Brompton – yup it is fixed, ready to ride and may fit in hand luggage?!
Brilliant – Have hit the fundraising target and then some…
Bugger – Actually going to have to do this and it will hurt..
Bye – Just in case, you never know …
Tag Archives: etape
The Ouka Monster can help you.
So the London Marathon has ran its way past my house without incident and our little part of the Isle of Dogs has return to normal – generally quiet with the odd incident highlighted by the wail of sirens.
I digress.
If you forgot to sponsor someone yesterday then we can help you salve your conscience as there is still a week to go until the Ouka.
week 12
If this was pregnancy then this would be the week that the child’s reflexes develop and things start to move.
In my world of training, movement has not really been a feature this week.
I could blame it on the trapped nerve or the prolapsed L5 disc that I blame every ache and pain on rather than worry about them all individually – who knows what I will do following the operation?
But no, I handed my bike in for a service. ‘No problem mate, just bring it back when you need it serviced and we will be able to do it on the day’ were the words that tempted me to said bike shop. However, this rapidly became an overnight gig followed by, ‘it should be ready by Friday’. Friday, being of the ‘Good’ variety, meant that it wasn’t ready. Tuesday and still no word… Grrrh!!!
Still, taking the ‘blame the prolapsed L5’ approach the lack of bike has been to blame for:
1. Catching up with Paul (neighbour from Kazakhstan, godless father to Lyulf) who was over from Moscow
2. Drinking with Ros to celebrate her return from Oxford
3. Drinking with Ros – again. Why…? Hmmm? Because its Tuesday?
Meanwhile, Chris seems to have done some training – ‘who said the age of miracles has past?’ to quote Frank Richards (aka Charles Hamilton)
Legs Eleven
Not sure if I’d have any legs left at the end of week 11 as Chris and I planned to do the box hill zig-zag a couple of times (one of those times being downhill 🙂 ) before heading on to Brighton.
By way of warm up I added the 20kg of child to the Brompton for three days of school runs before setting off in freezing conditions on Thursday.
Up to Hampstead, 12 miles across London to meet Chris in Streatham and proceed to Sutton before at last hitting country lanes after around 18 miles of London’s sprawling mass.
Box Hill was, surprisingly, rather easy!
There was an exhilarating almost omnipotent feeling as you glide across the still new tarmac painted with the names of Wiggo, Cavendish and their Team GB cohorts – at which point you take stock and realize you probably look fairly ridiculous in comparison. Much as I love the Brompton’s ability to collapse almost as fast of me on a steep hill, visually it does make me look a bit like a bear on a clown bike…
Still, add in a touch of snow, sleet and the many hills to Brighton and it feels as though we have earned the couple of beers and burger on the beach (I was going to have a mineral water, but it would have let the alliteration side down).
On Friday my legs hurt, but I was in better shape than the bike, which has checked in for a service leaving me to contemplate a week of altitude training in my kitchen on the turbo trainer while wearing the gimp mask…
So, on Strava – 124.7 miles covered and 4,539’ climbed
Double figures
10 weeks in – some of which has even been spent training – 6 weeks to the big day!
London has been delighting us all with its interpretation of Spring – namely sub-zero temperatures and the threat of snow.
Equally unexpected were the scales, which informed me I was now 14 stone – gosh!
While considerably lighter I still don’t fancy hauling that up a mountain and will continue the diet. I have jumped on the current bandwagon in weight loss and am trying the ‘fast’ diet – my cycling may not be, but my diet is.
In other news, like many a Conservative MP before me, I have purchased a gimp mask. A bit like the other auto-asphyxiation Tory favourite, the orange, but with less vitamin C, this will apparently help in preparation for the altitude. Regardless, I have had it delivered to my mothers house, so it will be worth the money just to see her face 🙂
In order to celebrate 10 weeks the idea was to try and get up Swains Lane ten times – I failed at the first attempt, running out of time due to a puncture. Chris, however, stormed nine climbs and would have cruised the 10 if he hadn’t been held up waiting to find I had a flat – respect!
The next day I set off alone and in true Spinal Tap style my 10 climbs went up to 11 – never been the best at counting. It felt good and as if I could crack on, however, I had to swing off into the icy rain and driving head wind to go and relieve my long-suffering parents from my children…
On Strava – 91.6 miles, climbing 5,427′ | Off Strava – 1.9 miles | Turbo trainer – 1 hour 45 mins
Nicely combining cycling with Carter USM who were mentioned in the previous post, Fruitbat’s other band, Abdoujaparov (http://www.abdou.co.uk/) have a new single out today – well, there you have it…
Seven Eight Nine
The title reflects both the fact it is three weeks since my last post and, like the Pixies song with the ‘Seven’ being a peckish fellow eating nine, my diet…
… It appears that shedding the pounds is as much of an uphill battle as getting up the hills themselves. On the steep parts my arms and shoulders ache with the sheer effort of stopping gravity pulling me backwards off the saddle. With a bitterly ironic reminder of the once svelte youth pogo-ing in a mosh pit, Carter USM fans can now direct their famous (in my part of London) chant at me.
The diet re-starts tomorrow. As, indeed, does the serious training. There has not been much of either over the last few weeks, although it picked up a little with 10 ascents of Swains Lane over two days to round off Week 9.
Here are the low-lights while I go off and mentally prepare to catch up with Mr Gurney who is starting to look worryingly fit – although, that could have just been the lycra…
- Week Seven: 43.2 miles + 3 off-Strava + 2 hours on the tubby trainer
- Week Eight: 85.9 miles + 3 off-Strava
- Week Nine: 94.4 miles with the odd hill thrown in for good measure
This Monkey’s cycling to Heaven…
Week 6
Pulled a muscle! This could potentially indicate an increased level of exercise, but was actually in an effort to catch a slice of toast before it landed butter side down. I didn’t, it did… Frankly it serves me right for trying to multi-task and make coffee at the same time… Lyulf, showing a surprising amount of empathy for a six year old, was forthcoming with a massage and added a whole new level of pain – still, on the bright side, that is my shoulder and it is legs that are needed on a bike and an hour was spent grinding a high gear on the turbo trainer. So the week :
- On Strava – 62ish miles
- 14 with a child on-board
- Includes 5 ascents of swains lane
- Off Strava – 3.9 miles
- Turbo trainer – 65 minutes at high gear
- Diet, drink and drugs – All pretty good, but still having to fight the flab and battle the bottle…
- Weight – hid the scales and made a note to get a more trustworthy set.
- General fitness – Coming out of the back end of two weeks of man flu so feel great. In the context of a bloody great hill, I quickly need to accept the enormity of the challenge and do some work
Winter training
11th Feb, Training in London
For all you people in Marrakech, fretting about the rising temperature, us chaps in London are putting on our winter weight lycra in response to the snow. Slicks and ice makes for an interesting training regime!
If you look carefully, you will notice my thermal footwear.
'Tuffcall' 