Oh .. it was a BIG weekend

Yes .. the first of the "week 10 onwards" training programme - two days back to back and bigger and bigger mileage weekends.  So the girl from Kings Cross took one last look at the Harry Potter platform and realised the only magic at play here was doing the hard yards or miles. I organised to go for a 60 miler around Richmond park with David (remember him - a kiwifruit - he nearly froze me to death the first time around Richmond Park!!). David did the mileage in the park a few weeks earlier as a recon, so he was ready to go and guide me though it (read drive me like a merciless personal trainer!!!).

Being a little behind in the "miles in the seat stakes",  Pomme Anglais decided she would accompany us for at least half of the journey.  We had a plan, and an organised meet up spot. David and I duly hit the park at about 7:45 am and no sign of her??. We eventually saw Pomme Anglais going the other way around the circuit and I waved and said cheerily "I'll meet you in the car park in 10 minutes". She hissed back (politely cos she is English after all) .. "I have been here since 6:45 am when you said we were meeting up at Roehampton Gate and I am freezing and going home". Umm err ... oh shite ... ok ok .. I admit I completely screwed it up (yeah lap it up you won't see it in print often). I blame the clock forward thing that happened the next day.

So how was it ... in a word HARD!!  I tried to convince David when we stopped for a drink and energy bar in-take that it wouldn't matter really if I only did 40 miles.  But he wasn't having a bar of it (no pun intended) and told me that as a treat we would go the short steep hill way as the last circuit!!!.  This is as opposed to the long, never ending undulating hill way!!  We did the 60 miles in 4:10 hours in actual "on the bike" time, as opposed to elapsed time. Kiwi's - that's 100 km!!! and all with no giving way on a left turn any longer.

I thought this was pretty good going but I do realise it will not be the sustained pace I will be capable of, or that we will travel at on the actual L to P ride (multiple toilet stops, me holding 3 bikes etc ... see earlier posts). The best part of the day came later when post shower we went with Gill and David to a little known (outside of Putney locals) fab Italian enoteca for lunch and a tiny dip into the 300 bin plus wine list as part of a belated celebration of Mo's birthday.

How was it afterwards.  Funny sensation, muscles etc all fine (lots of stretching before the hot bath and after), but wildly tired and almost dyslexic when trying to speak. Rehydration and refuelling with all the right stuff being paramount to recovery. Nothing a good nights sleep can't fix and so the next day (clocks forward and all) up early for a 40 miler.  Pomme Anglais was almost speaking to me again so we organised a foolproof meeting place and time and then did a Cycle Super Highway almost all the way to Barking (she said everyone was mad out there so I decided to turn around and come back to the city, where everyone is of course totally sane). Everything worked, and the legs were fine.  Thanks to Sudocreme other bits were fine too.  Upper body and arms/hands/fingers are proving to be much more problematic than legs or what you might think would be the most at risk areas.

It was all made much easier by the weather ... wonderful, sunny, warm and just so good for improving even the grumpiest of human nature.  The Thames sparkles, aided and abetted by the reflections of all the tourists smiles as they gaze down upon her as they enjoy London, doing things like staring up in awe at Big Ben. Their "ah Londres est tres manifique" idyllic bliss only momentarily shattered by a tired sweaty cyclist coming around the corner at speed shouting at them " get out of the middle of the road you morons - do you know how far I have ridden today".

Falling off a bike .. now that’s very Bard

Had a wonderful ride in Richmond Park today, trying to get used to cleats for the first time.  And for some reason, I came over ‘all Shakespeare’.. being Anglais and all … enjoy .. (perchance) ..

To cleat, or not to cleat, that is the question:

Whether ‘tis Nobler in the mind to suffer

The Ridicule and Mockery of non-cleated cycling,

Or to take feet against a road of potholes,

And by cleating them: to panic, to fall

And to fall, and possibly dent my bike and pride

The heart-ache, and the thousand pieces of tarmac

That would imbed in my flesh?  ‘Tis a consummation

Devoutly not to be wished.  But to cleat, to look fabulous,

To fabulously ride faster in my Dreams; Ay, that saddle ..now

There’s the rub…  

        (But that is another story for another day in the Park…)

What do cyclists eat then

Well you could be forgiven for thinking that they don't actually eat at all, given that you seem to have to go at least two sizes bigger in cycling clothing than you normally wear, and this includes the shoes as well!!!  They do eat, and as we are discovering, "it's food Jim but not as we know it".

