On our way to Audaxing

Sunday 5th of June. Weather forecasts predicted a lot of sunshine on Saturday and above 25 degrees, which at these latitudes, is somewhat way too hot. Sunday had overcast skies and a maximum of 18 celsius in the Cambridgeshire/West Suffolk area, so we were in for yet another grey day.

I had been looking at several routes on the internet to the southeast of Cambridge, area that we have already cycled in a few times before and felt in love with. Time has come to test Lucy on her first attempt to cover 100 milles in a day. East Anglia is mostly flat, so it should not really be a problem...right? We chose one of the very many good gps routes from Bikely (yep, it's a pain of a website when it does not work, but very useful when it does!)

Alarm ringing at 7 am. Oh well, as we say back home "sarna con gusto no pica" meaning you chose to do this for fun so no excuses or complains accepted. Still, we managed to miss our fast train up to Cambridge and ended up getting on the slow one. We shared the ride with a fellow bike polo machaca on his way to playing this unique cycling discipline. East London and Brick lane seem like a good place to practise as shown on this video...they do have good control over their fixies!



Upon arrival to Cambridge, we headed straight away onto the roads leading East and past the airport, following Sustrans route 51 towards Bury St. Edmunds. The route becomes very quiet through country lanes after that. 50 km later we headed south of Bury and into Hartest, were we spent a few days last summer. Right outside Hartest we hit the steepest hill in Suffolk apparently! It was quite short, but such a killer. The route from here to Lavenham was amongst the best ones we have ever done in the UK.

Heading out of Lavenham we were pretty much half way, and I was starting to feel really tired. I knew this could be either lack of sleep or that I was about to bonk. We stopped and ate as much as I could before continuing, and luckily I managed until Cambridge. The last third of the route was very flat with smooth tarmac and little traffic. Our average of 22 km/h dropped a little, but eventually we were approaching our starting point with a respectable 21 km/h over 8 h of riding time, with 9.5 h of overall time since we left the station. The saddles, bib shorts, and our tight culitos had done a great job! The final odometer said 171 km (103 milles) from door to door, including getting lost in shouthern Cambridge...We were both very pleased to have achieved this distance for the very first time and are wondering whether we should think about Audaxing? 200 km is next in our calendar, perhaps even before Dunwich Dynamo in July? 300 km sometime soon?

my first century

On Sunday, 5 June, I rode my first 100 miler! It was actually more like 106 miles including getting to and from the train station in London. This was my goal for the whole summer so I am excited to have completed it so early on. I'm not sure what caused me to ask Alberto if we could plan a century ride for this weekend, but I felt ready for the challenge, as long as the route was relatively flat!

We got a late start (as always) and missed the first train to Cambridge, so we only got started on our route at 9:30am. I was feeling quite good at the beginning of the ride, and as we got out of Cambridge and into the countryside I felt like we were flying along at a much faster pace than normal. It helped that Alberto was leading and I was finally figuring out how to stick to his back wheel. We had talked about the fact that we would need an okay pace in order to finish the ride at a reasonable time, and I think I spent much of the early part of the day focusing on keeping my speed up... glancing at my speedometer marveling at its high numbers, chasing Alberto's back wheel, and enjoying the smooth road surface, good visibility, and wide roads of East Anglia which allowed me to gain good speed on the downhills without worrying too much. We were averaging 22 kph (14 mph) at this point, whereas for instance on our way to Brighton we only averaged 17 (11 mph).

The thatched cottages and cathedrals in the villages of Suffolk were really pleasant. An early highlight of the day was cycling through Hartest, a village near Bury St Edmunds where some friends of my parents have a house. We were cycling along and suddenly passed their house, which we had visited last year! They weren't in, but we snapped a picture to show them later and continued on our way, past Lavenham which we were also familiar with from our trip to Bury last summer.

The terrain got a little bit hillier after that, which may have been the beginning of my struggles. I remember feeling that I couldn't quite keep up the pace we had set earlier on. A little while later, we stopped because Alberto was feeling quite tired and wanted to make sure he ate a fair amount of food to avoid bonking. I think it was shortly after this that I started to feel quite rough and for a little while I needed to go quite slowly. We still had about 50 km to go at that point and I had surpassed my longest difference ever so far. My back and neck were sore, my butt was starting to get uncomfortable, and my hands were experiencing a numbing sensation every now and again. I just kept looking at the cycle computer and feeling bad that I wasn't going faster.

I never really doubted that I would finish, but I did doubt whether I'd be limping to the station or finishing strong. After a struggling for about 20 km, Alberto gave me a lecture about not obsessing about my speed all the time and just riding at a comfortable pace. We adopted a strategy of constant chit chat, which did help to take my mind off the ride and the next kilometers passed much more quickly. I was uncomfortable, but by the time we got on to the main road leading back into Cambridge my legs were feeling quite good again.

