August 2017

[Sweder]

We're well into the month, so why start a thread now?
Because I went for a run, that's why. The first* this month, as it happens. On Wednesday, a sweaty, hilly 8K ramble out towards BlackCap and back through the woods and along the top of the chalk pits. It was tough going, leg-wise, but my lungs felt pretty capable. Must be all the cycling. 

Bike-wise I've notched up 140Ks in 2 weeks. I do have a LBMB** as Charliecat alluded to, yet this only assists me at low speed when the going gets tough to brutal. My backside seems to be the early casualty. Despite my purchase of bespoke cycling shorts, replete with internal 'nappy' for maximum buttock protection, the razor-like saddle that comes with modern push-irons is leaving it's mark. It's quite something to arrive at work walking like John Wayne after a night out in Soho.

Tomorrow (Saturday) OATR is going to lope from Lewes to Bevendean ParkRun (as we did a few months back). I'll accompany him on the bike, complete the ParkRun and cycle back home. A Biathlon, if you will. Exciting times, if I can resolve the whole cycling-shorts, running-shorts conundrum. I may need to take a beach towel & a spare shirt.

*possibly a lie; I think there was a Twitten Run in early August. Ah well.
**Lazy Bastard Mountain Bike, equipped with lithium battery booster.
  Oh, go on, throw the rotten fruit. Like I care.

[OutAlongTheRiver]

Good cross-training stuff. I've started dabbling in 30 min swims in Pells - and that likewise gives good cardiovascular workout without straining limbs for running. Looking forward to tomorrow's lope ...

[El Gordo]

Totally sympathise with the delicate bottom syndrome. No idea why it's deemed essential to equip a luxury bike with a saddle like an upturned Victorian iron. For the money I spent I expected a seat like a pillow stuffed with rose petals. I'm about to concede defeat and buy some sort of gel-filled arse cushion.

[Sweder]

10.77 kms in 62'46" - Bike with Rob running (off road)
5.0 kms in 31'12" - ParkRun (off road
9.86 kms in 25'58" - Bike home (road)

A leisurely cycle through Moyleman country, chatting to OATR from Lewes to Bevendean, arriving ten minutes before the gun. Just time to swap padded cycle pants for running shorts. The terrain was challenging enough; up the Big W, across the top of the Downs and down behind the AMEX Stadium, were Brighton host Man City this afternoon in their first match of the new Premier League season.

Mercifully Rob was taking things steady after the Mother of all Track Sessions on Thursday, so I was able to burble along at a nice pace.

Parkrun was tough. I set off at an easy pace, stopping to re-tie a flapping shoelace. As I bent down I realised my lungs were high in my chest and I was sweating profusely. I set off again, easing off the pace on the uphill climb. I felt knackered, drained after a week of road cycling that has seen me exceed 200 kms inside two weeks.

I thought I might pick things up on lap two, but no. I has happy enough to trundle round in 31 minutes. My legs felt weird, a bit floaty and not really engaged in the running process.

After a coffee at the Bevy, a beverage that took longer to make than the 5k did to run and carried all the flavour of warm milk over which a hermetically sealed coffee be a had been waved, I set off for home. This time I stuck to the cycle path that runs from Brighton to Lewes. Aided by a fair tail-wind I flew home, legs apparently happy enough to be pedalling rather than running.

The upshot of all this appears to be
1) I need to factor in recovery time if I'm going to cycle 30-40 kms per day
2) I also need to get out and run more often

These two don't sit comfortably together, yet somehow I'll need to make this work. I'll be bike-less from Friday to Monday next week, again the week after (when I have 48 hours in Abu Dhabi) and yet again the week after that, away for an event in Singapore.

Running opportunities will knock soon enough.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Cycling good! I really should do it more often. Got frightened off by a few close encounters with traffic over the years, the last one about 10 years ago ended up with the motorist making a claim against me for denting his car as I bounced off it! Since then the road bike has been gathering dust.

No excuse for not mountain biking though.

[twittenkitten]

Cycling good! I really should do it more often. Got frightened off by a few close encounters with traffic over the years, the last one about 10 years ago ended up with the motorist making a claim against me for denting his car as I bounced off it! Since then the road bike has been gathering dust.

No excuse for not mountain biking though.

I too am sceptical about cycling in traffic. Fancy you having the cheek to collide your soft flesh with a metal car!? Bastard!

Mountain biking is the way forward and I want to get out on mine more. It's not like we've any lack of hills here around Lewes ...

