Category: Cycling

I seem to have accidentally entered the London Duathlon 2013

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london-duathlon

I’ve entered the London Duathlon. I don’t know how that happened. Actually, I do know how it happened, it happened because Limelight Sports emailed me and said ‘would you like to take part in the London Duathlon?’ and I replied, ‘I’ve never done a duathlon before so, yes, I’d love to’. With hindsight, never having done a duathlon before isn’t the best reason in the world. I’ve  never plunged my head into a bubbling cauldron of crocodile sick and that’s not something I’m planning to do in the near or distant future either. Still, I got all motivated and inspired by the idea and, anyway, the super sprint is only 5k run / 11k bike / 5k run (other distances are available), and even I can do that.

But then, I realised, I haven’t got a suitable vehicle for such an undertaking. Although, at least I have got a bike (three of them in fact or, if you count all the bikes in the household, seven, or even eight if you also include the one with the engine although I’m not sure that’d be allowed on the course), unlike Rachel and Helen who are also going to be taking part.

I could borrow Shaun’s racer (or road bike or whatever they’re called these days) but, despite us being the same height and me having longer legs, it’s too high for me. Shaun likes to perch atop of it as if on a skinny shire horse, whereas I prefer to be nearer the ground, Shetland Pony style. When I tell him this, he starts banging on about efficiency in the legs or something, which is where I switch off and go back to playing Candy Crush (level 143 at the mo, in case you’re interested).

So, I need a bike. I had my eye on this one at Wiggle but Shaun compared the measurements and it’s near enough the same as his so I wouldn’t be comfortable on it. This one at Halfords (yeah, High Street, I know, but Shaun says although it’s Halfords, people won’t laugh because it’s a good bike) was £400ish cheaper the other day but now it’s gone up and I don’t know if it’s going to go down in price again soon.  I will keep looking.

And when I get my bike, I’m going to need to do some training on it, i.e. practise going faster than 10mph and not braking so hard I’m only doing 5mph on the downhill bits.

If you’re a duathlon noob like me, here are some tips from RG Active:

1. Do your homework – ensure you spend some time researching the event. Look at the transport and parking for race day, building in plenty of time to get the race and not be rushing at the last minute. Try to speak to athletes that have completed the race previously and get their feedback.

 

2. Get the basics – the basic equipment is essential. You will need a bike, a bike helmet, a pair of running shoes and some sports clothing to take part in. Spend some time making sure that your equipment is in good working order and get your bike serviced to prevent any unwanted mechanical issues. If your running shoes are more than one year old and you have used them regularly – it is time for a new pair. Good working equipment can often prevent injuries.

 

3. Build using BRICK’s – What is a BRICK session? Basically a training session where you complete both running and cycling elements at least once back-to-back to give you that real race simulation session. A BRICK session can take any form, it could be a very long bike followed by a short run, or short bike followed by a long run, it could be a run/bike/run session, or even a multiple BRICK where you swap sports up to five or six times. There is no right and wrong.

 

4. Train Transitions – the transition phase between cycling and running is the area that causes most anxiety for beginners. To help with this, spend time thinking through what ‘your’ method will be for transition – think about bike set up, the need to change footwear (if you wish) and how to lay this out for a smooth change over. Practice this time and time again.

 

5. Get outdoors – Your race is outside, on roads and will most likely include hills, therefore it is important to train in this environment on a regular basis. Cycling outdoors is very different to training on an indoor bike; the hills, the road surface, the wind and the heat can all play a big part in how you ride your bike, it also means you are training on the same equipment that you will be racing on. Indoor training is helpful, and on certain training sessions where you really want to control the environment it is more advantageous, but nothing beats being outdoors.

 

6. Be an early bird – on the race day it is important to get to the event early, this gives you an opportunity to register, set up your transition area and watch how the race operates without the stress of feeling rushed.

I need a tip on how to find my bike in the transition area. I’m sure I’m going to forget where it is. Any duathletes out there got some tips for me?

Janathon Day 13: Donkeys and potato shaped animals

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I asked Twitter if they wanted sheep, cows or donkeys. A few people asked for sheep but Ben asked for donkeys and so I thought if he can be arsed to run 255 miles (not a typo) so far for Janathon, then the least I could do is be arsed to go and take a photo of a donkey or two for him.

donkeys

The donkeys were photo’d after we’d been to the farm shop where I bought a potato shaped like a rabbit (I originally thought it was shaped like a pig but have since changed my mind and decided it was a rabbit).

bunny_shaped_potato

And a potato shaped like a hippo.

hippo_shaped_potato

I didn’t buy them just because they were animal shaped, honest*.

I saw some sheep too. 

sheep

I didn’t see any cows though, so it’s just as well no one asked for any.

