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".

Hi Ho the merry oh .. here we go .. "undulating"

 Tulip bought herself a "get out there and cycle in the country through lovely back roads and minimum time on the big roads BOOK", and already she's done a few rides from it.  In fact, she had already done the ride we did Sunday on the day before ... in the pouring rain, I might add. Suzanne declined the invite for the ride (filing her nails, washing her hair or a major leak in her bathroom that was flooding her kitchen ... can't quite remember which one). Tulip enlisted her friend Renata to accompany us - and she came on her mountain bike!!

We set off from Harpenden, with the intention of doing a "loop".  It was so refreshing to ride the country roads. I breathed in the fresh air and smiled at every little outcrop of daffodils that I saw.  It was lovely, and best of all Tulip was in charge of the map and directions, so Renata (who I later discovered has both no sense of orientation or recognition of landmarks) and I were just like biking in unencumbered bliss ... until the rain and hills (sorry undulations) that was!!! 

We struck one killer hill, which I suspect will be similar to the "killer hill" that past London to Paris cyclists have talked about getting out of  Calais ... all I can say (now that I can finally speak again) is that Renata will manage that on her mountain bike even if we don't !!!

The weather wasn't the great so we decided to press on to just beyond halfway, as the important psychological mind thingie, and stop at Streatley to have a break/lunch.  We stopped at "The Chequers" where the publican told us he was sorry but all tables were booked (Mothering day) but we could have a drink and maybe be able to order something later .. so we bought a drink went around the corner and started eating our refuel snack food. Then he came around and went off about this being poor form us eating in his hotel,  but of course forgetting his entire previous conversation with us that we could drink what we had paid for ... very bad form Mr Chequers of Streatley ...  very bad form indeed!!!  ...and if you can't cope with Mother's Day then don't do it ... and just go ahead and join the ranks of open misogynists ... perhaps

Anyway, the rest of the ride went ok .. in the drizzle .. the monotony only broken by farm after farm of watercress.. that really impressed Renata.  Me .. I was really impressed that Tulip did it 2 days back to back despite the lack of a decent cake in Harpenden. At the end of the ride we did the necessary top up on the best of the cake and sugar we could find ...

... and then back to London and I thought "oh nice to be back in the city" .. that is until the complete (almost homicidal) white van driver nearly took me out, scuppered a motorcyclist and two cars as he ran a very very red light at high speed. If the car drivers had not had such good reactions I would have been squashed between the car and the van!! Yes .. White Mercedes Van rego LYBD KWN - you know you who are!! Why you refused to look me in the eye when I banged on your passenger window just confirmed your guilt. Pretty soon you'll have family on the street on a bike that get hurt by a stupid white van driver .. see how you feel then you p ....

... so as not to end on a down note ... London and the Olympics .. and the Boris bikes are expanding all over the east end .. what fun this will all be ... are you coming ??

Cycling in Norway

Yes cycling in Norway! That is if cycling on a stationary exercycle in the "trim room" on board a ship in Norwegian waters counts as cycling in Norway.  If it does then I can also claim to have cycled inside the Arctic Circle, on the ship of course.  So what's this all about then I hear you ask (yes you did, I heard you).  Last week I went to Norway and got on board a Hurtigruten cruise/cargo/car/passenger/mail boat that sailed up the west coast of Norway, calling at all the little towns on the way. The Hurtigruten line has been around for over 100 years and really is the link to all the towns along the coast, with the locals using it like we would use the buses or the tube in London really. I have no idea who that man is or how he got into my picture!

We were "hunting the northern lights".  The solar activity was at its highest peak so far in the year and the chances of seeing them once we were inside the arctic circle were excellent, as long as it wasn't cloudy.  Yeah well, let's just say that the hunt goes on, just like the week of cloudy nights.

I kept myself amused on the ship and sort of on track with my London to Paris training programme by cycling each day in the trim room.  The bikes were orientated (and bolted to the floor) in an east/west direction, and had the oddest shaped seats I've ever seen on an exercycle, which made them rather difficult to get comfortable on I must say.

