In the last few weeks we've been riding when we can, I think I've added around another 90-100 miles in total.
Most of the last 7 days has been without rides as my Gran passed away and I've been back in Scotland for the funeral.
I got back on Tuesday and rode yesterday. 40 miles (hilly) at a steady pace. P did a good, hard effort on our 16 mile hilly loop, using it as an interval session on both some of the flat sections and hilly sections.
I'm pretty happy that we've finalised the kit design with James at Half Baked Brand He has been great and really quick to respond to any questions or concerns as we've gone through the design process. We should have the jerseys in a couple of weeks and the shorts to follow.
I'm also really glad that we've signed with SPONSER for our sports nutrition supply,They've been really supportive and helpful, with Shannon being a mine of information. and remember, If you order anything from them and use the code "ReSkill Ride" you get a 10% discount AND 5% of everything spent will be donated straight back to Project Mobility.
On Monday, P delivered an assembly to his school (he teaches) and Bruce from Project Mobility came down to help deliver the message.
The key thing here is that to open the Reskill Academy, the Project need £20,000 for the deposit on the building. Now, I don't for a second think we can raise that much. But I really want the ride to help as much as possible. So far we are around £600 all in.. I KNOW we can do better than this. please help where you can. The "Donate" button is just over there on the right.
The other benefit of Monday was a chance to discuss some of the pure logistical elements of the ride and I'm happier now (though I was away at the funeral) that we have the bulk of the issues in hand.
One of the things that has been suggested is that some of the guys that the project is helping come across and meet up with us on the ride. The obvious place would be at the end of Day 2 just north of Bristol.
It'd be great if we can get pull this together.
Long weekend ahead... bank holiday almost guarantees rain... so... looks like we will be getting wet then :)
C
Thursday 31 May 2012
Monday 14 May 2012
Another good 50
Sunday, glorious morning...
50 miles (reverse of the Beacon Hill route down through Aldershot) over 1000ft of climbing including ramps and long drags (the last 5 miles for example)
The ride felt great, knocked the average speed down a tiny bit (15mph for 50 miles) and could really feel the advantage of the training miles and climbing practice.
3 mechanicals, I shipped my chain on a roundabout (fixed almost straight away),
We had a problem with P's rear after Beacon Hill (replacement tube had pushed the bead up on to the rim) dropped the pressure, reseated the tyre and used my Lezyne Road Drive pump, with which I am really pretty impressed, to re inflate. Not quite track pump pressures, but good.
Stopped later to top up tyre and after having some issues getting the pump on, the centre of the valve stem blew out. Rather than fixing or checking, simply replaced the tube and rode on (I've fixed the stem for now, will pressure test it on a wheel later).
I felt really good all the way round, food and hydration seemed about right . I've started eating half of a Sponser High Energy Bar every 45 mins or so, I'm going to experiment with cutting them in half (still wrapped) pre-ride for ease of grabbing.
P rode pretty easily for most of the ride, really measured effort, and rather enjoyed the climbs.
Feeling tired this morning , but that's more about lack of sleep over the last week than anything else.
Total miles Sunday :50
Total miles since 1st May : 191.5
50 miles (reverse of the Beacon Hill route down through Aldershot) over 1000ft of climbing including ramps and long drags (the last 5 miles for example)
The ride felt great, knocked the average speed down a tiny bit (15mph for 50 miles) and could really feel the advantage of the training miles and climbing practice.
3 mechanicals, I shipped my chain on a roundabout (fixed almost straight away),
We had a problem with P's rear after Beacon Hill (replacement tube had pushed the bead up on to the rim) dropped the pressure, reseated the tyre and used my Lezyne Road Drive pump, with which I am really pretty impressed, to re inflate. Not quite track pump pressures, but good.
Stopped later to top up tyre and after having some issues getting the pump on, the centre of the valve stem blew out. Rather than fixing or checking, simply replaced the tube and rode on (I've fixed the stem for now, will pressure test it on a wheel later).
