Short version: I MADE IT! :D
Have stretched, and am drinking water and eating protein bars (I've developed a strange taste for them!).
More details to come later.
Big love to you all, and that's not just the endorphins talking!
:D
Showing posts with label cycle challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cycle challenge. Show all posts
Sunday, 20 March 2016
#SR16 #asithappens Part 2
So I'm over halfway. With no offence intended to St. Ives, I figured I'd enjoy a picnic by the lake far more than in the bus station, so doubled back until I saw somewhere likely.
Nice, eh?
The trip has also seen its first bit of genuine jeopardy - the lakes have overflowed and the path is massively flooded.
Cue over-optimistic splashing, followed by humorous pushing, and very muddy lower legs:
I'm currently composing a shory poem along the lines of "As I was going to St. Ives/ I met with quite the crowd of flies."
Overheating totally worth it for being able to ignore them due to goggles and balacavaish thing.
Thanks for all your messages of encouragement so far, you little diamonds. <3
Right! Lunch is done! Let's go! :D
Nice, eh?
The trip has also seen its first bit of genuine jeopardy - the lakes have overflowed and the path is massively flooded.
Cue over-optimistic splashing, followed by humorous pushing, and very muddy lower legs:
Overheating totally worth it for being able to ignore them due to goggles and balacavaish thing.
Thanks for all your messages of encouragement so far, you little diamonds. <3
Right! Lunch is done! Let's go! :D
#SR16 #asithappens Part 1
Longstanton Busway station is just over 50% of the way to St. Ives, and has toilets. A fact for which I'm profoundly grateful.
The wind is northerly, but relatively mild. This is good news for the way back, if it persists.
After weeks of freezing on the bike, I am overheating. Oh well!
Back and hips doing well, only mild complaints from wrists.
Onwards! :D
Time is ticking
Well, I had a mostly-rest day yesterday, eating a frankly unfeasible quantity of food. In about ten minutes’ time I set off. I’m generally feeling pretty good, if tired from a peculiarly vivid series of dreams about running around a park which turned into a shopping mall while trying to get back to my bike; I woke up before I could get a satisfactory answer as to how far I’d run (all my gadgets would only show me how long I’d been running for rather than how far). Lady Gaga was involved somehow.
My hip joints are still a bit buggered*, which I think answers the “which route will I take?” question. The Ely-Cambridge one has a lot more hill, including a very steep one at the beginning, so - with regret, seeing as the weather is actually relatively pleasant! - I’m going to do my 25 miles via the Busway to St. Ives and back again route. I’m going to see a physio about the hips/ back issues and hopefully build up to doing the Ely-Cambridge run another time. It looks very pretty!
There’s still time to sponsor me, of course, for Sport Relief: http://my.sportrelief.com/fayroberts - to help support vulnerable people going through hardships here in the UK and in places around the world.
And if you’d like to physically join me for all/ part of this, just give me a shout.
* technical term
My hip joints are still a bit buggered*, which I think answers the “which route will I take?” question. The Ely-Cambridge one has a lot more hill, including a very steep one at the beginning, so - with regret, seeing as the weather is actually relatively pleasant! - I’m going to do my 25 miles via the Busway to St. Ives and back again route. I’m going to see a physio about the hips/ back issues and hopefully build up to doing the Ely-Cambridge run another time. It looks very pretty!
There’s still time to sponsor me, of course, for Sport Relief: http://my.sportrelief.com/fayroberts - to help support vulnerable people going through hardships here in the UK and in places around the world.
And if you’d like to physically join me for all/ part of this, just give me a shout.
* technical term
Monday, 14 March 2016
And then it all went a bit wrong...
What is it they say about having a crap dress rehearsal meaning that the real thing will be great?
I can only hope that it doesn't work for cycling like it does for singing, because I've been in some truly dire dress rehearsals that led to embarrassingly poor concerts.
So yesterday. Yesterday I decided that I was going to finally have a play along the near-home map of the route I'd mapped out from Ely to home (north Cambridge). I'd even painstakingly devised a route on Strava that was Home to Ely. Looks like this:
One small problem. If you "load route" on Strava, it in no way guides you. I didn't know that, so it went wrong quite quickly. Basically this happened:
Firstly everyone and their dog were on Stourbridge Common, and the paths are not the smooth, well-maintained, recent, metalled surface of the busway. No. They are bumpy with uppity tree roots and switchback like no-one's business. And then I ended up in Barnwell. I'm still not sure how. As you can see, I went the wrong way in Fen Ditton for a while, then found my route which was, unlike as it looked on the Strava route planner, totally on-road. On-fast-car-windy-hilly road.
I have in no way practised hills. The busway doesn't really do them. I haven't lived anywhere hilly for a while. I thought I missed hills. I still do, but my hips and knees were less sure, especially when being passed by fast cars.
