After last year, where I didn't really train for the Reiver- this year, I told myself, I very much would.
Having broken my foot last September- and running on it until November (you didn't know? I didn't say?- ah, there's a blog post in there somewhere)- anyhow- the winter was basically spent on a turbo trainer, plugging away on Zwift. I can't necessarily say it was entirely "fun", but it was fun in a hard work sense of it.
The training carried on right through until a few weeks ago when uni and placement kind of got in the way, and no real cycling got done in earnest for about 4 weeks- and certainly none in the last 2 weeks. Some might call that a taper, but it seems that if I stop cycling for even a week, my power just goes out the window. All this, is of course setting you up for me attempting the Dirty Reiver again.
200km of gravel around the Kielder area, and this time, with a truely stonking Easterly headwind. Well, more like North Easterly, but it was pretty flipping headwindy.
For those of you who don't know, Kielder is a full on Mobile Black spot, and both of the other times I have done this, I haven't seen a single person I knew all weekend, even though they were around. (except the first time, when I was actually staying with them, but that's another thing entirely. Anyhow, this time around, I parked in a field, went to get my number etc. and bumped into the guy I camped next to last year, got back to my van to find Phil and Ann parked literally 20 yards away, and later in the day managed to meet up with Matt and Al. Astonishing.
Ann invited me for "sausage and nookie"... which took me a little by surprise, but once we clarified that gnochi is pronounced differently in different parts of the world, I was happy to partake, and joined them for tea- before turning in early. For some reason I was parked in the campervan field, despite being in a tent, and so the thing that woke me up was the sound of 60 or so heaters kicking in at about the same time at around 5:30 in the morning. Not envious in the slightest.
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| The start |
Off up through the first stage and it was all good fun. We swapped around a bit, saw Matt and Al, Phil joined us, then dropped back, we split up, and generally mixed and matched through the many people that were around us. The first feed station always seems to come a little too soon- about 47km, just before a nice big hill. I rode into it with Matt and Al, and we headed on out up the hill together. All was fun and we blasted through the roads. Matt was hanging back a bit on the descents as his bike was fairly twitchy- the new wheels apparently weren't helping, and his brakes sounded horrendous. Off we went, and after about 3 hours passed through the 65km mark which brought us literally right past my tent, and Ann (and Rocky) were there in the small crowd clamouring with cowbells and cheering us on.
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| Feed zone 1 |
Soon after this the road kicks up, and I realised that Matt and Al were taking things at a pace that I couldn't sustain. Something wierd was going on with my Heart Rate monitor as well. It had been reading low since the beginning- somewhere around 100-110 for the most part, and then only hitting about 125-130 at an effort that I felt I couldn't sustain... somewhere around 30 beats lower than what I would expect to be seeing. At first I thought it was a glitch with the monitor- so I reset that... no difference, then I hoped it was a problem with with connection between the monitor and the computer- the alternative is that my Heart is having an issue, and I didn't want to think about that.
As we headed up the hill, I told Matt and Al that they should go on ahead, I'd see them as and when, because I sure as hell wasn't keeping up with them now. So off they popped.
Grinding up the hill I was happy to be going at my own pace for a while, but was contemplating the headwinds on my own. That was going to be fun- it was going to be a significantly longer ride than previously. Looking at my computer, I'd been out 3 and a bit hours... longer than anything I had done in quite a while. Hmm. Maybe doing a lot of short work on Zwift and neglecting long days out was not a cunning plan. I'd been hammering hard training, but not long- and this was looking to be a long day out.
Not even 10 mins later, Matt and Al were on the side of the track, fixing a puncture. I stopped to check they didn't need anything and were ok- which they were, and said I'd head off- they'd catch me up at some point, most likely before the next feed station, which was in less than 30k.
