Dec 16th Club Run

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Postby Stu Merckx Man » Sat Dec 16, 2006 3:23 pm

me, paul, matt, paul on the pearsons, andrew, marek, ray,hal and george did part of a handicap race.

we pootled nicely up to newdigate where marek showed us the rout. i was not feeling great at this point as i needed a poo :lol:, but i sat down hard on the saddle and pushed on.

once round this rather hilly course we split into groups--> ray, matt, pual on the pearson and andrew were to go first with a 2 minute head start, followed by the rest of us.

to catch them we did a very fast through and off.....very fast.....

eventually we got site of them, george and i did a little switching around to take bring us up to them. once there i thought: 'great time for a break'...but it was not to be...marek and paul came past. i thought about staying with the group we caught but i decided to go with the others to push myself.

by the time i made my decision they paul marek and hal had a good 50m lead. into chasing mode i went although i was conviced i would not catch them. luckily matt had made the same mistake as me and was just to my right, this gave me a bit of omf! and i cained it to them.

absolutely exhausted we past the finish line, however we had to do another lap! paul and george did a lot of work at first , but there cam a point where no one wanted to lead. in the end i went for a bit and then hal did a long one.

then the sound of a drowning cow met our ears, it was george's battle cry for his incredible break away. he dissapeared from view pretty quickely and we put a lot of effort into catching him. at one point he was only about 15m ahead, unfortunatly marek who was leading us up to him had to drop back as his gears gave way.

the paul made a huge dig and got close to george but not close enough, so towards the end it was george 150m infront, then paul about 75 m infront followed by me matt and hal. we worked pretty well together doing a through and off to at least catch paul! by the last big hill before the finish we were so close !! hal was leading us up and he blew! NOOOO- I was hoping he could take us to paul.

i slowly went passed him and the gap between paul and I stayed the same, although he was miles infront still :lol: . putting everything into it i slowly dropped hal and matt. in the end i think the oder went like this :george, paul, me, hal, matt, marek, andrew, ray and paul on the pearsons... i was very happy with third.

a nice ride back to box hill lead onto a hellish ride up it..i stayed with paul and hal to the first hair pin but then burnt out and went up my own pace. paul dropped hal on the second straight.. i slowely closed the gap between hal and me, onyl fo george to come passed me and catch him up. this then made them speed up a tad and the gap stayed the same the rest of the way up.

a very fast ride back to kingswood where i then went my own way past the golf club to get to chipstead as i was totally burnt out. as i pootled towards coulsdon i came up to marek who dropped his pump. then i turned off left under the bridge and hooooome !! wooo!

i did about 65 miles, but i dont know the avs speed as my speedo is broken. a great but NAKEREING ride today.

cheers for organising that marek.

stu
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Postby Andrew G » Sat Dec 16, 2006 7:26 pm

You're right Stu it was a good ride, but bloody tough. Was alarmed at the start as it was basically a strong training group with the addition of Paul Dewis(otP) and myself. My levels of alarm failed to drop much throughout the day!

Stu, it might have been pootling to the circuit for you, but it was still a quicker pace than I'm used to - was breathing through my ears up Gatton Road.

The circuit was hard, how can you do a loop but still be going uphill most of the time :shock: . When we set off for the others to catch we started quickly going through and off, with Matt doing slightly longer turns. I was already hurting on the more pronounced uphills but tried to make up for it by doing my tows on the flatter or drag sections.

When the power-houses caught us Matt jumped on their group while Paul Ray(?yellow specialized), and myself continuing to t and off at our own pace. On the long hill (the never ending bugger from the Redmon GP 2up) I started to die. Ray pulled ahead, then Paul, and I just kept them in sight in the hope that I could catch up once we hit the flat/downhill swoop.

Over the top and I managed to pull Paul in and we worked together to catch Ray. By now Ray was slowed to our pace with a slow rear puncture, which fortunately held out but became a bit squashy). I think Paul started to suffer on the second half of lap 2, and with Ray's puncture I was spending longer on the front. Up the final hill again and I managed to hold on for 3rd from last where the rest were waiting for us. (Only on their 3rd cup of tea :) )

On to a nice cafe hidden in the trees before the return trip. I think it was Marek who started winding up the pace to Box Hill, and Paul and I gave up trying to hold their wheels and let the training group disappear in to the distance while we returned to our usual speed for the rest of the journey home.

Although I felt like I was going to die on several occaisions, today was both useful and enjoyable. George something's wrong if you don't get some successes next season, you are so bloody strong!

A big thank you to Marek for organising today's jaunt, boy you earn your points racing on circuits like that rather than doing the crits.
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Postby George » Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:37 pm

Great weather for the ride today, 75 miles all in of hard riding.

Didn't think I'd be up to scratch today after not much sleep this week, no cycling and last nights christmas party but now I think I will be including this into my regular training schedule :)

It was a good circuit we raced on today, yes Andrew there did seem to be more ups than downs. Marek kept pushing us on each and every hill, then let us all come through for him to rest

On the second lap just after Newdigate I decide to attack on the hill before we turned right. I gave a howl and pushed a big gear pretty much giving it everything in an attempt to break free. Up the top I looked round to see if Paul was close enough to join up, but everyone was well down the road
:o
Oh well in for a penny in for a pound I went for it 100 %, the downhill after this hill was a great help and after a few corners had lost them.

