain. The one irritation was the easterly breeze. As the route was going from west to east for approximately 115 miles of the 129 it did not make for the easiest riding. However, the forecast for tomorrow is worse so maybe I should keep quiet about how tough it was until I measure it against tomorrow's wind and rain!
Here's the ride details for those interested.

Final Training Week

I'm sure it won't be the last week's training I'll ever do in my life but it has been the final training before the L2L ride. The weather wasn't great which was a shame but hopefully that means the weather won't be too bad this coming week. I have all my fingers and toes crossed!

Monday 4th of June

After golf the day before it was back to the bike on Monday. Another change up ride the main thrust of which was to be a fast 10 mile effort. I don't know if it has been the training and the golf on the days before but when I tried the fast section I found that my legs wanted to stop before my cardiovascular system. I guess that is a good thing for an endurance effort, but I think once this is all done I might work on my power a bit more and see what I can do with the speed over smaller distances. Did I hear someone say time trial?

Tuesday 5th June

The one and only weights session this week. And a very easy one too. 1/4 squats, push presses and roll-outs left me plenty of time to do a more important stretching routine. It definitely had the feel of a taper week.

Wednesday 6th June

This late in the training I wasn't going to take any chances at all. This became a recurring theme of the week. So instead of going out into the murky and wet weather I went to the gym and rode an exercise bike for 1:20. I put in some hill repeats by upping the resistance. I did this in the middle 40 minutes with 20 minutes easy riding either side. The pattern for the hill was 6 minutes against the stronger resistance followed by 2 minutes of very easy spinning simulating the trip back down the hill. The benefit of the exercise bike is that I get my cadence reading which I don't on a spin bike. I managed to keep a decent spin rate while not stressing out my heart rate too much which was exactly the point of the workout. Excellent fun.
Note that Strava has a problem with dates and stationary bike workouts that results in the ride having the date of the day before.

Thursday 7th June

I did want to get out on the bike and the forecast for Thursday morning was ok so up I got. Only to find some low cloud and mist hanging over St. Andrews. Lovely. I went out anyway and headed off for my intended route down towards Crail. As soon as I got to the top of the hill out of St. Andrews I realised it was a no go when I couldn't really see more than 200 yards. Again my no risks policy for the week left me no choice but to go and do my miles in the town. With the schedule asking for 30 miles this became an exercise in mental fortitude. Endless loops of the road at the beach and a couple of loops of the town and the road out to the edge of town gave me the mileage and turned out not to be too dull.

Friday 8th

The forecast of another very wet and windy morning made me decide on Thursday night to go to the gym on Friday morning. As it turned out it was wet and windy overnight but might have been ok in the morning. Still, it was only a recovery ride and it was easy enough to spin the legs over in the gym. As I had some company on the bike beside me for a while the time went relatively easily.

Sunday 9th

After a welcome rest day on Saturday I had my last training ride to do on Sunday morning. With only 20 easy miles to do I took the option of riding down to Crail and back home by Anstruther. All quite sedate trying to maintain a decent cadence in a gear that kept my heart rate down to the right levels. So no records broken on this one.
The legs felt a little tired early on but after 40 minutes or so they started to feel more alive and the pace and heart rate was good on the hills home.

Onward

With all the training rides it is now time to get organised for the upcoming challenge. I'm back feeling a little nervous about it now but if I'm not ready now goodness knows how I would have done more for it. So I have to be confident in the plan that was provided for me and just go and do it.
I'll try and blog some after each of the day's riding but it will be connection and time dependent. Oh, and if I can stay awake to do it!

The last big week

This week's training was different again, which was good. It was the last big mileage week but had an interesting variety of routines to help me keep focus. It almost worked, but not quite as you will see.

