Top Week!

After last weeks catch up post I thought that I'd post a bit sooner this week especially as I had a good week Strava wise. However good intentions went out the window and this has sat in the Drafts folder for another week

I only rode 3 times the prior week. The first ride was late morning on the Wednesday. I had taken the day off to get my broadband updated to BT Infinity and fortunately I was the first visit of the day, so it was done and dusted by about 10.30am so I took the opportunity to go out for a ride afterwards. It was a lot windier that I expected. I had gone out looking for about 20 miles or so at a reasonable pace but the strong head winds at the start made me change my mind slightly as to what I wanted to do. I had decided to have another go at Camp Lane so took a relatively steady ride down through Tanworth in Arden down to Camp Hill and then pushed reasonably hard. From here the wind was slightly more favourable so I decided to have a go at both Dyers Drag and Vicarge Hill Downhill as I was sure that there would be a tailwind on both these segments. Fortunately there was, and on Dyers Drag I absolutely made a 100% effort - I got up to and was keeping at 30mph. I tried to up shift for a bit more speed but did not have the power and had to shift down again almost straight away - this can be seen quite clearly in the segment performance plot. Getting home and uploading the data gave a much better result than I had hoped or expected - KOM on Dyers Drag, KOM on Vicarge Hill Downhill, 2nd overall on station run, 3rd on Camp Lane and 4th on Camp Lane and Irelands Lane. 

The other rides this week were a commute to work and back on the Friday. Firstly, after the weekend run the previous weekend I decided to cycle in through Meriden - its a mile further and there is the challenge of 4-5 new segments. The total climbing is about the same but it tends to be more on the Meriden Hill climb rather then a gradual climb up Back Lane. On the Friday the wind was very favourable into work and I saved myself a little for the 2 Spencer Avenue segments - success and took both of them back with a time about 3 seconds faster than the previous KOM times. In addition the average speed for the commute was a creditable 19.0mph. I'll admit that the wind was very helpful but I'll take whatever is on offer. Obviously on the way home the wind that was so helpful on the way in was painful and the average was down at a relatively slow 16.2mph - no extended return commute this Friday either as needed to get back in a reasonably timely manner.

Update 17-June-2012

I went out for a ride this morning expecting sunny weather but was disappointed. It was a case for the first hour or so for "Rule 9". I went off towards Rose Hill, then Alvechurch, Tardebigge, Astwood Bank and then Redditch to have another go at some of the segments there. I was feeling OK and (for me) pressing on OK. I felt reasonably strong at Rose Hill (actually the Fiery Hill/Twatling Rd Climb) and also up Scarfield Hill and carried on up to Astwood Bank.

At Astwood Bank instead of going straight on I turned left and headed to Redditch. I have ridden this way before about 18 months ago (actually on 2 Jan 2011). I knew that I'd get near the Icknield Street turn but if I carried on I'd get to the "Paper Mill Rip" segment and from there I was hoping to find the way onto the road that would take me along to Easemore Road and into Redditch town centre to have a go at the Unicorn Hill and Prospect Hill segments again. In addition on Easemore Road there are 2 segments - 1 up and 1 down so plenty of options there.

I almost got round to the Paper Mill Rip section without error - just a couple of mistakes. I also spotted the way up to Easemore Road from Paper Mill Road (well hidden and getting a bit agricultural) so was able to approach from the right place. Easemore Road was a bit of a drag after the miles already under my belt and I knew it wasn't a great time. I rode down Unicorn Hill to where I felt the longer segment started (BUOTC Unicorn Hill) and returned and rode the segment (2 for the price of 1!). I felt reasonably strong and knew the time would be better than previously. I stopped for a quick bit of food before descending Prospect Hill, rode down to the Volvo Garage (the start), U-turned and within ~15 seconds had almost blown. The rest of the ascent was a painful slog back to the top. I pushed for the Easemore Road descent but knew that basically from then on it would be a gentle ride back home. I rode back over a few more segments but there was almost nothing left in my legs. The only positive was I managed to drive the average speed up from 16.7mph in Redditch up to 16.9mph by the time I got home.

Over the whole route I managed to get 16 Achievements (some new of course) but some others were outright improvements.

Rides stats:
Distance =59.9 miles,
Average speed = 16.9mph, 
Maximum speed = 36.2mph, 
Height gain = 2924ft.

