KiloToGo Cornwall Tor preparations

Tomorrow morning we're going down to Bodmin so I can take part in the KiloToGo Cornwall Tor ride on Sunday. The route looks fantastic - 95 miles out east from Bodmin to the south coast at Looe, then weaving back west and north to the north Cornish coast then back to Bodmin. Should be a fab day in the saddle.

Here's the route. kilotogo.com.

There's also loads to do round there so we're staying Sunday night too. I'd like to go and see Tintagel, and Rebecca might go to the Eden Project while I'm out on the ride.

On this ride I'm raising money again for the NHS, and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals in particular. I owe them more than I can ever possibly repay. Donate by clicking the link on the right of the page, if you want.

This morning I made sure that the bike is ready, I put new rear brake blocks on so I have a chance of controlling my speed on fast descents. I gave it a wash too. I hadn't washed it since the Lionheart ride so it was a bit dirty... but now it's all clean and sparkly.

I love my race bike.

As usual the weather is unpredictable so I'll need to take gear for all possibilities. Hopefully it'll be short sleeve weather but the weather forecast doesn't think so.

The stuff that will keep me going... hopefully!

Endura Trek Lionheart 2014 results as spreadsheet

Here is a link to an Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx) of the results from the 2014 edition of the Endura Trek Lionheart ride, which took place on March 23. I made this mainly because I wanted to see the times in order of the hill climb up King Alfred's Tower, so I could figure out that I was 479th fastest (!) and I make the sheet available for others who may want to play with the data in a way that the racetimingsystems site doesn't cater for.

All I did was cut and paste the data from the pages on their web site and reformat it. Not difficult, but saves you some time. The column 'E/B' is the ratio of the time the rider started the King Alfred's Tower climb to their total time for the ride. In principle this number lets you filter out those riders on 100 mile or km route independently of what route they entered (column 'Entered'), e.g. < 0.4 = 100 miles, > 0.4 = 100 km. Dirty, but should work in most cases.

The link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jy95yptcoynxwyr/Lionheart2014.xlsx

While you're here, you may want to consider donating money to the NHS, who saved my life and rebuilt my left leg after I was left for dead on a road in 2010. Read the condensed version on the page The Accident & My Leg. Donate by clicking on the justgiving link to the right.

Endura Lionheart 2014

On the start line, Longleat House.

I picked the Endura Lionheart as my first race of the year for several reasons: one, I've never been to this part of the country before (rural Wiltshire, nr. Frome); two, I read about it in the book Classic Cycling Race Routes by Chris Sidwell; three, the event centre is Longleat Safari Park (well, OK, Longleat House) and the start goes past the lion enclosure! Lots of good reasons :)

This is my third event raising money for the NHS who saved my life and rebuilt my leg. You can still donate if you follow the justgiving link to the right of this page.

Rebecca and I drove down on the Saturday and stayed in Frome at the Old Bath Arms Hotel which is very quirky - I seem to know how to pick these places - without realising I'd chosen a pub/hotel which has themed rooms! We were in the Hollywood Room which was lovely. I was quite impressed with this place actually. Frome is a town which seems to be on the border somewhere between a tourist place and real life, if you know what I mean. We found a good Italian restaurant, Castello's, across the street from the hotel and then after a pint it was sleep time for me!

Sunday morning and I was up at the crack of dawn raring to go see the lions. Frome is about 5 miles from Longleat so I had decided to bike to the event centre to avoid the stress of parking and getting everything sorted there. I took my time and got my stuff together in the hotel car park, then set off at about 0725 for the event. Found it no problem, only had to look at the map once to make sure I was going the right way.

First thing on getting there - this is a really really good venue for an event centre. There's lots of space, beautiful grounds, the house itself. Top. The weather was OK but it felt like it might become a bit changeable, and so it proved! Because I'd ridden in I just went straight to the start line and queued up. Got underway about 0815. First stretch is through the estate and past the safari park. No animals to see :( Maybe it was too early for them or maybe they don't come near the fences, I don't know. But getting chased off by lions was only a dream after all.

A few miles in, still looking fresh. sportivephoto.com

The first part of this route, the first 40 miles or so, is hilly. Not major climbs, but up-down rolling hills and countryside. Well OK, there's one major climb, King Alfred's Tower, which on this ride was a timed section too. The weather over this first half of the ride was very odd. At one point there were ice crystals coming out of the sky so hard that I had to shield my face with my hand so I could carry on seeing where I was going! It only lasted a few minutes, and thank goodness it didn't happen on a fast descent, but it was pretty mental.