Monday 28th May

I had a lot of fun with this one. The workout was supposed to be hard. With an easterly breeze the opportunity was there to do the whole 20 miles using nothing but the big chainring. I also imposed a limit on the biggest sprocket I was allowed to use. I set it at the 21 tooth gear which meant that the chain didn't suffer too much cross-chaining. The ride itself was hard, as evidenced by the heart rate readings but I felt very strong. I have to admit that later in the day I did feel tired. Good training I guess!

Tuesday 29th

All change on Tuesday with a recovery ride. To ensure I wasn't tempted at any point to push it I just rode around the town enjoying the flat roads and trying to avoid the potholes. I did feel relaxed when I finished this.

Wednesday 30th

As a change I only had one gym session this week and this was it. It was also the last time for this set of exercises. I was sorry to see this lot go as I have really enjoyed this set of exercises. All apart from the side planks that is. Planks are my second most hated exercise, with lunges being my least favourite. Give me squats any time.

Thursday 31st

This ride was horrible. Not because of the ride itself but the weather was truly awful. Some of the roads were more like rivers. As a cyclist you are supposed to try and avoid puddles. No chance; there were just streams running down the road. The day was supposed to be hard; well it was both physically and mentally. On the plus side the waterproof jacket definitely works.
The bad side I found out later. The weather has helped cut holes in my tyres and there was so much rain that there was water actually in my wheel rims. When I rotated the rear wheel I could hear it slooshing around. I had to take the tyre of and shake it dry. I'm still not sure I've got it all out.

Friday 1st June

June has arrived. I'm not sure how it managed to sneak up on us but here it is. It seemed such a long way away when I started training last July. I celebrated by taking a day off work so I could get my training miles in.The plan had two easy 60 mile rides for the weekend but I had agreed to play in a team golf competition on the Sunday so something had to give. Work seemed like the obvious option.
I had a lovely ride, traversing north east Fife from north to south. The easterly breeze hurt me a little on the way home but I enjoyed it all. And I felt good. I have noticed over the last few weeks that I appear to have more strength for getting up hills. It's a strange thing because I don't feel that this has been a gradual change; it's like it has just come on now. The oddity of exercise and adaptation I suppose.
A highlight of the ride came when a couple of road traffic policemen decided to see how fast I was going through Cupar by pointing their radar gun at me. As I was going slightly uphill at the time I was in no danger of speeding and the three of us exchanged some banter about it. Luckily they hadn't been operating at the other side of Cupar where the result might have been closer to the speed limit!

Saturday 2nd

Here was the flip side of Friday's ride. Another easy 60 mile ride, this time to Edinburgh. I just never felt good at all. The bike didn't seem right, I didn't seem right and I found it really hard to enjoy the cycling. Having said that, the numbers told a different story. My heart rate was comfortably low, my speed was ok and I wasn't suffering physically other than not feeling quite right. That and having to take "comfort breaks" far too often for my liking.
I finally got going just outside Kelty and managed to enjoy the trip down to the Forth Road Bridge, especially blasting down a hill where I get to race the cars.
Thanks have to go to my lovely Significant Other who provided support in Kinross yet again. I enjoyed the meeting up and was very tempted to throw the bike on the top of the car. I didn't though, so maybe this week's riding was really characterised by a strong mental refusal to give up.

Sunday 3rd

No cycling but a game of golf. I was surprised by not playing too badly and not disgracing myself. Maybe there's hope for me yet on the links. I'm beginning to miss the it which means that this break from the game is probably doing me good. Another plus point for this cycling lark!

Two weeks away

The Lighthouse to Lighthouse ride is now two weeks away. If all goes according to plan (when does that ever happen?) I should be well on my way this time 14 times 24 hours from now. Looking towards that day I'll probably already be tired of flapjacks but hopefully not tired of the cycling or the views. One of the main things I'm looking forward to are the new roads. Most of my training has taken place here in Fife and, while the scenery is pretty good, I can't wait to see something new and enjoy a fresh set of hills and bends.

