http://connect.garmin.com/activity/173405940

Monday. Run. Three times round the Green 2.5 loop, for a just over 7.5 miler. Pushed reasonably hard, as knew I was only going to have time for a short one the following day (meeting my bro and his wife over from Miami). First time I’ve gone over 6 miles in a long time, but had no real issues. Kept the pace at close to my 10k speed, and got round averaging around 6.45 with a faster last half mile.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/173403864

Tuesday. Run. Short one as meeting bro’s + wives for dinner, so just planned to do 3 mile loops on the Green. First loop went fine, though legs a bit stiff from Mondays outing, as did the second loop (both easy sub-7 pace). However, was only about 100 yards into my third and final lap when my right calf/achilles decided to cramp up. Stopped to stretch it out, hoping it would go away, but no luck. Tried to jog on, but any time I tried to move faster than a brisk walk, the pain was worse. Toddled round the last lap (must finish!) in 10 minutes, swapping between walking and slow jog. Not looking good for running, but was hoping for no issues on the bike. Met J&J, M&S for dinner in the Chophouse, nice grub, nice wine and good catch-up.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/174165603

Wednesday. Cycle. Testing out the crampy-leg, was still a bit off (so no chance of running on it) but seemed ok to pedal. As I set out, had an issue with the gear changer – couldn’t get into the big ring, so as I’d barely gone anywhere and it was just before 6pm, took the bike back to Billy Bilslands for a quick check – turns out you need to add lube to the front derailleur bit or its gets stiff. Who knew? Anyway, got going again after an interrogation over where I bought my Edge 800 (how dare I not buy it from them! Those guys miss nothing, but couldn’t match the deal I got on Wiggle) and again found myself heading into a bit of wind. Made ok time to the halfway mark, hoping that I’d have a tail wind on the way back, so reckoned on getting a nice 18mph average. On the way back was getting tailed by a fellow cyclist, and after sharing a few stints in front, gave up on my target time as the lights were just not in our favour. My buddy was a German student, studying at the uni, and quizzed me on some routes he could take. Offered him what advice I could (I’m no expert, but told him of a few routes I’ve done with the LEJOG crew) before we parted ways. Ok ride in the end, and leg was fine, so no worries for the weekend.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/174164788

Thursday. Rest.

Friday. Cycle. About to head off down to Gelston (89 miles ish). Will report back on that ride and the Drumlanrig Challenge (Saturday) in the next few days.

There are beach bums, and there are land bums. We at BH are both. We’re devoted to several activities and milieus. But this time, our post is dedicated to the boys (and tough girls) who aren’t afraid of getting a little bit of dirt under their nails. Wrestling rocks, roots, dirt and sand through miles of twists and turns, challenging climbs, and steep descents in the middle of the woods is our idea of crazy fun.  And while there are several different types of mountain bike riding, we’ve rounded up a few of the things that are vital for all riders.

1. OUCH! Skulls and Bones Bandages – $3.99
2. Sidi America Dragon 3 Carbon SRS – $449.99
3. Giro XAR Helmet – $130
4. Military-grade Camelbak Hydration System – Call for price
5. Cannondale Scalpel 29′er Carbon 2 – $5300
6. Garmin Edge 800 Touchscreen GPS Bike Computer – $449.99

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/165187596 – lots of fun new data compared to my Forerunner 205 (HR, cadence & temperature)

Saturday. As the Friday test went ok (no screams from the knee) headed up to Bothwellpark (~18 mile round trip) to give the Edge a test on a proper ride, to see what my cadence is more than anything and to adjust my riding to get it higher (more pedalling/ minute in lower gears = same speed, less effort/ strain on the legs). Seemed to be mid-70s, the pro’s do 90+, so something to aim for, will try and get up to 80 average over the next few weeks.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/165540937

Sunday/Monday. Trip to Edinburgh and back again -  posted on the LEJOG blog.

Tuesday. Run. The 6 mile course has shrunk again, this time to 5.96 miles. Hoped to do a blistering pace, but found the legs not quite up to it. Managed a nice quick 6.29 for the first mile, but tired quickly and dropped to 7+ by mile 3. Guess a week of no running to rest my knee had not helped my pace. Had also worn 2 layers, as it seemed to be cold out, but found that once I got running, the extra layer was too much, and was sweating profusely by the end. Still, got round in a smidge over 41 minutes, so not so bad.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/167090159

Wednesday. Rest.