And then I realised that I was trying to follow the "Ely to Home" route backwards, having smacked my thumb into the wrong one on my phone (the route for which I could barely see on the screen in bright sunshine as it was, as Strava denotes the route to come using orange against shades of yellow, and where you've been in bright blue), so I pulled over (again - I'd already lost a lot of momentum to this), stopped the recording, loaded the "right" route, and started the recording again.
Whereupon this happened:
As the youth say: I don't even. I just can't.
I was very pleased with myself, having gone wrong already a couple of times (long way around Stow-cum-Quy instead of through it? Okay!), to find the right road, and be ganging on through Lode (very pretty - nice, smooth roads, too). I stopped when I figured I'd gone far enough to turn around and still get my miles - as I recalled, the "correct" way back was longer.
There was a pretty bridge with sunsetty shades all over the landscape. I stopped there:
I can only hope that it doesn't work for cycling like it does for singing, because I've been in some truly dire dress rehearsals that led to embarrassingly poor concerts.
So yesterday. Yesterday I decided that I was going to finally have a play along the near-home map of the route I'd mapped out from Ely to home (north Cambridge). I'd even painstakingly devised a route on Strava that was Home to Ely. Looks like this:
One small problem. If you "load route" on Strava, it in no way guides you. I didn't know that, so it went wrong quite quickly. Basically this happened:
Firstly everyone and their dog were on Stourbridge Common, and the paths are not the smooth, well-maintained, recent, metalled surface of the busway. No. They are bumpy with uppity tree roots and switchback like no-one's business. And then I ended up in Barnwell. I'm still not sure how. As you can see, I went the wrong way in Fen Ditton for a while, then found my route which was, unlike as it looked on the Strava route planner, totally on-road. On-fast-car-windy-hilly road.
I have in no way practised hills. The busway doesn't really do them. I haven't lived anywhere hilly for a while. I thought I missed hills. I still do, but my hips and knees were less sure, especially when being passed by fast cars.
And then I realised that I was trying to follow the "Ely to Home" route backwards, having smacked my thumb into the wrong one on my phone (the route for which I could barely see on the screen in bright sunshine as it was, as Strava denotes the route to come using orange against shades of yellow, and where you've been in bright blue), so I pulled over (again - I'd already lost a lot of momentum to this), stopped the recording, loaded the "right" route, and started the recording again.
Whereupon this happened:
As the youth say: I don't even. I just can't.
I was very pleased with myself, having gone wrong already a couple of times (long way around Stow-cum-Quy instead of through it? Okay!), to find the right road, and be ganging on through Lode (very pretty - nice, smooth roads, too). I stopped when I figured I'd gone far enough to turn around and still get my miles - as I recalled, the "correct" way back was longer.
There was a pretty bridge with sunsetty shades all over the landscape. I stopped there:
 |
| Road Behind |
 |
| View Ahead
And then I ate, drank some water, and set off on the "proper route". By this point, I wasn't startled by going on the road with the whizzy cars, and I knew there was a hill coming up. I was warmed-up and fed, and it was all good. Right?
Turns out the other thing Strava route-planner doesn't make clear is when something is so off-route it's a dirt track, and that the only other options are private farm roads or turn back.
I stopped, swore, turned back, stopped again, and programmed in a cycling route on Google Maps, which soothing voice navigated me all the way home (via some confusion in Fen Ditton, but a lot less confusion than anything that had gone before).
So, what's the conclusion? The conclusion is that I have to make a conclusion - do I:
a) Stick to the boring-but-safe busway route, and just head on up to St. Ives (~12.5 miles away), then head home; or
b) Programme in a clever route on Google Maps and just do the crazy version anyway?
Both are tempting, for different reasons. a) is safer, and will achieve my 25 mile goal without too much stress. I will also get to see a different part of my training route that I haven't encountered yet. That's interesting, right? And I'd already said that I would do that route if the weather is rubbish on Sunday. b) is the original challenge, and a heck of a lot more interesting. There are also pubs on the way that will afford wee stops if necessary.
On the other hand, I've now done a trek that was 74.8% of my eventual goal, and didn't break myself (though I'm really feeling it today). I call that a near-win. I have also concluded that I'm not doing another big training ride on Wednesday - I'm resting these little legs (daily commute aside).
|
Friday, 11 March 2016
Progress and Technology
Hello!
Well, it's been a while, but I thought I'd give you an update. Preferably one nothing to do with slightly scary mental health stuff.
So today I'll be talking about:
1. Training for the Sport Relief 2016 Challenge (sponsor me here)
This has been less fun that it could be - partly because I got ill between Christmas and New Year, and could (fairly) directly attribute that to going out on a training ride late in the day, getting cold with an exercise-induced lowered immune system, and then, instead of going straight home, went to the shop for food (a move that seemed logical at the time) where clearly some infectious bastard breathed on me. Garh
So what with having funtimes with breathing, then injuring myself (minor standard neck/ shoulder stuff), then the winds being insanely strong, I somehow let training drift into a puddle of excuses. I was still cycling pretty much everywhere (work, social engagements in Cambridge, choir rehearsals, anything where I didn't need to tote much gear) else, but no particularly challenging distance.
