20 Mile Weekend Part 2

Hey!

Went out today and smashed it! Just over 14 miles today. Most of it was planned, some of it not so much!

I took the same lanes up to The Guinnea pub as yesterday but carried on that road towards the M25 and took the lanes over to the RSPCA. For those that don't know this is a charity funded organisation that takes in stray, rescued or unwanted animals. People can buy the animals from them. However, if an animal cannot be re-homed in a suitable time it will be put down. They also have veterinary surgeries and offer care courses, etc...

They also had some ponies in the field next door :)

From here I carried on Packhorse lane and went back around the fields heading towards Shenley, past Pinks Farm and Cottage, Rectory Farm and a couple of other grandeouse estates. I took lanes that brought me out the opposite end of Shenley village from yesterday so that I could take pictures of the old drunk tank which is next to a pub.

I wouldn't like to spend a night in there! To the right of the lockup is a pond that has been cleaned up quite a lot recently. They have even put a little duck house in there too, I tried to get pictures of the ducklings but don't think they stayed still long enough :)

Well maybe you can make them out, they were with the two ducks near the house anyway.

So from here I made my way home, this time taking Green Street instead of the old London Road lane. This takes me into Shenley Road and into Borehamwood's Ville which is the main shopping road in BWood. I took Elstree Way instead as that heads to my house and avoids the town.

All in all it was just over 14 miles today! I was very happy with that! So mission accomplished, 20 miles in a weekend and a touch more too! So where will tomorrow take me? I'll see how defeated my body is tomorrow, but I'm feeling pretty good today, if not a little tired :)

Strava - For whatever reason Strava didn't pick up my Rowley Lane Suicide Dash today :( I'm sad because I went all out on it today and it kinda left me feeling like lead going up Holmshill Lane on which I ended up getting my 3rd best segment! Grr... Them's the breaks though I guess, it's free and it pushed me and punished me all at the same time!

Tunes: Bad Dice Daily Podcast, VeloReviews Podcast
Drink: Lemon and Lime Electrolyte in the Camelback. Orange Energy in the bottle. Darn, near finished it all today! And drank the remainder outside the house while stretching out legs and clearing up my gear.

Tone

The 20 mile Weekend Day 1

Hi all,

So we have a bank holiday weekend in England which means we get Monday off work too if we're lucky! I am so I have ;)

 Just a quick thanks to some of the guys and girls at VeloReviews.com who have responded to a couple of my posts from last week. Thanks for the support and encouragement :D

 "So what's the subject all about?" I hear you ask. Well my mate Mark has challenged me to do 20 miles over the weekend. I thought this will be doable but I would have to prove to myself that I could do a further ride than I've done since jumping back on the saddle. Therefore I set out to go do the same route as last weekend but add the next set of lanes onto the back of it. How did I get on? well carry on reading and find out!

First up, get to the pub! This is the Mops and Brooms pub in Well End. Well End is a small town not far from my house and is also the start of the Strava segment "Rowley Lane Suicide Dash"

 Please forgive the dodgy angle of the photo I think my phone's shutter speed was a little delayed today for some reason, one of my photos was of a pavement for example! This is a good pub, famous locally for having a large beer garden, and more recently lots of good foods! It used to have a games room which was basically an effort to see how much smoke could be in a room before the blokes opened a window :) This has recently been knocked through to open up the bar/dining area. It also has a big fireplace in the middle of the bar area.

So after braving the Rowley Lane downhill and avoiding two cars coming at me at speed I reach Holmshill lane and got up it quicker than last week according to Strava, I've not checked times but hey that's a nice little booster!

This is where I turned down Bucketshand (sp?) Lane last week and headed back. Today I carried on down Summerswood Lane and back up it to the Old Guinnea Pub in Ridge.

 This is a pretty old pub which I guess would have been in the middle of nowhere back in the old days. It's got a bit of beer garden and looks like it's become a bit bistroey too, There's a sign near the door advertising a Pizzeria on certain days!

From here I went down Deaves Hall Lane and took the left turn to Shenley, rather than right to South Mimms. So I went on down and up South Mimms Lane and followed signs to Shenley which included a good few climbs between farmers fields and scrub.

