Ride slower to ride faster and longer?

Seems counter intuitive but I’ve heard about “zone 2 training” from a few places. A friend mentioned it last night and said how it was really improving his cycling ability, so I’ve decided that I’m going to try it and see for myself.

The basics are that you do regular rides, keeping your heart rate to about 60-80% of your max. This teaches your body to burn fat instead of your glycogen reserves, and builds “slow twitch” muscle fibres which are used vital to endurance events.

There are much better and more in-depth explanations on line available by a quick google search, but this one is written in plain english and doesn’t go into excessive details.

I tried to keep my heart rate down below 138bpm on today’s 26 miler, and to my surprise I managed to do it, even on the hills. Thank you granny gear!

 

 

 

I’ve said before, I don’t mind riding in the rain. In fact, I quite enjoy it, so long as I’m wearing the right gear.

But hail? That’s a different matter!

Today’s 26 mile ride was punctuated periodically by the sky turning into a barrage of skin stinging, grip reducing, resolve sapping ballbearings made of ice.

I kept pulling up the buff from my neck to protect my face, but the few exposed pieces of skin around the bridge of my nose and where the cutouts of my helmet failed to give my scalp any shelter felt like a thousand icy needles had been playfully shot at me from a peashooter.

Luckily the worst assault was reserved for my final couple of miles home. I made it back into the warmth to quickly change out of my wet, icy clothes and into something dry that raised my skin temperature back to near comfortable levels.

Still, better that I get used to this kind of thing. I understand that one of the stages in last year’s LEJoG was into a strong headwind with heavy hail for much of the way. Does anyone know if some kind of kevlar armour for cycling exists?

 

 

 

Not the best picture of me ever, agreed.

 

At least it wasn’t windy, but my first ride after the excesses of Christmas was a tad soggy.

This photo was taken at the top of Bleadon Hill, in a cloud.

 

I’m a fan or riding in clouds. I find the cool drizzle refreshing without the sharp needle sting that proper drops give to cold cheeks as you speed down a hill. Not that I sped anywhere much yesterday.

 

My beautiful wife baked several batches of cookies, cupcakes and assorted yummy things for the festive season, which I was honour bound to help consume. Plus I got a cold just before Christmas which has been sat on my chest for a week, so I decided to take everything easy and just put a few miles on the clock.

 

I found a good route that I’d not been over before too, following Roman Road from the top of Bleadon Hill and then back down Canada Coombe. That will be lots of downhill fun in the dry, but was quite hard on the brakes in the slippery conditions and I wasn’t going to take any risks with the visibility so low.

 

If you’re interested in the ride details, see the link below.

What a great ride home.

Yes, it was pouring with rain.
Yes, it was pitch black.
Yes, it was only a few degrees above zero.

BUT…

There was a lovely tailwind of about 20mph which helped me on my way along the long, straight roads across the Somerset levels in a new personal best time of 1h24m!

I also gave my Rab Drillium eVent jacket it’s first proper downpour test, and can report that it handled the conditions very well. Some slight dampness on the items in my pockets, but no leaks in the main body, or through the high collar.

My feet, however, were a bit soggy, but I think this was more from sweating inside the neoprene overshoes.

Today I planned to cycle from my home, up onto the Mendip Hills, dropping back down into Cheddar before heading up the long drag of the Gorge to the top of the Mendips again, over the top through Priddy, down into Wells, over to Glastonbury and on to Bridgwater. I’d then pick up my motorbike from work and ride that home, leaving the bike safe.

 

Luckily the high winds of the past few days had dropped and, even though it was cold and overcast, the sun was trying to break through as I left the warmth of the house. It stayed relatively pleasant until halfway up Cheddar Gorge, which was where the icy rain started to fall. From that point I couldn’t wait to get to Glasto and grab something warm.

 

Have you ever cycled the NCR3 between Wells and Priddy? I almost gave myself a heart attack going up it in the past but I’d never tried a descent before. I can honestly say I have never been so nervous on my bike, as the road just kept dropping away, with fresh rain and mud smearing the surface. If it hadn’t have been wet and cold I’d have worried about my rims overheating from the continuous braking!

 

The lure of a bacon and egg butty was too strong though and I made it back off the Mendips safely and into Glastonbury, only to find the main street closed for a street market, with horse drawn carriages carrying Santa, The Holly King, The Oak King and a variety of other randomly weird characters around.

 

After munching the greasy goodness and giving my frozen toes a few minutes to recover I was back on the bike, with the rain starting to ease off as I made my way along the ridge to Bridgwater.

 

 

Tonight I thought I’d try something different, and this was the result.

 

I followed the Nigella recipe but I’m not sure it went quite right.

 

There didn’t appear to be enough mixture in each muffin case, leading to the sponge not filling them after baking, either that or the self-raising flour was a bit old.

 

Either way, I dutifully sliced the top off create a flat surface and made up some buttercream icing, using some yellow gel dye to create a pleasing colour.

 

Have you ever used a piping bag? I hadn’t, but I’d seen it done a few times, so I gave it a go. Not bad for my first attempt I reckon.

 

I’m not sure I’m going to try selling them though as they’re not the best looking cakes in the world, even though they taste very good.

 

I do love my Spaniel, but sometimes it would be nice if she wasn’t quite such a Spaniel!

 

She disappeared off the edge of the Strawberry Line this morning and I heard some splashing, then finally saw her swimming around in the black, stinking mud edging the railway track and the cow field next to it.

 

My no-longer-white Spaniel swam back to the edge but couldn’t get enough purchase on the muddy bank to haul her wet, putrid ass out. This meant I had to clamber down the slippy sides and fish her from the bog. She thanked me by having a good old shake, to share the exciting new smells with me, and I walked her back to the car covered in muddy splashes.

 

I got her back when we got home though, tying her lead to the car and hosing her off with cold water.

What a beautiful morning!

 

I saw the sun rise over Glastonbury Tor, but couldn’t stop to take a photo as I was driving down the M5.

 

If you were interested, this is the kind of thing I saw.

 

After a pretty stress free day at work I changed into some warm cycling kit, got the bike out of the car and cycled into the growing darkness as the cold rain started to fall.

 

 

 

I know most people won’t understand this, but I really enjoy cycling in the dark and don’t really mind a bit of rain, so long as I’m wearing the right gear.

 

The added bonus was the strong tailwind, which meant I was holding around 18mph most of the way home and gave me my best time ever over the route.

 

Thankfully, I think I’m getting bitten by the cycle commuting bug again, as it’s only going to get colder, darker and wetting in the coming weeks.

 

After the success of selling my banana bread at work a few days ago, I’ve just baked another two. Just waiting for them to cool so we can do some “quality control”.

I resisted the lure of the snooze button and got my ass out of bed early this morning, so I could spend a couple of hours in lycra before a day in the office.

 

My garmin says that the minimum temperature was just over 2°c, so I was glad I chose the bib tights, base layer, ShuttVR jersey and Gore Bike Ware Phantom jacket over the top, plus a fluorescent gilet to complete the look.

 

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