Just for the sake of it

I use my bike a lot for commuting but, as the days are so short at the moment and weekends busy, don't manage to get out recreationally as often as I'd like to.

I have a load of time off work this Christmas and, although I have tried to be disciplined, inevitably the festive season comes with overindulgence of one sort or another.  And so for a couple of days post-Christmas, I have been promising myself a spin out on my bike.  Unfortunately the weather in the UK is pretty foul at the moment with high winds and continual rain pretty much every day.

Yesterday however, necessity got the better of my laziness/weakness and so I put on my cycling gear and went out for a ride.

Yes, it was wet.

Yes, it was windy.

Yes, I had a brilliant time!

I rode with pretty much no plan and certainly without timing myself, just a nice relaxed ride out to de-stress and burn off a few calories.  I found that although the weather was rough, it wasn't that bad and at least half of the time, the high winds were behind me pushing me a long.  Even when riding into a headwind, I dropped down a gear and pedaled in relaxed acceptance that nothing I was able to do would alter the weather.  This philosophical approach worked wonders and, once again, shows how much of a mental game it is we play.

It's not about the speed, the distance or the timer at all.  It's just about being out there, enjoying ourselves on whatever kind of bike we chose to ride.  Taking time to enjoy our surroundings and, as the poet said "to stand and stare".  I even saw quite a few other cyclists riding a variety of machinery.  Sure, I got a couple of "What do you hope to achieve riding that thing?" looks from the more "roadie" cyclists but in general I think there was just a mutual admiration for being out on our bikes in such inclement weather.

By coincidence I saw via Kent Peterson and Davey Oil on Twitter this link to Davey's own blog.  It pretty much sums up how we should think about cycling during the times when it all seems stacked against us.

To crown it all, when I got back my youngest demanded a few laps of the block together as well. Now that she can ride by herself, it's lovely to be able to just pedal alongside, even for the shortest of rides. And that pink Raleigh single-speed is an awesome little fixed-gear just waiting to happen!

The weather does not look set to improve here and with a dead car, I have no choice but to use my bike for shopping trips and other errands.  I'm not in the least bit bothered though, in fact I'm looking forward to the next excuse to get out and pedal.

And if an excuse doesn't present itself, I'll make one up and go out again just for the sake of it.

Life is good even if the weather isn't.

Mileage, winter and plans for the future

Last week was a big week for me, mileage-wise.Train cancellations meant that I elected to cycle the whole route home twice, resulting in a total for the week of 132 miles.This is not huge by some standards – it is only a small part of a single randonneuring event – but compared to where I was at this point last year (barely riding a bike ever) I feel a real sense of achievement.  The long and short of it is that I have now topped 2,500 miles on my Dahon and over 3,000 miles for the year!  I've also managed to insert a text box on the right hand tool-bar so "Mileage to Date" can sit at the top of the blog! 

It is testament to the effect of regular, short to medium mileage rides that I felt absolutely fine at the end of the week too.Todd Fahrner of Clever Cycles in the US also observed as much in this article.He tackled a 700 mile ride down the US West coast on a Brompton with only commuting mileage as “training”.It’s a very inspiring and well-written piece which is worth a read. It is also fine testament to the capability of my Dahon Vitesse D3HG that these high mileages were as easy on a folding bike as on my 21-speed hybrid.Yes, on those small wheels and yes, with only three gears!*

On longer rides, my thoughts often turn to future cycling plans and high on that list is to do some longer distance things on my Dahon.To that end, I have been looking at some cyclo-sportive events in the spring with distances of 40, 60 and 100+ miles.I love the thought of rocking up on my “shopping bike” and going the distance with the lycra-clad, middle aged, Bradley Wiggins wannabes.Maybe not quite as quickly, but equally as far.But then again, you never know.One of my favourite inspirational articles is this one by Kent Peterson who rode the 1999 Paris-Brest-Paris (in all of its 1200km glory) on a Bike Friday folding bike!And in a damn good time too – an awesome achievement!**Thusly inspired, there is a small part of me that is starting to believe that Lands End to John O’Groats on the Dahon is a practical possibility…

The mornings round here are bitterly cold (by British standards at least) at the moment.So cold in fact that my back brake froze up this morning!I tried to pull the brakes at a junction and found the rear lever to be solid – totally immovable!I had stripped, cleaned and lubricated the calipers on the weekend so I knew that they were mechanically fine.A quick exploratory wiggle showed that the capiers were indeed mving as they should, just not the lever.Once I reached the train station I was able to free it all up - there must have been some moisture in the cable which had then frozen.I will dose it liberally with WD40 this evening – that stuff sorts any sticky mechanism out.