I finally reached civilisation in Shenley town and took a picture of Hunters Farm which didn't come out, unless I fake it and meant to take a picture of the farms driveway! I could have got a picture of the White Lion Pub which also has a good beer garden! I wanted the Hunters Farm logo as I used to go shoot air rifles at targets and bits of scrap when I was younger there. Some great weekends plinking bits of rusted metal and printed bunnies or target rings printed on my Amiga 500.

Anyway, from Shenley I took the old London road back to Well End and then home again. Some good climbs and not many flats!

All in all a good day out! I'm going to attempt a similar route tomorrow but go on from The Guinnea and take a couple of different lanes back to Shenley. This does mean I will be further down the hill when I get there so will have to climb back up! I may also take Green St. instead of the lanes back to Borehamwood so we'll see, but I could bust 20 miles in two days if everything stays together!

Didn't see one other cyclist today :( Did pass a couple of joggers going the other way but they didn't say hello - stuck up gits! All the pedestrians I said mornin' to smiled and said it back :)

Tunes: Veloreviews Podcast
Drinks: Camelback: SiS Go Orange Energy, Bottle: SiS Electrolyte Lemon and Lime.

Tone

SiS GO Electrolyte Tropical

Second review today, this one I have to admit is a half review as I only took a few glugs of it so this is the current opinions based on that, more later when I've used it on a ride.

Taste, not bad, definitely not the best flavour SiS put out, on initial tastes I'd take the Lemon and Lime one over this any day. It also got pretty warm in the sun today, It was in my bottle on the frame and it's damn hot today but I didn't notice the Original flavour Energy drink get hot like this one. Maybe the chemicals react differently in the heat? I dunno.

OK, I'm going to continue this review next ride, the bottle is sat in the fridge at the moment and will be transfered to my Camelback.

Tone

Picture nabbed from: http://www.apex-sports.co.uk

SiS GO Energy Orange/Original

Hi all, time for another couple of drink reviews!

First of all, let me just say this is an Energy drink, not specifically for Hydration or Electrolytes. That said, it hydrated me well. I definitely went further yesterday on the Hydration pack and drank the same amount, meh maybe there is something in it, I will check out another couple of packs and see how it goes.

As for energy, again I feel it provided the same as the Hydration pack so maybe this is showing that the Hydration packs are a much better idea is the heat, I mean that is what they say on the pack after all, but now I have tested the marketing I sort of believe them!

The taste is pleasant, definitely a little citrus in there but nothing like the Lemon and Lime one! It stayed pretty cool in my Camelback too, just a little warm on every first gulp as that's in the tube and not the fault of the drink. I think it stayed cool in the bottle on the frame too, the tropical one got a little warm today and it was noticeable.

Anyway, nice taste, will have to try it again when it's cooler.

Picture from: http://www.royles.biz


Tone

Determination

Hi all (hahaha)
Today's post title is from a great friend who's sorta hired to push me in the right direction fitness wise. I.e. He's been asked to call me out if it looks like I won't be going on a ride! Cheers Mark!

So today I woke up hurting... My back ached all over and my toe was a bit swollen, sore and bloody after dropping a tin can on it yesterday! Energy was high but then it rained! Luckily that went after a few minutes and the sun came back out (no rainbow) so I decided to get out while I could as my back had relaxed a bit over the morning. Also my mate sent me this on Twitter and if he can do it, then my sore toe isn't gonna stop me! (This isn't him by the way! I think it's Ernst Van Dyk)

Today I loaded the Camelback up with the SiS Orange GO Energy I'd kept in the fridge from yesterday's ride. I also made a bottle of SiS GO Electrolyte Tropical. Reviews on these to come, I may have done the Orange one already?

Today is well hot! I think we have 31 degrees again if not more as there is very little breeze. I was sweating before I got my cycling gloves on! I did about 3 miles just bimbling about the estate (Neighbourhood) and surrounding areas. I rode around the field in the park below to test my offroad energy. Even riding on grass is so different than tarmac! I then remembered to adjust my saddle height and position! I got this done and did about another mile test ride, it feels better but I will definitely test it out next time and adjust if necessary. Still finding the sweet spot for the shorts snake though, thoughts and suggestions welcome!

