Moving House

About a week ago my wife and I moved house. We did live in Wimbledon in a fairly small flat.
We decided we wanted a bigger place. To keep to roughly the same budget that meant that we had to move further out.

My old commute was 12 miles so I didn’t want to make it too much longer than that. I started looking within a 15 mile radius of Canary Wharf.

In the end we found a great house near Epsom. My cycle ride is now about 18 miles in each direction. It’s basically the same route as I was doing but with 6 miles extra put on the end.

I’ve only done the whole route in both directions twice. At the moment it’s taking about an hour and twenty minutes to about an hour and thirty minutes.

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get it down to about 1:15 eventually once I get used to the route and aren’t struggling against a head wind for an hour and a half.

My extra bit of the route is below.

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Winter Cycling Gear

Over the last few weeks the weather has been getting colder, wetter and generally more unpleasant. A few weeks back we had a very cold few days getting down to about 1°C. My T-Shirt and shorts were starting to feel a little inadequate – especially when it was raining.

One day when I was cycling home it was very hard rain and only about 2-3°C and I got very cold. My feet got soaking and so did my gloves.

At this point I invested in some more cycle gear.

Shoes / Gloves

Feet and hands are the areas that tend to get cold first and I find are the most important areas to keep warm. If you have cold hands or feet your cycle is not going to be fun.

Endura Road Overshoes

These are a neoprene type material much like a wet suit and really keep your feet warm and dry even if it is very cold and very wet. In fact my feet were getting too hot at anything over about 5°C.

Highly recommended: link

Gore Bike Wear Windstopper Gloves

These gloves are not waterproof but they are wind proof. They are quite water resistant though so are fine in light rain. They are very light weight and comfortable and do completely cut out any wind. When you are in medium to heavy rain for a long time your hands will get wet.
They are very comfortable and I recommend them for dry weather or light drizzle. When it is too cold or wet they won’t really do.

link

Shorts and Tops

Altura Reflex Long Sleeve Jersey

I wear this over the top of my T-shirt. I have 5 T-shirts so wear a clean one every day but as this goes over the top I can make it last a bit longer and don’t need to buy loads of them.
It is nice and warm and stretchy so if you have a less than ideal physique it’ll still zip up!
My only complaint would be that it could be a little bit longer at the back as I tend to get a gap between this and my shorts.

link

Gore Bike Wear Alp-X GT 3/4 Shorts

Before I got this kit I only had short shorts that left my knees exposed. I was once told that if the temperature gets below 10°C you should cover your knees. The knee joint does not feel cold very much but if it gets too cold you will damage it without realising. I wanted 3/4 length shorts to solve this problem.
These shorts are not particularly warm but they are fantastic in the wet. The water just runs off it and when you get home a quick shake and they are bone dry.
I am “big boned” (like Garfield) so find it difficult to get cycle clothing to fit me – especially shorts. Evans make this a bit easier as they have sizing charts for all the different makes of clothing that they sell. Looking at these Gore and Altura did the biggest sizes. As well as these Gore shorts I also ordered some Altura shorts. I chose the Gore and sent the Altura back as the Gore were a bit roomier and more comfortable. They are still a bit tight but manageable and hopefully I’ll lose more weight and they’ll fit better soon enough.

link

This kit worked pretty well for temperatures down to about 1-2°C for about an hour. My cycle has recently got longer though – up to about one hour and a half. This morning it was cold and wet and snowing and I was cycling into a headwind for about an hour and a half.
My hands got very wet and cold and my legs really were freezing. Oddly enough my thighs were colder than shins despite my thighs being covered and my skins being exposed.

I plan to carry on cycling throughout the winter pretty much whatever the weather so I thought it was worth investing in some more kit.

Gore Countdown Gloves

These gloves are 100% waterproof. They are quite a bit thicker than the other gloves so changing gear and doing up velcro and so on are trickier but on the way home today my hands were super warm and dry. I will still use my other gloves a lot but when it’s really cold or wet these are the gloves I’ll be using.

link

Gore Bike Wear Power Tights

I was trying to get though my cycling career without buying tights! I have succumbed though and bought these on the way home today. They feel really confortable and I think they will keep me nice and warm. They are not padded so I plan to wear these over my padded undershorts and then wear my other 3/4 length shorts over the top. 3 layers on my legs should keep them as warm as my top half.

link

I hope that this kit will be enough to keep me going through the winter. I have spent probably £200 - £300 on all this kit but I think it is worth it. I do cycle 36 miles a day and commute to work 3 days a week so I think good cycle gear is important and a worthwhile investment.

All I need now is some more knobbly tyres as I slipped over this morning. My current almost slick tyres really offer no grip at all on non-gritted cycle paths.

Bike Shopping

Although Oliver has served me very well over the past 18 months I am beginning to think that it’s time to upgrade. I have thought for a while that the 57” frame is really too small for me. I’ve also been having some issues with the bottom of the range group set (gears and brakes ect).

Today a new Evans Cycles opened in Wimbledon and they had a 10% discount offer so I went along to have a look. I was looking for another hybrid but I was persuaded to give a proper road bike with drop handle bars a try.

