Monthly Archives: November 2010

The intro to Cyclocross

When I say that word, most say – “what”.  Cyclocross is a little known niche of cycling.  it is a cross between mountain biking and road biking.  Take a road bike, beef it up slightly and then ride it around a very muddy field furiously for an hour.  The start is the normal looking around trying to look as intimidating as everyone else does (and usually failing). Gun goes bang and it is all you can do to keep up with the sprinting masses for the tight first corner with elbows out.

then, throw in a few hurdles that you have to get off and run over

then some steep muddy bank which is great fun and ‘interesting’ on a road bike geometry and skinny tyres

Then, add in some really steep muddy banks that need you to shoulder the bike and prey you get enough grip to get you to the top otherwise you slide back down to the bottom again

This being the first time I have done cyclocross racing it was a bit of an eye opener.  It is usually the domain of extremely fir road racers for winter training and in such I got my ass handed to me on a plate.  It was rather humbling and I will have to get a lot fitter to come a respectable position next time.  I really enjoyed it but I was not quite prepared for the pace of it!

I have the next race in two weeks, so this time I will at least have a bit more of an idea of what to expect.

After the race we went and had a look at the world’s hardest traditionally climbed rock route at Dumbarton rock as it was 5 minutes away.

It goes up the middle of the crag up the crack line.  Rhapsody E11 7a – it is quite an incredible line and my hat goes of to Dave Macleod who put it up.  Belowthe crag  is a rather optimistic if she will climb anything 7 month pregnatn Lara.

Glen Clova Half Marathon

The day finally came around after entering this race 8 weeks ago.  Since entering my training plan has never really gone to plan, in fact it has never really gone at all.  I have been plagued by injury, illness and hangovers that have all stopped me from doing what I should have in preparation for this race.

Lining up on the start line all three of us (Emma, Frank and I) all shared the same “what the hell are we doing here” expression.  Nothing we could do but wait for the whistle and get on with it.

This is nothing like any of the bigger half marathons / marathons you see with thousands of folk running, this is a fairy low key event.  A small field of 200 runners, later we find out that this is seen as one of the hardest halves in the country due to it being so hilly……. great!

The running itself for the first half was fine, just steady away, try and keep your mind occupied and away from thinking about small pains and aches starting to appear.  That I think is the biggest difference of this race to any other I have down.   Running is automatic, especially on road.  there is no real thought behind it you just do it.  With cycling there is always something to think about, corrections, changes so the mind is kept busy, where as here, I felt myself having to try and think of things to take the focus of the inner demons telling you “it hurts” “I think i can feel a blister forming” “energy is low” etc.

Thankfully the scenery was great, we were surrounded by snow capped mountains and a good bit of my time was spent just admiring the view.

The first 10km came and went pretty quick, the next 3km after that even faster, but after that each km felt like it needed to be earned, I spent more time checking my GPS for how far I had gone, each time disappointed with how slow my progress was.

The last 3km was hard, but in the same time, the closer I got to the finish, the better I felt, not physically, but mentally.  It was like a count down to the end of the constant sound of my heavy breathing, achy legs and pounding of my shoes on the tarmac.  This feeling it was soon to be over kept me going.

I had always in my mind thought of a sprint finish, in reality – forget it!

The feeling of finishing was fantastic.  2:07:08.  Which I was happy with, it is not fast in comparison to most but for my first go with very little training and hilly course I am happy with it.  Frank did a fantastic job with 1:54 and Emma was an utter hero with 2:13 (she had done even less training than me and had never run more than 12km before, a bloody good effort on her behalf).  Below is the three of us at the finish line.

This race has confirmed that I have no desire to runa  marathon, this was long enough for me, i found the road running a little boring, not involved if get where I am coming from.  Think next running challenge will be some form of off road run?  TBC

Flexi Up Pitfichie

No I am not into some sort of weird hill stretching routine.  My present work contract gives me every other Friday off!  Scott, Rich, Me, Diesel and Isla (the last two being of the dog variety) did a loop around Pitfichie.  First time round for Rich who is just getting serious about the sport.  He did well, was a lovely day

Lovely way to spend the morning,  Was good fun riding with the dogs.  Isla aka the lunatic has been renamed by me today.  She is with out fail 6″ from Scott’s back wheel no matter how fast he goes down hill.  So as Scott goes through puddles etc she gets all his spray from the back wheel.  I have re-christened her “shit stripe”  think Anna will object but I will fight for this name!

Isla in her normal position behind Scott!  Biking dogs are great!

rest of the pics can be seen by clicking here

The bump is getting bigger!!

A stark realisation has hit me recently.  A life changing event, a massive responsibility and as everyone say the best thing you will ever do.  Lara and I are going to become parents.  Lara is now 29 weeks pregnant and is really starting to show it.

This was taken last night.  So from going from hardly being able to tell she is pregnant a month ago to this is quite a step!  Lara is very good spirited and is happy and keeps smiling, but I can tell she is a bit bored of being tired and restricted on what she can do.  I think she looks awesome (there is the bit where I get brownie points)

All the normal parent stuff is starting with us, the bits we need to go out and buy, booking nurseries and kissing good buy to a large chunk of our spare time.  But as everyone says it will be worth it.  I think I am going a bit mental as I find myself talking to the bump about the correct tyre choice for conditions and lecturing it on snow pack analysis.

We talk alot about how we want to raise the child, what we do and don’t want to do with him / her (we don’t know what sex it is yet).  I mainly look at baby bikes and try and work out how soon till i can teach them to bike!

I saw this picture and it made me smile, I wonder if this is how I will be with my child????!!!!!???????

Another excuse to get into tight clothing!

Don’t ask me why but I decided to give surfing a bit more effort.  I love the idea of getting in water and catching a ride with mother nature.  The only problem I have is that mother nature usually throws me off and tumbles me pretty hard into the sea bed and then dumps another wave on top of me just as I surface.  But the good thing about starting a new sport is that you can only get better! 

This is Aberdeen beach last Sunday morning,  Pretty nice huh.  It  was a beautiful morning.  Chris, Vic, Martin and I all squeezed into our rubber suits and went in.  I know you are all thinking it is mad going surfing in the north sea in November, but honestly, it really isn’t that cold if you have a decent wet suit on.

Obviously I got no pictures of us actually surfing, but I am tempted to get a waterproof casing or new water proof camera…. watch this space.  Hang ten dudes.