Exploring the gap between boredom and fear

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Re: Exploring the gap between boredom and fear

Postby Jack Hughes » 27 Apr 2012 07:25

Boris bike are fun. Just imagine you are in Amsterdam
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Re: Exploring the gap between boredom and fear

Postby Jack Hughes » 27 Apr 2012 07:32

Hard and strange week. Who would have that that standing up for 8 hours a day while battling TV's Roy Walker and Mr Chips doing catchphrase could be so tiring. Legs were sore from Saturday. Took until Thursday before I could think about running. Weather too grim for Boris bike

Feeling like I have put on half a stone, I managed to go for a run. Misjudged the
Map and did near 10k than 5k. Legs were heavy. Took half the time to warm up and the rest to warm down. Did try a quicker k but calf started to give notice that it was going to pull, so slowed right down again. Too many crowds in kengisngton by Harrods, so had to walk a bit. Probably not a bad thing.

Unable to speak this morning. Which will make this mornings meeting interesting.
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Re: Exploring the gap between boredom and fear

Postby sonofsammo » 27 Apr 2012 07:35

Jack Hughes wrote: Who would have that that standing up for 8 hours a day while battling TV's Roy Walker and Mr Chips doing catchphrase could be so tiring.

Is that a euphemism?
I've done DNF. I've done DNS.
The future is DNE :D

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Re: Exploring the gap between boredom and fear

Postby Jack Hughes » 27 Apr 2012 11:36

sonofsammo wrote:
Jack Hughes wrote: Who would have that that standing up for 8 hours a day while battling TV's Roy Walker and Mr Chips doing catchphrase could be so tiring.

Is that a euphemism?


Unfortunately not.

And I have the photographs to prove it.
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Re: Exploring the gap between boredom and fear

Postby Jack Hughes » 07 May 2012 10:28

Well that was nice

Another club run yesterday. This time the battleground was the lincolnshire wolds.

I fancied somewhere "flat" (mainly as I was getting a bad reputation as "the destroyer of socks" from Mrs Jon.e. And also it was my turn to drive.

The wolds aren't really flat - just rolling.

But the idea was to do a long, highish intensity, high cadence ride - and get a reasonably high average speed - a bit higher than a club rin speed (15mph).

The weather was cold and overcast, which meant no layers came off. But not waterproofs came on.

The wolds are a very pretty part of the world - probably most similar to Suffolk, but reminded me more of Northern France.

The secondary goal was to explore my knee and cleat position. This is something that has been troubling me for the last year or so. I've narrowed it down to cleat position rather than anything else. But it is very subtle. Pain only comes on after a couple of hours. So although I can change things - making educated guesses, I can't really tell if it is having a positive effect. So, my hard was to do a hardish high cadence ride till it started hurting. Make some adjustments, and see if I could make it hurt less. Or more.

One puncture - more of a pinch flat after I hit something in the road - might have been a pothole of some debris - didn't see it. Then a quick stop for some cake.

I was also experimenting with nutrition - with a choice of treacle tart, chocolate brownies, flapjack and bread pudding.

After 45 miles at about 18mph, we arrived at our lunch stop. The knee was hurting by this point. If it was toothache, you would have decided to go to the dentist.

While Jon.e got the fish and chips in, and beer, I fiddled around with the cleats. Too cold to stop for long, so we were off.

I started to suffer. Knee was still hurting - but had spread to the quad - felt a bit like the second before a cramp starts and the muscle goes into spasm. I thought the rest of the ride was going to be about damage limitation. And I wasn't sure I could even hang on to Jon.e's wheel. The elastic was certainly stretching.

The only strategy (as a complete absence of following cars, buses or trains, meant the only way out was to keep going), was to get on the front to slow the pace down.

Then I was completely surprised to find that Jon.e had gone out the bike.

Seems we were both paying the price for riding beyond our current fitness levels.

I took the opportunity to have another go at the clear position.

