Bank Holiday Ride 1

On Saturday I decided to play around with one of the routes I've been riding recently and turn it on it's head. I also left a portion of it out altogether.

So, it began with a nice sprint of about 1 mile along my main road to turn off as though going to the Velodrome (my route to the velo anyway) and up and over the speed humps that never seem to slow anyone down! Heading down towards Philips Park extension and I seem to be hurtling along at warp speed. Doesn't my body know that it was seriously injured not long ago and has no fitness or power in it??????
Once round the twisty turny section and onto the short twisty 8% hill to bring me out, slap bang, into crudville - derelict buildings along one side of the road. Right hand turn and I'm (trying) to sprint up Briscoe Lane to All Saint's Church but my body has now realised it was injured and seems to be having a massive strop as I kinda trundle my way along. Sigh. This is only 2 miles into the ride and already I'm screaming internally at myself to stop the legs being an arse and get their act together.

Once I get to a 4% rollercoaster section all the screaming seems to have worked as I flew through it towards Ashton Hill Lane and once at an annoying mini roundabout - this one perched just metres away from another roundabout and perched on a hill - a right hander takes me to a valley with a fast 8% descent and a (very unlike me) 6% uphill sprint at the other side and the top end of Woodhouses.

Coal Pit Lane used to be a cyclists worst nightmare - country lane with numerous potholes, narrow with only 1 passing place, lunatic drivers and a housing estate just shoved over to one side of it. Now it's a lovely smooth road - still have the other problems though. I positively flew along here to Knott Lanes and then began a great descent - 10% to begin with, then 15% and finally 20% all in a hill less than half a mile long. Fab!

Near the end of the hill the brakes get slammed on or the entrance to my off-road section is missed (happens to me a hell of a lot seeing as I enjoy that downhill so much!). Daisy Nook and the Hollinwood Canal is the port of call now hurtling along to the very necessary bacon butty and mug of tea. At this point I'm feeling a little foolish for wearing my nice new long sleeved club jersey as bought for me by the bro (Paul) cos I'm feeling extremely sticky. I could have taken it off as I was wearing my compression vest, but that'd mean I had nowhere to put the jersey unless I shove it into my bibshorts; i didn't really want to look like the hunchback of Notre Dame for the rest of the ride, so I just shut up and continued to get sticky!

Back on Everest and back to those 20% lock climbs; then back to that valley, only this time I was flying down the 6% side and climbing back up the 8% side to bring me out onto an unusually quiet Oldham Rd (A62) where I decided now would be a great time to punish the legs for wimping out so early into the ride. So sprinting I went. Only for a couple of miles, but still it felt good. Back down the twisty 8% hill and onto the second off-road bit - Medlock Vale, which is looking lovely now that all the work has been done on it to make it safer and more accessible.

As I've motioned in recent posts, I now seem to end my rides with a hill climb/test/repeat. Today was no exception as I went for the longer climb.

Sadly I forgot to change my bike pc from bike 1 to bike 2 (as I do when doing hill repeats etc after a ride) to record the time, so alas there're no stats from that particular section. Sorry to all you geeks out there. Also, there are no pictures as I forgot my camera and phone - sorry Jon!

Stats view route
Warm, still
Maximum speed: 28
Average speed: 12.7
Miles: 15.79
Climbed 322ft

Strange but true.

Now I know that the Welsh and US folks have unisex names (Kerry, Lesley etc) in the past, but to think I may've been named after an Anglo-Saxon king?? Hmm, I'm not convinced about that!

It turns out that in amongst the slightly strange variants of names in bygone times, there lived a King Anna! I know that he did live in a rather serene and beautiful place though - Blythburgh (a little village) in Suffolk; a place surrounded on 3 sides by salt marsh and the River Blythe. Maybe this is where my love of villages and rivers comes from?

Out & About

Even though the weather was quite pants I decided it'd be good to get out for a ride. Usually I would get the main body of the ride out of the way and finish with a hill repeat or singular climb, or maybe a sprint. Not today. Oh no!

Today, for some extremely odd reason I decided to turn things about a little and it ended up in this order - sprint, hill repeat, main ride & (just to kill me off) a longer hill climb.

