Monday, April 30, 2007
The Cycle Challenge Just Became a Trek
This evening I did my usual twelve mile weekday evening ride, out of Saxmundham across the currrently closed bridge over the River Fromus, up the hill and onto the empty (thanks to the closed bridge) winding road towards Leiston before heading North towards Theberton, skirting Clay Hills and then back down the hill into Kelsale and the final sprint back along North Entrance into Saxmundham... However, today it was different as I did it on my new bike that I bought earlier in the day.
I went to the shop wanting to buy a new Specialized Roubaix, but to be honest, to get the high end components you had to pay in excess of £2,500 on the Specialized. Instead I opted for a 2006 model Trek 5.2 Madone in Discovery Channel colours.
It was almost half the price, reduced by £600 because it's last year's bike and Discovery Channel are reputedly pulling their sponsorship of the Trek pro cycling team. That doesn't worry me, saving £600 smackeroonies does. And the bike is fantastic. It's feather light and goes like the wind. You can immediately tell the difference between this and my previous Allez. The gears sounds like they could be electronic when changing, giving off a pleasing click, instead of the grinding clunk of the Allez. I didn't have time to fit the computer onto the new bike so don't know what speed I was doing, but I do know that despite a very feisty headwind, the ride seemed much easier than usual, and I was home before my daughter had to go to bed.
Next time I'll put the computer on and tell you the top speed. It's not quite the Ferrari of road bikes, but it's certainly the Porsche Cayman....
Finally, my website of the week is MapMyRide.com. It allows you to ploy a route on detailed road maps (ignore the Americanisation of the site, search for a UK town as a start point and it's got all the UK maps too). It then tells you the distance, the calories burned and shows you the hills you've been up and down.. Try it out, there's one for runners too.
Labels: Discovery Channel, Madone, New Bike, Trek
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Why Cyclists Ride with Gritted Teeth...
It's been a while since I've written as things have been even more hectic than usual at work, and at home... However, I've been managing to take advantage of the wonderful English climate (who needs the Med!?) and have been training fairly regularly. Time constraints are still limiting me to mostly short 10-15 mile rides, but I'm please with the frequency and growing intensity of the workouts.
I cycled to meetings at one of my company's offices near Ipswich the other day. It was a 40 mile round trip and was a good test of my recovery time. The outbound trip was almost entirely uphill, and although I never climbed much higher that 150 feet, the continual rising of the route was great for my stamina building... The ride back was a breeze in comparison and even though I'd "rested" in a series of meetings during the day, my legs felt fine and I could have continued riding further. It's great riding in the countryside when the sun is shining and there's a little, cooling breeze. It really affirms the reason for dressing in ridiculously tight and brigtht clothes and jumping on a two-wheel jumble of metal, oil and rubber...
Tonight I did a 11.8 mile ride around "the block" here in rural Suffolk. I pushed myself hard as I'd promised to get home in time to take my little girl, Abi, to bed. I managed to reach 27.3 mph on the home stretch along North Entrance (the old, pre-bypass A12 to those in the know) into Saxmundham. It's almost completely flat (i.e. not downhill), so that's no mean achievement and the adrenalin buzz I got as I pumped the cranks, rocked the bike in my attempt to break the 30mph speed limit on that stretch, was fantastic. Try it sometime...
Finally, the reason for the title of this post. Have you often wondered why the professional cyclists in the Tour de France and other races always look like they're in intense pain when riding? Their teeth are so tightly gritted you'd think they might grind them away to stumps... Well today I had that Eureka moment and found out why teeth are so ferosiously gritted. I was riding along, through a lovely wood, the birds were singing, the sun was getting ready to slowly drip behind a burning scarlet curtain of thin cloud hoverring above the horizon in the West. It was idyllic. Except the airforce were on a mission of D-Day proportions, constantly swooping down out of the blazing sky, bombarding my face and helmet like the most determined of Dambusters on a do or die mission to save the civilized world... Some of them were fitted with the latest satellite navigation aiming technology as they constantly managed to fly into the best source of liquid despite speeds of 40mph plus - my mouth... One such creature, lord knows what it was but it was ugly, flew straight into my open gob and lodged itself in the narrow gap between two of my molars. Yuk. Gallons of water and energy drink couldn't shift it, and I was spitting like an old coal miner, but it wouldn't budge. Worse thing was, it was probably fresh from its dinner and wanting to slurp some fresh human saliva to wash down it's main course of fresh, steaming cow doo-doo or worse still, that bloody, stinking Bugs Bunny I just saw spread messily across the tarmac, 30 million bluebottles buzzing around it, fighting off a desparate crow trying to fill its boots. Yuk, yuk, yuk.. Anyway, you'll be glad to know that ten minutes and a few miles later I managed to disloge it and, thankfully, it turned out to be nothing more than a bit of roast chicken, left over from my own evening meal consumed only an hour earlier.. Although where the creepy-crawlie ended up I dread to think!!!