We always seem to get lost looking for Cambridge's train station and this time was no exception. We turned down a 'road' which turned out to be pretty much a parking lot, and as we were turning around to head back out I somehow managed to fall over! I tried to change direction too quickly while going quite slowly, and suddenly found myself losing balance. I didn't have time to unclip so I fell over instead! This is the first time I have properly fallen over as a result of the clipless pedals. It was only slightly physically painful, but quite a bit more demoralising, coming at the end of such a long ride. I just wanted to get to the train station and be able to say that the ride was complete! I picked myself up and got back on the bike, and soon after we found the train station and made it safely on board with some snacks for the return journey. I was wiped out but happy. It feels so good to rise to a challenge and accomplish a major goal.

My only problem now is that a century was my goal for the year. Now I need to set a new one!

essentials on the night before a ride

We have learned the hard way that if we don't get everything ready on the night before a long ride, we will be seriously delayed in the morning and possibly have to cut our ride short as a result. In fact, the reason we're not on a ride right now is that we didn't feel like prepping last night! So here is a list of our essential prep on the night before a day out on the cycle!

• Route: We usually have casual conversations about where we'd like to go on a long ride throughout the week, but when it comes to the night before the ride, we need to find an actual route we like. Luckily, Alberto has a Garmin GPS so this is mainly a case of finding the right route and downloading it to his device. We start by looking up routes in the area on Bikely, GPSies, or the Garmin website, and sometimes Alberto modifies them himself as well (I'm sure a post will follow on this topic!). Then it's normally a case of fighting with the computer, as downloading the route is never as seamless as we would like!
• Food: We like to bring a variety of small snacks that we can eat throughout the day. In addition to bananas and cereal bars (which don't require much prep work!), we like to make sandwiches or wraps to take with us. Alberto's often include canned tuna fish, which I can't stand! He likes healthy options like beans, hummous, rocket, or rice. I tend to prefer the slightly less healthy combination of peanut butter, bananas, and raisins! For me, it really works to keep my energy up on the ride. Although the truth is, when you are working that hard, everything begins to taste amazing!

• Water bottles: It really does not take that long to fill up four water bottles, so we used to leave it til the morning. But whenever we did that, we'd forget about the water bottles until the last minute, and then risk missing our train because of it! So it is best to do it the night before.
• Bikes: Alberto is the mechanical expert so he usually checks over the bikes and makes sure that they are roadworthy. This normally just involves making sure the tyres are inflated to the right pressure, but it's important to check that the wheels, brakes, gears, chain, handlebar, seatpost, etc are all as they should be!
• Clothes: I like to lay out my clothes the night before so that I know where it all is and can easily get dressed in the morning. I don't have a very large lycra wardrobe so for me it is usually just a question of what the temperature will be. There are usually last-minute revisions in the morning based upon the ever-changing British weather forecast!
• Bike tools, etc: We usually keep all of the important bike tools, like spare inner tubes, multi-tool, tyre levers, patch kit, chain link, and pump in our saddle bags, along with a first aid kit just in case! As we only use the saddle bags on long rides we always have them ready with the essentials. This is a great timesaver as it would be a real pain to search around for all these bits when you're trying to go to bed!
• Batteries: We have rechargeable AA batteries which we charge overnight for the Garmin. Before a night ride, we charge extra to use in our lights as well.

And last but not least....sleep! This is the one we usually fail at. We don't start prepping early enough in the evening and as a result we usually end up going to bed a bit later than we would have liked. But of all the things on the list, sleep really is the only one you can skimp on--the others are too important to a successful day's ride!

Training rides in London

Here we go, my very first post in a blog!

London is arguably not the best place to go for a quick training ride. For most of us, the beautiful English countryside is too far for a spin after work. But there's life out there for all those hardcore machacas that want to go ease their legs after a boring day sitting in the office or running never-ending experiements in the lab.

Over the last two years I have been frecquenting two well-known places that are never too far from central and west London-based people: Regents Park and Richmond Park.

• Regents Park's outer circle makes for a 2.8 m (~4 km) of mostly flat and well paved surface. Cycled anti-clockwise, you do not have to worry about dodgy intersections, but only a few traffic lights. Highlights of the route include the zoo in the northeastern corner, the American's ambassador house (with its heavily armed British police!), the London central mosque and the poshness of the houses along Albany street. Best time of the day are either very early in the morning, or late at night. At rush hour it can get quite busy with traffic, that's when the inner circle comes in handy! Although it's a very quick 0.6 m (1 km) loop, it's quite fun to keep 30 km/h average. Best to be ridden clockwise. Some London cycling clubs have quick runs on weekdays here, when it's very quiet with only the occasional sleepy cabbie having a rest. Starting in May, it gets a little busy with people attending the open-air theatre, so watch out for walkers!

