End of the first month of training

Well, it is the end of the first month of training and what have I accomplished?

I have gone from struggling to cycle to work and back 6.5 miles each way to being able to cycle to work 3 days a week and 1 day a week cycling 22 miles without stopping for a break, more than taking a drink.

My muscles are getting stronger and I am able to go further with less effort and after pain, I am enjoying cycling a lot more now as I am getting used to it and this makes a big difference.

I am hoping to increase my cycling to work to 5 days a week, the more the weather improves.

I still have 4 whole months before the first 50 mile cycle ride, and I can already cycle half that distance, I don't think it will be a big deal if I keep up the training. Hopefully by the end of February I will be a lot closer to my goal.

Drivers, Think Bike!

As a driver I used to hate cyclists. I still hate bad cyclists that dart across the road in front of you without looking. But drivers are just as bad and they do not think about it from the cyclists point of view.

Leave plenty of room on your left for cyclists to pass, there is nothing worse than coming to lights or a long queue of traffic and there be some idiot so close to the curb that you have to squeeze in between them and the curb or have to wait until they move.

You may ask what makes cyclists so special that they can jump the queue and get to the front quickly. The answer is simple, cyclists are slow and they can use all the help they can get to get to their destination. Also cyclists are very exposed both to the weather and also to motorists. If they can get to the front of the queue and away before the queue finishes, they will be out of the way by the time you start driving, and out of danger.

The other thing that drivers do that confuses and irritates cyclists is driving in front of them and indicating left. As a driver approaching a junction where you are turning left, if there is a cyclist in front of you, wait behind them. Quite a few times drivers have sped up passed me, and stopped in front of me indicating left, you do not know if they are going to stop and let you go or continue turning, where you would stand no chance. So, I slow down until I know that they are waiting for me, by that time I have slowed down from 17 mph to 8 mph and then I have to speed up again, it makes the whole thing take a lot longer for driver and cyclist then it needs to.

Cyclists are not your enemy, they just want to get from one place to another in a healthy, economical and nature friendly way. Be nice, think of the cyclist.

Will you sponsor me for the London to Cambridge Cycle Ride?

Hi,

I'm taking part in the LONDON to CAMBRIDGE Cycle Ride on 27th July 2008 to raise money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and would really welcome your support. As I am doing this to get fit and to raise money for charity this blog will server to track my training, successes, problems and observations along the way. You can leave you own comments and recommendations on it as well.

As this event finishes in Mid-Summer Common, Cambridge it would be nice to have some people their to support me in person, I will probably need the support after cycling 50 miles.

Please take a moment to sponsor me. It's really easy - you can donate online by credit or debit card at the following address:

http://www.justgiving.com/breatnac

All donations are secure and sent electronically to Breakthrough Breast Cancer. If you are a UK taxpayer, Justgiving will automatically reclaim 28% Gift Aid on your behalf, so your donation is worth even more. Please join me in supporting Breakthrough Breast Cancer and a fabulous cause.

London to Cambridge cycle rideOn 27th July 2008 I will be taking part in the London to Cambridge Cycle ride, the route is 50 miles. to see more about this please visit http://www.bike-events.com/Ride.aspx?id=158

Breakthrough is the UK's leading charity committed to fighting breast cancer through research, campaigning and education.Their essence comes from the thousands of people who are committed to a single vision - to work for a future free from the fear of breast cancer. http://www.breakthrough.org.uk/

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Breakthrough Breast Cancer will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.So please sponsor me now!Many thanks for your support.

Thanks and best wishes,

Breatnac

I have won the battle, bring on the war!!!

I decide to try to make it on my bike to Ely and back about 13.5 miles each way. Although it was raining as usual there was no sign that it would improve. I thought I would still attempt it.

I got myself all ready with riding gear (Padded cycling shorts and cycling jersey) with track suit on top and waterproof high visibility jacket.


I packed my high visibility rucksack with things that I may need like tools, puncture repair stuff, pump, mobile phone etc and set off.

The first 5 miles were pretty hard but once I passed that it was plane sailing. I just seemed to carry on, miles and miles, seemingly without getting tired. I passed the half way point and was a little tired but I could still carry on.

I eventually made it to Ely, 13.6 miles and felt great. I rode down the cycle paths until I reached the cathedral. This was the place that I had put down on my plan to reach.

