Reliable Reliabilities

So its February, and the reliability not-races have started again.

Last weekend 7th Feb was the East Antrim CC trial, nice enough weather and on decent roads. Fast pace at the start with a tasty tailwind the whole way round... till we turned into it and it was headwind time. This was slightly mitigated by the fact that we took in a 3-4 mile descent down into Glenarm which was just awesome. If it had have been drier I think it would have been faster and more awesome-er.

Yesterday was the Maryland Wheelers Trial. Man, this was fast. I reckon an average of about 24mph+ over the course of around 70 miles.
The big boys were fairly hammering the pace. I felt fine till the P-stop... then something happened, either riders went on or something.. but it left everyone chasing like hell to get back on. Including me.

Right into the red-zone, then couldn't settle properly till we hit the climb at the horsehoe bend in Castlewellan, always fun weaving through those going backwards on it.
More fast paced stuff right up to the tea and sandwiches stop.. with blustery crosswinds forcing echelons.
The ride went on in this pace till Saintfield where it turned onto the John Moore race course... then I got blew out. Nothing left in the legs at all.
I'm putting that down to a number of things:
- I had a hard club run the day before
- I had a bit of a sniffle
- I ate the wrong food
- It was nigh on impossible to eat at the speed we were doing
- I was on my winter bike

Pick an excuse.. any excuse :-)

Anyways.. this weekend is the Phoenix CC (my club) reliability trial.. and a summer bike will be out to play. I reckon that alone will drop about 5-6 pounds of weight that I don't have to muscle up a hill.

Feeling somewhat toasted today!

This is the saddle thats been on my winter bike for the past 6-8 weeks now. I've pretty much been testing it out for Paul @ Wiggle. (Mine is the black one..)

I have to say it really is an excellent saddle. I previously had a Specialized Toupe on there and this replaced it. And it replaced it very well! I would say it took about an hour to get settled on it properly and get the height tweaked a little.
But once that was done, its been all good. I guess the best thing I can say is that I haven't actively noticed the saddle because it hasn't hurt, it hasn't rubbed, it hasn't slipped and its been damn comfortable.

That's *damn* comfortable throughout all the random riding I've been doing too. Because its winter training time, the time spent in the saddle has been longer and at a slower speed so you tend to notice things more. Also it has been subject to some time trial efforts (yes I know.. shouldn't be doing them at this time of year) on the way to work and also a few interval sprints (yes.. shut up.) ending in my slapping my arse on the saddle fairly firmly.

The only downside to it, is that it could be a little lighter. Its coming in at 240g+ whereas a Toupe is about 160g so near 100g difference.
I don't think I'd put it on the race bike due to the weight, but for training and winter... its pretty much perfect.

Would I buy it? Hell yeah. Great saddle, great price... only minor downside is that its a bit heavy. Of course... I could just lose some weight.... hmm.

Spending time going nowhere

But at least we tried to do it fast.

Yesterday myself and the boss-man were off to a meeting in Dundalk so demo some of the work we've been doing over the past while.
Journey there was fine till we hit Newry, then it was tailback city. Eventually got through this, made it on time and did our thing.
All good. Then we started to head home, and got caught in more traffic again in pretty damn rotten weather.
An hour later we made it through and started making a bit of progress again... then I was home and that was pretty much it for the day.

Not a terribly exciting story. The reason I'm waffling about this is that while I was sitting in traffic I could see some fantastic looking scenery that was around the Mourne area with lots and lots of rolling hills and some mountains. Where did I want to be? On my bike, pulling faces, while climbing up the mountains. Not stuck in the damn car.

The Newry and Mourne area is home to one of the best amateur races that runs during the year, the Newry 3 day. This is the type of race that makes everyone riding it feel like a semi-pro, even just for a few days.

Its got police escorts, rolling road closures and all the good stuff that makes you feel like you are a pro for a day.

I rode this last year, and while I finished in mid table obscurity I had some great rides in it and some standout sections, like when I rode a TTT trying to bring back the break on the first night so our GC guy wouldn't lose too much time, like when I attacked off the front on the second day taking the GC guy with me to get him a gap and then spectacularly blow up to get dropped on the next climb, only to get back on during the descent.

Well... stand out moments for me anyways :-)

Anyways, the basic upshot is that I had some nice daydreams when busy going nowhere.

Friday.

Been a long week. A *really* long week.
Busy busy in work trying to get some iphone stuff tidied up and also in some of the services work I'm doing at the moment which is pretty full on and tiring. But its Friday... so this is good, even though I can't summon a lot of enthusiasm for it... kinda feel more like just going to bed.

Anyways... on a separate story.... some days you are just angry on the bike... this happened to me yesterday (thanks bank people - shitheads). At about 3-ish got a call from the bank taking away my overdraft and forcing me to put the amount of it on a loan. One would image that they are trying to save money.... one would also imagine that they should look more at themselves instead of people who put a a decent salary into their bank account every month. Anyways, this really pissed me right off... so obviously the way to teach them a lesson was to ride home *really* angry.

So I did.

Drilled it hard into a headwind for a good 3 miles without dropping intensity, sprinted at every single minor incline (I swear not even hills... just rises in the road), leant the bike over to take corners at full speed, trying to rip my feet out of the pedals and break cranks off and just generally riding like an animal. Completely in contravention to the training plan at the mo... but damn it felt good. The only thing that could have been better would have been if I had have been on a lighter stiffer bike instead of the trusty winter steed.

It was fun! But the bank still suck donkey ass.

Rich G's Lyrnskey

PB250270, originally uploaded by richard.gearing.

Have to say, this looks pretty damn awesome.

One of the weapons for next year!

caad 9 bb30, originally uploaded by Voodoo2.

Yeah... it took a while, but I managed to get it. At a cost to credit rating, money in bank and all that sort of shit.

But here is spanky caad 9 with bb30 crankset... and man this baby just flies!

Ok... so its been a while.

This is mainly because I have been twittering away like a numpty instead of updating the blog! Well, perhaps now I have something profound to say... or maybe not.

Basically at the moment we (the royal we) are in winter training mode... this basically means lots of long-ish slow-ish miles trying to build up my base fitness. What I found last year was that I was burning out on races over 50 miles. So this will hopefully rectify the issue!

Even so... it's hard not to want to put the boot in and give it a lash every now and then!

I've also recently been testing out a saddle from the Kiron me2 range of saddles and I have to say its pretty damn excellent. I would say I've put close to 50 hour solid sitting on it now and it really is very comfortable and fits my arse nicely! I would recommend anyone picking up one of these. The only possible complaint I could have is that if it were a race saddle it could be a bit lighter.

No news on the gardening front... except that the veggie patch has been replaced by a shed. I just didn't have time to maintain it this year so it has become a new shed with my bikes and training kit in it. :-)