Anyway, I digress, King Alfred's Tower. I don't mind admitting that I look these routes up before I do them, and I tend to make a mental note of any bits of road that have an upward chevron on them on the Ordnance Survey map. This ride had two the second of which was the aforementioned road up to the tower. The tower itself is visible from a lot of the first part of the ride, and it sort of looms in your head, you know that after 32 miles you've got this big hill to get up. I'd never ridden it before, so didn't know really what to expect, but the ride brochure described it as a 'killer climb'. Anyway it was pretty tough, as expected. There was also a car just in front of me to take into account with pacing, as well as people getting off and walking. The climb has three main pitches I would say, and after the second one, when the third and final one came into view, two people in front of me decided they'd had enough. Luckily they were far enough ahead not to bother me as they got off, otherwise I would not have been happy. On this last bit I was just thinking "14 operations, 14 operations" and that got me to the top. My heart rate was at absolute maximum on that last bit. In truth though, my climbing legs may have come back. I wasn't scared of being clipped in like I was on the Ride with Brad last year. I guess I somehow knew that I could get to the top, no matter how bad it got. So it was. I also don't mind admitting that my leg situation spurred me on. I wanted to see people get off and go past them. In the opposite sense, one rider blasted past me right at the top making a lot of noise which made me chuckle. Maybe he was one of the fastest up it, I don't know, I didn't get to see his number :)

After King Alfred's Tower, the emotional side of the ride changed as I began to contemplate the second half. At the second feed station (again I hadn't stopped at the first as per my usual strategy) there was a lot of food and drink, including wine tasting which I don't think I've ever seen before at a sportive feed stop! The feed stops on this ride are billed as being amazing and it's true there was a lot of cake and sandwiches etc. and Haribo! which I love and took a big handful of. I didn't stop long though - I still had my eye on the time and wanted to try to get round in 7 hours. It was already looking doubtful but I decided to push on and see what the state of it looked like at the third and final feed stop at 70 miles.

Wine tasting at a feed station after 48 miles? Surely not!

By this point I was cold and wet, the weather didn't know what to do and I didn't have my jacket with me. So I didn't stop long here, just a toilet break and a refuel. Fortunately the weather settled and I didn't see rain again until the finish. The second half of the route, after the split point, is a long gradual descent along the Nadar Valley and then a long gradual ascent back up the Wylye Valley. Both of these were scenic and enjoyable, even after 50 miles already!

After feed stop 3, I knew my 7 hour target was pretty much impossible, and then getting a puncture after about 72 miles put the tin lid on it. I nearly threw my bike in the hedge at that point, I hate getting punctures, and that's two on the last 4 rides. Bah! I have even now got one of those CO2 inflation things but I didn't use it. I just decided to take my time, eat and drink a bit and press on.

This is the part of these 100 mile rides that I find the hardest psychologically, I know that once I get within 10 miles or so of the finish some adrenalin will kick in, but the hour between 70 and 85 miles is usually pretty tough. As it turned out this one wasn't too bad, the weather held out and the route was interesting enough that my mind didn't go anywhere near a dark place :)

My OTE caffeine gel after 85 miles really picked me up - they are amazing those things - until the finish. The last few miles before the run in to Longleat House were a bit of a tease. You go right past the safari park entrance and then do another couple of miles to arrive round at the driveway into Longleat Estate. I have to say this is probably the best run in to a finish of a sportive I've ever done, right down the perfectly straight driveway to the house. Awesome. That made a brilliant end to an excellent route. Happy :)

Here's a video of the run in from my Virb camera:

Collecting my medal off the nice lady at the finish line.

I find myself wondering about these sportives now that have two route options. I'm sure it used to be that more people did the longer option, but now it seems that after you pass the split point on the long route you barely see anyone. It could be that I'm slower now so everyone's in front of me, I guess I can check the results to see if that's true or not. But it could also be that more people are now doing the short option, which is a shame because I think it has led to the following situation: the first part of the ride is more interesting terrain-wise because everyone does it, then the short route zips back to the event centre, while the long route gets a much less varied extra 40 miles bolted on. I'm not really complaining about the run out along the valley and back, but it was definitely less interesting than the first 40 miles. And I think it was the same on the Wiggle Rut in October.

Having said that I would definitely do this ride again, and recommend it. No wonder it's so popular. Next time though I want to take another day and see the animals myself. I'm a bit jealous of Rebecca's day, and I think she's not a bit jealous of mine ;)

At the finish, Longleat House.

Done the ride, got the T-shirt!

