Thinking ahead

I'm trying not to let this weather get me down. It is so frustrating, though, not being able to get out on the road. I missed my ride last weekend, but never-mind as Becca and Chris were due to come over this weekend so we could ride on Sunday. However, the forecast of -6 and 15cm on snow tomorrow looks set to put pay to that. Surely I'll be able to get out for a long ride at some point over the long Easter weekend? It will be April...

In better news, though, I got an email yesterday launching the 2013 Oakman Inns Sportive. Oakman are a great local pub and restaurant group and Mrs M and I have enjoyed eating in their restaurants for many years, especially when I was living in Tring 10 years or so ago and the original Forno Vivo became a second home! They've long supported local sports, mainly Tring Rugby Club, and in 2011 started their own Cycle Sportive.

You've got mail

The 2012 edition was run in September and I rode the shorter 55km route with the rest of the Berko Dads' Bike Club. A very social ride, the route linked three Oakman pubs, all open for coffee and cakes.

Enjoying the 2012 Oakman Inns Cycle Sportive

From the look of it the 2013 event will be a more organised affair, even offering T-shirts when you finish. There's a 70km route which will be just right for my training for the RideLondon 100, as the 2013 date has been moved to early May. I'll be there, hopefully with Becca and Chris plus the rest of the Bike Club. And you never know, it may have finished snowing by then.

A Rapid 20

My closest road cycling club is Tring Velo Club. While I've not had chance to join them for one of their Sunday morning rides yet (maybe next week?), I have been following them on Facebook.

A couple of months back one of the club members posted a challenge. To complete a "Rapid 20". He posted a 20 mile round route from Tring, with the challenge of completing the circuit in under an hour, averaging north of 20mph.

"A Rapid 20" circuit from Tring

 At this stage in my cycling I knew I was nowhere close to a consistent 20mph rider, however I've had in mind for a while then when the opportunity arose I'd like to ride it, just to benchmark myself and my progress.

I got such an opportunity today, and did my own individual time trial. For this part of the world it was pretty flat, other than a nasty little ramp into Wingrave after six miles. And for a first go with relatively few road miles in my legs I was pretty satisfied with a time of 1hr 13mins, an average of 16.5mph.

Here's my ride on Strava. I look forward to trying to improve this as the training builds to August, and hopefully riding the route as a team TT with Becca and Chris in a fortnight....

A landmark achievement

This morning I rode my first organised cycle ride of 2013, the 60th annual Harp Hilly Hundred. Wilf and I chose the 36 mile, 55km route, and completed the course in 2hrs 49mins. I'm sure we could have gone quicker, though had less fun, if we'd spent less time chatting.

As the name suggest, it was rather hilly (2,000ft of climbing), up and down the Chilterns, with a couple of wicked short, steep climbs (the route can be seen here). The sun even shone at times, with suggestions that Spring is on its way. All really pleasant.

Harp Hilly Hundred. Done.

I decided to ride the seven miles down the valley to the start point, and then ended up riding back after as well. These additional 14 miles gave me my landmark achievement of the day, a total distance of 50 miles. This is the first time I've ridden that far in one go. The total ride time of 3hrs 40mins, at 13.5 average mph, sets the benchmark for my summer of training (here's my full ride on Strava).

The goods news is that London to Brighton is only 52 miles so I'll be more than ready for that, and I was delighted yesterday morning to be able to secure places for Becca, Chris and I. 100 miles in eight hours, though... that really is going to take some serious training.

Exciting post

I received an exciting and motivating letter through the post today - my sponsorship pack from Cancer Research.

It was great to read the sponsor stories and training suggestions, however the details of the work Cancer Research does and just what can be achieved through sponsors' donations was the most important read, and motivating for the many miles ahead.

Have a read yourself about some of Cancer Research's work here, and find out why I personally chose to supporting them this year here.

I'd really appreciate any sponsorship you might be able to share. My fundraising webpage is here - http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/BCBC.

Thanks

Off the beaten track

Had a great long weekend away in North Norfolk with the family, for the end of half term. Rather cold, though still very good.