After Capel a hill heads up to the roundabout af the A24, this seemed to suck all my energy and it felt like the brakes were on, over my shoulder and they were within sniffing distance. I held it to the top and the flat section after gave me a breather for the last hill where I knew I'd done it :D

Henfold lakes cafe is very cosy indeed with the stove banging away, we sure didn't want to leave there in a hurry it was almost 1 Oclock when we left for box hill.

A graet traing ride Cheers Marek looking forwardto the next one.

Cheers George.
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Postby Paul H » Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:43 pm

Well done to George again. That was an impressive solo ride to the finish. Right, I'm going to have to start training properly now to try and close the gap on the Bianchi kid and keep my distance from pooh boy.

Before anybody gets complacent, we were 2.8mph slower than the av speed of the 3rd cat race in August.
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Postby Stu Merckx Man » Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:43 pm

george,(or anyone else)
do you know what speed we averaged?

cheers
stu
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Postby Paul H » Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:56 pm

My average for the Handicap race was 22mph, Marek's was probably about 19mph.
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Postby Marek » Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:51 pm

Hey cheeky, not my fault that my bliming chain jumped off into my rear triangle, I could not move the pedals, so had to stop take out the wheel and then come after you. As we were in the final straight it was not likely that you were going to be waiting for me. I reckon I would have had you and George if it had not happened.

On the way back up Box Hill I was absolutely dead, nothing left in the legs on the hills at the moment, need to work on that before the season starts, but not too bothered at the moment. The fast section down towards Kingswood was fun, shame my pump came off the bike just outside of Woodmansterne just as we were speeding up. I went back and got it but it had been run over so need to get a new one as it was a great pump.

Below is the data from my HRM from Rusper two years ago where I came about fifth place. I also did the race this year and got fifth place but did not have the data. All I can say is that this year it was absolutely hammering it down with rain in the race. You literally could not see where you were going on some sections as you had spray coming at you from all directions.

I really enjoyed the format of todays ride and as you all seemed to enjoy it in a perverse way, then I will think of another one for next week. Something a bit flatter for the fat boys like me, but I have to say we will need an anchor to weigh down young George who seems to be flying at the moment.

Data Value Unit
Duration 2:28:00
Sampling Rate 5 s

Energy Expenditure 2907 kcal
Number of Heart Beats 24878 beats
Recovery -87 beats
Minimum Heart Rate 107 bpm
Average Heart Rate 168 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate 202 bpm
Standard Deviation 18.1 bpm

Minimum Speed 4.4 km/h
Average Speed 35.3 km/h
Maximum Speed 55.1 km/h
Distance 87.1 km
Odometer 4686 km

Minimum Altitude 40 m
Average Altitude 77 m
Maximum Altitude 117 m
Ascent 735 m
Descent 703 m
Slopes 6

Cheers

Marek.....
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Postby Paul H » Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:12 am

Heh I was just having a laugh (at your expense). Some good excuses today - chain, pump, needing a pooh

Perhaps we should try the Ashdown Forest circuit you were talking about next week.
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Postby Marek » Sun Dec 17, 2006 11:19 am

I was thinking more of the Crowhurst circuit, it is a beginning of season race, quite flat but a few drags that will sap the legs. We can do that a few times and then we can go over to Westerham for a cuppa via Toys Hill just to finish everyones legs off.

I will post it during the week.

Cheers

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Postby George » Sun Dec 17, 2006 11:48 am

Right now I know where I need to be training this week,
Ide and Toy's Hill :P

I love time off at christmas :)
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Postby Stu Merckx Man » Sun Dec 17, 2006 11:48 am

george do you want to go out on a ride this week? im free im on christmas holidays too.

cheers,
stu
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Postby Alan M » Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:03 pm

I just knew something had been missing from my life in recent weeks!

Sorry not to join you yesterday Marek but nursing the back end of a cold/flu so opted for a conservative 17mph. I made an ill fated longish break at the run in to Charlwood but Graeme who was very strong yesterday gripped my wheel and my efforts evaporated with more than 50m to go - still it was good to give it a go.

The return was quite brisk with an early group led off mostly by Graeme. By Merstham only Phil volunteered to lead the group up the drag and the speed was OK - but only a matter of time .... Huw, Steve and I think 2 others passed on the final rise and to my surprise I just made the selection - We had a pretty fast pace to Coulsdon with surprisingly little traffic for so few shopping days to christmas. Home early enough for Christmas shopping in Croydon!!

Thanks to all for their welcome back - Bad news about Gavin's crash - if anyone has his address please PM me.
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Postby George » Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:03 pm

Sounds good Stu

Fancy Monday morning out around the aforementioned hills :P
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Postby Stu Merckx Man » Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:14 pm

yeh im free then , though im not sure if im happy or not . isit a taste of you 'power training' :lol:

what time you thinking and where?

cheers stu
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Postby George » Sun Dec 17, 2006 2:39 pm

Lets make it 9am Selsdon traffic lights, if thats alright with you.

From here we can take Huw's hilly route out of the smoke.

Hills, hills, hills :shock:
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