When will it end? Never before in my life have I wanted the winter to end so soon. Is there something about getting older and disliking the cold so vehemently. It doesnt help that I had 5 weeks in the sun over Christmas either.
There's the kind of day during the bleakest part of Winter's gnarled hand where you get up and realise very quickly that it's cold in the house, put on your kit, have a cup of tea and maybe some breakfast; you eventually open the front door and despite the Michelin tyre of thermal under and outerwear, you are shocked at exactly how piercing that cold wind seems to be. Getting out of the front door on one of these days is not easy but the motivation to keep warm by pedalling hard is very high. Don't ever stop. Just keep going and pray there's no punctures - you'll reach the Cafe eventually.
My cycling ambitions for 2013 are high. For a start, I am going to have to improve my times on the sportives that I entered in 2012 with a gold medal time in at least one of them. Then there's the European stuff I've committed too. A week long trip over the Pyranees, including the a trip up the Tourmalet and several other high Cols in the area (effectively med to Atlantic coast) I need all the training I can get and so obviously more than I did last year. The winter weather therefroe is a hinderance to all of my plans.
Today (Sunday 24th Feb) was exceptionally cold. The average temperature was 0°C and I believe that was only boosted by the cafe being at 12°C. A recent purchase of some gore windproof bib tights seems like a masterstroke now. If you havent tried it yet, Gore windproof gear is very good. My face was still cold, but everything else was toasty.
Over the winter, ride times and average speeds tend to drop despite working very hard. This year, I've been using the turbo trainer, but so has the rest of the club. This year is proving to be gaining momentum quicker than last. There could be light at the end of the tunnel however. Today's ride was purposely posed as moderately pacey and it didn't dissapoint. An average of 26.5Km/hr was attained and quite strangely this matched the pace set last October.
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=467110
Next up is the first sportive of the year followed by my first ever (gulp) time trial. Now where's that turbo trainer?
Today (Sunday 24th Feb) was exceptionally cold. The average temperature was 0°C and I believe that was only boosted by the cafe being at 12°C. A recent purchase of some gore windproof bib tights seems like a masterstroke now. If you havent tried it yet, Gore windproof gear is very good. My face was still cold, but everything else was toasty.
Over the winter, ride times and average speeds tend to drop despite working very hard. This year, I've been using the turbo trainer, but so has the rest of the club. This year is proving to be gaining momentum quicker than last. There could be light at the end of the tunnel however. Today's ride was purposely posed as moderately pacey and it didn't dissapoint. An average of 26.5Km/hr was attained and quite strangely this matched the pace set last October.
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=467110
Next up is the first sportive of the year followed by my first ever (gulp) time trial. Now where's that turbo trainer?
