Cycling weekend

Well at last the weekend is here. I off to Shropshire today with the ladies cycling group and as a special treat to everyone, will switch my tracking on so real time tracking is enabled on the blog. Hopefully this test run will be fine and any bugs sorted out completely before the REAL LEJOG starts!

Happy cycling everyone, keep looking at my Tweets and photos which will come thick and fast over the weekend.

Moving along swiftly!

So here we are on Day 15 of the countdown! I still feel very frantic about my training, as if I haven't done anything really significant and yet when I do cycle along familiar paths, I am doing it with ease.

We've since had an offer from a friend to overnight with them when we are passing Carlisle so with a bit of adjustment, Day 8 has stretched with 20 miles and Day 9 has thus 20 miles less. I guess that is OK. I know I will probably curse when I pass through Penrith thinking that I could've binned the day then especially as the previous day is such a stinker with 91 miles to do! I've never cycled 91 miles before in my life. It will be such a mind barrier broken. Maybe this will provide me with the impetus to start Brevet runs next season.

My sponsorship has had a good push over the last two weeks. I've had a lot of promises and some really good donations so I'm now just passed the halfway mark, I still expect a few more to come in, especially a few people that I really think ought to sponsor me!

I bought a lovely little gadget for our ride today. I got the idea from Mark Beaumont  who used solar chargers to power his equipment. I don't have as much stuff as he took on his Americas trip so a charger that take charge of mp3 players and phones will suffice. Here is it on the left.

I've also caught on another idea from a fellow LEJOG cyclist who has approached a few companies to donate some products for her LEJOG trip. This is work in progress!

I thought I will also share a recent picture of me and my lovely Brompton coming back from a business meeting.  She is a great bike, aptly named Thunderbird! She really makes heads turn and I think that is great fun.

Coming weekend will be lots of fun. I'm joining my Ladies cycling group for a weekend of cycling. Pack in as much miles as I can which reminds me that I really need to plot my extra rides for the weekend.

Happy cycling!

Technology galore!!!

Thinking back to ten years ago, I am absolutely astounded to the progress that computer technology has made. I still remember my first mobile phone. What a big bulky brick that was! It was a Siemens (do they still make mobile phones??) and very very basic. The price plan was exorbitant and I could barely afford it.
However things has moved on so rapidly, it is (nearly) unbelievable.

Just thinking about what I did this morning to my blog. Not only can I blog about my fitness journey but I will also be able to share with everyone my routes (which has been dutifully plotted) AND you will be able to follow my progress on a map. I think I will be a (moving) red dot! I'm a bit anxious though as I don't plan to take my laptop with on the route so I need to rely on computers at the places we stay and there could be a long queue. All of the tracking will be down to my current mobile phone. I will also be able to upload pictures to the blog courtesy of Twitpic and Flickr.

The weekend was absolutely marvellous! Proper summer weather which has this morning been replaced by a coolness in the air. What a shame! I noticed on Twitter over the weekend that people are already complaining about the heat. It is really funny that the weather can never be perfect in this country. If there is lovely hot summer days there are complaints about the heat, when it is raining there are complaints about the rain and not to mention the colder days. Just accept the weather and continue with life I think!

I did do some cycling over the weekend. I joined the CTC ladies group for a ride to the Eureka Cafe in Parkgate rd where we just sat chatting for a while. Next weekend will be a total different story. I'm off on Friday to Bridges YHA Hostel for a weekend of cycling with a group of 10 girls and I intend to pack the miles in starting with cycling to Bridges, not driving. I will be carrying my panniers which will be a good start of the weekend. As a test I will be turning the tracking button on so you can follow me around as I do my miles. Hopefully it will work. Even though technology has progressed, it is sometimes such a let down too.


Hope for more miles this week.

Happy cycling and good luck to everyone that is out there doing LEJOG like Kirsty Hepburn, Antony Last and Ali and Sue

Photo time!

Me and my Vita with the pannier packed ready to go to Penzance !

I thought I will be brave and pose for a picture. I took the Vita for a ride today and loaded the packed pannier onto the bike. The ride was short, just 9 miles so no distance really. The bike behaved well, although I think I should take both my panniers after all and redistribute the weight as having everything on one side was a bit wobbly.
I'm planning a longer ride tomorrow and aim to go in the morning if I can get past my concience to abandon my desk and put extra hours in this evening and tomorrow afternoon!

I also found a good cycling blog to read. Have a look at  Charlotte Barnes's blog

Happy cycling!

You can say what you want...

but England on a lovely sunny day is absolutely glorious! Rolling hills and green meadows with winding country lanes where you need to dive into the hedges when a car comes past!