This bike ride was done in my new Adrenaline Women’s Iso-Viz Jacket. As you can see from the photo, it has nice long sleeves (so many jackets have sleeves that are too short for my gangly arms)

mountainlife_womens_jacket

and it’s slightly longer at the back, making it perfect for cycling.

mountainlife_womens_jacket_side

It also has taped seams to make it extra waterproof. The only thing I don’t like about it is that there are no side pockets. It has a back pocket and a chest pocket and that’s it.

So, we’re nearly at the halfway mark for Janathon – keep up the good work!

Stats
Cycling: 7.05 miles
Donkeys: 2
Sheep: Lots
Cows: 0
Rabbit shaped potatoes: 1
Hippo shaped potatoes: 1
Hi-viz jackets: 1

*I so did.

Cycling commute (includes rhinos and baby goats)

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I’ve been exercising, honest. It’s even involved some running (4 miles on 3 March to be exact. I have GPS proof if you don’t believe me), but yesterday I decided as it was such a beautiful bright day, I’d cycle into uni, 16.5 miles away.

The first ten miles were down quiet country lanes, past the usual fields of sheep, sheep and more sheep, but then I got to a field of chickens and lo! there were some cute furry brown things with four legs skipping about amongst their feathery clucking friends.

Although I’m a townie (although I read recently that ‘townie’ means ‘chav’ and I wouldn’t describe myself as a chav (others might, but hey ho) and I use the word townie to mean I come from a town and know fuck all about the countryside), I knew these brown things weren’t lambs but didn’t know what they were so I decided they were baby goats. They weren’t these ones (I couldn’t be arsed to get off my bike and take a photo) but they looked like them, so yes, I think they were baby goats.

Further along on my commute, I cycled past a field of rhinos. YES! FUCKING RHINOS! (No, I don’t mean the rhinos were fucking, I added the fucking for emphasis but now I’ve explained it, I just look like a dick).

The rhinos were supposed to be there – they hadn’t got the ferry over from Africa or anything – they were in the Port Lympne Wildlife Park (N.B. Lympne is pronounced ‘limm’ and not ‘limp-knee’ as I pronounced it for the first year of living in Kent) and, although I, once again, couldn’t be arsed to get off my bike and take a photo, here’s a photo of a rhino in the wildlife park from when we went there a couple of years ago.

After ten miles, I reached the beginning of Hythe, and therefore a rather long hill. Luckily, it’s a downward hill but I’m not keen on downhills on bike (although I prefer them to uphills) and so I gripped the handlebars and gritted my teeth and kept the brake on (just the brake on the right hand side – the left hand one squeaks like fuck) until I got to the bottom, a mile later. Phew.

I rode through the town centre until I got to the sea and cycled along the seafront for the final four miles until I reached uni.

A fab bike ride that I will do again when a) it’s a nice day; and b) it’s not an early seminar (am I bollocks leaving the house at 7am to get to uni).

(p.s. If you want to know what I’ve been getting up to at uni, sometimes I blog about it at my general writing blog.)

Stats
Distance: 16.56 miles
Time: 1:43:15
Speed: 9.6mph
Calories: 514
Fields of chickens and baby goats: 1
Fields of rhinos: 1
Mile-long downhills: 1
Miles along seafronts: 4

Biking, running and windmills

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Yesterday I cycled down to Woodchurch to have a look at the Windmill there. It’s a very nice windmill and I took lots of photos, like this one

windmill_1

which was brazenly stolen from my Facebook page by Fitographer who doctored it in Photoshop and said, hey, look what I did to your photo (or words to that effect) and this is what he did

windmill_2

 

and I was so impressed with what he did to my photo that I made it into my Facebook profile picture but that was yesterday and today I ran(ish) 4.2 miles.

Stats
Cycling:
Distance: 10.73 miles
Time: 1:08:09
Speed: 9.4 mph
Calories: 326
Windmills: 1
Windmill photos stolen and improved: 1

Running
Distance: 4.27 miles
Time: slow
Pace: slow
Calories: 406

The mystery of the bird-poo-covered car

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My getting up early thing yesterday must have been a fluke, as today I didn’t get up ‘til 9, and that was only because I had a spin class at 10:30 and it takes me over an hour to leave the house and so I got up and looked out the window and sitting in the driveway, instead of the car that Shaun had been driving to replace his normal one was his usual car, covered in bird-poo and although I hadn’t asked Shaun where his car was, it didn’t occur to me that he’d sent it off to get covered in shit and be returned in the early hours of the morning.

