WInter Riding

Here's a short video of climbing Rose Hill (almost the top of the Lickey Hills) near Birmingham

Starting in Barnt Green it climbs to the foot of the Hill and then in the mist drops back down the Old Birmingham Road

As with all my rides at the moment, slow and hard work:

The Alvechurch Climbs and the Lickeys

Another video of a Sunday ride.

Its here: 

Starts at Earlswood Station and goes down to Alvechurch to do the each 3 climbs out of the village in a westerly direction. Then up to Barnt Green to climb Fiery Lane and up to the Lickeys/Rose Hill

Left the Video running all the time and in West Heath, approaching Kings Norton, I caught a moped at some roadworks. It pulled away from the lights but I quickly caught it and stayed with it until the small climb. Just shows that a heavy person on a moped is no quicker than a fit(ish) person on a bike:

Don't believe the gradient - my Garmin Virb is more "inconsistent" than my Garmin 800 - we were pretty well on the flat here

Obsessessed?

On Saturday I went out for as short a ride as I could to do just over 2000ft of ascent. There was still some snow on the ground and it was cold - so why on earth would I do that?

Basically - Strava. I sign up for the monthly challenges and try to complete some of them. Last year (2014) I managed to do 11 of them: http://midlandscyclist.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/jlr-strava-club-longest-ride-we-21.html.

Normally the ones I managed to complete were the Grand Fondo - made easier last year as the distance was reduced to 80 miles from 100 the year before. I managed all of them from April to December. I also completed two others by a lucky alignment of when they fell in the months (a 5 weekend month always stands a higher chance of higher mileage). I have not yet managed to complete an MTS challenge at 1250km for a month though

For 2015 there were some new challenges introduced in January - there was a shorter Fondo of 100km (64 miles), a Grand Fondo of 150km and a climbing challenge. I felt I was in for a good chance for the shorter Fondo with a planned ride on 1 Jan from my parents to my sister in law in Billingshurst which was just under 60 miles. I thought that a few extra loops near the end would strike that one off, but I ended up being 0.5miles too short - I was really quite annoyed. Here's the ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/235324641

Given 60+ miles in January is 4+ hours for me in the Winter I felt that that was it for any of the January challenges. I plodded on riding miles through January and because there was some ice I rode a few trips over to Rose Hill in the Lickey Hills to do repeats (the roads there and back are mainly bus routes so clear of ice). The first time I rode the Bilberry Hill ascent and the second time the other side of the Old Birmingham Road ascent. These rides are not really climbs but the roads over from home are rolling and it is easily possible to get over 100ft/mile - not bad for a city. I managed a couple of 50 mile rides and commuted to work twice. All in al this riding resulted in me getting to Saturday 31 Jan "needing" just over 2000 feet to a challenge. So I did, back over to Rose Hill again:

I also completed 381miles in January - most definitely a PB.

And on Sunday 1 Feb as it was dry I rode the Scott again for the first time in several months - it was a pleasure and always feels "better" than the Giant. With the massive tailwind I achieved a 20mph average for the first 20 miles although I paid for it when I turned back into the wind.

Hill Climb Training - a First time with the Heart Rate Monitor for a Long Time

Today was the last day of my extended (2 week) Christmas 2014 holiday. I wanted to get out for a short ride but the weather forecast the night before suggested frost, so I played it by ear to see what it was like when I woke up. However I had planned ahead and decided that I'd ride over to Rose Hill (or Bilberry Hill as its also known) in the Lickey Hills and do some Hill repeats. The main reason for this was that if it were icy the route over was a bus route so should be reasonably ice free and also its not too far to go. Rose Hill is also a reasonably tough climb (especially in the winter) and although not overly long it's one of those hills that gets steeper as you get closer to the top. Its about 12-13% at the steepest.

I also, completely on a whim decided to wear my Garmin Heart Rate monitor the first time for a long time - I'd given up on it again as it was getting very erratic the last few times I'd worn it much earlier in 2014 - I wrote about some of the issues in this post. Certainly when I first put it on it read 64bpm - I am fit but not that fit.

