Club Run - 13th December '08

[Keith]

[img]http://i34.tinypic.com/ibw45i.jpg[/img]





P.S. Yes, I'm a little bored - had a lurgy that's kept me off the bike for a few weeks, and now a horribly wet & miserable Saturday.

P.P.S. No, the mudguards aren't strictly necessary.

[Antloony]

[img]http://i38.tinypic.com/ay6k38.jpg[/img]

I did my club run from here this morning.

I made my decision to not go by sending the misses outside to see how hard it was raining....

[Andrew G]

Arrr ain't that sweet, you'll be going out in matching jumpers next .

You need to do some training Keith as you look like you're trying and Mitch is just flicking the pedals over and staying level with you.

[Snoop Doug]

was there cake or some other sugary incentive just out of shot?

[Keith]

Unfortunately no cake (Williams visited last night), but on the plus side, there's no queue for a cuppa.

[huw williams]

I've TOLD YOU BEFORE about half-wheeling Michelle

[Marek]

Good to see that the wife is next to the cooker Keith. Wearing Jeans whilst Turbo training, is there some kind of benefit to this that no one has told me about. I suppose you can just get off and pop to the pub afterwards.

I have come out in a 'orrible cold, two weeks in a row. Maybe I will get a ride in before Xmas, I hope so.

Cheers

Marek.....

[mlocke]

After missing the last two week with lurgy I was really looking forward to a steady ride round the lanes today

I turned up at CSS 9 on the dot and nobody

About ten past I left for a quick spin over farthing when I saw Paul H coming the other way toward CSS.

Carried on up farthing just to keep warm a but just got more cold.

Back at CSS when I arrived and there was paul, stu & Mark B.

One other turned up but left to do his own thing.

The four of us set off into a monsterous headwind and Iand puring rain. Within minutes I was soaked and freezing & then starting coughin stuff up.

These all culminated in me feeling colder, wetter and more down and made the decision to bail out early so the lonely ride home wouldnt take so long.

The ride back was easy with the tailwind but I have never had such cold hands before. I think a nice air of winter gloves is on the list from santa.

sorry for bailing on you guys but I would have just held you up had I carrid on with you.

Might come out with Andy & co tomorrow now

Locky

[Stu Merckx Man]

as mark says, only the 4 hardest men in addiscombe came out in the life giving rain. there was no way i wanted to miss a ride today, as it was only my 3rd clubrun in 2 and half months, and i had just had 8 days off from my knee (which was feeling fine today)

soon though it was just me and paul. paul was doing the vast majority of the work at the front, as i have lost vast amounts of fitness! he dropped but waited for me on the reigate steps, and on most of the drags and rises in the first 30 minutes i was struggling.

once i was warmed up though i felt much better on all the bumps and drags.

when we got past rusper the real fun started. after going down the nice long descent, we turned left to avoid the through and off. there was mass flooding, almost unbelievable. there was sections of road about 50m long with shin deep flood water. it was great fun, kind of like resistance training or something, as you had to really power your way through it, and pray you didnt hit something underneath the water like a shark or wale. the other amazing thing was that these sections of road had a current, making it feel like sailing, i mean riding, in a cross wind.

i thought there couldnt be any worse flooding than that, but when we reached the road that leads up the the sprint there was another huge section of ocean, even deeper than the ones we had just sailed across, with cars at either side of it waiting for a ferry crossing. this one was so long, and deep, about 100m, that i had to get out the saddle to power through, and when my feet reached the bottom of the rowing, i mean pedal stroke the water reached my knees!!

we eventually docked up at port pine cafe to have a quick snack before setting off with fresh news paper down our tops. on the way back i was secretly hoping to go through some more floods, but there were none. i was doing a few more turns than on the way down, but towards the end i did almost none as i was starting to feel the burn, which was highlighted when paul dropped me up the merstham drag.

i got home and my hands were freezing, i put them under a cold tap which felt warm. i ran my self a bath, but made the error of using my hands to gauge the temperature, so that when i jumped in it was actually not a piping hot bath as i had hoped, but bordering on cold. i settled for a shower instead.

i really enjoyed it today, and i think its a miracle we didnt get any punctures.

stu

[Andrew G]

Even I wasn't mad enough to go to CSS this morning. Bearing in mind my sanity levels I think you few need to see someone . It was the thought of cleaning the bike and getting all the water out of it as much as anything that dissuaded me.

For gloves I'd recommend asking the fat man for a pair or [url=http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Cycle/7/Altura_Night_Vision_Waterproof_Winter_Gloves/5360036165/]these[/url]. Dearest Mummy and Daddy, I mean Santa, got me a pair last year and they are great. A bit bulkier than some gloves but very waterproof and being thinsulate snuggly warm too. Perfect for commuting in winter with the reflective fingertips and stripe.

[Amy]

Seems I chose a good day to visit my brother in Brighton

[George]

[quote]only the 4 hardest men in addiscombe came out in the life giving rain

[Stu Merckx Man]

apologies george, i mean the 4 hardest not racing!

[Michelle]

Well the second part of today's cycling,as I couldn't bear to get my ar$e numbed again by a session on the turbo, was an hour and a half in my local country lanes, trying to get somewhere.

To start off, it was really nice to be out on the bike, the first time since last Saturday. Then at 13 minutes and 21 seconds into my ride, a 4 x 4 sent a huge tidal wave crashing over my legs. My bottom half was just drenched. But that was just the start of it.

It's very difficult to do isolated leg work when there are wedges of old leaves and flints in the road and rivers running down the road towards you, but I'm glad I chose that over the sprint sessions . After an hour of this, I thought I might go for a quick jaunt to Lingfield and back via Crowhurst ( would take about an hour) Unfortunately, down every road I turned, there was a huge flood about 2 miles in, and I kept having to turn back. In the end I tried to follow so many routes that I had exhaused my opportunities, had enough and headed back to Hurst Green, a small island in the big muddy puddle that constitutes Surrey right at this minute.

In total today, 3 hours. Tomorrow's target - 3.5 hours. I'm gonna get bored, though, going round and round the little lane just outside my house. Cos I don't know where else I am going to be able to get to

[Mike I]

Can you run all your kitchen appliances off the turbo, or is it just the cooker?