We set off again. And the difference was remarkable. I'm not sure if it was finally getting a cleat position that was comfortable, dinner kicking in and delivering some much needed energy, the fact that we had decided to make a beeline for home, or schadenfreude from the realisation that Jon.e was suffering as much as I was. We got over the only climb of the ride, then the weather and our spirits, and speed, picked up again.

Back to Jon.e's after 75 and a bit miles. Felt like I could have done a bit more after all - but always better to finish wanting a bit more. Terrific DOMS this morning.

Treacle tart was too sticky for a back pocket. While the chocolate brownie was fantastic, it got a bit crushed. The flap jack is good, but a bit dry. The bread pudding was perfect. Excellent mouthfeel and pocket durability. And tastes fantastic.

Just need to persuade the missus to make some more for next time.
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Re: Exploring the gap between boredom and fear

Postby jonathon.e » 07 May 2012 12:16

Great Ride Out.
Excellent Company,
Most Tastetastic cake,
Marvellous training gauge,fitness levels,bike position,sock durability.
Most problems rectified,such as the Middle East,fuel shortage,and political problems.

As Jack says,always better to finish wanting to do more.
Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.
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Re: Exploring the gap between boredom and fear

Postby sonofsammo » 10 May 2012 09:25

Had a feeling the treacle tart would be interesting!
I've done DNF. I've done DNS.
The future is DNE :D

http://www.justgiving.com/getbeatricemobile
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Re: Exploring the gap between boredom and fear

Postby Jack Hughes » 02 Jun 2012 13:08

Whoops! Forgotten to update this.

Anyway, Thought for today:

It's not until you get to compare with other people that you get real insight into your own behaviours.

And Strava is such a great tool for making comparisons.

I did a couple of, for me, unusual rides last week: taken car 20km up the ride to the garage, then riding home. Then reversing the process a few days later. So this was a utility ride. Meaning that it was about getting the job done. And i had other things to be doing So rather than working out a "proper" route, I just hammered it down the main road - virtually the same way as I would have driven, except for avoiding a bit of Dual Carriageway. I never really do this, and always get off the main roads, heading for the more scenic and interesting back lanes.

So I was a bit surprised to find a number of Strava segments. And very surprised to see that, instead of the usual handful of people, there were hundreds listed.

I noticed Katie Colclough's name listed a bit ahead of mine. And had a look at her route. All main roads, and even the dual carriage way.

Now this got me thinking. Riding up and down busy main roads is anathema to me. Uninteresting, undemanding, and unpleasant. Time for for a bit of introspection.

I consider myself fortunate to be equipped with the skills necessary to navigate my way off the beaten track. A childhood of outdoors, map reading, orienteering, lots of cycle touring etc means that plotting a route and navigating it is very much part of the fun. But I can imagine this isn't everyone's cup of tea - and, probably, many people would be stressed straying away from the comfortable signposted and well trodden roads.

Then I started thinking about training benefits. main roads are smooth and fast, and don't fatigue. Back roads are rougher, harsher and more tiring. but there is more.

There is a huge difference between the turbo and riding. On the turbo, you are sitting and pedalling. Very specific exercise.
But on a rough untreated road, you are "riding". This is a much more total experience - you are constantly shifting balance, you sit lightly in the saddle, using your legs to lift you slightly, as well as powering you forward. Likewise, the handlebars demand a lighter feather like touch - not something to lean on. In fact, what is happening, is that your are engaging a huge range of muscles, using core, back, shoulders, in subtle yet continually movement, as you adjust to maintain control, balance, comfort and put down as much power as possible, as road and gradients are continually changing.

So, if you stick to the main roads - although they feel fast, you are not much better off than being on a turbo. Riding rougher, smaller roads is much better for overall strength, technique and resilience. A good allover workout. And a lot more fun.
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Re: Exploring the gap between boredom and fear

Postby Jack Hughes » 04 Jun 2012 13:18

Don't you just like it when a plan comes together.