And then I checked my magical spreadsheet, which showed me that I only had a few weeks to go, and that I'd spent nigh-on two months not training. Eeeep! Instead of a steady increase of ≤½ mile every session, I was going to have to jump up more emphatically each time, especially if I stepped back to a shorter distance to kick back off again (because, despite being foolish, I do learn - slowly - from my past mistakes with exercise).
Mon 28-Dec-15: 16.4 miles, 1:39:32 hours (64% of end goal)
Wed 24-Feb-16: 10.1 miles, 0:57:14 hours (39% of end goal)
Sun 28-Feb-16: 12.6 miles, 1:11:38 hours (49% of end goal)
Sun 6-Mar-16: 15.5 miles, 1:29:16 hours (60% of end goal)
Wed 9-Mar-16: 17.7 miles, 1:41:25 hours (69% of end goal)
I am still aching after this last one (cold, damp, mizzly, long; an exercise in self-discipline/ persuasive self-talk), and currently wondering two things:
a) How much of a percentage of the end goal should I aim for?
b) Should I do a training cycle on the Wednesday before the Sunday 20th ride, or am I better off having a rest (apart from work cycling) that week?
After agonising over gadgets, I found the one that was the best fit: a FitBit Charge HR. Of all the things that I wanted an activity tracker to do/ be, it only doesn't do one of them: GPS tracking. On the other hand, it (along with its concomitant app) does everything else, and things I didn't even know I wanted it to do (and some other things - like calorie counting - that I'm resolutely ignoring). It's good at working out when I've been cycling for short stretches, but the longer ones confuse it, so I have to manually record them, which isn't exactly taxing.
It's proving useful for helping me keep track of (and manage by increasing) my water intake, gamifying my fitness efforts, and it looks slinky on my wrist (it functions as an actual watch as well).
It's also proving useful during anxiety - it turns out that the thumping heart sensations are often misleading: my heart-rate will rise slightly, but not anything like as much as it feels. This is proving remarkably helpful in swift calming and fending off potential full-blown attacks.
And I've bought a fancy water bottle that's easy to carry around work (I saw someone else with one and desired it greatly), means I don't use up lots of plastic cups (yay environment), and measures much more precisely how much I've drunk during the day at work/ during cycle rides.
I am generally well. However, my hip joints (especially my right one) are not. I have been mostly ignoring this and trying to find comfortable positions, but the "it's reliably achey by 10pm" rule has shifted to "it's reliably achey all the damned time and difficult to bear by 10pm". And now the right one keeps going out of alignment when I get up from a chair and start walking. Unfun. So I need to go and see someone about this. Sadly, my former physiotherapist has now retired, so I will need to begin the Quest for a Local Physiotherapist Who Actually Understands HMS/ EDS all over again, though armed with more knowledge than last time I started.
My lower left-hand back aches reliably after about 6-7 miles of continuous cycling; less if hills are involved. I've been advised that I need to get my posture on the bike checked and the bike's setup amended by experts. As in all things requiring experts, this is not cheap. If it prevents some further physiotherapy sessions, mind, it'll be worth it.
I forgot to renew my gut medication prescription last week. This will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. I have come to rely on not being in constant abdominal agony - turns out I'm on PPIs for life. A small price to pay unless, of course, the NHS is dismantled. O_o
I'm beginning to see why people with my condition (especially those with more severe versions) get into a cycle of morphine use. I'm still avoiding even paracetamol unless my neck's particularly bad and I want to sleep (and nothing I've got touches migraines, so there's no point there either), so we'll see how long I can keep this straight-edge attitude to pain management up...
Thanks for reading so far! :D More updates to come, more frequently and smaller, especially in the run-up to the Sunday 20th challenge. Did I mention that you can sponsor me...?! :D
Well, it's been a while, but I thought I'd give you an update. Preferably one nothing to do with slightly scary mental health stuff.
So today I'll be talking about:
1. Training for the Sport Relief 2016 Challenge (sponsor me here)
2. Technology
3. General Health stuff
1. Training for the Sport Relief 2016 Challenge
This has been less fun that it could be - partly because I got ill between Christmas and New Year, and could (fairly) directly attribute that to going out on a training ride late in the day, getting cold with an exercise-induced lowered immune system, and then, instead of going straight home, went to the shop for food (a move that seemed logical at the time) where clearly some infectious bastard breathed on me. Garh
So what with having funtimes with breathing, then injuring myself (minor standard neck/ shoulder stuff), then the winds being insanely strong, I somehow let training drift into a puddle of excuses. I was still cycling pretty much everywhere (work, social engagements in Cambridge, choir rehearsals, anything where I didn't need to tote much gear) else, but no particularly challenging distance.
