Wed night training rides

Starting this week (7 Oct) I will be leading a training ride that starts at 6pm from the bus stop outside the old Police HQ on the A34 at the top of Radford Bank.

The training ride is ideal for anyone wanting to fit in a mid week short ride and suitable for all abilities. The chosen route will be the same each week taking in 8 short climbs. You can ride this in any way you like, steady and just come along for the ride, big gears low cadence, attack them out of the saddle or my prescription will be in the saddle all out effort. We should be back into Stafford before 7:30 as it only takes me about and hour and 20 mins to ride it normally. So not long, but for those that want a good work out, if you empty your legs on the climbs, it will be far enough !

The route is down the A34 and turn onto Camp Rd (Cannock Chase) just after Brockton cross roads. There we start the first from the driveway of the house on the left up to the Deer road sign (approx 70 sec). The second climb is just after the crossroads at the German cemetery and begins at the Hendesford sign and stops at the metal gates at the telephone tower (approx 2 min). At the staggered junction at the top of the climb we turn left and head down Birches Valley toward the Forestry Commission centre and Swynnerton Cycles. On the way we take third and short climb (90 sec) which we hit at speed on the decent from the telephone tower. The climb starts at the entrance to the small car park at the bottom of the hill and finishes at the cross road sign at Marques Drive. From there we descend into Birches Valley turning around as soon as the road levels off. Here we will turn (when it’s safe to do so) and start the fourth climb at the metal boom gate at the forest road on the right hand side of the road. This is a 4 min climb all the way up to the wooden fence around the house at Marquees drive cross roads. Then a short recovery as we descend towards the telephone tower and hit the 5th climb at speed which again starts where climb 3 did at the entrance to the car park at the bottom of the hill. From there we climb up to the large wooded Welcome to Cannock Chase signs near the telephone tower (approx. 3 min).  Here we will turn in the road (when it’s safe to do so) and repeat climbs 3, 4 and 5. We can then meet up at the garage at the top of the hill before riding back to Stafford via Pottal Pool as a group.

I intend to ride each week up until 16 Dec whatever the weather, it will be just freezing conditions that stop me. So hopefully we will get a full 11 week of rides in and by using your lap button to record each climb, each week, we will all see a progressive rise in our speed and or power and a reduction in HR at any given speed.