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| Feed zone2 |
In the section previous, I was still a bit wierded out my my Heart Rate, and not feeling entirely on top of the world and there was a short moment when I was actually contemplating doing the 130 instead of the 200. Now, however, I was just going to try to keep with Matt and Al for as long as possible.... this was the section that went into the headwind for the longest distance- the longer I could stick the pace, the better.
True to expectations, the headwind blew up pretty soon. Matt came to the front and just sat there churning out the watts. For someone who, until about 3 weeks ago was saying "I'm not very fit at the moment, I might bail and do the 130" he was certainly looking like an absoluite train. Al and I kept having to tell him to contain his enthusiasm as we kept getting shelled... Still, he stuck to his guns, and everytime a headwind section appeared, there he was, cranking away... we'd start a section with 3 of us, and by the end, everyone we'd overtaken had joined on the train behind us. At one point, I think he was towing about 10 of us. Ridiculous.
Inbetween the crazy headwind sections, I was able to hold my own on the downhills (confidence in the bike says a lot), and holding on to Al on the uphills. A couple of times I thought I was a goner, but managed to just about stay in touch.
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| Al and Matt |
This entire section was basically me- trying to keep up with the two from Cholton Velo. It's a real eye-opener when you *think* you've done a load of training on your own, you *think* you're fit, and then some people come along and totally blow you out of the water.
We rolled into feed station 3 at the far eastern point of the route- so hopefully not too much in the way of headwinds from now on, and chomped down on some more real food. (cheese! they had cheese!). unfortunately, no decent coffee like they did the first time around- only instant. eugh. There were some comments about "who the heck was on the front of that train in the grey?"- (oh man, lets not let Matts head get any bigger- he'll be even less aero- not that he needs to be).
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| Beautiful day. |
We stayed together for the entire section back to the dam, and across it to the final big hill where Matt and Al powered away from me. Well, I say powered, I think my legs just decided it was a hill too far. I grovelled up it, and to my surprise, I caught them on the way down. Inside the final 10k though, along the flat section back to the castle, they bashed out a rhythm that I couldn't follow, and so I slogged out the last bit on my own, and came in a few minutes behind them- somewhere around 9:34 or so.
Considering the first year was only 180k, and I did that in 8:13- I must have been really going some that year! Still, I was very happy to have got around this time, though it really wasn't up to my legs this time around- the really hard work was done by Matt. Hats off to him- that was a ridiculous amount of time to spend blatting into the headwind.
Phil came in behind us by a ways- having done ALL the hardwork himself. Those long straights into a headwind must have been absolute purgatory. What an amazing effort. I also finally managed to catch up with Scott Swaling who I haven't actually seen in about a decade- even though both of us have done this event 3 times- so that was good. (fabulous effort on a single speed again!).
Minor issue was a lack of showers, that I wasn't expecting considering the amazing showers last year- so I ended up washing in a 10 litre washing up bowl- such is life.
Generally a fantastic event, made all the better for actually being able to meet up with people who I knew were there. One of the few things that could make it better (as with many events) is if the visiting trade stalls could give out less plastic tat that just goes straight into landfill. Yes, I know everyone "loves a freebie"- but those awful blue and white shimano hats? Really? If you're going to give something away, make it useful- a whistle, a water bottle, a spaceblanket, whatever.
Grumbling aside- what a great event. There were so many amazing views to see and pictures to be had, but if I'd have stopped to take them all, I'd still be going around!
Again, I used my Fairlight Secan- third year running, again with 650b wheels with Gravelking SK's on. They're the widest ones I can fit- like 2.1, I think- running at 30psi front and 32psi on the back. I wasn't trying to go hard and fast, and am relatively light, so to date, no punctures on any of the events- and this is the lowest I've gone in terms of pressures. Yes, I could have a lighter bike, no, it wouldn't do me much good. I just need stronger legs! (and to work out what on earth is going on with my Heart Rate).
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| Yeah yeah, you've seen it before- the Fairlight a few weeks ago at Macc Forest. |