So, it all began with a sprint of about 3 miles (with a max gradient of 5%) to the entrance of Medlock Vale. After I sorted out the bike pc to record my efforts separate from the main ride, I set about doing 5 repeats of the hill. This section of road was recommended to me by Amy as the perfect spot to practice hill repeats due to the gradient - if Amy recommends it, it must be good!

After knackering myself for a good 15 minutes or so, the last repeat began the start of my main ride. After turning off the hill I joined a speed-humped road to take me past Droylsden High School's enormous playing field and left past the school itself, a cemetery and to the fun of the Fiveways roundabout (the place where Paul has been hit a few times, poor love); I usually avoid this like the plague, but couldn't be bothered turning off down one of the side streets. Once safely across, I headed up Chapel St and Medlock Rd to get onto my usual route to Daisy Nook.

My route changed a little from the last time I rode it again once I got to Oldham Rd in Ashton, as I decided to test the legs by going up Wilshaw Lane and it's little sting of an 8% section. Up along to Lees Rd and I turn left and prepare to hear the muppets at the 2 high schools I have to pass to get to Alt Hill Lane and my fun, twisty sections.

The first section of the descent is a 5% drop of 36ft to Alt Hill Rd, then onto a 6% drop of 138 twisty & single-laned feet and finally onto a rolling max 4% massively wide section to bring me out to the last 20% drop of 56ft in less than 0.09 of a mile! Finally I'm at Daisy Nook and the start of the off-road track section - the part that Everest has been longing for!

Naturally as it'd been raining almost non-stop for a few days the tracks were lovely and muddy and all too soon I had the compulsory skunk-tail as I flew along the track to Sammy's Basin and the first of the lock descents which would take me to the Dark Tunnel and the welcome butty and tea stop. Once I'd made a few hound chums - Blue, the ginormous Great Dane and Molly, the very cute tiny Jack Russell - I set off again refreshed and ready for action. First port of call was those locks again - 3 of them with a max gradient of 20% and cobbled/rutted/muddy, you name it and it was probably there under my tyres!
After hauling ass up the locks I very nearly came off crossing a ford - just before the wooden rickety bridge is another cobbled section, only these cobbles are loose and very, very wonky, and very nearly tipped me off into the ford!

After following my usual route back from Crime Lake end of Daisy Nook to Medlock Vale (not the direct route, oh no!) I had another trail section through the vale and back to THAT hill for yet another hill climb attempt. Only this time I made it more evil.....I would add another quarter mile to it. Ha ha ha...I'd obviously gone mad! Or had I?

Stats view route
Mild, windy & rainy
Maximum speed (mph): 71.1 apparently
Average speed (mph): 12.4
Miles: 19.55
Climbed 459ft

Hill repeat stats view hill
Maximum speed: 10.7
Average speed: 7.00
Best time: 1.50
Climbed 85ft in 0.26 miles with max 19% gradient

Hill climb stats
Maximum speed (mph): 11.3
Average speed: 7.7
Time: 2.55 mins
Climbed 102ft in 0.44 miles with max 19% gradient

Dear God!!!

I was having a browse through some old, old photos of me earlier today and came across this awful one of me at my primary school. By the look of it, we're all doing some sort of needlework....didn't realise I went to school in the Middle Ages!

I'm the one right at the front with the girl in white looking at me. How bad is this photo?!!!!

Joke

As sent to me by my good chum Andy D -

Clubbers in Wigan have taken to using dental syringes to inject Ecstasy directly into their mouths. This dangerous practice is known as "E by gum!"

Apologies if this offends anyone in Wigan!

Apps

As mentioned a while back I'm now back on the job hunt market. Today was a fine example of such a day -

I've filled in 15 application forms (by hand!)
Emailed 5 companies with my CV & cover letter
Filled in 3 online apps
Gone boggle-eyed
Got a very numb butt
And my knees feel like they've been kicked by a donkey!

What's the betting that I get not one reply back?! :oD

Is this really safe?

While on my way to an appointment I decided to head along Robert Sheldon Way towards the huge Ikea building at the Ashton end of the road.


As i was wandering I came across these fellows and he got me thinking. Is it really safe to be putting sculptures along an always busy dual carriageway? There are seven sculptures in total (the others can be seen here) and they represent the local leisure interests and facilities.


One of the sculptures is located by the side of one of the huge roundabouts that are along this carriageway. I know if I was on my bike along here, I'd be peeking at them, so what's to stop the drivers doing it?


