A short rider report tonight if you will indulge me.
This morning a crack team of 2 (Aldridge P and I) set off at the bleary eyed, assos chamois creamed, butt crack of dawn, destination Llandeglla Forest in North Wales. We arrived at the centre before the carpark had even opened so parked elsewhere so we could gear up, promising that we would stop for a brew and a biscuit after a lap to substitute for our carpark fee and keep the trail karma gods happy.
We span up the road and on to the trail just as they were opening up and with a cheery wave set off on our first lap. We had a cunning plan to preserve ourselves on the first lap and get to know all the new trails that the guys at http://www.oneplanetadventure.com/ have been working on for the last 4 years, then after a brew stop go for a flying lap and hit everything that few miles an hour faster as you can on a familiar trail.
Well, what can I say. The new trails are a great addition to the old. There's a load more northshore trail with little berms and even a couple of kickers if you hit them fast enough. There's a long descent filled with doubles, step ups and jumps which you can roll over but then have to roll over big slab style rock gardens on the top, or with a bit more confidence you can clear the rocks and land on the other side, producing a smoother ride and a big grin to boot. I can safely say that I don't know of another trail centre with a higher persentage of fun singletrack. There are often posts on various forums with people who dislike Llandegla stating that it is too 'easy' or even 'boring', and others who level this accusation at trail centres in general. All I can say to this is, you are missing the point, the surface is ridable in all weather, there are not going to be any dangerous surpirses round the next corner and it's just a laugh a minute. I defy anyone not to have fun on these trails, and if you think it's boring, you should be going faster!
Today, I don't mind saying it, I was riding very strongly indeed. I just felt good. On the first lap I felt strong and comfortable and never needed to tap too deeply into the energy bank. In the name of taking the first lap easier to avoid any dodgy moments I was squashing some of the doubles, noting the ones that I knew I could clear on the next time round and pre-jumping some of the little drops. On the second lap, we really gave it the beans and I'm proud to say that we passed dozens of people on the trail and were not passed once, a perfect record.
I was also proud of my own body and how it's feeling at the moment. A friend of mine mentioned in his Blog that I am a Lymphoma survivor, and since then (over a decade) I have had a bit of a run of luck which has meant that I have never really felt like I've been able to reach my full fitness potential. First the scar-tissue in the chest that after a long period of investigations needed nerves cutting just to get them to shut up, then cluster headaches which may or may not have been linked, to the discovery of a hole-in-the-heart and a dodgy valve and subsequent insertion of an implant and course of blood thinners...you get the idea ( I sound like a wreck!), but consequently I just never felt that I was able to fire on all cylinders. I knew that the chemo would leave me with compromised lung capacity but the other stuff just seemed to add to it. Anyway, for the first time in a seriously long time today I felt like "is this what it's like to be fully finctioning again?" I don't want to get too philosophical about it, but watch out, next season I feel there might be some PB's coming on!!
Right o', see you soon, thanks again for reading and have a good ride!
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Inspirational Times
Afternoon all,
A couple of things happened over the last week that have truly inspired me. Not so much fitting related but certainly tapped in to my personal ethos and mentality.
First of all we managed to progress things on Pedal Precisions links with a new charity. That Charity is Cyclists Fighting Cancer (www.cyclistsfc.org.uk). Go and have a look at their website as they can describe what they do and why a lot more eloquently than I can! To sum up though, they provide bicycles, both standard and specially adapted bikes to children fighting cancer, as well as their siblings or parents where necessary. The benefit of these bikes really can't be measured, whether helping a child feel more alive and positive whilst undergoing treatment or helping their fitness recover once treatment is over, it really is an incredibly valuable thing to be able to provide them with.
I am really pleased to be able to work with CFC going forwards, hopefully helping to provide the right bike to the children who need it and lending a hand where I can to build, setup and deliver them to the kids. A true honour to be able to help. Alongside this, I was also put in touch with the team running a 'buddy' system for the Lymphoma Society. This is where you can become a listening ear for people who are being diagnosed every day with the same disease that you (in this case me) suffered from. It is something that I have been looking to give a little back in this way for a long time, so I am really chuffed that it now seems to be possible. I know that I would have done anything to have someone to talk to whilst having Chemotherapy of my own age, who had 'been there, don that', so to have the chance to provide this for even 1 current patient would be really great.
