Sat 24th  Jan 09       ANZA ‘Enduro’                     151km        5.14hrs  29kmh

Sun 25th  Jan 09      ‘Hills’                                    30km        1.16rs    22kmh

Mon 26^th   Jan 09      ANZA Malaysian trip – Kulai   162km       5.40hrs  29kmh

The ‘Enduro’ ride was essentially double the normal Saturday ride and the pace was kept sensible.  Suffered from sunburn and sunstroke on Saturday afternoon, after the ride so  Sunday was a gentle trip out with my son Sam up Buena Vista hill and the fearsome, but short Kent Ridge – 3 times, beaten quite easily each time by him (gggrrr!!).

Monday was my first cycling trip into Malaysia, crossing the border at 6am and into ‘bandit country’ in the dark (I was told not to wear my watch and bring a cheap phone and just enough cash!).  Anyway, no issues, some great rolling (and steep) hills, together with some very interesting road kill (rats, hundreds of frogs and even a dead monkey –  you don’t see that in Northampton!) made it a great day.  The beer at Brewerkz after 162km tasted so sweet!!!

So week one is over and i trained on the turbo Monday – Friday with a cross selection of podrunner,serena williams (nike rip off!) and the most impressive Foo Fighters – In Your Honor CD. Im not sure if Mrs D’Amery is very happy with the volume but hey i have to get in shape.

Saturday was the first long ride since the bus fodder ride last summer and what was supposed to be an hour turned into almost Three (just as well i had done some training) it was great to be out again though and i am looking forward to this weeks training, Jamie might even get his bike out of the bag!!!!.

PS:

As Jon reminded me on Saturday “Pain Is Temporary, Quiting Is Forever “

PDA

This morning we had good turnout for the usual training ride 6 in total. Because I did not have too may time pressures today I decided to peel off from the other guys and do a longer ride so I saw bits of Warwickshire and Oxfordshire as well as the usual Northants. The scenery was fantastic – the temperature and the wind were not!

In total I did about 80 miles (130K) which I am pleased with at this stage in the preperation beacase I gave not trained on the road enough since xmas due to the weather and other commitments. But the size of the task that we have undertaken is starting to dawn on me as on our first day we have to do 130 miles – so on todays route I was 50 miles short!!

But we are six months away from the event with the better weather, longer rides and the opportunity to shed some of the layers we have to wear at the moment.

Looking forward to the ride on 1st Feb.

The next milestone is 100 miles.

Dave

2009 has been a great start for the training so far – but being back at work means that it’s harder and harder to find the time to get out. Still, I’m happy with the rides that I’ve managed so far.  This week it’s my time to moan about the weather – it’s monsoon season and although the weather has been warm and dry, the wind that brings the rains in have been adding that extra ‘spice’ this week!   

Here’s what I have managed to achieve since Jan 1:-

Fri 1^st Jan 09            Joyriders Fri ride                     51km        2.01hrs  28kmh

Sat 2nd Jan 09         Joyriders Changi                      86km        3.02hrs  28kmh

Sun 3rd Jan 09         Joyriders Kranji                        75km        2.25hrs  31kmh

Wed 7^th  Jan 09        Joyriders Wed ride                   51km        1.49hrs  28kmh

Fri 9th  Jan 09          Joyriders Fri ride                      51km        1.52hrs  27kmh

Sat 10th  Jan 09       Joyriders Changi                      85km        2.48hrs  30kmh

Sun 11th  Jan 09       Joyriders Kranji                       74km        2.28hrs  30kmh

Wed 14^th Jan 09        Joyriders Wed ride                   51km        1.50hrs  28kmh

I am conscious that I need to get some longer distance rides under my belt, in order to prepare for our summer event at 200km a day, so was pleased to see some dates published for the remainder of the year by ANZA cycling club, (the Australia New Zealand Association) for some Audax rides (a style of long distance cycling event mostly popular in France) and plan to do as many of these as possible before July.

The original form of the audax style involves riding in strict group formation at a steady pace set by a road captain. The group attempts to maintain a pace of 22.5km/h between stops. The route is pre-planned with designated stopping points. For longer audax events the group may ride between 16 and 20 hours in a day before stopping at a designated sleeping location. The goal of the audax is to finish inside the prescribed time limit with all members of the group present. A support vehicle is allowed to follow each group of riders.

Events planned here include rides from Singapore into Malaysia and back to Singapore, all single day rides. February 28th 200km, March 28th 300km, April 18^th 400km (wow!), May 16^th 200km, June 13th 300km  and July 11th 200km.

I have also signed up for the Joyriders Feb trip to watch the Tour De Langkawi Pro event in Malaysia which will also allow us the opportunity to climb Fraser Hill and the fearsome Genting which is supposed to be one of the toughest climbs in pro cycling – bring it on!!

Not to be outdone by my UK buddies I have also taken up Yoga (much to the amusement of everyone at work and at Joyriders).  My long suffering wife Alison and some neighbour friends of ours decided, over probably too many bottles of wine during the Christmas break, to join as a group.

We elected for Hot Yoga (Bikram Yoga) – apparently the secret to Andy Murray’s recent leap up the Tennis world rankings!  Each class comprises of a gruelling hour and a half session of the most fierce stretches imaginable and all at 40 deg C, sauna heat.  You sweat buckets but feel great after the class – and even better after a pint or two of Tiger beer to cool you down afterwards!  We have both enrolled on a 3mth open pass and whilst Alison is going every day (!) I have also managed a reasonable 3 classes a week.

All the best

Chris

Sounds like a good training ride and for a good cause, see below, I have entered.