After I’d finished pondering the poo mystery, I got my stuff together and went to the gym. As I’d got up late, I didn’t get much time to do anything else before the class, so just did eight minutes on the rowing machine then went and did the class, then I got back on the rowing machine to make it up to twenty minutes and two men got on the machines either side of me and I turned round and there was a whole row of machines behind me that were empty and I wondered if I should tell them the concept of personal space but I only had three minutes to be annoyed and then I wanted to go and do Thru the Gears on the treadmill but Lightning Blue Eyes by Secret Machines came on my iPod

and I thought ooooooooooooooh, I must listen to this first and so I walked on the treadmill while Secret Machines were playing and then I did Thru the Gears and I must have been putting some effort into it, despite what my pace says, as I was sweating buckets and then I went shopping and bought the most unromantic anniversary present in the world ever.

Ho hum.

Stats
Cycling: 5 miles / 30 minutes
Spin: 45 minutes
Rowing machine: 20 minutes
Treadmill: 1.43 miles / 17 minutes
Cars appearing overnight covered in shit: 1
Unromantic anniversary presents: 1

Take that, Cedric!

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That was Travelling Hopefully’s reaction when I said on Twitter that I’d beaten the stick man (not the rather diminutive chap that I live with but the virtual partner on my Garmin, who I call Cedric [Travelling Hopefully is also trying to think of a name for her’s and has a naming competition on her blog that you can enter and win some sweets]).

I had a bit of a dilemma this weekend. Last year I took part in the 35 mile Great Kent Bike Ride and had hoped to do it again this year. Doing it again this year had indeed been the plan for months and months, although there was a local 10k on the same day that I fancied doing. Then I saw that there was the Big Wheel of Kent on the day before, and so I thought ‘aha, I can do the the Big Wheel of Kent on the Saturday and the 10k on the Sunday. Sorted.

Then I looked at the route and map for the Big Wheel of Kent and the map didn’t actually say where I’d be going and the route looked all twisty and turny and confusing and so I emailed the organisers to ask if there would be arrows along the way. They said no. Bah. Another off-putting thing about the Big Wheel of Kent ride was that it was one way, so after cycling 19 miles from Ashford to Canterbury, I’d have to get the train back. The decision was made for me, however, when I checked the weather forecast for the weekend and it said that it would be raining all weekend. I don’t have a problem at all about running a race in the rain but I’m not cycling in the rain for hours and so I decided to ditch both bike rides and do the 10k on the Sunday and do a 20 mile bike ride on my own on the Saturday after I’d ran.

Because I was doing a 10k on the Sunday, I was going to stick to my schedule that said today I was to do 5 miles but I decided that would be overdoing it a bit and so this morning I thought I’d wake up Cedric and get him to pace me over two miles at 10 minute miles. Then I decided that was too quick and so I set him up for two miles at 10:30 minute miles and yay, I beat him!

Stats
Distance: 2 miles
Time: 21:02
Pace: 10:23 m/m
Calories: 213
Stick men beaten: 1

Update for cycling stats:
Distance: 20.56 miles
Time: 2:19:42
Speed: 8.8mph
Calories: 601
Hills: quite a few
Pubs went past: about 3

A mini-duathlon

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Last year, I had planned that when the weather got better, I’d cycle down to the park or the woods and do a run round there.

But I didn’t bother.

This year, I have bothered. Yay.

I cycled 2.5 miles down to the park and looked for somewhere to tie my trusty steed. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to lock my bike to just any available railings but I couldn’t see any ‘cyclists, please fuck off and use proper cycle racks’ signs so thought it was probably ok, especially as it was probably the same railings the policeman locked my bike to when he and his colleague drove me home due to me being too pissed to cycle and falling off in front of them while they were having a cup of coffee at the petrol station one morning in the early hours after I’d got off a train from London.

After securing my bike, I ran through Bowens Fields and then on through Victoria Park, out onto the street, through a council estate, then back through the park, back through Bowens Fields, and back to see if my bike had been stolen.

It hadn’t. Result.

Then I cycled back and was very proud of myself for doing my first ever duathlon.

Stats
Cycle 1
Distance: 2.46 miles
Time: 14:39
Speed: 10.1mph
Calories: 79

Run
Distance: 2.55 miles
Time: blah de blah
Pace: blah de blah de blah
Calories: 267

Cycle 2
Distance: 2.51 miles
Time: 14:02
Speed: 10.7mph
Calories: 86

Review: Trion:Z dual loop bracelet

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I was contacted recently to see if I wanted to try out the Trion:Z dual loop bracelet and the first thing I noticed on their website was “The most difficult decision you have to make is what colour to choose”.

They weren’t kidding. There’s flipping hundreds of colours to choose from (this may be a slight exaggeration). I almost opted for the Audiofuel colours of black and orange, but my inner goth won in the end and I picked the purple and black one.

When it arrived, I looked at the accompanying leaflet to find out what it was supposed to do. The accompanying leaflet didn’t tell me. Hmm. As Warriorwoman has also mentioned on her blog, there’s lots of quotes from athletes extolling the bracelet’s virtues and how they wouldn’t race without a Trion:Z necklace or wristband, but they don’t actually say why.

