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| 7 March 2012 Birthday boy fifty years young |
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| I finally get to start on a zero |
Fiona and I took the day off and went to Birmingham on the train for the day, to do a bit of shopping and go to the Icon gallery for a bit of culture.
Thursday 8 March 2012
>50
It was blowing a gale and rained all the way around but I thought better to get out in it then prevaricate, I almost enjoyed my first ride as a 50 year old but truth be told I would have given it a miss on almost any other day.
Fiona and I took the day off and went to Birmingham on the train for the day, to do a bit of shopping and go to the Icon gallery for a bit of culture.
Fiona and I took the day off and went to Birmingham on the train for the day, to do a bit of shopping and go to the Icon gallery for a bit of culture.
Sunday 4 March 2012
Born Again!
I never stopped being a 'cyclist' I just stopped riding my bike! How did that happen?
I started my fourth decade as an unfit eighteen stone former bike rider who could not go out with his non-cycling mates and not get dropped while still feeling like inside I was that lad who "Raced a bit when I was younger"
It took me a couple of years to get my head around the work/life balance that would allow me to get back on my bike, there had been years when I had hardly touched my bike but in 2004 I managed to log 3842 regular miles a couple of times a week. The following year as the weight came off I accumulated a better 8297 and my weight came under fourteen stone the target I had set myself to start racing, I raced from mid season, improved from a 4th cat! to a third and there seems to be the word 'Bunch' in my results diary allot! I did a short 59' for '25' and inside 23' for '10' but the battle was over and the war had begun. I did 9345 miles in 2006 for my first attempt at the BBAR and the subsequent (2007)13,318 - (2008)13,777 - (2009)12,723 were my big mileage years as I pounded the roads five and six days a week in the search for greater fitness and faster times. But in the last couple of seasons (2010)10,647 - (2011)10,885 has seen me doing less but more quality (more rest days) in an effort to refine my training
A brief line up of my BBAR certificates from the past five seasons, I have decided to take it a bit more easy this year so I thought this would be a good time to reflect on what I have done over the past few seasons. All above 25mph for the combined best '50' '100' and 12 Hour ride of the year, a couple of Age related Gold medals for the National 12 Hour
In the VTTA competitions I'm still woefully uncompetitive (too young!) on the 3 distance ('25' '50' & '100') competition but crept up the 4 distance ('25' '50' '100' & 12Hr.) attaining 5th this year to go with 8th (2010), 9th (2009), 7th (2008) and 12th (2007)
I have one other for 2006 (my first) - 23.428mph for 55th position 1:58:03/4:09:08/249.45m but I think five years in the top twenty in the country is something to be proud of as I enter my fifth decade. I still plan to do a bit of racing but with the BBAR there is a committment to train at a level that can become a little tiresome and the need to travel and race every week also takes the fun out of being a 'born again biker'.
I started my fourth decade as an unfit eighteen stone former bike rider who could not go out with his non-cycling mates and not get dropped while still feeling like inside I was that lad who "Raced a bit when I was younger"
It took me a couple of years to get my head around the work/life balance that would allow me to get back on my bike, there had been years when I had hardly touched my bike but in 2004 I managed to log 3842 regular miles a couple of times a week. The following year as the weight came off I accumulated a better 8297 and my weight came under fourteen stone the target I had set myself to start racing, I raced from mid season, improved from a 4th cat! to a third and there seems to be the word 'Bunch' in my results diary allot! I did a short 59' for '25' and inside 23' for '10' but the battle was over and the war had begun. I did 9345 miles in 2006 for my first attempt at the BBAR and the subsequent (2007)13,318 - (2008)13,777 - (2009)12,723 were my big mileage years as I pounded the roads five and six days a week in the search for greater fitness and faster times. But in the last couple of seasons (2010)10,647 - (2011)10,885 has seen me doing less but more quality (more rest days) in an effort to refine my training
A brief line up of my BBAR certificates from the past five seasons, I have decided to take it a bit more easy this year so I thought this would be a good time to reflect on what I have done over the past few seasons. All above 25mph for the combined best '50' '100' and 12 Hour ride of the year, a couple of Age related Gold medals for the National 12 Hour
In the VTTA competitions I'm still woefully uncompetitive (too young!) on the 3 distance ('25' '50' & '100') competition but crept up the 4 distance ('25' '50' '100' & 12Hr.) attaining 5th this year to go with 8th (2010), 9th (2009), 7th (2008) and 12th (2007)
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| 2011 - 16th Position - 1:47:52/3:52:20/281.63m |
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| 2010 - 19th Position - 1:50:38/3:47:39/259.85m |
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| 2009 - 11th Position 1:48:04/3:46:20/276.50m |
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| 2008 - 15th Position - 1:48:34/3:45:55/263.43m |
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| 2007 - 18th Position 1:51:31/3:51:11/267.33m |
I have one other for 2006 (my first) - 23.428mph for 55th position 1:58:03/4:09:08/249.45m but I think five years in the top twenty in the country is something to be proud of as I enter my fifth decade. I still plan to do a bit of racing but with the BBAR there is a committment to train at a level that can become a little tiresome and the need to travel and race every week also takes the fun out of being a 'born again biker'.
