Silly Commuter Racing

My training has been getting on pretty well lately. Apart from a short interruption from having a one-day bug, it has been nice and steady. My training is made up entirely of commuting.

This consists of a blast over to Fenchurch Street every morning followed by a short two-and-a-bit mile loosening up to the Station. The morning rides are generally very quiet and, with less traffic, are at a far more steady and controlled pace, interrupted only by (multitudinous) traffic lights. The evening ride is far more crazy; and the traffic coming out of the vicinity of The City is probably best described a Battle. A low speed jostling between bikes, motorbikes, cars, cabs, buses...

The bicycles generally win, because we can get through the smallest gaps. And, given the amount of cycle traffic on my route, there is a lot of impromptu racing which is where it all gets fun. It's probably not the best way to warm up, as effectively it is usually game-on from London Bridge, but it certainly makes for a great interval session.

On the Bikeradar forum, this is known as SCR - Silly Commuter Racing - and the forumites enjoy posting stories of their latest scalps. There is also a cute ranking system (based on position in the food chain, my ranking being 7). I don't know if I've met one of the 'Radars, but I certainly have had a lot of fun chasing down whoever might be around.

My personal bugbear is red light jumpers (RLJ'ers). So I make it a goal to chase these guys down so I can give them The Eye, and then leave them for dead. This is the goal anyways. Usually I catch them only to reach another red, so being forced to repeat the whole process. Or they simply get away as I'm stopped by successive reds. Whichever way it works (and high horses aside), it is a hard interval session and has helped in acceleration hugely.

After Elephant and Castle, the nature of my ride (and prey) changes. From the fast sprints light to light, the route is less interrupted and so becomes about trying to keep pace with the cars - which is usually about 40-45km/h. The bike traffic seems to mostly continue straight ahead where I turn right to head to Vauxhall, so this bit is a bit lonely in terms of SCR. So it is time to dig in, keep the cadence smooth and let the legs burn.

Vauxhall gives me a bit of a breather as lights provide rest time, traffic density slows things down (together with the need to be a bit more alert to traffic hazards!), but here I also pick up a few more cyclists. Onto Nine Elms Road I'm usually quite stuffed, but this is prime SCR territory. Not as much by the quantity of contenders, but rather the quality of battles possible; there are few lights, the Red Route bus lane provides a nice free flowing highway and the fast guys I've met along here have been pretty quick indeed. This section has been great for getting in some nice long, high intensity efforts in as I'm usually chasing a flashing tail light in the distance, or doing my darndest to stay away from a white flashing LED behind me. Or just racing buses.

From Battersea Park, I do try to slow it down to get a nice cool down and make sure I haven't got piles of lactic acid in my legs, but inevitably I get myself in to chasing down an RLJ'er on the run to The Latchmere.

Inevitably you meet the same cyclists on a regular basis; there is a guy on a black Bianchi 1885 who I have yet to get the better of, and another notable is a Specialized Roubaix pilot who is quite a rouleur but sadly also an RLJ'er - which makes my life doubly difficult.

But hey, it wouldn't be a challenge otherwise.