Short Tour

I'm heading off for a short tour through the Peak District, down to my Mum's then on to Jayne's Mum's. Hopefully I'll do a daily diary here http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1r4vFZo&doc_id=9582&v=F

Not sure how far it will be, about 350 miles I think.

Cheers

Tim

Mixed Week

Its been a bit of a mixed week.  I had to go down to Bristol mid week, so didn’t get a full week’s riding in.  To top it off the fire alarm in the hotel went off  on Wednesday night.  By the time I’d woken up and got some pants on, it shut off.  Then, by the time I was back in bed, it went off again.  Repeat four times in the next hour.

I then had to drive home Thursday.  I was knackered and there was an accident.  What usually takes 3 – 3 1/2 hours took 5.  I didn’t feel like a ride Thursday evening.

Yesterday, was wet and I spent most of the day fitting STI gears to my Ribble.   I got some second hand Tiagra Shifters from Karl.

I’ve re-wrapped the bars in the original tape.  I’ve got some of that fancy Fizik tape, but I’ll wait til I’m sure the shifters are in the right place before getting Ian, who is a whiz at bar tape, to do it for me.  (see below)

I’ve got some cable stops attached to the downtube bosses.  I’ll need some frame protectors on the headtube though.

Finally, the rear cassette is a Taigra 9 speed mounted on a 7 speed freehub.  To do this, I’ve missed off the last but one cog, so it is an 8 of 9 on 7.  ie an  8 speed cassette that works with 9 speed shifters.  Its a bit clunky in one or two gears but otherwise great.  Need to try it out.

Now bar tape!  Earlier this year my friend Simon was entered for the Paris-Roubaix Sportive.  Unfortunately a few weeks before the event he had a massive crash, bashing up both himself and his bike.  I went round one weekend to help him fix it up and amongst other things we re-wrapped the bars with gel pads and new tape.  It took us ages, wrapping and re-wrapping until we were OK with the results.  Simon went of to Roubaix.  The bikes had to be scrutinized before being allowed in.  Our brake, gear, amateur headset pressing etc all got the OK, but not the bar tape!  The mechanic insisted on re-doing it and in about 30 seconds had unwrapped and rewrapped the tape to a far higher standard than I have ever seen.  I was shamed.

Today was Fleetwood Triathlon, which my friend Tim organizes.  I am roped in to manage the bike course again.  This means making sure the roads are closed and the junctions all have marshals as well as keeping an eye out for drafting and for riders in distress.  Its quite a tough day in some respects, especially towards the end when we are trying to open part of the road, but still keep the short course for the kids closed.  Some people can be very difficult.  All in all it went off OK and I managed to ride 42 miles on he 4 mile course.

Not my best week, only managed 92 miles, but still OK.  Does mean my shortfall increases though.

Cheers

Tim

Well on the Way

I’m definitely getting better.  Went to the fracture clinic last week and, although he said 4-5 more weeks before I’m back to normal, I can resume all activities.  Think I’ll lay off the MTB for a bit though.

Got some decent miles in at last.  The week before last was very windy and wet but I managed to ride most days and we did a couple of rides at the weekend.  We hit the best weather window on the Sunday, riding mostly in sunshine and a strong breeze.  By mid afternoon the wind had picked up and the rain started.

Monday was supposed to be the Tour of Britain stage into Blackpool.  I decided, despite the strong wind, to ride out to Oakenclough for the King of the Mountain spots.  I was blown out at an easy 20mph on the back of what turned out to be 40-50mph winds.  Getting to the first KoM point in plenty of time, I watched the marshals set up for a minute then decide to ride on to the Harris End KoM point about 4 miles up the road.  By the time I got there these marshals were busy tearing down the KoM signs and said the stage had been cancelled!  I carried on over the fell and chatted to some other spectators.  Those with suitable technology had been checking the blogs and twitters and yes, the stage was cancelled.  I rode back into the fiercest wind I can remember for a long time.  I think they made the right choice, it was hard to keep straight and riding in a bunch would have been a nightmare.  It took me twice as long to get home as it did to get out.

