Autumn and Phase 2

Knockburn Loch

A very quick blast on the roadie this morning - 1000ft ascent & just over an hours riding. The forecast was for more rain (please god no!) but this morning the sun was splitting the sky so I took off on my favourite hill road after dropping Jnr at Nursery. Was rewarded at the top of Nine Stanes with the tail end of a cloud inversion over Strachan and Banchory and yes, I'm still loving hillage. The winding hill roads that I/we prefer to ride on (the alternative, the A93 is suicide) though stunningly beautiful at this time of year, are devillishly slippy and I could feel the tyres offering to slide away on a couple of corners so maybe it is time to swap the focus more towards mountainbiking unless the roads are really dry. Though the problem is more one of tyres versus slimy leaves/frost/grit, I've been having some problems with my brakes too but on recommendation of the lanky, tall, fast one (James :) at Ullapool, I have purchased and just received a set of Kool Stop (salmons) which are apparently - now how was this put again - "In the wet they work like Shimano in the dry & in the dry they work like they should". Sounds good to me!

I stopped in by Knockburn too - its my local triathlon training facility and is unbelieveably beautiful. You really do have to go there to get the full effect but imagine a [man made] loch with an island in the middle, in the middle of nowhere surrounded by hills, forests and heather and moorland  - thats it in the top photo. Imagine the peace and quiet on a morning like this morning - just the sound of your breathing and the occasional buzzard mewing high overhead.

Partial inversion, Scolty hill from Nine Stanes - Lochton

JB sent me my training plan for the next 8 weeks last night. Its to get me back to decent times for 5k in time for the duathlon in a couple months. Apparently she's not worried about my cycling as I'm strong but my running er.....yup...well I knew that LOL! I've never been able to balance two [or three] things at once. Its always been cycling or running or swimming so when I'm strong at one thing, I lapse with the others. I've been almost 100% focused on the roadie since April & I admit the running has taken a back seat so its great having someone to guide me - ok tell me :) - what I should be doing for how long, when and why. She also sent me an annual overview with my focus' for each month from now on as we enter Phase 2 (dum dum duuuuuuuum) and we're tweaking that over lunch on sunday before heading out on a long, slow one (probably on mountainbikes judging my horrific weather forecast) with the rest of the Gurls. Looking forward to it! Theres something about frost on the grass in the morning that makes a girl want to get her offroad kit on :)

Ullapool Beag 25th September 2010

"Sounds like a plan to me!" I heard myself saying to my mate Sue as she coerced me into doing I swore I'd never do in my life - enter a mass cycling event. I'm still not sure how she did it but on Friday 24th September I found myself in the Argyll Hotel in Ullapool halfway through a giant glass of red wine enjoying Gypsy Joe playing and almost agreeing it was a Good Idea.

What did I think of my first ever Sportive? To gain full effect, go and sit on a kitchen knife in a force 9 gale and read on dear viewer...


Hills. Lots of them. Never ending. Continuous. We have collectively decided that Ullapool is simultaneously 3000ft above and at sea level. That is the only possible explanation for the fact that we went uphill from Ullapool early on Saturday morning (with slight hangovers having been out till 11pm the previous evening) and came uphill to Ullapool on Saturday afternoon some 65.5 miles (105km to you foreign readers ;) and 7815ft (2380m) of ascent later.


I knew I could do the distance. My longest ride so far is 84 miles on my own with iirc 3000ft ascent but this was going to be double the ascent and more... in a word arghhhhhhh. Hills are ok. Like lemon meringue pies, I even enjoy them in moderation but too many can make a girl a bit queasy. However continuous hills (or lemon meringue pie) and headwind not so good. Hills, and the descending thereof, with no brakes (I'm writing a strongly worded letter to Shimano after this!!) also not good but I have now broken my downhill speed record which was, well, life affirming at the time especially considering some of the stories we heard after about people who came off descending at speed...



Professionals at work...we hadn't even left at this point..

 













Sue and I made a girly-wirly pinkie pact right at the start when her husband (who's a roadie machine) persuaded us to enter it, to cross the finish line together. She's only been road cycling for a couple months, but I swore I would not leave her behind even if it meant towing her. We also swore not to do this as a race and pile on the pressure and so stopped to take photos and stuff and admire views and passing men in lycra. Her husband Terry and his mate Ron were doing the Ullapool Mor (130 miles with 13000ft of ascent) and James (also Terrys mate) did the Beag like us (though being much faster, thinner and taller - oh yeah, and better - shot off like a thing possessed leaving us wondering if a pot of tea and a scone might be a better idea)

Pretty much as flat as it got. Can't complain about the views though..

The weather was cold but dry and had it not been for the headwind, especially coming round the backside of Stac Pollaidh, it would have been perfect cycling weather. We rode alone so none of that group riding angsty malarkey. We had no punctures and Sue's chain came off only once. The views were spectacular as you can imagine. Ullapool and Lochinver were second home(s) to me in the early noughties and it was great to be back.


Fit men in Lycra. Always good.





