I felt really good all the way round, food and hydration seemed about right . I've started eating half of a Sponser High Energy Bar every 45 mins or so, I'm going to experiment with cutting them in half (still wrapped) pre-ride for ease of grabbing.
P rode pretty easily for most of the ride, really measured effort, and rather enjoyed the climbs.
Feeling tired this morning , but that's more about lack of sleep over the last week than anything else.
Total miles Sunday :50
Total miles since 1st May : 191.5
Monday 7 May 2012
Not a bad week
Another day, another ride.
P had to miss this due to a very early mechanical, I knew I needed to do "more than 25" miles. Set off into the rain on a long loop, rain got worse, I ploughed on, rain got less worse, I headed round.
First decision point at 30 miles to turn home (2 miles away) or turn onto another 10 mile loop to the south. South it was and the ride down to Farnborough and back up through Camberley was good (picking up a nice tail wind)
Second decision point at 41 miles to turn into our road or carry on straight for a 10 mile hilly loop. So…I carried on. the Broadmoor bypass is hard work, especially after 40 rainy miles, so I sat in and plodded my way up. The very last little ramp (2 miles from home) was steep and I simply could not climb "out of the saddle" I needed to have taken on more food. Climbed up this in the saddle and turned for the last 2 miles into the wind)
Total: 51.5 miles (wet)
Back to back yesterday and today: 91.5 miles
Total since Tuesday : 141.5 miles
Shoulders aching, lessons learned on feeding and a productive week for me.
And now…a couple of hours rest then off to teach people swordplay !
P had to miss this due to a very early mechanical, I knew I needed to do "more than 25" miles. Set off into the rain on a long loop, rain got worse, I ploughed on, rain got less worse, I headed round.
First decision point at 30 miles to turn home (2 miles away) or turn onto another 10 mile loop to the south. South it was and the ride down to Farnborough and back up through Camberley was good (picking up a nice tail wind)
Second decision point at 41 miles to turn into our road or carry on straight for a 10 mile hilly loop. So…I carried on. the Broadmoor bypass is hard work, especially after 40 rainy miles, so I sat in and plodded my way up. The very last little ramp (2 miles from home) was steep and I simply could not climb "out of the saddle" I needed to have taken on more food. Climbed up this in the saddle and turned for the last 2 miles into the wind)
Total: 51.5 miles (wet)
Back to back yesterday and today: 91.5 miles
Total since Tuesday : 141.5 miles
Shoulders aching, lessons learned on feeding and a productive week for me.
And now…a couple of hours rest then off to teach people swordplay !
Sunday 6 May 2012
This week - getting into a training rythym
I'm rather tired tonight :)
It's been a busy week with the Sponser announcment and getting the last logos and sizing info sorted for the ride kit.
From a training and activity point of view, from last Saturday it has looked a little like this:
Saturday : 3 hours Taiko practice
Sunday : Hard turbo session courtesy of 3LC (Time Trial DVD - constant hard efforts)
Monday : Work, then teaching at the School of the Sword.
Tuesday : Work, then 25 mile ride.(rolling/hilly)
Wednesday : Work, then 15 mile ride (new loop, discovering a rather nasty little hill)
Thursday : Work, then teaching at the School of the Sword (including 2 rather enjoyable bouts)
Friday : Work , then 10 mile ride (flat)
Saturday : Taiko - 6 hours of practice (3 hr class then a group practice).
Sunday : 40 mile ride.
This makes my mileage for the week 90, (with more planned tomorrow, one hopes)
The taiko session has left me with a rather sore left quad and arms (taiko is played in a "lunge" type stance so the left thigh takes a fair hit). The only real impact on the ride today was when climbing the viscious little ramp up towards Heckfield (by Wiggins Copse, seriously) my first "out of the saddle" effort rather collapsed, So I sat in and rode the climb in the saddle. later standing efforts went better.
Minor tweak on my right Achilles tendon, also from Taiko, which was a "niggle" today more than a problem.
Really impressed with the Sponser products I've been using all week though tonight, as I said, I am really rather tired.
It's been a busy week with the Sponser announcment and getting the last logos and sizing info sorted for the ride kit.