Granted, I like the sculptures, but I just think that they may have been better placed - you can tell these are on such a busy road in the shot of the footballer - he's behind a barrier you get on motorways!

Perplexing.

Soul Selling

I had the thrill of an interview/induction today for a company that sounded great. Out came the work clothes, boots were polished and I even made an effort with the make-up. I arrived early as per usual and had a brew while waiting for the person to arrive.

After receiving a call saying he was going to be late as a business critical problem had occurred, I settled down with a good book - Tolkein's biography.

After several more drinks the interview got under way. Blah, blah, blah - all was going well. Blah, blah, cold calling, blah - eh? Blah, blah, must have ...sales each day...blah, blah. Say what?!
Cold calling, imperative sales??????? Erm, what started out well ended up making my blood run cold; I'd worked in sales for 3 years, both cold calling and inbound and hated it with a passion!

It seems my personal advisor hadn't been told that this job was a sales job or he'd not have offered me the interview cos he knows I'd rather sell my soul to the devil!

Oh well! I'll just have to keep looking.

Everest Liberation

Say Hurrah! Everest got liberated today and she got to play out!

After all the pondering I've been doing since Doc said I can ride again and, what with all the crummy weather, when I saw today's forecast I just thought if I'm gonna get out and try riding again, now would be a good shot.

So after a little bit of faffing about I set off and immediately headed in the direction I usually do - towards Daisy Nook and up Littlemoss and Newmarket Rds. Once at the crossroads I had to do a fast bit of thinking - do I feel strong enough to go straight across and up Wilshaw Lane with it's nasty kick in it, or go a little out of the way and head up Cranbourne? Just as the lights changed to green Everest decided she wanted to go the slightly easier route (isn't she good to me?).

Once on Lees Rd (in the rain) with Hartshead Pike looming on the hill in front of me, I chose to go through Park Bridge down the steep twisting lane - nothing like that road to ensure you get over your fear of turning left (was turning left when I got hit by the car in Feb). Once through the lanes there and back onto Ashton Rd I took Everest for a spin in the mud through Daisy Nook and to the visitor centre for a bite to eat.

While at the centre Everest found herself in lust with a Spesh Stumpy while I fed the squirrel that lives in the woods there.

After a breather I set off in the mud again to Crime Lake, past a few friendly fellows (horses) and up the hill there to cross the M60 and head through Failsworth and down to the railway crossing at Berry Brow. Annoyingly I only remembered the crossing was closed today when I got down the bugger of a hill to it. So begrudgingly I had to turn tail and climb back up it and find an alternative route to get to the other side of the crossing.The alternative took me to the far side of Clayton Vale (Medlock Vale) for another off road section. Everest and her new tyres coped brilliantly and all too soon I was at the point I wanted to be - my hill repeat section. Although I knew I was badly unfit, I thought I'd still give it a shot and did rather well. You'll see how well when you view the stats.

Although I've not ridden since February, I'm a little unsure whether I'm happy or not with my average speed on this ride as you can see from the look on my face! On the brighter side my pelvis didn't hurt at all and the legs only struggled half the time.

The route can be seen on mapmyride - main route & the hill

Stats -

Cool, light winds, rain

Max speed: 26mph

Average speed: 11.2mph

Miles: 16.26

Hill stats -

Max speed: 10.6mph

Average speed: 7.4mph

Miles: 0.25

85ft of climbing (max 17% gradient)

Searching

Since being discharged from the Fracture Clinic it means that I can now get back to looking for a new job - what fun!

I found it bad enough before the recession in looking for a new place to work with only 3 interviews (Greater Manchester Police, GP surgery and M.O.D being the nice guys) out of hundreds of applications.

I've always had the problem of generally being over qualified for jobs I go for; when I worked in bars/restaurants I applied for a job as Manager of a lovely little listed pub near the place I was working. I got an interview and all was hunky-dory until they asked how long I'd been in the industry. It seems my 8yrs was way too many years for them as they wanted someone they could train up from scratch!

The same has happened since I changed careers. Having worked a year of Facilities Management was great, but I've been finding that every place I look they want less time in the industry. And that was before the recession hit!

Still, I've got plenty of experience of filling in application forms. hey, maybe I should do that for a living?