Tag Archives: Focus

Ride Success, Technology Fail – Weekend #August150 Miles

By 7 commentsCycling Challenges, Reviews, Rides, , , , , ,

When the weekend began, I thought I still had an outside chance of achieving the August150 target, so I mapped a 20+ mile ride with a bit of a challenge thrown in: a nice, big hill.  I rode out of Rochdale through Whitworth to Bacup, then over Sharney Ford to Todmorden and back home along Rochdale Canal, the National Cycle Network’s Route 66.

Ride Success!

The slow climb from Rochdale to the top of Britannia (about 8 miles?) was okay.  None of it gets steep and it’s just a case of keeping the legs turning and not getting too bored.  The scenery isn’t nice until you get to Facit where you discover that there is, in fact, a Fudge Village there.  A whole Village, of Fudge? I kid you not.  Sorry I didn’t get a picture but I’m diabetic so I didn’t stop. Sod you lot who can eat what you like 😉

There’s a nice quick drop into Bacup centre then before turning right into a helluva hill.  I admit, I got off twice on the way up and walked a bit.  As I was getting back in the saddle after my second breather, a girl on a yellow bike wearing cutoff jeans, with her mp3 player wired into her ears, pedalled past me slowly but purposefully and in a much higher gear than I was spinning.  If that was you, good on yer!  It’s a good job I don’t have any illusions of masculine superiority, that’s all I can say.  I’d have sulked right then!

Then…. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!

The drop down into Todmorden is brilliant!  A nice wide, fairly gravel-free, very steep tarmac road all the way down the hill.  Without a turn of the pedals I hurtled towards Tod, collecting flies on my grinning teeth and with tears being blown from my eyes into my ears.  What fun!  Oh, and I passed the girl who’d pedalled past me earlier.  Did I mention how fearless boys are on bikes, compared to girls? 😉

From Tod, the ride home was a leisurely affair, with the grin plastered firmly on face until my gadj let me down.

Technology Fail

Fail 1:  Solar Battery. A few weeks ago I bought a solar battery from dealextreme.  Now, I know that their stuff is a bit shonky, but I’d tested this thing once by putting it on the windowsill for a bit, then attaching it to my phone and I definitely witnessed it giving life to my phone’s battery.  Definitely.

About 2 miles back towards Rochdale, I noticed my phone was running low.  At 20% battery my GPS automatically switches off, so I pulled the solar backup from my pocket, connected the usb cable and plugged it in.  Nothing. Wiggled the connections.  Nothing. Swore. Still nothing.  Shonky far eastern piece of poo.

Fail 2:  Phone Handlebar Mount. This is the 2nd time my HTC HD2 phone mount from Mobile Fun has broken.  Last time it was the bit that cradles the actual phone that gave in, and full credit to Mobile Fun for replacing it despite not being able to find a paper-trail for my purchase.

This time, I was bobbling along a short stretch of cobbles on the towpath when the main mount fell apart.  It turns out that a bolt is moulded into the mount and not enough plastic covers it, so the bolt wobbled its way out of the assembly under repeated … erm .. use.  Yes, use: just normal riding a bike.  So I’m not happy and I’m not sure how I’m going to attach my phone from now on.  I can’t replace the unit now that I know the design is flawed, because the next time my phone parts company with my bike it might not land on a friendly surface.  Shonky far eastern piece of poo (2).  Until I’ve devised and engineered a marvellous new mount contraption, it’s going to have to stay in my pocket and I won’t be able to see how I’m doing on the fly.

Not ideal.

All I can say is: thank goodness it didn’t fail at 38mph on the descent into Todmorden.  Yep, 38mph, my all-time fastest record so far, woop woop!  I am chuffed about that despite the gadget failures.

I have no full  stats since my phone gps tracker did indeed shut down at about 16 miles, but I rode 22.88 miles in total (completed map on this link) and achieved a maximum speed of 38.3 mph.

I didn’t mention my new Daypack at all, did I?  I picked it up from Go Outdoors for £22.50 which was an absolute bargain, in my opinion.  I wore it for the first time on this ride and although I needed to fiddle with it a bit for fit comfort, it was great. Comfy, easy to drink from and felt light on my back.  It’s got a 2 litre bladder plus a bit more storage for gubbins and a nice little drop-your-helmet-here bit for when you’re walking about (which I didn’t, so I don’t know if that bit works well yet).  I’ll review it a bit more when I’ve used it again, perhaps.

