Wednesday eve road ride

Planned to go spinning this eve but turned up at the gym and saw a group of normal looking people hanging around only to realise they were the spinning group. They told me Riccardo had gekundigt, or had been gekundigt, it wasn't clear. This is a shame, not much point in paying EUR65/month for nothing. Must see how I can get out of the contract trap.
Anyway made my excuses and left as the others went off to a bar with the intention on braving the cold and going out on my roadbike - still waiting for a replacement deraullier for Scotty - it seems to be lost in the post. My new Michelin Pro Comp arrived from Gypzybikes yesterday so I thought it would be prudent to put it on before my ride. Of course I did this and immediately got a flat through damaging the tube while changing the tyre - always the problem putting on v tight new road tyres.

Finally got everything sorted out and set off with not much more than an hour of daylight left. Soon stopped to put on my legwarmers. Already had arms and gillet - not very inspiring weather - cool, cloudy and windy, brrrr. Rode schnellstr, Frankenstein, then home. Couldn't get motivated to work hard, so didn't. Tried Brendan's idea and stayed seated for a lot of the way up Frankenstein. Didn't work at all for me and found it difficult to keep the power on. Stood occasionaly to get things going again. Took me 10:20, 30s slower than this year's best. However, it's not a fair comparison 'cos I couldn't be bothered really. Have to try again when I'm feeling strong.

Frankenstein & Stettbach - Wednesday eve roadride

Planned to do Frankenstein-Melibokus mtb circuit but late leaving work again so went out on the road. Came round the corner to start Frankenstein and who do I see but Brendan and Josie fiddling with the computers on their shiny new black bikes. Oh dear, these means I'll have to race Brendan to the top.
We got ourselves ready, said go, and off I went sprinting hard to get my heart-rate up to 90%. Brendan was way behind struggling to clip into his pedals as I finished the first corner and started to slow as I reached 90%. I sat briefly then stood as he came storming past on the second corner. He was soon about 30m in front, seated all the time. Then he eased a bit and stayed at the same distance til we were about way up when I slowly started to close in. I was wondering if he was fading off but he was still seated so didn't raise my hopes. I stayed out of the saddle (all the way to the top) but started to have problems with my gears jumping occasionally. As a result I rode one gear lower than before in 3rd for quite a lot of the time. Still slowly closing on him and changed to the big ring on the fast corner and caught and passed him after. For a few seconds I thought I had him beat, but he came back past me 50m before the top and I just didn't the have the energy/motivation to keep with him so arrived 2m behind him. Oh my god, I've been beaten by an over 40 :-( Maybe it's time to fix my unhealthy lifestyle - nah - he's just very good - especially teasing by pretending to be finished - or is it that his bike is about 3kg lighter than mine. Anyway best for this year at 9:46.
Josie arrived soon after with a new PB - probably be the fastest woman on her next (third) attempt. They drank my water - weren't carrying any of their own - no wonder I was slower! We rode down and towards Seeheim. Josie went home and Bren and I did Stettbach and he set offhome.I started Steigerts, changed my mind and headed back too, the usual way via Ober Beerbach, Muhltal and Bollenfaltor. Problems with my gearshift (deraulier probably needs a clean) but finished strongly up Bollenfaltor.

Distance 45.5km. Frankenstein 9m46s.

Hattersheim marathon RTF

Marathon RTF:

• Distance: 202km (+10km from missed turn)
• Height gain: 2972m
• Time: 8h33m
• Av Speed: 27.8kph
• Calories: 5175 kcal.
• http://www.rc-hattersheim.de/giro_hattersheim.html
  

Enjoyed this last year so decided long ago that I'd do it again, unles I had a good excuse not to.

This time, dragged myself out of bed at 5 am. Was hoping to join the mass-start at 6 but this was optimistic and I saw a bunch of about 100 go past as I arrived. So took it easy and set off at 6:30. during the ride I was told that this wasn't a bad thing 'cos the mass-start is actually a race but without marshalls and with people who can't ride in a bunch. Hmm, would've been interesting! Must have been great for the flat bits before Feldberg. I guess it all falls to pieces then.

Ohh, this is too early for me. Not able to eat proper breakfast so early and kept yawning and couldn't get going until I hit the small steep hills before Feldeberg. Took it steady up Feldberg but still passed many.

Mainly rode alone, but rode with a guy, Gert, from PJ's Seeheim club for about 80km. Leading him most of the time 'cos he wanted to steady his pace 'cos he had ridden from Seeheim and was heading back by bike, to make it a 300km ride! I was feeling good and didn't care if he wanted to sit on my wheel and I didn't have to wait. I even added an extra 10km to our ride by missing a turning between kontrol 3 & 4- quite a nice downhill though!

Gert left me at kontrol 5 - to ride slowly while I fed more and then catch him up - but I discovered that I had a slow puncture in my rear tyre so lost 15 mins changing the tube. Tyre is worn out. Never saw Gert again, hope he made it.

As like last year I enjoyed the ride, but not as good as last year because we were plagued by headwinds (mainly from the south) this time. Had to keep the power on all but the steeper downhills to get a decent speed for the corners.

Anyway, I was pleased with my performance and recommend this great RTF.

Three Peaks road ride

Frankenstein, Steigerts, Melibokus and a couple of small rises in between: 70km, 1210hm, 26.2kph, 1870kcal.
Rode hard but comfortable - felt pretty good.
Frankenstein 9:54,hard, but not flat out. Standing nearly the way in 5th then 4th then 5th.