I had to spend about 5 minutes refitting my front mudguard as I'd removed it to bring my bike back from Dartford where we'd been for a week over the Christmas holiday. It does not fit that well when on the Thule 561 rack - the Crud Roadracer mudguards only take a few minutes to remove so its not an issue. It also took a further few minutes to finally get ready to start and it seemed that this 10-15 minutes helped the strap to read a more sensible value.

It was bitterly cold when I set off but the main roads seemed to be reasonably ice free for the first 5 miles or so. However as I got to the top of Groveley Lane I saw some ice and slush on the road which I managed to avoid but the road was very slippery. I then saw just ahead 3 cyclists waving me down - it appeared that it was so icy that at least one of them had fallen off. I dithered for a minute or so but decided to continue but got off the bike and walked down pavement about 1/4 mile to the railway bridge where the road was OK again. I am not sure why that particular bit of road was so icy though.

From there it was just another mile or so to the bottom of Rose Hill. I dropped onto the 34 inner ring at the roundabout to start spinning up from the very beginning and did the first ascent. It didn't feel too bad at all although I was not trying. The lowest gear I used was the 34-24 (2nd) and rolled up reasonably comfortably. I turned around at the top and mostly free wheeled to the bottom, mindful of potential ice patches. The 2nd and 3rd climbs were also pretty easy, but I was starting to feel it by the 4th. However as I hadn't been lower than the 34-24 gear for all climbs felt I could easily complete a 5th climb. On the last ascent I did use the lowest gear (34-28) but just to be lazy - I could have done it in the 34-24 again but didn't bother.

Once at the bottom for the last time I was originally going to head back the same way I rode over as its quite rolling and as a result its feasible to get over 100ft/mile of ascent. However given the ice on Groveley Lane I rode back via the Bristol Road South to Northfield, then Cotteridge/Kings Norton (past the house in Middleton Hall Road that I lived in for 2 years as a student at Birmingham University), Kings Heath and Yardley Wood.

The new 2015 Strava Segments feature meant that again I picked up lots of 2015 KOM and top 10 placings being one of only a few riders to have ventured out early enough in the year!

Here's the route:

Here's a better picture of the elevation courtesy of Veloviewer:

The actual ride was 94ft/mile which is pretty impressive for this non-hilly urban area of South Birmingham.

Here's some more data from Veloviewer:

Looking at the HR data I am not sure it was working properly for the 1st 1/2 hour. I am fit but not fit enough to keep my HR below 100 - I think once it shows above 130 it was OK. Its also interesting to see where I stopped and walked down Groveley Lane which I have circled in red. Also the max HR at the top of the climb was a consistent 165-169bpm - so I was not working flat out but kept the effort even. I don't trust it to be reliable over a whole ride but it performed better than it had last time - so I might start using it again a bit more often for more challenging rides.

Given that the strap itself costs around £35 I can't justify buying another unless I want to start training a bit more specifically.

More High Gear Work

Today I had planned to ride a reasonable distance - the first 50+ mile ride of the year. However, 2 things conspired to prevent this. Firstly Noel cried off at the last minute due to an over indulgence of alcohol the night before and secondly the weather forecast that the night before indicated rain at about 1pm now suggested rain at 10am. I had planned to ride down to Alcester and Ragley Hall and then loop back but I didn't want to be 1½ hrs from home in rain. Instead I chose to ride to Alvecurch and do the 3 "climbs" out of Alvechurch. I'd then decide whether to return back via Beoley or try something on the Lickeys like Rose Hill or the Fiery Hill ascent. 

The route is here:

I climbed the Grange Lane route first as I find this the hardest, then descended Scarfield Hill, up Coopers Hill, back down Grange Lane, back up Scarfield Hill and then down Coopers Hill. Grange Lane needed 2nd gear but I climbed both Scarfield Hill and Coopers Hill in 3rd without too much pain. It was reasonably windy but the climbs shielded me from any direct headwind.