Thursday. Run. Legs feeling a bit off still, so decided to do a couple of 2.5 mile loops instead of the 6 miler. Achey muscles, felt as if I’d not done any running for weeks and the Tue outing was the first in ages. Most odd. Still, plodded round, with the drak clouds and threat of rain not coming to be.  Sub-35minutes, average moving pace of 6.42, so more like what I feel I should be going at.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/167614523

Friday. Rest.

With the Olympics coming to London and more and more people than ever keen to take to the roads, 2012 looks like it could be the biggest year for cycling to date. That’s why we teamed up with our bicycle and navigation partners Specialized UK and Garmin UK to offer the ultimate prize to get one lucky winner kitted up and out riding on some of Europe’s fantastic cycling roads.

The competition ran throughout November and December and we are pleased to announce the lucky winner is Danny Whiteside. Danny was selected at random from thousands of online entrants who successfully answered the question “On which bike did Mark Cavendish win the 2011 World Road Race Championships?“. The answer, of course, was the Specialized flagship road bike, The Venge.

The fantastic prize offered was a Specialized Secteur Elite 2012 road bike, a Garmin Edge 500 cycling computer and a week at La Fuga’s Cycling Academy in Mallorca in mid-March. The aim of the prize was to give the winner the essential equipment and the opportunity to put it to great use on the beautiful and challenging cycling roads in Mallorca.

The Secteur Elite is an entry level, affordable road bike but still offers design features, comfort and quality equipment found on models higher up the in the range. The Secteur Elite is a great bike for those who are keen to get a bit more into road cycling.

Add to this the Garmin Edge 500, an all round lightweight cycling computer recording everything from altitude to GPS location plus the ability to share your workouts online via Garmin Connect. The Edge 500 will give the enthusiastic cyclist who is keen to improve the right tools and information.

With the essential kit in place the next step it to get out and use it and what better way that on the La Fuga Cycling Academy. The Cycling Academy is a completely new approach to Spring riding. Specially conceived for new cyclists and riders looking to improve, our residential Cycling Academy is the perfect place to hone your fitness and riding skills. Over the week the focus is on high quality coaching and fully supported rides to take your cycling to a new level. Features of the Cycling Academy include fully supported group rides catering for all abilities, skills sessions focussing on areas such as descending and group riding, and seminars on key subjects such as nutrition, to really boost your all-round cycling skills and fitness.

Danny visited Specialized UK headquarters in Chessington, south west of London to collect his prize and was met by Emily Hamilton of Specialized and Cameron Fraser of La Fuga. Emily and Cameron also presented the fantastic prize offered by Garmin in their absence. Sadly, Danny had ran out of annual leave at work but he has generously gifted the Cycling Academy trip to a fellow colleague at BSkyB, Nick Dodds. Nick has been riding for a few years but a recent knee operation has meant that he has had to learn to cycling and train all over again. And what better place to be able to do that.

Thanks to everyone who entered the competition and stay tuned for a post-Mallorca write up.

Here at La Fuga we pride ourselves on our knowledge of the famous cycling roads of the world, of the stats of the mythical climbs around Europe. But as much time as we spend ‘reccying’ our routes, and preparing our rides, there are occasions when no amount of local knowledge can help. It’s at times like these that we bring in the Garmins.

This year Garmin have provided us with several of their GPS navigation tools, for the cars we are blessed with their Live nϋLink! And for the bikes we have the sublime Edge 800, both with full European maps. These help us in a number of different ways from start to finish in the planning, organisation and execution of a successful cycling tour.

We travel all over Europe according to their predicted drive times, we look for nearby hotels and restaurants with them on our extra long transfers, we even check guest flight arrival times using the Live mode whilst still in the car. The possibilities are seemingly endless when it comes to logistics and a Garmin, and logistics are perhaps the biggest part of what we do.

