Random cyclist
The WKRC blog - please keep comments clean and swear free. If you start to post rubbish, I will request that the next club run takes in every hill in Kent. You have been warned!
Author: Alex Cooper | Date: 10-01-2012
As the warmer weather approaches (I have to have hope!) attention turns to club runs and how best to manage them.
It is generally accepted that change is necessary, so no need to use this forum to go on the offensive, just use it constructively to suggest the way forward.
How about a Club Run that starts at the normal time, with a training ride that leaves half an hour later?
Thoughts and suggestions here please.
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Author: Alex Cooper | Date: 15-12-2011
Another experience to share with my club mates.
Lets start off by saying, my New Year's Resolution this year was to follow my instincts, ie. do the sensible thing based on good judgement. If there's a plan, stick to it, if it dosn't feel right don't do it eg. when driving in slow traffic don't try finding an alternative route, it is not quicker. Overall, this resolution has worked quite well so far this year.
Having celebrated my 50th birthday the day before, yesterday evening I climbed on to my new rollers for the 1st time. I have ridden rollers before, just a long time ago. I set everything up in the back bedroom, I moved the guest bed out of the way and put towels under the rollers. - mistake 1; Using my track bike- mistake 2; and following my training plan which consisting of 20 mins warm up, I used this time as an opportunity to build (over) confidence in riding rollers- mistake 3; changing hand position, riding one handed, smooth and ragged pedalling, accelearations etc,before moving on to 5 x 3 min VO Max sessions with 3 mins recovery - mistake 4; I had placed a small table next to me with a bottle of water to drink during recoveries but by the 3rd interval this was empty and I didn't want to interrupt my session by going to the bathroom 5 paces away to re-fill the bottle- mistake 5.
I noticed my pedalling style whilst trying hard made the bike feel like it was rocking forward and backwards so I corrected this with a more fluid 'circular' pedalling style, secondly a tendency to be riding predominantly to the left of centre of the rollers. I corrected this by applying slightly more load to the left leg culminating in the calf starting to tighten slightly - mistake 6.
With the max intervals complete, the final 10 minutes was at endurance pace. Just 3 minutes to go and Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast is playing on the radio, and being a bit of an old rocker I thought, hey let's up the pace in time with the music until the end of the song. Final mistake.
I glanced down at the Garmin, and with just 20 seconds to go I push that little bit harder. "Aaarghh..." cramp in my left calf. With reference to all of the above errors of judgement and unable to free-wheel there was only going to be one outcome. The bike came off the rollers and I landed with a thud on the floor (where the bed was), culminating with a trip to A&E. Thankfully nothing broken, just bad muscle spasms in my back, a course of Codeine and a few days off sick with severe silent treatment / ear-ache from Rita and a life time ban from using the rollers indoors.
I will be appealing against this ruling as soon as I can get back on my bike. See you all on Sunday.
Regards
Colin S
PS...Please post suggestions for my new nickname here!!!
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Author: anthonyhitchings | Date: 12-12-2011
Tottenham fans have been showing their sporting ignorance on Twitter today. The referee for their match at the weekend was Chris Foy. Today they have been subjecting Sir Chris Hoy (World champion and Olympic gold cyclist) to severe abuse with all manner of swear words for his poor refereeing....
Chris Hoy has found this amusing and retweeted their ignorant rants which were picked up by the cycling press and all manner of twitter users. If you fancy some fun search for Chris Hoy on twitter and scroll down to read some of the comments.
Tottenham fans in the club should watch out for some good old fashioned leg pulling for their abuse of a respected cyclist.
#backtoyourcaves
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