Too fat to be a cyclist. Too skinny to be a weightlifter.

[kallefs]

Crazy numbers! Good job, and it seems as if the training has paid of.

[Big Good Wolf]

Thanks, most of it was commuting. I'm very lucky living and working where I do as I've got a 12.5km each way, 90% off road commute.
I frequently extend it with a mixture of road and off road routes.

[Big Good Wolf]

It's about time I updated my log before I drop off page 1.
I'm aiming for 10 000km on a mountain bike this year.
792km ridden in January, which is 55km down so far. I'll catch up when the weather gets better.

Today's dinner; Left over Sweet & Sour.
Water chestnuts
Baby sweetcorn
Peppers
Onions
Mushrooms
Bamboo shoots
Pineapple
Vinegar
Sugar
Rice

[Big Good Wolf]

Overdue for an update.

Trailquest last Sunday at Lower Brailles, Oxfordshire.
3rd/16 in age category, 5th/44 overall. http://www.midlandtrailquests.co.uk/eve ... .php?e=147
60km in 3:06 http://ridewithgps.com/trips/571868

Currently about 150km down on my target of 10000km on a mountain bike this year. I'll catch up.

[downhillingdemon]

Just a bit overdue!

*slaps BGW's wrists*

Summer will be here soon - those 150 km will disappear under your wheels in no time

[Big Good Wolf]

Trailquest around Aldsworth, Gloucestershire.

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/596600

4th in age category, 8th overall.

[Big Good Wolf]

Scrabble PB yesterday playing Mary.
Scored 400 for the first time in my life, then she finished so I had to subtract the 3 points I still held, finishing on 397.
My excitement at having a score of 400, however briefly, was only slightly marred by her trying to make me feel guilty for beating a cripple in a hospital bed.

[Big Good Wolf]

Wiggle Enduro 6
Six hour mountain Bike race at Catton Park, Derbyshire.

My support crew is still in hospital, so I didn't bother with a tent, I drove up and slept in the Land Rover on my own, although my ex-support crew was there, so I said hello as I lapped her in the race.

Practice lap on Saturday afternoon.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/175492990
40:03 This wasn't flat out pace, but it wasn't my 6 hour pace either. If I could lap in 40 minutes, I'd get 9 laps in before the 6 hours was up and go out for a 10th.
I knew I couldn't though, so I aimed for 45 minute laps and a 9 lap total.

Race on Sunday.
I knew it was going to be hard. The ground was very wet in places and a lot of the course was across grassy fields, which are hard work at the best of times.
The dirt tracks in the woods were very wet as well. Not so much slippery mud, just dragging, sticky mud.
I started off lapping in about 42 - 43 minutes, by the end I was down to 46 - 47 minutes, so I don't think I paced myself as well as I should. I put it down to the mud, it was far more tiring than I expected.
I finished my 8th lap at 5:58:13, so just had time to go out for a 9th, getting back at 6:45:00.
No results on line yet, but it looks like I was 23rd/109 solo male overall, with no separate classes for veterans or single speed.
It was my first race on the Quroz belt drive single speed and it worked perfectly.
http://ridewithgps.com/trips/630928

328km down on my 10 000km target so far this year, due to missing quite a few commutes as I drive to work trying to sort out stuff for Mary for when she comes home from hospital.
She's more concerned about me getting behind than I am.

[Big Good Wolf]

I keep saying I'm going to do some long rides on Sundays when there's nothing else on, and today I finally did.
80km, up the Severn Valley to Ironbridge and back.
http://app.strava.com/rides/8950272
I got to Hampton Loade on the Severn Valley Railway just as the last coach of the train was leaving the station.
There's a cycle track alongside that part of the railway, it's a bit up and down, but it's a good surface, so I gave chase.
I was just about catching up with the locomotive on the flat bits, then dropping back on the climbs until I had to stop for a barrier and got left behind.
I took it easier after that and although my route took me well away from the railway up the side of the valley and back down and I even stopped to look at the map at one point, wondering if I should take a detour home, I got to Arley station only about two minutes after the train.
I'll have to go back and have another go at a bike v steam train race one day.

I've offered use of my monster tent to any other vegans who want to ride any mountain bike endurance events I'm at and no one's taken me up on it yet.
I'll be sharing it with a vegetarian friend at Erlestoke 12 next weekend.

