10 Tips for Passing Horses Safely when Cycling

I've been meaning to write this blog for ages.  I pass horses so often when on the lanes of Cheshire, that I was unclear as to what the protocol should be when passing, other than wide and slow.

A few weeks back, we passed a group of horses and there was one particularly nervous horse who was very jumpy and nearly took one of our group out as we passed.  No fault of anyone's, just one of those situations when a group passing through slowly, spooked the horse and the rider was doing her best to get things under control.

I think cyclists and horse riders have a healthy respect for each other.  We both are often verbally abused by motorists wanting to pass quickly and taking dangerous risks.  So, what is the safe way to pass horses if you're on your bike?  The British Horse society offer this advice to cyclists: -

1.  Horses are creatures of fright and flight and sudden movement or noise can cause problems for all concerned.
2. Because cycles are generally quiet, they may not be noticed by either the rider of the horse until they are very close.  Try to attract the the horse rider(s) attention by making verbal contact before you reach them (I normally shout "rider behind").  This advice is particularly important when coming up behind horses.
3. Look out for the riders' signals and heed any request to slow down or stop.
4. For the safety of all involved, please be patient and wait for the rider to sort out any riding issues your presence might have raised.
5. Riders may be attempting to get off the road into a safe place, in order to let you pass - given the chance to do this by adjusting your speed and keeping a safe distance.
6. If possible, ask the horse rider if it is safe to pass, before attempting to do so.
7. Pass the horse(s) wide and slow.
8. Horse riders may need to ride two abreast for safety, when escorting a young, or inexperienced horse or rider, give them a chance to sort themselves out.
9. Don't be annoyed if a horse rider doesn't appear to be acknowledging your kindness and consideration.  They do appreciate your help but may be concentrating on controlling their horse.
10. Bikes and horses are valuable.  With a little courtesy and consideration all around, there is room on the road for everyone.

If you are a horse rider and you have any further advice, please feel free to leave a comment.  If you want to seek any more advice you can speak to The British Horse Society on 02476 840561 or visit www.horseaccidents.org.uk.

How fast can you go?

Around half way into my ride today, I realised that I was riding a little faster than normal and feeling pretty good.  Stopping for coffee at around 30 miles (50k/m), my average speed was 18mph (29km/h), faster than I'd ever ridden.  I put it down to a tailwind as the wind was around 13mph (20km/h).  

Heading back I went into the wind and it was pretty gruelling, nevertheless I decided to put the effort in with a raised heart rate and see if I could keep the average speed up.  Inevitably, it was going to take some effort and I eventually arrived home with an average speed of 17.8mph (28.6km/h), a new personal best for me.  

Checking my stats out, my average heart rate on the back 20 miles was significantly raised, indicating the wind strength, the table below refers.  Working at that level effort (my maximum is 181bpm) means you have to keep your carbohydrates topped up and I ensured I had a yoghurt with 45g of carbohydrate in when I stopped, plus a gel.

So far this year, I've put around 100 hours of training in, covering 1,500 or so miles and it seems to be paying off.  I've not lost any weight, however the power seems to be improving and with it, ride speed and intensity.

A Few Records

I got a copy of the CTT handbook this week and within it there is lots of information about records for certain distances.  There's nothing like looking at your own effort to understand where you fit in the food chain of fast cycling.  Check out some of these times by time trialling experts: -

10 mile time trial - 18 mins :07- Michael Hutchinson
25 mile time trial - 47mins :01- Michael Hutchinson
100 mile time trial - 3hrs 23mins- Michael Hutchinson

12hour time trial - 302 miles covered - A. Bason
24hour time trial - 541 miles covered - A. Wilkinson

Quite phenomenal times and displays of endurance cycling I'm sure you'll agree.  I'm a long, long way from any of those, but then again I don't take things anywhere as seriously!  Still, I'll bank today's little personal achievement and see if I can build on it.

Blood, Sweat and Gears

Another day of riding in the wind.  It's become a feature of the last three of four rides I've done, a steady 10mph wind coming from one direction or another with some big gusts thrown in for good measure.  It does make long rides hard work and you need to stay on top of your effort levels and also fuel appropriately as your heart is working harder than normal.

