How to Remove Oil From Your Carpet

Well today was a bit of a lazy day to be honest, I guess I am slightly ashamed. I had my last physio appointment today and have now officially been signed off by my physio in Stoke, and only need to see the one back home if my leg gets worse, which hopefully it won't.

On the plus side, I'm going home tomorrow - which reminds me I really should start packing! Also I've found the best combination to remove oil marks from a carpet with no ill effects to the textile. It requires spraying some Flash multisurface cleaner and leaving it to marinade for a little while, followed by a bit of a spray of the wonderful bike cleaner Muc-Off. Leave it for a minute then give it a rub with a floorcloth then leave to dissipate and hey presto! you've got yourself one clean carpet! Now what cleaning products can I use to repair a broken shelf?

Race 1 of 2009 - Bill Jinks Memorial

So I just got in from my first road race of 2009, and considering I've just come back from injury and haven't trained properly for a while it went pretty well. For the first 2 laps (each one being just under 10 miles) I sat in the bunch, then on a big hill where the peloton began to slow each time I got a little annoyed so flicked up a few gears and sped up to the front, where in the third lap 3 of us broke away and gained about a 5 second lead on the peloton. Unfortunately we couldn't keep it up against the powerful peloton determined to stop us getting away. This expense of energy meant that a lap later I almost felt like retiring from the race as I had no energy left whatsoever. But after some water and a quick energy gel I felt a bit better, but still not good enough to take the front of the group again. On the final straight, after being subjected to being pushed off the road onto the verge and very nearly coming off, and losing half a dozen places or more, I came across the line 30th, which all things considering isn't too bad in an 80+ rider race.I have taken away that thirst for racing that I may have lost a little over the off-season, and have realised that without training I'm an OK racer, but now I'm going to be doing nothing but training and racing for 5 months: it's time to take on the Lincolnshire League!

Miserable Climate

How stupid is british weather? I wake up this morning and it's raining heavily, then for about half an hour we get a rest from the water, until yet again the heavens opened for most of the day. Such a shame since I need to get some miles in quite badly before Sunday's race. I did manage to get an hour of ultimate frisbee in yesterday and today, so a bit of running at least. I still need to get my rear mech sorted on my road bike, it's not liking top gear, which is kind of important for a sprinter no? I'm going to be putting my new smaller 11-23 cassette on for the race too.

I'm going to try and get out tomorrow, although I haven't seen the weather forecast so that may put me off. I spent a long time yesterday stripping and cleaning the bike so going out in the wet and dirt is not an attractive option.

I'm glad that in a little while I'll be back in beautiful Lincolnshire and in full training swing with my home club, Lindsey Roads, which will be nice since I haven't seen a lot of them since the end of summer last year as I was ill most of christmas break so didn't get out on any club runs. I've got 7 weeks now though until the BUCS national road race so I'm going to have to make a cunning mixture of endurance training and high intensity speed training. We'll see how that goes I guess...

Yawn

For some reason today I'm pretty tired. It can't be lack of sleep from the weekend catching up with me surely? I've slept plenty since then, although last night was a late night writing an HRM essay. Today was meant to be a pretty full day at uni so i wasn't expecting to get any real exercise done at all, but it turns out that after my physio appointment where once again I was ultrasounded and sent on my way (this guy only ever seems to do this, but hey, it works), I went for a couple of hours of badminton with a couple of mates and some French girls. Can't complain. I wasn't prepared for it though so I ended up playing in jeans which meant I got rather hot and sweaty. It was evidently a good bit of cardio though. Unfortunately I haven't been on the bike since sunday but I'll remedy that tonight with an hour on the turbo trainer to make sure the legs still spin in preparation for my first road race of the season on Sunday.

I'm quite happy now at the thought that in little over a week I could be home and in full training swing with my old training buddy Joe Moore and hopefully Dan will be coming home soon too so we'll have a good little group going, not to mention the ever fun club rides at weekends, and hopefully in evenings since the clocks will be going forward at the weekend, meaning more daylight, but let's just hope the weather holds out too.

A fantastic but not-so-successful trip for me

Well I've just got back from the BUCS weekend in Dorset and we couldn't have asked for better weather, apart from at night perhaps, where on a hill with clear skies it dropped into minus numbers, but got a nice tan during the day however.

DAY 1

Went to get the van at 8.30 and didnt get it till before 9, so it was gone 10 by the time we had got to Stafford, picked Alastair and all his kit up, and got on the move. We got to the UK Bike Park at about 3pm, which wasnt too bad timing to be fair. We set up straight away for fear of it getting dark early, 

then headed out to walk the courses and we all got a little practice in.

We drove into Blandford for tea (fish & chips) then came back and went to the party tent for a while, until it got a bit too cold to bare, then we turned in.