With some luck, I’ll get a few miles in tonight but the August150 is looking a long way away for me! 🙁

Norfolk & Fun.

By 19 commentsDiabetes, Photography, Rides, , , , , , ,

Sorry about the brief hiatus.  I’ve been away and not blogging, on account of living in a field and all that.

Sandringham Sunshine

While the North West enjoyed the weather that it’s famous for (i.e. bobbins), we headed to Norfolk, to camp within the grounds of Sandringham, where the Royal family spend 10 weeks each year and eat their Christmas dinner together.  To sum up the week in one sentence, it was sunny; relaxed; idyllic; woody; tasty; splashy; barbecuey; pretty and fun.

The #August150 Update

As I write, 40 people are featured on the August150 spreadsheet.  8 have already finished, another 3 have done more than two-thirds of the miles and 29 people have logged some miles.  If you want to join in, let me know and I’ll tell you how.  Basically, I need the email address you use for Google, and you’re in!

Personally, my Norfolk week didn’t go well in August 150 terms.  We only got one ride out really, aside from a couple of trips to the shop.  On the day we’d planned a good explore, N1S’s bike inexplicable exploded whilst leaning against a fence.  On closer inspection, it seems I’d pumped the tyre up too hard and an errant spoke was causing a stress point against the rim.  When he’d done a little lap around the site, the warmth and pressure had got up and then the tyre simply went “BANG! PFFFFT!” once the bike was rested.  Grrrr.  One failed repair and a trip to Halfords later, the bike was ok but our time was gone.

We did get a ride along NCN Route 1 later in the week though.  It’s gorgeous.  It got me thinking: We’ve rode along NCN1 now, and I live on NCN66 – that leaves 64 routes.  Too many.  So I might look into which routes I could travel to within a day from mine and try to tick a bunch of those off – what d’you think?  Speaking of canals (I know I wasn’t but NCN66 is along Rochdale Canal a good slug of the way), have you seen LouLouK’s blog about her ride along the Leeds-Liverpool canal?  You should – it’s an inspiration to anyone who thinks they might not be able to get some big riding done.

Holiday Diabetes

Just a brief note here.  In the past, I’ve had some crashing hypos whilst on holiday.  The trouble with Type 1 diabetes is that I tend to dose myself up with the same amount of insulin most days, but on holiday you do loads more exercise by stealth.  By stealth, I mean that you don’t realise.

Then what happens is that you wake up at night with crazily low blood sugars, doing weird things and amusing/terrifying your loved ones.  Well, I’ve found the secret: test more!  By taking my glucose monitor and simply doing the finger prick tests more often, I was able to avoid any silly hypos this holiday.  In fact, my only low was on the last day, when packing up took us way past lunchtime.  A quick Cadbury’s Twirl and I was back on track!  Sorted 🙂  Feel better, go longer, be safer, test more.

That’s all for today, save these few photos of our lovely break.

I’m hoping to get out for a ride with Jon tomorrow evening, so I might make a start on some proper miles at long last – maybe too late for the August 150, but fingers crossed I might just do it!

That’s Another Lovely Evening. #July150 completed.

By 11 commentsCycling Challenges, Photography, Rides, , , , ,

Just a brief post today, because I’ve not done anything special, except in my own little mind.

Woohoo! I Finished The July150!

I knew I had about 12 miles left to finish the July150 challenge, and that I might not get out on the bike again until Sunday (the 1st of August), so my Tuesday night autopilot loop would have to be half a mile longer than usual.

Also, I still haven’t pulled the slicks off the Fat Boy, so after the bit of rain we’d had I stuck to the roads .  I did my usual route up to Hollingworth Lake and it was dry enough to do a loop o’t’Lake too.  Half way round, I was faced with this view so my aim of keeping the average speed over 12mph was discarded while I took a couple of photos.

I dropped into Littleborough then took the main roads back towards Rochdale and home.  When I arrived, I noticed that I’d only done a shade over 10 miles so I did something that only the July150 can be blamed for: I took the path between Firgrove Playing Fields and set off for a quick loop to Milnrow and back.