But I think I have to be fair here. My ride yesterday was in lovely fabulous weather but it wasn't in England but in Wales. Although we live in a village in England, Wales is very much my preferred spot to get some good cycling! I did a short 20 miles yesterday afternoon which was a very funny trip. I have a patch of country lanes which you could use repeatedly to create different routes with even the added option of some hills.

Today was another active day but not always in the saddle. I had an early morning spinning class at 6.45am and then ventured out to Liverpool, taking my Brompton along. The Brompton is such a great invention, I really fell in love with my bike! He is nifty and looks really the part. Today I was again in full office gear and made some heads turn!

A mission for tomorrow is at least a couple of bike rides. Both will probably be short again. I need to take my dog to her groomer and I have this fabulous idea of cycling there - about 6 miles - with her in her Basil dog basket. See the picture...

I need to get train tickets for another journey next week so I thought while I'm waiting for her, I can just as well cycle to Wrexham and get the tickets from the station or I can do another circular ride and fetch her on the return trip.

I have also called on some friends so do a short bike ride tomorrow after 7pm. Again it will be probably not more than 15 miles but hey, it all adds up doesn't it?

 I have a few more pictures that I would like to share with you.They were taken over the weekend when we did a ride after coming back from the CTC AGM.See the yellow rapeseed field in the background?

Out is the winter gear and in with the summer cycling pants and gloves. Whoohoo!

I still haven't decided which bike I will take. My support has offered to carry my pannier for me provided that it isn't too heavy. This afternoon I spreaded all my intended LEJOG items on the bed and carefully packed the pannier and I'm happy to say that all fits in (one pannier!).

So I can put the handlebar bag on my Dolce and take her for at least the first part of the route. I might just swap bikes when I get home on Day 6  as the big hard part has been done - through Cornwall and Devon.

Have you seen my route? I have put all the distances in both miles and kilometres as I know some of my friends and family works in metric. I will soon post the routes which are all drawn on Bikemap, on the blog as well.

At the end of May I have a Shropshire ladies cycling weekend. Nine ladies from the Fabulous Ladies CTC group are all going down to Bridges Youth Hostel for a weekend of gossip and cycling. Hopefully I can get some good mileage in that weekend apart from a few pints (I'm not drinking at the moment so this will be a bit of a bugger!)

Happy cycling!

First time for everything!

Do you remember the photo of Thunderbird that I posted a while ago? Mmm. I can hear you say. What is that again?

So to remind you, Thunderbird is my Brompton folding bike who has a happy little resting place in my dining room. Occassionally I take him out for a ride to the local village shop but nothing too seriously. Well, an ooportunity has come along and Thunderbird has been released and been used like a proper folding bike today.
I had to get to Manchester and the time was well planned to used Thunderbird as the preferred method of transport after the train.
All went well I have to say. I manage to turn quite a few heads ( I need to get used to that!) as I was on the Brompton with full office gear including high heels. I refused to wear a helmet and cars gave me a real wide berth. It was a great experience and I'm already looking for more opportunities to use Thunderbird.

My legs were still aching from Sunday's 50 mile ride. I'm sure the 30 miles I did on Saturday did play a part too, but it didn't feel like that when I started on Sunday afternoon.
However, my Sunday ride has now left me very confused. I have a lovely road bike, a very smart Specialized Dolce which I used on Sunday. With Stephen on his Trek hybrid, which he intends to use on LEJOG, and me on the Dolce, I manage to ride well in front of him on Sunday. Usually that is a sight which is very much reserved for me, with Stephen with his much stronger legs in front of me. But this time, with my better bike, I outrode him. What a GOOD feeling that was! Dare I say a bit of his own medicine??

Thoughts were racing through my head...can't he carry my one pannier and I can take my Dolce? I promise to pack light and use only one pannier...that will mean that I will be riding on my faster better bike and be able to keep up. That mean quite a lot to me. Last night I was paid a fabulous compliment when he said that I rode very well on Sunday. Ooo, that was such a good comment, coming from him :-)

In 2007 he used a small pannier system from Topeak which fits onto a road bike. I did have a look at it but it is SO small! Really too small to use, even if I pack very light.

Well, confusion continues in my cycling world so I will battle on with the decision on what I will do. I will keep you posted.

Ladies Ride to Boat Museum

It was quite disappointing when I went downstairs this morning and saw the raindrops against the window. Well, I did say last night come rain or shine I will ride today so I guess I had to be prepared for any kind of weather.

Arriving at the Kingsway Community Cafe was slow. It was spitting and I just couldn't get going. Slowly more ladies arrived including a friend from the village and when we set out, we were 6 including me.

