Got back from Spain/France this afternoon and finally got to post the entries below. Had a bit of a downturn in training after last entry. Was distracted in Nerja talking cycling tactics with Alex-across-the-road. Well, that's my story. To be brutally frank, think I was distracted by the vino blanco and good company (thanks Deirdre!). Then distracted back in Obeilar by the arrival of Trusty Ironman (having located his whereabouts!) and companion. I will post a photo of TIM (Trusty IronMan) discussing cycling tactics by the pool and up the hill. Then SERIOUSLY distracted by the arrival of a cough/cold virus which took me by storm for 5 days. Still, I managed to endure the passenger seat all the way home (luckily my coughing kept John awake whilst driving all the way back!). And managed to avoid the really steep hill Coach had planned for me on the last day!
Just been next door to the Vortex to catch up on Beth's training. She is doing a sterling job despite getting wet and lost in Surrey! Hoping to go out this weekend......
Thursday, 1 April 2010
There are 20 more miles in them thar quads!
I cannot believe that me, a typically lazy Leo (we were born to sit in the sun and sleep!) went out again today!! Woke up with slightly tired quads but the knowledge that those hills are there to be killed. We rode up to Tocon again – it feels very familiar now. Which is a good thing in a way. I know when to expect the upflats but then I can really enjoy anticipating the down hill sections. Actually, in all honesty (and displaying the symptoms of addiction that PHD warned about), I kind of enjoyed the whole thing today! Ssh! Don’t tell Coach Pattison. It was very satisfying to get over my natural disinclination to go out at all on tired legs. And knowing I’d done all of the route before meant I knew I could do it again.
Had another chain-off event...almost at the same spot as before. I think I get in a bit of a tizz about the hill looming ahead and become a bit enthusiastic with the gear changes! John tells me next time I put the chain back on myself. Harsh, Coach, harsh!
So, another 20 miler! Yaaaay!
I am confidently expecting a day off tommoro but then experience tells me to expect nada!
Had another chain-off event...almost at the same spot as before. I think I get in a bit of a tizz about the hill looming ahead and become a bit enthusiastic with the gear changes! John tells me next time I put the chain back on myself. Harsh, Coach, harsh!
So, another 20 miler! Yaaaay!
I am confidently expecting a day off tommoro but then experience tells me to expect nada!
Introducing Brad......
After 20 miles on Saturday, 15 miles on Monday, I had assumed that a day off was on the cards. Huh! Never assume anything with an Ironman, unless he has left the bikes firmly at home!! Still, I could see the sense in a ‘recovery’ ride (actually, I must get John to define exactly what he means by that! ). Also it would be mad to come out here in such ideal conditions and not make the absolute most of it. Plus, we are going to visit Alex-across-the-road and Deidre in their apartment down on the Spanish coast on Thurs so there will be a definite lack of cycling then. Or is John planning to take the bikes there too? Has he told Alex-across-the-road to pack his new bike to bring to Spain? Am I getting a tad paranoid???
Anyways, whatever, I found myself (with John) just moseying along the bottom of the valley/plain what have you. Nice, no hills or undulations. Just miles of road and a decent cadence. Again for the uninitiated I would like to explain the term ‘cadence’. Only I am not entirely sure what it is. The instructor used to go on about it in spin classes at the gym. I think it’s the rhythm and speed that your legs spin when cycling. I kind of know when it’s going well but couldn’t tell you how I got there!
We encountered some really rough road surface, big holes and lots of gravel. Whilst worrying that my bike would be damaged I thought ‘what a star’ it is because it came out pretty much unscathed. This got me to thinking that I should christen it – well, we all love to humanise things, don’t we? Ok, I love to humanise things! So I decided on Brad. Because my bike is VERY good-looking and an absolute star! Plus it’s probably (who am I kidding....definitely) the only time in my life that I will be able to tell people, truthfully, that I have been out and about with Brad.
Funny what you think about when you are cycling. Although I suspect I should be thinking about road conditions, looming terrain and cadence.
Update: apparently cadence is the pedals revolutions per minute. Now aren’t you glad you know that...? Ideally I should be averaging between 85-95 rpm. How would I know?
