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Date:
1st August 2008
Day 1: My last day at work for a month (oh yes) and it feels like the first day of the school holidays so I put a quick hour in on the road circa 15 miles; that's a good start. Date:
2nd August 2008
Day 2: Another road ride but this time with an aim. Up to Epsom Downs, Walton-on-the-Hill, Headley Heath and then up Box Hill trying to increase my climbing ability by not using the top two gears and riding hard, standing on the pedals every 100 metres or so to keep up the average speed. 90 minutes of riding with a quick photo stop at the viewpoint on Box Hill and another quick stop when I saw Graham on his Look race bike coming back from his own training ride. Date:
3rd August 2008
The titanium dialled bikes frame has been sulking alone in the garage for a month whilst I flirted with the road bike but I am back and riding her with a vengeance today as we attempt a long, long ride starting from the now ledgendary 'Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower' in Ashtead. We are joined by Trevor, an active forum member since March 2006 but it's the first time that any of us has actually met him and his mate Jason. Jason is riding a lovely looking dialled bikes alpine, the first one that I have seen in the flesh and sporting the aftermarket pewter headtube badge. Finally, Steve is riding his new 2007 model Giant Trance 3, a snip at just £640 from Pauls Cycles. We head along Stane Street and onto Ranmore Common to enjoy the delights of Abba Zabba etc. before dropping down to Westcott and then the normal Rookery climb where we spot Richard II who hooks up with us for a while. Along Wolvern's Lane and onto Summer Lightning. Trevor is cramping up badly and struggling by this time and with time pressures on a few of us we split up and four of head for Westcott for something to eat and then home along the road with the usual abuse from a series of 'white van' drivers and passengers. Thanks also to Dave for the extra pictures. He's definitely getting better at taking them and as I don't often feature on here myself here's a couple of me copyright Davebus Productions
Date:
4th August 2008
Day 4: An evening ride to repeat the loop of the 2nd August. It seemed faster but I still took 90 minutes to ride the 25 miles. Oh well, no complaints as it's my fourth day in a row where I have been out riding and the climb up Box Hill and the zig-zags is feeling quite normal now instead of lung-busting. Date:
5th August 2008
Day 5: It's been more like mid-winter today with constant drizzle but I am determined to still get out. The legs are heavy as I ride the dialled bikes over to Banstead Downs for a quick blast round the old favourite trails. Despite it being the summer holidays, the trails are overgrown, no sign of da kidz being round here apart from a few empty drink bottles and plastic bags near the bomb holes and the chalky terrain has me on edge a few times as the tyres fail to grip. It's also difficult to tell if the large black objects across the trail are dog eggs or slugs bought out by the damp weather. A quick lick of my top lip on the way home tells me it was probably a combination of both... Date:
6th August 2008
<bored geordie monotone>Day 6, 6-02 pey emm and Richard has just dropped his youngest son off at football and decides to go for a ride</bored geordie monotone> Yes, I'm still going and although my leg muscles are feeling a bit tight rather than heavy today a bit of pre-ride stretching and a couple of ibuprofen sort them out. Being a creature of habit I head towards Box Hill again and give it my best shot up the Zig Zag road. I don't have an odometer or a GPS but it feels like I am getting much better at this now. I just need to ride this in a week or two's time with one of the race whippets like Felix or Cas to see if I have actually improved or am just fooling myself. Looking forward to tomorrow which will see the completion of the first week. Date: 7th August 2008 Riders: Richard, Sam and Ben Nonsuch Park Weather: 21.5°C 
Day 7: A nice pleasant ride round Nonsuch Park with the kids although after less than half a mile Sam gets a flat and has to walk home (forgot to take a repair kit on such a simple ride). Date:
8th August 2008
Day 8: Having fixed Sam's flat from the day before (chewed up valve from moving around in the tyre too much) the three of us go for another ride round Nonsuch Park Date:
10th August 2008 Another ride organised by Dave 'three hills' and starting from the Peaslake car park at a very leisurely 10-45 am we head up Pitch Hill. I'm feeling good today. I have managed to ride eight out of the last nine days (see above) and have also finally renewed my ageing rear tyre (Conti Vert Pro circa 2004) with a lubbly new 2.35 Maxxis Hi Roller, double bagged with an old inner tube for extra puncture protection. However I begin to doubt my training on the very first climb to the trig point on the top of Pitch Hill as I am already lagging behind the others and can feel the extra weight of the Hi Roller on the rear. This reminds me of a story a recovering alcoholic told me. As your drinking takes hold you continually associate with a different circle of more and more hardened drinkers so that you can always point and say, 'well, at least I'm not as bad as that bloke' until you finally realise that you are that bloke... Well, I am obviously associating with more hardened mtb'ers so that despite riding for over a week I can say 'yes but I'm not quite as fit as those blokes yet, I need to ride more'. What's that? Oh! you got the analogy already without me having to spell it out. So from thereonin it's a series of long and arduous climbs with some fun bits thrown in like the Star Wars inspired 'Death Star', Deliverance which Terry and I ride, Summer Lightning, Yoghurt Pots, Telegraph Road and Barry Knows Best to finish before riding back to the cars. The rain yesterday had not helped the trails and it was slippy under tyre and I was getting blown out the back of the peloton on most of the climbs but we completed it in in a little under three and a half hours so I can't be that unfit. A brief stop in Leith Hill quarry also confirmed that the 'bloke with the digger' has been spoiling the fun by totally mashing the jump at the bottom of the quarry. Many thanks to Dave for guiding us round and to Davebus Productions for a number of the pictures. He retains the copyright on his pictures.