Review of the Year - 2011
A bit of a delay in my review of the year but I only just got my placing for my VTTA BAR position as they have been enacting some changes for 2012 and like any organisation run on goodwill and unpaid volunteers support there are only so many hours to complete such radical overhaul of the (Age related) Standards but it has been thorough and wide ranging after years of discussion but as it goes to the core what the VTTA was set up for they have taken their time
Well here it is in B & W I don’t think I quite left myself enough room to do myself justice in the BBAR in the end with a later start to the season and no buffer and always having to perform on the day of specific events, It makes for a stressful time, OK for one event but when every event has pressure then you tend to under perform (at least in your mind) as there is allot at stake
Still fifth year in a row in the top 20 of the season long BBAR (18th/15th/11th/19th) and 16th this year, with a mere 0.043 mph separating me from another top 12 finish, that would have been a 31 second improvement in my final ‘50’ (the Severn RC) but I fell short by a couple of minutes. It will remain in the If’s and buts’ column, so it is with life. I made my major mistake and messed it up in the BDCA ‘100’ two weeks before when all I had to do was get inside 3:50 and I had an off day; my first year outside 3:50 for a five years but there’s always a weak link.
Best ride of the year and probably since my comeback would be the 12 Hour in the Breckland event in Suffolk, my second PB and club record in eight days. After the PB ‘50’ in the BDCA the previous Sunday but a much better ride and consolation for the cancelled event last year when I was on a similar ride. It might have been even better but I think when you do something for the first time then it’s special and I almost feel like I’d done it first last year and this was just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, the record books will not show it like that but when you get to 180 miles and still have 4 ¾ hours to go then you know you are going to break 280 miles and the final 100 were almost a release or at least a relief after the disappointment of last year albeit some nervous ones as the time slipped by but I was more than happy with my more than 5 mile improvement 4th overall and only 3rd Vet on the day, the winner Jeff Jones of course broke Wilco’s comp record with 305.51 (by 3 miles) but improved his PB by over 2mph! (Nearly 25 miles!!) to go out so far into the unknown in only his second attempt at the distance takes bravery and courage and for this reason alone makes it my ride of the year. Wilco’s own demolition of his own 24 Hr. record comes a close second, we have seen him do these kind of things before and I suppose we can be a bit blasé about it but there were some truly inspirational rides this year
This ride also sees my first appearance on the Timetrialforum.co.uk Forum’s ‘Fastest of all time’ list, arbitrary I know but its good to be recognised for doing a good ride in the context of your peers and history will show if it stands the test of time. Puts me in some pretty exalted company and while you cannot compare apples with pears still 35th fastest of all time has a nice ring to it, Scott Povey who had a similar distance in the ECCA event (rounded down to 281.40) after a 3:44 first ‘100’ which makes my 4:06 sound slow but my next ‘100’ was 4:08 which was excellent and I had nothing left for the finish
I rode all the events that the BBAR winner rode and he gave me a sound thrashing in all of them so I can’t say I didn’t have the same conditions and some had it worse but generally there were a lot of fast times this year at all three BBAR distances that is the way with the BBAR you have to take the rough with the smooth and the result only tells half the story (as usual)
Just to mention here I tend to go best in events where there is a fairly even split of effort across the race but the one event that amazed me this year and quite a few other riders was the other club record in the BDCA ‘50’ on the out and home A50. On a day that was blowing a gale my splits were 57:48/49:56 which was not even at all but still a PB. The winner that day was Jeff Jones with the seasons best 1:39:08 and his splits were 53:09/45:54 which means that he took more time out of me on the faster section than the harder leg to the turn (and one of my 5m splits coming back was 8:29 – that’s 35.36 mph Av! Can you imagine the speed of the man?)
I think a lot of riders were taken by surprise by Dr Jones and there was a very good battle for the top 6 positions with them all within 0.8mph, and Jeff going 1.785mph faster (up from 5th last year) and recording the third best Average of all time 28.023mph Last years champion Julian Jenkinson slipping a place even though his speed went up over 0.58mph and my namesake Derek Parkinson making the biggest leap up the table from 11th to 3rd. Andy Bason slipped a couple of places to 4th even going 0.73mph faster
I struggled in the early part of the year, work and play not mixing well and did not do a ‘solid’ ride until the May BH when I did back to back 1:54:21 in the Manchester Whs. ‘50’ on the Sat and then on the Monday 4:11:18 (4:08:06 ride time as my saddle came loose and I had to stop) in the Anfield ‘100’ in bitterly wet and cold conditions. The Man Whs ‘50’ was another badly ‘split’ event but this time with 50:10 going out and 1:4:12 coming home but I knew I was riding the ‘100’ two days later so I did not kill myself coming home, like some did, to amazing effect once again on the A50 but this time from the other end and making this course one of the most bomb proof of courses even on windy days.
