Back on the bike

Yes I'm back, despite a broken right arm.

 First day back on the bike with the Captain since the 18th June - wow I did not realise it had been so long. It was good and like meeting up with old friends, the Captain and rear admiral slipped right back into the groove despite my one handed dilemma. We manage to do a round trip to Henley on Thames - stopping at the Gold postbox on the way.

That's not to say I have not been cycling since June - I have but on my own which is probably why i'm in the predicament I'm in..... so here's what's happened in between today and June......

First of all I got Shingles.... and a week off work.. A week after going back I set off with a group of 16 students and an Expedition leader to Cambodia or 18 days. Whilst there we did some cycling in Kampot and then again in the Mekong Delta. Riding mountain bikes and very old sit up and beg bikes. Fun but very hot. The roads were very potholed and usually full of puddles - adding to the fun... some students came croppers in the puddles.

refreshment time

  

on the road

Home for the night

 We stayed in local houses and had to transport the bikes across the Mekong by boat - all good fun

We even had time to visit Angkor Wat. It was a real privelge being on this trip with the students and watching them rise to lots of challenges. Coming home was good but I did miss the team for a bit.

The Captain has been very busy at work due to the Olympics, so I went out on my own bike a couple of times to keep myself busy.....thats when I broke my arm.... not having the Captain in charge, I took a corner too quickly and went a bit wide and ....CRASH off I came. Broken radius which needed pinning - wouldn't be so bad but its a bit of road I know well!!!! very very cross with myself as I did it 4 days before my sons wedding!

But as today showed I don't need two hands for the tandem and I still managed to stand up goingg uphill....yay back on it.....

Tour De Isle of Wight

Being a Bank Holiday, we decided to take full advantage to hone our training and do a three cycle trip to get our legs used to cycling repeated days...after all during LeJog they will be cycling 8 days in a row. So here are my thoughts on the past three days..... sorry it might be a bit long.....

Day 1 - Saturday 5th May

Bracknell - Portsmouth - Catamaran to Ryde - Chez Mundell ( our friends Mum and Dad's house on the Island)
We set out about 12.30 pm  - a slightly delayed departure -  due to a visitation by our family. About 12 pm the Captain started to get a bit agitated as he wanted to get to Ryde in time for the FA cup final and  had wanted to leave at 12 giving us 5 hours to travel the 60 miles to Portsmouth. Sadly we didn't quite make it for kick off. May have been due to leaving time, but the misreading of the Garmin 800 ( our GPS route planner ) led to several turn arounds and missed exits. The Captain keeps telling me he doesn't know how to work it - hardly helpful when we are relying on it for eight days in just over 4 weeks time. I think map reading is the way forward myself.

On reaching Portsmouth, the route plotted on the Garmin proved difficult to follow and there were a few moments when I was slightly concerned that we were heading for a motorway on the tandem. Happily we managed to arrive at the passenger ferry safely at 5.05 pm, reaching Chez Mundell just before 6pm, managing to catch the second half of the FA cup final. Then off for a curry with the Mundell family before retiring to bed in readiness for the second day of cycling, this time round the Isle of Wight.


Day 2 - Sunday 6th May 


Isle of Wight Randonee - 100K round the Isle of Wight


We wake up to rain and not just a bit. Our two friends have decided to join us on the trip. Becca has done very little cycling before so quite a bit undertaking.
We arrive at Bembridge to register and then set off towards the next check point at Alverstone, we are all in good spirits despite the driving rain and wind. The course is pretty hilly but we are all doing fine. Next stop Whitwell and still in good spirits as you can see.

We leave almost together but myself and the Captain end up heading to Godshill which is the wrong way. We manage to renavigate ourselves back on course probably taking about an extra 5 miles in. Some hills, some wind, being dropped on the kerb and a puncture and 32K's later we arrive in Yarmouth, still in good spirits.

Next stop Cowes and some more hills, Becca is finding it difficult and decides to stop at Cowes. We reach the chain ferry after some really nasty hills and are joined on the ferry with many other cyclists.

Next two stops are pretty uneventful and the weather semi cheered up - well no rain for a while.
When we get back to the first check point we discover Paul has a puncture so we leave Paul to cycle back to Chez Mundell while he waits for a lift. All in all a good day and an amazing achievement for Becca cycling 52 miles.
Dinner at Chez Mundell's is an amazing roast dinner which is really needed after a long cold wet day in the saddle. A bit of pyrotechnics finishes off a good day.

