Winter Base Training – Week 1

Winter Base Training – Week 1

Weather permitting Saturday 7th Jan will be the first week of the clubs winter base training. The ride will be on a well practiced ride known as Vic’s Route.
We’ll depart from the Station House at Holmsley at 0900 sharp http://newforesttearooms.co.uk/. In the event of a strong possibility of black ice or any other weather that makes it dangerous to ride I will post a message on the email e—group and the training blog. So please check your mail and the blog site http://nfcc-training.blogspot.com/ before leaving home. The route will be around 37 miles and we will aim to keep the average pace to around 15MPH, so assuming no punctures or mechanical incidents we should return around 1130. For those wanting to go a bit longer there is always the option to top and tail the ride with the journey from home. I’ll be leaving Brockenhurst at 0825 from the usual meeting point so that I’ll be at the tea rooms got 0845 for anybody that wants to ride down together.
The pace might feel slow to some of you that have been out on the Saturday rides but don’t worry about that. It is the right thing to be doing this time of year and the gradual build up of pace and distance over the next 3 months will pay dividends in the long run. If in doubt please read the previous post about Long Steady Distance.
We will aim to include a couple of intervals at a slightly increased pace and subject to traffic practice some through and off drills and keeping a double pace line.
Please ensure that you’ve prepared your bike as well as possible for the group rides. We all get punctures and suffer the odd mechanical problem but you fellow club members will appreciate these being minimised as nobody wants to stop unnecessarily on a winter’s day. So please give your tyres a check before Saturday, remove any stones that may have got embedded, check that they are in good condition and the right type of tyres for winter riding. Also ensure that you have two spare tubes, levers, multi-tool and a pump. All bikes should have front and rear lights as we can easily get caught out in poor visibility. A bit of hi-vis gear is also a good idea. Lastly, wear club jackets if you can, we want to create a good impression of NFCC and cyclists in general. If we ride well and display our colours we will help that image for our club and our sport.

“Vics Route”
Holmsley Tea Rooms,
Burley,
Ringwood,
Moyles
Court,
Fordingbridge,
Ringwood,
Hurn,
Sopley,
Burley

I look forward to seeing a strong turnout from the Saturday regulars and getting re-acquainted with those that I’ve not seen since last winter’s base training. Any questions please email me or leave a comment.
Regards
Barry
barry.wootten@gmail.com