Writing a reply to Wychy’s earlier comments about frame geometry, I remembered I was going to check www.ribble.co.uk to see if their road frame differed from their Winter/Audax frame (the one I own).

Looking through the table of figures I find the 56cm and work through the values, noticing the top-tube length is 58.. um.. what? 58cm? That’s not.. But.. I.. um.. measured it already and it was 56cm.. err.. wasn’t it?

I remember looking at this table before I bought the bike and thinking “56cm square = cool” but now looking at the table I reckon I’ve read from the wrong column(s)! A1 instead of A and read across to a top-tube of 55.8cm, thinking “fine” when in fact I should have been seeing 58 and thinking “no no no”.

I rush over to the bike with the tape measure, rub my eyes and look.. 58cm.

Frickin’ hell! Fifty EIGHT not Fifty SIX like I thought. No fricking wonder I’ve always felt over-stretched and suffer from sore arms!!

Ribble 7005 Frame Geometry:

A A1 B D a? b?

46 50 53.5 400 75 72

48 52 54 400 75 72

50 54 55 400 74 73

52 56 55.8 400 74 73

54 58 57 400 74 73

56 60 58 400 74 73

58 62 58.8 400 74 73

Today’s club run involved rocking up to Denham 45min early (me = dumbass) followed by a short (1.5hr) outbound trip, a long (1hr) coffee stop and then a fast, hilly return to Denham with a ‘grrr’ super-speed return-to-Ealing chaser. It didn’t rain after all and sitting at 45kph with the tailwind along Uxbridge was cool. Sitting on 55kph drafting a car was even more fun.

Distance: 118k

Outbound HRavg: 125bpm

Return HRavg: 144bpm

Preparation increased for this 10 miler – I rode the Ribble to work so it didn’t feel totally foreign to me like last time.

Getting to the circuit was fine and with someone else’s helped I numbered up – 17 this time, starting sooner.

It wasn’t until I made my way onto the track that I noticed the hideous wind, hitting me straight in the face going up the longer hill to the start line. My HR was over 160bpm just crawling up to the line! In my typical defeatist fashion I dismissed all hopes of beating my last time of 28:18 and actually regretted paying ?3.50 just to set a slower time.

Chatting to Ed before the start, he’d brought out Louis(?) who’d done a 24(?) in his first 10 last weekend. What’s with all these fast TT’ers? Maybe training on the bike rather than in a pub is the difference?

I left the start line quickly and actually managed to slow myself down this time, vowing not to blow up in two laps. After the downhill sweeper, the wind was painful again up the short sharp hill but then it was big gear time all the way down the back straight. In the later laps I was holding the same high gear all through this until rounding the corner on “awcrap!” hill and gearing right down to spin up it.

I wanted 2:15 per lap and the first was 2:45. Damn. But, after 4 laps I was under 5min, ie. beating 2:30 per lap which was still faster than my last attempt. I kept ahead of my last 10mi time for the whole ride, even with the harsher conditions. On the final lap I didn’t gear down and pushed through until the finish line to set a new best of 27:20. Almost a minute quicker than my last ride and in harder conditions – a 26 should be easily obtainable with no wind. I must have been well out of redline this ride as I not only managed to calculate lap times and the fact I was up, I even managed to ride the correct number of laps!!! Carl would be proud..

Update:

Using the Polar software to compare these the two TTs, it’s apparent that my HR doesn’t alter more than a few bpm between the races, even though the second week is a minute faster and the wind stronger. At some points my HR is actually dead even. Is this training benefit derived from the previous TT? Less nerves in the second race? Something else?

Distance: 10.23mi

Avg. Speed: 35.8kph

HRmax: 192bpm

HRavg: 178bpm

T’was a normal work day after a mental two weeks preparing for our user group (almost got my weekly hours done in two days!). Fixie to work (the sun really brings out the dopes in London). Had I thought about the TT, I might have ridden the Ribble. It was only because I’d previously written in my diary about a 10mi TT around the Hillingdon circuit that I even thought about it. Plus, Ray had told me you don’t need a BCF license to do TT’s.

Once home, I googled and found the Westerley event started at 7.15pm, which I could still make. Called Mal and she was finishing at 9pm, so I didn’t even have to feel guilty about not seeing her (she moved in on Sunday and due to work I’d seen less of her this week than when she lived in Hanger Lane!). Changed, inflated tyres and scooted out the door on the very odd feeling Ribble.

Odd? Apart from the fact it freewheels, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m too stretched out on this bike. My arms had killed me on the last two Willesden club runs and the bike feels ‘loooong’ compared to the track bike. Thing is, I used to get pretty low on a 56cm frame with similar length stem, so what gives? Seat-tube angle is not as steep as the Peugeot so perhaps that’s the culprit? It makes me feel like riding the tops when I should be on the drops. My hands got pins and needles from the drops during the 10mi and this sort of thing never happened on the Pug.