I have used my Excel tool to extract the segment data for this ride and present in this table (with a little bit of additional work). There is some more work to do to get the position in the segment rankings, this is the next job to do. I can read all a riders Ride Data (the rides they have ridden) with the overall stats (average speed etc) and the details of each of the segments ridden during that ride and the times etc. for the segment.

Segment ID	Effort Moving Time (s)	Effort Distance (mile)	Effort Average Speed (mph)	Effort Name	Climb Category	Average Grade (%)	Elevation Difference (meters)
824883	371	1.24	12.1	Scarfield Hill, Alvechurch	Cat 4	4.16	82.6
876084	552	2.35	15.3	Icknield St Climb	No Catorised	1.52	68.6
882563	83	0.23	9.9	Prospect Hill	No Catorised	5.25	20
891731	407	2.45	21.7	B4101 Hockey Heath	No Catorised	-0.56	26.4
891753	337	1.78	19.0	Poolhead Lane	No Catorised	-0.32	19.8
937392	164	0.52	11.3	Astwood Lane Climb into Astwood Bank	No Catorised	5.34	44.4
982643	82	0.32	14.2	Vicarage Hill Cheswick Green	No Catorised	2.02	10.6
1007821	79	0.47	21.4	Dyers Drag	No Catorised	-1.11	8.609
1068596	190	0.67	12.7	Easmore Rd Climb	No Catorised	3.73	40.6
1069174	502	1.85	13.3	Fiery Hill / Twatling Rd Climb	Cat 4	3.67	108.935
1080918	43	0.20	16.7	BUOTC Unicorn Hill	No Catorised	3.37	14
1265825	81	0.64	28.3	Easmore Downhill	No Catorised	-3.50	36.4
1328072	182	1.08	21.3	Paper Mill Rip	No Catorised	-1.34	23.4
1328098	63	0.29	16.8	Ravens Bank Rise	No Catorised	1.54	7.4
1403219	289	1.12	13.9	Brookhouse Road Climb	No Catorised	3.59	64.878
1409586	102	0.57	20.3	Clayfields	No Catorised	-2.08	23.2999
1417426	117	0.76	23.3	fiery hill descent	No Catorised	-3.64	44.8
1456696	292	1.48	18.3	Sheltwood Decent	No Catorised	-1.19	38.4
1458872	116	0.56	17.5	Croft Lane	No Catorised	0.47	5.586
1458941	22	0.10	16.7	Unicorn Hill	No Catorised	5.90	9.8
1472706	106	0.39	13.4	Cruise Hill Climb	No Catorised	2.73	17.827
1483394	189	1.14	21.7	Umberslade Road to Cut Throat Lane	No Catorised	-0.52	23.287
1516358	46	0.39	30.7	Rough Hill Drive Decent	No Catorised	-5.61	35.2
1516367	394	2.38	21.8	Island Challenge	No Catorised	-2.41	72.8

The other thing that is really easy now is to generate a graphic showing e.g. performance vs. date. He is my improvement over Scarfield Hill in Alvechurch:

Certainly an improvement this year!

And the roads were wet and dirty:

See where my overshoes were!

Also when I got home (and later in the day I got two of the "Uh Oh.." you've lost your KOM emails from Strava. The first was Hampton Hill (Solihull) taken by Steve Large by 3 secs and the second was Dyers Drag taken by another 7 secs by Dave Brown, so I am now 8 secs behind on this segment (although still 2nd overall). Steve is quick and does pretty long rides whereas Dave is nothing by a segment whore!

Here are these emails:

May Holiday Weekend Riding

Update 2 June 2012

The weather for the 4 day holiday weekend looked poor so its a case of taking windows of opportunity as they become available. I went out about 9.30 in the morning with the aim to improve on some of my commute segments - I was on the Focus and without a rucksack so felt there were time gains to be made. Unfortunately the wind was against me and fairly early on realised that these segments were not going to to be improved. Also I was getting a lot of speed drop out on the Garmin so I pulled over after the Cornets End Lane segment and moved the sensor slightly closer to the magnet. It seemed OK after this so I assume that this was the cause. It might have got knocked slightly when it was in Noel's car for the Wheel Heroes ride.

I then set off for the Temple Balsall to Knowle Sesses to try and gain some time and aim for the KOM which I had held for a number of week. Pushed hard but but the earlier wind had sapped a bit of energy. I got a 2nd best time (2 seconds of the PB) so overall was OK.