Anyway, the Strava stuff is over there on the right, have a click and see what I did. Oh yeah, forgot to finish the ride on the Strava App so the actual time might be a bit longer than it really was, also the app was paused while sorting the saddle, etc.. don't worry I didn't catch 20 mins or so sleep along the way :) I did take this picture though, which is a nearby park. Mainly because I didn't know this hoop was there, there are a few hoops around this area now! Might start throwing some balls :)

Tunes: Veloreviews Podcast

Tony

The Sun is Shining!

Went out to enjoy the morning before the forecasted 31 degrees C temperatures kicked in. I made sure to have lots of liquid with me: 500ml of Tropical SiS GO Hydration in my Camelback and had another 500ml of Orange GO Electrolyte in my bottle.

I decided to go for a jaunt round the lanes which are not far from my house and make for some nice scenery, some nice climbs and a little shade from the sun.

I made it up the climb to the Mops and Brooms Pub but definitely had to use the Granny ring to get there in one piece. I still think my saddle needs lifting just a touch and maybe moving back a bit too. I just keep forgetting to do it! Jut because I find myself repositioning myself a lot on the saddle and having to concentrate on extending my legs whereas if these were setup correctly I wouldn’t be doing this.

I stopped at the bottom of Rowley Lane to take this picture and get some air. A Roadie went past without saying hello :( and on round the corner to go up Holmshill Lane. I got back on and prepared myself for Holmshill Lane and laughed inside as I found Mr. Roadie having a rest just around the bend behind a hedge! He looked a bit startled when I came round so I just said “Mornin’” again and got a reply this time :) He passed me just as I got to the top of the hill.

I thought I’d start to head home at this point so went down Bucketshand Lane to complete the loop and get back on the Well End Road to head home. I passed a few more cyclists on the way and got either nods or morning’s back so if anything I will make cycling a little friendlier :D

By the time I got home my Camelback had just run dry so although I didn’t need the extra 500ml I was glad I took it just in case. It is roasting outside now but I’m showered and have just got my dough proving for this weeks loaf, mixed seed and country grain white if you’re interested :) I don’t eat much of it these days just a couple of slices to see what it tastes like really, the rest of the house laps the loaves up though!

Been a while...

Ok so I haven't gotten out this week until tonight. I knew ahead that I would have my evenings filled up with other activities. I could have gotten up early and gone out before leaving for work. That just isn't going to happen at the moment though. It's all I can do to drag my carcass the 30 miles to work let alone exercise too! Maybe down the road this will happen...maybe.

Monday i visited my nan who is recovering from a stroke and has bowel cancer.
Tuesday was gaming night so I don't get home till about 11pm-12am.
Wednesday back round nans to see her and wish my Uncle happy birthday.

So tonight I had dinner, let it get down for half an hour and went out. I would normally give it longer but I go online with one of my long time best mates and we pretend to be teenagers again fighting orcs and giants or supervillians, etc :)

Tomorrow evening may be free too, however, I am popping to see nan again. I want to see if I can ride there and leave the bike somewhere safe. It would make a decent ride each way and cover about 4-5 miles. Plus I get to see nan too. Trouble is if you leave a turd on the floor round here someone will have it away!

The weekend is going to be schorching hot if you believe the pretty ladies on the news (what man disbelieves a pretty lady?) Forecasts of 29•C on Sunday! Do they know this is England? Anyway, i may have to fill up the Camelback If it's true! Happy trails...

Tunes: The Mountain Bike Whisperer Podcast
Drink: Lucozade Powders
Recovery: SiS REGO Strawberry

Tone

SiS GO Lemon & Lime

This is another packet that I picked up in Asda a little while ago. I made it up for the ride this morning.

Mixing is fast and the product dissolves fully in 500ml of water in my bottle. Nice small ground particles. The powder changes the water to a cloudy water akin to say a lemon dilute drink would.

The taste is really nice! I'd say it is even easily better than a juice drink. Really palletable, no signs of chemicals at all.

Out on the ride I took a few swigs and it quenches thirst instantly. I had about half a bottle left over so you may get 1 or 1.5 hours hydration out of it. This is of course at my fitness level activity and it is particularly hot in England right now at circa 24 degrees celcius.

I have 10 helpings of the orange flavour GO to get through too so will stick
up my thoughts about that soon.