Right, to the point. Why cyclists grit their teeth... Because you can't breathe properly if you don't open your mouth, and the flies and bugs and god knows what will just fly straight in there and lay their maggot eggs all over your epiglotis at the first chance.. So what's needed is a filter. Your teeth. So the next time you see le Tour, look for the gritted teeth and the little black specs of the remains of some furry flying creature, it's bug-eyed head sticking out from the gap between the cyclists teeth and smiling for the cameras...
Speak to you again soon...
I cycled to meetings at one of my company's offices near Ipswich the other day. It was a 40 mile round trip and was a good test of my recovery time. The outbound trip was almost entirely uphill, and although I never climbed much higher that 150 feet, the continual rising of the route was great for my stamina building... The ride back was a breeze in comparison and even though I'd "rested" in a series of meetings during the day, my legs felt fine and I could have continued riding further. It's great riding in the countryside when the sun is shining and there's a little, cooling breeze. It really affirms the reason for dressing in ridiculously tight and brigtht clothes and jumping on a two-wheel jumble of metal, oil and rubber...
Tonight I did a 11.8 mile ride around "the block" here in rural Suffolk. I pushed myself hard as I'd promised to get home in time to take my little girl, Abi, to bed. I managed to reach 27.3 mph on the home stretch along North Entrance (the old, pre-bypass A12 to those in the know) into Saxmundham. It's almost completely flat (i.e. not downhill), so that's no mean achievement and the adrenalin buzz I got as I pumped the cranks, rocked the bike in my attempt to break the 30mph speed limit on that stretch, was fantastic. Try it sometime...
Finally, the reason for the title of this post. Have you often wondered why the professional cyclists in the Tour de France and other races always look like they're in intense pain when riding? Their teeth are so tightly gritted you'd think they might grind them away to stumps... Well today I had that Eureka moment and found out why teeth are so ferosiously gritted. I was riding along, through a lovely wood, the birds were singing, the sun was getting ready to slowly drip behind a burning scarlet curtain of thin cloud hoverring above the horizon in the West. It was idyllic. Except the airforce were on a mission of D-Day proportions, constantly swooping down out of the blazing sky, bombarding my face and helmet like the most determined of Dambusters on a do or die mission to save the civilized world... Some of them were fitted with the latest satellite navigation aiming technology as they constantly managed to fly into the best source of liquid despite speeds of 40mph plus - my mouth... One such creature, lord knows what it was but it was ugly, flew straight into my open gob and lodged itself in the narrow gap between two of my molars. Yuk. Gallons of water and energy drink couldn't shift it, and I was spitting like an old coal miner, but it wouldn't budge. Worse thing was, it was probably fresh from its dinner and wanting to slurp some fresh human saliva to wash down it's main course of fresh, steaming cow doo-doo or worse still, that bloody, stinking Bugs Bunny I just saw spread messily across the tarmac, 30 million bluebottles buzzing around it, fighting off a desparate crow trying to fill its boots. Yuk, yuk, yuk.. Anyway, you'll be glad to know that ten minutes and a few miles later I managed to disloge it and, thankfully, it turned out to be nothing more than a bit of roast chicken, left over from my own evening meal consumed only an hour earlier.. Although where the creepy-crawlie ended up I dread to think!!!
