New Tyres and Ball Ache Bearings

New tyres purchased and fitted, jobs-a-good'un! The bike roared into action with a solid ride to and from work on Wednesday followed by a faster run in this morning. Certainly I am not at my best and am looking to hit the hills harder and faster throughout the rest of January, starting this Saturday with my first 35miler of the year:

As you will see this is a repeat of a ride I designed in December, it's a real killer and I really look forward to it! Weather is usually an obstacle and if it is hammering down with rain then I'll likely do an indoor 30 mile session but it looks (according to the forecast) like I should be O.K.

My only concern is the bearing of the back wheel. Since I dropped the bike and punctured the back wheel I have noticed there is a wobble. This is likely caused by the bearings being off which is a fix I have never done before. I'm planning to book the bike into a service soon to have the brakes / gears reconfigured alongside replacing the chain (to avoid a race killing snap on The Argus), so may stick with this wobble until the middle of next month. This however presents a new problem; the wobble this morning leaned the wheel to the left making contact with the respective brake pad. If I am to continue to ride with the bearing off then I'll likely need to adjust the brake so that the back brake is not as tight to the wheel as it perhaps should be. 

Clearly I'll need to test all of the options available to me, for now here's a couple of pictures showing the old tyres (R) and the new tyres (L):

44 Days, 17 Hours, 28 Minutes and 4 Seconds until The Argus. 

Tyres!!

Bike Tyres

This week has been somewhat of a non starter in regards to training. A 13 mile cycle to work on Monday was followed by 26 miles on Tuesday, this however is it and the weekly target off 113 miles is a way off. 26 Miles was this mornings aim but unfortunately I was confronted by this sight at midnight last night:

You will hopefully notice that the tyre is indeed flat. Usually I would repair the puncture in the morning but with only one inner tube spare the risk of getting another flat tyre whilst on route to work seemed too high. I therefore got the bus and now intend to spend 1 hour in the gym post work.

This does however force an issue that I have been aware of for some time and have procrastinated a little on, I NEED NEW TYRES! So today, on-line (because it's cheaper) I plan to buy two Gatorskin tyres, 700 x 28. My concern is two fold:

1. The road grip I have will not be as strong with Gatorskin tyres - especially important considering the             season.
2. The size of the wheel will be smaller and thus more difficult to control

The tyre has many positives however; Gatorskin tyres do not puncture easily, in fact I have never had a puncture with a Gatorskin. The bike will also carry less resistance, this will mean that I will be able to cycle quicker, my work level will decrease, energy levels will improve and ultimately I should be able to fit more miles in (which in essence is the point of all of this).

You'll see from the following images the difference between the tyres:

Current tyre              Gator skin tyre










For me the obvious choice is the Gatorskin tyre, to cycle without fear of puncture is a great feeling and these give me this. Hopefully I'll have these fitted by Saturday and will be all set to continue.

51 Days, 17 Hours, 28 Minutes and 42 Seconds until the Argus. 

50 Days Until The Argus

50 Days Until The Argus

The current countdown reads 53 days, 16 hours, 31 minutes and 55 seconds. This is the time frame in which I have to prepare myself for "The worlds largest timed cycle race" which takes in 95km of Cape town, South Africa.

Officially training started on January 1st with the last mouthful of a pizza bought to aid the recovery from a messy end to 2013. The program takes in both indoor and outdoor cycling with the current target of 113 miles per week outdoor and 50 miles indoor. Weather has thus far proven to be a tough opponent and much of the training has taken place indoors but as of yesterday morning the miles started accumulating. 

The 113 outdoor miles per week is broken down into 26 miles on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with an additional 35 miles added on either the Saturday or Sunday of a working week. This 35 mile session will on occasion be substituted for a longer session to test my endurance for the race. A cycle ride of around Isle of Wight's coast is booked in for the 8th February (100km) and many more rides will be added to this.

Indoor sessions are broken into two segments of 1 hour. These will take place on either a Monday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday depending on the situation with my outdoor training (which takes precedent). Spare days will be used as rest days and any outdoor session missed (for whatever reason) will be made up in the indoor environment. These indoor cycling sessions tend to be high paced and energy sapping so other gym activities might be explored (such as swimming or running) to provide a bit of variety.

2013 was a strong cycling year with a total mileage of 2351 recorded miles and I have no doubt that this figure will be beaten redounding-ly in 2014. For now the training properly begins.