Anyways, whatever, I found myself (with John) just moseying along the bottom of the valley/plain what have you. Nice, no hills or undulations. Just miles of road and a decent cadence. Again for the uninitiated I would like to explain the term ‘cadence’. Only I am not entirely sure what it is. The instructor used to go on about it in spin classes at the gym. I think it’s the rhythm and speed that your legs spin when cycling. I kind of know when it’s going well but couldn’t tell you how I got there!
We encountered some really rough road surface, big holes and lots of gravel. Whilst worrying that my bike would be damaged I thought ‘what a star’ it is because it came out pretty much unscathed. This got me to thinking that I should christen it – well, we all love to humanise things, don’t we? Ok, I love to humanise things! So I decided on Brad. Because my bike is VERY good-looking and an absolute star! Plus it’s probably (who am I kidding....definitely) the only time in my life that I will be able to tell people, truthfully, that I have been out and about with Brad.
Funny what you think about when you are cycling. Although I suspect I should be thinking about road conditions, looming terrain and cadence.
Update: apparently cadence is the pedals revolutions per minute. Now aren’t you glad you know that...? Ideally I should be averaging between 85-95 rpm. How would I know?
Big hills, no spills!
Monday dawned bright and beautiful – which is just why we wanted to come here to cycle! So we piled the bikes in the car and headed up to a spot somewhere a long way away! The first part of our ride took us back to near Tocon. It was even more hilly than I had done so far but I am getting better at selecting gears and engaging patience. As long as I just keep moving forward (and upward) and do not expect speed then the hills seem to get climbed. Haven’t got to employing one of John’s tactics yet – which is to mutter ‘I will kill you hill’ all the way up! Perhaps I will save that for steeper climbs.
It is so quiet on the roads around here. I guess it’s the time of year. And it’s amusing to note that we are out in minimum clothing. I don’t mean speedo’s and bikini , obviously. But only light layers and shorts for John rather than leggings. The Spanish cyclists we encounter are all wrapped up in long leggings and winter clothes! They must think we are very hardy! I did wonder – do you think they dream about going to UK to cycle in cooler weather? Mind you, they are very stylish with their peacock colours and designer styles. Makes me think I must look into smartening up a bit! Especially as I suspect Alex-across-the-road will cut quite the dash as far as clothing is concerned. Beth, I feel a shopping expedition coming on!
Apart from my chain coming off (panicking about the impending hill coming back into Illora!) this was a wonderfully uneventful ride. And I was aghast to find we had cycled 15+ miles! Who’d have thought it? Just a few weeks ago a 7 miler on the mountain bike was my upper limit.
We cycled back to our villa and John then headed off for his own cycle taking the long route round to get the car. He seems to be managing quite well with the splinted digit.
It is so quiet on the roads around here. I guess it’s the time of year. And it’s amusing to note that we are out in minimum clothing. I don’t mean speedo’s and bikini , obviously. But only light layers and shorts for John rather than leggings. The Spanish cyclists we encounter are all wrapped up in long leggings and winter clothes! They must think we are very hardy! I did wonder – do you think they dream about going to UK to cycle in cooler weather? Mind you, they are very stylish with their peacock colours and designer styles. Makes me think I must look into smartening up a bit! Especially as I suspect Alex-across-the-road will cut quite the dash as far as clothing is concerned. Beth, I feel a shopping expedition coming on!
Apart from my chain coming off (panicking about the impending hill coming back into Illora!) this was a wonderfully uneventful ride. And I was aghast to find we had cycled 15+ miles! Who’d have thought it? Just a few weeks ago a 7 miler on the mountain bike was my upper limit.
We cycled back to our villa and John then headed off for his own cycle taking the long route round to get the car. He seems to be managing quite well with the splinted digit.
Two weeks in Granada
I am writing this offline as we have no internet access where we currently are in Spain. Will find an internet cafe and cut and paste it sometime this week.