The next target was the Lowsonford to Lapworth segment. It's one that I created a long time ago and had been near the top. As Strava becomes ever more popular more and more people are uploading times and I had been moving progressively down the rankings, and all attempts recently to improve are doomed to failure as it generally appears near the end of a long ride with noting in the legs. I came down to Lapworth and then turned to Rowington to get to the bottom of Lowsonford. It was a road I've never been on before and was quite pleasant. I attacked the climb as soon as possible and got back onto the big ring after the first short sharp climb and pushed hard. Dropped back into the small ring for the little kick half way and then back on the big ring to then end. The effort was rewarded with moving to 10th position (from ~17th) and a time improvement of 23 secs (to 7:03) which I was very pleased with.  I still didn't get that close to Dave Brown's recent PB - a very good time from Dave I think. A few more seconds might have been available if I hadn't had to slow while some arrogant t****r in a white Audi Q8 (reg BV12 FQV I think) couldn't wait a few 100 meters to pass some other cyclist coming the other way and sat right on my side of the road. There is then another segment staring directly from the end of the Lowsonford to Lapworth all the way to Hockley Heath - I sort of know its there but its really a recovery section for me.

For once I turned left and headed to Cutthroat Lane in order to try Dyers Drag again. Made a really fast start and was holding 25mph. Its a short segment and I was flat out and only just managed to get to the end - I didn't think I was going to make it at one point - eyes on stalks. I had to back down an little at the canal bridge as I was blown, and it took me about 1/2 a mile to recover. The effort was worth it though as I gained 9 seconds and moved to joint 2nd with Scott Wharton and 1 second behind Dave Brown with the KOM - the nagging doubt was that I might have had the extra second and did I ease up too early?

Most of the ride was in drizzle or rain so I felt that I followed Rule 9 properly

Update 12 May 2012

Weather has been better this week so got out for a short blast on Tuesday after work - was sunny and warm although with a strong wind - however the choice of route meant that most Strava segments had a tail wind. As a result I managed to move up a place on the Poolhead Lane segment to 3rd and get a PR on the B4108 Hockley Heath which was 1 place. I then tried really hard on Box Trees Short Leg Blast and only managed 5th - almost no change, and sat up for the Box Trees Rd, Four Ashes Road stretch as I wanted to push on Widney Manor Downhill. However I found that on this longer segment I had gained a massive 20 seconds and moved in 2nd Place - stunning!! It just goes to show that you can't always tell what sort of time you are going to get until its done. On this ride I cycled 6 segments and improved position, time or both on all of them. However the best outcome of this ride was the overall average speed of 19.7mph (according to Strava, 19.8 according to Garmin) which is my fastest ever - over any distance. This I think is what I was most pleased about.

Weather and work commitments coincided on Friday so I was able to cycle to work for the first time since Good Friday. It was still windy as I got a what I think is the fastest ever time and average speed (58:54 and 18.7mph), plus 3 segment improvements. Someone has created a similar segment to my Cornets End Lane segment and extended it over the crossroads by about another 0.5mile to the "highest" point on that route - improved on my segment to 3rd and got the KOM on the new one. Top Ride! However the ride home was punishing into the headwind and it was probably the slowest ever.

Good weather still today (Saturday) so went for a quick trip again - main aim was to try to push a bit harder on Vicarage Hill in Tanworth in Arden, go up Camp Lane again for the first time for about a month and also try the Dyers Drag segment. On the former I did make a small time increase but still behind Noel. Camp Lane was as bad as I remembered, and I lost a few seconds because a tree was down across the road - but I did pull out  a 30 second improvement. I also wanted to push on the Bushwood Lane Segment and again improved (and pulled back ahead of Noel by a few seconds as well) - a problem with this segment is that it crosses the busy A34 so there is an element of pot-luck in getting a good time as you might have to wait to cross the road. On the Dyers Drag segment I moved into 3rd place which was good as I had never ridden it before - although where Dave got the KOM time from I don't know.

Over the week I made a lot of improvements to previous times and positions so feel there is evidence of an improvement in my performance. Unfortunately someone new has joined Strava an uploaded a lot of thier historical routes and taken several KOM away - this includes St Alphege Hill which I was very annoyed about and am back down to 5 KOM as of today