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A blog about Richard's efforts to conquer Crystal Palace criteriums [Dulwich Paragon]
January 04
1st place - Blackfriars Bridge Northbound (again) [Strava]
by  WSSPORTAL5\richardNo presence information  on 04/01/2012 19:32

It didn’t feel that fast today, but I broke my own first place record (again). I’m stupidly pleased with my power output and average speed – funny how much I’ve come to love numbers, a sure sign of repeated head injuries I think. I pushed over 1,000watts (first time for months and months)!

The only way from here is down I’m afraid.  Anyday soon, someone who’s raced in proper races this year, any old current Cat1/2 will slay me, and I’ll be shoved down the leaderboard.

But, today is my day, and this will make me happy all day tomorrow too.

R.

Link to Strava Leaderboard: http://app.strava.com/rides/3083029#54160989

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December 31
Falling out of love [with Polar Power meters]
by  WSSPORTAL5\richardNo presence information  on 31/12/2011 10:13

After eight years of persistence with two versions of Polar power meters, I’m finally calling it quits with this company and their products, and I understand I’m not the only one.  Apparently, Polar themselves have now discontinued production of the v2 meter (it no longer appears on their website).

In their day, these power meters offered a relatively inexpensive entry into what remains IMHO the best training aide there is.  If you already owned the correct model Polar HR watches like I do, then it was even cheaper.  For under £200 pounds you could be logging power traces in CyclingPeaks, and comparing your oh-so-measly maximal power curves with professional riders from around the world.  And the numbers were pretty accurate too, within 1% of meters costing £1,000 more.

But, I was never able to do this as regularly as I would like because these power meters just never worked reliably enough. My v1 meter went to Polar more than a dozen times, so often in fact that in the end Polar sent me a v2 meter as undisclosed compensation.  That was a couple of years ago, and I was still prepared to love the company, it seemed like good customer service, even after all that repair hassle and cost.

My v2 meter proved to be much more reliable.  My repairs bills went down, but not away.  My v2 meter has been repaired/replaced also over a dozens time now – sometimes for the the same fault.  Once it was repaired because  water leaked into it (I ride my bike in the rain), and then just recently it suffered the exactly the same water ingress fault, and stopped working all together.

But this time, Polar Support were much less helpful. For the first time in all these years, they wrote back saying I should just buy a new one!

I’m not.

Instead I’m retiring all my Polar kit, and buying the new power meter kid on the block – the Cyclops PowerCAL. This meter runs standard ANT+ wireless comms, so it will work fine with my Garmin Edge 705, and it requires no extra parts on my bike – and it costs less than the repair bill for my Polar meter.

The Cyclops kit is released but not in shops just yet – mine is pre-paid for.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Good-bye Polar and good riddance.

R.

 

Power Power Meter v1

 

Polar Power Meter v2

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December 31
Yippee! Two more King of Mountain trophies from Strava…
by  WSSPORTAL5\richardNo presence information  on 31/12/2011 09:46

 

Another second off my Blackfriars Bridge record, and new first place (by only a second) on Grove Lane.  In my own little world of pretend racing, I’m doing well over the winter.

R.

Strava Link: http://app.strava.com/rides/2987275

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December 23
today’s MRI scan (following bus crash)
by  WSSPORTAL5\richardNo presence information  on 23/12/2011 11:23

I didn’t write about my ‘bus crash’ a couple of months back, I was too embarrassed. I was basically trying far too hard to earn another one of those Strava first place medals, and ended up cheating death under a car by slamming into the back of a stationary double-decker red bus.  I had slowed from 30+mph to about 20mph, still fast enough to leave a head-shaped dent in the back of the bus.  Didn’t damage my bike which was lucky, or lose consciousness.

But I did suffer a loss of hearing in my left ear, the consultant suspected either a damaged auditory nerve or potentially something more creepy.  So he asked for an MRI scan to check for something creepy, and today was the day.

Looks pretty creepy to me.

R.

