The season has started

The weather has finally turned friendlier although I should probably not mention this too soon as colder weather has been predicted for the weekend.

I took part in my first Sportive of the season by completing the Wiggle Cheshire Cat last Sunday starting from Crewe. As this is the first ride of the season, we did the 47 mile short option. During the ride I made a classic mistake of following a group of riders down a lane. After a while I glanced down to my Garmin only to notice that I am totally off the pink line which shows the route.

I didn't want to turn around immediately as just at that moment another group of riders came past  me and they were definitely part of the Wiggle. So I carried on. Hmmm.

Not good as I was carried more and more away from the route and finally decided I had indeed gone very wrong.

I cycled back like the clappers and gathered that it was about a 2 mile mistake.

Oh dear, only it wasn't as it turned out to be a whole 4.5 miles more than the route. Well, I completed the 47 mile sportive with 51.5 miles on my Garmin.

Next Sunday is another big ride on our calendar, the CTC Spring Tourist Trial which is 50 miles in total. At least I can say that my Wiggle mistake gave me the opportunity to prove that I can do a 50 miler in 4.10 including stopping time!

On the big holiday front things are falling into place. Everything has been booked and reserved apart from the train from Rotterdam to Basel. I checked today and it seems we can book that on 6 April which is around the corner.

I want to pull together a lightweight folder with all me our reservations in, some notes about distances and suggested things to see along the way and where we overnight.

I am amazed at how many places where I booked didn't bother for a deposit. In the UK it is standard practice but it seems there are much  more trust on the continent!!

First good bike ride of the new season

Plans were made and kept. Weather forecasts checked (but really irrelevant!).

Hubby is off to Exeter and I had the resolve to go on the Fabulous Ladies monthly ride which I haven't been on for ages. Various things got in the way like National CTC Council, Church commitments and being ill.

Anyway, day looked grey but manageable and I was up, got my bike pumped up (tyres a bit low) and ready to go. First thing though was to get the new Bike Shed measured. I am SO excited! We are getting a Bike Shed (box) which will be to the right of the garage and will act as a sort of bike garage. Initially hubby wanted it in the back garden. For me this is not really practical as it is all about accessibility. If it is there, you will need to get the bike out, the back garage door open, take the car out (as the bike can't go around the car) and then you are off. If the bike shed is at the front of the house, you are off the moment you lift your bike out of the bike shed!
Practical? Off course ;)



Anyway. Bike shed measured, or rather where it will be at the front of the house, and I am off to meet the girls at Kingsway cafe. We were an impressive 19 (including one boy) and  had to split into 2 groups. Moira was leading the second group as my knowledge of East Cheshire is poor. I have cycled East Cheshire many times but I usually talking to my fellow Girls that I am not quite focussing on the road, so I was useless today to lead. I did the sweeping at the back, which is to make sure everyone is ok and still on route.

We were about 10 minutes away (in Hare Lane) when Juliet had a puncture. But she knew what she was doing so in now time were we up and away again.

The rest of the ride went very well. I was so pleased that Moira lead the way as she is definitely more familiar with the East Cheshire lanes than I am.


In no time at all we arrived at the Garden centre which had a large space reserved for us.

Refreshments done and we were on our way back to Chester. I slipped away near the A41 all along the canal and cycled through town. Garmin read 30.3 miles when I pressed stop. I am very pleased with my cycle ride today. It feels so good to be back on my bike. The afternoon was spent gardening and preparing the bike shed space. That involved taking some bulbs up and replanting them elsewhere. The last of the Christmas lights were taken off the trees and the grass was cut. Tomorrow some more gardening to finish off what I started and also to make a start at my Veg patch. I burned more than 1,300 cals today, yeah!! Another bike ride tomorrow and I will slowly get my fitness back in time for the Cheshire Cat at the end of the month as well as the Spring Tourist Trial at the start of April. Roll on 2012!!

Going over the Roman Bridges

Go slow in London

Today is a London day but due to too much luggage (I am getting a new work laptop so had to bring all the old kit), I could not cycle today.

I use Kings Cross for my tube station as it is closest to the YHA. Deciding to walk to a supermarket first to get a bite to eat, I was amazed to watch the traffic at the big junction at Kings Cross as the LCC go slow was in progress.

It was the most Police on bikes I have over seen! No I don't think they took part go the protest but they did cycle behind it and were on every corner of the junction!!

European bike holiday

Planning for the big European bike holiday has gone into second gear today. And what an effort it was!