And then I checked my magical spreadsheet, which showed me that I only had a few weeks to go, and that I'd spent nigh-on two months not training. Eeeep! Instead of a steady increase of ≤½ mile every session, I was going to have to jump up more emphatically each time, especially if I stepped back to a shorter distance to kick back off again (because, despite being foolish, I do learn - slowly - from my past mistakes with exercise).
Mon 28-Dec-15: 16.4 miles, 1:39:32 hours (64% of end goal)
Wed 24-Feb-16: 10.1 miles, 0:57:14 hours (39% of end goal)
Sun 28-Feb-16: 12.6 miles, 1:11:38 hours (49% of end goal)
Sun 6-Mar-16: 15.5 miles, 1:29:16 hours (60% of end goal)
Wed 9-Mar-16: 17.7 miles, 1:41:25 hours (69% of end goal)
I am still aching after this last one (cold, damp, mizzly, long; an exercise in self-discipline/ persuasive self-talk), and currently wondering two things:
a) How much of a percentage of the end goal should I aim for?
b) Should I do a training cycle on the Wednesday before the Sunday 20th ride, or am I better off having a rest (apart from work cycling) that week?
2. Technology
After agonising over gadgets, I found the one that was the best fit: a FitBit Charge HR. Of all the things that I wanted an activity tracker to do/ be, it only doesn't do one of them: GPS tracking. On the other hand, it (along with its concomitant app) does everything else, and things I didn't even know I wanted it to do (and some other things - like calorie counting - that I'm resolutely ignoring). It's good at working out when I've been cycling for short stretches, but the longer ones confuse it, so I have to manually record them, which isn't exactly taxing.
It's proving useful for helping me keep track of (and manage by increasing) my water intake, gamifying my fitness efforts, and it looks slinky on my wrist (it functions as an actual watch as well).
It's also proving useful during anxiety - it turns out that the thumping heart sensations are often misleading: my heart-rate will rise slightly, but not anything like as much as it feels. This is proving remarkably helpful in swift calming and fending off potential full-blown attacks.
And I've bought a fancy water bottle that's easy to carry around work (I saw someone else with one and desired it greatly), means I don't use up lots of plastic cups (yay environment), and measures much more precisely how much I've drunk during the day at work/ during cycle rides.
3. General Health stuff
I am generally well. However, my hip joints (especially my right one) are not. I have been mostly ignoring this and trying to find comfortable positions, but the "it's reliably achey by 10pm" rule has shifted to "it's reliably achey all the damned time and difficult to bear by 10pm". And now the right one keeps going out of alignment when I get up from a chair and start walking. Unfun. So I need to go and see someone about this. Sadly, my former physiotherapist has now retired, so I will need to begin the Quest for a Local Physiotherapist Who Actually Understands HMS/ EDS all over again, though armed with more knowledge than last time I started.
My lower left-hand back aches reliably after about 6-7 miles of continuous cycling; less if hills are involved. I've been advised that I need to get my posture on the bike checked and the bike's setup amended by experts. As in all things requiring experts, this is not cheap. If it prevents some further physiotherapy sessions, mind, it'll be worth it.
I forgot to renew my gut medication prescription last week. This will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. I have come to rely on not being in constant abdominal agony - turns out I'm on PPIs for life. A small price to pay unless, of course, the NHS is dismantled. O_o
I'm beginning to see why people with my condition (especially those with more severe versions) get into a cycle of morphine use. I'm still avoiding even paracetamol unless my neck's particularly bad and I want to sleep (and nothing I've got touches migraines, so there's no point there either), so we'll see how long I can keep this straight-edge attitude to pain management up...
Thanks for reading so far! :D More updates to come, more frequently and smaller, especially in the run-up to the Sunday 20th challenge. Did I mention that you can sponsor me...?! :D
Thursday, 29 October 2015
Phase 1.2
In classic fashion, after crafting myself a clever and sensible bicycle training regime, I got busy, and then I got ill.
So, until yesterday, I hadn't done any further longer-distance rides. After - yet again! - more procrastinating, I set off on another training ride along the Busway:
Several significant differences in preparation this time:
1. Lighter, smaller shoes.
2. Checked my tires.
3. Wore fewer layers.
What Went Well?
+ didn't overheat
+ really enjoyed it
+ didn't injure myself
+ went at a surprisingly fast clip
+ went further than anticipated (see above)
+ remembered to stretch at all
+ remembered to eat a protein bar and drink a ton of water when I got in
+ took a picture to mark the turning-point
What Could Have Gone Better?
- the soles on The Boots are ludicrously thick, and I nearly crippled myself climbing onto the now-far-too-high seat with my smaller shoes
- I was clearly dehydrated before I went out
- I hadn't eaten enough before I went out (seriously: very little all day)
- procrasturbating
- went further than anticipated
- didn't stretch as soon as I got in (again)
What will I do (differently) next time?
