This evening myself and Lorraine attended a free Wattbike taster session 😀
Was kinda expecting 40 minutes of talking and 20 minutes of biking.
It wasn't the case at all and was rather fun.
Us ladies in the session outnumbered the gents 4 - 3.
The instructor asked which of the ladies was fittest, Lorraine volunteered me so I was put onto a Pro Wattbike, the difference between pro and normal is the gearing, I have no idea how much difference there is though.
Once all the bells and whistles of displays on the bikes were explained the instructor got us to keep a cadence of between 80 and 90 rpm and every minute he told us to dial up the resistance until we were working in the next zone up, we went up to zone 5 and then back down again. Zone 5 was quite hard work, after a bit of recovery we did the same again but for 2 minutes in each zone, this time we went up to zone 6 and back down again, zone 6 got me sweating quite a bit!
I also found out my left leg is doing approx 55% of the work compared to my right leg most of the time.. ah well!
My legs were a bit wobbly when the session was over, must have worked harder than I thought.
A fun, interesting and informative session, they run 6 week courses for £66 and would be helpful over winter however £11 per sesh is kind of off-putting especially as they have Wattbikes at the local gym I tested out a few days ago, a gym membership works out more value for money as I would have access to Wattbikes at all times as well as other gym equipment and unlimited classes (including spin).
Part of me is tempted as their courses would be very useful for structured training.
Friday, 18 August 2017
Sunday, 13 August 2017
Hillers Seedy Flapjack Slab
Lovely Sunny day today so embarked on a solo ride out to Hillers Cafe and back.
The lady on the London 100 riding and bopping along to Rick Astley on her phone speaker a few weeks ago reminded me that I have a mini sports speaker that I haven't used for aaaages!
Found it at the bottom of the drawer amongst my many many sportive medals and charged it for 8 hours yesterday.
Didn't have it on too loud and the wind and approaching cars drowned the music out quite a bit but when it was quiet it was like having my very own outside spin class, awesome!
At Hillers I decided to bypass the cafe and head for the farm shop, it's impressively huuuge inside!!
Ended up buying a seedy flapjack slab for the pricely sun of £3.15 sat on a bench and scoffed a portion of it along the my lemon curd sarnie, tasted delish. Took the rest home with a plan to take a small portion to work every day... of course that never happened and had finished the whole lot off within 24 hrs!!!
In future I may just buy the one slice for 99p, the temptation is all too much when taking goodies home.
Sports speaker may feature on solo rides a bit more from now on.
Todays' Fuel:
Special K, Oats and Golden Syrup (pre ride)
1 x SIS Go bar
1 x Clif bar
1 x Lemon Curd sarnie on white bread
50 miles covered!
The lady on the London 100 riding and bopping along to Rick Astley on her phone speaker a few weeks ago reminded me that I have a mini sports speaker that I haven't used for aaaages!
Found it at the bottom of the drawer amongst my many many sportive medals and charged it for 8 hours yesterday.
Didn't have it on too loud and the wind and approaching cars drowned the music out quite a bit but when it was quiet it was like having my very own outside spin class, awesome!
At Hillers I decided to bypass the cafe and head for the farm shop, it's impressively huuuge inside!!
Ended up buying a seedy flapjack slab for the pricely sun of £3.15 sat on a bench and scoffed a portion of it along the my lemon curd sarnie, tasted delish. Took the rest home with a plan to take a small portion to work every day... of course that never happened and had finished the whole lot off within 24 hrs!!!
In future I may just buy the one slice for 99p, the temptation is all too much when taking goodies home.
Sports speaker may feature on solo rides a bit more from now on.
Todays' Fuel:
Special K, Oats and Golden Syrup (pre ride)
1 x SIS Go bar
1 x Clif bar
1 x Lemon Curd sarnie on white bread
50 miles covered!
Monday, 31 July 2017
Ride London 100 Weekend
Weekend forcast looking very good.
My first time driving to London ran like clockwork, set off at 8.30 and arrived at Travelodge at 11.30ish, no delays on the motorways and luckily there were a couple of spare parking spaces upon my arrival phew!
Signing on at the Excel was quick and easy, I then I had a look around the cycle show, it was usual cycle show gubbins - nothing spectacular but a nice way to waste time as I couldn't check-in to my room until 3, decided to have a burger and chips while at the Excel - tasted like cardboard! At least I got plenty of chips though (carbs!). Afterward, I ventured along the waters edge to Tesco to pick up an egg sarnie and a chicken and bacon pasta pot for my tea.
Checked in at Travelodge at 3 - tried to book a second night there but they were fully booked ouch. I had stopped at Potters Bar service station on the drive down so decided to book my second night at the Ramada there.