Take one of our Rapha Randonnées for example. These traverse very large swathes of either French or Italian countryside, tackling long epic climbs, but also weaving around the more quaint unknown roads. After deciding on our route we can then take along one of our Garmins and save the trajectory whilst doing the reconnaissance. Once the ‘reccy’ is over we can head back to base, download the files and iron out any mistakes or creases using the very clever mapmyride website.

This gives us exact distances as well as stats such as average gradients, total metres of climbing and detailed route profiles. We can then use these to plan simple things such as lunch stops. Looking at the route profile but also by judging the weather and looking at the forecast, we decide on where we should take our midday snack the next day. If the weather is bad we try to aim for somewhere mid climb so our guests are warm when they arrive and warm up quickly when they leave.

Once the mapmayride files are ready, we then transfer them onto our Garmin Edge 800’s. These very neat pieces of kit have tactile screens for ease of use and so many settings that I’m still quite a long way from discovering them all. As well as coming with heart rate functions and cadence and speed sensors, the Edge 800s are also compatible with your power meter allowing you to use just one display and keep your handlebars uncluttered. Although we go over each route again and again, having the route there in front of you gives you piece of mind as to where you need to go. The live stats they give are seemingly unlimited. Current gradient, temperature, vertical ascension speed, as well as all the regular ones let you know exactly what you are doing and how long you’ve been doing it for. Using the maps on descents is also very useful to warn the guests as to any sharp oncoming corners. A quick look down and a hand signal can make sure nobody comes into a tight hairpin too hot.

Even when we’re just riding for fun from our base in the south of France, we can head out in the knowledge that we’ll always be able to find our way back, no matter how badly we’re on our knees. Getting to airports, finding hotels, planning the next day’s transfers, the garmins are invaluable pieces of kit for us at La Fuga

Well, hats off to me!  Check this out.

Two different rides, 8 hours apart. Almost identical.

I know.  You can’t believe it either can you?  Remarkable really, but let’s do a little analysis to understand what makes this even cooler.  (Oh, don’t hesitate to click on the image to view the full resolution and then click the back button once you’re done).

On the ride in (right hand column) I benefitted from a 15 km/h tailwind.  Nice easy ride, spinning the legs continuously and not exerting myself too much.  This is evidenced by the average HR of 148 and a relatively low caloric burn.  The landscape changed quite dramatically for the return trip.  For the 45 minutes prior to me leaving the campus, I stared out of the massive windows and watched the rain smash into them, the trees lean dramatically in the wind and even the birds being tossed about somewhat.  I knew it was going to be a rough one.

Fortunately the rain stopped by the time I got onto the bike, but there was still a headwind / head-cross wind for the full 25 km back, but I was determined to put in a good show.  Elevated HR as compared to the morning clearly demonstrates that I did have to put in substantially more effort, but here is the fun part: my average speed both on the way out and on the way back was almost identical-  30.3 km/h vs. 30.2 km/h.  Naturally a lot of the other stats were almost identical as well, with the time it took me to come home being only 6 seconds slower than going to work.  To do that, however, my average HR coming home was 87% of max, which coincidentally enough was my maximum HR from the morning.  My max in the afternoon was 94% of max.  I also burned 100 more calories as a result.  Extra pie for me tonight.

I think this is a lot more interesting to me than to most of you, but if you’re a bit of a dork when it comes to these types of stats then I am sure you’ll get a kick out of it.  So stay tuned for some analysis on a real road ride soon.  Got to get some climbing in to really see the HR go up!

Ride safe.

If you check it out you’ll discover that my course as plotted on bikeroutetoaster ends on the return to Richmond Park. This is because BRT doesn’t allow you to backtrack along a course. It isn’t a major problem for me because I much prefer circular courses and hadn’t even discovered this limitation before – but what a pain when you do want to backtrack!

Emily and I met in North West London and cycled to the gates on The Mall where the Olympic route begins and ends. In no time at all we were on the Fulham Road where, opposite the Royal Marsden Hospital, we found a little cafe that served very decent coffee, good muffins and passable scrambled eggs on toast. The hot breakfast was extremely welcome but it wasn’t a complete antidote to the rain and the surprisingly cold morning.

