Today is the 1st of February 2018 and so my first month of training is complete.
Getting back on the bike has made me realise how unfit I am in reality compared to where I thought I was. I had visions of getting back on the bike after a break over Christmas and having my spinning technique allow me to float up climbs – it was all in my head.
Fitting in regular commutes 3 days a week has been easily achieved (most of the time) with it being only 2.5 miles in each direction, it should be easily less than 20 minutes each way. However, heading to work is 75% downhill (this does mean I don’t arrive all sweaty), but the commute home is more difficult with a variety of climbs. All short, but some steeper than others. On the Tuesday, fresh at the start of the week, these climbs are easy and taken with enthusiasm, sometimes I even add an extra loop in for fun. The opposite is true of a Thursday evening. By this point in the week my body is tired from teaching everyday and often the result is a slow crawl up any incline.
On the days I don’t commute, I try to do a 30 minute session on the spin bike in the study to ensure my technique continues to improve (although on a Friday, usually a beer takes priority).
At the weekends, I have now managed 2 rides of 20 miles each. This is only 1/5 of the distance I’ll need to cover for Ride London, but I’ll build this up over the coming months.
I already have signed up for a sportive with Chris, Rob and Phil for mid-April and a few longer rides together are planned before that, so not all bad news (it’s probably mostly in my head).
Year to date is already over 112 miles with nearly 8 hours in the saddle.
To help me enthuse myself (and because I needed a new pair) I purchased myself some new cycling shoes. I got a pair of Shimano XC7 mountain biking shoes. These have a different base to the slippery carbon on my road shoes as they are for off road cycling. Michelin rubber gives them good grip for walking.
Now you may be thinking why I would need grip on my shoes whilst doing a road cycle. Well here comes my answer…
As I learn more about Ride London, the more I realise I will be walking around quite a bit. Rather than ruin my (rather nice) Pearl Izumi road cycle shoes, I am going to ride on a pair of shoes designed for cyclo-cross (if you’ve never seen cyclo-cross you are missing out. It’s off road racing on a road bike with slightly knobbly tyres. Great fun to watch!). These shoes are stiff with a carbon base, but they have the Michelin rubber for grip – as well as a boa dial closure system. Joined together with a pair of Shimano pedals they work as well as, if not better, than my current shoe and pedal combination.
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My life with a stoma bag 