Bed plus sleeping mask at 9pm, a few times I started drifitng into a dream and then suddenly was aware and wide awake again, tried a sleeping tablet at 12, last I looked at the clock it was 1.30am - woke up at 4am - figured I had managed around 2 hours of continuous sleep. Dozed until 5 before getting up and ready to go. Checked out of Travelodge at 6 and was on the road to my starting pen at 6.15.
I arrived at 7 just as my starting pen opened, had over a hour to stand around waiting until it started to move towards the starting line at 7.40 - The Start time was 8.20 and impressively my pen actually rolled out on time.
Riding around London on closed roads is a surreal experience, especially as there were people at the side of the road cheering us all on. I kept my distance to the other riders, the majority of which still kept to the left side of the road including myself, I figured I'd leave the right hand side to the boy racers (FKW's!) however, annoyingly I still had the odd dickhead undertaking at speed.
As I had so little sleep (plus concerned about driving afterward) I decided to see how I felt at the first hub at mile 26 as to which distance i would do.
At the first hub I discovered the route so far had been very flat and fast, as I felt fine and wide awake I decided to carry on along the 100 mile route but miss out Leith and Box Hill, thus reducing total distance to 86 miles.
There was a a long steady climb up to hub no.2 out in the Surrey countryside, when I got to the top I was feeling a little tired, I spent half hour eating and drinking as much as I could before carrying on. There was a very welcome long descent just afterward.
There were plenty of people on the side of the road cheering us all on as the route passed through little towns on the return leg.
My 3rd stop was a drinks station about 20 miles before finishing, I didn't feel like eating at this point so a quick loo break and a few shot bloks and fig rolls to keep me going.
Last major-ish climb was Wimbledon Hill, it was steady and not too bad, shortly afterward I was riding in the familiarity of Central London counting down the final miles.
A final corner, through the arch, and down the Mall to the finish line... the best finish to a ride I've ever experienced - kinda felt like I was finishing a race and had achieved something.
I had a steady 10 mile ride back to my car afterward, luckily it was on the segregated Cycle Superhighway which was flat and dead easy to trundle along for a hour.
The 32 mile drive to the Ramada at Potters Bar was fine, wide awake and no delays.
Verdict:
A top notch experience and well worth the logistics, originally thought I'd do this as a one off but shall likely find myself throwing my name into the ballot hat when entry opens up for next year.
Stats:
4.5 miles to the start
86 miles on route
10 miles back to car
My first century ride so far this year
Fuel:
1 x Porridge pot (pre ride)
Banana (pre ride)
2 x Banana and Peanut Butter Wraps
3 x Cliffbars
8 x Fig Rolls
Haribo Jelly Babies
Shotbloks
Celeb Spotting:
My mate Chris Hoy stood next to me at hub No.1 - was too busy scoffing food to bother him though. Food is more importanter! 😀
Special Mention:
The lady standing on the side of the road shouting out we were all inspirational and should be proud of ourselves after all the horrible news that had happened recently.
Rider of the day:
The lady who rode past me bopping along to Rick Astley's Never gonna Give You Up on her phone speaker with a huge smile on her face, had her own personal spin class going on! 😃
My first time driving to London ran like clockwork, set off at 8.30 and arrived at Travelodge at 11.30ish, no delays on the motorways and luckily there were a couple of spare parking spaces upon my arrival phew!
Signing on at the Excel was quick and easy, I then I had a look around the cycle show, it was usual cycle show gubbins - nothing spectacular but a nice way to waste time as I couldn't check-in to my room until 3, decided to have a burger and chips while at the Excel - tasted like cardboard! At least I got plenty of chips though (carbs!). Afterward, I ventured along the waters edge to Tesco to pick up an egg sarnie and a chicken and bacon pasta pot for my tea.
Checked in at Travelodge at 3 - tried to book a second night there but they were fully booked ouch. I had stopped at Potters Bar service station on the drive down so decided to book my second night at the Ramada there.
Bed plus sleeping mask at 9pm, a few times I started drifitng into a dream and then suddenly was aware and wide awake again, tried a sleeping tablet at 12, last I looked at the clock it was 1.30am - woke up at 4am - figured I had managed around 2 hours of continuous sleep. Dozed until 5 before getting up and ready to go. Checked out of Travelodge at 6 and was on the road to my starting pen at 6.15.
I arrived at 7 just as my starting pen opened, had over a hour to stand around waiting until it started to move towards the starting line at 7.40 - The Start time was 8.20 and impressively my pen actually rolled out on time.
Riding around London on closed roads is a surreal experience, especially as there were people at the side of the road cheering us all on. I kept my distance to the other riders, the majority of which still kept to the left side of the road including myself, I figured I'd leave the right hand side to the boy racers (FKW's!) however, annoyingly I still had the odd dickhead undertaking at speed.