The route continued down to Putney and across the Thames, where instead of turning right, as you probably would if you devised your own route, it continues on until the turn t0 Upper Richmond Road. Throughout most of the day we relied on the navigation cues from my Garmin to direct us. Fortunately, at this point we still knew where we were supposed to go because the Garmin course instruction was signalling Straight on at exactly the same moment as the Garmin navigation was telling me to make a U turn; the correct direction was to turn right. If you look, as I have since, at the Cue Sheet for the course I linked to above on BRT and zoom in a lot you’ll see that there’s some confusion around Putney Bridge that must have crept in when I created it.

Richmond Park and then Bushy Park were welcome breaks from the otherwise busy roads. As we pushed out into Surrey the theme of keeping to the most major roads available continued. In fact, the most notable feature of the route for me was the route that it wasn’t: you can cross London as far as Hampton Court by using quiet roads and the Thames path but the Olympic route takes the A roads; there are some lovely transitional roads leading from north Surrey to the Surrey Hills, which the Olympic route largely (but not quite completely) avoids; and the Surrey Hills themselves form one of the prime cycling areas in the South East – but instead the Olympic route takes the A25 that skirts to the north of it, just a block away from the pretty stuff. Obviously the Olympic route has to be fit for a large peloton to zip swiftly along, with the attendant caravan of support vehicles and Olympic-scale banks of spectators. The scenic route isn’t feasible.

Just after midday we arrived at the Wotton Hatch in perfect time for lunch. I know the pub well from years spent living in nearby Cranleigh and it was ideal: great food (excellent sausage and mash for me and spiced apple crumble for both of us) in a huge comfortable room that separates diners who want to turn up in smart clothes from scruffy bikers and cyclists in wet gear that demands drying over radiators and an open fire. We stayed for well over an hour, giving the rain time to stop for the afternoon’s riding.

Continuing into Dorking along the A25 and out via the A24 we came to Box Hill. This is the most noted section of the course since (1) it’s not on an A road and (2) it’s a hill. Getting off the A24 was most welcome and Box Hill is indeed rural (Surrey-rural would be more precise – there’s no danger of missing the cars that lumber up to the numerous car parks). The hill is very tame – I span up easily in my big chain ring; I slipped down to the smaller ring only once, and briefly, all the day on the earlier ascent of Newlands Corner (the beauty spot, also well provisioned with car parks, where Agatha Christie staged her own mysterious disappearance). To be fair, the Olympians will do the circuit around Box Hill several times to bulk up the miles and we only did it once. Even so, the second most notable feature of the route to me was how flat it is – I couldn’t image that you could cycle 80 miles and encounter so little incline. For comparison, the Glastonbury 100 miler, which was billed as “relatively flat”, had 4,300 feet of ascent compared to the 3,200 feet we climbed on this route.

Passing close to Hampton Court on the return I had a puncture. I was glad that it had come relatively late in the day and we shared a scone as I patched it.

In Richmond Park my BRT route ran out, as I knew it would, at the point where the route backtracks. With Garmin direction at an end, Emily, who cycles out to Richmond Park quite frequently, led us back a slightly different way. The Garmin had done well in navigating us. I had set it up to keep in view the distance to the next course point, which had been helpful. There were only one or two times when we’d needed to stop and check where we were being sent, and I did have to ignore it once when it directed me along a slip road onto the M25. Otherwise it was great and restored some of my faith in it after the recent schizoid conflicts I’ve seen between the Garmin’s courses and the corresponding navigation cues.

On the ride into London we encountered the absurdity of late Saturday afternoon traffic. Kingston was completely gridlocked and the Kings Road wasn’t much better. Cycling around the near stationary cars, I passed a black Lamborghini. With a deep feline growl it soon caught us up and overtook me before lurching to a more conclusive stop at the next phase of the car jam; I re-passed it and never saw it again. I don’t envy either police or motorists when the Olympics come to town.

Finally, we sprinted up The Mall to our course conclusion at the gates. I felt a little guilty, as I had all day, that I was not only on the faster bike (see what the Van Nicholas website has to say about Emily’s Yukon and my Astraeus – we’ll be posting our own reviews quite soon) but while Emily carried a pile of stuff in her pannier, I carried no more than a wedgie bag and water bottles.