It is said that you should always have objectives for every session, and, thank's to Strava, it was easy to set them for this one.

I've switched focus from longer rides to shorter, more intense ones. Mainly to try to get over the knee problems on the bike. Having fiddled with cleat positions, and mainly doing around 1 hour rides, the time had come for a 2 hour go, again, to press it and see what would happen.

I've taken advantage of the long weekend to try to put a serious of quite hard (but short) efforts in. All based around the motivation of getting some "King of the Mountain" achievements on Strava, on both bike and run. I wimped out on Sunday; awful weather, and legs rather too achy from Friday's and Saturday's efforts. Went for a swim and a session in the gym. This went well, but I did aggravate the knee a bit by pushing too much on the leg press. Tut Tut.

Anyway, having had a look over some possible routes, I settled on a nice one. Some great (and popular) strava segments - no chance of getting a KoM in those - ridden by decent pro/amateur road racing cyclists, these - but there were three decent climbs. So the objective was to get PRs on each of these. The first one I've only ridden once before, so that was easy, but the others I've done many times before. So this would be both a good test of the knee, and a good test of fitness.

Anyway, with these objectives in mind, I set off. The only fly in the ointment (apart from the cold weather) was that the power meter packed in, just at the start of the first climb. Assume the battery is flat. Not to worry, this was about times, not about power, so more the hassle of getting it working again.

First climb: this is just up to the top of the first steep section of a climb. The road turns into some rough stuff, and another section which has just been covered in shingles, so wasn't going to push it on there. Terrific views of course. This short section is about 1.8km long, rising gently at first from 202m, till it peaks at 354m - a Cat 4 climb on Strava. The hill climbs on up to about 427m for a Cat 3 climb, but I wasn't pushing this bit.

Result was a time of 9:21, moving me into 2nd place on the leader board. Previous best was 10:34, so pleased with that. HR peaked at 152, so was working quite hard, for me (Max on the bike is around 158-162 for me).

Second Climb: This is the big one. On route, I discovered a very wicked on, which means doing that section in the opposite direction. Might see about that tomorrow. This is up a (reasonably quite) main road - from Hebden Bridge over to Oxenhope. This starts at about 87m and rises continuously for 6.8km to a height of 419m. This ranks it as a Cat 2 climb on Strava! The gradients are gradual - 8% for a lot of it, so the objective was to try to hit a cadence of about 80-85. Very pleased to get a PR on this one. It's a serious climb, because it took me 27m:50s. That's nearly half an hour of continuous ascent! Nice. This, being on the main road, is a very popular one. So my time was only good enough for 40th place. Kom is some 10 mins quicker. Still, my time was 10 mins quicker than the slowest I've done it! HR was at about 134 all the way through. This climb requires a steady effort.

Third Climb: This was the crunch, as the legs were doubly tired now. So very pleased to get a PR on this one. It feels flat compared to the previous climb, starting at 196m and rising to 290m. Again, the summit is a bit further off, but my way takes a turning before you get to the last bit. The climb is 1.6km, so ranks as a Cat 4 on Strava. Took me 05:59, a PR by a handful of seconds. Pleased with that! HR was 140bpm. Again, it's a steady effort.

Knee held up pretty well, although they did get rather cold.

Pleased with that - managed to stick to the plan - and made the objectives. Feeling a bit fitter too.
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Re: Exploring the gap between boredom and fear

Postby Jack Hughes » 18 Jun 2012 19:30

Not a lot happening last week or this.

Did a longer rise the other weekend. Ankle knackered as a result.

1 week or so on, Ankle is just not getting better. Going back to rehab exercises.

Been fascinated with Channel 4's Secret Eaters.
Inspired me to spy on my own eating habits.
Http://grubolog.blogspot.com

Will keep it going long enough to be representative.
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Jack Hughes
 
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