> adjust the seat before getting on the bike!
> drink a little more throughout the day (not directly beforehand!)
> get a mount for the phone on the handlebars so I can see how far I've gone rather than rely on a random notion of average speed to tell me when to turn around
> eat more sugary snackage beforehand and take something small with me for the turnaround break
Another thing not to do would be to look at other people's rides on Strava while I'm still feeling chuffed about my distance of 7.7 miles or whatever because one of my friends does 23 mile partially-off-road trips kind of as a matter of course. If I do do that, I need to remind myself more swiftly that this is a guy who used to go mountain-biking on a Sunday, every Sunday, as a student, even when hungover to all hell. He's had over half his life to get really, REALLY good at this. Nice one, dude.
Remember: Do your own time...
So, until yesterday, I hadn't done any further longer-distance rides. After - yet again! - more procrastinating, I set off on another training ride along the Busway:
Several significant differences in preparation this time:
1. Lighter, smaller shoes.
2. Checked my tires.
3. Wore fewer layers.
What Went Well?
+ didn't overheat
+ really enjoyed it
+ didn't injure myself
+ went at a surprisingly fast clip
+ went further than anticipated (see above)
+ remembered to stretch at all
+ remembered to eat a protein bar and drink a ton of water when I got in
+ took a picture to mark the turning-point
What Could Have Gone Better?
- the soles on The Boots are ludicrously thick, and I nearly crippled myself climbing onto the now-far-too-high seat with my smaller shoes
- I was clearly dehydrated before I went out
- I hadn't eaten enough before I went out (seriously: very little all day)
- procrasturbating
- went further than anticipated
- didn't stretch as soon as I got in (again)
What will I do (differently) next time?
> adjust the seat before getting on the bike!
> drink a little more throughout the day (not directly beforehand!)
> get a mount for the phone on the handlebars so I can see how far I've gone rather than rely on a random notion of average speed to tell me when to turn around
> eat more sugary snackage beforehand and take something small with me for the turnaround break
Another thing not to do would be to look at other people's rides on Strava while I'm still feeling chuffed about my distance of 7.7 miles or whatever because one of my friends does 23 mile partially-off-road trips kind of as a matter of course. If I do do that, I need to remind myself more swiftly that this is a guy who used to go mountain-biking on a Sunday, every Sunday, as a student, even when hungover to all hell. He's had over half his life to get really, REALLY good at this. Nice one, dude.
Remember: Do your own time...
Monday, 19 October 2015
Phase 1 Begins
After my bike challenge proposal, I decided on a vague training regimen of increasingly long trips, building up a mile or so a week, until I was near enough to my goal of the full distance between my house and Ely Cathedral. I would do this on Sundays, and maybe Wednesdays, and I would neither wuss out nor break myself.
I spoke to colleagues who've trained for and completed cycling challenges such as London to Cambridge, or 100 mile round trips. One of them came up with the excellent suggestion of using the busway's cycle path (since I live so close to one of them) for training, and another suggested a stepping programme of: increase, increase, step back, increase, increase, step back, etc. so that my baseline is always moving inexorably upwards. She also said that I should work out whether I'm stepping up time or distance. Both of them told me to listen to my body.
I discussed with R on Saturday how much I would do for the first step. I said: my longest usual non-stop journey is 20-25 minutes (my house to Cambridge Junction), so my first one should be slightly longer than that - 15 minutes one way and 15 minutes back. I discussed the ramifications of different options to an intricate level detail, and was reminded explicitly that I shouldn't "munt [my]self" on the first step - stick to 30 minutes. Oookaaaay...
Sunday came, and I watched myself procrastinate in the worst ways until I realised that I was basically waiting for it to be too late/ too rainy to go out. It hadn't rained, and I was disappointed.
Ah.
So I got off my arse, put what turned out to be too many layers on, set a count-down timer for 17 minutes, and got on my bike. Here is the route I took:
It started off extremely boring, once I'd got onto the busway cycle path. Soooo dull. I was pleased I'd opted for music, though I was sorely wishing for company. Quite how that would work, I've little idea yet - hands-free walkie talkies...?!
Anyway, after a while we left the science park behind and the landscape started getting interesting. More fields, more trees, am unexpected body of water, less noise. The little wiggle towards the left-hand side is where the cycle path abruptly jumps over three roads, including the busway, and I confidently crossed only two of them and ended up heading for a disused siding (the busway used to be a railway).
What went well?
+ I managed the distance
+ I didn't injure myself
+ I maintained a decent speed (av. 9.6, max. 13.6)
+ I felt fine (no significant aches & pains) during and after
+ I remembered not to take my usual heavy load of more urban gear with me
What could have gone better?