Anyway, the “race”. ?3.50 to ride and I was 23 out of perhaps 28 riders. Number on the back and on the right arm so the time-keeper can work out who the hell we are. Starting order was registration order and riders were off in 1 minute intervals. The course was 11 laps of the 0.93mi Hillingdon circuit (10.23mi).

For the benefit of any aboc’ers who remember me, yes, I lost count and did 12 laps!!

I finally met Ed from One More Cup of Coffee who’s blog I stumbled across ages ago (I think because it mentioned “Ealing” and “cycling”?) and who’s progress I’ve been following to the point that I felt it necessary to join Willesden CC too! Unfortunately he registered after me which meant I was under serious threat of being passed by him! I’m actually not sure if he went by or not?

As usual, I went out too hard and was suffering on the second lap. The tiny ‘hills’ on this 0.93mi course conspired against me and turned my lard arse to a lactic arse. I made the mistake of taking a mouthful of iso drink on lap 3 because my mouth was so dry and this punished me for laps 3 and 4.

As 22 riders had gone off before me I was regularly passing people which probably gave me a false sense of speed and definitely made me work harder than I would’ve liked when going up the bumps past another rider.

I really should put more emphasis on “yourself” in “pace yourself!”.

Spinning away as I prefer to do I kept trying to gear up and drop my cadence to see if it helped. It did sometimes and other times I died in the arse. Around lap 8 I had to let go of the drops and ride on the hoods because the pins and needles in my hands were so bad.. after 8mi??.. told you something wasn’t right!

10(.23)mi time? 28:18. About 34kph. Not good, but not bad, especially given my lead up to this first race and, really, you wouldn’t want to set an unbeatable time on your first outing would you? 🙂

Ed did 25min as you can read here. Ed, I’m sure if you took the red ‘go faster’ helmet off you’d be a good 3min slower.. I reckon skinsuit and lack of bidons counts for the other 19 seconds 😉 😛

Out until 3am. Have a cold so I ‘dressed up’. Turned into a warm day so I was now overdressed.

Usual suspects. We lost Ray in the Wendover garden centre cafe.. I reckon he’s still wandering around there looking for the toilets!

Parade in Little India (Southall) and a strong easterly wind cost me and Serotta-guy extra time getting home.

Out:

Duration: 2h 51s

Distance: 64.2k

HR: 128/170 (avg/max)

Speed 23.4/58.5 (avg/max)

Ascent: 545m

Back:

Duration: 2h 53s

Distance: 64k

HR: 132/182 (avg/max)

Speed 23.9/45.9 (avg/max)

Ascent: 300m

“Imagine the fastest rides that you do ? racing or training. You are on the rivet, eyes glued to the wheel in front as tiny rivulets of sweat sting your eyes. Now imagine upping the pace by about another 4mph or 5mph and staying there for about 100 miles.“

Full Article: cyclingrevealed.com – Flahute and “The Lion of Flanders”

No, this isn’t another alcohol-overdose-body-part-failure “thing”. I’ve just returned from a Prime Coaching session on the Hayes/Hillingdon/Whatever cycle circuit.

It took about an hour to cruise from pOxford St to the circuit. I was a bit late and missed all the instructions so I just latched onto the nearest group and rode around in a double-paceline for a few laps until the speed went up and our group shattered. Then it was just four of us doing some reasonable laps for most of the session. Then we tired and joined another bunch which I then surged away from in typical ‘twat can’t hold pace’ kinda style. I kept going, my ‘breakaway’ failing a lap later. I rejoined and in the end there was just two of us belting around passing everything in sight.

Turns out the other guy, ‘Stewart’, has a blue Ribble almost the same as mine even down to the blue bar tape and red tyres. He was a sprinter (running) and is now cycling with his partner Tracy. Lindell was there again although I didn’t see what she got up to. She did say she was going to be more ‘bold’ next week – lookout! Suzz (short for ‘Surendra’ I now know) was there, as was Brian and Ray (the punisher from the turbo session). The clubrooms were packed with other people I don’t know yet. I’d skipped the arm-warmers again and had to haul arse on the way home to stop from freezing! Fsck it was cold.. my toes took a good 15min to get feeling back! Reputation as under-dressing fool… re-established! 🙂

Some fat scrag was sitting on my fixie when I came out of the Co-op on Pitshanger! WTF?! Oi parents! How about you keep your filthy, stinking premature ejaculations the fsck off my streets and my bike! The little slags screamed off onto a bus before I could use their faces to clean my chain but.. next time..

