Update 30-April-2012

Weather atrocious yesterday that blew any chance of a ride in the morning. However as per the forecast it stopped about 5pm so I took a flier and wet out for a quick run. I did a pretty short loop to normal (just over 13 miles) but tried the "Widney Manor Uphill" and "St Alphege Hill" segments for a change. Managed 2nd overall on the former and 4th overall on the latter. Pretty please. Was within a second of my KOM from the previous day on the "Watery Eyes Wake Up" segment again. And all on the Giant, so a good summary. It did rain on me though 1/2 way round so I didn't miss the rain after all. I did wipe the chain and lightly re-oil it before putting the bike away though

Update 28-April-2012

A week without riding!!! Bad weather and various work commitments completely blew any chance of cycling to work last week (and for the week before) so the mileage has really dropped off. Added to which the weather for this Sunday looks dire. I slipped out Saturday afternoon for a quick ride to get some miles in, between the rain showers, but even then chose to take the Giant as it has mudguards. I chose a route to be good for some Strava segments with a tail wind but basically there seemed to be a headwind nearly all the way! It also felt pretty hard work as well, which I put down to the string wind and the Giant, which I haven't ridden for a number of weeks and is heavier than the Focus. I did try but did not really expect great things.

On getting home and uploading the route I got another KOM (completely unexpected) on the "Watery Eyes Warm Up" segment which was great - especially as it is Noel's segment and improved my times on the "Liveridge Hill XRoads to Tanworth Church" and "Cut Throat Ln" segments by a few seconds. This gets me up to 7 KOMs at present - here's the screen shot to prove it:

Another ride on Sunday. Did the Fiery Hill / Twatling Rd Climb again to prove I could. Held on to the KOM and improved time by 2 seconds.

The link below will show the current Segment status so when someone beats me it'll show them. DOn't want that so here's a screen shot of my KOM status as of 22 April 2012

Bike Upgrade Summary 2012

From the 2 posts below I have made a brief reference to some potential benefits of upgrading the wheels on my Focus.

I bought a Focus Cayo 105 from Wiggle at the start of 2010 as an upgrade from my 2009 Giant Defy 4. The Focus is a really good entry level Carbon bike and was a big upgrade from my Defy. I didn't spend any money on the Cayo in 2010, riding it as delivered. In 2011 I fitted a Short Cage 105 rear dérailleur for cosmetic reasons only and changed the tyres. However in 2012 I was looking for some bigger improvement and decided that some wheels would make an improvement. I spent some time looking at what was a sensible upgrade - looking at cost, weight, and other factors. After a lot of review I selected some Shimano RS80 C24 wheels (here).

Noel already had a pair and they seemed really good, plus everywhere I looked the reviews were pretty well overwhelmingly positive.

I also got some Continental GP4000s tyres (here).

This combination seemed to make a real difference the first time I road the bike, but it has been over the past couple of months (March April 2012) when I have put more miles on them that I do believe that they have made a big difference, especially when climbing, but also on the flat - it seems easier to accelerate up to a cruising speed and up hill I seem to be a gear higher than previously.

In terms of overall weight these wheels are light (~1550g for the pair) and the wheels that came with the Cayo originally (Cole Rollen) were not bad (~1750g for the pair) so although there is only a small weight loss the 'feel' of the wheels and the performance gain seems significantly more than 250g worth of improvement.

So would I recommend the Shimano wheels - definitely yes

Update 20 April 2012

Went out for a reasonably early run on Saturday morning trying to beat the forecast showers. Legs felt like lead along Pool Head Lane and gave up 1/2 way up Vicarage Hill in Tanworth. Took the run down to the Liveridge Crossroads (Strava Segment) and then down to Henley. Turned left at the bottom of the High Street towards Claverdon to try the segment on this stretch of road. However felt pretty drained and got upto 180bpm on the short climb out so didn't feel like I'd make any in roads in my previous segment times on my Giant Defy 4 earlier in the year. Road back home via Lowsonford, Lapworth, Hockley Heath and tried the Kineton Lane segment on the way back.