I also went shopping on the weekend and bought a nice hi-viz cycling jacket and winter gloves (both bargains from Decathlon) Even so, with the temperatures as low as they were this morning, it takes a little while to warm up and some bits never quite do!However, I know that when I get round to riding longer events, these hard winter miles will pay back dividends in terms of physical and mental development.

As the saying goes, “The soft iron thinks itself harshly treated in the heat of the forge.The tempered steel blade looks back and knows differently.”


*To answer the two most commonly asked questions from non-folding bike riders!

** Incidentally, Kent’s write up of his 2005 Tour Divide race (on a single-speed, rigid MTB!) is also an excellent and inspiring read.

Food glorious food

I like food and I like a beer now and again. Nothing wrong with that.

It is however a lifestyle which, if overindulged, will cause a rapid and alarming expansion of the waistline. I have long promised myself that I would not become the out of shape 40 something that populates so many of our workplaces. A belly bulging over trousers is not a good look and health-wise it's a real worry. We are as a population getting fatter though and there's a reason why it is so common a sight.

Before cycling to work, my daily activity consisted of little more than walking to the car, from the car to the office, around the office a little bit and then a reverse of the process to get home again. Most evenings, I'd then crash out on the sofa infront of the TV to recuperate before sleeping and starting the whole thing over again in the morning.  Day after day. Month after month. I started to get fatter and unfit. I did used to work out now and again but arriving home tired does not leave one in the right frame of mind for serious exercise and so it's easy to let it slip.  Excuses I know, but also just a sad fact of modern life.

I've always had a decent appetitie but once I started cycling to work, I got noticably hungrier.  A casual Google revealed that, on average, someone of my build cycling at the speed I do burns off 600 calories in an hour.  I cycle for just under two hours a day and so I now burn an additional 1,000 calories or so every day.  My expanding waistline, and fear of my rising weight, meant that I had not been near the bathroom scales in a while so consequently I have no idea what I weighed in March when I started riding.  There's no doubt though that I've lost fat.  Previously "snug" trousers now have plenty of room around the waist and I'm not nearly so paranoid about wearing slightly tight T shirts any more.  All good really.

However, it does mean that I need to carry food with me to work and try to make sure it's something that will fuel my commuting well.  Being obsessed with carrying as light a load as possible, I tend to try and make sure that my food is pretty light too.  As a result, tins and large containers of liquid are out!  Furthermore, as I work in an office, kitchen facilities are minimal (toaster, kettle and microwave tops) and so anything thast needs cooking also needs careful thinking about. 

Dried noodles are pretty good but I find that heavily flavoured "Pot Noodle" type things end up tasting dreadful after a couple of days of a similar thing.  Oddly, the cheaper supermarket "Value" noodles are not nearly so bad.  Fruit is good fuel and I always try to bring a banana or two with me.  When I'm organised enough to remember to buy some, dried fruit and nut mix is cycling-nutrition gold!  I continually plan (but have yet to organise) a mixture of porridge oats, powdered milk and sugar that I could just pour boiling water on for second breakfast when I get to work.  Both received wisdom and my own experience have shown that a combination of good, high calorie food grazed throughout the day give me the most energy in my legs for the ride home.

But, if push comes to shove, as it frequently does at the end of the month, I'll pack pretty much anything.  Jam, cheese or peanut butter sandwiches are great and also very cheap.  Inevitably though I am ravenous when I get home  and have to try hard not to scoff half a packet of biscuits before dinner is ready.

Despite all of the above detail, I'm not too obsessed with losing weight.  I don't have much of a spare tyre any longer and I suppose all of these hard Winter miles will get rid of a bit more.  Just staying healthy and staying in shape is what matters most to me now, which cycling manages in spades.  Best of all though, with so much exercise in the week, I can eat or drink more or less what I want the rest of the time and it doesn't shoot automatically to my waistline! 

Another beer?  Don't mind if I do! 

Mileage to date

It was another monster day of traffic on the way through the city today.  I have no idea what the problem was that caused it all (it never seems to take much to be honest) but it didn’t slow me down one tiny bit.  Having just checked on Google maps, one of the queues was a full mile long!  I simple cruised down the outside of it, to the front of the queue and turned right at the traffic junction as usual.  No fuss and no delays – lovely!

OK, so it wasn't quite this bad but you get the picture!

As predicted, the week before last was a big week on the bike for me and certainly the longest to date since buying the Dahon.  Five full days in the office plus a bit of to-ing and fro-ing from a clients resulted in a total of 117.5 miles for the week.  Last week was much shorter though, in large part because I worked from home for a couple of days.  Not so good from the point of view of exercise but very restful and my legs thanked me for the time to recuperate!  As a result, Thursday and Friday last week were (almost) effortless blasts of cycling fun in beautiful Autumn weather. 

