Tuesday 30 December 2008

Don't forget your overshoes

Just back from a 75miler. I didn't honestly realise it was going to be so cold, so I set off without overshoes. About 15miles in the ice blocks that resembled my feet were begining to bug me. A quick call home to send out the "team" car (aka my dad in his van) resulted in him arriving with no overshoes as he couldn't find them, and him nearly running out of fuel by the time he reached me as he didn't think I would have made it so far. So that meant I had to hand over my coffee shop cash so he could get fuel. Nice one! Now I was not only sufferring from ice block feet but white van man had stolen my cash. Argh! Why is it some days just go like that?

Anyhow, it turned out to be a pretty good ride all the same. I had actually planned on doing 100 but without money to buy food I didn't want to chance it. I'm now sitting pretty in my slippers, scarf, wooly jumper and jogging bottoms, proud to have suffered the distance with cold feet. Tommorow, I will be more prepared!

Friday 26 December 2008

New Team and Merry Christmas!

Afternoon readers.

Hope everyone has had a good christmas. Apart from spending the first half of my holidays fitting my mothers new kitchen, i've had a nice relaxing time at home with my mum, dad, sister (who is home from glasgow) and friends. Yesterday I did a nice easy 30miler before the Xmas meal to work up an appetite. I can safely say that i've now seen all the turkey and chocolate I want to see in a while!

The thing I enjoy about this time of year is that it marks the time for when the real focus for the race season begins. Having already filled my alcohol quota with celebrations with friends over the christmas period, i've decided to use the remaining 10 days of my holiday to lay down some high volume training miles. The weather outlook is good so I might venture across the water for a couple of days and do some exploring. Not what some people would consider the best way to spend new year, but for me, being on the bike is what I enjoy the most, so that's exactly what i'm going to do :-) At the moment, i'm probably in the best form I ever have been for this time of year, and i'm feeling highly motivated so things are looking good.

For the next bit of good news, I've also picked up a sponsor from Sandy Wallace Cycles who will be supporting me for the upcoming season. He already has the likes of Hamish Creber on the Team so it will be great to be riding and racing with other top cyclists. Thanks to the support given by Sandy, for 2009, I will be riding an Orbea Alma (same as Olympic Champion Julien Absalon). It should be in my hands in the next couple of weeks so i'm very much looking forward to recieving that. I'm building it custom spec as i'm a fussy blighter with my bike setup, but it will look something along the lines of the pic below. I will keep you posted on the full spec, and the build should come in around 19.5lbs by my calculations which saves 1lbs on my trusty GT Zaskar build, while gaining a heck of a lot of stiffness. Heck, if it is good enough for Absalon, it will sure be good enough for me!



So thats about it for the moment. I hope everyone has a great new year if I don't post again before then. Slainte!!

Saturday 6 December 2008

Nice winters day


Or at least it was until it started raining. Myself and my friend Roddy set off this morning for a 50-60 miler out towards Uig. With the roads all frosty, and little wind, we both were feeling the chill to start but soon warmed up. On the way back the heavens opened unfortunately, and we both ended up soaked to the bone. Roddy peeled off at about mile 52 to make a break for home, and I continued to turn the clock round until the 60mile point. Great ride (well, at least I thought so)!