4 Rides, another 158 miles

Tues 22nd - Croft, good average
Continuing in the spirit of easing off a little this week i did another relatively short ride but upped the pace since i will be resting for 4 days after today. Cheshire Cat sportive on Sunday

Stats - 23.3 miles, 1h 17 mins, 18.06 average, max 30.35mph, Heart rate max/average 177/151bpm
1239.50 miles for this year


Mon 21st - Partington and Lymm with my buddy
The final week of training before i ride a century in the Wiggle Cheshire Cat on Sunday. My intention is to take it easy so i will be recovered and fresh to ride at weekend. I put my bike in the car and drove to Sale to have a brew, a ride and a chat with my mate. We rode up Carrington spur to Partington, through Lymm and on up to Lymm Dam, left along the A56 Higher Lane, left onto Burford lane B5159 then right on Paddock Lane A6144 back to Sale. A lovely bright and dry day with no wind.

Stats - 24.9 miles, 1h 34 mins, 15.85 average, max 29.68mph, Heart rate max/average 180/124bpm


Thurs 17th - Rivington, solo
I felt the call of the hills today and wanted to do a good workout on my legs so headed fom home to go around the old lags ride at Rivington. The old lags had already left a couple of hours previously so i had to go on my own. It was a tough ride probably because the weather brought my mood down, windy, wet roads spots of rain. I pushed whenever i could bet never really felt strong although considering the amount of climbing involved on this route my average wasn't too bad at all.
Overcast, wet and breezy, hard work today

Stats - 51.05 miles, 2h 58 mins, 17.18 average, max 35.3mph, Heart rate max/average 171/148bpm


Tues 15th - LRC club ride to Knutsford
Lancashire Road Club 'recovery' ride today. Wow, some recovery ride. 8 of us rode 26miles to Booths at Knutsford for a food stop averaging about 17mph. Then the group picked the pace up a lot coming through Hollins Green and Culcheth, belting through the villages at 24 mph my heart racing in zone 4.5 or about 170bpm. We got to Leigh and 2 racing lads started to break away from the rest of us. I didnt want to miss the opportuninty to stay with them so i sprinted hard from the main pack, 32 mph and caught them up. Just 3 of us now as the rest of the club disapeared behind us, unable to keep up. A very tough and fast final 4 miles home keeping up with these two. A great workout though and am very pleased again that they never managed to drop me.

Stats - 59.43 miles, 3h 20 mins, 17.81 average, max 36.6mph, Heart rate max/average 185/144bpm

Croft speed run - A new personal best

3 strong coffees, 3 rounds of toast and an energy gel is what my power breakfast consisted of today. I've also fitted my TT bars as the time trial season begins in April and i want to give my body some time to adapt to the head down position. The advantage to the TT bars is that they make your position more streamlined and your speed will increase by an extra 1-2mph for the same effort. Mine are a low end aluminium one piece bar called Profile Century and cost around £40.

Profile Century TT bars

My run today was my relatively short route around Croft of 23.3 miles. I fancied a short run today as i am going out with the Lancs Road Club tomorrow for athe STRAW ride which will be a much longer 65-100 mile ride. I thought best to take advantage of those coffees and my TT bars and see what i can do today.

A beautiful clear day, bright blue skies, temperature 8 deg with a gentle notherly breeze of 6kph.

I sprinted out of the estate, down through Astley to the East Lancs A580 cycle path and rode East towards Lowton. After only 2 miles and powering along the flat at 24mph i reach the incline of the bridge that crosses the Bridgewater Canal and spot another cyclist halfway up. I see the chance to show off and put more effort in to try to keep the speed going up the hill. With my heart rate showing 178bpm i fly up the hill and past the other rider at 22.5mph feeling fine apart from a now recurring pain in my left knee whenever i have a tough climb. The pain feels like a knitting needle being passed through my kneecap, is quite intense, usually lasts for the duration of the effort and for about 5 mins afterwards. It causes me to ease off the power with the left leg and compensate with the right. I will have to get it looked at. I sped on down the other side of the bridge, bunny hopping the kerbs and traffic island at Morley's Lane at 22.5 mph only slowing down for the traffic at Greyhound Roundabout. 3 miles later i turn left at the lights at Kenyon Lane showing an average of 20.5mph and speed off into the quite country roads around Croft and Culcheth.