From The Mall we cycled up to a Starbucks to have a reviving coffee. Upon leaving Starbucks I found that I had a second puncture. Stupidly, and for reasons too dreary to repeat, I was riding with a road-appropriate Schwalbe Ultremo DD on my front wheel and a GP4000S on my rear. The GP4000S is a great summer tyre but very prone to punctures in winter on crappy London roads. It’s punctured yet again today and after fixing it, again, this evening I picked an unbelievable number of glass and stone shards out of the as-yet-recently-unpunctured Ultremo DD.

Immediately after I’d re-patched my tube, Emily and I filled the nutritional gap left by breakfast, lunch and coffee with fish and chips. With our rides to and from the start we’d done over 90 miles of cycling so we’d earned our supper. For the record, the Olympic ride, ex getting to and from the start, scores 139 difficulty points. Although it’s not my preferred kind of ride, keeping to main roads with few hills made for a very enjoyable and relaxing day’s cycling that I could imagine doing again if I spent my weekends in London rather than Somerset.

My preparation was far from perfect. The weather has mitigated against much winter riding and I’ve lost form. A week last Thursday I was slower than I’ve ever been before on park loops and I’ve felt underpowered on all of my recent training rides. Last Sunday, feeling the lack of miles, I went out for a last pre-audax Somerset run. At the end of a long downhill I ran over some vicious black ice and came off. Fortunately, the Astraeus was okay. I didn’t break anything but have been sore since.

All week I’ve been in two minds about cycling 100 miles but by yesterday morning I felt pretty good about it. I drove down to the car park in Honiton in time for the 8:30 start to find a relatively small number of people picking up their brevet populaire cards. On an audax the route isn’t signed or marshalled and your progress is validated by getting your card signed at a handful of control points. Also, there are “information control” points at which you have to note down the answer to a question that’s apparent if you’re there (the name of the pub on the bend, the signed distance to Langport…).

The cliche is that an audax is a cheap sportive – the cost of entry to this one was £5.50 – and I was keen to see if it had a different vibe. The fact that there were only 30 or 40 people participating was one major difference. The bikes, cyclists and gear were otherwise ostensibly similar, except that there were a few more touring-oriented bikes, some with bar bags, and in place of the race numbers zip-tied to their handlebars several riders had their route sheets attached in waterproof covers.

At sportives, riders are released in batches to avoid too much road congestion near the start. Yesterday’s start was much simpler. The organiser announced an optional route change to avoid the worst of the ice and then one guy asked if it was okay to go yet, and then – when told it was – he bolted off and we all followed. We were soon on the A30, which, being a busy road, was the section of the route I relished least. To my surprise, I found that the guy who went off on his own and I were setting off at a faster pace than the others. I checked my Garmin and my speed was normal. Even more surprising, my temporary co-leader was riding a very low-geared fixie. While I can’t imagine riding my Tempo (with its 48×16 gearing) around Somerset, the much lower ratio on his customised Charge looked interestingly manageable. Proving the point, another rider on an even lower-geared Genesis fixie came past us. Up to this point we’d been mainly cycling uphill: these fixies would face a different challenge on the descents.

With the Genesis rider a few metres ahead of us we came to Churchinford. I know this area well and was aware that the next section of the route would lead us to a sharp shady downhill that had every prospect of being iced over. I presumed that this was why an alternative route had been proposed, but since the arranged alternative involved staying on the A30 for even longer, that held no appeal. However, I had no appetite for coming off again, especially so early on in the ride. Instead, I drew on my local knowledge to make my own diversion. Leaving the Charge and Genesis guys, I struck off on a route that I knew would be a bit longer but would keep to better lanes.

Although I had my route sheet, I was intending to rely for navigation on a combination of my knowledge of the area, boosted recently by a couple of targeted weekend rides, and my Garmin 800. Unfortunately, I discovered a new feature of the unit to add to those that I documented previously. As I wrote then, the navigation directions the Edge 800 shows for the course are provided with the course definition rather than derived by the Garmin. The training courses I’ve created on bikeroutetoaster come with these navigational cues. However, the gpx course file provided by our audax organiser did not.  This doesn’t seem to be a feature of the gpx versus the tcx protocol but an artefact of how the files are made. Courses created on the fly on the Garmin from prior rides also lack navigation cues. The upshot of this is that I didn’t have any course cues as I cycled round. I knew better than to rely on the dynamic route instructions determined by the Garmin – if I had I’d probably still be out there now. Instead, at times when I was unsure of where and whether to turn I consulted the route sheet – which I found to be excellent.