I'm much more excited than nervous now. There's little more I can do in physical preparation so now it is down to maintenance of my fitness, getting the bike ready and making sure all the logistical side of things is battened down.

And I'm still crossing my fingers for perfect weather; not too hot or too cold, thin and high cloud cover with a slight westerly breeze. Is that asking too much?

Training update - another different week

This week's training created new opportunities for having some different sessions. All in all good fun but it has left me quite tired. And I get to start it all again tomorrow. This time though I know that this week is the last before I start to taper down before the main event. I can't believe there's less than three weeks to go before I attempt the challenge. And that it is June next weekend. Scary!
Enough of the future, here's this week's report.

Monday 21st May

After the rides at the weekend I had another recovery ride to start the week. I had a big debate before I went out about what I should wear. It looked like it might be quite nice and warm; it definitely wasn't! So I was very glad to have picked the gilet, arm warmers and longs. The ride itself was very gentle which was good as it was all I could do to spin my way over the ridge in Strathkinness. Just as I was coming onto the main cycle path I saw a parked car in the entrance to the field with it's four way flashers on. Poor young chap had an oil problem with his car and it was gently smoking out of the bonnet. I stopped and made sure he was ok. But I couldn't do much more for him, so I carried on home.
In the end this was a case of getting the miles done, rather than being out for the pleasure of riding. I am trying my best not to get bored with the training but it is an effort at times. I'm fortunate that the Lighthouse ride is on new roads as that will definitely keep me interested.

Tuesday 22nd and Thursday 24th

As far as training went it was back to the gym on these two mornings. Good fun as ever and this week was a heavy lifting week which means pushing the weights a little and working hard. That's most likely the last heavy weights session for the training which lifts a weight from my shoulders as I shouldn't injure myself in the gym now. Fingers crossed!
However, the excitement of the day was the fitting of a new bottom bracket and chainset to the road bike. I had a service done last week and whilst most things were ok the bottom bracket had certainly had it's day. I have had issues with the pre-tension crank bolt on the FSA chainset that came with the bike and yet again it was stuck. So to remove this problem I decided to take the opportunity to change the chainset. I didn't really want to make major changes to the bike this late in the day but it made sense. So now the bike has a nice new Shimano 105 chainset on the bike courtesy of my local bike shop. It looks nicer than it's FSA counterpart so it must be faster!

Wednesday 23rd

The schedule asked for a hard 30-miler on Wednesday. For some variety I decided to ride my 3 hills route via Craigsanquhar and Cupar but with a twist. Not only would I climb through Strathkinness from the low road to Guardbridge I would also climb the three major hills twice. Hill repeats with some mileage.
It was a lovely morning, but still relatively cold when I set out. The ride itself went quite well with one annoyance. When I got to Cupar I found the bottom of Bishopsgate closed for road repairs. I was able to take another road and do about two thirds of the climb but it wasn't the same.
Once I got to the top of this road I needed to strip off some layers it was so hot. It's amazing what you can get into jersey pockets. I was happy to have my gilet keep everything in place though.
It was a baptism of fire for the new chainset. But what a difference the new bottom bracket made. The cranks seemed to turn so much more smoothly. Not that it made a great difference to my performance; it just felt better.

Friday 25th

Today's requirement was a very hard day, but I woke up to that east coast phenomenon of a haar. A cold sea fog for those of you not conversant with the term. As I am extremely paranoid about getting an injury or having an accident I decided the workout should be in the gym. And, by happy accident, Friday is the morning I sometimes go to a spin class which I really love. So off I went and, when I met the instructor on the way in, I asked for a class of hard intervals. I'm not sure what the rest of the class thought but that's exactly what we got. So for thirty minutes or so I was able to really push my cardio vascular system to the max. I peaked out at 182 bpm which is over my theoretical maximum and I spent a good part of that time I was over 90% of my MHR. It felt good when we were done, but rather than do the stretch part of the class I took myself off to another exercise bike to do a chunk of fairly high HR steady state work. Close to 40 minutes later I'd done 20km of exercise bike distance with an average HR over 85% of my MHR. It's no exaggeration to say I was tired. But it was a good workout, both physically and mentally, with the second part of it particularly challenging mentally.
You can see the HR trace here if you are interested.