Conclusion
This is a great product I definately would not hesitate at buying a big tub of it!

A little more each day

Went a touch further today, similar format; flat/downhill for a couple of miles then back up again to home, got about 100ft if elevation in over about a mile.

I'm not really setting a distance or a time limit to my rides, just bimbling about and checking Strava when I think I am roughly half way or feel like heading back. Today I checked it and I'd just hit 2miles. Got home after the climb at 3.7miles.

I am also trying to include some off road sections which are nothing more than riding on grass at the moment. It is pretty different to riding on tarmac so worth getting used to. If I'm to go riding with my mates it will likey be on trails so I need to get used to it.

Got a chance to test my brakes out today as well and was happy they performed admirably! :)

Drink: SiS GO lemon and lime
Recovery: SiS REGO strawberry
Meal: oats and water afterwards.

Tone

SiS REGO Strawberry

Second of two quick Isotonic and Recovery drink reviews of products I've used so far.

Rego is designed to have after exercise, not on the trail. It contains protein, calories and other essentials needed to help the muscles chill out and recover.

This was purchased in Asda one day when I needed a water bottle, I picked up the SiS bottle too as it has the gram markings on it to measure out their drink powders. You can buy sachets and tubs of it.

To mix just pour 50g or a sachet into your bottle and add 500ml water (I understand you can use milk too for added protein/fat) give it a mighty shake for a bit and you will have a lively red coloured shake. Yep, shake, this stuff turns the water into a milkshake consistancy which is awesome!

Taste is very much like Complan if you've had that. It's like a food shake which is very tasty and the flavour is strong too. This stuff doesn't last long in the bottle at all, four or five glugs and it's gone!

I really like this product and have gone ahead and bought their 10 serving bottle of powder. It really helps replace my fluids and essentials after a ride, I'm a big chap and can crash pretty low after strenuous activity, ya know like walking to the pub or something ;) and I gotta say I've had no such problems in the last couple if days most likey due to this product.

Conclusion
Get some!

High5 Tropical Fruits

First of two quick Isotonic and Recovery drink reviews of products I've used so far.

High5 Tropical Fruits
This came free with a cycling magazine this month along with a nutritional supplement that was an interesting read.

It's 75g of powder that you add to 500ml water. Give it a good shake and you are ready.

It mixed very well, the powder is ground quite fine which helps. I was surprised that the colour of the water hardly changed at all, just a bit cloudier if you like.

Taste was ok, not exactly the tropical flavours of say a juice, more like a weak dilution. It wasn't horrible at all though.

It really did quench my thirst quickly so one bottle of this stuff might even last a couple of hours at my current work rate. There was a lot left at the end of my ride today.

Conclusion
Nice enough drink, good quality, taste didn't blow me away.

Strava is the way forward

Hey all, blogging outside the house gaving a breather and finishing my High5 tropical drink after my ride out this morning.

Stepped up to 20mins with about 1/3 of the ride climbing the hills I'd rode down. The stats can be found via my links to Strava just over there on the left of the web version of this blog.

So yesterday I got Strava attached to my blog (details below) I love how the data is there straight away as a nice reminder and a log of my progress. I'll be using Strava whenever I go out now.

Right, time for a shower and brekkie!

Tone

How To: Strava widget as a Blogger Gadget

Ok, I finally worked out how to add Strava data to the blog!

Here is a quick step by step as I didn't find one out there already... Maybe people can find this if they need help.

1. Open your Blogger settings and go into Layout view.
2. Then click to add a new Gadget where you want it.
3. In the pop out box Basics should already be selected by default so scroll down about half way and select HTML/JAVASCRIPT.
4. Give the Gadget a name. Strava lets you put up two bits of data Weekly Activity and Overall Activity.
5. Once you've named the section you will need the script from the Strava site...

Open a new tab or browser window and do the following:
1. Goto your Strava site by logging in at www.strava.com
2. Click on "My Profile" at the top of the screen and then scroll down to the bottom of that page.
3. On the right you should see a "Share Your Rides" button. Click this and you will get the two bits of data Strada allow you to share on your blog.
4. Just click on the one you want and copy the script in the box.

Now go back to the other tab/browser window and paste this script into the lower box in the Gadget window.