I think you need a goal, it is not good enough to say I am going to cycle to Ely, it had to be to Ely Cathedral, so I found it and took some pictures for this blog.

I rested my bike and High Visibility rucksack down in front of the canon and backed away to take some pictures. If not, I may have been accused of downloading some pictures of Ely Cathedral from the Internet.

The second thing I did was to find a pub.

I thought I deserved a treat for all the cycling. So I found a pub called The Kings Arms and got a pint of Black Sheep and a 8oz sirloin steak with chips. I was like a man possessed with them, I must have burned off my Weetabix breakfast because I was starving, and the pint was well received as well.


I stayed in Ely for a couple of hours (not drinking, before you ask), found somewhere to get some bananas to give me the energy to make the journey back. I had a quick look around the market whilst I was there.

The whole time that I was in Ely it had stopped raining. The moment I sat back on my bike it started raining again. I was feeling pretty full of energy but still a little tired. So I set off.


The first few miles we sluggish, but manageable, then things went from bad to worse. 35 mph gusts were now blowing against me, and they continued most of the way back. It was truly a battle to get back, there were a few times that I felt like giving up, travelling at 8 - 10 mph, fighting all the way back. I found the longest road in the world, pictured to the left, it felt like the longest road in the world but it was only 3 or 4 miles long. At the end of a very very long straight bit there was a turn, to another very very long straight road, it seemed to go on forever. I eventually made it home, absolutely exhausted but I had made it, 27 miles in total, in just three weeks of training I had managed to cycle half the 54 miles that I am going to be riding when I do the London to Brighton. Although I know the London to Brighton will have a lot more big hills. My average speed for this trip was 11.4 mph, which is not bad considering the trouble I had getting back with the wind against me. I consider this a result.

Keep your leg speed up!!!

Last weekend my riding speed was an average of 10.4 mph over a distance of 20 miles.

So far this week I have cycled 26.5 miles and I have seen the most improvement.

I cycled to work and back in the rain on Wednesday and today. I decided to ride the long way to work on Wednesday which added over 0.6 miles to my journey but it is a little more scenic. So on Wednesday I averaged 11.2 mph over 13.6 miles, I noticed my maximum speed at times under my own power (not including down hills) was 14.5 mph.

Today, I took the normal route which was 13 miles exactly, my average speed went up to 12.3 mph and under my own power I did a maximum of 17 mph. That is an average increase of 2 mph in a week. I have been told that I will see this increase by 2-3 mph when I get my new bike

I am so pleased with this, I seem to get tired and my legs ache between 4 and 5 miles but after 5 miles I seem to get a second wind (no jokes please Lee) and I feel like I can continue quite effortlessly.

I think I have learned the secret of cycling, keep your leg speed pretty constant. If you set a pace that means your pedals rotate 360 degrees in just under a second and your rpm is between 80 and 100, if your pedals are rotating faster than this, increase the gear, if however, your pedals slow down much from this decrease your gear until you are back to this rate.

I think this is because if you keep the momentum going it makes it easier to continue. I used to cycle in the highest gear I could. I will let you know if this technique continues to work, if you find this works for you, please add a comment to this blog letting us know.

I am planning to try to reach Ely this weekend which is 12.5 miles each way. This would be a very good way of finishing off the week. I will be able to test my theories of it being quite effortless after 5 miles and my pedal rpm rate.

Charlie's Healthy Tuna with couscous recipe

Here's a yummy dinner to try thats healthy

Ingredients

• 2 tuna steaks
• 1 jar of harissa paste
• 2 lemons
• fresh mint
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 100g plain couscous
• 200ml veg stock(1 veg oxo in boiled water)

Chop tuna into chunks enuff for 4 skewers and marinate in juice of one lemon and the jar of harissa paste for 10minpour hot stock on couscous cover for 5 min.

Put tuna on skewers and grill 5mmix juice of 1 lemon the cumin and chopd mint into couscous. serve and enjoy!

Great Berry Smoothy

Ingredients:

• Orange or Apple Pure Fruit Juice
• Berries (Strawberries, Raspberries, Black Forest Fruits and berries, blueberries (only with Apple Juice), Blackberries) - you can use frozen berries if you cannot find fresh
• Bananas
• Natural Yogurt
• Ice

Put 1 litre of Fruit Juice into a blender add ice and 1 big banana or 1 small ones, blend. Add berries to taste and blend. Add four large spoons of natural yogurt and blend.

