Derbyshire

Rach, John, Isobel and Harriet.

I had the most stunning ride in Derbyshire last weekend. I stayed with my friends Rach and John on the way home from working in Stockport and took myself off for a 4 hour 'fun' ride from their home in Belper. It was blustery but dry and I creeped higher and higher up the map towards the High Peak, eventually ending up in Heathersage after 2.5 hours.

I only had to return to Cromford not Belper, so I thought I'd have enough time, and my planning was perfect as I rolled into the Wharf at Cromford after 4hrs and 2 minutes! I had lost my map earlier whilst blowing down a steep hill so had to find the last bit of my route by memory. It was fine. My heart rate looked like a mountain range when I downloaded it!

I am very fond of Derbyshire and in the future would like to move up there. It would be so great to be near Rach and John. They are amazing friends and have a lovely family. Isobel was learning to ride her bike and John had her doing figure of eights in the carpark in Cromford! She only fell of half a dozen times but was full of smiles afterwards! Harriet isn't quit there yet (being only 8 months) but we'll have her signed up for her first triathlon in no time.

Harriet and I bonding. 'She won't be sick, honest...'

Let the pain begin

I can't believe that the endless slow miles are over. Now the real pain begins. This is what you dream about - when you see Rocky and it's all high impact, sweat-soaked intense workouts with a big grin, all set to music. That's what you think training is. And that's what it's going to be for me right now. But no music and lots of teeth-gritting.

I started with a ten mile time trial on the turbo trainer which was really painful but enjoyable in a strange sadistic kind of a way. I really knew I'd done it the next day. I need to be clever about nutrition going in to this next phase. But we have that covered too.

The next phase is about building muscular endurance. My legs are so far behind my cardiovascular endurance now it's not funny. They need whipping into shape.

And I'm working hard at getting paid work. One more week of paid work then a I have a meeting with my PhD supervisor and it's nose to the academic grindstone once again. All very structured.

At the moment I am liking life a lot.

Fact

PS The knee is ok. Bit tender at times but last night was the first time it didn't wake me up when I stretched out my legs mid-snooze so that has to be a good sign. I'm off for a recovery spin while there's still daylight in the sky.

Ouch!

What a total and utter balls up. Not only did I fall off my bike on the stickiest, mud (well it wasn't all mud if you get my meaning) but I actually did the wrong session today. I was supposed to be mountain biking and road riding tomorrow. What a numptie. So now I have a bloody leg (see below), stiff knees, a filthy bike and I have to go and pick up my mountain bike from Rob's so I can do the session tomorrow.

Such is life.

Gower weekend

This past weekend Rob and I went riding our road bikes round the Gower Peninsula. It was beautiful weather and despite a little bit too much traffic for our liking, we had a great time. A four hour ride on Saturday basically enabled us to 'bag' the Gower completely and we got to know our way around pretty well.

A few highlights:

Sheep on the road - it is Wales!Daft moment!

Totally in control...

One of the many stunning views.

Early morning rides

I have been training at the crack of dawn recently. Getting up in the dark and riding out just as the dawn breaks is totally magical. Then you creep home through the queues of traffic, refreshed and ready to grab the day with both hands.

I pity people who don't ride bikes.

Poppit Sands

I have just got back from 2 days away at Poppit Sands near Cardigan Bay. You drive down the M4 until it runs out, get on the A road until that runs out, then keep going on roads with grass down the middle until they run out and you get there. The YHA overlooks the sea and the weather was absolutely perfect - summery in fact. We had a working 'team building' away days and on Tuesday afternoon when the hoards had piled back into their minibus for the 6 hour trip back to London a friend Ewen and I went for a long bike ride around the local lanes.

It was stunnerama.

The views were sensational and it felt like mid summer it was so hot. We were out for nearly 4 hours but kept stopping to chat to people and take pictures. Bessie Davies was my personal favourite - a perfectly round woman sat on a bench outside her pub with her bloomers drying on the line for all to see.

Today I have to finish my assignment - better get on!

Singlespeed

So I rode for 3hrs 40ish on Sunday morning through the wind and dodging showers with Rob. I rode my brand new-to-me singlespeed cross bike. It will be my tool for bringing on the oomph and bringing on the force (May it be with me). Tomorrow I am using it to do some hill power sessions. Hopefully Rob can sort me out with some aggressive American rock to get me going!

Now I'll let you into a little secret. Next time someone you overtake says 'it's alright for you, you've got gears', remember this - singlspeeding isn't actually any harder than gears. In fact, my heart rate was averagely lower over the course of the ride. There are the odd moment when your legs are twiddling helplessly because you're on the flat or down hill slightly and you don't have the bite (and the odd hill where you wish you had a few extra lbs of muscle to push down) but on the whole there was not much difference. My heart rate was smoother, my pedalling felt normal and overall it was actually less work, I think.

PS. The sheep. I forgot to mention the sheep. These 2 little lambs had us melting with cutitude. They were the sweetiest little things ever.