Save it all and you should now have a nice new box on your blogger blog displaying your Strava achievements!

Congratulate yourself with a health conscious bottle of water and a few clips of Downhill nutters chasing down streets in Brazil!

Tone

Aaaaand We're Off!

Got in from work, changed and out on the bike this afternoon! I used MapMyRide to keep track of things and then forgot to post to Twitter bah... it's a bit clunky and I will have to remember to press the Twitter button when I finish a ride, even though I've asked it to post after a ride! As I say clunky. It also doesn't appear to have any api for Blogger or even a share to Blogger option. I think the other app Strava does so I will use that on my next ride.

I did 2.24 miles in 12:18. Not bad, I stopped for about a minute to take a picture so that messed up the stats a bit. Another clunky feature of MapMyRide is that when you pause the ride it locks you out of doing anything else, like changing settings or taking pictures, etc... I did another ride when I got home just around the block again so ended up probably doing 3 miles all told in about 18-20 mins of exercise. I was mainly concentrating on keeping my cadence up and breathing properly which will keep the heart beating but does result in slower speeds for me at least.

Anyway, good workout to ease me back into the saddle and I was happy :) I was toying with going out again a couple of hours ago but resisted as I would probably be saddle sore come the morning and I really want to go out for a ride while waiting for my loaf to prove :)

If you don't do Twitter this link should take you to the ride on MapMyRide.com

Tone

Bike Setup

Awesome! My leg seems to have calmed down. I was pretty scared the hamstring was going to go on me all day Tuesday. It was constantly twinging but I resisted temptation to do any exercise and I think sense has paid off. I really want to get back into the jogging but not until I've shifted some weight. In a perverse way it will be a reward for getting fitter/shedding some stones.

Got time to setup my bike after work today. There wasn't much to do in the end. I sorted out my seat height and gave the tyres a bit of air. Rear flasher was fixed to my wedge bag and made sure that contained a multitool, innertube and levers.

Of course I had to take it for a spin before dinner and games night! Just a quick once round the block and round the corner. A couple more saddle adjustments and the legs felt good again.

I also got Mapmyrun on the iphone. I linked it to Twitter and did a test on the blast around the block and it seems pretty good. I'll have to play with some of the other features as it does quite a lot.

So that's about it for the day unfortunately. I plan to get out over the weekend now. I can't believe it's Friday tomorrow already! Might spend some time planning a route at lunchtime tomorrow and get on it early Saturday morning. I'm gonna try to get out Friday night too for a little blast around the neighbourhood.

Don't forget your helmet and phone!

Tone

This post is dedicated to Nanny Schofield - The Queen of the BBQ. Rest in Peace nan xxx

Evolution in a week...

Hi all, my name is Tony and I'm a fatty. Always have been, even when I played lots of rugby, even when I walked/cycled to school or work, even when I grafted hard. Well sod it, I've had enough and after reading lots of success stories I've decided to just lose it or (hopefully not) die trying!

Last week I started Couch to 5k, you know the one, walk 1min, jog 1min, and it was great. I say was as just a week later the niggles have crept in :( my left knee felt dodgy on Saturday and last night my left hamstring started giving me gyp. Basically I have something wrong with my left leg as I tend to get cramp in it during the night and also can get pretty numb too. Circulation problems no doubt caused by the main issue of being a fatty ;)

But what can I do? Damned if I do, damned if I don't kept rattling around my addled brain today. Then I remembered I have a bike and plenty of people have mentioned getting on it. Now, I was planning to do more cycling as I lost a few pebbles in weight. But that was while my legs worked. Now it has become a necessity.

I always loved cycling. I used to go out around the lanes on the weekend, to school or work each day but as previously mentioned I was never slim. I obviously didn't care much about what I ate or drank in those days either and that was most likely the counter to all the exercise I was doing. These days I am a little wiser with age but still stupid enough to ignore these pearls of wisdom at times!

Anyway to cut this rambling intro off this blog is going to be about one Englishman's journey into the unknown. I say unknown as at present I can't weigh myself in the bathroom scales!! I can however see the dial over my gut so that's a start eh?

Happy reading my faithful followers, I hope I can, at least give you all something to laugh at ;)

Tone