When the ship listed to starboard I had to hang onto the handlebars for dear life to stop myself falling off the back of the bike.  When it listed to port I had to push back on the handlebars for fear of going right over the top of them.  I thought how embarrassing that would be.  First I specialise in falling off Lara at zero kms per hour and then I get bounced over the handlebars of a stationary exercycle ... that would be too much.  All in all with the rocking and rolling it was a weird sensation riding the bike ... but I stuck at it (hero). Five days after getting back on land I still have the "wobbles" and I am sure my swaying/rolling/listing cycling is a major contributing factor. 

Other things that I learnt were not a good idea on a cruise:

• trying to sit on a swiss ball with your legs off the ground on a ship in motion
• getting between the walking stick wielding brigade and the buffet at any time
• leaving your cabin curtains open when you have a deck outside your window
• spreading your huge map out on the floor while trying to calculate just when you might cross into the arctic circle, unless of course you enjoy having walking sticks helpfully but forcefully placed on points on the maps seconds after your fingers were placed there
• deciding to try the "drink of the day" in the bar

... and then you find some things where you just don't expect to find them ...

I can't finish this post without telling you that we went on a night time Husky sled ride - again to improve our chances of seeing the Northern Lights.  We didn't see them but we did get to eat reindeer stew and discover that Huskies are prone to flatulence and sitting downwind of them is not for the faint hearted.

 

It was good to be back in London, where the only hazards are trucks, cars, taxis, buses, pedestrians, mothers pushing buggies, and the government.

Cyco-logical.. those hills, it’s all in the mind!

Well, today dear readers, I decided it was time for me to up the time I am spending in the saddle and the miles I am putting on the clock to get my head down and do a ‘real’  40 mile cycle ride.

I decided on Richmond Park again, and worked out that if I pedalled 4 times around the park, with the miles to and from home there, I should clock up the 40 miles I should have achieved last week, if I change a habit of a lifetime and follow a training plan (and the wet weather ride to Watford was more like 32 miles for me – whatever would we do without cycle computers)... 

So, off I set.  The morning weather was lovely – not too hot but not too cold and I ‘cyched’ myself up to the fact I could get over those lovely undulations in the Park (again, ‘undulations’ have a more positive impact on ones ‘cyche’ than that dreaded word ‘hills’).  The fact I had only cycled round the Park twice before was a little unnerving ..

However, the Park looked lovely.  Very quiet in the early mornings, apart from the mostly male cycling lycra brigade who all look over 7ft high and ultra-trim and fit as they speed past me at a rate of knots (but I keep telling myself that I will be like that soon .. OK, maybe not the 7ft bit, or the male bit or indeed the ultra-trim bit, or the speeding bit .. but I digress..).

The cycling down the hills was, as ever, ex-hill-arating..

wind at my face and the ability to click to the far extreme of my gears to keep the speed up.

But, as we all know, what goes up, must come down – or in this case – vice versa – and those hills kicked in, and again, am I pleased to have 20 gears to choose from and maybe one day I will hit the right one in time for the right hill..

But anyway readers, that is the short blog for today.  After the ride I have sore elbows and my little fingers are numb (if anyone has any constructive ideas how to resolve this for subsequent rides, please let me know!) and, although I am somewhat anxious that the Paris ride is around the corner, and, of that, Day 1 will be over double what I did today (yet alone that being followed by a further 3 days of more miles than I did today) the fact I have just peddled 40 miles have not yet got me running to the hills, more like singing from the hills ..  

(And Dame Julie says ' please sponsor us if you have not already done so ..'!  Thanks Julie, Pomme Ed.) ..

Singing in the rain ...

... and the tune was "this is all terribly unpleasant, cycling when it's dreadfully inclement, but in the best of British tradition, we shall keep calm and carry on".  Being from the colonies myself I was thinking of an updated version of the classic. It goes like this ...


Yes dear dear reader, today was a 40 mile day and it had to be done come rain, hail or shine, and rain it did. We were undeterred  (or at least we pretended to be much more undeterred to one another than we actually were) because after all May can be a very wet month in both the UK and France, so best we had some experience of cycling in the rain.  Almost more importantly, we needed to test out our wet weather gear to see if it was all up to snuff and would actually keep us dry(ish)! On went the wet weather trousers and jackets, the all important overshoes and the gloves. Yes well I forgot my waterproof gloves and so I had on a wind-proof pair in fetching fluro.