The loop was partly along a narrow grassy track, but I thought I’d be ok as the rest of the ride had been nice & grippy.  Not so!  I was like Bambi on ice, sliding all over the place in my granny ring, seemingly covering as much ground sideways as forwards!  I really must get those slicks off.

Arriving home a second time, I’d amassed enough miles to hang up my bike for a few days and grin quietly to myself at covering 150 miles in the month.  This would never have happened without some of you lot spurring me on, so thanks a lot.  I love you all.  But not in that way. 🙂

Are you lot up for an #August150 ?

The Lads Took Me Over The Edge

By 19 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, , , ,

What A Lovely Way To Spend A Saturday.

On Saturday, Joby and Chris rode up to mine and we went on a ride up Blackstone Edge.  I’ve only ever ridden up there twice before in my life, in 2000 and 2001, on both occasions for charity.  I remember it flooring me the first time, and the 2nd time I had to walk halfway up the damn hill.

Basically, Blackstone Edge is a 3.5 mile ascent from 150m to 390m – and for me on my Focus Fat Boy, it’s bloody hard work.  It was a gorgeous day though, dry and not too hot, so with the encouragement of the lads (and the sight of them disappearing up into the distance) I just kept the granny ring turning all the way up.  I was well chuffed with myself 🙂

Hard Work Done.

We stopped at The White House for lunch.  I had a steak & onion butty, Chris went for chilli and Joby had the biggest sausage you’ve ever seen in your life.  And a cumberland with chips 😉

Following the 3.5 mile climb was a 7.5 mile descent into Hebden Bridge.  Basically, it goes like this:

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

After finally hitting my 30mph target last week, I hit 33.4mph cruising down lovely wide, smooth, quiet roads collecting flies on my exposed teeth.  I just couldn’t stop grinning.  It’s worth the climb, I can tell you.  The views up there are stunning.

The cuppa stop about 5 miles from home at Gordon Rigg’s in Walsden was probably the nicest tea ever.  I needed that!

I’m chuffed to have, in one ride, got the highest and the fastest since I rekindled my love of cycling.

Thanks Gents!

I had a cracking day.  It’s not lost on me that I only cycled 28.6 miles whilst Joby and Chris rode from their houses to mine before the ride, then home afterwards.  I would say chapeua to them, but Le Tour’s finished now, so:

Hat, lads.

Thanks for a cracking day’s riding 🙂

Hard Work. Wet. Fell Over. Damn you #July150

By 19 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, , , ,

I’m all in favour of being motivated, but jeeees!

Tuesday Night Is Hollingworth Lake Loop Night.  The weather looked a bit ropey, but I crossed my fingers, made a (delicious I must say) quick pasta tea and lined myself up for an hour’s ride out.

By the time bike o’clock came, it was raining a bit.  “Ah well, never mind”, I thought as I pulled on an extra layer and my buff.  I set off. The rain got a bit harder. The wind got a bit blusterier (that’s a word, really).

By the time I got the t’Lake I was knackered.  I resolved to do one lap instead of my usual two before heading home.  Halfway round the Lake I checked my phone in a sheltered spot, to make sure my new tracker software was working…

User Error 1.

When I started the new tracker software, I hit the standby button on my phone.  Don’t do this kids.  Use the “backlight off” button on the software instead.  Balls!

I did it right, after losing about 5 miles of tracking, and set off again from under the shelter of the big trees.  It was very windy by now, and pretty rainy too.  Ah well, I was nice and warm and this was dong me good.  Wasn’t it?

User Error 2.

I thought it wise to double-check the tracking software.  There’s a little bench opposite the Wine Press pub so I rode the bike down a couple of steps to get under the shelter of some more lovely big trees.

And fell off! Mossy paving slabs and rain do not mix well with MTB slicks.  Before I knew what had happened, I was rubbing my knee and elbow, whilst the Fat Boy lounged somewhere off to my left.  Balls! Again!

Time To Go Home.

From there, I was relived to be heading homewards to be honest.  I’m glad I put a few miles in but I’m crossing my fingers that the next time I go out, the weather’s a bit kinder and that I’m a bit less of a numpty with the tech. 🙁

I’ll review the new software in a bit more detail when I’ve tested it properly.  Initial feelings are positive, I think.

The route’s on MapMyRide if you fancy a gander. Sorry there are no photos, since the weather was pants and my touchscreen phone wasn’t happy so I kept it in my pocket as much as possible.

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