Saturday 26th

A really different ride on Saturday. The training diary had 50 easy miles on it. For a change I asked my friend and colleague Vic to come out with me. He said yes, and it made the ride hugely enjoyable. I kept the route relatively easy but it is hard to find an interesting out and back route around St. Andrews that doesn't have some climbing. The major part of the ups and downs was kept for the second part of the route which allowed my legs to recover before we did them. And it wasn't too severe anyhow. In fact the hill I was most worried about was easier than I remembered as I hadn't gone up it for a while. A mark of my increased bike fitness I guess. The only downside of the ride was the easterly breeze that made it slightly uncomfortable geting home from Pitscottie after Vic and I had parted company.
The weather was fantastic. A proper summer morning which allowed me to go out in just shorts on my legs with a base layer and jersey on top. Fantastic. I didn't so much have a tan when I got in as a layer of flies making my legs look darker. And the weather had brought out all sorts of other cyclists. It was nice to see.

Sunday 27th

Actually this was day off. Nice. My lie-in didn't really materialise as I needed to get up just after 7 so I could go and play golf. Yes, golf! My competitive sport of choice for over ten years until last year's horrible play which led me to cycling and the Lighthouse to Lighthouse challenge. I needed a break. It was really nice to be out with a pal on the links; now I just have to get my game back in shape. A good way to spend a day off training.
Now I need to re-focus on the rest of this week's training!

Another week - more miles

As the ride draws ever closer the training continues unabated. Here's this week's tale of getting ready for the Lighthouse to Lighthouse challenge. Not too much pain and suffering this week. Either I was taking it too easy or I'm getting stronger.

Monday 14th May

The plan had today as an opportunity for interval training. However the weather had other ideas with wild wind and rain. Had I just been going out for a ride I'd have been quite happy to do so but the idea of trying intervals when the wind might blow me around a bit really didn't appeal. So I went to the gym and used one of the exercise bikes to do my intervals on. The nice thing about doing it that way is that the intervals are repeatable and consistent which gives good feedback on your work. In my case I managed 8 intervals 4 on one resistance level and 4 on a slightly easier level. I changed levels as my fourth interval really was a bit of a fail and indeed so was the eighth. It's good to know how much you can keep dipping into the reserves.

Tuesday 15th and Thursday 17th

These two mornings saw me in the gym doing my strength and conditioning work. I really do enjoy weights sessions. The trick to relieve the boredom is to have exercise plans that change regularly enough to keep the interest up. And I can't stress enough how important having a trainer to work up your plan is, and also to show you the correct technique. Often enough I see people in the gym lifting weights that are too large with bad form; they are injuries waiting to happen.
Once you can do squats and deadlifts correctly I believe you have exercises that can keep you strong and fit for a long time. And that keeps us cycling for a long time too.

Wednesday 16th

On Tuesday night I changed the rear wheel and the cassette on my bike. The new rear wheel as a replacement for the wheel that I have broken a couple of spokes on and the cassette as way of getting slightly better spread of gears. The bike came with a 12-26 cassette and I changed that out for an 11-28 to get a slightly lower gear for the hills. However I found that I wasn't really needing the 11 and I felt the spread (11-12-13-14-16-18-21-24-28) was a little wide especially between the 18 and 21. On the road I found myself changing between them quite a lot, where one would feel a little easy and the other one a little hard. So I came up with a plan to split a 12-26 and an 11-28 to make one cassette of 12-28. It's not as hard as it sounds although I did need to "adjust" one of the spacers to make it work as the two cassettes, despite being the same model, had different cog and spacer designs.
The result of that was that I used Wednesday morning's recovery ride as a test ride for the new components. The good news for me was that they all worked well and I'm very happy with the new spread of gears (12-13-14-15-17-19-21-24-28). The big gap isn't there now and it all feels a lot smoother.