     There was little wind around the circuit and i realised i could now quite easily work at a rate right in the middle of zone 4 or 172  bpm without a conscious effort where previously i struggled to stay in Zone 3. I emerged from the country road section and back onto the East Lancs showing a distance of 16.5mles and an average of 19.1mph. Powering back down the cycle path for the 7 mile run towards home now keeping on the TT bars as much as possible and slowing occasionally to allow my body to flush the lactic acid thats starting to build up in my quads. Im pleased watching the heart rate monitor to see that im working constantly and efficiently at a rate of 170 bpm or around 82-89% of my maximum heart rate without feeling totally wasted, i still have reserve if i need it. Turning off the cycle path at Higher Green Lane i then turn right at the Bulls head pub and join Church Road, an incline of around 4% initially and about 3/4 of  mile long. 15.5 mph up here and around the bend to join Henfold Road and Hough Lane where the roads incline increases dramatically to around 9%. I always like to push hard up this final portion as it only lasts about 30 seconds. 20mph up this final portion with my heart rate showing 184bpm.
   A really good speed run today which showed me how much stronger my legs have got since January when they weren't strong enough to get my lungs working hard.
Stats - 23.3 miles, 1h 14 mins, 18.9 average, max 29.17mph, Heart rate max/average 184/165bpm
1080.85 miles for this year

32 miles hilly route

I should have gone out training yesterday but the wind was so strong it was blowing wagons over on the flyovers. It was still a little windy today but not dangerous like yesterday so decided to go for a hilly route. I rode through Atherton - Westleigh - Hindley - Wigan - Uphill for a couple of miles into Standish then i turned right to go down the hill towards Red Rock (a steep uphill). This hill starts out at 10% then evens off to 3 or 4% and is also about 2 miles long.  At the top of Red Rock i carried straight over the give way to Blackrod then joined the A6 to Over Hulton and home. All the time trying to keep my heart rate at the high end of zone 3 and above 150bpm. A good ride with a good average speed and my quads are starting to get sore too now.

Stats - 31.7 miles, 1h 47 mins, 17.66 average, max 34.7mph, Heart rate max/average 175/153bpm
1057.48 miles for this year

Lancs Road Club - Straw Ride to Lytham and back

Tues. 8th March
I last rode out with the STRAW lads (Steady Training Ride All Welcome) on August 31st 2010. Thats when i discovered too late that i wasnt as fit as i thought i was, i bonked and had to get the train home. I still covered 75 miles that day though. Back in August i really struggled to keep up with this group. They tend to ride 60 - 100 miles at an average of 17 -18 mph which is quite quick especially for this distance. I remember the outward portion of the ride was a real lung buster for me and on the way back i was completely wasted, couldnt keep up and got the train home for the final 25miles.
That ride was one of my motivating factors for getting fit again this year. I knew i could ride with them if i kept my training up. So since January 1st i have been getting 100 miles a week in training, gradually increasing the intensity and today it paid off.

Stats - 65.7 miles, 3h 42 mins, 17.7 average, max 33.7mph, Heart rate max/average 184/142bpm
1025.78 miles for this year

Thats me, far right with the black arms

This is a summary from the LRC message boardBrian Little, John Carey, Dave Dewhurst, Graham Townshend (who last came out with us in September – he is going a lot stronger now!), Pete Walkington and myself set off for Lytham via Adlington – Yarrow Valley Way – A49 and to the Avant Garden Centre to meet Brian Gore, John Higham and Ben Simons (Dee Hall to meet Linda Gore for the Ladies STRAW run also to Lytham) – Fowler Lane (where we stopped for a group photo and where the girls came past us) – Preston Marina – Inskip – Kirkham – Wrea Green and to the Upstairs Downstairs café for lunch. After about 20 minutes the girls arrived.

(I had beans on toast and a large coffee -£ 5.40)

Home straight down the main road to Preston (with a great tail-wind) - Strand Rd – Broadgate and over the Old Bridge – Penwortham – A49 (where Brian Gore and Ben Simons and John Higham left us for Parbold, Ormskirk and Skemersdale, respectively) – Brockhall Village – Yarrow Valley Way – Adlington and back to the Beehive (John Carey home to Astley).

A lovely early Spring day, blue sky with light cloud and sunshine but with a strong and blustery West wind and still a bit cool in the morning.