DAY 2

After a cold and not so comfortable night we woke up strangely early at about 6am, and was out of bed and in the van with the heater on eating breakfast by half past. At about 7am we wondered out to walk the downhill course again before morning training started.

Unfortunately the vast majority of the cross country track was not marked out yet meaning we weren't able to actually do any practice laps until about 3pm on Saturday.

The afternoon saw the Downhill Championship events which for those not experienced at descending on big bikes with big suspension looks rather daunting. George was first out of our pair to go down and felt good about his time, and looked much more competent at traversing the Rock Garden than a lot of the entrants we had seen. His second lap was very a similar time, making a good consistent set of runs, and only 30 seconds off the podium time. Alastair put a slightly faster time down with around 10 seconds faster than 

George, yet still a long way off the podium where the Elite ranked riders stood.

After our guys had done their runs, Dan and I headed out onto the cross country course which was finally taped out. However it wasn't as we expected! It was in fact a bit of cross country, followed by 

a lot of technical downhill work then a massive climb up the ruined uplift track. On the first time round Dan came off pretty quickly and I didn't realise for some time after. He had come off over his handlebars and his bike had gone sideways, bending his saddle rails and brake lever. This would ultimately put him out of the race on sunday. I went for a full lap (or as close as i could get to it without crossing the bottom of the downhill course we had to go on). There were a couple of other cross country riders i had near me who i stuck with all the way round as we tried to 

figure out the best lines for all the turns; I still maintain that they dont exist and you are in fact meant to fall off for the audience's enjoyment. My leg that put me out for weeks didn't quite like the uphill part but I thought I should put up with it as long as possible.

The evening brought along probably the most entertaining part of the weekend: the FourCross race. This is Alastair's speciality and it showed believe you me. The course for this was unfortunately just a very short straight and not the full course with the bend in it so we didn't get as much as a spectacle as we'd all have hoped. The event saw quite a lot of carnage, mostly at the same jump on the course, and whilst a few bikes were written off most riders emerged unscathed. After a few practice runs (in the dark with pathetic little 

floodlights) the proper racing began in a knock out form, the top 2 of each round go through to the next. Alastair blitzed his first couple of runs and kept his form in the others. And then the final, which was a little understated as no-one knew that was actually it, but it was certainly the fastest of the races. Alastair disappeared out of the gate and took the lead quickly but on the second to last lap he was just overtaken by the local elite ranked rider (who isn't a student) Steve Atkins. This does mean though, that Alastair is the current best 4X riding student in the country, and we're proud to have him.

DAY 3

Again we found ourselves waking up relatively early and cold, so followed the same procedure as the previous day: get in van, heater on, have breakfast. Once it warmed up a little we headed out back onto the cross country course so i could show dan how to descend the tricky downhill course (which I wasn't completely competent at either, probably down to lack of a full suspension downhill bike).

 After just a few sections his mind was made up that he couldn't ride the full course with a hole 

in his leg. After a short rest I went around again and came off for about the third time, second in that place. I went round the course thinking my leg wasn't too bad, even after the long slog up the uplift track, but I was mistaken and the next slide down the downhill made me think twice about ruining my season on the road for the sake of a crazy mountain bike race, so after a gallant attempt to get back up the uplift track, I decided I'd had enough and threw in the towel for the weekend.

We're now all at home, reasonably tanned, thinking it was great fun and how perhaps we all could have done better, but an enjoyable weekend that we wont easily forget will mean the lessons learned on the tracks these days will stay with us, and for me, giving up in a race will never be an option again.......see you at my road race next week.

Ready To Go

After a bit of packing I'm finally just about ready to go, with the exception of cold food in the fridge and my paperwork (bain of my life) and electronics which I'll charge overnight. I won't go into a rather boring list of what I have and haven't packed but suffice to say my cupboards and shelves are emptier than they were this morning.

I've collected it all and chucked it all in the living room where Dan will be sleeping tonight so it

 should all be ready to put in the back of the van in the morning for a quick getaway. I'm sure however, that in the morning, half way to stafford, I'll come up with something probably quite vital which I have forgotten and will have to make a snap decision whether to go back quickly 

or do without it for the weekend (most likely the latter of the two).

Currently I find myself waiting for Dan to arrive and for Courtney to pop round with her satnav I'm borrowing for the weekend. I bet she's forgotten, but if you're reading this at a later date Courtney, and you hadn't forgotten, I apologise and love you really and sorry I couldn't fix your TV.

So anyway, this actually is my last post before I leave for BUCS so I'll see you in a few days all being well and I'm not stranded in a hospital somewhere on the south coast.

Panic!

I've spent the past day and a half in a constant state of panic as one member going to BUCS tells me he hasnt paid and has no money; a bit scary considering we've booked and paid for so much already. I finally heard back a little earlier that he now has some money and will be coming after all. My heart is still racing! And I'm going to get enough of that this weekend!

