Weekend Progress

After last week's effort of 44 miles in two days this weekend's total has increased to 58 miles over two days. The aching is disappearing and the process of increasing stamina is getting better. Although I'm not near the 70 miles a day yet I feel this will be manageable by May.

Yesterday was a two hour session with C and resulted in 25 miles in two hours - a significant increase from 10 mph to 12.5mph average. This is better than it sounds as it could save an hour's biking in one day (assuming we will be cycling around 7 hours each day). Today me and both the N's cycled around Maidstone and Tonbridge and covered 33 miles in two and a half hours. I can't work out the average speed for this trip. Lots of super sweet drinks, bananas and oat bars (plus the obligatory Mars bar) got us round. I reckon I could have done a bit more.

Next week a 5o mile trip to Ditchling - some sort of round trip affair. Then no more cycling for two weeks as I am off skiing for a week in Scandinavia. First time ever. For both skiing and Sweden. We have some sort of gathering with the charity and the trip organisers on the 10th Feb but it's at some pub near London Bridge so I think that may turn into some sort of booze up.

I have no photos to show tonight , I intend to load a few this week. I need to make some skiing purchases this week and sort out my holiday wardrobe so the cycling may take a back seat. Just for a little while though.

Listening to: "Alone Again Or" by Love which I heard on BBC6 this morning and hadn't heard for about ten years, cos it's on a cassette and who plays those anymore? So I got straight on to Itunes tonight and downloaded it. Smashing.

Red wine and roast beef tonight and 3 games of cribbage. Smashing day all round!

Lovely white stuff and the joy of mudguards

My garden this morning at 8am! It would be a good day to show potential house buyers round if I was selling as the garden looks fantastic and all the rubbish etc is well hidden.

As the years pass I still get excited about the fall of snow on the rare occasion that it happens in London and even though it's only about a millimetres* worth and the whole of the Metropolis has ground to a halt I share the joy of my youngest who somehow sensed it had snowed during the night and woke up an hour early to experience it.

To prove the level of excitement generated, XFM asked people who had not yet opened their curtains/blinds this morning to open them on air to see if had snowed in their area. I can tell you that it had in Putney, Plumstead and Ruislip but in one other place it hadn't and the sound of disappointment in the caller's voice was too much to bear.

More snow is forecast this afternoon. Excellent.

And any cycling news you ask? Well none really, not in this weather. I hope to do 40 miles in one day this weekend. I have some new mudguards which means, in basic terms that I maintain a dry @rse** for the duration of my ride, the joy of this I cannot begin to explain to you but I'm sure you can appreciate it.

And so to work...

*sadly I can't work out if there should be an apostrophe here. This is a bit anal** isn't it?

**I appear to have used two rear related words in this entry***

***Oops there's another one ;-)

Result times two

Result 1 - Managed to fit in cycling on Saturday and Sunday this weekend, 22 miles on each day. This is a milestone really as it proves that I can cycle two days in a row without too much trouble (although I will have to get nearer to 70 each day at some point!). Still it's a result at the moment. Mind you, it's only Sunday night at the moment - ask me how I feel tomorrow morning! I was unable to join in a kick around in Greenwich Park this afternoon. Well I went in goal but I didn't move much really. My leg muscles are suffering. I need some advice on to how to improve my leg muscles as they are really stiff and achy each time I ride and this wasn't the case when I started my training all those weeks ago.

Result 2 - I am over 70% of the way to my fund raising total after only two weeks. After all my worrying I may not need to donate as much myself or ask my readers to donate at all! Another result...

Listening to - Green Day, "Welcome to Paradise" (not by choice though).

PS Interesting article on how to reduce your carbon footprint in The Observer mag today. Simplest thing to do - stop buying and using those bloody patio heaters that everyone appears to have in the summer despite the warmer nights we have. Also, no need for a second fridge to keep beer and wine in. But the top one for me was use the car less and cycle more! I am feeling a bit holier than thou at the moment...

How to waste a day on a bike service

As part of the deal of buying a new bike, Condors give you your first service free so that all the cables can be tightened and an inspection made of all the moving parts. After what I paid for it it's the least they can do.

I booked it in earlier this week on account of the problems I had with the gears on Sunday so they told me to bring it in today, Thursday. My plan was to take it in by train and ride the small distance to the shop. The I realised that I couldn't take it on the train before 10 so I thought I would ride all the way instead - not realising that today is one of the windiest days for about ten years. So I decided to bung it in the back of the car and drive in.