Feeling OK and with the weather still holding I rode to the Lickeys and took the Feiry Hill / Twatling Road route. Again 3rd gear was OK for Fiery Hill and I was in 4th/5th for Twatling Road. A fast descent of Rose Hill followed and then it was generally a tail wind home - in fact it was clearly a monster tail wind home from looking at the Strava results:

There was a 20 sec improvement on "Bunbury-Middleton Rd", 21 sec improvement on "Cartland Rd Hill" and a 9 sec improvement on "Yardley Wood Station Sprint". The wind was a factor, as was the increased mileage recently, but I was in probably a higher gear than I would have been a month or so ago - so I am still pleased with the performance
 

Update 4-June-2012

Weather was better so took the opportunity for a ride on the Monday.

The wind was blowing to the West so I made a bit of an effort on the "Leg Sapper" segment and got to 8th position with a PR and a time of 2:19 against the previous best of 2:28, equivalent to 1mph faster. This moved me from about 19th to 8th. I was pleased with this.

Took in a climb of Rose Hill - it felt painful but got another PR of 3:37 vs. 3:41 from March earlier this year and moving me from 20th to 18th.

After Rose Hill took my normal route round to Tardebigge as the intention was to have a ride of Unicorn Hill and Prospect Hill in Redditch to see if I could eat into Dave's times. I was not really sure where exactly I was going and spent a long time looping back on myself to get to the town centre. Finally I got there and came upon Unicorn Hill rather quickly. I recognised it from the Halfords Tour Series on the TV a few weeks ago and having had a look at the map the day before, but it came up a bit quick and I fumbled the gears to drop to the small ring. It was not too bad and I was treating it as a bit of a sighter ride for a better attempt later. I then went down Prospect Hill (its actually a One Way road) and went all the way to the traffic lights at the bottom and turned around to come back up as I was not sure exactly where it started from. Again I treated it as a bit of a sighter ride and while didn't loaf I didn't give it the beans either. Swung left at the top and rode in what I though was the direction of Beoley.

It all went a bit wrong here as Redditch seems to be lots of areas (housing and industrial) only linked by busy (bike unfriendly) dual carriageways. The long and the short of it was a long looping ride round Redditch before finally recognising something I'd seen before and getting to Beoley. I went home via Icknield Street, but again with no real segment hunting aim. 

More importantly was that on Unicorn Hill I was only 3 seconds behind Dave at 28 (vs 25) seconds and only 1 place in 15th position. That 3 secs should be easy especially if I can approach it better next time. The other reason for trying Unicorn Hill is that it is a direct comparison with some Pro cyclists. The top 7 times were all set during the Tour Series Race and the KOM is Dean Downing who set a time of 13secs - over twice as fast as my time - and he rode up at 28.6mph! That's why they're Pros I guess.

On Prospect Hill on the 1st attempt I was in a strong 4th place at 1:07 although a long time behind Dave's KOM time of  0:49. That will need some real effort.

There were also quite a few other segments in Redditch that I rode without realising and now I know where they are I'll definitely have a go for them. The only problem is trying to get back out of Redditch!

Total ride distance was 56miles in 3:19:18 giving an average of 16.8mph and the total climbing was 2989ft. I probably could have made a slight improvement if I'd known where I was going in Redditch but my legs did feel quite tired for some reason

As an observation the horrible noises from the Focus FSA Mega EXO BB have gone at the moment - I haven't done anything. Hopefully a replacement is on the way from Wiggle so we'll see what happens. I'll be riding ~80 miles next weekend on the Pedal for Parkinsons ride so I hope it is OK.

Update 10.00pm: Dave's been out to have another go at the Unicorn Hill segment and gained 8 seconds - not so sure I can catch that, but I am flattered that he thought I'd pass his previous time and needed/wanted to post a faster time!
Also went out with my wife this evening after dinner and rode (her on the BSO and me on my Mongoose) another 9 miles. I am only 21 miles from reaching the 1/2 way point of the 2012 mileage target, and hopefully will run this off tomorrow.

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.