Hip Hop

Didn't post last weekend, been under the weather for the past 2 weeks with this bug, tried to get back into training twice but just comes back with a vengeance. Cycled Sat and Sun last weekend, with my son on Sat about 40 miles with plenty of hills av. speed 16.0mph and in a group on Sun a good bit slower for many reasons: group speed / bug / wind. One thing I do know is that the bike is getting trashed, it's a Trek Madone 5.5 and needs to be put away in cotton wool till the Cheshire Cat 29th March 2009. So the search is on for a winter bike because my son now rides my older bike a Ribble triple.

So aside from the weekend rides, been doing the 45 min spin classes at the Next Generation Gym each Monday, these are good and shouldn't be entertained when you have a bug because all that happens is the bug spreads but that's probably where it came from despite copious quantities of Vit C to boost the immune system.

Regarding the Etape, was doing some research for next years sportives and went on the Etape Du Dales website and was knocked sideways to learn that the organiser of many previous years Stuart Holdsworth had been killed in the Yorkshire Dales in an accident with a car / caravan. Only knew him in the context of the event but was one great guy. I can see from the press releases he has left a wife and children and I would extend to them my sympathy.

The Etape du Dales is a must-do preparation event to be held next year on 17th May, opens for entries on 6th Jan 2009 06:00 and will fill up within 5 hours for 800 riders see http://www.etapedudales.co.uk/

It was following a trail from the Etape du Dales website that led me to discover that the French authorities have decided that a BCF Racing Licence is no longer acceptable and that overseas riders must have a Doctor sign-off the entry form. This is a bit of a blow because some doctors can be a bit uppity about signing such forms, mine is a star, he signs each year, no questions but others in the group are going to struggle. All this is aside from the fact that Peter Starkey has already paid £60 for his BCF Silver Licence !!! Seems I owe him one ! See http://www.cyclosport.org/article.aspx?id=953 for much more information.

So that's it for Sat 15th November 2008, off to a Cancer Research Charity Dinner Dance tonight. Cheers !
The Cumbrian Christmas Cracker was mentioned in a previous post but I note is now full, that's probably partly because Chorley Harriers have about 12 riders entered. From my point of view it loks like I can't do the event, this last week, after about 12 weeks of waiting, I received a phone call from the NHS offering me a cancellation for a hip operation, the operation date is now 20th November 2008 and I'm so relieved, I was worried this would extend into next year.

The operation is called a hip arthroscopy, quite a leading edge procedure, the consultant enters the hip joint with a camera and very small tools and tidies up various issues including a torn labrum (the gristly bit around the socket), some bit of bone referred to as a bone 'cam' etc etc. This will put me out of action for a number of weeks, I'm told it'll be 2 weeks before I can get on a turbo trainer then build up from there, probably 6 weeks before I can resume running.

So, aside from being elated at the news, this is going to be a somewhat sedentary period. Just been to the Red Rose XC meeting in Bolton, my son ran and I took photos (can't swell the joint before surgery). We are due out in the morning for 3 hours on the bikes, not sure what the weather will be doing, sometimes the surprise is better than the bad news !