Got home at an average of 18.2mph over 30 miles (pretty close to an all time PB), so was pleased with the overall pace but had felt slow where I wanted it to matter on some of the segments. Anyway, uploaded the route to Strava and got another KOM in 6 days, this being the "Henley-in-Arden to Claverdon - A4189". Not only that but blitzed my previous time of 11:10 and am now down to 9:57, so over a minute improvement. Well pleased.

I think that all the winter miles have counted and the Shimano RS80 wheels and Continental GP4000s tyres I have fitted to my Focus have really made a difference

Here's the segment (got a 15 second gap on 2nd place as well so might just hold it for a few weeks):

Update 20 April 2012

A quick post to record that after a bit of a drought I got a  new KOM on Sunday 15 April. I'd scouted out what I though was the segment but in reverse and downhill a few days before and then rode it properly on the Sunday. On uploading the route I was surprised to see that the segment I'd ridden was not the segment I had expected!

Regardless it was a tougher and longer segment and not only that I was KOM, so a really good surprise. Its the sort of hill (I won't call it a mountain round our way) that suits me with the climbing mostly over a steady 4-5% gradient. I'll take any KOM though regardless of type. What was also a surprise was that Strava rates it as a Cat 4 climb - well worth having.

The rest of the week has probably seen the least cycling for months due to poor weather and work commitments

Here it is:

Another brief update.

After 3 commutes at the end of March I added in another ride on Sunday (1 April) with Noel. We went down to Evesham which is normally a good 60+ mile round trip. Weather was OK (shorts) but needed a few layers on for the first few hours. Noel & I took reasonable turns at the front and as a result got down to Evesham and back to Astwood Bank at about 17.4mph average which was very pleasing. At that point I wanted to detour through to Tardebigge and on and Noel had had enough, so we split at that point. I pressed on and added a few extra Strava segments to the route and despite doing a total of 72.9 miles for the morning still got the average at 17.1. The additional segments were the "Sheltwood Stretcher" (a drag over a mile or so) and Icknield Street Climb, and on both of these set the 2nd fastest time overall, so was well pleased.

Didn't get a great deal of chance for riding to work the week commencing 4 April other than the Friday (we are heathens and work on Good Friday) which was a bitterly cold morning (-4Deg C on my Garmin 800).

However the weather perked up on the Saturday and I went out for a blast to get as many segments as possible in the afternoon. Did a 30 mile loop at 19mph and made a number of improvements on a 4-5 segments and felt pretty good as well. Despite seeing strong signs of improved pace I can see KOM slipping away now as more people are signing on and its getting pretty competitive out there - sometimes the KOM don't stand for more than 12-24hrs when the weather is good at the weekend and there are a few ((Box Trees Lane, Kineton Lane, Pool Head Lane etc) where the competition is intense. Kineton Lane has seen a drop if about 20 seconds of time over the past 2 weeks with 4-5 people holding the KOM.

Finally, as I am off on holiday the week after Easter I have been nipping out in some of the mornings for some miles. On 11 April I decided to do some hill repeats and went over to Rose Hill with the intention to do at least 2. The first ascent was hard, but I felt OK afterwards and went to a 2nd loop, which actually seemed to hurt less. On completing that 2nd loop I decided to go for a 3rd loop and this was no worse that the 2nd. I felt I could have done a 4th loop, but probably would have struggled a lot on the way home so glad I didn't. The first ascent was 3:45 and the second and third were both 3:56. The 3:45 was my 2nd fastest time ever and the fact that the next 2 ascents were the same time was excellent for me. I think that I should try and push a lot harder on this hill now.

I think that all the miles slogged out over the Winter are starting to pay off. Whilst my main target this year is 5000 miles again, I also want to increase the average speed to be generally 18mph for most rides up to 60-70 miles. There's no structure to this or specific plan but I believe it will be possible on a couple of days - weather and overall distance dependant and probably needing at least another person to share the time at the front. Les hope so. I can do it over 20-25 miles so don't see why it's impossible over a longer distance.