Big Red Ride Report

Well, I did it! Last Sunday I completed 83 miles cycling from London Blackheath Hill to Eastbourne. The ride took me about 8 and a half hours total.

The ride was tough – a lot harder than I thought it would be and a lot harder than the 53 miles that I did on my London to Brighton ride.

The first 30 – 35 miles were fine. From around 35 miles up to I think about 57 miles it was ALL hills. Literally. I was either struggling up a hill at around 5 or 6 MPH or flying down a hill at around 30 MPH dodging oncoming traffic. Obviously it took a lot longer going up the hills than it did to come back down again.

After about 57 miles the ride was pretty good again apart from one steepish hill and Beachy Head which was a very long but not very steep climb. It was very tough though as it was right at the end and pretty much every part of my body was hurting by then.

The last mile or so was fantastic as it was downhill all the way right to the finish line. It was a real relief to finish.

I was very sore. My legs were sore, my knees were very painful whenever I moved them, my back, arms and neck were sore and could no longer find a pain-free way of sitting on my saddle.

At the finish line the Red Cross provided a masseuse who did help my back. We also got a goody bag with a medal in and a water bottle.

Honestly most of this ride was hell and wasn’t enjoyable. There weren’t that many people either and although I chatted to a few people for a lot of the ride it was just me with no other cyclists visible.

I am not sure I’ll do it again next year. Having said that I should be fitter and have lost more weight by then so it should be easier. I think I will do the London to Brighton Ride net year as it is fairly easy and I think very popular.

I did very well with my sponsorship and was the second or third highest fund raiser and raised a total of £530.

Many thanks to all the people who sponsored me.

This week I have not been cycling as I am still saddle sore. I am really looking forward to getting back on the bike next week though.

There are a few photos of the day here.

Exercise Time: 8:34:56
kcal: 5994
Distance: 83 miles
Average Speed: 11.2
Max Speed: 37.6
Ride Time: 7:18:56

London to Brighton

As it’s only 2 weeks to go before the Big Red Ride I need to rack up the miles a bit in preparation. Last week I did the Peak District Ride and although it was hilly and hard work it was only just over 40 miles.

As I wasn’t doing anything this weekend I decided to do the London to Brighton ride. This is a popular charity ride that many people take part in. I didn’t do the actual charity ride that was a few weeks ago so it was just me on Sunday but I did follow the same route.

The route generally wasn’t too hilly except for Ditchling Beacon at the end which is very steep, although no worse than the Peak District ride.

I did enjoy the ride but I was quite pleased when it was over. My legs did get pretty tired and were quite sore the next day. I also got pretty uncomfortable on my saddle at about the halfway point.

It has given me more confidence that I’ll be able to do the Big Red Ride but it has also highlighted that it’s going to be tough.

This is taken from the bottom of Ditchling Beacon. You have to climb all the way up to the top of those hills in the distance:

And the view from the top:

Total Time: 5:10.48
Average Heart Rate: 132
Max Heart Rate 169
Kcal 3366
Miles: 53.6
Average Speed: 12.9
Max Speed: 40
Ride time: 4:08.08

Evans Ride it – Peak District

Yesterday – Sunday 4th July I did another Evans Ride It event. My first was a few weeks ago when I did the Dorking Downs Run.

The last run I did was the short route, about 30 miles. This run was supposed to be 60 miles which is fairly close to the 80 on the Big Red Ride. If I could do 60 miles then I would be fairly confident that I could do 80. The routes for the Peaks were changed though because of the amount of climbing. The medium route was reduced to 43 miles.

I did think that maybe I could do the long route (about 68 miles) but I am very glad I didn’t.

For most of the route I wasn’t too bad. I had some energy bars and some energy drink which I think must have helped. Up to about 30 miles I was doing ok. There was LOTS of climbing – but mostly it was long not too steep climbs instead of short very steep climbs.

Despite the weather forecast reporting heavy rain I didn’t get rained on at all. The weather did have it’s part to play though and it was INCREDIBLY windy! At the top of one of the 2 huge climbs I actually had to pedal down the other side of the hill just to get to 15 MPH because it was so windy. The wind frequently pushed me off course when it was sideways.