Another physio appointment today, just walked in, got leg zapped by ultrasound then sent packing. I'm back again on Tuesday so hopefully this weekend of riding wont aggrevate it too much. If it does 3 of us and a van are going to be stranded in Dorset!

I'm now on the hunt for last minute disposable barbeques, not an easy thing to find in march. I've received a tip off of a local shop which may sell them so fingers crossed and I'll go hunt them down in a few minutes.

I'll be picking up our van in the morning at 8.30 and hopefully heading straight off to Dorset (via Stafford). Should prove to be a good weekend of racing and camping. Wish us all luck! And I'll fill you in on the details when we get back.

The Jerseys Have Arrived!

Guess what! Well you've probably got it by the title anyway, but the Staffordshire University Cycling Club jerseys have finally arrived. George and I ventured into the hells of Longton this morning to pick them up from Pro-Vision after their long flight from a top secret location somewhere in Europe.

As I type this I am in fact wearing my jersey, I'm that happy to finally have it! This is what they look like. Pretty sweet huh? :D

Think I better go and do a spot of training now while the weather looks nice.

Too Busy To Train?

Well my tuesdays are busier than my mondays and don't particularly lend themselves to training. On top of a 9-4 day at uni I have to write my part of a 20 minute presentation on Rewards Systems in International Businesses as I have lost a weekend's worth of work due to BUCS MTB this weekend (not that I'm complaining about going in the slightest).

I had another physio appointment today too, limiting my time to get lunch, but it went very quick all the same. I went in after only having to wait 2 or 3 minutes, sat down on the table, got my knee fried by ultrasound for a few minutes and was sent on my way. I'll be back on thursday anyway for my last appointment before BUCS so am hoping to be fully functioning, even if not in top form through lack of training recently.

I think i'll try and get half an hour gentle on the turbo tonight just to make sure the legs will still spin. Oh, and I'm meant to be turning up to a social for the Ultimate Frisbee club, the thing that got me injured in the first place! That's going to be more of a case of show my face then leave sharpish before I get dragged into anything, then come back and do a bit more work. I've also got a Critical Reasoning thing to do (most stupid module ever and a waste of my time and money frankly, an opinion shared by the majority of my fellow business students).

On the plus side, guess what! The cycling club jerseys are finally arriving! After months waiting for people to pay and waiting for them to come over from Europe they're finally coming. I'll have them in the morning so expect an elated post tomorrow.

Monday Is A Rest Day

After the fun and frolicks of yesterday's club ride and somehow waking up at 06:55 today, i figured it'd be a rest day to let my legs completely recover so i'll get a nice ride in tomorrow hopefully.

So instead I met up with George Woodward and we ventured up to the Lyme Valley Park and its dirt BMX track suited quite nicely for 4X riding which George should be competing in at nationals this weekend so all practice is welcomed.

After a first run of about 19 seconds around the track we gradually got George's time down to about 17.5 seconds, an 8% decrease in time round the track: not bad for an hour or so's work.

Back from Injury

Well today was my first ride back after an injury which put me out for 3 weeks. Its still not better but the cycling will aid the healing process by increasing blood flow to the ligament in question.

It was 65 miles through Staffordshire and Cheshire with Tunstall Wheelers/Brian Rourke Cycles who we ride with each week. I did quite a lot of work on the front and contested and won a good number of climbs, as well as being led out by Stu Clark for a couple of sprints (which actually aggrevated my injury so I didn't do any more after that).

I've now come back, had a delightful (sense the sarcasm) recovery drink and a cold shower on the legs so at least theyre not burning any more.

I had been annoyed at the past couple of weeks being mainly beautiful weather and not being allowed to train, but after seeing the physio on friday he said i could ride so long as I didn't push myself too hard. I pushed obviously, but was cautious I promise! So when I saw Adam yesterday we arranged to do the club ride this week, and I texted Stu (who didn't reply till 30 mins before it started) who came along too. The beautiful weather clearly attracted a lot of people to come out as there were a lot of other cyclists about, including the Sigma Sport/Specialized team who we saw just going through Crewe.

Let's hope tomorrow is as nice and i can find time between lectures to get out! Also the club jerseys are due tomorrow and they better be here as we've been waiting for ages and British University National Mountain Bike Championships are next weekend so expect a nice blog about that when I get back.

Intro

Well, I'm Joe White obviously, and I'm the Chairman/Captain whatever you want to call it of Staffordshire University Cycling Club. I'm based in Stoke-On-Trent in Staffordshire. 

I'm just getting back on the bike after an injury which put me out for nearly 3 weeks so I figured I'd celebrate my return and the start of the season by making this blog.

This is page is the definitive place for me to put all my cycling history as it's made and any other bits and bobs bike related I can think of.