HM Coastguard were the safety team and I have to say to the two who kept following us and who had obviously laid bets on whether the giggling idiots were going to finish or not ...."ner ner ne ner ner". And thank you for cheering us on up the final hill. There were a lot of great people involved and the marshalls and food-stop folk really kept the mood buoyant. Thank you to Hands On Events who organised it and every single person who helped. Especially Aunt Edith at Lochinver :)

An Teallach...sexy

We finished in 6:30:05 (me) and 6:30:09 (Sue) and it was the best feeling in the world. I know there are some of you who do this every month and for longer distances in half the time and with more ascent but I'm chuffed because in one ride I got over my fear of Getting A Shit Time in a 'race' and not giving a hoot about it and also facing major hillage.

Baosbheinn...sexy

We all went out to the Argyll again for food after showering and Martin Stephenson was playing. 4 carafes of a nice red were quaffed. I can highly recommend the Argyll Hotel for entertainment and food. Its rocks. Literally. I can also highly recommend the B&B we stayed at but I'm not telling you where that is in case you steal our room sometime :)

Slioch - the sexiest of them all





Coming up the hill from Inverkirkaig

I can also highly recommend Sportives if you haven't done one yet. Now if you're like I was a week ago - sitting there thinking "yeah right matey" - just do me a favour and sign up anyway. You will feel a bit sick, your stomach will turn inside out, you will wish death upon whoever convinced you to enter but you will not be disappointed.

Gairloch

Came home today via Laide and Gairloch, the sun splitting the sky, the mountains all pointy and sexy and had it not been for my crushing hangover ........

Ah well, roll on April and the start of the 2011 Hands On sportive season :)

6hrs 30 later (or 4:37 for the taller lankier ones..)...tired but reeeeallly happy!

You may have noticed a small change to the site

Yes, today folks, I began my fourth decade on this planet. These are now the ramblings of a forty something..

Its been a good day. I rescheduled my gastroscopy because, well, thats not much fun on your birthday is it and I turned off the laptop and my phone at midday after working this morning and spent the afternoon with a friend having scones and coffee and cycling and buying cycling kit.

Tonight I shall luxuriate in a bath with a book and go to bed because tomorrow, will anything have changed? No. I'll still be me and it'll just be my 14601st revolution round the sun.

And back to it!

I'm back to it. I feel its return - the urge to get out. The knee has stopped whining and I can now walk downstairs, run (slowly and gently) and move about pretty much as before it twanged. No, I didn't go to the doctors and yes, I realise this was stupid and might lead to long term damage but having kinda narrowed 'it' down to a cause myself, I don't want to go to the doc admitting fault.

So yesterday morning I went out for my first tentative run. Just 20 minutes at a really slow pace on the trail. No hills just softish compacted trail. Lots of stretching afterwards and this morning knee seemed fine so I met up with a new friend JB for our first ride out together. 25 miles as that's the distance I'm training for and she competed at. I have to say I'm still grinning. It was one of those rare days when everything is right. The sun is shining (mostly), the ever present wind has dropped to gusts below 30mph (mostly), when your shoulder blades don't ache, when your knees don't hurt on even the hardest of hills, when your legs find a natural rhythm and when you have teeth covered in flies because you've just been grinning so much. Despite the fact we were very nearly dislodged by gales as we neared the top of the second  and third hills, it was one of the best rides of my admittedly short cycling career.  Really looking forward to our next meet up in a couple days!

I know, I know....

....Its been ages, I'm sorry but its been a bit hectic round these parts. Jobs, schools, houses...everything is changed or has already changed. All came out of bad but despite flipping our lives completely 180, has actually been the best thing that's happened to us in a long time.

Unfortunately, with the to-ings and fro-ings, it left little time for formal exercise. However! The inaugural meeting of the Deeside Women's Cycling Club (henceforth known as DWCC) was held early this morning and we did a very quick hilly 20 miler. The whole point of this club is to appeal to those completely disinterested in competing in races or within a club environment. There's no ego bashing, no 'my bike is better than your bike' and we all like cake. The pace is generally midway between fastest rider and slowest.

With exception of a couple rides and runs since coming back from Menorca mid -August, I've not been out so I set off this morning completely expecting to struggle up any of the hills but oddly I felt fresher and stronger than ever before. Yes, the pace was slower than normal (we averaged about 13mph) but hills that I usually have to totally focus on, I was chatting and looking around whilst ascending! Could it be that I had overtrained (sorry, still laugh when I use the word 'train') prior to the holidays and this break has given my body the rest it needed? Topped up the glycogen stores? Who knows but I'm sitting here tonight with a big grin.

Tomorrow I'm working at the bike shop (my only day there now as I want to keep a hand in but otherwise I'm back to offshore logistics/engineering) and mountainbiking. I'm really excited to try Bobs new forks out. I got him a pair of really old but pristine Marzocchi Bombers (Z2) but haven't had a chance to try them out. Its been torture but the weather is looking good tomorrow again so I'm either going to get up way early and get a couple hours in before work or go after.

So thats it for now. Its been a roaster of a day and I spent the afternoon off from bids and procedures and stuff and went bramble picking with Jimbob.

Perfect really :)