We did a 30 mile ride (that's 48 kilometres in real money) yesterday and decided that we should really venture into the world of cycling nutrition. Cos as enjoyable as a pint of beer and packet of pork scratchings are, they are not really the recommended fuel for a long ride.

So we bought a selection of "protein and energy bars" that fit conveniently into the pocket of your cycling shirt, and decided on a taste test.  On the first bite of the yoghurt bar we decided that the best rating scale would be a 1 to 5 "blurk-ometer" ie a polite way of saying how likely they were to make you throw up. The higher the blurko-meter rating the higher the likelihood. Really only up to BB is actually edible in my book anyway.

• Cliff bar - B - it looks and tastes like an Anzac biscuit from my homeland

• Mule Bar - BB - it did taste a bit like strudel and didn't have too many raisins to stick in your teeth

• Promax diet - BB - technically a high protein bar for weight loss, chocolately with a slightly funny texture

• ZV9 protein recovery bar - BBBBB - disgusting, it was like trying to eat bubble gum and it even looked awful like the yoghurt coating had melted and then reconstituted. 

Oh .. and I have it on good authority from Pomme Anglais that the best pork scratchings come from Birmingham apparently ...

Is this an Eiffel Tower I see before me … or..?

Hello readers!  Firstly I have not been stewing in my own ‘pomme’ juices and forgetting about our wonderful blog, I started a new job this week so have been a little preoccupied. 

However, I have a little story I wanted to share with you all.  So, I hope you are sitting comfortably…?  Good, so I will begin..

I have spent this week being ‘induced’ .. well, going through the induction process with the new work.  I was with a group of disparate new hires and part of the course was the usual ‘tell us something interesting about yourself’ …

As the bike ride is so close to my heart I talked about this – the training programme, the new bike, the charity, my two Kiwi fruits that will be following me miles behind en route etc. etc. …

Over coffee we all ended up chatting about these new found interesting things about our colleagues and one of the guys – I shall call him ‘Pete’ to keep anonymity – shared with me that he too did the London to Paris charity ride a few years ago. 

I was so excited to meet someone that had done it and promptly started to ask him questions (how was it for him, did he stick to the training plan, what sort of bike did he have, did he use cleats or not, how was his bum (en route, not at the moment of course) … all of those ‘sad’ questions that have suddenly become so very important).  However Pete stopped me mid questioning and shared with me how it was for him.

Pete had cycled with his chums all the way to Dover, staying in some youth hostel where he told me there was a fight going on outside as they got there (but they were so tried it did not matter).  They crossed on the ferry in the morning and cycled (uphill) out of Calais.  He said the journey throughout France was great – pretty flat and interesting.  They entered into Paris on the final day and he and his friends cycled towards their final destination – the Eiffel Tower – with great great excitement.

He then said that the next memory he had was waking up in a French hospital.  Somehow along the final metres toward the Tour Eiffel he managed to fall off his bike and knock himself out.

He is now really envious about me doing the ride and wished me lots of luck. 

I guess the moral of the story is to keep pedalling – carefully – right to the end of the road.. I could not imagine doing 298.5 miles and falling on the last 0.5 mile, but talking to Pete, I now know this ‘could’ happen (especially if I do not get used to my cleats)!

    

Apparently falling off your bike is easier than falling off a log

Brian shared with me a couple of his mishaps which I thought I'd share .. cos you do don't you!. His opening line "I've lost count of the number of times I’ve fallen off bicycles for one reason or another" was really encouraging .... thanks Brian.  So here are a couple of Brian's stories. I enjoyed them lots.

The first time I can remember was racing down the footpath beside my house, trying to get to the local paper shop for the start of my paper round, shortly before 0730 one wintry morning.  As I hit the road, I discovered that it was a sheet of ice and I went right across the road on my side, ending up in the gutter. Got sacked by the paper shop for being late. ED note: under child labour laws you should never have been employed Brian! - let's sue in retrospect!!).