Whilst riding today I met a competitor in the forthcoming Bolton Ironman competition who was riding the route.  We got chatting and three things struck me that we had in common: -

1. We had both been bike fitted.
2. We both wore foot inserts.
3. We both used heart rate monitors.

Doing an ironman requires you to be right on top of your pacing and nutrition, monitoring your heart rate and ensuring you take on board the 60g of carbohydrate the body can process each hour to keep your tanks topped up for such an extreme event.  It also requires you to have good technique, for running and cycling, so it was interesting that he'd got fitted up on his bike and had inserts in his cycling and running shoes.

I've worn inserts for a few years and got a pair custom made a few months ago. It's surprising when you go and see someone and they look at your standing pose and immediately note that there are corrections that can be made.  I'd recommend you to think about a set as I found my foot comfort improved a lot after using them. 

Food and Drink

There have been a few more questions of late about nutrition and what things I eat when I'm out riding.  I wrote a blog about gels and sports products recently which you can read here. 

Setting out today, I knew things were going to be tough. I'd picked a route which was had an ascent ratio of 50+ which when combined with the wind, would need a little something.  Here's what I consumed pre, during and post-ride: -

Last night - pasta dinner (Carbohydrate rich meal).
Pre-Ride- x2 Scotch Eggs, 0.5L bottle of Gatorade.
On the ride - 1.5L of water with High Five Zero tablets in, 1 x SiS Energy Bar, 1 x Gel.
Post Ride - Chicken + Egg Mayonnaise + SiS ReGo.

So, pre-ride and during the ride the focus is ensuring that you are taking on carbohydrate, hence the gel and the energy bar.  I took the gel ten miles from home as I was feeling the wind, normally might of skipped it as I would have had a coffee somewhere.  However, no cafe stop today, did the 65 mile route without stopping.

Post-ride is all about getting protein into your system within the magic 20 minute window of finishing your ride. I'd recommend a post-ride supplement if you are at effort, it all depends on how hard you've been working!

Riding Faster is a Slow Business

When you first get into road cycling, you want to ride as fast as you can, completely understandable, particularly if you have a new bike.  Your early rides will involve you going out and riding as hard as you can, either with mates who have started at the same time as you or on your own.

It's only when you start to ride with stronger and faster riders do you realise that you may need to lift your average speed up quite a bit, to hang in a group or go on a club ride.  I've been riding for around four years now and consider myself an average rider based upon the amount of time I can devote to cycling.  I'm more in it for the personal fitness and thinking time than anything else, but also do like to see some steady improvement in exchange for the miles.

This weekend, I've covered 185 miles on the bike over three days and am really feeling the benefit of my planned training.  Day one was an easy 50 mile spin in preparation for a faster ride the following day, my average speed was 15.7mph.  Day two was an undulating 70 miles route at higher pace (avg speed 17.2mph), today was a 65 miles recovery ride at 16.2mph.  The main thing is not to beat yourself up if you don't always come back faster, a good headwind can knock you right back.

Average speed is impacted by so many factors including wind, ascent, weather, road surfaces, sole/group rides however when you ride a bit on your own you'll quickly figure out which rides are similar to judge your progress.

I've spent the last three months really focusing on building a strong aerobic base fitness.  Between Jan-March, I put around 910 miles in, and this established the basic fitness to ride distances.  This mostly involves riding at a controlled heart rate with lots of people whizzing past you.

During April, I've been working a lot more on intensity, taking on harder rides at a higher heart rate.  During each of the months my average speed has been creeping up, whilst my heart rate has stayed constant (meaning improving fitness).  On yesterday's ride (17.2mph) I felt the best I had all year.  Between April and May month to date, I've covered 523 miles with 21K ascent.

It helped yesterday having stronger riders in the group pushing the pace as it made me push myself harder.  What was clear to me is that the patience in putting in the building blocks has been well worth it and when you ride with a strong rider, you realise just how far you still have to go, but how far you've come too.  

