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 26 May 2012

Quick post after the Tour Series. I'd been considering cycling to work on the Friday but work commitments mean this was not practical. So I decided that a quick sprint in the later afternoon when I got home was the order of the day. As I have the Wheel Heroes Cyclists Fighting Cancer 100 miler on the Sunday I was not going to push too hard. Once I was out I realised how windy it was so took it easy. However pushing into the wind towards Hockley Heath I realised that the Strava "Cuthroat Lane" segment might be worth a sniff as it should have a tail wind. A gentle plod delivered me to the start of the segment pretty fresh and (relatively speaking) I went for it. It felt quick but you never know. I then took it easy back towards Cheswick green and decided that the "Watery Eyes Warm up" might have the same wind conditions so rode to that segment as well. It was OK but felt nothing special but on the descent of Vicarage Hill Cheswick Green I realised how strong a headwind was so after Watery Eyes Warm up I back tracked and rode the "Vicarage Hill Cheswick Green" segment as well. Again felt quick but Scott Wharton has put a stunning time on this back in April so was not that hopeful of anything great.

After getting home and uploading the route I saw that I had the "Cuthroat Lane" KOM by 13 seconds and had moved to 3rd place on the "Vicarage Hill Cheswick Green" segment with a 7 second improvement, so a good evenings ride. I know they were wind assisted but I'll take all I can get these days. I didn't fell too tired either but I'll find that out on Sunday!

And my HR monitor played up again on the Garmin - last time I got the strap replace under warranty - I have given it a wash and will hope its OK for tomorrow

Here's the KOM (note - ahead of my nemesis Dave Brown):

And here's the 3rd place on Vicarage Hill (key observation - ahead of Dave Brown):

I am sure when Dave sees these he'll be out like a shot to try to get ahead again!!

Then on Saturday am my wife, who is trying very hard to lose weight end get fitter suggested that we went for a cycle ride. She's been out on her BSO a few times in the week so I was keen to support her. I rode my MTB (an aluminium framed Mongoose, with slick tyres that I acquired from my parent's neighbours a few years ago) so no Strava ride for this although I could have used my phone to log the ride. We ended up doing just over 12 miles which was good for her and a nice slow pootle for me. 

The aim now is for good weather for tomorrow for the 100 miler. Last year although it was warm it was very windy - I and Noel are hoping for better this year