I left at 10 and got to the shop an hour later, 7 miles in an hour, how rubbish is that. Then I had to stick 80p in the meter for 12 minutes parking. 12 Minutes?! Then I dropped the bike off and asked to pick iy up again at 1pm. So with just under two hours to kill I went to draw out some money and get some change for the machine. Not enough change so I went to another shop to get more change, bunged £8 in for two hours and then went to pay the £8 congestion charge.

I found a superb little coffee shop on Clerkenwell Road, full of arty film types which served the finest cappucino I've ever been served. The staff were friendly and the atmosphere was relaxed. It was joined to an Italian deli and I would definitely recommend the Apricot Danish. All for £3.40.

This killed an hour. The wind was really kicking up by this point and I headed down to Holborn to sample the exclusive shopping facilities (WHSmith, Boots, Rymans, Robert Dyas). After some very dull retail visits it was time to return to collect the bike. I chucked it in the back of the car and spent another hour getting home. The wind had caused pandemonium by this point and the A13 was littered with collapsed hoardings and even the roof of one of the local schools had blown off causing the building to be abandoned and the children to be relocated to another local facility.

My point about all this is that I lost a day's contract cash to get a free cycle service when I could have just paid for one at a decent shop over in Sidcup at the weekend and had a day's wages instead.

Oh well. Here are some photos I took around the area while killing time:

Missing an "E" and a "T" I think. Nice to see an old MACE shop in Leather Lane. You can just about make out the smart white coat of the owner.

Peters in Leather Lane, the red and white barber pole says it all. I don't think you can get any of those cuts in the pictures.

This driving school in Clerkenwell Road has a translation in case you didn't know what the red L's mean.

The sign of Condor Cycles in Greys Inn Road, no mistake as to what goes on here!

Dodgy old place in Commercial Street, no prizes for guessing what goes on here either!

This is the Poplar Public Baths building on the A13, a sorry state but it interests me because the windows and the square design remind me of Bankside, home to the Tate Modern. I wonder if they were both designed by the same person, possibly the chap sitting on the chair?

I'm gonna take more days off and take some more photos of unusual London scenes! But no more central London bike services...

Listening to: Ray Lamontagne - "Trouble"

Writers Block

Clouds or plane trail? Taken on Hythe Beach on new year's day...

Midway through January - writer's block has set in. No entry tonight.

Inspiration please.

Still toying with publishing my charity website address.

Watching: CBB

Rude behaviour towards car drivers

A sunny if cold morning start at 8.30 at C's house. This was the first day that all four contestants had ridden together. We completed around 32 miles and N2 reckons our pace will be good for the three days that it will take us.

C was coughing up much sputum (mm, nice) suffering from the after effects of a cold. N1 has a lovely new bike and appeared to be used to its 30 gears by the end of the ride. We stopped for Mars Bars and bananas in Meopham. My chain came off four times and I am having trouble getting into 1st gear due to the cables. I must take up the offer of Condor's free service very soon. I also fell off when I forgot to take my right foot out of the pedal clip when stopping! Luckily no injuries and I suspect that this fall may have mucked up my gears. And what with N2 getting a puncture the day was filled with drama.

Today's other event was a misunderstanding in relation to a car driver who N2 had kindly waved at to go past and as a thank you he bibbed his horn at us. C, who was at the front could see none of this and assumed that the beeping of the horn was a driver getting the ache with us and so he decided to make a rude hand gesture at the driver as he passed (which was kind of reasonable as in recent weeks we have had all sorts of bad behaviour from Kentish Drivers including deliberate puddle splashing, revving and horn sounding). However the old lady in the passenger seat looked mortified as her car passed him...

A misunderstanding I guess. I will tell C to keep his hand gestures to a minimum and reserve them from BMW Boy Racers and suchlike.

We may have one more attendee. I shall find out this week. Exciting.

Listening to Damian Rice, "Cannonball"

French Revolutions

I am reading "French Revolutions", not set in centuries past but in the current millennium and is about a British journalist who decides to follow the route of the Tour de France prior to the actual event. I have to say that I haven't laughed so much while reading a book for ages, and I have been receiving weird looks on the train whilst reading it.

The subject matter would generally not be of interest to me but the fact that the author had no previous experience of cycling, did not know all the terms and was not familiar at all with all the technical wizardry associated with a high spec racing bike all struck a chord with me. He was also as unfit as I am now and he's managing to get round so far (I'm only on chapter 3) but it's giving me encouragement for May. It's very well written and highly amusing, although the French are not coming out of it too well at the moment; the author has a particular disdain for the Tour de France press office....and rightly so due to their obstructive ways!

I'm also reading The Cloudspotter's Guide which I would recommend as an occasional dip. It's also very well written and amusing. Not cycling related but there again I would now recognise an approaching storm cloud and that could come in handy when in Northern France.