Well we finally got down here after what felt like an endurance event in itself! Three days driving constantly was....long. We crossed on the Eurotunnel as it was Finn’s first trip and we didn’t want to leave him in the car on the ferry. First night we stopped at a great chateau in LeMans, lots of walking acreage for Finn, lots of nice wines for us! J’adore France! Next night we made it to Burgos in Spain. Unfortunately our hotel was in the centre of the city but it was next to the very beautiful cathedral. A bit of a trial to get to and not ideal for stopping over with a hound. Nevertheless we had a good time and finally made it down to Granada on Thursday afternoon.
This is a lovely area, all mountains and olive groves. Very Spanish too – not a great deal of tourism which is really refreshing. Though our Spanish leaves a lot to be desired, John’s Portuguese does help a bit. The weather was good enough on Friday for John to go for a 40mile ride. He came home raving enthusiastically about the inclines and fantastic road surfaces. I could hardly wait to get out there!
So Saturday, after dog walking and chores, we headed out together. John had identified a good route for me. It was great to be out on the bike again after a whole week off. The drivers here are very respectful of cyclists and give a wide berth. The road up to Illora is a long, slow incline which I was very pleased to have managed. Slowly but surely. Then great undulating road for 6.6 miles to Tocon. Lots of wheeeeeeee downflats and some nicely challenging (for me) upflats. John made me smile. It was not much of a challenge for the Ironman, obviously. But he made his own fun. First by selecting big gears when cycling uphill. Secondly by not pedalling at all between two villages – a distance of some good few km. He made even more fun for himself on the return leg. See next paragraph!
He was ahead of me as we entered uphill into a small village called Alomortes. He pulled over to look back to see where I was and leaned against a lamppost. Not thinking ‘safety first’ he didn’t bother to unclip his feet from his cleats. (To the uninitiated these are medieval type devices which keep ones feet clipped on to the pedal. One has to master untwisting oneself from them in an emergency). His front wheel slipped and he tumbled sideways. Not a massive fall for an Ironman but in a freak accident his hand hit the tri-bar on the front. I saw him fall and by the time I got up the hill he was asking a passerby where the nearest hospital was. I caught sight of his middle finger on his left hand and it was bent at a 45 deg angle and pretty gruesome looking. Just then a paramedic turned up (how lucky are we with our rescue angels – see last blog entry). He tried but failed to manipulate it back into place so there was nothing to do but cycle the 6-7 miles back to the villa to collect the car. The paramedic had told us to go to Granada hospital which was good to know!
Even with a dislocated finger (and the shock he must have felt) John still beat me to get home. Mind you, I guess he was well motivated! Though I did pedal like mad which was surprising as going up the hill before the accident I was very tired and thought we’d just amble back! Huh, it was full-tilt all the way.
Still we made it and spent a challenging afternoon negotiating Granada city to find the hospital. Then the challenge of being unable to speak Spanish in the hospital. Luckily John’s injury spoke for itself (and being the finger it was looked like he was giving some kind of displaced insult to all and sundry). He got pretty prompt treatment really. Three people tried twice to put said digit back to its original blueprint. Eventually a trauma specialist came and did the job. Lots of serious pulling and wrenching and a massive splint and bandage later, we were back at the villa. Phew. What an adventure.
So in the last month the man has had two injuries with pretty silly causes...the rugby Irish jig calf strain and the stationary fall dislocated finger.
Anyway the really good news is that the total distance of our ride was 31km! So I have cracked the 20 miles. Fantastic!
It’s Sunday today and wet. So we are resting up after a lovely drive out into the countryside. Beautiful around here, so it is. We have a wood burning fire lit (its still cold in these villas at the mo) and plan to spend the afternoon planning tommoro’s ride. And reading.
Well we finally got down here after what felt like an endurance event in itself! Three days driving constantly was....long. We crossed on the Eurotunnel as it was Finn’s first trip and we didn’t want to leave him in the car on the ferry. First night we stopped at a great chateau in LeMans, lots of walking acreage for Finn, lots of nice wines for us! J’adore France! Next night we made it to Burgos in Spain. Unfortunately our hotel was in the centre of the city but it was next to the very beautiful cathedral. A bit of a trial to get to and not ideal for stopping over with a hound. Nevertheless we had a good time and finally made it down to Granada on Thursday afternoon.