When I started the original planning, I used the Bikeline guides to look at the route and jotted down the various stages of the trip. We had a good sense of how much mileage we wanted to do each day, about an average of 40 miles. This will give us the opportunity of lazy cycling days with lots of time to stop and do the touristy things. So sitting down with the 2 Bikeline guides and drawing up a spreadsheet was the first step.

 We have since decided on a departure date and a possible arrival date, so last night I took it a step further by checking availability of the Ferry and one or two of the places we wanted to overnight. We will mainly use Youth Hostels in Germany and Holland but with some of the stages, we will have to stay in a hotel. Ibis seems a good choice as it is reasonable and in many instances, very close to our route.

The HiHostel site gives you the opportunity of adding you potential stay into an itinerary which is excellent as it provides you with an overview of those places where you want to stay without booking immediately. It turned out that some of the places which I have originally thought where we could stay, either don't have a hostel, or is full or is so small that there isn't even a decent hotel available as an alternative. So map out of all the hostels in Germany and Holland, Bikeline guide on the side and Excel spreadsheet as third resource open and the tweaking started.


I had to change a few places around but now have a workable itinerary with at least 5 bookings confirmed! Plan is as follows;

Drive to Hull, get onto the Ferry to Rotterdam, then cycle from Europoort to Rotterdam, get onto the train to Basel. At Basel, get off and cycle to Lorrach where we will stay the first night. On Day 1 we will cycle back to Basel and start the official route with the next stop in Breisach.

Here are the overnight stays we will be using:

Lorrach

Breisach

Strasbourg

Karlsruhe

Mannheim

Mainz

Koblenz

Bonn

Dusseldorf

Duisburg

Xanten

Doorwerth

Gorinchem

Rotterdam

We still have a few things to decide which can come later like whether we will use the Ferry or will we use the train. We discovered last night that we can get to Basel in one day from Chester! Leaving at 7.35am we can arrive in Basel at 19.30. That means we save a whole day on travelling. It is two connections - one in London and one in Paris.
However, we have the return trip to think about and the Ferry is really nice - a sort of mini-cruise. Very relaxing! The two options have almost the same costs, so no major difference here.

On another note; I rented the series 'Bike' from the BBC via Lovefilm during the week and we finished watching it Friday evening. One of the interviews was with a woman called Elaine Mariolle. She cycled across America from coast to coast (3,000mi) in 10 days, breaking the record in 1986. Using 21 hours per day to cover an average of 300-400 miles A DAY !! Unbelievable!
I bought her book ' Woman Cyclist' and will be reading it from cover to cover soon.

She is such an inspiration, I am in awe of her achievements. 

Turbo trainer !

I blogged a couple of months ago about the possibility of buying a turbo trainer to keep fit during the long winter months when weather doesn't allow as much riding outdoors as you would like.

Well, the good news is that I got one for Christmas and it isn't just any turbo trainer but the model that I wanted as well as the full winter kit which include the mat, the raiser block and thong. It also came with a Race Day DVD.

My fitness levels are so poor at the moment that the DVD will probably kill me ! So I will keep it aside and use it when I am more fitter.

I am struggling with a cold at the moment so imagine my frustration levels at not yet been able to go on the trainer.

My master plan is to set the trainer up in the kitchen which is long and will probably be the best place for it. There is a TV in the kitchen which I can watch whilst training. I read on another site that turbo training can be quite monotonous so you need to perk it up with keeping data to monitor progress and listening to music or watching TV.

I now look forward to a winter season where I can keep fit and lose weight instead of gaining!
Hopefully I will be off to a running start when the weather turns instead of trying to get fit from scratch like the previous seasons.

Make the most of the weather !

The sun was shining and there was no wind blowing. What more can a cyclist ask for?

I went out immediately and did my usual 8 miles only to meet someone new on the A483 bridge and extend my ride to keep talking.

In the end I did my 10 mile ride with a bit of huff and puff (yes I am that unfit).

I took a few lovely photos along the way which was posted to my Map my Ride site to accompany the tracked route.

I hope to go out again tomorrow with my regular cycling partner and build on the huff and puff :-)

Plans

So another year finish. Well, almost.

I have BIG plans :-)

I want to buy a turbo trainer so that I can be in a better physical condition than I was last year. I felt that I took long last year to actually arrive at a decent fitness level so I reason that with a turbo trainer I will be in a much better position to perform earlier in the season.

We also have big plans for next summer :-)

We are planning to cycle the Rhine from Basel to Rotterdam :-)

So keep up with this blog if you want to know more :-)