Category / Etape Du Tour

by jamiewheels

Tucked behind my shopping basket

Map reference: Kingston shopping trip, through Richmond Park

Carbs and Caffeine: restrained myself, despite being starving. Cold carbanara left from kids’ supper waiting at home

I did a little over an hour on the spinning bike and then decided I needed fresh air, and a shopping cycle to Kingston on my mountain bike could do no harm. Little did I realise how windy it was. Really hairy, with gusts making me wobble like a child and a wind that was virtually blowing me to a standstill going downhill.

In Richmond Park, heading east I was making next to no headway at all. I badly missed my drops and tried to hunch down as much as possible, with my head just about in my shopping basket. I even toyed with trying to hold the basket, time trial style, but it was too fragile.

I was extremely relieved to get to Kingston as a light drizzle set in. I’m rubbish at shopping, but eventually Sports Direct provided me with some rigid-soled trainers to spin in. I’ve been getting achy feet and I think it’s the soft-soled things I have been using. The shoes are incredibly cheap, even for Sports Direct, because they are incredibly ugly. Still, if they do the job, I don’t care.

Note to self: Wednesday is the only nice day this week. You need to find someone to pedal with

by jamiewheels

Top spin

Map reference: Bank of England Sports Club
Carbs and Caffeine: none, a mouthful of nuts on my return home
Back into my sans-children groove, I want to my normal Friday spin class with Mark Reynolds (info@markreynoldsfitness.co.uk). It’s another sweat dripping off the ponytail vibe, followed by abs (how I hate abs, I bet there’s a hateabs hashtag out there).
Mark’s speciality (I’ve spun, or should that be spinned – as in hung and hanged – with many trainers. They all have their special ways) is an upper body work out where you sort of do pressups over the bars, while still pedalling and keeping your hips up. Although quite painful, this has actually transferred to proper cycling as I am now much more comfortable on the drops.
Husband disapproved at first, thinking I should stay upright in order to keep the chest open, but he’s now found it’s quite a good position for himself too. On a long ride, I figure the ability to change positions has got to be a good thing.
So thanks, Mark, another minor victory over my resident expert.
Note to self: you know you work harder in class, less spinning at home while watching the iPad, I think.

by jamiewheels

Birthday blog

My birthday cake, baked by Cathy

My birthday cake, baked by Cathy

Map reference: Lucy’s house

Carbs and Caffeine: Lucy’s super healthy banana cake

I so wanted to get out on the bike today. Ignoring all the weather warnings, I dressed for a bike outing and did my school car park duty top to toe in Lycra. When I could finally look at my phone – headmistress was under an umbrella next to me, I  didn’t dare sneak a peak until my duty was over – my fears were confirmed, we had been driven indoors by monsoon weather again.

This gave me time to go home, get a caffeine fix, shock the cleaning woman (very young) with the truth about my age, and be on the bike in Lucy’s kitchen by 10. Bealsey http://www.bespoke-velo.co.uk/blog/ was in charge as usual. The only other attendee was Jen, super fit… and super drunk when I last saw her on New Year’s Eve at midnight on a Wimbledon hill watching the fireworks. Actually, in fairness, she was just a bit giggly and wobbly (on New Years Eve, not today, no giggling today) but I couldn’t resist the literary play on super (too much English revision).

To get back today, it was the usual painful hour. Sweat was sweated, even Bealsey sweated which makes me think he also let his hair down over the festive season. And I felt much better by the end, even if the only fresh air was washed in by rain through the French doors in Lucy’s kitchen.

A good day. And a friend baked me a cake too. Picture of the cake will be posted when she has passed on the picture to me. My phone storage is full.

Note to self: sort out the storage… maybe kill some of the kids’ gaming apps, and my 3000 emails.

by jamiewheels

Out … And in again

Map reference: Richmond Park
Carbs and caffeine: Roehampton Gate Cafe
I’m three days late with this post, so pre-tests are finally taking their toll. That and the whole back-to-school malarkey. One down two to go on that front.
Anyway, back to Saturday. Bealsey had organised an all-comers post-festive 90k circuit to Box Hill. Unfortunately someone forgot to order the weather. I had invited my brother and was unable to stall him as his mobile phone is on the blink. So he and I had some coffee and narrowed our horizons to Richmond Park. I had invited Jacqui too, and so she headed that way too. We made no arrangement to meet her, but with us going clockwise and she going anti-clockwise we met and joined up for a final lap. Clever, eh?
By this stage my brother was freezing in his running shoes. He has a nice Cube bike but has been slow off the mark on cleats. Never again. I was feeling the frost in my winter booties, he was way beyond uncomfortable.
Jacqui headed home and Angus and I stopped at Roehampton cafe. Coffee for me and a few stolen bites of the cake I had packed for our longer run. I made Angus eat most of it as he needed fuel to reheat himself.
Strangely he then submitted himself to another lap, and I pedalled with him to Putney Bridge to see him safely on his way home.
Note to self: must persuade brother to buy into cleats… And normal cycling clothes. Baggy shorts slowing him down

by jamiewheels

Does it count?