A local Cycling Team are running a sportif event on Sunday Feb 1^st in support of the Geoff Thomas Foundation for people with leukaemia (more details below). This is a non competitive, timed cycling event over a distance of approximately 120 kilometres (about 70 miles) starting and finishing at Cranfield University, This is not a race and is really as hard as you want to make it. The course is very scenic, taking in a lot of Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire countryside and looks to be a well organised event.

Link to the website with all the details of the event including Grant and Graeme (the organisers) contact details and a link to the Geoff Thomas Foundation website  

http://www.cycleweb.co.uk/synergy/reg.tov.shtml#top

So its only 205 days to go and the weather is still being unkind to us and the forecast for next week is not too heartening. Training over christmas has not been as extensive as I would have liked but is about all I could have hoped for with trips out to see family and friends and all usual fetivities.

Text from Jon today regarding a ride at short notice but I could not manage it (all warm gear in the washing machine – I have not used that one before)

So this is it later this year we are off on a major challange so the miles and effort have to step up – watch this space – 3 hour ride tomorrow morning. Brrrr

A Happy New Year to all, I hope everyone had a great festive period, now comes the time for the guys to really start stepping up our training and get serious before our depart on the 25th of July, it’s only 205 (if my maths is correct) days until we leave….that’s a bit sobering after all the excess over the last week or so.

Unlike our South East Asian contingent (Chris) it is not 32C here but more like 32f!! The problem at this time of year is skinny wheels do not go together with icy roads!! Our training over the next two months will be mostly indoors either on the fixed bikes in the gym or on the turbo trainers in the garage. For those who are not familiar, a turbo trainer is a machine that you can put your bike rear wheel in and it spins on a fly wheel that you can vary the resistance of. To avoid the boredom you stick on a DVD to watch, however there is something quite weird about training really hard, sweating and generally being on the limit physically whilst laughing at Father Ted, Peter Kay or something similar!

We will be doing at least one long endurance ride on the road at the weekends and we will be updating you on miles covered and places visited. We are becoming increasingly familiar with all the back roads of Northants but as the mileage increases we will venture into Warwickshire, Beds and Leics. If you see us on the road please give us a wave or friendly toot.

Finally we will be officially launching the ride and appeal at the end of January so please keep your eye on the blog for details.

PS – Congratulations to Paul (Manning) on his MBE and also to all the members of Team GB that won awards in the New Years honours list, 2008 has been a great year for cycling lets hope 2009 is as successful.

Father and Son Christmas day ride

As it is Christmas I decided that I would treat myself to a new bike. After an enjoyable period of drooling over various web sites, making a nuisance of myself in bike shops and intensive interrogation of fellow cyclists, I splashed the cash on a BMC SLC Pro.  Fully loaded, the bike weighs an impressive 7.1kg – the comments that I received at home about losing 10kg from my belly and saving an awful lot of money were only to be expected!

I also bought myself a Polar heart rate monitor to help track my training progress and bore everyone stupid with too much detail!

It’s winter in Singapore now which means an average temperature of 32 degrees each day rather than 34 degrees so there are plenty of opportunities for biking – unlike the possibilities for my poor buddies in the freezing UK.

As I belong to two cycling clubs here – Joyriders and ANZA (Australia & New Zealand Association Cycling), there are daily rides organised – all I have to do is turn up and ride!  Unfortunately, due to the heat and in order to avoid the rush hour traffic (and to get to work on time), the rides are either at 5am or 6am during the week but with the luxury of a lie in at the weekend when the rides start at 7am. As I live 14km away from the rendezvous point I have a 30 minute warm up just to get there!

Cycling here is very different from the UK, hot and humid, with some runs through areas of jungle where it is common to see wild monkeys and flocks of green parrots.  It still makes me laugh when the peleton call is exaggerated monkey noises in order to alert the group to the little critters.

Many of the rides are flat as there are few hills and certainly no mountains here in Singapore.  The Singapore version of Alpe D’Huez is South Buena Vista (SBV) Hill which winds upwards for about 2km and the tropical equivalent of Galibier is Mount Faber which is steeper but shorter at around 600m (circuits required).  The steepest that I have found is Kent Ridge – our version of Mt Ventoux – short but steep – I’m guessing 400m at 10%. 

Each week I will detail my rides, not because I want to bore everyone but because this will help me track my own progress and give me the incentive to train as much as possible for our European Challenge!

On holiday from work until Jan 5th so loads of biking while I had the chance.

Date                       Ride                                           Dist     Time   Avg Speed

Sat 20^th Dec 08        Joyriders Changi Loop                   87km   3hrs      29kmh

Sun 21^st Dec 08        Joyriders Kranji breakfast ride         76km   2.52hrs  27kmh

Mon 22^nd Dec 08       Jurong Loop, Kent Ridge, SBV         33km   1.16hrs  26kmh

Tue 23^rd Dec 08        Joyriders Sprints                          70km   2.27hrs  28kmh

Thur 25^th Dec           Joyriders Christmas ride                 78km   2.58hrs  27kmh

Fri 26^th Dec 08          ANZA city loop                            38km   1.20hrs  28kmh

Sat 27^th Dec 08        ANZA Kranji                                 78km   2.40hrs  29kmh

Sun 28^th Dec 08        Joyriders Kranji                            70km   2.27hrs  28kmh

Tue 30^th Dec 08        Joyriders Sprints                          68km   2.23hrs  29kmh

Wed 31^st Dec 08       Joyriders Wed ride                        51km   1.52hrs  27kmh        

 Happy New Year everyone – looking forward to some great biking in 2009!!