Mud & Broken Bikes

Ok so I did only start this Blog on Wednesday, but I'm now 3 days into the Christmas riding plan, and well it's not really been followed to the letter...

So Friday night was spent in the garage preparing the road bike for Saturday's ride, 5 minutes in and the bolt in the front mech snapped. GREAT. 

Saturday was a local mountain bike ride. Some new trails, new woods, lots of mud and all good fun. Plan was to head upto Sherwood Pines and back. 11 miles in and I get a puncture... Obviously only had a road tube for some reason, so a slow wobble back home to get that fixed. GREAT.

Right, so off to the local shop. Langdale Lightweights in Mapperly for a new front mech for the TCR, and then raid the garage for a spare 29" MTB tube.

Bikes fixed. So went off for a quick 20 mile loop with Jack on the road bike, Southwell loop and back, a few efforts up some local hills saw some top 5 Strava times, so I'll be going back out then...

Today was meant to be a trip to Dalby. Christmas plans meant there was only time for a quick MTB loop around Sherwood Pines, with Jack & Joe. MUDDY. The forks on the Giant XTC 29er had been feeling a bit, well, rubbish, and then about half way around they went solid, minimal compression. So I'll be fixing that tomorrow. 

So 2 days riding:

1 puncture

1 snapped mech bolt/new front mech

1 pair of Rock Shox SIDS needing a fettle.

The Festive Plans.

The festive period, always a interesting time to get in the miles, in between beers, turkey, and chocolate oranges.

So anyway, this is my plan:

Lots of Mountain Biking, including a trip to Dalby in Yorkshire, and some road rides in The Peaks.

Then, as the plan says, i'll be off to Scotland on the 28th to stay with Lucinda, taking the bike too so will be riding the Ayrshire Alps! As well as some trail running in preparation for our off road duathlon in January. Muddy! 

As some additional motivation from 24th Dec to 31st December Rapha and Strava are challenging you to ride 500km... So i'll try that. 

The Goals.

So onto my goals for 2014:

• Achieve Cat 2
• Beat my 10 mile TT time of 23:12 (Standard Road Bike set-up)
• 1st in a cat 3/4 race
• Top 5 in Crystal Palace league
• Top 5 in a road race*
• Get in a successful breakaway
• Podium at Mountain Mayhem (Solo 24hr MTB race)
• Podium at Sleepless in Saddle (Solo 24hr MTB race - Well if it's on this year!)
• Compete in Solo 24 Hour World Championship (MTB)
• Top 200 finisher at Etape Du Tour
• Train Smarter**
• Venture into Cross racing next winter (New Bike #result) 
• Beat my 6:28 minute lap of Regents Park

*Well, so yeah. I've never actually done a road race, just crit racing, that will obviously need to change

** This is important, and more to follow on this, but essentially upto now all i've been doing is riding. So... heartrate, power, intervals, rest days, threshold etc... 

I will no doubt add a few more goals for next year, but at present, on this dark Wednesday afternoon before Christmas that is what comes to mind. 

The Intro

This blog will aim to cover my training, riding and racing, both Road and Mountain Bike through 2014.

So where to start...

A bit about me I guess? I'm 25, live in North London, and work as a Surveyor to fund everything bike related. I ride for London Phoenix and commute by bike (a distance of 10 miles each way) however often add a few Regents Park laps in...

I've been riding a mountain bike since forever, and racing endurance 12 & 24hr mountain bike races for the past 4 years, when I decided to start taking things a little more serious. This obviously meant I bought a road bike in 2010. A Trek of some sort with a tripple. This was sold, and January 2011 saw me acquire a Giant TCR Alliance Zero, my current race bike.

Bikes:
Giant TCR Alliance Zero
Boardman SC Comp SS - Running a stupid 49:16 gear
Giant XTC 1 29er - MTB
Giant XTC Composite - SS

2013 has been a good year:
Jan - March
Club rides, solo rides, cold hands, wet feet and a few Regents Park laps.

April:
I started racing in April as standard Cat 4 race fodder, competed in a number of races at Hillingdon, and managed a few top 10 places, however you couldn't get vital points in this series...

May:
Crystal Palace Crit time. A series of races around Crystal Palace park where points were awarded for top 10. This was a technical course, but quick and great fun, 2 top 10 places were achieved.

June:
I won a race at Cyclopark in Kent and moved upto Cat 3. Also rode Mountain Mayhem 24hr MTB race finished 7th in a team, next year i'm going Solo.

July:
This month was taken up with continental riding, namely Le Etape Du Tour, Le Marmotte and riding from London to Paris to watch the finish of the tour.

August:
Back to Palace racing, 1 rubbish race, 1 cancelled race and 1 race where I sat on the front the WHOLE time, managed 6th.

September - December:
Solo riding, riding with Lucinda, cold feet, cold hands, Hertforshire loops, Chiltern Loops, many many Regents Park laps.

So end of the year and time to refelct.
I've done quite a few miles, to date,12,746 miles over 751 hours and 48 minutes. Will be hitting that magic 13,000 by 31st December, whilst this has been great, i'm knackered. I intend to do things a little different next year, and set a few goals. More of which to come.

External links:
Strava Profile: http://www.strava.com/athletes/144057
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WillBeresford1
Instagram: http://instagram.com/willberesford