Well the views weren't great, but no rain for the whole weekend, miracles do happen! The fog was pretty bad on Saturday, but that meant I didn't bother going up into the hills - mainly for fear of getting totally lost. So the whole weekend was on the flat, which was nice. I was not impressed with the clocks going forward, when I got up on Sunday morning the time showing on the cooker was still at at 4.30am, needless to say I was rather grumpy for the first hour in the saddle. It was also a weekend for wildlife; scared a flock of runaway sheep in the middle of the road, got chased by a moody looking dog and nearly ran over a fully fledged peacock... they dont move very fast, even with bikes bearing down on them at 20mph. He just gave me a unimpressed look and sauntered off as I carreered towards a nearby hedge. I quickly made my feeling clear with a few choice words.

The training is going well, still can't imagine doing this for 10 days in a row...

Weekend training update

Last week was our annual shutdown at work and so little time for training. I also moved house and now live less than 2 miles from work so my 12 mile commutes to work need replacing with sommat. The weekend rides were good. I did a 60 mile ride on Saturday and a 40 mile ride today. I could have done more but it is so godamn boring when you are doing it by yourself. The Brooks saddle is starting to bed in and now 4 hour rides are fine although I do need a little splash of century ride cream to keep the 'biffen' in condition!. The pub side of the training is going just fine and actually it is easier to sit on a wooden bar stool for 6 hours than a saddle. You can also take in more calories in a bar than you can burn on a bike.

Well it's been 2 1/2 months since Rob told me that he and a guy called Dave had a good idea in the pub. Cycling LE to JO'G sounded like a great idea when I was asked and I jumped at the chance. Now at week 6 of my training it's tough going. I don't think I mind the time in the saddle, but the 5am starts are tough and the fact I am yet to have a dry weekend is starting to grate. If it wasn't for my ski gloves and waterproof socks I might well be way behind on training - god bless gore-tex!
I've settled in to what I hope is a good routine for now; a 40 mile 'sprint' on friday, a 5 hour hill route on the edge of the Peak District on Saturday and a 4 hour flat ride in Cheshire on Sunday. The plan being to extend the Saturday and Sunday rides by an hour each over the next month or so.
Life doesn't allow for additional rides in the week, so it's nice to get a lie in till 6am on a Monday morning.

Some Sunny Day

Had a great club run on Sat 12th, winning the sprint back into Marden, so finally getting back to the fitness levels of last summer and ready for LEJOG, or so I thought. Since Sunday the 12th I've had an injury that has prevented me from getting back on the bike.
The weather is now fantastic, last weekend was 16C and sunny so we are out of the winter and I can't get on my bike.
Hopefully better in a couple of weeks or the first few days of the ride in Cornwall are going to be tough!
I have now planned the route as far as Kendal and also booked all the pubs so we are now half planned and I will start to have a look at the second half with Dave soon.

Garmin Edge Review

I took the plunge a few weeks ago and got myself the Garmin Edge 800 cycle computer. I have previously had a Garmin Edge 305 and had a good experience with it.
Straight out the box the heart rate monitor did not work BUT it was very easy with Wiggle to get a replacement sensor mailed out. I have been using the 800 for daily bike rides in all weathers and temperatures. At night the display is easy to see and in day it is also easy. GPS has worked fine and the sat nav maps are there but I have only used them a couple of times. I have not used the sat nav with a downloaded route nor am I currently using the cadence sensor.
The fixing device to the handlebar is very simple and effective and the device is quickly fitted and removed from the bike.

I like stats and therefore I like downloading the data to Garmin Connect. I used to use a Garmin program on my computer to record my rides but it crashed once and I lost my data.