North peak ride with Patrick + this weeks training

I had been wanting to get up into some of the bigger hills for a while having had a go on them a while back, So decided to head up in the car with Patrick to do a loop taking in the strines Holme moss and snake pass. A 100km route with a bit under 2000m climbing.

http://app.strava.com/activities/69735121

We parked at top top of suprise view, and after a bit of debate as to if I sould change my 21rear cassette to a bigger 28, we concluded that "Nah it will be fine, i'll just pedal harder if it gets steep"
So we rocketed off down the decsent into hathersage and upto ladybower resevoir. Patrick still wasnt in great form after crashing and hurting his hip a few days before, so I was happy to sit in front and pace on the busy roads. We got onto strines moor and both imagined that it would make for a good backdrop for the tour of britain. Out there it really was a bit bleak the weather didn't know what it was doing and the moorland looked quite daunting.
 A segment on strava called 'Can you handle the strines' sums up the next 25mins of cycling... http://app.strava.com/activities/69735121#1353696983
 To be honest It was pretty tough and having a double and 21 started to seem like a stupid idea.. Basically there are 3 hills along the road. You drop down quickly into a valley before it rises up steeply again on the other side. The decsents are fast, tight, not very well surfaced and quite predictable in the fact that they are going to be unpredictable so after a bit of a scare going down the first we were much more cautious on the next two. The hills are not too long but each have a nasty kick in them at points 25%.

The next challenge was Holme Moss starting in holmefirth and a length of 7km @5% i had done this one before and like last time there was a headwind. This climb wears you down and the last mile is fairly steep at about 10% the road is marked at each 1/4mile and lets you know exactly how much longer is left... I wanted to get a good time up this one so set off quite fast but within my comfort. So as to save enough energy for the final part into the wind. I couldnt of gone much slower with that gear really as I was in the biggest sprocket for the last mile, Overall I felt pretty good and my pedaling felt powerful, so I pushed on a bit and upped the effort to the top... 1/2 a mile sounds like you are nearly done but lasts a lot longer than you think! as does the 200/100 yards at the end where I atempted to use anything left for a sprint. I was very pleased when home to find that I had got within the top 10 on the holme moss segments and for the second half of the climb had got a 2nd and a 4th, ahead of dean downing and tejvan on one segment :D http://app.strava.com/activities/69735121#1353696747

The decsent was somthing I was looking forward to, as I had gained a lot of confidence and ability decsending recently and it is supposed to one of the fastest where you can reach 85kph if a couple of are riding. The wind however was too strong and we got nowhere near that number.. after this we were pretty tired and decided to stop at a cafe we found at the side of torside reservoir. We had planned to stop at subway for lunch at glossop so didnt eat much. Little did we know how close glossop was to the cafe. Good job didnt eat much as 10mins later after a fast decsent we were in subway, eating meatball subs and sneakily filling our bottle up with coke ;)
Snake pass was the next hil and other than the climb back up to suprise view the last one. I wanted to go hard on this one and got a nice rhythm right away on the slopes through the town. I tried to stay seated throughout and keep a high cadence, the gear was good and I was determined not to change down. The first bend came and i thought i was nearing the top however a lot of this climb looks the same and after two times thinking i was near the top and a bit of struggling due to the length and pace I had chosen the road turned leveled off a little and I could see the cars parked. I still had energy to increase the pace for the top so put it into the big dog hurled the bike over the top. That felt quick and I didn't feel like i was ever fighting against the hill so I hoped a strava top 10 would be waiting for me. It was :)

Rapha Rising: La Centième

During my cycling study at loughborough I had managed to clock up half of the elevation gain in the challenge, I was feeling strong after the last day of the 9dayblock of interval training... however i certainly needed a rest day! i decided to do everything to recover properly friday and saturday with the intention of waking up sunday, seeing how i felt. Then attempting to do the biggest ride to date in terms of distance, time and elevation. I needed 3500m and wanted to do it in under 180km as I was unsure of how long I could ride for in one go. (my biggest ride to date being 137km)
I did research on some routes I could do finding a couple that started up in the peak. I wanted to ride from my house as I imagnied I would be rather tired after and would want to just collapse afterwards not dirve home. I based the route on the peak epic sportive after having it reccomened as a good route. So I planned a route the hillest way possible to bakewell to get to the start and missing of the north west section. I usually ride a 39-21 but swapped over to a 28 to go a bit steadier up the steep hills which there seemed to be a few.

http://app.strava.com/activities/68764730#

Sandwiches made and pockets full of other goodies I set off out, I was feeling pretty strong but had to remind myself to take the ride steady and not let my competetive side take control. The weather was fair but not the sun and heat we had been having, I liked that. This route took me on some roads I never knew existed and i am now glad I found! there were also a number of hidden gems of climbs too.

Longstone edge -
http://app.strava.com/activities/64264386

One of my new fave roads and climbs, starts off steep out of gt longstone then opens up along the side of the edge with stunning views south!

Cressbrook climb -
http://app.strava.com/activities/68764730#1328757980

horribly steep, very thankful for the lower gear, this one climbs steeply out of the valley from the mill past houses that tower above you and then are suddenly gone behind and below as you ascend the wall of a road!

Abney gliding club valley
http://app.strava.com/activities/68764730#1328758235

My fave road either up or down, you will more likely see horses and cyclists than cars. a good long ascent or decsent with great views and a good mix of fun cycling treats!

Hathersage to Higger tor/stanage edge/ ringinglow road
http://app.strava.com/activities/68764730#1328758288

Starts off on one of the more popular climbs in the peak, suprise view. This route however takes a turn left and goes up a road that can only resemble somewhere in europe with its constant 7% grade sweeping corners and steep drops over the barriers. A good 17 mins of climbing where you can really get into a rhythm and some of the best cycling scenery around.