• Richmond Park is the largest of the Royal parks within London, and relatively accesible if you are coming from West London. However, the ride from central is not the most pleasent experience on two wheels, especially at rush hour after a long day at work. Alternatives exists however, and you can reach Richmond rail via tube, overground and nationalrail. It is actually a lot of fun getting on the commuter trains wearing lycra! The ride to the park from the station is an slighly uphill via Church Rd, Friar Stile Rd and Richmond Hill which will leave you well warmed up for lapping around. The views coming up Richmond Hill into the Park, on your right overlooking the Thames, are pretty awesome. The recommended lap is about 6.7 m (11 km) and can be ridden in either direction. We mostly do anticlockwise because of less intersections, although clockwise is great fun too, if a bit more demanding. If you are able to complete one lap in less than 20 min you fall into the machacas category! Again, can get busy in the evening and mostly at weekends, but I have ridden it at dusk on weekdays and the views of London together with the deer and other fellow cyclists is just too good for an after work training ride...Sometimes I wish I lived in West London! Some serious London teams have their regular rides here, so watch out for the pros!

• Quiet loop around London (taken from the Cycling-Intelligence blog). This one I have not cycled yet, but will do in the near future. It takes in some of the North London hills, as well as some canal-paths along the way.

• North London rides are also amongst my favourites, especially for hill training. Unfortunately, they involve heavy traffic and plenty of traffic lights. Only recommended in the early morning or late at night. A few examples with good inclines (kindly updated by fellow machacas on the internet):

-42 km loop

-24 km loop

-50 km loop

Happy lapping!

A Rough Ride

I guess some rides are just more challenging than others... Sunday's ride to Brighton, despite being quite short at 105km door to door and despite the fact that I'd ridden to Brighton three times already, was a rough one.

The difficulties started early on when the route that Alberto had planned (we didn't want to follow the same route we always do) had some massive hills in it just outside of Croydon. Sometimes there is a reason that routes

stick to the big roads -- these residential ones were soooo hilly. I just wasn't prepared to work that hard so early on, and I was worried about saving some strength in my legs for Ditchling Beacon.

The ride was really pleasant as we left the M25 and continued through the Farthing Downs, but I just wasn't feeling my usual self. Maybe it's because I hadn't ridden in two weeks, as my commuting bike was having mechanical difficulties as well, or maybe it was the windiness or some other unknown factor, but I never quite got into the groove of the ride.

Struggling up Farthing Downs... not a good sign!

It didn't help that there were some parts that were quite literally ROUGH -- the 'road' leading towards Hedgecourt Lake near East Grinstead was more of an obstacle course than a road...it was literally full of huge bricks and rocks and would have probably been a challenge even on a mountain bike! Then later the route took in a public bridleway (unpaved, obviously) which was another adventure!

The whole ride I just wasn't feeling confident about making it up the Beacon and obviously if I was doubting myself then there was no way I'd have the mental perseverance to keep going. Despite the fact that I made it up the Beacon two weeks ago having just cycled through the night, I didn't make it this time. I had to stop for water about a quarter of the way up the hill and then again at about three quarters of the way. The second time I stopped, I wanted to just walk up the rest of it, but the cars were coming quite aggressively from both directions and it didn't feel safe to walk. Instead I found a place where I could rest, ate half of a peanut butter wrap, and waited until I really felt my heart rate had come back to normal, and then continued up the hill.

It was unbelievably windy at the top of the Beacon, but I had to stop and catch my breath and eat a bit more. Alberto was there waiting for me and he had gotten out my windbreaker, as we figured we'd both need the extra layer on the downhill. We proceeded on the downhill against some serious wind, which was both a challenge to the legs and also to safety, as the road heading into Brighton is quite busy and cars were passing us quite closely. I couldn't really keep a straight line against the wind sometimes, so it was really a challenge.

I was so grateful when we finally arrived into Brighton. We got to the train station almost an hour before our train was due to leave, but the weather was really rubbish so we just stayed in the station and got some food.

All in all I wasn't too impressed with my performance on Sunday. There were however a few minor victories:

• I have finally learned how to drink water while on the bike! I still feel a bit nervous about it but am very glad I learned before the hot summer days kick in (if they ever do). I know practice will make perfect!
• Got to try out my new windproof gilet from Condor. I bought it on sale on Saturday and boy was it a lifesaver! Don't think I'll ever go on a ride without it now

Oh well, here's to the next ride!