Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content
Home
A blog about Richard's efforts to conquer Crystal Palace criteriums [Dulwich Paragon]
March 31
Track Bike Project: all parts arrived!
by  WSSPORTAL5\richardNo presence information  on 31/03/2012 16:38

(for those that didn't already know, my arm surgery went perfectly, and I am now all human again and preparing for the Herne Hill velodrome season)

Today the last parcel of parts arrived for my first track bike. This ends a frenzy of research and shopping, and it's sad to think I no longer have th excuse to purchase dozens of bike bits each week.

One extra part in the photo not strictly needed.

R.

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)
February 21
Last post with titanium inserts
by  WSSPORTAL5\richardNo presence information  on 21/02/2012 19:35

Tomorrow morning, I will have all the titanium parts in my collarbone and elbow removed.  I reckon this will save over 150g over my total bike-rider weight.

If you don't hear back from me, you'll know the surgery didn't go so well.

Should be pretty minor cuts, and only a couple weeks off my bike, and another &^%$$ sling to deal with.

But then, I'll back to normal.  Need a few more parts to complete my track bike, which means a debut season year of racing at Herne Hill Velodrome.  And then in May, I'm off the ride three stages of the Giro d'Italia with an old mate.

Plenty to look forward to.

Will post some gory pictures when I get back...

R.

 

 

​

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)
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

image

image

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)
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

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)
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

image

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)
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.

 

image

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)
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.

image

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.

image

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.

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)
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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)
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.

 

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)
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.

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 0 Comment(s)
1 - 10Next
Alert Me Alert Me
 

 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.