Dee and Linda did 63 miles at an Avg Speed = 12.6 mph



At the cafe Stop in Lytham



Week begining Mon 28th Feb

Feb 28th  Wandering roung Wigan and Warrington. I needed 36 miles to reach my monthly target of 433 miles so being the last day of February i decided thats at least what i had to go and do. I took it easy really just concentrating on getting the miles in.  Stats - 36.92 miles, 2hr 19 mins, 15.89 average, max 27.65mph, Heart rate max/average 164/139bpm  

Mar 1st  Rivington Hills. I rode out to the Beehive at Horwich intending to meet up with the faster STRAW riders of Lancashire Road Club (of which i am now a member). I thought they met at 9.30am, so when nobody turned up after 10 mins i set off for a little ride arond the hills of Rivington. When i checked the club website the next day it turned out they didn't meet until 10am, so I left before they arrived. Stats - 16.51 miles, 1h 03 mins, 15.59 average, max 33.72mph, Heart rate max/average 178/146bpm  

Mar 3rd  Old Lags Rivi ride.  I took my mate along to introduce him to a club ride and thought the old lags ride would be fine. My fault for not realising that my mate hadnt really done any hill training and the many steep hills on this route quickly wore him out. We lost the club after only 2 miles when my mates chain came off. It took us a further 6 miles to catch them up and we managed to stay with them for a further 7 until little by little they edged away and disapeared. Luckily i had the route saved in my Garmin 705 so we could follow their exact track. We met the crew again at Rivi barn for a brew and some well earned scran. My mate did well to complete the run, he even volunteered the steepest route back to the car which was over Sheephouse lane at Rivington, 15% and he never got off once. Stats - 33.64 miles, 2h 38 mins, 12.71 average, max 34.64mph, Heart rate max/average 170/132bpm  

Mar 5th  Croft speed run. Decided i needed a fast run today and set out to test myself on my usual training run around Croft. The wind was directly behind me for the first 7 miles along the lancs to Lowton and I was averaging 22.5mph. As i turned into the country roads around Croft the wind direction was a bit 50/50 because of the twists and turns of the roads but after a further 7 miles emerging back on the lancs I was still averaging 20.5mph. Directly into the wind now for the 7 miles back home and i really struggled to keep my speed up above 16.5mph although my heart rate was still in the high end of zone 3 or 150-166bpm. I pushed myself  all the way home against the wind and beat my record for this year on this route. Stats - 23.35 miles, 1h 16 mins, 18.38 average, max 30.48mph, Heart rate max/average 175/155bpm  

110.42 miles for this week and 960.08 miles so far this year.

3 more rides

Mon. Feb. 21st   Rivington 30.17 miles, 1h.51 mins, 16.2 average, max 40.15mph, Heart rate max/average 175/154bpm   Total 849.66

Tues. Feb. 22nd   Croft. 23.3 miles, 1h.21 mins, 17.1 average, max 25.30mph, Heart rate max/average 170/146bpm

Thurs. Feb 24th   Lymm 35.03 miles, 2h.01 mins, 17.2 average, max 27.96mph, Heart rate max/average 178/141bpm

Southport and back 66 miles

Well i didnt manage the 30 mile run yesterday as i felt i had pulled a hamstring and decided to rest it for a day. So today meant i had to double up on mileage to make up for it. I set off for Southport at 09.30 staying on the A577 through Atherton, Hindley, Ince and into Wigan then the A49 uphill for 3 miles into Standish. On this route there is about 13 miles of main road cycling before turning onto country roads for 20 miles into Southport. While whizzing down these country lanes feeling very fit and fast 'cos my average speed said 18.7mph i realised with a sinking feeling that the wind always blows towards Southport giving a great average then destroys me on the way home. I thought then it would be best to pace myself on my heart rate rather than average speed. So on the way there i was flying along on the flat at 23mph and my heart rate at 160 bpm with the wind behind me. On the return my speed dropped to 12 -15mph with the same 160bpm heart rate but with the wind against me. I was happy knowing that i was working hard rather than disapointed that i was travelling slowly. I got to Southport after an hour and 47 minutes and took a couple of pics of something i have never seen there in my life before. . . . . the tide was in, Southport actually has sea. I pressed the lap button on my Garmin 705 so i could record details of the out and back journeys separately and set off for home again.

On the way back after 46 miles i stopped at the Marina Cafe at Rufford for some energy in the form of a large strong coffee and some jam on toast for £3.05. A very popular cafe for cyclists on Station Road B5246. I stayed only 15 mins, just long enough to finish my treat then on my way again arriving home 20 miles and an hour and half later.

Total Stats 66.40 miles, 4h.03 mins, 16.3 average, max 32.49mph, Heart rate max/average 179/157bpm
Outward  33.03 miles, 1h 47 mins, 18.42 average, max 32.49mph, Heart rate max/average 179/158bpm
Return    33.37 miles, 2h 16 mins, 14.68 average, max 30.53mph, Heart rate max/average 179/157bpm