Finally, here's my strava track for this ride. The observant will notice that the moving time was exactly 7 hours! That's quite amazing considering it was my target. If only I could do these rides without stopping :)

Wiggle KiloToGo The Rut 2013

I've never been to Rutland which is one of the reasons I picked this ride. Rebecca and I stayed in Oakham on the Friday night in the Old Wisteria Hotel. This was a good choice and Oakham it turns out is a good venue for an event centre. We had a good look around on the Friday night, found a quirky Italian restaurant for some pasta dinner, and then Rebecca had plenty of things to do (= shops to look in) on the Saturday while I was out riding.
One of my work colleagues is from Rutland and told me it was pretty flat. Well it isn't. There are no big hills, true, but it is very undulating rolling countryside. This ride had barely a flat section on it, the 102 miles had over 7500 ft of climbing in it! It was a very good route though, quite varied and beautiful scenery throughout.

Plenty of picturesque villages in Rutland.

The weather was windy but dry and quite mild for the time of year. I wore my waterproof jacket but it was too much, and I decided half-way round that I won't be wearing it ever again for biking, it gets pretty sticky and starts to feel like a bin-liner. I'll get one specific for cycling for the future.

The split point. Long route :)

After the split point the number of riders you see drops heavily. I think many more people than before are now doing the shorter options on these sportives. I have mixed feelings about this. Anyway, as usual on these 100 mile routes I started struggling a bit around 70 miles. I hadn't stopped at the first feed station but I stopped at the second for a refuel. They were good and well-stocked with gels and drinks and so on. If I hadn't have stopped it would have been tougher, but of course it ruined my overall time.

There are a lot of rural lanes on this route, but not too rutted or muddy. Perfect!

In the end my moving time was about 6h45m which would have been good enough for a Silver medal on the day, but with feed stops and photo stops and twitter stops I came in in 7h23m which was only good enough for Finisher status. But still, it was a good day in the saddle, and Rutland is worth another trip.

Tired Andrew at the finish.

Here's my strava track for this ride:

The Leeds Big Bike Ride 2013

On Sunday I did the Leeds Big Bike Ride, '100' miles for charity - the Leeds Children's Hospital. Thank you to those who sponsored me!

The ride started and finished in Roundhay Park, and there were two route options - 100 km or 100 miles. In actual fact by my GPS the 100 mile option was 98.5 miles. This was a bit of a disappointment in a way since I had hoped this would be my first 100 mile ride since the accident. That will now have to wait until October 26 in Rutland, unless I go and do one round here first of course! I did think about doing a lap of the park at the end to make it 100 miles, but that's not right somehow is it?

For the weekend I had hired a car, to make getting there and back less stressful, and I stayed Saturday night at Clair and Matt's house (Clair is my cousin). That was good too as I got to see them and their new place and Seb of course, their 1-year old son. I got there around 1930 and Matt made us a risotto which was tasty and good carbo-loading for the ride too!

Sunday morning was an early start, 0600 Weetabix and a coffee, then hop in the car to the start. Matt was going to do the 100 mile route with me, but he changed his mind due to the weather forecast (more in a moment) and decided to do the 100 km route instead. It is true that the weather forecast had not been good for Sunday - heavy rain and local gale force winds was the prediction. I was a bit worried to be honest but it would only make it harder, not impossible! And I'm always a bit skeptical about the power of the weather forecast, especially when it's made 4 days out. Even one day out, weather forecasting in England is pretty rubbish. Small land mass, lots of hills, etc etc. 

A look out of the window on the morning suggested it might rain, but it didn't look too bad. It hadn't rained overnight and it wasn't raining currently. About as good as you can hope for! At Roundhay Park it was a simple matter to get my rider number and fix it to my bike. We had to fill in a card and exchange it at the start for the route map. One of my criticisms is that the route was not published, except in cartoon form, ahead of the ride. More on that later!

My lovely Focus bike, ready to go number 260. New bar tape, done by my own fair hand. OTE sports bottles. Lights in anticipation of bad weather!

I had made some allowances for the impending apocalyptic weather though. I put my lights on, just a frog on the front but a proper Cateye one on the back, in case it got really rainy and poor visibility. I used my saddle wedge to put my tools and spare tube in - don't normally do that. It allowed me to wear my Paclite jacket without it getting stretched and uncomfortable around my jersey - the same one I wore for the Ride with Brad, but with hardly anything in the pockets. I put gels and drink sachets in one of the drinks bottles, so I was only carrying one bottle of fluid - the rest stops looked quite frequent (every 17 miles or so) so I wasn't too concerned about that. I put some snacks and my car keys and stuff in my jacket pocket which was a bit bulky but not too bad. Ready to go!