My next major breakthrough would be to lose weight.  I've got the essentials in place now in terms of fitness and my ability to climb at pace is now the key focus for me.  On the flats I'm happy to motor along at 20-22mph generally, it's only on the hills that I find it harder to keep up.  If I could knock off 10kg, I'd probably go from being average to OK!

The message is this.  If you a new rider and wanting to get quicker, take your time.  Give yourself a few months of building fitness and try and ride as regularly as you can.  I ride around 100 miles a week, mostly at the weekends and this has been good enough to get me in a place where my fitness is good and my speed 'good enough' for what I want to do on the bike.  

Jot down all your rides so you can get some quality data.  I use Garmin Connect and upload all my ride info, which makes comparisons really easy, then measure your progress and work towards specific goals.  Doing lung busting rides will simply yo-yo your fitness and likely make progress slower than necessary. 

May 2013 Individual Ride Data

Ride 1
Distance 48 miles (77km)
Avg. Speed - 15.7mph (25km/h)
Ascent - 1,605
Avg. HR - 141bpm (Zone 3.1 - Aerobic Endurance).  
Conditions - 14mph SSW wind/30mph gusts
Ride Intensity (Ascent/Distance) = 33 (Undulating)


Ride 2 
Distance 71 miles (114km)
Avg. Speed - 17.2mph (27.5km/h)
Ascent -2,411
Avg. HR - 150bpm (Zone 3.8 - Intensive).  
Conditions - 10mph wind/22mph gusts
Ride Intensity (Ascent/Distance) = 34 (Undulating)


Ride 3
Distance 65 miles (104km)
Avg. Speed - 16.2mph (26km/h)
Ascent -2,143
Avg. HR - 148bpm (Zone 3.8 - Intensive).  
Conditions - 9mph wind/20mph gusts
Ride Intensity (Ascent/Distance) = 33 (Undulating)

Ride 4
Distance 65 miles (104km)
Avg. Speed - 15.9mph (25km/h)
Ascent -3,558
Avg. HR - 147bpm (Zone 3.8 - Intensive).  
Conditions - 9mph wind/20mph gusts
Ride Intensity (Ascent/Distance) = 55 (Undulating/Hilly)

April 2013 Mileage

April has been about increasing the amount of ascent per mile in my rides.  If you take a look at the pink line in the below which measures ascent per mile, you can see it has climbed to 44 for April (up 13%). 

Although my mileage was down a little on March, the amount of climbing I've done in relation to those miles has increased.  Having worked on base miles mostly for January and February, I'm now ensuring my Saturday ride has an ascent per mile of at least 40 or more, followed by a Sunday ride with a flatter profile.  

What's interesting to see is that I'm now maintaining my average ride speed over hillier profiles, which means the cardio base is doing it's job.  You can see the detail behind the individual rides here.

Comparing Ride Distance with Ascent

Conditions during April have been unpredictable as usual.  Strong winds have been a big feature on the back half of the month and this has made the going tough, with a higher heart rate needed to push through the gusts. It can be quite debilitating when you're out there on your own, heading home into a strong headwind, I think they call it character building!

If I take the last 30 days (which brings in another weekend), my consolidated distance is 428 miles (685km), it's been great to get a string of weekends together. My target for April was 320 miles, similar for May is the plan.

I missed my final opportunity to add another ride onto the April mileage today due to a late night.  Having got up late, feeling a little worse for wear, I looked out the window and could see the trees blowing in the wind.  Checking the met office, another day of 11mph headwind and 25mph gusts lay ahead.  Having battled through that yesterday, sensible choice today was to leave the bike today and re-group for next weekend.

Summary for April is, hillier profiles, average speed is continuing to improve and heart rate is stable.  All going the right way.

