A Wet Weekend of Training

So here we are less than 5 weeks away from starting our 950 miles journey from and its getting pretty scary. The Captain has told me with confidence that the ride will undoubtedly be in the top 2 most painful things I will ever experience and that he will never experience my top most painful experience - that of childbirth ( I will say that I can't actually now remember that pain so I'm not sure that's a good comparison and we do have 4 children .... ). So its fair to say that I am starting to feel a bit worried......isn't the Captain supposed to motivate his crew???

Anyway, this weekend should have seen us do our longest ride yet. Sadly due to the weather conditions in the South of England, the organised ride we were due to take part in today in the South Downs was cancelled.

We did manage a short ride yesterday and again today in a two hour window of opportunity when the rain went off at 3pm. This included cycling through puddles that came up to the peddles and nearly getting blown off in the last few hundred yards of our ride - all fun and perhaps good preparation as who knows what weather we may encounter on our trip ?

Next weekends adventure is a trip to the Isle of Wight... lets hope the weather improves.

Rest and Recovery

Very light training this weekend, mainly due to having grandparent babysitting duties to attend to, but we did need to recover from last weekends effort ( well I did ...... )

Despite it only covering 20 miles on Saturday and 30 today, we did break our record average speed.... so we managed to average 17mph for 30 miles and it felt good  - apart from when I nearly landed on the floor at a set of traffic lights - that would have been the Captains fault. It is his duty to keep me safe at all times and he nearly failed there.

This week I have been told that I should rethink being called the Stoker to Rear Admiral. Well,  I did notice though that the Captain ( of the good ship Galaxy - yes I think the tandem needs a name -  might rethink that too if anyone can come up with a better name? ) needs a new pair of cycling shorts.... being the Stoker I get to admire his rear quiet a lot ( or not as the case may be) and his cycle shorts were rather see through today....come on Captain get a new pair.

What are the roles of the 'Captain' and the "Stoker' ?

For those of you unfamiliar with Tandem bike riding, there are two main roles

The Captain - the front rider and The Stoker - the rear rider ( that's me ). Sheldon Brown ( a big tandem blogger ) gives this as his definition of the roles

"The Captain

The front rider is commonly known as the "captain." Other names for the front rider include "pilot" and "steersman."

The captain should be an experienced cyclist, with good bike-handling skills and good judgement. In the case of a beginning team, a the captain will need to use a bit more upper-body strength than is needed for a single bike. As the team learns to work together, this will become less important.

The captain has two major responsibilities:

• To control the bike, including balancing it whether stopped or in motion, as well as steering, shifting, braking.
• To keep the stoker happy! A tandem isn't a tandem without a stoker. The captain must earn the stoker's confidence, must stop when the stoker wants to stop, must slow down when the stoker wants to slow down.
  Since the stoker cannot see the road directly ahead, the captain has a special responsibility to warn of bumps in the road, so that the stoker can brace for them.
  When a couple fails to make it as a tandem team, it is almost always due to either the stoker being scared as a result of an incompetent/inconsiderate captain, or due to saddle soreness.

The captain should also warn the stoker of shifts, especially shifts to a lower gear which may cause the stoker to lose balance if they come without warning. (Very experienced teams eventually get past the need to call out most shifts, as they learn each others' styles.)

 

The Stoker

The rear rider is commonly known as the "stoker." Other names for the rear rider include "navigator", "tailgunner" and "rear admiral" or "R.A." The rear rider is not a "passenger", but is an equal participant. The stoker has two main responsibilities:

• The stoker serves mainly as a motor. Since the stoker is not called upon to control the bike, this rider should be able to actually generate more power than the same rider would on a single bike. Depending on the strength and endurance of the stoker, this may take the form of a steady output or may be held in reserve. If the stoker is acting as a "reserve," it is OK to take it easy for general cruising, so long as the stoker can help out with a burst of power for the climbs. Since starting up on a tandem is a bit trickier than on a single, the stoker should apply as much smooth power as possible when starting up, to get the bike up to maneuvering speed quickly.
• The stoker's other major responsibility is a negative one: The stoker must not attempt to steer! Unpredictable weight shifts on the part of the stoker can make the captain's job much harder, and can lead to crashes, in extreme cases. The stoker should keep in line with the centerline of the bicycle, and lean with it as it leans through corners. A stoker must shift position on the saddle, or adjust a toe strap, or take a drink without disturbing the equilibrium of the bicycle. These activities should not be attempted at all while the captain is dealing with tricky traffic situations or narrow spaces.

The stoker can also do a bit of back rubbing now and then, as well as taking photographs, singing encouraging songs, reading maps, etc."

I am intending to take on a few of Sheldon's suggestions in our next rides  - surprises for the Captain!

Tandem riding helps the brain

An interesting article on forced exercise improving the symptoms of Parkinsons disease.... is being the stoker forced exercise???http://www.tandems.co.uk/news.php?articleid=61

New Forest Wiggle Sportive

Today started with a 5.30am alarm... it was at this point we both had cause to regret the eat all you can Chinese at 9.30 pm last night scoffing 3 plates of food in 20 mins followed by bed...not a good nights sleep.

Still we had to get to Brockenhurst in the New Forest for 7.30 am registration.

It was my first sportive and I can honestly say I've not seen so much lycra... being a female stoker there was quiet a lot of testosterone about too!!

We were the only tandem to be seen when we started and our start team were not really interested in us.

No friendly hellos or smiles but lots of comment to Captain Scott that I wasn't pedalling...well I'd like to see them try and like...we've never heard that one before!!!  It only made me chuckle more when we passed some these lycra clad heroes on long level roads and sometimes up hills.

Best bit of the day was making it up a 25% incline without getting off when lots of others had to and when we got home realising that we had averaged 16.2 miles over the 84.66 miles ( my longest ride to date)

Certainly feeling more confident about the whole lejog but I still know its going to hurt.

Worst bit, the captain hunting down cyclists up ahead in the last 5 miles and being under dressed...the blue skies fooled us...and the wind was extremely chilly!!!

Here's our route and stats......
Untitled by sjscott21 at Garmin Connect - Details

A little warm up

Back in the saddle today for a short ride ( 2 hours  - about 30 miles ) a bit of a test for the saddle sores.

Weather was pleasant and the saddle sores ??

Well they did hurt but they didn't get any worse

We'll see what happens during our 80 mile ride in the New Forest tomorrow.

The long rides start here

After a 4 days of riding I have saddle sores... and there's still 50 days to go until LEJOG on June 2nd 2012. I now know that the eight days of cycling will H U R T.
This weekend we are off to the New Forest for an 80 mile ride... I just hope my saddle sores don't get worse.