King of the Downs

As part of my preparation for the UK Ironman in August I have entered the mother of all cycling sportives. The Evans Cylces King of the North Downs takes in ten climbs over 112 miles on May 17th so I ventured out last weekend to try and ready myself.

The sportive takes in two loops either side of Crawley so I decided to do the western loop.

Seven hills and 54 miles later I emerged pretty well unscathed if a bit tired. The scarier stats included on my Garmin GPS device readout (Birmingham Optical Group supplied the Garmins for last year's Optician Ironman Team) included.

Calores burned 5,300

7,000ft of climbing

Max speed 48.7mph. And yes I did start braking, that feels fast on a bike.

The best part was the scenery. It was a glorious morning and my ride took me up Leith Hill and Box Hill, past Ranmore Church and down towards Ewhurst. The bluebells were out in the woods ad the birds were singing. It didn';t stop me cursing the hills on the way up though.

Monday morning legs feel fine. bring it on.

What a beautiful day

My fellow Optician Ironman team member Fiona finished the London marathon in an amazing 3hrs49 l;ast Sunday. She is really beginning to worry me now. My running isn't good at the best of times so, as the weather looked so great this morning, I decided to run into work. Not a bad effort. 12 miles in about an hour and fifty minutes. Best of all, no major blisters.

I'm collecting the bike this afternoon complete with new tribars so I hope the legs hold out for that.

I decided not to dress up a la Disney. Running past three schools and a college in lycra is tough enough as it is.

Am I getting any fitter?

I have a problem. I'm not a big fan of running or cycling the same routes so I am constantly faced with the prospect of trying to gauge my performance over different terrains. The following was Sunday's ride over a familiar course but not actually the same as anything else I have done. Man it was hard, as Lance might say, but a little under 30km/h average speed is it fast enough?

....boo..boo.de...doop

A great night was had by all at the Optician Awards. You can find out who the winners are and see pictures of the night.

Wet, wet, wet

I don't think my dislike of swimming has ever been a secret but with an ironman on the horizon there's no getting away from it. I'm going to have to do some swim training.

I am quite lucky working in the media as my employer lays on a bus to go to the local swimming baths every Tues and Thursday lunchtime. Usually there's no way I can spare the time but bizarrely the arrival of Optrafair and the Optician Awards has cleared my diary.

I found myself struggling for the (whole) half hour. Not with my won swimming but going slow enough not to be crashing into people. I must be getting faster or my work colleagues are tragically slow. Sadly it's the latter.

The giving starts here

The Optician Ironman Team is officially in training and is seeking support from the profession and the industry.
Vision Aid Overseas is the recipient of the money the team raises and money can now be pledged at:
www.justgiving.com/opticianironman09

Ouch -- Mr Bump on a fixed

It's great being able to get back on the bike and to enjoy commuting to work now that the weather has cheered up. My route has always been determined by traffic and road surfaces so I was a bit shocked yesterday to find my favoured route had become the subject of traffic calming.
You might have thought cyclists would like traffic calming, it's supposed to slow cars down after all, but no.

Mums on their mobile phones in the BMW X5 aren't any more likely to slow down for a speed bump than they are for a cyclist. They don't.
Hitting a speed table that's still under contrauction on a fixed a 25mph is a shock. Bump --Ouch.

Time for a new route.