Month  to Date
Mileage- 338 miles
Ride Time - 20hrs 55mins
Climbing - 14,703ft
Avg. Speed - 15.7 mph
Avg. HR - 144bpm

Calories (estimate) -11,639
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Miles) -44 (Medium/Undulating)

Year to Date
Mileage- 1,249miles
Ride Time - 80hrs 46mins
Climbing - 42,160ft
Avg. Speed - 15.4 mph
Avg. HR - 144bpm

Calories (estimate) -48,579
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Miles) - 33.8 (Easy/Flat)

Bespoke Builders Booming

 

UK manufacturing of customised bikes is booming.  Builders are popping up everywhere and a show now dedicated to the art of bespoke building (the UK Hand Made Bicycle Show held in Bristol) is flying the flag for the Best in British.  

Riders wanting to escape the generic look/feel of many of the multi-national big brands are turning back to specialist builders to get that one-off, made to measure, pride and joy bike made from scratch, something that might last a lifetime.

One of those builders is Ricky Feather, who I came across at the Manchester Bike and Tri show.  I loved the simplicity of his bikes and the attention to detail, a real master of his craft.  

In particular this stunning track bike that he made for British clothing brand - John Smedley - just oozes class.  It's a work of art, a bike that is a one-off.  Distinctive, unusual and understated but with a sense of quality, like an Aston Martin car.       

I asked Ricky to share these pictures with you and hope to have an interview with him later in the year.  For now, he's mega busy building, which is fantastic to hear.  I think any cyclist would love this bike, if not to ride, to hang on a wall.  If you're after something bespoke, this little beauty will cost you a pretty penny, but I'd bet you'd never part from it.  

Get yourself over to his website, for some images of his other builds.  All photo's have been shot by Kayti Peschke.

Purity in Form

Union Jack Themed Headtube

Simple, yet stunning visually

See Wind as a Welcome Training Partner

The last time I rode in windy conditions like today was February time, a couple of years back, it inspired me to write this blogpost about riding in the wind.  It felt windy yesterday, however in an not hugely distracting, but you know it's there kind of way.  

Today was totally different.  As I rode out, I could feel power of the gusts.  In the first mile, it was such hard going, I thought about turning back.  At that moment, something Graeme Obree (cycling legend) said to me came into my mind - "see wind as a welcome training partner", I decided to push on and do three hours in the saddle, with no expectation as to what my ride speed might be.  The wind would act as additional resistance for endurance.

Yesterday, I did a hillier day in the saddle. As I step up my training for London to Paris, I'm now doing a lumpier ride on a Saturday, with a flatter recovery ride on a Sunday.  My legs were a little battle weary it has to be said and looking down at the Garmin, it showed 13.2mph for the first ten miles.  It was miserable, a block headwind with gusts of 35mph.  At times I was doing 17mph, then a gust would come and I'd be doing 11mph in less than a second or two. 

I'd decided to do a fifty miler today, with the first 25 heading into the wind, so I could get the benefit on the way home.  As I hit the lanes, I got a little more shelter and in the next 10 mile section my average speed increased to 16.5mph.  As I turned and started to head to home, I got more tailwind and the next three 10 mile blocks averaged 18.5mph, 19mph then 18mph.

The highlight of today was zooming through Tatton Park, where I picked up the speed to 35mph on the fast section from the Knutsford end, ably assisted by the tailwind.  It made all the suffering worthwhile!  In between that, at times I was learning twenty degrees into a sidewind or battling to keep the bars straight.

Turning towards home, I hit the headwind again and the last five or six miles was all about putting the grimace on and keeping the pedals moving.  To add insult to injury, I got a puncture about a mile from home - hey ho.

All in all, the overall ride came back a little quicker than I'd imagined given the conditions.  I'm glad I toughed it out and got some extra miles in for the weekend.  That's two weekends on the trot where I've managed to do 100 miles and it's pushed me over 1100 miles year to date, so I'm pleased to be catching up after the awful start to the year.

Today's Ride
Distance 49 miles (78km)
Avg. Speed - 16.2mph (25.9km/h)
Ascent - 1,972
Avg. HR - 143bpm (Zone 3.2 - Aerobic Endurance).
Ride Intensity (Ascent/Distance) = 40 (Medium/Undulating)

Gels and Energy Products.....