As I had so little sleep (plus concerned about driving afterward) I decided to see how I felt at the first hub at mile 26 as to which distance i would do.
At the first hub I discovered the route so far had been very flat and fast, as I felt fine and wide awake I decided to carry on along the 100 mile route but miss out Leith and Box Hill, thus reducing total distance to 86 miles.
There was a a long steady climb up to hub no.2 out in the Surrey countryside, when I got to the top I was feeling a little tired, I spent half hour eating and drinking as much as I could before carrying on. There was a very welcome long descent just afterward.
There were plenty of people on the side of the road cheering us all on as the route passed through little towns on the return leg.
My 3rd stop was a drinks station about 20 miles before finishing, I didn't feel like eating at this point so a quick loo break and a few shot bloks and fig rolls to keep me going.
Last major-ish climb was Wimbledon Hill, it was steady and not too bad, shortly afterward I was riding in the familiarity of Central London counting down the final miles.
A final corner, through the arch, and down the Mall to the finish line... the best finish to a ride I've ever experienced - kinda felt like I was finishing a race and had achieved something.
I had a steady 10 mile ride back to my car afterward, luckily it was on the segregated Cycle Superhighway which was flat and dead easy to trundle along for a hour.
The 32 mile drive to the Ramada at Potters Bar was fine, wide awake and no delays.
Verdict:
A top notch experience and well worth the logistics, originally thought I'd do this as a one off but shall likely find myself throwing my name into the ballot hat when entry opens up for next year.
Stats:
4.5 miles to the start
86 miles on route
10 miles back to car
My first century ride so far this year
Fuel:
1 x Porridge pot (pre ride)
Banana (pre ride)
2 x Banana and Peanut Butter Wraps
3 x Cliffbars
8 x Fig Rolls
Haribo Jelly Babies
Shotbloks
Celeb Spotting:
My mate Chris Hoy stood next to me at hub No.1 - was too busy scoffing food to bother him though. Food is more importanter! 😀
Special Mention:
The lady standing on the side of the road shouting out we were all inspirational and should be proud of ourselves after all the horrible news that had happened recently.
Rider of the day:
The lady who rode past me bopping along to Rick Astley's Never gonna Give You Up on her phone speaker with a huge smile on her face, had her own personal spin class going on! 😃
Thursday, 27 July 2017
Saturday, 22 July 2017
Pre Ride London Distance Training
My virus returned a little last week so have been resting up again, getting some distance riding in before Ride London has been thwarted somewhat, today was the last chance at doing some distance to see if the virus has gone for good. Decided to go to Wellesbourne, 63 miles, fairly flat and can push the legs a little.
In preperation for the early Ride London start I got up at 6.30am (yowzers!) and headed out onto the road at 7.30am. Discovered I'm not a fan of Saturday drivers, a few close passes and a particular piss poor moment when turning right onto a cycle path near the large Warwick roundabout. The driver behind me stayed back... unfortunately the second car behind him was driven by an impatient w@nker... a split second later could have ended badly...
The return leg was much better and the good news is that the virus has left the building!
In preperation for the early Ride London start I got up at 6.30am (yowzers!) and headed out onto the road at 7.30am. Discovered I'm not a fan of Saturday drivers, a few close passes and a particular piss poor moment when turning right onto a cycle path near the large Warwick roundabout. The driver behind me stayed back... unfortunately the second car behind him was driven by an impatient w@nker... a split second later could have ended badly...
The return leg was much better and the good news is that the virus has left the building!
Thursday, 13 July 2017
Astley Book Farm
Nice longish ride out to Astley Book Farm with Bob today.
Brilliant place with a large library of second hand books to explore, the cafe is particularly good which serves huge slices of cake (of Wedges proportion!) together with strawberries and cream.
I had a huge slice of cookies and cream cheesecake... so huge I couldn't finish it!
Bob had chocolate cake, his favourite :)
A grand ride out in sunny weather!
Brilliant place with a large library of second hand books to explore, the cafe is particularly good which serves huge slices of cake (of Wedges proportion!) together with strawberries and cream.
I had a huge slice of cookies and cream cheesecake... so huge I couldn't finish it!
Bob had chocolate cake, his favourite :)
A grand ride out in sunny weather!
Sunday, 9 July 2017
Hatton Locks Cafe
Have been resting up with an energy sapping virus lately so no riding has occured booo!
Just a flat shortish ride to Hatton Locks for a slice of carrot cake with Bob and Paul today, feeling back on from.
Just a flat shortish ride to Hatton Locks for a slice of carrot cake with Bob and Paul today, feeling back on from.
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