This is a lovely area, all mountains and olive groves. Very Spanish too – not a great deal of tourism which is really refreshing. Though our Spanish leaves a lot to be desired, John’s Portuguese does help a bit. The weather was good enough on Friday for John to go for a 40mile ride. He came home raving enthusiastically about the inclines and fantastic road surfaces. I could hardly wait to get out there!
So Saturday, after dog walking and chores, we headed out together. John had identified a good route for me. It was great to be out on the bike again after a whole week off. The drivers here are very respectful of cyclists and give a wide berth. The road up to Illora is a long, slow incline which I was very pleased to have managed. Slowly but surely. Then great undulating road for 6.6 miles to Tocon. Lots of wheeeeeeee downflats and some nicely challenging (for me) upflats. John made me smile. It was not much of a challenge for the Ironman, obviously. But he made his own fun. First by selecting big gears when cycling uphill. Secondly by not pedalling at all between two villages – a distance of some good few km. He made even more fun for himself on the return leg. See next paragraph!
He was ahead of me as we entered uphill into a small village called Alomortes. He pulled over to look back to see where I was and leaned against a lamppost. Not thinking ‘safety first’ he didn’t bother to unclip his feet from his cleats. (To the uninitiated these are medieval type devices which keep ones feet clipped on to the pedal. One has to master untwisting oneself from them in an emergency). His front wheel slipped and he tumbled sideways. Not a massive fall for an Ironman but in a freak accident his hand hit the tri-bar on the front. I saw him fall and by the time I got up the hill he was asking a passerby where the nearest hospital was. I caught sight of his middle finger on his left hand and it was bent at a 45 deg angle and pretty gruesome looking. Just then a paramedic turned up (how lucky are we with our rescue angels – see last blog entry). He tried but failed to manipulate it back into place so there was nothing to do but cycle the 6-7 miles back to the villa to collect the car. The paramedic had told us to go to Granada hospital which was good to know!
Even with a dislocated finger (and the shock he must have felt) John still beat me to get home. Mind you, I guess he was well motivated! Though I did pedal like mad which was surprising as going up the hill before the accident I was very tired and thought we’d just amble back! Huh, it was full-tilt all the way.
Still we made it and spent a challenging afternoon negotiating Granada city to find the hospital. Then the challenge of being unable to speak Spanish in the hospital. Luckily John’s injury spoke for itself (and being the finger it was looked like he was giving some kind of displaced insult to all and sundry). He got pretty prompt treatment really. Three people tried twice to put said digit back to its original blueprint. Eventually a trauma specialist came and did the job. Lots of serious pulling and wrenching and a massive splint and bandage later, we were back at the villa. Phew. What an adventure.
So in the last month the man has had two injuries with pretty silly causes...the rugby Irish jig calf strain and the stationary fall dislocated finger.
Anyway the really good news is that the total distance of our ride was 31km! So I have cracked the 20 miles. Fantastic!
It’s Sunday today and wet. So we are resting up after a lovely drive out into the countryside. Beautiful around here, so it is. We have a wood burning fire lit (its still cold in these villas at the mo) and plan to spend the afternoon planning tommoro’s ride. And reading.
Saturday, 13 March 2010
Tyred but happy!