In Bolivia, I was cycling back to the main office from the transmitter hut (ED note: yeah as you do Brian! Bolivia like), having completed a task which involved the use of a soldering iron.  As the soldering iron was still hot, instead of putting it in my tool-bag, I wrapped the cable around the handlebars, allowing the hot end to dangle and cool down.  It wasn’t many yards before the soldering iron went between the spokes of the wheel and brought me to an abrupt stop.  Much to the amusement of the Quechua ladies on the market stalls.

 About 4 or 5 summers ago, (ED note: Brian this is England you can't really say "summer" and expect us to have images of sunshine and warmth now .. clearly that's winter 2011/2012, warmth wise).    

Anyway ...
 
I used to cycle to Reading and then take the train into Burnham and cycle the final mile to get to the office.  I had terrible trouble with recurrent punctures. The tyres which came with the bike seemed to be made of very soft rubber which offered little protection against sharp bits of flint on the country lanes.  I’ve had less trouble since changing to Continental 4 Seasons (ED note: excitedly .. I have these exact tyres). Anyway, got to Reading station to start my journey home.  Another puncture.  Patched it and put the tube back into the tyre, pumped if up and carried on.  Obviously, I hadn’t pumped it up enough because at a bend at the bottom of a hill, when I was going quite fast, wheee! Back wheel went out and I was sliding across the road on my side.  Gashed knee,  grazed elbow, torn shirt, mud over everything.  Yuk! Still five miles from home.

That’s just three out of many.

 I suppose it’s best to keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down.

Well they said it would happen ... and it did already

So ... it's simple to fit cleats and bung them into the pedals - yeah right!!! After a less than successful stint in the park by myself,  I  rode to Condor to get them fitted properly and my pedals tuned and everything greased and all the rest .... right back on the bike.  Day 1 was good, slow and cautious, but the sensation was good.

ok ok then I got a bit over confident and ignored what the little "uncleat, uncleat, be prepared for intersections, no matter how quiet, cos you are a day 2 novice" voices were saying in my cycle safely consciousness.  And then and unplanned stop ... and BAM... well more like "aagghh oh no" and down I went.  So, I have the kind of injuries you sustain when falling off at less than 1 km an hour - a scraped knee, a bruised shoulder, but no real blood, and it doesn't count if there's no blood according to my motorcyclist mate!!  In my own defence, it is not that intuitive (yet) clicking in and out of the cleats.

All that aside, I could feel in a short space of time the difference that real bike shoes with cleats will make to the ride.  However, the faster you go the colder your feet seem to get as well.  So naturally I have now bought my shoes some wet weather and keep warm "over shoes".  These have to be the saddest addition to the sad git wardrobe to-date.

I suspect that my experience is mild compared to some of the other crash stories I have heard ... I'd like to keep it that way if at all possible.

Un Deux Trois… (Cat Sank…meow!)

OK OK .. it may be close to full moon but I can assure you Ms Pomme Anglaise has not gone totally looney tunes. 

Today I had a wee epiphany (if epiphanies can be small).  As my lovely Condor Italia RC (in beautiful Pearl E White) continued to give me a little grief in changing from (what I technically call) ‘little cog to big cog where the pedal thingies are at the front’ , I took her back to the shop to see if they could help.  The issue from my perspective was the movement I had to make with my left hand to shift the beautifully Italian crafted Campagnolo Veloce gear leaver to move from one cog to the other. .. in short, my little fingers did not seem to want to stretch the virtual 90 degree angle I needed to sweep the lever across to get to that big cog (and hence have the ability to speed off at those all-important traffic lights etc.).

So, off went ‘Pearl E’ to the mechanic and, very soon afterwards, Julian (my new best friend at Condor!) came back with an update for me.  As it transpires, the left hand lever did not have to be pushed the whole 90 degrees in one fell swoop, I could move to the big cog by clicking the lever not once, not twice, but three times in much smaller movements!  This was great news .. so I rode home this afternoon, with ‘un deux trois’ going through my head, the gears shifting easily, my little hands being happy that they are not being stretched to breaking point.  And hopefully the cat will not sink …   that’s all folks (well, for today anyway!)…

Shoes glorious shoes ... we're anxious to try them

Yes dear reader it is finally time to move to the next level of cycling ... real cycling shoes that clip you into the pedals. These let you pull as well as push and in theory should result in a 25 - 30% gain in power, efficiency, general well being, and, improve your chance of a lottery win!  This all hinges on it becoming second nature to be able to "unclip" your shoe from the peddle to be able to put your foot down on the road in both planned and unplanned stopping manoeuvres. 