I rode the National ‘25’ ‘50’ & ‘100’ and did dismal rides in all of them. I even packed at half way to justify all the expense and Fi’s presence in the ‘100’ with no form at all, when the eyes are on you and nowhere to hide but hard to take and I thought I was doing myself more psychological than physical damage at that stage but that is the state you get yourself in.
In Early June I was top 20 (on time) in the National VTTA ‘25’ at Newmarket with 53:49 and then a couple of weeks later my fastest of the year 52:54 in the S Pennine on the A50, Bottrill won it with 47:33 What a boy! He pushed Hutchinson close in the Nat ‘25’ & ‘50’ but then lost out in the BTTC, which I entered but did not ride as it was the day after the BDCA ‘100’ and I was in a depression again but I was the seeded rider in my age group and I was loathed not to ride it but by that time in the season I’d had enough of beating myself up. Bottrill had to modify his position to make it UCI legal (so I’m told – lost him 25W)
After several visits to Hull to try and break the Club 10 record I did finally manage a PB in late July with a 20 second improvement 20:16, those that know a thing or two about the conditions (which were again windy!) made it 45-60 seconds slow on the day and I was within 2 minutes of the winner Hutch who could only manage 18:25 so hope for the future
So that just about sums it up, I managed 21:21 in the late season Echelon ‘10’ but this time on a 100” fixed only a second off 3rd place probably my highest place of the year (I was 5th = 3rd was tied on 21:20) and the Severn RC ’50’ where I recorded 1:49:40 for 7th
I will be top 5 in the National VTTA BAR 4 Distance (25/50/100/12) with Plus 6.78mph as only Platts and Jenkinson faster this year but I hear that man Dr Jones has joined but it takes a bit of time for these things to sort themselves out and fastest (on time) in my group the Nottingham & E Midlands 3 Distance BAR (25/50/100) but probably only 4th again on plus 7.062mph as I have 80 year old Ron Hallam in my group and he can still get under the hour!
Andy Hicks ran me close in the Club BAR (see below), if it was worked out on +Plus (time) then he beats me but the BAR calculated on +Av. mph above your Std. (time) so this favours the younger man but things are changing and there is a new set of Standards which favour the younger riders in the shorter distance events for 2012 so I should not have to wait until I’m 70 to win on Standard so I encourage all to get out there and give it a go!
Well here it is in B & W I don’t think I quite left myself enough room to do myself justice in the BBAR in the end with a later start to the season and no buffer and always having to perform on the day of specific events, It makes for a stressful time, OK for one event but when every event has pressure then you tend to under perform (at least in your mind) as there is allot at stake
Still fifth year in a row in the top 20 of the season long BBAR (18th/15th/11th/19th) and 16th this year, with a mere 0.043 mph separating me from another top 12 finish, that would have been a 31 second improvement in my final ‘50’ (the Severn RC) but I fell short by a couple of minutes. It will remain in the If’s and buts’ column, so it is with life. I made my major mistake and messed it up in the BDCA ‘100’ two weeks before when all I had to do was get inside 3:50 and I had an off day; my first year outside 3:50 for a five years but there’s always a weak link.