Bradwell moor
http://app.strava.com/activities/68764730#1328758322

AKA The Beast of Bradwell - steep all the way and narrow too, the quiet alternative to winnats.


Riber
http://app.strava.com/activities/68764730#1328757795

Wheelspinning steep around the bends and towering above the town of matlock. Hitting gradients of 20+% frequently this hill is amazing. After a nice steady warm up to the bottom of the hairpins you turn off the road to try and defeat the half mile climb averging around 14% the feeling at the top of this one is one you will remember for a while!

i got back into belper and realised I had not done enough climbing so after riding round all the hills of belper I finally got home some 7 and half hours after i left. I had ensured that I kept fueling my body and stopped a couple of times to refil my water. By the time I was Home I felt suprisingly better than I had anticipated, I sat down downed a cold can of coca cola and plugged my garmin in to upload. whilst waiting I got changed and by the time I was back at my computer it was online. To start with I was most supprised about the position I had achived on a number of the segments, ensuring I did not push my self when the road went uphill, I was not expcting a 10th on winnats pass and 9th on riber along with a couple of other koms. Clearly the hard training at loughborough was paying off! The next biggest suprose came when I realised that I had another 100m to climb before I finished the challenge! I was not going to not finish the challenge after all that, so off I went to get changed and get the bike back out, I was out the gate to muffled sounds of my mum shouting 'your mad, havent you had enough cycling today' - Mum you don't understand. up and down the hill I live on sorted that out and I was very thankful to be done and back home for good this time.

I will certainly be thinking of doing more rides similar to this in the future. There is a nice feel to seting aside a whole day to just riding your bike. the sense of distance covered is phenominal too!

DMRC Windley 2/3/4 RR

This day marked the end of a rather long wait for the hilly road race on DMRC's hilly TT course, after being postponed due to ice on the course in march, the race was rescheduled for july.
The field looked to be a strong one with quite a few different people in rather than the usual faces in other EMRRL races, possibly due to the ammount of climbing in the course. Roughly 4km of climbing with the bulk of height gain at the bottom reaching a gradient of 13%.

 The day was a hot one! with temperatures of 30+ degrees I made sure I had extra bottles ready at the feed zone. The race started of fairly steady, a few people having a go off the front including me, nothing got away. I knew a couple of guys were both extremley strong and had been advised to watch them so when they both tried to break away and I went with them I thought we may stay away for the race... however it seemed the rest of the field did not want this and brought us back, where Lee and Adam attacked again, nobody seemed bothered about chasing this time and let them slip away up the road. There was not really a dominant team in the race, so nobody seemed willing to sit on the front and chase for any length of time. There were quite a few attacks for the rest of the race but nothing major and any efforts I made to get off the front did not work either, the heat was a major issue and made the course rather hard work. In the end the bunch or what was left of it settled for fighting out 3rd place, with about 20 riders coming into the bottom of the climb to the finish, I made sure I was postioned up front. I went hard up the bottom of the climb with a few others and the following bunch was strung out 10 of the riders were still around me so I let a couple pass to get in a good place for the sprint but hesitated a bit too much when a couple jumped and came in 5th or 7th overall.

 My best result in a road race so far so was pleased with my effort. Also the first race where I had planned out my nutrition properly and must say it helped a lot! Still learning and still getting stronger so hopefully the big result will be coming. Quite a few people that I knew had come to watch me race and that was nice giving you that little extra motivation to keep going and to perform, so thanks to them!

Alport Challenge

So I was having a bad day, I couldn't be bothered!

However these days often (for me) turn out to be the best days after sitting doing nothing for a while I get thinking a bit and remember what I want to achive resulting in me getting quite fired up. What better way to reinstall confidence back in yourself is there than to go out in the rain and have a real good hard session. "just get out on the bike and get it done" So I decided I would try a few threshold efforts and see if I had improved much from the first block of training at loughborough. Alport heights challenge, an 'egoseg' - chatsworth north and beeley moor.

http://app.strava.com/activities/64264386

I seem to be able to go pretty hard for 20 minutes, and can go into the red a couple of times too during that time without blowing up, so I set off upto alport at a rather strong pace averaging 5.8w/kg or 380watts for the first part and 5 minutes untill the first flat/down segment, the trick is here to accelerate over the top of the hill getting up to speed quickly and then recovering whilst at tempo. A lot of people see the top of the hill and start to try recover... The middle section is pretty fast with a couple of inclines, just short enough for me to power over not loosing too much speed so in the drops I had it in a large gear head down trying to stay out of the strange wind there was that day. untill I got to chequer lane and shottle, where I can really put some work down on the steeper gradients, by this time you are starting to feel pretty tired and I just tried to push on knowing there was a brief downhill section to recover again just after the steepest bit staying seated to save my legs for the uphill finish sprint. I hate the top bit to the finish it has two parts and the first bit zapps all energy from your legs, then you have to do it again! Next time I may be more conservative on the first part.. My time was 19:35 and i felt i had given it my best effort so I was happy with that. My average HR had been higher than I usually would get for 20 mins. My power was similar to that in Windley TT's so I believe i could go quicker as this was 6/7 mins shorter than the TT.

I certainly felt I had improved from the previous months training, maybe not in the form of 20min efforts but the intervals had clearly helped with doing a hard 30sec - 1min effort and recovering quickly after it. overall I estimate an increase of around 15-20 watts for most times. A pb on beeley even in the rain and the wind certainly not im my favour seemed to back this up. Yet to have a real hard go up beeley, (one for nicer weather I think)