As we got into the ride and saw who else was actually out and about on such a miserable day we also realised that the day belonged to a) the dedicated in training for whatever, b) families with small children suffering from cabin fever, and c) the shall we say the "differently wrapped", mostly out walking their dogs in the rain.

Much to her chagrin, the "differently wrapped" appeared to want to take any and all opportunities to have words with Pomme Anglais whether she was stationary or not. For some reason they didn't accost me. Could have been that my glasses were both fogged up and covered in rain, that I didn't appear stable on my bike, or that they mistook my look/grimace of "this is fun this is fun" as a signal that I should be given a wide berth!

 Pomme Anglais, being all British and terribly polite, was duly approached by several people in the course of the ride and informed (amongst other things) that "she should not look at people walking their dogs while she was talking to her fellow cyclists because the person walking the dog could think she was talking about them". Another goodie was that she should not be cycling on the cycling path when there were people with pushchairs on said cycle path, as opposed to the perfectly good footpath for pedestrians opposite.

I laughed, and was duly rewarded by a car driving at speed in a fit of really sensible and defensive driving given the conditions thru a deep pool of water, which duly saw me wear about 40 litres of it full on (you pillock whomever you were!!).  Pomme Anglais then further exacted revenged on me laughing at her by braking unexpectedly in the subway and I rear ended her and yes down I went again at zero kms an hour.  So now that's four bite the tarmac incidents since the arrival of cleats! Actually, it's five as I fell off again later at zero kms when trying to press a pedestrian cross signal - different knee skinned this time yah what a bonus!!!

So taa daahh - the results of the wet weather gear trials, noting of course that we were biking in rain that began to feel like needles because we were going so fast!  Trousers and jacket rock! Over shoes must be made by angels and windproof gloves are definitely not waterproof.  Right, I am off to Norway to see the Northern Lights, sailing up the coast on a mail boat.  Pomme Anglais and kiwifruit numero deux will be keeping you entertained in my absence.

Bike Porn

The other day we couldn't access our blog, the message said it had been removed for unauthorised activity.  I rang Suzanne and she was on the verge of admitting that it must have been her that did something "accidentally and potentially illegal" , when bingo it came back - a little technical hitch at Blogger. Speaking on which no doubt everyone is acquainted with Google's new privacy and data protection policy ... now there's an oxymoron for you!

A while ago I went to see a Top Gear Live show in London. One of the segments in the show is called "car porn". They roll out the best in super luxury sports cars.  At the beginning you think "who would spend that much money on a car like that, and where are you ever going to be able to drive it to get to even half of it's top speed anyway?"  Then you find yourself going "actually that's rather nice, I like that, I could see myself in that, I wonder how much they are second hand".  Well ... given that the same thing is starting to happen to me when I go into bike shops (Condor in particular) I thought it was time we had a little porn of our own.

So here we go ... "bike porn".

They all have names of course .. cool names like Squadra, Leggero and Terra-x and frame descriptions to make you go weak at the knees - for example "Dedacciai Custom Nero Forza Monocoque" and "EM2 triple-butted Scandium tubing".

 I have no idea what any of it means, but since when did that matter when what you are looking at is soooo sexy (ok I can hear you now shaking your heads and going "tsk tsk").  well .. they are sexy machines.

These "cute" little machines on the left however, are not sexy machines. At the risk of raising ire amongst their supporters, I have to say I've not noticed any particularly sexy folks riding these little numbers either. If you are really trendy you wear street clothes and ride a single speed or a "fixee" ... think pre and post WWII and modern day France. Anyway .. I know folding bikes are functional but frankly so are the 3 speed London tanks known as "Boris Bikes", which I continue to ride to and fro around town, to the supermarket, the train station etc. Like you imagine for one moment  I would leave Lara locked up somewhere for 8 hours plus out of my sight, next to dusty and greasy undesirables .. I don't think so!!


Here's one more piece of bike porn to leave your drooling ... and no I am not going to tell you what it said on the price tag.  Ladies never ask the price ... and gentlemen never tell ....

Oh I almost forgot. A heart felt thanks to all of you who saw the last blog post about my injuries and asked me ... "is Lara was ok?" - she really appreciated it!!!