Apart from the reduced number of riders and the lack of signing and marshalling, the next difference between an audax and a sportive on the road was evident at the first tea stop. After missing it initially, I discovered that it was at a real tea shop in North Curry. It was as fabulous as it was tiny and I had a delicious slice of marmalade sponge and a large mug of tea for the cyclist special price of £2. After my diversion, a few more riders had caught up by this point and the organiser, who had driven ahead, was seated and signing brevet cards. I gathered that the hill I’d bypassed had indeed been icy.

From here, there were many miles of cycling through the Somerset Levels. I’ve only relatively recently done much cycling in the Levels and I have mixed feelings about them. While it’s a contrast from the usual hills – the Levels really are level! – it’s a bleak and sometimes windy landscape. But yesterday it allowed me to settle into my own thoughts, uplifted by swans and the odd heron resting near the dykes, and get some miles under my tyres. A pair of riders whom I’d seen at the cafe came up to me, chatting as they cycled, and gave me a brief feeling of participating in an event before they fell back. The only others I saw were a quartet of young guys who passed me at a fair crack. I kept up with them for about a mile but they were too fast for me to stick with.

I ran into them again at the next stop – a cafe in Glastonbury, where the staff signed our brevet cards. The Genesis guy was there too tucking into beans and egg on toast, and the Charge guy pulled in soon after. I nursed a mug of tea and the two ham sandwiches I’d brought with me and read The Independent for a while as the Charge guy left. I also replaced a contact lens, having lost one as my eyes streamed in the cold wind 15 miles earlier. The temperature never broke zero, though wearing a base layer, bib tights, shorts, a winter jersey, a soft-shell jacket, winter gloves, two pairs of socks and a woollen hat I never felt too chilly.

Leaving Glastonbury, it was good to be on the return stretch. The Astraeus is getting increasingly comfortable and is perhaps at its best on these longer distances. Now that I’ve done over 500 miles of varied cycling on it I’ll post a review soon. Although the pedals still turned easily, I was glad that It was only a 100 mile run. The remaining events of 2011 organised by the same club run to 200, 300, 400 and even 600 miles. On the longer ones I gather than riders grab a few hours kip on a floor somewhere en route. I’m not that hard core.

By the final control – the Duke of York at Shepton Beauchamp – I was already in Hill Farm House territory with a very familiar ride back towards Crickleaze. The Genesis and Charge guys were having a drink and a roll in the pub. I simply got my card signed and called Paula to arrange a mug of tea, a banana and another ham roll to be brought out to me as I passed close to home. On the drag up the hill at Crock Street, Genesis guy merrily cycled past me. Soon after, I was chatting to Paula and Zoe who came out to meet me, bearing snacks.

The final 15 miles was the most difficult. There was no signature climb – nothing comparable to a Dunkery Beacon – but the rolling hills were a constant challenge to tired legs. The four young and fast riders whom I’d last seen at Glastonbury flew past me again, one of them riding yet another low-geared fixie. As they cycled up one of the steeper hills ahead of me he snaked up the road to leech some of the gradient out of it.

Approaching the endpoint – the Awliscombe Inn – I saw the Genesis guy cycle away from it, having finished already. In the pub the organiser was taking the brevet cards from the four lads, who were the only other people to have made it to the end ahead of me. The Charge guy arrived quite soon after. My sense is that audax riders are less hung up than some of the keener sportivistes about their times, with the placings being irrelevant. I bet the organiser doesn’t even publish them, which is very civilised.  At the end I felt relaxed and in no worse shape than I had been the previous night. My average power output (188W) was a bit low but reasonable for January and my average cadence (63 rpm) and heart rate (154 bpm) are bang in line with my norms for this sort of ride. On the climbbybike Difficulty score the route rates 175 – below each day of the Tour of Wessex, the 2010 Tour Ride and, of course, Haleakala but above all of my other rides from last year.

Today would have been a much better day for it – crisp and sunny as you can see in this self-portrait.