Date:
12th August 2008
Day 10: I join Gary on his hitherto 'secret' training ride on a Tuesday evening in Richmond Park; the first time I have ridden there. ?And good fun it is too, blasting past the cars who are all observing the 20mph speed limit, smiling at the police officers holding the radar 'gun' and seeing dozens of other roadies of all shapes, sizes and speeds either doing the same loop as us or doing it in reverse. 18 miles there and back and two laps of the park totalling 23k (yeah, yeah, I know, it's us Brits and our mixed imper-metrics) make for a good evenings work even if it is raining in the far corner of the park. READ
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Date:
15th August 2008
Day 11: Another quick spin round Richmond Park, two laps clockwise and one anti-clockwise just to see what it was like (it was like clockwise but the other way round!) READ
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Date:
19th August 2008
Day 12: Back to Box Hill for my normal route. Very stiff legs today and took at least half an hour to warm up but climbed the zig zag road well and felt good by the end READ
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Date:
22nd August 2008
Day 13: It's Friday afternoon and even though I'm on holiday it still feels great riding during 'work time' with Mat and Dave. This feelgood factor briefly evaporates on the first climb as I get dropped by Mat and Dave and then get chainsuck leaving me crawling up to join them on Stane Street. This just isn't fair, I am riding all month and still not getting noticeably fitter or faster. But it's just taking me a while to get warmed up and after 45 minutes I am firing on all cyclinders and really enjoying the riding even the chalky grass-covered climb up Box Hill; it makes a change to do it off road. Dave is on camera duty so thanks to him again for most of the pictures: he retains copyright. READ
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Date:
25th August 2008
Day 14: Another evening spin around Richmond Park with Gary. The main highlight being us having a running battle with a lady who was desperate not to be overtaken by us. She was fast but I got her in the end and set my new PB for two laps of 45 mins 25 seconds READ
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Date:
27th August 2008
Day 15: Another road ride with cas who is now back from his holiday. A different route taking in the hills around Caterham and Chaldon. Just under 40 miles but they were hard miles with one hairpin on Hilltop Lane rising up like a wall in front of you as you approached it (see location below). READ
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Date:
30th August 2008
Day 16: A ride from Dorking station featuring the best weather of the whole month as we head through dorking and onto Milton Heath making our way towards Wolverns Lane. From there it's up to Leith Hill to meet Mark before tackling trails such as Windy Willow, Chocolate Jesus, Deliverance, Waggledance and Summer Lightning. Chris has worn out his Intense 5.5 riding it in the recent Megavalanche and so is lugging his 37lb Intense Socom around the hills. I had a quick go on it and it rode lighter than you would expect but that was on the flat and I wasn't going to drag it uphill for him. There's not mushroom for that kind of offer with a bike of that weight. But he was supremely confident tweaking it over the small kickers that abound in this area. It was all going so well until we headed for the station descending The Rookery where Olivia had a really big crash, slamming her hip hard into the bank. Luckily nothing was broken (confirmed later) but she was unable to continue and we had to call a cab to take her back to Dorking station. A bit of a downer to end what had been a great ride up until then but the main thing is that she is fine although undoubtedly will be very sore for a week or so. READ
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So there it is, my intensive month's cycling. A bit disappointed that I only managed 16/31 but it was great fun trying. |
December
2011
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photos and content copyright of Richard Sear 1999 to 2012 | ||||||||
