Do cycling socks matter?

Christmas stockings

As a male approaching the big "four o", I have increasingly found the run up to Christmas a bit of a challenge. I came to a belief a whole ago that men over thirty should be excluded from the present list regardless of their naughty or nice behavior during the year. 

The symptom that backs this up is everybody always says their Dad is the hardest person to buy a present for. The underlying cause, in my opinion, is that if most men over thirty decide they want something they go and get it.   This is regardless of size, usefulness and frequently affordability. As such "proximity to December" is way down the list of concerns.   Therefore when the request is made "What do you want for Christmas?" they give an honest reply. "Nothing." and so the circle continues.

This year was different for me. This year, with my cycling affair at a new found level, I had a number of ideas... The first one that sprang to mind had my wife wondering had I misheard her question. "Socks?!"  she repeated disbelieving this was a serious request.   

When it comes to sport I am superstitious and always have been. I wore the same T-shirt, Jumper, under shirt and goalkeeper shirt every week from Mid November because I convinced myself it brought me luck. By early May it was bringing me dehydration every Saturday but I would not change. 

Fast forward to cycling and a number of opportunities to be equally superstitious have presented themselves. However this time I can justify them all, in Team Sky stylee, as quietening my inner Chimp.   Simplifying grossly, the chimp is that part of you that nags, casts doubt or reacts in ways you may regret. For me small things can play on my mind and bug me. Continually. Until I fix it. Forever.

When we rode LEJOG I bought 5 pairs of cycling socks to wear on the way.  Mostly because they said "cycling" on them if I am being honest.  During the ride, one pair of Altura socks started to become the lucky socks for whatever reason.  I honestly could not tell you why they just did and this became an obsession that I had to wear those for any major sportive to feel right.  Now after the best part of two years and thousands of miles it was becoming obvious they would not last another summer and they needed replacing.

Thanks to my wife, mum (still buying my socks at 38!), and (following some nifty keyboard work on a Friday afternoon) a pair of Bianchi socks to review from probikekit.com I have some options. Ruling out the winter socks that are functional for warding off frostbite/rising damp I have a pair of Castelli Rossa Corsa and Bianchi Eritrea that will compete to be the new lucky socks. Yes, really.

Now back to the original question (can you remember it?).  I set up a scientific experiment to see if there really was a difference between the Bianchi and plain old cotton socks.  Well I say scientific, I did a turbo session on the same bike, in the same room, with the same shoes but different socks.  Einstein is probably turning in his grave at calling that scientific.

Now the first bite is taken with the eye...and it has to be said, both the Bianchi and Castelli socks just look the part when compared to a plain black piece of cotton.  When I go out cycling, looking the part is a key component as this is about as close as I can get to a professional.  Once I start pedaling the similarities become fewer and fewer.

  

In particular, the Bianchi socks actually have L and R right by the toe in its trademark Celeste Green that is a really cool touch.  

Cycling specific socks claim to be kinder to your feet in terms of heat transportation and by having a band across the middle of the foot (which is clear on the Castelli picture on the right) to grip it whilst padding the toes and heel which make contact with the shoe.

What I can say is that these two areas are where the real difference was noted and the Bianchi socks were really good compared to my old Altura socks as well as the M&S specials.  

Whist riding on the Turbo trainer indoors in a house centrally heated to tropical levels, you do perspire somewhat and I can honestly say that my feet felt like the coolest part of me.  This may also be due to the shoes I have but it was noticeable.

The biggest difference though was in the grip of my foot within the shoe.  In the normal work sock, my foot was sliding in the shoe despite the best efforts of the clasps and Velcro that normally hold it in place.  This was not a significant movement but it was there.  In the Bianchi cycling sock there was nothing.  It felt like the shoe and pedals were attached to them.  

Now you may argue that for a few pounds there does not seem to be a big difference and therefore any socks should do.  I would flip the argument back and say that over the course of an hour on a turbo you can probably deal with the difference.  On a six hour sportive ride, with big hills the little slip in your shoe every pedal stroke would become irritating really quickly. 

Which just leaves me with the test run of the Castelli to do and finding a bike to match that lovely green colour. 

Is it raining?  I hadn't noticed

As I went to bed on Friday night setting the alarm for Saturday mornings ride, I received news that my son's cycling session in Rhyl had been cancelled due to the weather forecast of wind and rain.  My original plan had been to ride there and back whilst watching his session in the middle.  

Waking up on Saturday there were a few texts checking we were still going out.  Starting from the bottom up, I have acquired over the course of two years:

• winter socks (waterproof sealskinz)
• Winter shoes
• Winter neoprene overshoes
• Winter base leggings
• Winter Bib tights
• Winter Baselayer top
• winter gloves
• winter wind proof skull cap
• wind and waterproof Long sleeve cycling Jerseys;
• wind and waterproof cycling jackets.;
• Winter tyres
• Winter Wheels and oh yes, 
• a winter bike.

To then not ride in the winter would seem to make all of that a touch redundant.  

The advantage of that kit being so specific is that I don't look like the Stay Puft marshmallow man when I put it on despite the number of layers.  It is also remarkably warm although actually the weather near to home on Saturday was not as bad as expected in the morning and it didn't actually rain on us although we could see the clouds on the hills where it must have been heavy.

Slightly hillier profile

In keeping with our training plan that we are trying to follow, we sought to maintain the base levels on the flat whilst increasing the elevation and our heart rates a little on some climbs.    The climbs you can see on the chart being Bersham to Nant Mill, then Bersham Hill and followed by the climb from Farndon to Malpas.

Maintaining a steady heart rate on the first two climbs was OK and in turning off to Nant Mill I succeeded in taking a road I had not been down before.  What I had not appreciated was the steepness of that road and the fact that the elevation topped out at nearly the same point as Bersham Hill at just over 600 feet.  These hills are not great compared to some of the local points such as worlds end and the Horseshoe pass etc but we are building our fitness so they will come.

What I noticed on the Malpas climb was that
a) nick having joined meant we rode a bit faster; and
B) riding into the 20mph head wind made controlling your heart rate on the flat a challenge.  Before it kicked up.

It actually was like riding into a hill the whole way from Farndon to Malpas and the graph shows the road at varying gradients but when the wind was added this was quite a slog.  We looked forward to turning around and then rolling back with said wind behind us but, in what appears to be cycling tradition, instead we headed across the wind to Bangor instead.  There never is a tail wind.

Pleasingly my hear rate average was in the mid 130s and the average speed just under 14 mph which I am happy with given the different terrain to previous weeks.  I also think the heart rate is skewed slightly by some faulty readings when I first stated and my heart rate didn't come beneath 218 for the first two miles.  I would have worried had it not been at 283 when i was stationary and stood at the side of the bike!

Rule 9 well and truly applied and looking forward to more hills now.

The winter bike going