From a training and activity point of view, from last Saturday it has looked a little like this:
Saturday : 3 hours Taiko practice
Sunday : Hard turbo session courtesy of 3LC (Time Trial DVD - constant hard efforts)
Monday : Work, then teaching at the School of the Sword.
Tuesday : Work, then 25 mile ride.(rolling/hilly)
Wednesday : Work, then 15 mile ride (new loop, discovering a rather nasty little hill)
Thursday : Work, then teaching at the School of the Sword (including 2 rather enjoyable bouts)
Friday : Work , then 10 mile ride (flat)
Saturday : Taiko - 6 hours of practice (3 hr class then a group practice).
Sunday : 40 mile ride.
This makes my mileage for the week 90, (with more planned tomorrow, one hopes)
The taiko session has left me with a rather sore left quad and arms (taiko is played in a "lunge" type stance so the left thigh takes a fair hit). The only real impact on the ride today was when climbing the viscious little ramp up towards Heckfield (by Wiggins Copse, seriously) my first "out of the saddle" effort rather collapsed, So I sat in and rode the climb in the saddle. later standing efforts went better.
Minor tweak on my right Achilles tendon, also from Taiko, which was a "niggle" today more than a problem.
Really impressed with the Sponser products I've been using all week though tonight, as I said, I am really rather tired.
Wednesday 2 May 2012
Sponser UK providing our Sports Nutrition support
I am really proud to announce that the Swiss sports nutrition supplier Sponser have agreed to provide full sports nutrition support to our ride in August
Having tried sports nutrition products from many suppliers over the last couple of years I was really interested when I heard about Sponser on the Velocast podcast and tried their sample pack.
The main things I noticed quickly were that none of their products are heavy or unchewable and the flavours are subtle and not overpowering like some of their competitors.
The gels (Liquid Energy and Liquid Energy Plus) come in really neat,2 serving tubes with re-sealable lids. Anyone who uses gels whilst riding will know the problems of waste gel wrappers and hot jersey pockets. Sponser make this a thing of the past.
The staff at Sponser have been really helpful so far, and we look forward to planning out our nutrition strategy for training and the ride itself.
But there is more.
By getting YOUR sports nutrition supplies from Sponser UK online and using the code "Reskill Ride" you will not only get 10% off of your order (on anything other than the sample pack, which is already discounted) but each quarter 5% of the total spent with this code will be passed back to us for the Project Mobility fundraising.
Sponser offer this type of scheme to British Cycling registered clubs too, and knowing that we are dealing with a company providing great products and real support to grass roots cycling in the UK makes me really proud to be involved with them .
Having tried sports nutrition products from many suppliers over the last couple of years I was really interested when I heard about Sponser on the Velocast podcast and tried their sample pack.
The main things I noticed quickly were that none of their products are heavy or unchewable and the flavours are subtle and not overpowering like some of their competitors.
The gels (Liquid Energy and Liquid Energy Plus) come in really neat,2 serving tubes with re-sealable lids. Anyone who uses gels whilst riding will know the problems of waste gel wrappers and hot jersey pockets. Sponser make this a thing of the past.
The staff at Sponser have been really helpful so far, and we look forward to planning out our nutrition strategy for training and the ride itself.
But there is more.
By getting YOUR sports nutrition supplies from Sponser UK online and using the code "Reskill Ride" you will not only get 10% off of your order (on anything other than the sample pack, which is already discounted) but each quarter 5% of the total spent with this code will be passed back to us for the Project Mobility fundraising.
Sponser offer this type of scheme to British Cycling registered clubs too, and knowing that we are dealing with a company providing great products and real support to grass roots cycling in the UK makes me really proud to be involved with them .
Tuesday 1 May 2012
Food for more than thought
I've just had an email from a leading sports nutrition company offering full nutritional support for our ride.
This is both brilliant news and a huge help logistically.
Stay tuned for the official announcement soon.
C
This is both brilliant news and a huge help logistically.
Stay tuned for the official announcement soon.
C
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