I used to get so much stick from the guys who I rode with when I first started group riding, I'd carry my own body weight in gels and energy bars in bulging pockets on the back of my shirt, I didn't know any better.  All the ads suggested "increased performance" for the aspiring rider, I shot out and stocked up!

Nowadays, I use energy products very specifically and with nowhere near the frequency that I used to, I've learned when you need to use them and when you don't.

The decision to use energy products is primarily driven by how hard you are working when exercising.  As your heart rate drives up towards the intensive zones over sustained periods it switches to your carbohydrate stores to fuel itself and you need to replace them - hence needing additional carbohydrate in the form of fast absorbing sports nutrition mid-ride.  

I'm not a medical expert and this article is written to give you the basics, so to find out a little more about carbohydrates and the difference between complex and simple carbs, read this article on netdoctors or consult a sports performance coach if you want to do a deep dive.

Keeping it Simple

Particularly on long sportives or very hilly rides, you will be pushing your body much harder and it's important to keep on top of your carbs, or you'll end up 'bonking' (cycling term for the runners equivalent of 'hitting the wall').  However, unless you know what intensity you're working at, it becomes a bit of a guessing game.

Those that visit this blog regularly know that I do all my training using a heart rate monitor.  This means that you control your ride intensity and effectively your need for additional carbohydrates. Long 'base mile' rides rarely need carbohydrate topping up, a good breakfast or a cafe stop will be enough to give you the fuel you need to keep going.  Natural foods like bananas and porridge before setting off, give you the slow release energy you need.  

If you're doing an intense sportive, then you will definitely need to look at your fuelling strategy.  I would be looking at the route profile to see where big efforts are needed (like climbs), where the official food stops are to re-fuel with more natural carbs where possible and then figuring out what additional top-ups I'll need mid-ride either in the form of liquids, bars or gels.  I prefer things like flapjacks wherever possible, simply because energy products can taste a little sickly after a while.  Former hour record holder Graeme Obree, swears by marzipan!

During a long sportive, I'd be keeping an eye on my average heart rate and adjusting my fuelling based upon the pre-planning above.  To ride long distances, you need energy, the trick is figuring out how much you need from refined sports supplements by keeping an eye on your intensity levels using a heart rate monitor.

I always carry a gel with me when I'm out, whatever the circumstances, there's always changing conditions.  Sometimes, a long ride with heavy rain or wind can just sap your energy unexpectedly.  You may have forgotten to eat or drink regularly whist riding and then all of a sudden - BOOM!

The trick is to find a brand that you like, some gels can upset your stomach, some are organic, some with caffeine, there are lots to choose from.  Try not to mix and match and always test them on a ride, before you do anything big or long distance in case they don't agree with you. 

Ride Ascent Ratio (RAR)

A little while ago I devised a simple ratio to help me understand what sort of effort I'd put in relative to distance, irrelevant of other metrics all I wanted was a simple "how hard was is" sort of base measurement in order to make sense of ride intensity, relative to the average speed I may have returned.

In the early days of cycling, you become very focused on average speed as your basic indicator for how you are performing. However, there are so many things that contribute to average speed ranging from weather, road surface, whether you are alone or in a group and if you are well or not, amongst a host of other things.

One of the big dictators of average speed is your ride profile.  A flat route or a hilly route dictates a lot, other mitigating factors apart.  Assuming you are well and it's a perfect day, a hillier ride will always be harder than a flat ride.

By dividing the ascent by the distance, you get a basic output of understanding roughly how hard the miles were in terms of ascent.  I've put six rides in above that I've actually done to show you what I mean.  The ride with Wiggo, being a lot harder in terms of ascent per mile (101.3) than the 100 mile sportive that I did which returned (22.2).  The daddy is still the Fred Whitton for me with a whopping score of 113.7 - brutal.  

What this allows you to do is come home and understand that if your average speed is not what you want it to be, then look to the profile of your ride as a mitigating factor.  Try it yourself and see if it works for you.  

Does anyone use anything similar or invented an alternative way to measure their ride data?  Drop me a comment and let me know.