Ups and Downs and through the Clappers

My first 60 mile ride in training on the hottest day of the year so far took me on a clockwise tour from St Albans, skirting Luton and taking in Dunstable Downs and the Sharpenhoe Clappers. Mostly on country lanes, it was a delightful ride, briefly delayed by about thirty vintage tractors out on a run in Bedfordshire. As I mentioned last time, even in the Home Counties height gain can be comparable with the Scottish Highlands where my route will take me through rather than over the hills, and backing up this point today's run involved 3,418 ft or 1042 m of climbing (and according to Garmin, even more calories!)

    

View from Dunstable Downs

Sharpenhoe Clappers

Today's route - as usual click on the running man image for more detail

Welwyn - Whitwell - Harpenden training run

Another 40 miler to add to the training runs. Warmer today although windy again, a nice run.

An interesting point I've noted from route planning using Strava. Looking at the first three full days, from 20 miles S. of John O'Groats to Glencoe, and comparing them with actual runs in Herts, Bucks and Oxon, the height gained per mile isn't that much different. This may bear out comments I've seen saying that the climbing in Devon and Cornwall is harder than that in Scotland. Once I get down to the SW in detail I'll be making the same comparison.

	miles	gain in ft.	gain in ft./mile
D2	57.4	3818	66.5
D3	66.5	3523	53.0
D4	57.2	3432	60.0
Chilterns	49.3	3065	62.2
Welwyn	39.7	2113	53.2

40 miles before lunch

 A windy day but lots of cyclists about in the tail end of the Chilterns. If I can do 40 miles before lunch then 60 a day should be a doddle.....well mathematically maybe, psychologically not so certain. Need to add some luggage as well to make it more realistic.

Through the Chilterns to Oxford

Pushing the mileage up to 55 today on a second home to Oxford trip, this time a more hilly route via Flaunden then Chesham, Great Missenden and Princes Risborough. Light rain for most of the morning, but increased the average moving speed slightly relative to my previous flatter trip in October. Lost time due to satnav problems so no map or stats to show for my efforts - why does modern tech never come with decent instructions? Also need to get it to differentiate better between types of terrain - despite the photo I hadn't intended to cycle the muddy Ridgeway.

Hertfordshire half day ride

Latest training ride around St Albans, Harpenden and Wheathampstead. Would have managed another five or ten miles but a puncture took some time to fix - must start taking a spare tube out with me. Click for route and stats. Not sure how the elevation works - I certainly didn't start with a downhill skirun from 6000'! Garmin Connect

Thanks Airwave

My company Airwave has just donated £250 to Embrace Child Victims of Crime, one of my three charities

Yorkshire Dales in the rain

See my latest training ride (click running icon for more detail)

Plenty of climbing but close to freezing conditions and rain all morning. At least it shouldn't be so cold in June. Fruit cake served with Wensleydale cheese and slices of apple at Pateley Bridge tea rooms the highlight!

Getting around

Just to show there are more ways than one of getting some training in...even when working in London

Tech stuff!

 Christmas came and with it a Garmin 820 Touring bike sat nav. The main intended benefit is saving time spent stopping to look at a map, by following the directions just like a car sat nav. Having tried it successfully on a short ride last week, today I managed to achieve something more sophisticated - live uploading this morning's ride to the web. In June I'll make this available to anyone who wants follow my progress, and check I'm covering the distance you sponsored me for! Here's the record of todays 21 miles on a damp gloomy Hertfordshire morning, and me, glad to get home.

Winter training

Too dark, cold, wet and dangerous to go out much so indoor spinning classes take over. Despite bringing the average age up a few years, after a couple of months I'm holding my own and just about keeping up with the 20-somethings