Enjoy!

Recommendations

Bike Accessories

• Bright lights
• Water bottle
• Speedometer and Odometer
• Puncture repair kit
• Tyre pump
• Basic tools e.g. a set of hex keys and a multi-spanner

Clothes and Personal Accessories

• Cycle Helmet - No 1 thing for safety
• Gloves - Especially needed in cold or wet weather
• High Visibility jacket - can fold up tiny for easy storage and use as a waterproof when it is wet.
• Padded cycle shorts - Essential for long journeys especially when you are not used to riding
• Cycling jersey - have zipped pockets in the back, good at letting air flow around you, keeping you cool
• High Visibility Rucksack - you can wear what you like and still stay visible
• MP3 Player - Essential for forgetting the pain and carrying on when you do not think you can any longer

Books and maps

• The Racing Bike Book (Haynes)
• Ordinance survey map of the area you regularly ride
• Transparent plastic sheets and permanent medium colored pens, this is to put over the map and draw different routes, each transparency will have a different route on it that you can overlay on the map to make your own practice routes and keep a good variety.

Websites

• http://www.camcycle.org.uk/map/route/23268/
  - Cycle routes around cambridgeshire
• http://www.bike-events.com/Ride.aspx?id=158
  - National cycle events e.g. London to Cambridge
• http://www.bhf.org.uk/get_involved/take_part_in_our_events/bike_rides/london_to_brighton_bike_ride.aspx
  - London to Brighton Cycle Ride information
• http://www.lcc.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=565
• - London Cycle Campaign - Cycle maintenance
• http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/ee/cambridge_forecast_weather.html
  - Cambridge weather

Weekly bike training in miles

Week 1
Distance: 14 miles
Description: General Cycling

Week 2
Distance: 40 miles
Description: 1 return trip to work, 1 return trip into town, 1 hill climb training session

Week 3
Distance: 53.6 miles
Description: 2 return tript to work, 1 return trip to Ely

Week 4
Distance: 62 miles
Description: 3 return tript to work, 1 22 mile route

Where there is a will, there is a way!!!

My first training session with Andrew was here, only 5 miles to find out our fitness and if our bikes needed work doing on them to make them ready. I am still using my old bike as my new bike has not arrived yet.

There is a route near Fulbourn that is 2.5 miles up hill climb, then across and old shaky overgrown roman road and round and back, 5 miles all together. Both Andrew and I have estate cars to there is no problem transporting the bicycles. We went to near where the highest hills in the Cambridge area are, which is not saying much, as Cambridge is the flattest place on earth.

We started the ride 0.5 miles all was OK, then I felt that we had started going up hill, very gradually, all was still OK, breathing was a bit faster, the steeper it went the more difficult it was, but I was doing it. I struggled up this hill only to find a more steep hill, I went up that hill and made it 80% the next hill and my handlebars came loose. They were not in danger of coming off but they we rotating forwards and backwards making it difficult to control, as when it moved, I could not reach the gears or breaks.

We pulled over and decided the roman road would be too much for my old bike to we turned around, back down the hill reaching speeds of nearly 30 miles per hour. We got back and I tightened up my handlebars, all I needed was an hex key.

I went to the bike shop and bought a mini tool kit that fits onto the bike, so I will be prepared next time, and a carry case that fits to the bike behind the seat.

I was unsatisfied with the amount of training that I had done and wanted an large foldout map of the area so I decided to cycle into town. I found some old LED bike lights in the drawer and fitted them and I cycled into town 7 miles, went to some book shops and bought a large map of all the villages around the area, a complete book about bikes and racing including fixing and maintaining your bike and health, and a book with 20 cycle routes in the area.

After I cycled back my odometer said my total cycling into town and back was 15 miles. I was very satisfied with a total of 20 miles for the day.

It could have been worse!!!

Last weekend I decided to cycle to work one day, so I looked on the Met office website to see which day would have the best weather, it was Friday.

So I prepared my things last night, water bottle, rucksack full of my things, wash stuff, fleece jumper, and spare clothes, waterproof high visibility jacket, gloves and my MP3 player, laptop and mobile phone, all sorted.