Road ride round the old Heinerman course

Two gentle short rides over the weekend (on Scottie between home and Muhltalbad with Robbie) still hadn't sorted my legs out from last Wednesday eve, it seemed. Too lazy yesterday even to swim more than 400m.
So dragged my sorry arse out tonight for a gentle ride to try and get my Kreislauf running again. Late leaving work and shopping so not much time so did the good old Heinerfest triathlon circuit from Ostbahnhof to Bollenfaltor via Rossdorf and Nieder Ramstadt and a bunch other places in between.
Once I got going I felt ok, but didn't push too hard. I think warm ups are becoming quite important to me - I seem to need to work extra hard to push myself up to another energy level at which I can then settle. This course is so hilly and bendy it's difficult to hold a steady pace - or it was today anyway. No wonder they've replaced it in the triathlon with a boring straightline flat route - what a shame, that's what made the Heinerman fun, now it's completely boring.

On the course I recorded 39.3km in 70min = 31.2kph av. About the same as my times from 12 years ago (used to aim for 32kph) not bad considering I wasn't flat out.

Frankenstein mtb

Hadn't expected to ride until Monday but Robbie visited a friend for the afternoon so I had an unexpected opportunity. Weather was beautiful so had to do it. Planned to do Frankenstein and then the B path to Seeheim and back. But soon found myself feeling pretty tired and useless so turned round at Berg Frankestein. Scotty didn't feel too good either - forks seemed to have lost their rebound damping (increased it but not much better) and gear shifting was bad - I need a new deraullieur(spring) - all from a bit of rain last weekend :-)




Anyway, rode the old route from by the Polizeiepraesidium on the O and red bar path (not via Ludwigshoehe) down to the mill - nettles and brambles are starting to encroach as usual. Took the steep short-cut at the base but this is not worth it now 'cos you have to get off to pass a fallen tree. On second thoughts it might just be rideable so must try it again. Cruised on up Frankers not feeling very strong or inspired but passed a couple of others so not totally crap.
Had quick faff at the top then down the steps and towards the Tube. A bit wobbly but managed to ride around the fallen tree which is now a little clearer. On to the Tube but steady, not vollgas! A lot of deep braking bumps which make it a bit uncomfortable. Rode right down to the base like the old-days. Headed wearily home.
Felt surprisingly tired, considering I'd felt so good on the road bike the night before. Maybe this eek's late nights are catching up on me, but also I believe I didn't really eat enough to recover well yesterday/this morning/lunchtime. I.e. only salad+feta, some bread and oats and milk for breakfast.

Evening Frankenstein fast hilly road ride

Nice shortish hilly cicuit: Schnellstr-Frankenstein-Seeheim-Stettbach-Steigerts-Kuralp-???-OberBeerbach-NiederBeerbach-NiederRamstadt-Bollenfaltor.
Schnellstr to Bollenfaltor 49km at 31.3kph. Total time 1h50.
Felt strong. Managed first sub 10min Frankenstein this year - just at 9:57! Out of the saddle most of the way up.
Went quite hard (but not max) up the other hills too.
Took me a long time to recover from this - see following posts. I don't think feta & salad & a couple of pieces of bread, 3 beers, cigs and 4 hours sleep was enough - I must be getting old :-(

Le Hohwald - Sunday road ride

Woke up Sunday morning with hangover and weather forecast of storms so decided to ride on road. PJ, Pepe, Rich & I on roadbikes and Brendan on his fully. I was faffing so the others set off without me to another hill Haut Koenigsbourg. We all got lost a bit on the way and I rode all the way alone and met them at the summit. Retraced the ride back. PJ & Rich dropped me on the last stage to Le Hohwald, but I wasn't trying (see pulse) - but didn't feel strong enough to try properly.
Nice ride, very scenic with all the Alsacw vineyards and pretty villages, but I would've preferred a bit longer. Next time ride upwards from Le Hohwald and make a circuit. It felt very strange assembling my bike and riding down the hill, without any sort of warm-up or test. Found myself a bit wobbly on the corners and couldn't really push the speed up.

Le Hohwald weekend - Saturday

Great weekend cycling at Le Hohwald, Vosges/Alsace. Many thanks to Nick for organising it all, a big shame he couldn't ride with us due to flue.

I drove down with PJ on Friday eve, most of the others drove down on Sat morning.
Nice easy going mtb ride with big group well-guided by Sean, PJ, Rich, Pepe, Brendan, Josie, Claus, Rodrigo, Yvonne, Darren & Simon.
First stage from Le Hohwald to the waterfall - long wait there while Rich took photos of his cassette - a sprocket had shattered and fallen off under the extreme forces created by his immense weight, power and inept shifting :-) Weather was misty and everything was very slippery making this rocky path quite a challenge to ride clean. I had my first off-bike excursion while doubling back to find Darren and Simon, but nobody saw so it's a big secret. Simon was suffering on this climb so he, Darren, Rodrigo & Yvonne took the road for a while.
Onwards and upwards to Champ de Feu (1060m), the highest point of the ride. A bit of a slog on the slippery, stony paths but nice anyway. Quick search for the computer I lost up here 13 years ago!
Nice downhill!! They're all great downhills here! Especially the last up and downhill I did even though it pissed down on the downhill. Only problem this day was the wet rock which kept speeds down and made everything twice as tricky.

To be continued .....