Friday 18th

The bike had been in to the mechanic for a check over and adjustment on the Thursday. And this easy 20-miler was a real shame for it as the weather was awful. Wet, windy and cold. However the bike did run well and I got the miles done.
Sadly I managed to cut my front tyre up somewhere on this ride and I had to replace it when I gave the bike a clean before Saturday's trip. I'm impressed with the durability of the Schwalbe Lugano that came with the bike and I put 2800 miles on this tyre before it finally gave up the ghost. It's replacement was it's twin from the rear wheel that I replaced a while ago trying out a Continental Gatorskin. I will be replacing the front tyre with one of these as soon as I can be sure of a couple of dry days as they need a little breaking in in the dry before they give the proper grip.



Note I'm having trouble with linking this ride using Strava again, so I've used my other choice, ridewithgps.

Saturday 19th

My plan had me down for 100 miles on Saturday, but to keep them easy, if there can be such a thing. The only way I could get the required miles in before my other Saturday commitments was to get away from the house around 6. So that meant getting up at 4 so that I could get a decent breakfast in and into the system before heading off.
The Significant Other and I decided we should use this ride as a test of meeting up and support work as well as a test of my riding. In the end it worked out pretty well. We had a wee location mix up on the first rendezvous but nothing drastic and the others all went perfectly.
I picked a route that was essentially as flat as possible. You can't do 100 miles from St. Andrews to Edinburgh without climbing some hills. And even if I could have found a route without any hills I doubt that I'd have picked it. You need some climbing in a day out. However, like the meeting up, the cycling went well, helped a little by the wind which was from a east-north-east direction which certainly didn't hinder me very often. And helped quite a bit in some places.
The one downside of the day was an unfortunate incident with a pedestrian on my approach to the Forth Road bridge. At this point bicycles share a pavement with foot traffic and where the incident occurred the pavement is beside a lay-by. Our pedestrian didn't look when he stepped back on to the pavement from behind his car. At this point I thought he was going to get into the car but when he didn't I ended up being quite close behind him as he strolled up the middle of the pavement. And by the time he heard my request to go by we were much too close. And then he sort of danced around in front of me as I tried to un-clip from my pedals. Sadly I didn't manage it and ended up on the floor. It wasn't his fault I fell over, but it was his fault I was put in that situation. I'll be un-clipping one foot next time I'm cycling that way! The result was a slightly sore knee and a saddle and gear lever that both needed straightening up. That done I was on my way again.
Sadly this all meant I didn't have a chance of doing door-to-door in 7 hours which had been a small target so I just took it relatively easily over the bridge and onto Edinburgh where I met the Significant Other at The Brig. It's a good place to stop. It removes the need to cycle through the west of Edinburgh which is always a pain after riding down from Fife.
This was as easy a century ride as I can imagine. At the end of it I felt better than I did after my last ride down to Edinburgh. It just goes to show that hills really determine how hard a route is.

Sunday 20th

No day off this Sunday but I had a small lie-in before heading out. 20 easy miles were called for and so I headed off to Cupar. I couldn't believe how good the legs felt given the exertions of the day before so to see how good they actually were I decided to climb up to Craigrothie after I'd got there. The initial climb went well and then after I swooped into Craigrothie itself I felt good enough to take the small climb there in a biggish gear and out of the saddle. That's how to keep training fresh without doing too much. I turned for home after that and although it was into whatever breeze there was I had a good ride back. A lovely short ride on a lovely morning.
This ride also saw the second appearance of my legs this year with it being warm enough for no longs and no overshoes. I still had my gilet, long sleeved jersey and arm warmers on and they were well needed.
This was the end of this week's training. I start again tomorrow!