It is very important that the shoes are equally as stylish as the rest of the cycling wear, so as not to wreck the overall "sad git" image we have been building to-date.  The choice of shoes for women was proving to be a tad disappointing as my search had so far turned up models in either white (will get dirty) or Barbie pink and blue (better suited to Paris Hilton day wear).  And then .... I found these.  Are these sexy shoes or what - the cycle shoes are the ones on the right of the picture.

Everyone has said that with cleats you will fall off sooner or later - great .. looking forward to that NOT. Apparently it even happens to very experienced cyclists.  In fact, a very experienced cyclist I know recently found herself upside down in a deep ditch on the side of a country road with the bike on top of her and both feet still cleated into the peddles. It took about 20 minutes to free herself as she lay in the ditch with her dogs staring down at her and not a car in sight. More on our adventures into the joys of learning to use the new shoes and cleats later.

Farcical … is that really a long bicycle ride ..?

Today, after a whole days rain with zero let up, I decided to get my lovingly loaned Munoura ‘Hypermag’ set-up in the lounge (thank you Uncle John for the loan!).  For those of you not acquainted with the joys of cycle training devices, the Hypermag ‘has been developed as the most silent indoor bicycle trainer in the world with adopting Minoura’s special technical knowledge for over 12 years such as thicker plastic material, alloy die-casting outer case and high-level machined unique full-circle magnet’ (yes, this is lifted straight from the poorly translated instruction manual from Japan). 

Choosing a day when my partner was away (as the only place to install said machine was in the lounge by the dining table – hence making the dining experience in the house with more than 2 of us a little intimate (unless you have a ‘thing’ about bicycle trainers)), I decided to install my old Trek mountain bike on the trainer so I had something to train on on days like today when the weather was really too bad to go ‘proper’ road cycling (ie. 10% possibility of rain upwards ..) and leaving my beautiful ‘Pearly E White’ Condor Italia for those fair weathered rides…

What looked like a simple installation turned out to be very challenging, to put it mildly.    Despite my Master’s Degree (OK OK in computing .. which proved to be useless when it came to cycle trainers) and a detailed diagram of how to assemble the trainer, the combination of the M6 bolt, Knob bolt, flat washer, hub clamping handle, load level adjusting dial, drive roller, flywheel, U-leg etc etc ..got me very perplexed.  I got to a stage where I was questioning if I had the thing turned around the right way to start with, whether it should actually be attached to the front wheel and not the back and whether it should actually be hung from the ceiling.  After a few hours of deliberation I did manage to work 80% of it out (without phoning my Uncle which was going to be the last resort as I can hear him chuckle now!) and installed the bike on the training machine.  By this time my partner had arrived home and I assured her that this was ‘the most silent indoor bicycle trainer in the world’ (blah blah from the manual) and she would not even notice it was there.  To reassure her I sat on the bike and proceeded to peddle and the noise .. well, it made my very old washing machine sound like the hum of butterflies wings.   I think the neighbours started banging on the wall ..  I then realised that the machine was not adjusted properly. 

Now I have sorted it out, although we cannot invite anyone around to eat at the table, all is well.. and the hot dinner plates, now on our laps at night in lieu of the table, have – as I said to my partner – actually helped save us on our heating bills.  Every cloud and all that ….. 

But wait ... there's more ...

oh yes dear reader ... the bike is only the base of what you need. Now you need to buy the stuff that the bike needs (second life anyone??). You just can't take to the streets without the compulsory bicycle accessories, all of which are totally practical of course.

A number of them are even necessary to improve your chances of staying visible to the generally blind pedestrian and vehicle driving public, for whom you are instantly "public enemy no.1".
Some accessories are even more practical, like things to hold your puncture repair kit, which one day soon we'll learn to use.  So here's the starter kit - lights, pump and drink bottles.. oh yeah and the on-board computer providing you with all the vital statistics you need ... isn't it really small!!!