Mileage to date:

Week 28 – 117.5 miles

Week 29 – 48.5 miles

Grand total so far:  1,992.5 miles

So I’m only a whisker away from the 2,000 mile mark.  I think I’ll allow myself a small moment of self-congratulation and a celebratory cup of tea!

Fatigued!

An early meeting this morning, at a time that didn’t quite work with the train timetable, meant that I took a slightly different route into work.  I set off early and cycled 11 miles down to a friend’s house halfway to the office, and then got a lift the rest of the way.

To be honest, I was looking forward to the change of scenery and a slightly longer morning ride.  However, I was shocked to find that I had absolutely no power in my legs at all – all of the way there!

At first I thought that I just needed my legs to warm up a bit and then perhaps that I needed my breakfast to digest somewhat.  However, several miles into the ride I was still struggling up the hills and even along some flat sections (with a slight headwind).  I crawled along in second gear or struggled to heave against third – truly soul-destroying!  The route was slightly hillier than usual but that would not normally cause a problem.  I have ridden the same road in reverse when cycling the whole way home from work a couple of times and it has not presented significant problems.

My diet at the moment is pretty good so I don’t believe it was a stored energy issue.  The distance should not have been a problem either as I have ridden significantly further and faster.  My CV fitness is pretty good as I am rarely worse than slightly out of breath on any ride (unless I go for a mad sprint for some reason).  I wasn’t struggling for air this morning at all and my general health is fine.

I have however been going to bed far too late recently and getting up early.  Even on the weekend it is routinely beyond midnight before I turn in for the night and sometimes an hour or so after that.  I wish I could report that it was as a result of a hedonistic party lifestyle, but alas it is not.  It is a simple function of trying to enjoy a couple of hours of peace before bed but after the children have retired for the night.  Their summer-holiday induced later bedtimes have had a pro-rata impact on mine.

The upshot is though that my muscles don’t seem to be recovering as they should.  I feel tired.  Really tired and in need of a couple of good nights’ sleep.  I still have a few miles to go today though and short of resorting to sugar and caffeine overdose (the crash from which is truly awful) I’ll have to grit my teeth and then try for an early night.

Fingers crossed...

The health benefits

There's no doubt about it, by the end of 2011, I'd become decidedly porky!

I used to keep myself in pretty good shape through regular martial arts training and irregular running. Just for reference, that's irregular as in frequency and not a "Ministry of Silly Walks" technique...

A change to my job in 2010 saw me working away a fair bit and putting in extra hours which meant that a lot of my training went by the wayside. Add to that the nights out and drinking while away and it's little wonder I began to get out if shape.

So, a large part of wanting to cycle as part of my commute had to do with getting some regular exercise and losing a little weight. Unfortunately, I knew that I'd piled on the pounds and developed a consequent fear of the bathroom scales so I have no idea how heavy I was when I began.

It really didn't take long before cycling daily started to yield some positive physical results. Although overweight, I was reasonably fit to start with and so being badly out of breath has never been an issue. My leg muscles were another matter though. There are a few hilly points on my regular route that had my thigh muscles screaming in the early days. I spent days walking round with decidedly achy legs too, especially after climbing a set of stairs. That stage didn't last long though and I was soon able to whizz up hills that used to have my legs bursting.

I've lost a fair bit of weight too. I know I have no idea what my starting weight was but I have several items of clothing, especially trousers, which now fit much more comfortably than they used to. Standing side on to a mirror no longer shows a t-shirt held out from my jeans by a burgeoning waistline. It feels good!

A bit of a Google found some useful online calorie calculators. By putting in your gender, weight and exercise, it tells you how many calories per hour you've burned. I put my figures in to find I am burning a staggering 600 calories per hour! Add to that the fact that, in total, I'm often on the bike for a couple of hours each day and that's 1200 calories on top of the usual a person needs to stay healthy. No wonder I sometimes feel tired on the home stretch! Furthermore as weight is a factor in the equation, even though I'm losing a bit of bodyfat, my rucksack sees to it that my exercise rate is still that bit higher on heavy-load days.

Bitter experience has taught me several times that if I was working at that rate but running rather than cycling, I would have been injured to the point of packing it in by now. On a bike I'm able to bang in the miles, burn off the calories, get slimmer, fitter and spend much less on petrol. A win all round I'd say.

It seems that the challenge is getting enough of the right kind of calories to fuel my journeys without weighing a ton. However, that's another topic for another day.