 

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December 22
1st place!–Blackfriars Bridge Northbound Sprint [Strava Racing]
by  WSSPORTAL5\richardNo presence information  on 22/12/2011 21:13
Category: Race Result

It was wet today, but I felt good and decided to attempt the Blackfriars Bridge Sprint – Northbound.  I earned second place overall a few days ago, and knew I was just a second or two off 1st.  And now I own it, this segment has been ‘raced’ over four hundred times, so I’m pleased to accept the award (which looks just like this – and only like this image).

Blackfriars Bridge looks like this most mornings on my way to work…its often a fairly dangerous place to be going flat-out on a bicycle, and more than once I’ve aborted sprints there because of cars, buses, cyclists and lemmings.

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Reasonably good run through green lights at the start, but I was forced to start slowing down because of a traffic at the end. I think these few Strava sprints each morning and night are slowly bringing my legs back after this year out of racing.  Feels good, better – almost normal.

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I’m still only second place on the Southbound run across the bridge, will start preparing to attack first place next week, as usual in City racing, getting a good run through the lights, and picking a light traffic moment will all help.

R.

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December 06
~racing results: recent highlights [strava]
by  WSSPORTAL5\richardNo presence information  on 06/12/2011 20:53

With injuries, 2011 has been a year of 'not racing' for me. I managed to enter one sportive – the 2012 Olympic Road Race circuit, from memory I came around 32nd out of the couple of hundred riders. And my 'not racing' status has meant 'not training 200+ miles/week' either (those things go together).

However, it hasn't seemed quite that grim, because I found a way of pretending to race - Strava. Strava makes everything a race all the time, just upload your GPS files, and it finds segments (short parts of rides) that others have 'raced', and then it calculates a leaderboard for that segment. I'm doing OK with this, I have a whole bunch top 10 places, although sadly- no UCI points are awarded for Stava places.

Can't wait to get back out there…here's a couple or more of my Strava 'wins':

Gotthard Pass (Switzerland)
Awarded King of the Mountain

(in a bus, only 'rider')

http://app.strava.com/segments/684694

Frazione Spina Climb (Italy)

Awarded King of the Mountain

(the only rider)

http://app.strava.com/segments/782570

London Bridge Southbound (UK)

Awarded King of the Mountain

(underwater – due to GPS error) http://app.strava.com/segments/826671

Crystal Place to Croydon Road (London, UK)

Awarded King of the Mountain

(out of 122 riders and 1,301 'races'!)

Amazing! An actual real result.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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December 06
Latest news: Second surgery “The Parts Removal” getting nearer…
by  WSSPORTAL5\richardNo presence information  on 06/12/2011 20:22

…I'm almost ready to have all my 9-month old titanium parts removed! Had my pre-operation assessment today, lots of questions and tests – I'm sure I 'passed'. 125/65 blood pressure is the right side of athletic normal, and 60bpm resting HR wasn't too bad considering where I was at the time.

It will be sooo nice to have my elbow and shoulder back to normal, and to put my POC elbow protector away for good. I never really got used to these screws and plates sticking out from under my skin.

R.

 

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August 13
I’m getting rid of my new titanium parts…
by  WSSPORTAL5\richardNo presence information  on 13/08/2011 13:45

​...six months earlier than the surgeon first told me. Another hospital visit this week, and yet more clues emerge from the surgeon about my arm.

First news was that the collar bone plate and screws will actually grind away my shoulder over time (it's the extra locating pin bit that does the damage, not the plate or screws themselves). They'd originally told me these pieces would probably stay in for life.

The second piece of news is that everything must go. I'm fit enough and healed enough from the first round of surgery to survive the second round now. Originally, they thought I'd be in surgery around Mar2012, but now they think I ready at any time from today onwards. I suppose that's good news really, but I wasn't really prepared to do surgery earlier.

I'm now on the waiting list...

On a more general note, I have survived six weeks of physio - albeit under the influence of drugs (it was deemed too painful at physio to perform without drugs). My elbow doesn't straighten fully yet - it's about 20 degree shy. This turns out not be very debilitating at all.