I thought I would set off early so that I would not be rushing, so I left at 7:20am to get to work for 8am. Started off when it was just light enough to see the road, knowing that part of the journey was in a bike lane shared with the footpath that had no street lights for about 2 miles.

Just after setting off it started to rain, I thought I would chance the rain, after all it is only 6.5 miles and felt good about my decision. The further I went the more it rained, but I carried on, listening to music on my MP3 player and cycling. I was wearing a waterproof high-visibility jacket but I have no lights until I get my new bike, but it was just light enough for it.

I set off and everything was fine, got to about 4 miles in and had to go up over an bridge, struggled a bit with that and had to drop a few gears. I thought that I would need to stop and have a drink, so I decided to stop at the bottom of the downward part of the bridge, after all if you do the work you should have fun with the easy bit.

Once I decended the bridge, the few seconds of not peddling gave me the strength to carry on without stopping. The rest of the ride was so pleasant that I could have carried on for a few more miles, the rain did not bother me, I was just listening to my MP3 player and continuing, not thinking about my destination or how far I had done, just continuing.

I got to work, got a wash and put on fresh clothes and felt fantastic.

When it got to 4:15pm it was starting to get dark, I worried a bit as I don't have lights, as long as it was light enough it would be ok, most of the cycle paths home are off the road on the pavement anyway. 4:30pm came and I packed up and left, it was getting dark, but it was still just light enough to see, and it was not raining, just wet under foot.

Set off and everything was fine, I had to take it easy as it was too dark to see everything. I got to the bridge that I had problems with earlier. I didn't realise that the other way, the cycle path disappeared into grass and mud. So I struggled up this hill on a mountain bike with street tyres in the dark, wheels slipping and inches from the road.

I made it to the top and thought it would be an easy decent, still on grass and mud, this time hard to control the speed. Once I made it to the bottom, I then had to cycle home 2 miles more with no street lights, the only light was car headlights. on a 2 foot wide path. Road on one side and a large ditch on the other side.

I finally made it back, which took me nearly an hour to get 6.5 miles.

Never leave you house without lights, you never know how long you are going to be out, or how dark it will be on your way back.

What's Breatnac's Blog about

I have decided to start this blog to publish my triumphs and failures for getting fit and losing some weight.

I am 35 years old with a wife and two children and I have made a New Year's resolution to get in shape. You know how it is, you eat the wrong foods, don't take enough exercise and before you know it you are you get out of breath running up a few flights of stairs.

Don't get me wrong, I do not intend to cut the English Breakfast Butties out of my life completely, I mean its not as if I am 2o stone or anything, I could just do with losing a stone and getting in shape.

I have decided to do something about this, although it is only 9th January a lot has happened to steer me towards using a bicycle to get in shape. My work have offered us a tax incentive to buy a new bike and one of my friends has challenged me to cycle from London to Brighton, which is 54 miles, and if you know me, you know that I cannot resist a challenge.

My other reason to get fit is to improve my health and immune system as my children bring home all sorts of colds, flu's, fevers etc. that they just pass on to me.

The London to Brighton Cycle Ride is on Sunday 15th June 2008, which gives me 6 months to be able to comfortably cycle that type of distance, I will be asking for sponsorship for this for the British Heart Foundation. The entry for this starts 1st March 2008 and it fills up quickly as it is an extremely popular event.

In for a penny, in for a pound, so we have also opted to enter the London to Cambridge Cycle Ride which is 6 weeks after that, on Sunday 27th July 2008, which finishes in midsummer common, Cambridge. Entry for this starts mid-January, so I will be able to book this one early. Again I will be asking for sponsorship, this time for Breast Cancer Appeal.

I have not done anything for charity since I left school and with Cambridge being a very charitable place, now that I live here, I should do my bit towards it.

I will be updating this with how I am doing in training, times and distances travelled. I have been reading other things that people have written about their experiences about starting to cycle, but nothing in much detail.

I have spend the next week or so cycling on my old bike which I bought second hand for £90 two years ago and I have only ridden to work a few times on it.

My new bike is a Ridgeback Element, I would not attempt something like this without advice, a decent bike and the right gear.

My training started last week I did a total of 14 miles on the bike and so far this week I have done 7 miles. I will cycle to work and back on Friday 6.5 miles each way and a short 5 mile cycle at the weekend. I will increase the distance once I get my new bike.