The blurb on the website says:

“Trion:Z’s original dual therapy bracelet combines Trion:Z’s patented Ionic AND Magnetic therapy into one unique and stylish wristband. With TWO identical loops of Negative Ion releasing “Mineon Health Fibre®” and twin patented ANSPO orientate therapeutic magnets, making it the most powerful ionic wristband on the market.”

I took my stylish loops of negative ions out for a bike ride and I don’t know if it did whatever it was supposed to do but I didn’t fall off, so all was good.

Spin and stuff

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I did a load of exercise last week. It even included a bit of running, but it mostly included cycling to the gym and going to spin classes and a body pump class.

This week I hadn’t done much exercise, except for a bit of running on Tuesday. But today I made up for that by cycling 2.5 miles to the gym, going on the rowing machine for 15 minutes, doing a 45 minute body pump class, doing 15 minutes on the treadmill, doing another 15 minutes on the rowing machine, then doing 10 minutes on the elliptical-trainer before going up to reception and asking if they had any spaces left on the spin class that was about to start.

The man said yes.

So after all that exercise, I went and did some more in the form of a 45 minute spin class.

I’ve been going to spin classes for about a month or so now and I had originally thought that they’d be like body pump, i.e. follow a format and specific exercises to the same music each week, until they bring out the latest version (or whatever you call it). But no, spin (or RPM as it’s called in my gym) seems to be whatever the instructors choose to make it.

I’d been going mostly on Wednesdays which has a great instructor who has played, amongst dancey stuff that I’ve never heard of, a weird Nirvana ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ cover and Prince. Cool.

One week I was hardcore and after my Wednesday class, I booked myself on another class the following morning. I don’t know what music this instructor played as she had us bouncing up and down on our saddles like we were doing aerobics and I was too busy being traumatised by flashbacks of Helen’s and mine Mateivator workout the other month to notice what music was being played.

Today’s instructor was brill. None of this up and down and bouncing around and trying to keep coordinated with the others nonsense, but a really good workout alternating between fast sprints and hill climbing. She really pushed us, telling us to up the resistance (the other instructors mostly leave us to get on with it; the Wednesday instructor one morning even got off her bike and came over to mine and turned the resistance down to zero; she obviously knew I was a lightweight) and the music was great. Today’s tunes included Massive Attack, Credit to the Nation and Rage Against the Machine (turning it off before the naughty words [unlike the XFM DJ who left it on while he went to the toilet about eight years ago when I was listening to the radio at work]).

After my mammoth three hour workout, all I wanted was a cup of tea. Proper tea. With moo juice and sugar. I gave up tea years ago and only drink fruit or herbal tea or hot chocolate (and wine and beer, of course) but as I was getting changed, a cup of tea was all I wanted. Actually, I wanted a fry up too, but didn’t think they did that in the gym cafe so I settled for a cup of tea.

The cafe was empty except for one young lad with mousey brown curly hair, wearing a blue denim jacket and camouflage combats. He soon left, leaving me alone with only the sounds of the air-conditioning and the squeak of the milkshake machine to keep me company.

I finished my tea and headed off for my 2.5 mile cycle home. Passing Rocky’s Cafe and the smell of fry ups didn’t make me want one any less, but because I am a finely tuned athlete, I went home and had a home made muesli bar and some home made spicy cauliflower and potato soup and now I think I need a bit of a lie down.

Stats
Cycling: 5 miles
Rowing machine: 30 minutes
Treadmill: 15 minutes
Elliptical trainer: 10 minutes
Body pump: 45 minutes
Spin: 45 minutes
Time: 3:02:57
Calories: 1,469
Cups of tea: 1
Fry ups: 0
Young lads with mousey brown curly hair: 1

A run, not a plug

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You’re probably thinking that, since my last blog post of 22 February, all I’ve done is sit around listening to my new iPod Nano while reading free marathon magazines and drinking free glucose energy shots and only getting off my chair to count how many steps it takes me to go and make some hot chocolate.

Not true.

I have, on:

23 February: Cycled 2.2 miles to the gym, did a 45 minute spin class, then cycled 2.2 miles back

24 February: Cycled 2.2 miles to the station, walked round London, cycled 2.2 miles back (with added bonus bouncing when falling off drunk)

25 February: Went to the gym and did 20 minutes on the cross-trainer,  20 minutes on the rowing machine, 20 minutes on the stationary bike

26 February: Run 3.01 miles

28 February: Went to the gym and did 20 minutes on the rowing machine, 20 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the cross-trainer, 20 minutes on the stationary bike

1 March: Cycled 2.2 miles into town, went to London and cycled 2.2 miles back

2 March: Cycled 2.2 miles to the gym, did 45 minute spin class, cycled 2.2 miles back, then cycled another 1.8 round trip to the farm shop

3 March: Run 3.02 miles

So there.

Ner.

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