Map reference: Richmond Park
Carb and caffeine: not out long enough to indulge
Just a short spin round Richmond Park today, with Big One picking up a school friend. Big One has managed to suddenly outgrow his bike and now has possession of Husband Bike #2. Husband is gutted.
I feel for him, as I feel quite miffed when Big One wears my socks… And I get them back. This is a bike. It’s a one way trip. The seat has been lowered and the pedals swapped to match his cleats. And he certainly looks good on it. Yup that’s it, no return.

Note to self: one week to Middle Son’s pre-tests. Am I spending too much time on the bike?

by jamiewheels

Cold …. Yikes

Map reference: Richmond Park to Ham, family outing, 22k

Carbs and caffeine: Hansel and Pretzel, German bakery in Ham

We were desperate to get out in the sunshine after a Christmas kept inside. Husband’s father can no longer walk any distance so it seems rude to leave him in the house alone.
So today we muffled up as best we could and headed out into a wintery day. It transpires none of our mountain bikes are really roadworthy on the brakes front, but we all managed to keep safe. The real problem was the biting cold, which had daughter, 7, in tears. She is on a tagalong and forgets to keep pedalling. Middle son had his Christmas present hand warmers so we stuffed those into her gloves, which just about got us to the coffee shop. There, the very kind staff gave us a warm mug of water for her to hold to thaw her hands and we bought hotdogs to fuel our journey home.
It wasn’t our best ever outing, but legs were turned and that can only be a good thing.

by jamiewheels

An airing

Managed to get a couple of flips round Richmond Park, against all odds. I’m juggling guests and 11+ revision at the moment, as well as wasting a lot of time trying to find somewhere to stay (with kids + childcare) for the Etape. Anyway, a window appeared after lunch, when my husband accidentally found himself taking four children out to try Middle Son’s birthday remote control car. He had intended to just take MS, but our other kids and a French cousin popped themselves in the car expectantly and he didn’t have the heart to unpack them. So that was his challenge.
Mine was to stay motivated for a short run. I did 30k in an hour and 15mins, which is pretty ordinary, although there was quite a stiff wind against. Next challenge, dinner for eight! The pub calls…

by jamiewheels

Dress malfunction

Woke at 7.30 this morning, with a bit of a headache as I had had more than my share of our Friday night bottle of wine as Husband was feeling under the weather. Decided to get on the spinning bike as a cure. It worked, although I looked a fright pedalling in my pjs with the legs rolled up, and wearing my son’s socks.
We have a family dinner tonight, so it will be a couple of days before I get back to my bike. Feeling grumpy already, at the thought…

Note to self: maybe keep some kit out of the bedroom, so you have something to put on if you are up first?

by jamiewheels

More puddles…

More puddles of sweat on the floor as Bealsey http://bespoke-velo.co.uk/ turbo-ed us through our paces in Lucy’s sitting room. It was five minutes sets, four minutes of pedalling on the large cog at 95 rpm and then one minute rest on the small cog at a slower pace. The only light relief were the Christmas songs going round in a loop on the stereo. And then the songs became part of the problem as Bealsey pointed out that I was stomping the pedals to the beat of the tunes to try to keep myself going. I tried to concentrate on sitting still and circling with my ankles but it’s really hard, and four minutes is a long time. Rachel felt a bit nauseous on about the eighth round. She’s training for a half iron man and marathon, so I think she spreads herself pretty thin. Lucy had to keep jumping off her bike to monitor her son who was climbing all over the fence trying to get something down from a tree. There was some speculation that this was an avoidance tactic; I’m sure that wasn’t fair.

We briefly planned our future meets around the holiday season and then all rushed off to our domestic challenges. In my case six children. I dropped two on the way to Kingston and then set three boys loose on the food market, while daughter and I treated ourselves to a Subway… the new McDonald’s it seems. Actually it is better than McD, but the coffee is foul.

Note to self: cards not written and half of presents still not wrapped… food?

by jamiewheels

Turbo trip

Jacqui was on a tight schedule today so I elected to go to a Bealsey http://www.bespoke-velo.co.uk/ turbo session instead. Richmond Park would have been pretty but cold, and I know I need to get some turbo sessions under my belt to keep up my fitness during this period of eating and merriment. Sorry Jacqui, I missed you.

Lucy hosted five of us. She is pulling her house down soon, so she’s not worried about the sweat puddling on the floor. Which is a good thing, because it did. I can always tell if I have worked hard as the sweat reaches the end of my ponytail. A benefit over my normal spinning class is Bealsey was also watching technique. As I’ve suspected for a long time my hips move too much, my pedal stroke is wrong and I also pedal unevenly, being stronger on my left. Just a few things to fix then…

Came home to maths revision. More sweat.

Note to self: I need to learn to sit still. Haven’t I been told this since I was at school?