Nuclear Dawn

I appear to have slipped back into old ways and not updated since June! My apologies. I’ll attempt to roundup the remainder of the years training in a single brief post and start afresh for 2011.

Well looking back over my Garmin Connect activities, I can tell you that I took part in a lot of Sunday club runs for the remainder of the season, and I also started the thursday night chain gangs. Then in addition to this, a few of the guys from work decided they fancied running lunchtime and after work training sessions too, so that doubled my weekly chaingangs and added another fast ride at lunch once a week. This must all have helped as I brought my 10 PB down to 27:27 by August on Llety Gwyn.

I also raced Tywyn Criterium and 2 Pembrey circuit races. Once was a Cat 3/4 and the other a Cat 2/3/4 handicap. The 3/4 I hung on to the bunch for about half of the race but eventually got shelled, and the handicap shelled me much earlier due to a VERY fast initial pace. I tried getting back onto groups as they pased but I was spent from soloing it into the wind at TT pace for the remainder.

In September I entered the Wild Edric sportive. At 103 miles in length, this would be my first century, and I was confident I could complete it. A few of us from Ystwyth made a group and stuck together the whole way round, sharing the pace and working very well. By the final 10 miles things got broken up on the final climb and I seemed to be the only one with energy for the sprint into the village. We completed the hilly 103 miles in 7:40, 6:35 moving but we had 3 stops for food and first-aid when Martyn touched wheels with me and he came a cropper.

The end of the TT season brought a new addition to the club. 3 informal hillclimbs organised by Dewi and Kirsten. These took place on 3 local hills in Aberystwyth, each with their own unique character. Penglais for a long gradual drag, Heol y Bont for steep and quick and the mixed gradients of pain on Primrose Hill. Here’s me ‘enjoying’ the latter:

Once the road season ended, I turned my thoughts to off-road for a while. This year I’d planned to put my ‘cross bike through a real cross season. Sadly ‘local’ races all involved a 2-5 hour round trip to attend so I only managed to race 3 of them and spectate another 1. Here I am at my first race at Crickhowell School.

Snow arrived early this year which pushed me onto the turbo trainer a bit early. I’ve been really enjoying the videos from The Sufferfest this year. Here’s my ‘Pain Cave’

In order to fund a race bike for the 2011 season, I sold my Orange ST4 Frame and all my gears, replacing them with an On-One Scandal which I’ve built singlespeed. This is my only MTB and I still intend to ride the Dyfi, Enduro and Warmup events as well as others. It should help build leg strength too which is no bad thing.

I think that’s most things covered. I’ll try to keep posts more frequent in 2011.

I’d been wanting to train more on the road and yet I was struggling to fit extra rides into a busy evening schedule. Last week I decided to set the alarm and get out before work. Well actually I’d mastered the lightweight commute (shirt pants and socks rolled in a plastic bag in middle jersey pocket, wallet, phone, lunch and keys in the other 2, leave trousers, shoes, towel and belt at work) so I just added some miles onto the pitifal 5 miles I usually do.

Nant-y-Moch

Last week the sun was shining and it gave me great pleasure to turn the wrong way from the end of the street and head up to Tal-y-Bont for the 400m climb which features on the Trans Cambrian Sportive. I arrived at Nant-y-Moch and it was very serene. Not a ripple to be seen on the water. The descent to Ponterwyd and again into Aberystwyth were fast and the roads were empty. You couldn’t ask for a better ride. I spotted fox cubs, rabbits, hares, buzzards, red kites, new born foals and calves. What a mental boost for a Monday Morning.

I did that ride in 2 hours 20 minutes and this week, I planned to increase the milage from 35 to 46 miles but I didn’t get up in time unfortunately. I ended up doing last weeks route over again, but this time the GPS plot recorded without glitches.

Ystwyth Cycling Club organised a set of closed circuit races on the seafront last night. The turnout was great and racing started at 6PM for the under 8s and under 10s and went on until 9PM when the senior Cat 2,3,4 race crossed the finish line. Although tempted at times, I was not racing. Instead, I took the roll of photographer and marshal. The weather was perfect aside from a stiff sea breeze which relented slightly as the sun set which allowed for some very nice light conditions for photographing the riders. I took up post on the tight corner at the end of the start finish straight.

Ben Simmons takes the Senior race win

Gruff Lewis of Ystwyth CC takes 5th

Andy Davies of Ystwyth CC not affraid to get low on the corner despite bloody knuckles from a previous off

Arwel Jones leads the Go Race event and goes on to win

I took hundreds of photos on the night and I’ve uploaded a few of my favourites to my flickr account. If you would like a photo of yourself, I may have captured you at some point. Drop me a line if you are interested with a brief description of your bike and kit and I’ll have a dig around.

This weekend I joined a few members of Ystwyth CC to take part in my first sportive. I’d heard that the Tour of Pembrokeshire was a nice distance (60,80 or 115 miles) and took in a lot of beautiful scenery. I decided to take the plunge and do the middle distance along with Andrew who I also work with. Race day came and I managed 3 hours sleep before getting up at 4AM to meet at 5AM for the journey down to the start line. We took part in the mass start at 7:30 AM with a police lead-out through Saundersfoot. We soon settled into a group and took turns on the fron although nobody seemed to want to do a proper thru-n-off so we just accelerated to the front of the pack when you felt guilty enough.

The route can be seen below on somebody elses Garmin Connect GPS plot. I didn’t record the route as I was worried I might need my phone if I got into problems 50 miles from the start line. I finished in 5:31 which was good enough for a gold award. Andrew finished 2 minutes ahead of me and got a Silver! Oh well, next time I’ll sprint for the finish perhaps.

The whole event was well organised and well marshaled. I took advantage of the post-race massage on offer and had a very good sports massage on my back and shoulders, which had seized on the ride. Feed stations were well stocked and everybody was very friendly. Thanks to James who was riding for Chevron, the main sponsors. We rode most of the course together and had a good chat en-route. We finally parted ways after the final feed station where I relaxed the pace a little due to a number of steep inclines which needed to be attacked before the finish. Got back just as the rain was starting to come down. All in all, an excellent day in the saddle, and the early start meant I was home in time for tea, which is nice. Shame I was so tired I fell asleep on my bed as soon as I got back home!

Note: This is not my data, I finished some 30 minutes behind this rider. Data provided for route and ascent profile only