The rest of the week was the normal commute to work.  I did a brief spin on Thursday but the core team are still out in Verbier.  We struck lucky again with the weather on Sunday and rode out to Scorton in the best sunshine all week. 

All in all two good weeks

124 miles and 157 miles

Year to date – 4255

Shortfall – 488

Cheers

Tim

That’s More Like It

I’ve actually got some proper miles in last week.  Just riding to work in the main.  Monday was a public holiday but the weather was awful.  I did a quick 25 mile ride in the pouring rain with Joe and Simon.  My first fast-ish ride for 4 weeks.  It was OK but my arm ached by the evening.

No-one was up for the Thirsty Thursday ride, so I did a short spin on my own.  Met up with a guy with a knackered front mech, helped him fix it and rode for a bit.

Saturday was a wash out, but Sunday was a glorious sunny day, one of the best all summer.  We went out with Karl and Alison and their young neighbour who had just got a new bike.  His longest ride previously was about 5 miles.  Our 30+ miles was quite an expedition for him, but he managed.

Total for the week – 111 miles

Year to date – 3486

Shortfall – 539

Tim

On the mend

I’m slowly getting better, I can now bend my arm up pretty much as far as I could before.  I can straighten it in some planes but not in others and I can’t rotate it or put too much pressure on the muscles in my fore-arm. It still hurts and I still need to be careful.  I have been able to get out on the bike at last though.

Monday, Jayne and I rode out to Bonds for an ice cream.  It ended up being the nicest day of the week weather wise and about 16 miles was just right for my first proper ride.

Tuesday we went up to the Lakes, just mooching around the shops.  Wednesday I had to stay in to get new faster broadband switched over.  Waited in all day, they finally did it at 3:30.

Thursday we did a lot.  Jayne and I rode out to Barton Grange in the morning, stopping for a nice cake.  26 miles covered.  Then in the evening me and Jamie rode to the Plough for me to initiate him into Bomber and Garlic Chicken, which he enjoyed.

Not done much since, mostly reading.  Just finished Embassytown by China Mieville.  Very weird and hard going in places but always good.  I’v also just finished Simon Morden’s Theories of Flight, second in the three part Samuil Petrovich series.  Set in a post apocalypse London of the near future, it offers some thoughts on science, society, AI and politics.

Miles for the last 4 weeks:

0

5.5

5.5

60

Total for the year so far 3375

Shortfall – 535

Cheers

Tim

Still Healing

My knee is healing pretty well, just the deepest of the cuts still scabbed over. It still hurts if I kneel down, but otherwise OK.

My elbow is also much better. I almost have full movement back but it aches. On Saturday I tried to do some DIY and while trying to push a cable back into a clip, my arm spasmed and locked up for a second. Apparently I went white for a bit. Afterwards it was OK though. My little finger and ring finger go a bit tingly if I do too much.

I rode out to the pub on Sunday evening. It was OK apart from the right turn into the pub when I tried to look over my shoulder and only had my left hand on the bars. It seems I can't control the bike with my bad arm.

It was Jamie's 18th birthday on Sunday. Can't believe my youngest is 18! Got him an xbox and guitar hero. Spent most of Sunday trying to get xbox Live working through my router. How non-IT people cope with these things I don't know. It took all my knowledge to get it going.

Anyway 5.5 miles for the week. At least its something.

Zero Miles

Still recovering. My arm is much better, although it did lock up completely on Saturday night. I can now bend it enough to be able to touch my face, so I can almost eat normally. I can't put too much pressure on it still, so cutting food is a bit of a problem, but manageable if I take my time. I thought my knee was healing nicely, a lot of the scabs are already coming off. However, the main deep cut feels very tight. I did some DIY yesterday and couldn't kneel down without it feeling sore. This morning I managed to open up the worst bit getting out of bed. It didn't start bleeding, just cracked the scab open. I'll have to see how it goes. Probably another week off the bike though.