The other thing that inspired me, was riding with some of the paralympic squad on the track last night. In what was otherwise an unremarkable qualified riders training session, these guys showed us how strong you can be despite some serious physical limitations. One rider in-particular was able to pedal solely with one leg whilst the other was clipped in to a static pedal attached to the bottom bracket. Despite this, he was still able to put the hammer down and pushed the pace on during every exercise when he hit the front. A truly awe inspiring sight and put a lot of things into perspective.
Looking at how he was riding also made me wonder about bike fitting for specific special needs. He had a number of set-up issue which had been very well addressed to allow him to get the most out of the bike, even to the extent of affecting how the bike steered to compensate for the off-centre nature of his pedalling. I'm going to do a little research into different methods of bike adapting and report back with my findings in this blog. I can already help and adapt things for a lot of conditions, and of course there are things being done already with extendable and adaptable crank arms etc., but there must be new ways to look at things to help with efficiencies and power delivery for people who need special consideration from a bike setup point of view. It may also tie-in well and help some of the children that need a specific setup when receiving their CFC bike!
As a reminder, you can also now buy a voucher for the cyclist in your life for christmas (or get someone to buy one for you). The vouchers are available for all our services at www.pedalprecision.com or even if you wish to give someone an amount towards a fitting but not the whole cost, just drop us a line and we will sort you out.
Thanks for listening,
Richard
A couple of things happened over the last week that have truly inspired me. Not so much fitting related but certainly tapped in to my personal ethos and mentality.
First of all we managed to progress things on Pedal Precisions links with a new charity. That Charity is Cyclists Fighting Cancer (www.cyclistsfc.org.uk). Go and have a look at their website as they can describe what they do and why a lot more eloquently than I can! To sum up though, they provide bicycles, both standard and specially adapted bikes to children fighting cancer, as well as their siblings or parents where necessary. The benefit of these bikes really can't be measured, whether helping a child feel more alive and positive whilst undergoing treatment or helping their fitness recover once treatment is over, it really is an incredibly valuable thing to be able to provide them with.
I am really pleased to be able to work with CFC going forwards, hopefully helping to provide the right bike to the children who need it and lending a hand where I can to build, setup and deliver them to the kids. A true honour to be able to help. Alongside this, I was also put in touch with the team running a 'buddy' system for the Lymphoma Society. This is where you can become a listening ear for people who are being diagnosed every day with the same disease that you (in this case me) suffered from. It is something that I have been looking to give a little back in this way for a long time, so I am really chuffed that it now seems to be possible. I know that I would have done anything to have someone to talk to whilst having Chemotherapy of my own age, who had 'been there, don that', so to have the chance to provide this for even 1 current patient would be really great.
The other thing that inspired me, was riding with some of the paralympic squad on the track last night. In what was otherwise an unremarkable qualified riders training session, these guys showed us how strong you can be despite some serious physical limitations. One rider in-particular was able to pedal solely with one leg whilst the other was clipped in to a static pedal attached to the bottom bracket. Despite this, he was still able to put the hammer down and pushed the pace on during every exercise when he hit the front. A truly awe inspiring sight and put a lot of things into perspective.
Looking at how he was riding also made me wonder about bike fitting for specific special needs. He had a number of set-up issue which had been very well addressed to allow him to get the most out of the bike, even to the extent of affecting how the bike steered to compensate for the off-centre nature of his pedalling. I'm going to do a little research into different methods of bike adapting and report back with my findings in this blog. I can already help and adapt things for a lot of conditions, and of course there are things being done already with extendable and adaptable crank arms etc., but there must be new ways to look at things to help with efficiencies and power delivery for people who need special consideration from a bike setup point of view. It may also tie-in well and help some of the children that need a specific setup when receiving their CFC bike!
As a reminder, you can also now buy a voucher for the cyclist in your life for christmas (or get someone to buy one for you). The vouchers are available for all our services at www.pedalprecision.com or even if you wish to give someone an amount towards a fitting but not the whole cost, just drop us a line and we will sort you out.
Thanks for listening,
Richard
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