- I didn't stretch afterwards (probably the main reason I'm feeling it a bit more now)
- I didn't check bike's health (turns out you should inflate the tyres when heading off on a journey)
- As C predicted, watching me leave with all my layers, I massive overheated, especially on the way back.
- The procrastination!
What will I do (differently) next time?
> Start the journey colder (fewer layers, with options in saddlebags)
> Wear smaller shoes (my Big Black Boots weigh about 0.5kg)
> Check the tyres (and other things) first!
> Set a time for setting off and stick to it.
I'm definitely going to stick with the busway route for the next few iterations as a way of building up stamina and hours spent in the saddle while I level up. As training ground it is excellently safe, and it forces me to keep going for longer, as there are only a few traffic lights, unlike any in-Cambridge cycling I do, which is packed with traffic lights and roundabouts, etc. In fact, I'm almost tempted to switch the challenge to be "from home to St. Ives and back" because the busway to St. Ives is about 12.3 miles. There would be less dicking about with trains to get to the main leg of the trip, and it would be - for the most part - very protected from car traffic.
However, it would be extraordinarily dull. I've had a look at the (mostly) off-traffic route from Ely, and it's via Wicken Fen and Anglesey Abbey - interesting local places I still haven't been to yet. I could make a proper (mini-)adventure out of this! :)
There's also an amount more hill (for this part of the world) going on. I haven't decided yet whether that's a good or bad thing. I'm not convinced I want to end the journey uphill...
As the training progresses I'll get a better idea of how well my body is coping. As each segment necessarily gets longer, it'll also be a test of my commitment to the goal - I'm not someone who's currently coming down with loads of spare time as it is...
More updates to come over the next few weeks...
I spoke to colleagues who've trained for and completed cycling challenges such as London to Cambridge, or 100 mile round trips. One of them came up with the excellent suggestion of using the busway's cycle path (since I live so close to one of them) for training, and another suggested a stepping programme of: increase, increase, step back, increase, increase, step back, etc. so that my baseline is always moving inexorably upwards. She also said that I should work out whether I'm stepping up time or distance. Both of them told me to listen to my body.
I discussed with R on Saturday how much I would do for the first step. I said: my longest usual non-stop journey is 20-25 minutes (my house to Cambridge Junction), so my first one should be slightly longer than that - 15 minutes one way and 15 minutes back. I discussed the ramifications of different options to an intricate level detail, and was reminded explicitly that I shouldn't "munt [my]self" on the first step - stick to 30 minutes. Oookaaaay...
Sunday came, and I watched myself procrastinate in the worst ways until I realised that I was basically waiting for it to be too late/ too rainy to go out. It hadn't rained, and I was disappointed.
Ah.
So I got off my arse, put what turned out to be too many layers on, set a count-down timer for 17 minutes, and got on my bike. Here is the route I took:
Anyway, after a while we left the science park behind and the landscape started getting interesting. More fields, more trees, am unexpected body of water, less noise. The little wiggle towards the left-hand side is where the cycle path abruptly jumps over three roads, including the busway, and I confidently crossed only two of them and ended up heading for a disused siding (the busway used to be a railway).
What went well?
+ I managed the distance
+ I didn't injure myself
+ I maintained a decent speed (av. 9.6, max. 13.6)
+ I felt fine (no significant aches & pains) during and after
+ I remembered not to take my usual heavy load of more urban gear with me
What could have gone better?
- I didn't stretch afterwards (probably the main reason I'm feeling it a bit more now)
- I didn't check bike's health (turns out you should inflate the tyres when heading off on a journey)
- As C predicted, watching me leave with all my layers, I massive overheated, especially on the way back.
- The procrastination!
What will I do (differently) next time?
> Start the journey colder (fewer layers, with options in saddlebags)
> Wear smaller shoes (my Big Black Boots weigh about 0.5kg)
> Check the tyres (and other things) first!
> Set a time for setting off and stick to it.
I'm definitely going to stick with the busway route for the next few iterations as a way of building up stamina and hours spent in the saddle while I level up. As training ground it is excellently safe, and it forces me to keep going for longer, as there are only a few traffic lights, unlike any in-Cambridge cycling I do, which is packed with traffic lights and roundabouts, etc. In fact, I'm almost tempted to switch the challenge to be "from home to St. Ives and back" because the busway to St. Ives is about 12.3 miles. There would be less dicking about with trains to get to the main leg of the trip, and it would be - for the most part - very protected from car traffic.
However, it would be extraordinarily dull. I've had a look at the (mostly) off-traffic route from Ely, and it's via Wicken Fen and Anglesey Abbey - interesting local places I still haven't been to yet. I could make a proper (mini-)adventure out of this! :)
As the training progresses I'll get a better idea of how well my body is coping. As each segment necessarily gets longer, it'll also be a test of my commitment to the goal - I'm not someone who's currently coming down with loads of spare time as it is...
More updates to come over the next few weeks...