[Lordmuppet]

chasing a train that's pretty hardcore

[Big Good Wolf]

As it's a preserved railway with steam trains, there's a 25mph speed limit, which makes it a bit easier for me on the bike.
Looking at the timetable, I reckon Hampton Loade to Arley and Northwood Halt to Bewdley are the only sections where I've got a realistic chance of keeping up. Everywhere else, the road and cycle tracks zigzag up and down the sides of the valley, while the train cuts straight through.

Anyway, as I've got a 12 hour race next weekend, I thought I'd have another go at keeping a food log.
So, Monday;
Half a packet of Jammy Dodgers
4 Potato waffles with a tin of baked beans
8 Potato waffles with syrup*
Most of a packet of Hob Nobs
2 muffins
About 4 Bananas
8 Alpro soya desserts
Nearly half a cheesecake
1l soya milk
About 3l squash

*There was a bit of a misunderstanding a few years ago, when I first heard mention of waffles and syrup
Not realising at the time that there were two types of waffle, the batter ones eaten with syrup and the potato ones not normally eaten with syrup, I bought the potato ones and ate them with syrup.
By the time I found out I was doing it wrong, I'd got to liking it, so I've carried on ever since.

The cheesecake.

[Big Good Wolf]

The food log didn't go so well did it ?
The rest of the week was more of the same, muffins, spaghetti on toast, fruit and biscuits mostly, with only one proper cooked meal of pasta on Thursday evening.

Anyway, to Erlestoke for a 12 hour race starting at 12 noon.
I met up with a couple of friends who shared my big tent during the race as they were both riding solo, both veteran women, one vegetarian and one ex-vegetarian.
Another pacing disaster, I started out lapping in about 42 minutes and was down to about 53 minutes by the end.
14 laps, plus the short loop round the camping field at the start which shows as another lap on the results, so it looks like I did 15.
The winner did 18
I was really struggling towards the end and thought I must be well down the results.
It was a fantastic course with loads of single track through the woods, but it was very bumpy which made it hard to relax and cruise anywhere.
I was surprised to find I finished 6th out of 46 solo male entrants or 40 finishers.

Team Qoroz veteran veg*n titanium 29er.
Hanneka finished 3rd solo female.

[IronGirl]

Awesome race BGW. You are flying!!!

[Big Good Wolf]

Thanks. Less than two weeks to my next 12 hour race, at Bristol Bike Fest.
I'll be riding single speed for that one.

May was the first month this year that I've totalled over 900km.
I'm still 350km down on my target of 10000km on a mountain bike for the year though.

[Big Good Wolf]

Bristol Bike Fest 12 hour race at Ashton Court, Bristol.

This course suits me, it's fast with not too many hills. I got 2nd Single Speed in the 8 hour event last year. 4 more hours this time on the same course and I went in to it with a realistic hope of a podium place again.
Practice lap on a wet & windy Friday evening in 34:39. The race clock stops at 12:00, so, doing the inevitable calculations, 36:00 would get me 20 laps and I'd need to lap sub 34:20 for 21.

The course is almost entirely purpose built hard packed stone. It gets a bit slippery when it's wet and muddy, but not too bad.
I did my first seven laps in a few minutes under 4 hours. I was on target for 21 laps.
By my timing, I finished my 14th lap at 7:57. I was still ahead of schedule and the course was drying up, but I was having doubts about my ability to hold the pace.
Doing the calculations in my head, I would need to finish my 15th lap by 8:34. I think I was about 1 minute under.
I missed my target of finishing lap 16 at 9:08 by about a minute, and knew from then on that 20 laps was my limit.
I was stopping every other lap to swap water bottles and grab either a banana or some flapjack.
My lap times were pretty consistent, although I did slow noticeably towards the end.

00:35:58
00:33:23
00:33:24
00:33:36
00:33:30
00:33:34
00:34:25
00:33:28
00:34:03
00:32:58
00:35:09
00:33:44
00:35:21
00:34:45
00:35:30
00:36:17
00:35:49
00:37:03
00:36:00
00:35:40

I finished my 20th lap at 11:30 by my timing. My GPS shows me as stationary for 11 minutes, so, maybe, with a pit crew I could have got another lap in.

20 laps, 182km in 11:33
3rd/7 solo single speed
If I'd entered the veterans class, I would have been 2nd/31, or 8th/53 in the open class.