After Monday's cycle the cold virusy thing I'd been brewing really took hold and I spent the rest of the week feeling a bit poorly with a version of the rotten cough that John has. So no cycling until today. And, yippee! Our first 'group' outing! Well, John, Beth and myself. Alex-across-the-road had to work and goodness knows where Trusty Ironman is at this stage. Anyways, the three of us set out with intentions to cycle for an hour and a half. It is good riding with other people and Beth's new bike is certainly very, very shiny! However, forty minutes into the ride the shininess didn't disguise the fact that she had had her first puncture. Blah. Coach took this as a teaching opportunity and we paid rapt attention as the inner tube was changed using with the help of those 'blue things' (tyre levers). But it was not to be and the tyre would not pump up. Was it the pump that was faulty? Only one way to find out.....John hot-pedalled it back home to fetch the car and the foot pump. Beth and I stood hanging out along this side road when a van pulled up with N Tyres written on the side. Wow! We thought for a moment that John had sent a rescue service to us! It transpired that it was the Universe sending a tyre angel (well, that was my interpretaton, of course. Other people may consider it just a happy co-incidence. How boring.). Nick is a very nice guy who tried to pump the tyre with a very sophisticated piece of gadgetry. But, again, it was not to be, must be a faulty valve. Still, we got to meet a very kind man who restored our faith in tyre fixers....not that our faith in tyre fixers was at a particularly low ebb, but you know what I mean! Plus he wants to cycle LEJOG this year too! Co-incidence? I think not. So, our Irish tyre angel returned and changed the tube again. Bless him. We stayed in the car trying to thaw out a bit. Then hopped back on and cycled some more. John passed us and offered chocolate from the window of the car. This bodes very well for his ability to support us on the long trip, I feel.
Because of time pressure after the delay we only cycled just over an hour but it was good fun, even with the tyre shenanigans.
This week John and I are heading off to Spain in the car for a couple of weeks. We have the use of a villa in Granada (thanks R & T!). We have the bike rack, we have Finn's passport and are looking forward to some sunny cycling.
Because of time pressure after the delay we only cycled just over an hour but it was good fun, even with the tyre shenanigans.
This week John and I are heading off to Spain in the car for a couple of weeks. We have the use of a villa in Granada (thanks R & T!). We have the bike rack, we have Finn's passport and are looking forward to some sunny cycling.
Monday, 8 March 2010
monday update
It's been a while since last post mainly due to ill health. Saturday before last John sustained what he poetically termed a 'rugby injury'. In fact he pulled a muscle in his calf whilst celebrating Ireland's rugby victory over England. He was attempting an Irish jig. Badly, it turns out. Then he got knocked out by a virus of some kind (karmic payback, I suspect, for telling porkies re the calf injury!). He is still coughing over a week later. I have had a version of same tho I have not made too much fuss about it!!! So following the accepted advice that if the symptoms are below the neck not to train, then we didn't. Until Saturday when the lure of my new saddle was too much to resist. How sad is that? John came out too clutching the allen key for minor adjustments. The saddle is amazing! I will try and post a photo so everyone reading this (all 2 of us) can appreciate it's beauty. Tho to fully grasp it's value you really need to ride on it for 16km or so. No soreness! Except in my arms which might indicate another minor adjustment will be necessary.
In the meantime Beth has ordered and taken delivery of her new beastie. She also has a blog which is www. le2jog.wordpress.com. So do pop over there and give her some rousing support. We should start riding out together this week with a bit of luck and good weather.
Today I took off on my own for another 16km ride. I had to almost physically restrain John from joining me. He is going stir crazy with the lack of exercise but is still sore-throated and coughing and really should not risk wind and cold invasion! And although he tells me it's not a matter of speed I was pleased that I did the trip 2 minutes quicker than we did it together on Saturday! I think he was of the opinion that I should just have gone further. Blah.
Must mention latest joinee of this trip.....introducing Alex-across-the-road. I believe he has already done some cycle trips (London to Brighton and one other which I will find out more about in due course). So it's two women and two men. Nice yin yang balance to that I think.
In the meantime Beth has ordered and taken delivery of her new beastie. She also has a blog which is www. le2jog.wordpress.com. So do pop over there and give her some rousing support. We should start riding out together this week with a bit of luck and good weather.
Today I took off on my own for another 16km ride. I had to almost physically restrain John from joining me. He is going stir crazy with the lack of exercise but is still sore-throated and coughing and really should not risk wind and cold invasion! And although he tells me it's not a matter of speed I was pleased that I did the trip 2 minutes quicker than we did it together on Saturday! I think he was of the opinion that I should just have gone further. Blah.
Must mention latest joinee of this trip.....introducing Alex-across-the-road. I believe he has already done some cycle trips (London to Brighton and one other which I will find out more about in due course). So it's two women and two men. Nice yin yang balance to that I think.
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