We went out towards Ellesmere Port and then headed for the Boat Museum


A nice bowl of soup, a roll and some butter soon warmed me up. We met up with another couple of girls from the Wirral ride group and then said our goodbyes to head back home. The pictures left was taken on our ride back. The Higher Ferry picture was when I was on my own riding towards the pedestrian bridge over the Dee.


Oh yes. I met up with a dodgy character along the canal. I stopped briefly just before a bridge to allow a man and his dog through. I thought I will ask if I can access the road further along and he started to tell me which route I should follow. The only thing is that his directions were totally out and he was pointing in the wrong way. I decided to follow my own sense (just as well as I was right after all). When he realised that I'm not going to follow his directions he became a bit abusive and said 'Well, follow your own silly route. Is that a SATNAV on your bike?" I didn't want to admit to the Garmin on my bike (Hey, it is worth a few hundred pounds) so I said no. But as soon as I started moving (carrying my bike up the steps from the canal towards the road) the Garmin made a noise as the movement sensors kicked in.
"Oh" he said " is that your phone?" I decided to agree on this. I really didn't want to become a crime statistic. I was all by myself along this canal with this man and he was far too interested in my Garmin for my liking!

I was soon on my way and pedalled like hell!!

Weekend plans

So roll on weekend!

Reading other people's blogs is very interesting but is also very demoralising at the same time. I have few that I follow. One particular blog is that of Jenny and Alan who is also starting LEJOG on the same day as us. Here is their blog link:  http://alan-jenny-lejog2010.blogspot.com/

Jenny and Alan are training hard. No, I mean they are training REALLY very hard. They have done several long distance rides over weekends (breaking the psychological barrier stuff distances) and is now concentrating on shorter rides, but faster. In the week they also go to body pump and spinning classes. I am absolutely in awe about their dedication and training schedule!
The sad thing is that Jenny/Alan is much younger than me and Stephen (well, they look much younger on the pictures I have seen), they will have road bikes (we have hybrid bikes, so ours are a tiny bit heavier) and we will be carrying all our own luggage whilst they use a company called Bike Adventures http://www.bikeadventures.co.uk/ who will be supporting them along their way - carrying their luggage and ensure a comfortable stay every night.
Unfortunately we didn't have that kind of funds available (the camping option for one person is £795 - that is the cheapest option). Basically Jenny and Alan have everything in their favour, they just have to turn up and pedal! AND they are VERY fit. I'm in an absolute panic when I read their posts as it just emphasise how little prep and training I have done so far.

Tomorrow is another CTC Ladies ride, this time to the Boat Museum near Ellesmere Port. I intend to cycle up to the meeting point and also cycle back home (obvious I guess if I cycled up) which will increase my ride distance tomorrow by 13 miles (6.5mi one-way). Stephen intend to do a 28mi route which he plotted tonight on www.bikemap.net . I bought him a Garmin Edge 705 with heart rate monitor and cadence sensor as an anniversary gift. I couldn't think of anything better (I have one of these too - bought it 3 years ago) to give him. So he is going to use his Garmin tomorrow for the first time to navigate him on his plotted route.

Hopefully both of us will have some mileage done tomorrow afternoon - even if it is just 30 miles I will be happy. I will do some Twitter updates as we go along and also upload some photos when I'm back home.

There is just 5 weeks left in which I need to get fitter and faster and lighter. This will be the most challenging 5 sporting weeks of my life!

Ness gardens...

OUCH!! My upper legs and my knees hurt and it was only 32mi today. I have to add that it was against a terrible north westerly wind for the journey to Ness but it was a bliss coming back. We managed to cut a whole 15min off our journey time. At one time I was pedalling at 25mph down along the Dee whilst my companion whizzed past at 31mph!! That was on the way back though...

Tomorrow seems like a no go as the wind will increase and stay a north westerly. Maybe a run will do just fine...

And May has arrived...!

Finally I'm back home.

The last two weeks were really hectic. A couple of days in Northallerton which was followed by a full five days in Southend-on-Sea disrupted my training schedule severely.

I tried to use every opportunity last week - from walking to the venue to a couple of runs in the morning and using the stairs instead of the lift in the hotel - but overall the progress was miserable.


The picture below is one I took last week of the dedicated cycle lane running past the Civic Centre in Southend-on-Sea.

Well, I'm back home now and we are planning a bike ride this morning after a stint in town. I went with the girls' group to Ness Gardens in the Wirral and thought that it was a great ride to do. So after town, we will go off and cycle the route up to Ness.

Have a lovely bankholiday Monday!