The last 10 miles was really tough. There were a couple of climbs, the first was fairly long but not too steep. The second, in the last 2 miles of the route was short but it was really steep. For the entire 43 miles I didn’t walk at all but I did have to stop about 3 times on that last climb.

My legs were very tired at the end of the ride. I was expecting them to be very sore today but they were actually fine. In fact I broke my record for best time cycling into work today and I think I probably broke my record cycling back as well. I wasn’t really trying to go quick, I just didn’t hold back as I was last week in an effort to save my legs.

The fact that I was still able to cycle today has made me think that the 80 mile ride will be fine. I would like to do a 60 mile ride between now and then but I am running out of weekends. I’ll see if I feel like it this Saturday but it would be nice to just have a relaxed weekend this time round.

View Peak District in a larger map

Richmond Park

Today I worked from home so was deprived from cycling into and back from work! To make sure my graph keeps going in the right direction I decided to go for a cycle after work.

I finally made it to RIchmond Park. It’s a fantastic place to cycle – very quite, not much traffic, nice and open and it has deer!

It is also quite a challenging ride with some pretty steep gradients. The route I took was about 16.5 miles and a total elevation increase of nearly 1000ft. It’s right on my door stop so a good place to go for a quick ride then the weather is nice.

View Richmond Park in a larger map

Training / Sponsorship update

The sponsorship really is going so much better than I thought it was going to. So far I have raised £460 so thank you very much to everyone who has sponsored me.

My preparation for the sponsored ride is going pretty well. My main preparation is trying to lose weight. I am aiming to lose a total of 40 lbs over 2 months. You can see from this graph that I am losing weight, just not as much as I had planned! I tend to do well during the week but not as well at the weekends. Last weekend for example I was deliberately giving my legs a rest but we had a few meals out…

I’m not concerned though, as long as I still lose some weight that’s fine. what I plan to lose is only a guideline. I have lost a stone in the month since I started.

Chain Woes

Yesterday (Monday) I had another broken chain on the way into work. Luckily I had my new multi-tool with me that actually has a chain breaker on it.
I’d never done it before but I actually managed to fix the chain – kind of… I did manage to get the chain joined up but I had threaded it through the derailleur incorrectly. It worked but it made a horrible noise, then it jammed and didn’t work any more.

I pulled over to fix the chain again – this time though I couldn’t get it back together (I now know the trick of not pushing the pin all the way out). Luckily I was quite close to Evans Clapham so I walked there.
On the way the chain fell off the bike. It was knackered with at least 2 other dodgy links that  could see without even looking for them. I threw the chain away.

Evans opened at 8 and luckily they were able to supply and fit a new chain there and then. I was only about an hour and a half later for work in the end.

The shop did warn me that I might need a new cassette as it wears together with the chain. I didn’t have time for them to fit one in the morning but sure enough the chain kept slipping in the gears that I use most.

Today I bought a new cassette and had it fitted. I think the ratios are a bit lower than the ones I had which is annoying, if anything I would have liked higher. Apart from that the bike is working great again.

Dilemma – upgrade parts or new bike?

Today on the Dorking Downs run I had a few technical issues.

My front wheel bearing seems to have gone so the wheel knocked a lot as it floated around on the worn out bearings. This also meant that I couldn’t get the brakes adjusted very close to the wheel so the brakes didn’t work very well – which was a problem on the long steep descents.

I also had problems with my gears. Shifting on the front gears was not good at all – in fact it wouldn’t change down if I was putting any power through the pedals. Sometimes when I was just spinning the pedals and not actually pushing it still wouldn’t change. This was why I had to walk up one of the hills.
I’ve had issues with the gears before as well, slipping between gears, breaking the chain recently.

Basically I want a whole new gear set up and probably need a new front wheel to match my new rear wheel.

Other things I don’t like about the bike:

• It’s heavy
• I don’t like the old style brakes, I would prefer the disc brakes
• I think it might be a bit small for me

So basically I’m wondering if I should spend a few hundred on upgrading the wheel and gears on my existing bike or bite the bullet and go for a new bike.