9 posts tagged “lancaster”
This year has been my first stab at time trials. There is something funny about time trials. It's you against the clock, adrenalin flowing, plenty of agony and a constant battle in the mind to squash negative thoughts.
I have completed three time trials this year. The first one was around Coniston. There I learned that a standing start is tricky, that it's a bad idea to eat scampi and chips 30' before the start, cycling the route before the race is a good idea and that riding a time trial was like banging your head against a wall, it feels better when you stop.
My other two time trials were at Salt Ayre cycle track. 10 miles evening ride around the newly resurfaced track. Good atmosphere, great mix of age, skills and no option for getting lost. My time of 27'12 and 26'47 are a start and hopefully a good base for next year.
I am going to turn my attention to Lancaster Cycling Club's Hill Climbs (Conder Bottom and Jubilee Tower). These present an interesting challenge, are litterally next door to me and are organised at a convenient time after work. I timed myself this morning on Jubilee Tower for the first time and as expected it's not pretty at 12'. (the course record as set by Ben Greenwood stands at 7'22s!). My plan is to ride Jubilee tower regularly between now and 11th September.
Blue skies, very little wind, no frost and early start of the day. Perfect conditions for a short but hilly ride to Jubilee tower and back.
Piccies:
Map:
Right... I will try to keep a log of the club runs on my blog from now. Blog that has not seen any updates since January. What a disgrace ;-)
Today was a group of about 10 people from the Lune. A good run that took us to Cockerham, Great Eccleston, Scorton (cafe stop at the Priory... mmmm.... beans of toast...), back north to Quernmore valley. I shortened my run as I turn left towards Lancaster leaving the group to carry on towards Caton and beyond. It's Easter Sunday after all.
A good ride with some sunshine, no rain/snow and some moderate wind on the Ribble.
Next week will be a ride in the Lakes with a route devised by Rick's friends. They have devised a route of 50-60 miles with many steep hills. Some sort of Fred Whitton training ride. I hope they're not too fast riders ;-)
More stats...
After seeking and receiving advice to the good people at acf with regards to cycling in unison with two adults and two young kids, we decided to try out the Tandem, Trailer bike and Trailer combo.
Our ride was short but hilly by comparison to last week-end's family ride to Glasson dock. The tandem and us coped very with the extra component added. To be fair, our eldest daughter did a super contribution doing her share of pushing. She got the hang of gearing down when going uphill. Our youngest daughter fell asleep on both journeys :-)
A great day out.
Here is the lovely view overlooking the river Lune:
Success.
We had a great few hours on the Tandem this Saturday. We set off from home just before lunch loaded with enough sandwiches to feed a battalion. We had the girls in tow in the trailer. We quickly learned to communicate our gear changes, freewheels etc... Something you take for granted on a solo bike.
So we were off to Glasson dock!
There We had a good picnic, cups of tea and coffee, a water bottle fight :-), ice creams for the girls and a pack of quality smoked streaky bacon from the Glasson Dock's famous smokehouse.
Then, we were off again towards Conder Green then on the NCN route 6 towards Galgate. One steep climb was done at a slow but steady pace. I was very impressed that we could got up that hill without walking given how much weight we were pulling.
At Galgate, we decided to take left onto the A6 until the Uni Campus and reach my daily commute route as we were not familiar with the route from Galgate to Quernmore (One for another day). A steady slog of a climb saw me sweating like a pig as well as huffing and puffing particular fashion :-) That said, again, we did not walk up hill. Very satisfying.
Total distance: 20 miles.
All in all tandem riding is turning out to be quite a revelation. We are already looking forward to the next ride.
The only minus points of the day were that
1. we have to find a way to accommodate our eldest daughter's wish to pedal rather than squeeze in the trailer. An experimental tandem + trailer bike + trailer ride is quite tempting.
2. It looks like I missed a good ride in the lake district with Allan, Glenn, Stu and Richard.
I have registered for the above event.
URL: http://www.pendlebikefest.com/ericwrightpedal.htm
6th of August.
"a large anti-clockwise sweep round the remote north-east
Lancashire countryside. It includes the climbs of Barley Fell,
Waddington Fell, Tatham Fell, Trough of Bowland, Longridge
Felland the Nick o'Pendle. Villages passed through include
Barley, Chatburn, Slaidburn, Wray, Hornby, Nether Kellett,
Quernmore, Dunsop Bridge, Chipping, Longridge, Sabden and
Roughlee."
Sounds great.
We might even be locals by then!
Yet another cool route mapping tool... Bikely.com
I have uploaded the short ride from last Sunday morning. A short but steep ride. Glorious sunny weather.
Pictures below:
Me and the girls are off to Lancaster next week. Two days dedicated to house hunting and three days at work. The week will be completed with a stop at Manchester for the National Squash championships.
In other news... snow in Oxford last Thursday. A rather rare occurence!