I have to say it wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. The test ride was only round the block but it felt pretty good.
The bike I tested was a 58” frame and the sales assistant thought it still looked too small so they have ordered a couple of 60” frame bikes in for me to try.

As I might be moving house and increasing my commute by half as much again a quicker road bike should help me cover the extra miles in as short a time as possible.

Moving House

Linzi (the wife) and I have decided that we need to move house. We’re not very good adults (in fact I don’t think either of us have grown up at all) and need lots of space for all the rubbish we accumulate and never get round to putting away. Our 2 bedroom flat in Wimbledon is too small.

Finding a new place to live is never easy. We wanted somewhere that had 3 bedrooms and was generally a bit bigger – and it had to have good parking for my other hobby. We also needed a place that would be ok with our 2 cats.

These are all pretty normal house buying requirements but I had another one that I really wasn’t going to shift on. It needed to be within cycling distance of Canary Wharf.

This does limit us a bit. A good friend of ours has just bought a house in Woking. This seemed ideal – lots of space, good train service ect but way too far to cycle.

This morning we looked at a place that seems very promising – 3 good sized bedrooms, a garden, garage ect but it’s going to be about an 18 mile cycle. I reckon that’s going to add nearly an hour on to my commuting in a day. Also cycling nearly 40 miles a day is pretty hardcore.

At the moment I am working from home 2 days a week so actually my weekly distance will be around the same as it was when I was cycling 24 miles a day 5 days a week but there is no guarantee that working from home will continue.

How far is too far to commute by bike?

No more tubes

For the last 2 weeks I've not been cycling into work but have been getting the train instead. This was in preparation for and recovering from the Big Red Ride.

After last week I was feeling recovered enough to ride again and I was looking forward to getting back on the bike.

The ride this morning was fantastic - it felt really easy. I smashed my record with a ride time of less than 48 minutes. Total time was less than 50:30 despite lots of traffic lights.

Previously my goal was to get the ride time under 50 minutes. I think now I'll have to try and get the door to door time under 50 minutes.

I saw my first London cycle hire bikes this morning but they were all in their docks, I've not seen any being ridden yet.

Big Red Ride Report

Well, I did it! Last Sunday I completed 83 miles cycling from London Blackheath Hill to Eastbourne. The ride took me about 8 and a half hours total.

The ride was tough – a lot harder than I thought it would be and a lot harder than the 53 miles that I did on my London to Brighton ride.

The first 30 – 35 miles were fine. From around 35 miles up to I think about 57 miles it was ALL hills. Literally. I was either struggling up a hill at around 5 or 6 MPH or flying down a hill at around 30 MPH dodging oncoming traffic. Obviously it took a lot longer going up the hills than it did to come back down again.

After about 57 miles the ride was pretty good again apart from one steepish hill and Beachy Head which was a very long but not very steep climb. It was very tough though as it was right at the end and pretty much every part of my body was hurting by then.

The last mile or so was fantastic as it was downhill all the way right to the finish line. It was a real relief to finish.

I was very sore. My legs were sore, my knees were very painful whenever I moved them, my back, arms and neck were sore and could no longer find a pain-free way of sitting on my saddle.

At the finish line the Red Cross provided a masseuse who did help my back. We also got a goody bag with a medal in and a water bottle.

Honestly most of this ride was hell and wasn’t enjoyable. There weren’t that many people either and although I chatted to a few people for a lot of the ride it was just me with no other cyclists visible.

I am not sure I’ll do it again next year. Having said that I should be fitter and have lost more weight by then so it should be easier. I think I will do the London to Brighton Ride net year as it is fairly easy and I think very popular.

I did very well with my sponsorship and was the second or third highest fund raiser and raised a total of £530.

Many thanks to all the people who sponsored me.

This week I have not been cycling as I am still saddle sore. I am really looking forward to getting back on the bike next week though.

There are a few photos of the day here.

Exercise Time: 8:34:56
kcal: 5994
Distance: 83 miles
Average Speed: 11.2
Max Speed: 37.6
Ride Time: 7:18:56

London to Brighton

As it’s only 2 weeks to go before the Big Red Ride I need to rack up the miles a bit in preparation. Last week I did the Peak District Ride and although it was hilly and hard work it was only just over 40 miles.

As I wasn’t doing anything this weekend I decided to do the London to Brighton ride. This is a popular charity ride that many people take part in. I didn’t do the actual charity ride that was a few weeks ago so it was just me on Sunday but I did follow the same route.

The route generally wasn’t too hilly except for Ditchling Beacon at the end which is very steep, although no worse than the Peak District ride.

I did enjoy the ride but I was quite pleased when it was over. My legs did get pretty tired and were quite sore the next day. I also got pretty uncomfortable on my saddle at about the halfway point.

It has given me more confidence that I’ll be able to do the Big Red Ride but it has also highlighted that it’s going to be tough.

This is taken from the bottom of Ditchling Beacon. You have to climb all the way up to the top of those hills in the distance:

And the view from the top:

Total Time: 5:10.48
Average Heart Rate: 132
Max Heart Rate 169
Kcal 3366
Miles: 53.6
Average Speed: 12.9
Max Speed: 40
Ride time: 4:08.08