Best ride of the year and probably since my comeback would be the 12 Hour in the Breckland event in Suffolk, my second PB and club record in eight days. After the PB ‘50’ in the BDCA the previous Sunday but a much better ride and consolation for the cancelled event last year when I was on a similar ride. It might have been even better but I think when you do something for the first time then it’s special and I almost feel like I’d done it first last year and this was just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, the record books will not show it like that but when you get to 180 miles and still have 4 ¾ hours to go then you know you are going to break 280 miles and the final 100 were almost a release or at least a relief after the disappointment of last year albeit some nervous ones as the time slipped by but I was more than happy with my more than 5 mile improvement 4th overall and only 3rd Vet on the day, the winner Jeff Jones of course broke Wilco’s comp record with 305.51 (by 3 miles) but improved his PB by over 2mph! (Nearly 25 miles!!) to go out so far into the unknown in only his second attempt at the distance takes bravery and courage and for this reason alone makes it my ride of the year. Wilco’s own demolition of his own 24 Hr. record comes a close second, we have seen him do these kind of things before and I suppose we can be a bit blasé about it but there were some truly inspirational rides this year
This ride also sees my first appearance on the Timetrialforum.co.uk Forum’s ‘Fastest of all time’ list, arbitrary I know but its good to be recognised for doing a good ride in the context of your peers and history will show if it stands the test of time. Puts me in some pretty exalted company and while you cannot compare apples with pears still 35th fastest of all time has a nice ring to it, Scott Povey who had a similar distance in the ECCA event (rounded down to 281.40) after a 3:44 first ‘100’ which makes my 4:06 sound slow but my next ‘100’ was 4:08 which was excellent and I had nothing left for the finish
I rode all the events that the BBAR winner rode and he gave me a sound thrashing in all of them so I can’t say I didn’t have the same conditions and some had it worse but generally there were a lot of fast times this year at all three BBAR distances that is the way with the BBAR you have to take the rough with the smooth and the result only tells half the story (as usual)
Just to mention here I tend to go best in events where there is a fairly even split of effort across the race but the one event that amazed me this year and quite a few other riders was the other club record in the BDCA ‘50’ on the out and home A50. On a day that was blowing a gale my splits were 57:48/49:56 which was not even at all but still a PB. The winner that day was Jeff Jones with the seasons best 1:39:08 and his splits were 53:09/45:54 which means that he took more time out of me on the faster section than the harder leg to the turn (and one of my 5m splits coming back was 8:29 – that’s 35.36 mph Av! Can you imagine the speed of the man?)
I think a lot of riders were taken by surprise by Dr Jones and there was a very good battle for the top 6 positions with them all within 0.8mph, and Jeff going 1.785mph faster (up from 5th last year) and recording the third best Average of all time 28.023mph Last years champion Julian Jenkinson slipping a place even though his speed went up over 0.58mph and my namesake Derek Parkinson making the biggest leap up the table from 11th to 3rd. Andy Bason slipped a couple of places to 4th even going 0.73mph faster
I struggled in the early part of the year, work and play not mixing well and did not do a ‘solid’ ride until the May BH when I did back to back 1:54:21 in the Manchester Whs. ‘50’ on the Sat and then on the Monday 4:11:18 (4:08:06 ride time as my saddle came loose and I had to stop) in the Anfield ‘100’ in bitterly wet and cold conditions. The Man Whs ‘50’ was another badly ‘split’ event but this time with 50:10 going out and 1:4:12 coming home but I knew I was riding the ‘100’ two days later so I did not kill myself coming home, like some did, to amazing effect once again on the A50 but this time from the other end and making this course one of the most bomb proof of courses even on windy days.
I rode the National ‘25’ ‘50’ & ‘100’ and did dismal rides in all of them. I even packed at half way to justify all the expense and Fi’s presence in the ‘100’ with no form at all, when the eyes are on you and nowhere to hide but hard to take and I thought I was doing myself more psychological than physical damage at that stage but that is the state you get yourself in.
In Early June I was top 20 (on time) in the National VTTA ‘25’ at Newmarket with 53:49 and then a couple of weeks later my fastest of the year 52:54 in the S Pennine on the A50, Bottrill won it with 47:33 What a boy! He pushed Hutchinson close in the Nat ‘25’ & ‘50’ but then lost out in the BTTC, which I entered but did not ride as it was the day after the BDCA ‘100’ and I was in a depression again but I was the seeded rider in my age group and I was loathed not to ride it but by that time in the season I’d had enough of beating myself up. Bottrill had to modify his position to make it UCI legal (so I’m told – lost him 25W)
After several visits to Hull to try and break the Club 10 record I did finally manage a PB in late July with a 20 second improvement 20:16, those that know a thing or two about the conditions (which were again windy!) made it 45-60 seconds slow on the day and I was within 2 minutes of the winner Hutch who could only manage 18:25 so hope for the future
So that just about sums it up, I managed 21:21 in the late season Echelon ‘10’ but this time on a 100” fixed only a second off 3rd place probably my highest place of the year (I was 5th = 3rd was tied on 21:20) and the Severn RC ’50’ where I recorded 1:49:40 for 7th
I will be top 5 in the National VTTA BAR 4 Distance (25/50/100/12) with Plus 6.78mph as only Platts and Jenkinson faster this year but I hear that man Dr Jones has joined but it takes a bit of time for these things to sort themselves out and fastest (on time) in my group the Nottingham & E Midlands 3 Distance BAR (25/50/100) but probably only 4th again on plus 7.062mph as I have 80 year old Ron Hallam in my group and he can still get under the hour!
Andy Hicks ran me close in the Club BAR (see below), if it was worked out on +Plus (time) then he beats me but the BAR calculated on +Av. mph above your Std. (time) so this favours the younger man but things are changing and there is a new set of Standards which favour the younger riders in the shorter distance events for 2012 so I should not have to wait until I’m 70 to win on Standard so I encourage all to get out there and give it a go!
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