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
A proposal
So, about 21 months ago, I started this blog and the drive for better fitness that defined it. I had a single, simple goal to aim for, which encompassed a whole bunch of smaller, possibly more complex goals along the way:
Walk six miles in one go for Sport Relief 2014, the goals along the way being: increase cardiovascular fitness, increase striated muscle strength, improve stamina, get out of the habit of getting taxis and buses when I could be walking or cycling instead, improve joint stability.
The big one I did, and managed to raise a shit-ton of money (over £1000) in the process. I also lost weight, gained what feels like better lung capacity, and a better attitude to being mobile.
My joint stability, upper-body strength, and general fitness are probably more questionable at this stage, but at the time, and for a good while afterwards, there were some definite improvements to be felt and seen.
So I'm fitter than I was this time two years ago, and I'm keen to get back into that sense of achievement and incidental physical health improvement. So what's the word? Six miles again doesn't seem particularly worthwhile, and I'm enjoying the bike, so I'm thinking: a cycling challenge this year. And since I seem to cycle approximately three times faster than I walk, the challenge needs to be more than 18 miles. And Ely is 20-odd miles away from Cambridge, so...
Again: it's nothing set against those people who cycle all the way from London to Cambridge (50-odd miles), but most of them, I'm guessing, don't have the kind of physical health problems I have. So I'm going to do my challenge, building up bike hours and distances in the intervening 22 weeks, and see how I go.
Might be worthwhile learning some cycle maintenance skills while I'm at it...
Watch this space (and Strava, and anywhere else I can get stuck into) for progress reports. :)
Walk six miles in one go for Sport Relief 2014, the goals along the way being: increase cardiovascular fitness, increase striated muscle strength, improve stamina, get out of the habit of getting taxis and buses when I could be walking or cycling instead, improve joint stability.
The big one I did, and managed to raise a shit-ton of money (over £1000) in the process. I also lost weight, gained what feels like better lung capacity, and a better attitude to being mobile.
My joint stability, upper-body strength, and general fitness are probably more questionable at this stage, but at the time, and for a good while afterwards, there were some definite improvements to be felt and seen.
So I'm fitter than I was this time two years ago, and I'm keen to get back into that sense of achievement and incidental physical health improvement. So what's the word? Six miles again doesn't seem particularly worthwhile, and I'm enjoying the bike, so I'm thinking: a cycling challenge this year. And since I seem to cycle approximately three times faster than I walk, the challenge needs to be more than 18 miles. And Ely is 20-odd miles away from Cambridge, so...
Again: it's nothing set against those people who cycle all the way from London to Cambridge (50-odd miles), but most of them, I'm guessing, don't have the kind of physical health problems I have. So I'm going to do my challenge, building up bike hours and distances in the intervening 22 weeks, and see how I go.
Might be worthwhile learning some cycle maintenance skills while I'm at it...
Watch this space (and Strava, and anywhere else I can get stuck into) for progress reports. :)
Steps Forward and Back
So, I'm back on the bike again. What do you mean, you didn't know I was off it...?!
{Checks back catalogue; curses}
Okay, so, it looks like a) I've been somewhat quiet on this front, and b) history repeated itself a bit. Here's what happened over the intervening months since my last post:
1. Cycling every day (pretty much; certainly work days when I didn't have gig gear to carry, and Wednesdays when I had real life people meetings in places).
2. Physio every day (EVERY day; like a BOSS).
3. Mat exercises twice a week (come on!).
4. Eating a balanced diet.
And then August happened. And August has Edinburgh Fringe in it. So no cycling from 19th August onwards, but lots of walking, and a handy new wearable gadget that maps how much and where I walked (because my passive movement tracking app stopped working).
So I scaled Arthur's Seat (yay!) and even coached someone else up it (come on!). Didn't even injure myself, unless you count sunburn. I even kept up my physio and the strength-building mat exercises (despite some logistical difficulties - you try doing crunches on a mat on a polished wooden floor... without sliding across it and into a table).
And then I fell over on my face on a simple walk back down an urban hill, a couple of days later, and lots of health things cascaded, including my one filling jarring free and me getting a lot of pain and then a rubbish temporary filling which didn't let me chew so my nutrition was difficult to maintain and yeah - living off liquid food makes you lose more weight than you're comfortable with, if you're me.
Arse.
And then the trip back from Edinburgh with Too Much Luggage and bad lifting form and behold - buggered wrist.
So I was sensible - cycling hurt my wrist, so I paused on cycling and did some stretching and strengthening exercises for the wrist, and stayed off the press-ups, etc. Then I got back on the bike. Yay! Then I got back into the mat exercises. Now, bear in mind that I hadn't done any since August, because I didn't - I just charged on ahead regardless like someone who was intent on injuring myself. Which I did.
This was 30th September. 1st October I got on the bike, unaware of how much I'd buggered myself. By the time I was heading home, it was clear that what I needed to do was immobilise that joint as much as possible.