The worst thing is the screws and stuff sticking out of my elbow. Once or twice a day I knock my elbow against something (desks, doors, shower walls), and end up screaming involuntarily. You might think out of this as similar to hammering a nail punch directly onto your elbow bones.

Inside me, it looks like this now (about the same as before – only with less swelling):

WP_000169 

On the outside, it looks like this, only it’s much more impressive than these photos show – the hardware bits really do stick out quite alot.

WP_000222WP_000223 

R.

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May 29
even more new parts: New Body Protection
by  WSSPORTAL5\richardNo presence information  on 29/05/2011 19:50

It's now about nine weeks since my horrific crash and my even more horrific surgery, and it will be soon be time to get back on the saddle. I am currently experiencing a whole new world of physical pain called physio-terrorism for 90 minutes a day, coupled with a whole new permanent world of mental pain called "adrenaline withdrawal symptoms".

For two months I've been wearing this custom-made removable immobilising cast on my arm. It's a fantastic contraption and deserves some kind of patient-experience gold award. But you can't ride a bike while wearing it – it's not very aero, and it makes you look silly (see picture below).

 

So, after several heart-felt email exchanges with the stars of the motogp and mtb downhill circuits, I've replaced this afore pictured cast with a new (slightly) articulated piece of hi-tech body armour (this is it in the picture) –> POC Arm Bone Pads.

 

Perhaps my entire blog readership (Hi Mum), might be thinking this new Star-Wars-Technology body armour maintains the non-aero, silly-looking characteristics of my old cast. That might be true, but at least will make it somewhat harder to catch me.

I'm back on my bike tomorrow.

R.

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April 30
updated recovery news
by  WSSPORTAL5\richardNo presence information  on 30/04/2011 15:57

Giving up racing might hurt more than breaking my arm in eight places.  The surgeon only told me about the number of breaks five weeks after my surgery, which makes me slightly fearful about what he’ll tell me in three weeks time at my next check-up.

I’ve been exploring what racers do after they retire.  I talked with two ex-professional racers I’ve met through Dulwich Paragon over the years, people for whom retiring from racing was a much much bigger deal. They both reassure me that the joy of cycling goes on long after the racing stops, and in their cases, was a relief after the the grind of racing for 150+ days each year at the pro level (versus my embarrassingly weenie 25+ days each year at Cat3 level). These guys didn’t have to talk to me, and I’m so glad they did  - a little perspective is helpful. So, my early plan was to just get well, and then start riding out again with a few friends – like I used to enjoy in the off-seasons.

I’m healing right to plan. My opiate pain-killers have run out, and I’ve given them up for good. And my arm has started to move again – shoulder moves fairly well, elbow less so. Can’t type with my right hand, tie shoe laces or cut up my food – but can shower and get dressed (much to the relief of my neighbours).  Mostly I feel extremely muscle stiff, which is so much better than feeling 10/10 pain.  Regularly getting bursts of four hours sleep.

I met up with some racing friends at the Herne Hill Good Friday track meeting – an event I had intended to race this year. The bitterness of it all could have been overwhelming, but the support from friends helped.  I also met other injured racers, some of whom have injuries that make my injuries look like cat scratches, and these guys were so enthusiastic about their progress and their eventual return to racing (despite losing limbs) – that I was completely inspired to find myself a new suitable competitive outlet.

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If he can ride, why can’t I? (note: no helmet, no gloves)

For years I said to myself that when I retire from real men’s ultra-fast, ultra-dangerous criterium wrangling, that I would take up the more gentlemanly no-right-hand-turns sport of track (as in velodrome) racing.

It will take months more recovery, and a year of re-training (not to mention building up a new bike), but it’s starting to feel like a possibility.

And that’s good, because its been weeks since I’ve thought about possibilities.

R.

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 About this blog

 
 
 
The continuing incredible story of one over-45-year old's entry into the insane world of  criterium racing for over-23-year olds, and the occasional progress he makes.