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Cycling? A sport suitable only for those with death-wishes, I think. I speak from experience as an ex-cyclist; and I mean that in the sense of having given it up before I got killed by it.

Still, it's better than sitting about having a coronary at home, I suppose.

[Charliecat5]

There is a big BIG difference between road biking and trail riding (AKA mountain biking). Road biking usually involves Lycra (which is wrong - beyond the definition of wrong) and roads (I don't need to explain why roads are wrong). Mountain biking means hills. It means freedom. It means expensive suspension. It means knarly down hills and crazy tracks. It means big smiles and big bruises.

I'm looking forward to taking BGG for his first proper ride (!)

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

There is a big BIG difference between road biking and trail riding (AKA mountain biking).  Road biking usually involves Lycra (which is wrong -  beyond the definition of wrong) and roads (I don't need to explain why roads are wrong).  Mountain biking means hills.  It means freedom.  It means expensive suspension.  It means knarly down hills and crazy tracks.  It means big smiles and big bruises.

I'm looking forward to taking BGG for his first proper ride (!)

It also means broken collar bones and expensive dental reconstructive work. Sorry if I'm sounding like an Eeyore, but at our age we need to be bloody careful! That said, you go for it: I don't have the bollocks. I'll just sit here quietly and have another drink. I'll visit you in hospital and sneak the booze in while matron's not looking.

[Sweder]

No biking
No running
No walking
No beer
No gin 
No fun

Cellulitis has returned

   

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

No biking
No running
No walking
No beer
No gin 
No fun

Cellulitis has returned

Any illness or injury the recovery from which requires the cessation of alcoholic intake is needlessly cruel and offensively unfair.

My deepest sympathies, and here's hoping for a Speedy Gonzalez recovery.

[glaconman]

Every year me, mrs and son go road cycling to The Alpes for 3 weeks. It's exhilarating. We get very fit. We see vast swathes of the country with the wind in our helmets. On the more famous climbs it's like playing football at Wenbley. It can be a real adventure. This year on Iseran we road up in sunshine then retreated from the ssummit in a hailstorm. Chasing the sun down the valley for warmth. The beer at the campsite was very sweet. Each to his own. But let's not get too tribal folks. It's an amazing sport.

[marathondan]

It also means broken collar bones and expensive dental reconstructive work. Sorry if I'm sounding like an Eeyore, but at our age we need to be bloody careful! That said, you go for it: I don't have the bollocks. I'll just sit here quietly and have another drink. I'll visit you in hospital and sneak the booze in while matron's not looking.

And surely there is a halfway house... trail riding without the white knuckle downhills? In the same way that trail running doesn't have to mean scrambling down fells.

[Sweder]

It also means broken collar bones and expensive dental reconstructive work. Sorry if I'm sounding like an Eeyore, but at our age we need to be bloody careful! That said, you go for it: I don't have the bollocks. I'll just sit here quietly and have another drink. I'll visit you in hospital and sneak the booze in while matron's not looking.

And surely there is a halfway house... trail riding without the white knuckle downhills? In the same way that trail running doesn't have to mean scrambling down fells.

As ever, MLCMMan is the Harbinger of Doom, MarathonDan the calm voice of reason. 
And CharlieCat is ... CharlieCat. And he won't forgive the LBMB, no matter my perfectly valid reasons* for buying it

I complete a fairly hilly circuit in my 30k per day but rarely do I find myself other than vaguely on the level (no Masonic reference intended). It's enough of a variation to make me work at it - the bike battery cuts out at 25kph (Legal requirement in the UK) and is merely supportive, not a sit-alone option. My average speed is +28 kph, so, whilst I'm getting help to get up to speed, I maintain and exceed that speed under my own drive. 

I do have off-road options, and take them when the weather is clement and I'm not totally banjaxed. The drops ARE hair-raising, the climbs, even assisted, shirt-soaking. I love plummeting off Blackcap towards home. It takes me about 4.5 minutes of cover the 2.5 miles. I hope to do more of that as my legs grow accustomed to this twice-daily session. And as the nights draw in, in the twilight to boot. There will come a day when I take on the mighty Ditchling Beacon but not yet, not yet. I'm less Chris Froome, more Frank Spencer at the moment.

Any road, it's all academic as I remain incapacitated until further notice.
The time has arrived to cash in those Dad's Taxi shares. I have a bikeshed-load : )

   

*lame-arse excuses