It's nice to find that I've learned something. I didn't prevent the injury this time, but I prevented it getting worse. I immobilised as much as possible, asking for help, reducing movement, adjusting everything I could to ensure that as little strain was put upon the joint as possible. (Except on Thursday 8th when I joined in a yoga conversation in work and decided to demonstrate that I shouldn't do a certain move by doing it. 24 hours of migraine-like pain later and I'd learned another lesson about hypermobile injuries.)
So apart from yoga foolishness, I am pretty much recovered (read: it still hurts a bit but I can use it and I was more stressed by not being active) and back on the bike, I cycled to Milton Country Park on Sunday with a friend to do some walking and wittering, then to and from work yesterday and today.
It was somewhat sobering to look back at the previous two blog entries and think: oh, so exactly like 3-4 months ago, huh? I left behind some good advice for myself, though, so that's a blessing.
In preparation for 20th March - Sport Relief again, baby - I'm going to be setting up a plan for increasing activity, strength, endurance, and general fitness. I'll keep you all posted as to what's next...
So, what's the current state of play (physical health-wise), all told? I am still a little hurty in the shoulder-neck joint and in my right wrist, and I'm finding it hard to put the weight back on. (And yes, I've tried eating all the biscuits - all that happened was I felt like crap. Presumably I need to eat a bunch of steaks and cheese. Who knows? All I know is that there are very, very few people out there who want to talk about the problems of losing too much weight and discussing how to put it back on.) So there it is.
{Checks back catalogue; curses}
Okay, so, it looks like a) I've been somewhat quiet on this front, and b) history repeated itself a bit. Here's what happened over the intervening months since my last post:
1. Cycling every day (pretty much; certainly work days when I didn't have gig gear to carry, and Wednesdays when I had real life people meetings in places).
2. Physio every day (EVERY day; like a BOSS).
3. Mat exercises twice a week (come on!).
4. Eating a balanced diet.
And then August happened. And August has Edinburgh Fringe in it. So no cycling from 19th August onwards, but lots of walking, and a handy new wearable gadget that maps how much and where I walked (because my passive movement tracking app stopped working).
So I scaled Arthur's Seat (yay!) and even coached someone else up it (come on!). Didn't even injure myself, unless you count sunburn. I even kept up my physio and the strength-building mat exercises (despite some logistical difficulties - you try doing crunches on a mat on a polished wooden floor... without sliding across it and into a table).
And then I fell over on my face on a simple walk back down an urban hill, a couple of days later, and lots of health things cascaded, including my one filling jarring free and me getting a lot of pain and then a rubbish temporary filling which didn't let me chew so my nutrition was difficult to maintain and yeah - living off liquid food makes you lose more weight than you're comfortable with, if you're me.
Arse.
And then the trip back from Edinburgh with Too Much Luggage and bad lifting form and behold - buggered wrist.
So I was sensible - cycling hurt my wrist, so I paused on cycling and did some stretching and strengthening exercises for the wrist, and stayed off the press-ups, etc. Then I got back on the bike. Yay! Then I got back into the mat exercises. Now, bear in mind that I hadn't done any since August, because I didn't - I just charged on ahead regardless like someone who was intent on injuring myself. Which I did.
This was 30th September. 1st October I got on the bike, unaware of how much I'd buggered myself. By the time I was heading home, it was clear that what I needed to do was immobilise that joint as much as possible.
It's nice to find that I've learned something. I didn't prevent the injury this time, but I prevented it getting worse. I immobilised as much as possible, asking for help, reducing movement, adjusting everything I could to ensure that as little strain was put upon the joint as possible. (Except on Thursday 8th when I joined in a yoga conversation in work and decided to demonstrate that I shouldn't do a certain move by doing it. 24 hours of migraine-like pain later and I'd learned another lesson about hypermobile injuries.)
So apart from yoga foolishness, I am pretty much recovered (read: it still hurts a bit but I can use it and I was more stressed by not being active) and back on the bike, I cycled to Milton Country Park on Sunday with a friend to do some walking and wittering, then to and from work yesterday and today.
It was somewhat sobering to look back at the previous two blog entries and think: oh, so exactly like 3-4 months ago, huh? I left behind some good advice for myself, though, so that's a blessing.
In preparation for 20th March - Sport Relief again, baby - I'm going to be setting up a plan for increasing activity, strength, endurance, and general fitness. I'll keep you all posted as to what's next...
So, what's the current state of play (physical health-wise), all told? I am still a little hurty in the shoulder-neck joint and in my right wrist, and I'm finding it hard to put the weight back on. (And yes, I've tried eating all the biscuits - all that happened was I felt like crap. Presumably I need to eat a bunch of steaks and cheese. Who knows? All I know is that there are very, very few people out there who want to talk about the problems of losing too much weight and discussing how to put it back on.) So there it is.
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