The place we stayed had bikes available to hire, and the opportunity was far too good to miss. A real change being out on a mountain bike rather than my road bike, but thoroughly good fun that the girls really enjoyed (even if Lucy doesn't look too impressed in the photo...).

A spinning class on Wednesday is now all the sits between me and my first organised ride of the year on Sunday. Looking forward to getting out there and doing some decent road miles at last, plus the long-range weather forecast looks really encouraging. Fingers crossed.

I'm Spinning Around

It's really not like being out on the open road. However, I've turned to Spinning to try to maintain a  keep a base level of fitness over the winter, and keep my weight in check.

It's bike riding Jim, just not as you know it

The aim for the winter has been to do one or two times a week in the gym, and then a ride out on the road at the weekend. Limited daylight and snow has rather impacted the latter ambition, though, so Spinning has been really important to keep me going.

It's a bit of an acquired taste, however I think it's done the job! Another 17 miles spun last night - every little helps.

My Olympic Legacy

I loved the London Olympics. The announcement on 6th July 2005 that the Olympics were coming to my city led to seven years of excited anticipation. It remains quite unbelievable to me that the games themselves were everything I’d hoped for, and more.

Fiona and I threw ourselves into the spirit of the Olympics, determined to take advantage of such a “once in a lifetime event”. We went just about every day to something, somewhere, and loved it all. And the opportunity to see the world’s best cyclists up close was too much to resist. Cycling framed our games.

London became the centre of the cycling world. Inside the Velodrome on the Olympic park; the streets of Twickenham await the arrival of the men's road race; the Brownlee brothers break away in Hyde Park on their way to making histroy

While the hangovers from the Opening Ceremony were still raging, we were out on the streets of Richmond and Twickenham cheering on the Men’s Road Race. While that didn’t work out quite as hoped, the same couldn’t be said four days later when we stood by the finish line at Hampton Court Palace to watch Wiggo and Froomy power to Gold and Bronze. The atmosphere by the Thames that day will live very long in the memory, it was truly one of the highlights of the whole games.

A few days later we spent a late afternoon in the Olympic Velodrome, cheering on British starts including Vicky Pendelton, Jason Kenny and Ed Clancy. And a few days after we watched the Brownlee brothers cycling round Hyde Park on their way to Olympic history in the triathlon.

Global stars of cycling. Current road World Champion fast Phil Gilbert during the men's time trial; Queen Victoria Pendleton; Jason Kenny warming up on his way to spring gold: paying homage to Wiggo; women's road race silver medalist Lizzie Armitstead

The Olympics created such a high it took a while to come back down again. Others have talked about POD, post-Olympic depression, and I know what they mean. So Fiona and I asked ourselves: what should we do in 2013? What should our legacy be? Which is when we decided that as a whole family we should do more sport this year, more cycling, and use it as a route to raise some money for charity. Hence this challenge and my sponsorship page for Cancer Research UK.

Raising money for charity as an Olympic legacy was demonstrated during the games themselves by an amazing group of people, the #2012Tweeps. Their selfless work helped many people, myself included, to get many tickets for the Olympics, and in the process raise thousands of pounds for Médecins Sans Frontières. I’m hoping to keep some of the #2012Tweep spirit alive during my cycling this year.

Which leads us to one final connection. On the early evening of Friday 3rd August 2012, as Vicky Pendleton was winning her Kirin Gold medal, #2012Tweep Conrad Readman (@conr62) suffered a fatal heart attack inside the Olympic Velodrome. I’d shared a pint with Conrad after collecting some Olympic tickets just two days before the opening ceremony the week before. Almost exactly a year to the day later, the northern part of the Olympic Park will be re-opening, focused on the new Velo Park for the RideLondon Olympic legacy cycling festival . It’s from here that the route of RideLondon 100 starts on August 4th 2013, losly following the route of the Olympic cycling road races. On the day before I plan to ride into the park to pay my respects to Conrad, pleased that we’re also supporting the British Heart Foundation this year.