Right, to the point. Why cyclists grit their teeth... Because you can't breathe properly if you don't open your mouth, and the flies and bugs and god knows what will just fly straight in there and lay their maggot eggs all over your epiglotis at the first chance.. So what's needed is a filter. Your teeth. So the next time you see le Tour, look for the gritted teeth and the little black specs of the remains of some furry flying creature, it's bug-eyed head sticking out from the gap between the cyclists teeth and smiling for the cameras...
Speak to you again soon...
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Dunwich and Back to the Sound of Sweet Ant Music
Today I went out on my first 'social' ride, with a couple of mates. Jonny "ice to the eskimos" and Paul "tree surgeon" Bush... The latter is true, possibly the most aptly named tree surgeon in Britain... It was tough keeping up with these two seasoned cyclists, but I only fell behind on one occasion as I was surprised by a missed left turn and push up a hill on the A12 leaving Yoxford. I found myself in the wrong gear and wrong frame of mind and a gap formed. I caught up again on the reverse of the long climb, hitting 28.6 mph in my pursuit. We did just over 21 miles up through the gorgeous countryside around Westleton and up as far as Dunwich on the coast. Some fabulous houses, including a lovely converted barn up for sale, on the Westleton/Darsham road. Probably out of my budget, but worth a quick search on Rightmove....
Anyway, the main thing I wanted to tell you about this journey is the new attachment I have on the bike... It's called a Gomotron and I bought it off eBay from a site in Japan. I thought I'd get ripped off, but only 3 days after paying via Paypal, it arrived on my doorstep... It attaches using tie-wraps, to the left crank (the arm that the pedal is fastened to). It's a clear plastic tube with a bit in the end with some kind of patented chemical in it. You have to collect at least 30 ants from the garden and place them carefully in the tube. Once the pedals start turning, the ants go crazy and start to dart around in the tube, giving off a natural chemical unique to ants. This chemical reacts with the patented ingredients in the red plastic bit on the end of the Gomotron which causes a mini jet of air to shoot out of the end. This makes the cranks turn faster without needing increased pressure from you the cyclist.. At one point, when the ants appeared to be getting a little randy with eachother (it's ant mating season according to Wikipedia.com) they were generating so much of this chemical that I was able to navigate a reasonably steep climb (about 1:7) without pedalling at all (well not much anyway)... I can recommend Gomotron, and if you want one on your bike drop me an email and I'll send the URL for the eBay store...
Anyway, time to go. Just a quick note about my fundraising. An email sent around the office on Friday, resulted in 7 immediate donations and I'm now over the magic £1,000 mark. Thanks to those that donated, and thanks to all of you who have supported me in whatever way so far...
Happy April Fools Day....
Anyway, the main thing I wanted to tell you about this journey is the new attachment I have on the bike... It's called a Gomotron and I bought it off eBay from a site in Japan. I thought I'd get ripped off, but only 3 days after paying via Paypal, it arrived on my doorstep... It attaches using tie-wraps, to the left crank (the arm that the pedal is fastened to). It's a clear plastic tube with a bit in the end with some kind of patented chemical in it. You have to collect at least 30 ants from the garden and place them carefully in the tube. Once the pedals start turning, the ants go crazy and start to dart around in the tube, giving off a natural chemical unique to ants. This chemical reacts with the patented ingredients in the red plastic bit on the end of the Gomotron which causes a mini jet of air to shoot out of the end. This makes the cranks turn faster without needing increased pressure from you the cyclist.. At one point, when the ants appeared to be getting a little randy with eachother (it's ant mating season according to Wikipedia.com) they were generating so much of this chemical that I was able to navigate a reasonably steep climb (about 1:7) without pedalling at all (well not much anyway)... I can recommend Gomotron, and if you want one on your bike drop me an email and I'll send the URL for the eBay store...
Anyway, time to go. Just a quick note about my fundraising. An email sent around the office on Friday, resulted in 7 immediate donations and I'm now over the magic £1,000 mark. Thanks to those that donated, and thanks to all of you who have supported me in whatever way so far...
Happy April Fools Day....
Labels: ants, bike, cranks, cycling, Dunwich, eBay, Gomotron, london, love, paris, pedals, ride, Rightmove, suffolk, Westleton