The start line, Roundhay Park.

The ride started off quite simply, a drop out of the park and onto the A58 up the hill out of Leeds. This road I have driven many times in my life on the way back from Manchester to Mum and Dad's before the M62-A1 link (M1) was built. But I've never ridden it obviously because it's quite a busy road! After the roundabout turn right onto a smaller lane, that's better. Matt and his friend Nick had gone off like the clappers and this was the last time I saw them! I had to let them go, they were doing 62 miles and at that pace I would have buried myself in the first 50 of my route. So off they went! On my own, pacing is a lot easier anyway.

The weather wasn't bad at all. It was windy, but so far, dry. The first rest stop that I stopped at was in Naburn, at the pub there (name forgotten!). I ate a chocolate bar and refilled my bottle. If this was repeated at all the rest stops everything would be fine, I felt sure, fluid and food-wise. 

The split point of the route was in York, which we approached from the south through Church Fenton. This was all pretty flat, as expected. In York we did a strange little loop around a roundabout where the shorter route split off, and us 100 milers went for a little cycle through the streets of the city. That was good - I love York, and have been there many times on those streets, but never on a bike. And I knew we'd be coming back to York later on too, so much the better! On the way under the city wall on the way out, it started raining!

Here's me on the start line.

and here's Matt. Sunglasses not really necessary!

I stopped and put the hood of my jacket up under my helmet to keep the water off my head. I started the ride with my new Northwave overshoes on, so my feet should stay reasonably dry and warm. Was this the apocalyptic weather we'd been promised?

Actually it didn't last long. I did get wet, but it wasn't so windy (or was the wind on my back?) and my coat kept me mostly dry. My overshoes were rubbing on my right leg a bit, but not too much. And because I was wearing shorts my feet were getting a bit wet, but it's OK. I'm tough.

North of York I knew that the route entered some less-than-flat country, the Howardian Hills. On the map I had guessed what the route would be from the cartoon map posted on the event web site, and there was only one bit with a chevron, somewhere around Sheriff Hutton (that's a place). There was indeed a bit steep bit, called Bulmer Bank, but it wasn't very long so I could muscle up it without too much difficulty. Some people were walking though, so this represents progress for me! After a further rest stop there was another steep bit called Dalby Bank, but again, I got up it without much of a struggle. Apart from rolling hills, these were the only steep bits of the ride, but I knew that it would be mostly flat, that was part of the reason for doing this one before Wales.

There were some really nice country lanes up there, and so it was a bit of a shock when the route dumped out on to a busier road, turned left at a sign saying York 13 miles, and I realised that I'd be on this road all the way back to York. Plus, there was a headwind. I had had a feeling that the wind had been on my back because the speed was quite high for not really pushing hard. And so it was that the next 13 miles were quite tough, this road has some long straight sections where basically I put my head down and got on the drops to try to minimise my cross section and reduce drag. But it was doable, and I managed to maintain 13-15 mph throughout. I did bemoan the choice of route several times though - long straights are bad enough at the best of times but worse when you're riding into the wind! At least it wasn't raining!!

Back into York, along the road that Mum and Dad always use that goes past the hospital, the same fun was experienced riding round those streets. The route went towards the station but made the sharp left after the bridge down by the river side and passed by The Maltings, one of my favourite pubs. I did stop to take a picture, and the thought of a pint flashed across my mind for a super split-second. Not today :)

After returning to York the route had us go to Tadcaster and then back to Roundhay Park. In Tadcaster I stopped at the rest stop and took the last of my energy stuff, save for one emergency gel just in case. I didn't realise how hilly it was between Tadcaster and Leeds. I remember thinking that Leeds wasn't at the top of a hill surely, so the downhill had to come sooner or later. Eventually it did come and I was back on the A58, the same road I'd left Leeds on, 7 hours earlier.

As I said, in Roundhay Park I did consider putting a loop in to make it 100 miles, but I didn't. There was a medal and certificate and a bottle of water. My bike looked like it had been off-road it was so covered in dirt from the wet roads. But I had finished the ride, in a reasonable time considering most of the second half was into a headwind, and it was another target reached, well, almost.

It did rain, I did get wet and it was very windy at times, but the weather warning stuff never came. Probably just as well but it goes to show you can't tell, the day before, let alone 4 days out.