While I’m amped up.. moto man this morning gets arsey when I pull up to his right at the lights..

“You think your faster than me do you?”

“Yes” I replied without even thinking about it.

*moto man shakes his head*

I’m not even clipped in and he still can’t get around the cars in front before I do. It takes him a kay before passing me and I still catch up with him again. He turns off.

Now, what’s the point of strapping an engine to a frame if some cocky Aussie fscker can waste you sans-engine? Sure, if it was the Polish nut job I raced up Castlebar Rd. he would’ve kicked my arse but that’s not the point.. the point is.. ah whatever.. brain too blurry to care.

It’s official(ish).. I have joined a new cycling club. Willesden Cycling Club willingly accepted my ?20.. even if it wasn’t one of the new notes.

The details are sketchy: On-site with a client at Reading, no lunch, but scoffed a portion of the ?13 of “sweeties” that Sarah bought, whilst sitting for an hour on the train. Thought session started at 18:30 and arrived home at 18:15 so was just going to rock up and pay the membership. Discovered later the session starts at 20:00. Had time to drink a glass of water and chew the end off a block of cheese (Sheila would be proud) in a half-witted attempt to stave off the sugar-crash I was likely to be suffering soon. Changed, remembering to fit the vital Knee-Warmers of Everlasting Vital Signs, and road off into the sunset.. to Wembley and the clubrooms where the punishment is dished out.

A picture speaks 1000 words so here’s my heart rate graph for the session – translation? 1000 x “pain”:

For comparison, here’s a HR graph of a Glenvale Criterium from 2005

The first time my HR has gone over 200bpm for a long time methinks and over 26 minutes (almost hald the session) in the red! Now I know I was pushing hard, to impress on that first magtrainer date and all, but damn! I must be unfit. Of course I’ll put it down to having a body built like a Honda S2000 – “revs out to 9 grand mate!”. By the time I’d joined and chatted about titanium Colnagos and custom TT frames it was 22:30. No dinner, no breakfast and a late lunch.. I’d say I’m feeling it but surprisingly I’m amped, if staggeringly dehydrated, still.

It’s good to be back!

I now have showers at the Oxford Street office. I rode to work. I is happy.

Today’s ride began with a hurried departure after spending an hour watching the oven clock.. the only clock NOT adjusted for daylight saving last night.

Uxbridge Rd. was dead and I arrived with 5-10mins spare. Most people rocked up to the Denham start after me anyway. A ‘group’ of three rolled off for the short ride to Staines, the Quest lads rolled off for god-knows what and then we left, a dozen strong. Lindell(sp?) was back after her name change from Linda. 😉 Mike was there, Sas/Sus (I’ll get it right when I see it written down) was there. The ride leader (might be called Martin?) in his white top and beanie, Brian the chairman met us later. There were a couple of new faces – backpack guy and the Scottish bloke and maybe the younger-looking dude in the black.

The ride itself headed to Marlow and was another groovy ride through the back lanes west of London. As another rider pointed out, somone must have too much free time to be able to find all these little roads, lanes and even unpaved err goat tracks!

I know we passed some shooting range or pheasant hunt around Knowl Hill, I think we rode through Maidenhead, there was talk of a “Winter Hill” but I’ve no idea if we got near it. We certainly did end up at Marlow and the town and surrounds look beaut – very “English”. The clouds had disappeared by then and riders got in on the striptease at the cafe stop. I was actually warm on this ride (the shame!) with undershirt, vest, arm warmers and full legs. Even carried a head warmer, just in case it decided to snow again!

Skipped the fried stuff again in favour of a choc muffin and coffee. Discussed bikes and pedal systems until Lindell’s eyes glazed over. Brian told me to make it to the Thursday session at the track.. I said “I’ll try, work is busy” and then appeased him by telling him I would join Willesden CC. 😉

The ride back involved more back lanes, lots of horses and a headwind. I felt better this week than last although my left shoulder is aching for some reason. I need to work on positioning again methinks as something is obviously different to my old setup – I’ve never had arm issues before. I’m not used to riding on the hoods for so long – I’ll give it more time and see what develops. Ride total was a bit longer than last week 119k but this is offset by a total lack of commuting. Showers are working now apparently so I’ll be knocking down jay-walking peds quicker than you can say “Oxford Street shopping is for suckers”.

Out:

Duration: 2h 51s

Distance: 68.1k

HR: 138/171 (avg/max)

Speed 25.3/52.4 (avg/max)

Ascent: 380m

Back:

Duration: 2h 17s

Distance: 51.7k

HR: 147/180 (avg/max)

Speed 24.9/45.4 (avg/max)

Ascent: 265m