And when you're on a bike, you're in the middle of it. Monday night ride home, raining when I left work, raining when I reached the half way point, still raining when I arrived home. Everything was soaked, at least the rain hood for my back pack keeps the rain out.
That's another 21km chalked up in preparation for the trip to Paris. 40km for Monday, rest Tuesday, back on the bike Wednesday, 80km this week.
Day 1 ride, found a map showing how tough it's going to be getting out of Blighty. MapMyRide says there are 5 category 5 climbs on the route shown. This means great pain. Mostly because the west side of London doesn't have that many hills and gentle climbs just on 400 metres in length don't prepare you for the reality of this nastiness.
At least the northern parts of France are nice and flat!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
And it rained, and it rained and it rained
Morning cycle to work, light breeze, slightly overcast but perfect weather for cycling. Not too hot, not too cold. Good run in and made it in plenty of time for an 8am kick off. 50 minutes, averaging around 24km/h, so good time and I'm pleased with the training so far.
Rain clouds rolled in this afternoon, getting darker and darker and feeling more like a winter's afternoon. Then I noticed the sheets of rain start to drift across the city scape. Yes, it's Summer in London.
Left work at half five and it was raining. An hour later, it was still raining. Soaked, but happy, I parked my bike in the garage and deposited my kit in the wet room. Hopefully it's dry tomorrow as I'd like to get out for a longer training ride early doors.
That's 3 commutes this week for 120km; happy with that as my times are starting to average out at around 52 minutes.
If you haven't done so already, drop by my fund raising link in the next panel to sponsor me.
Rain clouds rolled in this afternoon, getting darker and darker and feeling more like a winter's afternoon. Then I noticed the sheets of rain start to drift across the city scape. Yes, it's Summer in London.
Left work at half five and it was raining. An hour later, it was still raining. Soaked, but happy, I parked my bike in the garage and deposited my kit in the wet room. Hopefully it's dry tomorrow as I'd like to get out for a longer training ride early doors.
That's 3 commutes this week for 120km; happy with that as my times are starting to average out at around 52 minutes.
If you haven't done so already, drop by my fund raising link in the next panel to sponsor me.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
More Rain on the way
Fully recovered from my man flu. Hmm, not sure if men are ever fully recovered, it's just one long list of moans.
Start again.
Determining that I'm now well enough to resume cycling, I've done a couple of cycles this week and found it exhilarating after a week of slumming on London Underground stuffed into spaces that I can't stand up straight in.
The roads are getting busy now that the weather's improved. If I leave after 7:30am I run into hoards of fair weather cyclists clogging up the road ways. I'm often surprised that people cycle fully kitted out with suits or dresses that are clearly meant for the office; it's quite the fashion parade out there. For me, by the time I reach my office, I need a stretch and then a shower to cool down and get myself clean so I don't offend my colleagues.
http://www.mapmyride.com is fab for keeping track of my rides. Ok, the app for the Bberry is a little flaky and keeps uploading my rides as runs (who's mad enough to run 20km to and from work each day?) and doesn't take into account waiting time when calculating average speeds. But it is cheaper than getting a fancy Garmin device with built in HRM. I'm hoping this will be my father's day present. Dreaming again!
Quickest ride to work so far is 48 minutes - and that included stopping for traffic lights. I overtook one guy on a three wheeler on 3 occasions as he kept running the lights. Average speed through London is a shade under 25 km/h as it's difficult to get a good run without being stopped by lights.
This weekend will be another run out to Amersham. I'll pop the details up along with the map so you can see how I'm doing.
Please continue to sponsor my ride.
Start again.
Determining that I'm now well enough to resume cycling, I've done a couple of cycles this week and found it exhilarating after a week of slumming on London Underground stuffed into spaces that I can't stand up straight in.
The roads are getting busy now that the weather's improved. If I leave after 7:30am I run into hoards of fair weather cyclists clogging up the road ways. I'm often surprised that people cycle fully kitted out with suits or dresses that are clearly meant for the office; it's quite the fashion parade out there. For me, by the time I reach my office, I need a stretch and then a shower to cool down and get myself clean so I don't offend my colleagues.
http://www.mapmyride.com is fab for keeping track of my rides. Ok, the app for the Bberry is a little flaky and keeps uploading my rides as runs (who's mad enough to run 20km to and from work each day?) and doesn't take into account waiting time when calculating average speeds. But it is cheaper than getting a fancy Garmin device with built in HRM. I'm hoping this will be my father's day present. Dreaming again!
Quickest ride to work so far is 48 minutes - and that included stopping for traffic lights. I overtook one guy on a three wheeler on 3 occasions as he kept running the lights. Average speed through London is a shade under 25 km/h as it's difficult to get a good run without being stopped by lights.
This weekend will be another run out to Amersham. I'll pop the details up along with the map so you can see how I'm doing.
Please continue to sponsor my ride.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Man flu stops training
Struck down with sniveling cold symptoms. Blocked nose, headache and general lethargy. Sounds like business as usual for most blokes.
Did 35 km on Saturday thinking this would shift the problem. It didn't. So this week I've not cycled to work and feel distinctly rubbish.
Hopefully this represents just a minor blip in my training for the ride to Paris.
Did 75km out and back to Amersham the weekend before. Discovered you really do need those energy bars when you hit the wall around the hour mark.
Am now using Map My Ride via the Blackberry to record my training. It's easier than trying to note down times and distances via the computer on the bike. For some reason the app thinks I weigh 220kg. This is great for pretending I'm burning more calories than I'm eating. I like the altitude tracking on the site and there's lots of ideas for rides of the daily distance I'll be doing, so I'm finding it very helpful.
Did 35 km on Saturday thinking this would shift the problem. It didn't. So this week I've not cycled to work and feel distinctly rubbish.
Hopefully this represents just a minor blip in my training for the ride to Paris.
Did 75km out and back to Amersham the weekend before. Discovered you really do need those energy bars when you hit the wall around the hour mark.
Am now using Map My Ride via the Blackberry to record my training. It's easier than trying to note down times and distances via the computer on the bike. For some reason the app thinks I weigh 220kg. This is great for pretending I'm burning more calories than I'm eating. I like the altitude tracking on the site and there's lots of ideas for rides of the daily distance I'll be doing, so I'm finding it very helpful.
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