Afterwards, after I had got dried and changed in the car, I went back to see Clair and Matt for a coffee. I was tired and needed a caffeine boost to get home safely! It turned out that Matt had been the first finisher for the 100 km! The winner. Just tells me really he should have been on the long route :)

When I got home I had a nice hot shower and some food. My scale told me I was 5 pounds lighter than I was on Saturday when I left. Cool!

Overall, I was pleased with this ride from my own body / recovery point of view, but in all honesty I was a bit disappointed with the route. It was for charity, of course, so I will keep my moaning to the minimum, but it was organised by an experienced bike event company, so I would have expected a slightly better (cycling-wise) route than the one we got. It was billed as being mostly on country lanes, and there were some lovely bits, but for me there was too much on busier roads - even if they're B-roads. The Howardian Hills are lovely and I have never biked there before. And riding through York was fun - I would do both those bits again happily. But over the rest of the course there was too much turning the pedals and not really enough to see! I'm sure one could come up with a 100 mile route starting and finishing in Roundhay Park which was much more interesting than that one. And if I'd designed it, it would have definitely been 100 miles long!

But as I said, it was for a very good cause, and I hope they raised a lot of money. I heard that there was about 1000 riders on Sunday. That seems high to me, I didn't see a whole bunch of people at the start, finish or going round, but maybe the majority were on the 100 km and they left after me and finished before me, it could be.

Would I do this one again? No, not unless they change the route. Maybe next time it could go the other way up to Harrogate and Ripon? Or towards Skipton and the edge of the Dales?

And a 100 mile ride has to be 100 miles. Sorry, it just has to be.

Next? The Autumn Epic on October 6, 95 miles but in the hilly Welsh Marches and Elan Valley.

Evidence of Improvement

Those who know me will not be at all surprised to learn that I keep meticulous records of my bike rides! At the outset of my cycling recovery, which started in January, I decided to ride a few routes which I could use at subsequent points in time to measure how I was improving. These rides would not be long - they couldn't be because I had to be able to do them at the beginning! But they would be reasonably all-out efforts, on as similar equipment as possible.

I now have data for three rides on two of the routes, and here is one of them, I call it Torkington Road Loop CW (clockwise). Briefly it is the descent and pull up from my house to the A6; the A6 to Hazel Grove; Torkington Road to Hawk Green and then Marple back to New Mills via Strines. It's 14 miles. There is a long descent between Disley and Hazel Grove, and a long ascent between Hazel Grove and Hawk Green. Here is a map:

Map of test route Torkington Road Loop CW.
I use the program myTourBook for recording my rides offline and Strava for online.

I did this route on January 15 2013, it was the fourth ride I did after returning to action, on my old mountain bike. I did it again on April 14 and again yesterday, August 18 2013.

The numbers in the following table come from my GPS and from Strava. The speed, power and heart rate are the averages for the ride. Weight is the weight of everything out of the door, i.e. me plus bike and stuff in pockets.

Date	Moving time	Weight (kg)	Speed (mph)	Power (W)	Heart rate (bpm)
January 15	1:12:17	97.7	11.7	167	175
April 14	1:02:05	93.5	13.6	212	179
August 18	0:54:12	93.0	15.6	253	171

To be honest I wasn't really expecting such a big change yesterday. I felt pretty tired straight out of the door from the ride I did on Saturday. I knew on the gradual ascent between Hazel Grove and Hawk Green that I was a lot stronger though - the first time I did this ride that road seemed very hard. Yesterday it was not as bad and I managed to push all the way. I didn't use the small chainring at all yesterday. I knew I would knock off a few minutes but I'm surprised and very happy it was 8. That's over 30 seconds per mile :)

I think it's also interesting that my average heart rate is down as well. You can also see my body changing from the following histograms. Not sure what a sport scientist would make of these, but to me it looks like a pretty significant improvement when taken together with the times and power outputs.

Recover - From Left for Dead to Ride with Brad

I know I'm not fully recovered yet, still on crutches, stress fractures, possibly more treatment on the horizon etc., but this week it feels like a significant enough milestone was passed to warrant the publication of my photo diary to date.

So here it is, from dying on a dark road in 2010 to finishing the Ride with Brad in 2013. Some of the photos are not for the faint-hearted, but I didn't really want to leave anything out. And I still haven't managed to secure the 'best' photo, but I will try and get it. There are a few other photos that I can't really show until after everything is over insurance-wise. So you'll have to be patient for them. For now, this should be enough!

It works best if you put it in full screen mode and if you press Show Info then you can see the captions for each picture giving the date and some commentary. You can slow it down under Options.