Day 3 - Monday 7th May


Chez Mundell - Ryde harbour - Catamaran - Portsmouth - Bracknell


We wake to more rain and it doesn't look like it will clear til lunch so we change our plans to leave a bit later. We catch the 10.50 Catamaran. The sea is a bit choppy -I'm not the best traveller on water so the crossing is not great. We arrive in Portsmouth to more rain but find our way out of the city by a much less dangerous route than when we arrived.
On the road to Alton we pass a runner who is running 50 miles every day for 50 days..he's pegging it and looks good - amazing.
We reach Alton but it has felt hard. Third day in the saddle is making itself felt in my legs and my rear end. I can't get comfortable in the saddle. As we reach Alton the rain eases off  and we see the first blue sky we've seen in 2 days - HOORAY.
Starting off from Alton my legs are feeling it and I don't really feel like I've had a break but after a few miles they do ease up. After a long climb up a hill near Hartley Witney we decide we need to take off the rain jackets as it's too hot.  It feels good to see the blue sky and to feel some heat from the sun and air round our bodies.
The next part of the journey seems easy and not really relying on the Garmin. Approaching Sandhurst however ( where we really know where we are ) the captain decides to follow the stupid techy gadget again and we take a wrong turn. This requires us to turn around in a narrow street and head down a steep hill to a blind junction. I'm told to use my brake ( it's a disc one and quite powerful and I only get to use it if instructed ) so I do as I'm told. As we get to the junction, I see a car pull the brake, Stephen decides to pedal.......disaster.....we fall to right both still clipped into the pedals...ouch.... Is it my fault?
I'm not sure as I did as I was told but then I'm told we need to keep moving at all times or we will fall off.... or do we want to ride into the path of a car?
Anway we do arrive home safely and we have managed to complete the 60 miles from Portsmouth in under 4 hours... sore legs though....today was hard.

The Challenge is starting to be scarily close.

A Wet Weekend of Training

So here we are less than 5 weeks away from starting our 950 miles journey from and its getting pretty scary. The Captain has told me with confidence that the ride will undoubtedly be in the top 2 most painful things I will ever experience and that he will never experience my top most painful experience - that of childbirth ( I will say that I can't actually now remember that pain so I'm not sure that's a good comparison and we do have 4 children .... ). So its fair to say that I am starting to feel a bit worried......isn't the Captain supposed to motivate his crew???

Anyway, this weekend should have seen us do our longest ride yet. Sadly due to the weather conditions in the South of England, the organised ride we were due to take part in today in the South Downs was cancelled.

We did manage a short ride yesterday and again today in a two hour window of opportunity when the rain went off at 3pm. This included cycling through puddles that came up to the peddles and nearly getting blown off in the last few hundred yards of our ride - all fun and perhaps good preparation as who knows what weather we may encounter on our trip ?

Next weekends adventure is a trip to the Isle of Wight... lets hope the weather improves.

Rest and Recovery

Very light training this weekend, mainly due to having grandparent babysitting duties to attend to, but we did need to recover from last weekends effort ( well I did ...... )

Despite it only covering 20 miles on Saturday and 30 today, we did break our record average speed.... so we managed to average 17mph for 30 miles and it felt good  - apart from when I nearly landed on the floor at a set of traffic lights - that would have been the Captains fault. It is his duty to keep me safe at all times and he nearly failed there.

This week I have been told that I should rethink being called the Stoker to Rear Admiral. Well,  I did notice though that the Captain ( of the good ship Galaxy - yes I think the tandem needs a name -  might rethink that too if anyone can come up with a better name? ) needs a new pair of cycling shorts.... being the Stoker I get to admire his rear quiet a lot ( or not as the case may be) and his cycle shorts were rather see through today....come on Captain get a new pair.

New Forest Wiggle Sportive

Today started with a 5.30am alarm... it was at this point we both had cause to regret the eat all you can Chinese at 9.30 pm last night scoffing 3 plates of food in 20 mins followed by bed...not a good nights sleep.

Still we had to get to Brockenhurst in the New Forest for 7.30 am registration.

It was my first sportive and I can honestly say I've not seen so much lycra... being a female stoker there was quiet a lot of testosterone about too!!

We were the only tandem to be seen when we started and our start team were not really interested in us.

No friendly hellos or smiles but lots of comment to Captain Scott that I wasn't pedalling...well I'd like to see them try and like...we've never heard that one before!!!  It only made me chuckle more when we passed some these lycra clad heroes on long level roads and sometimes up hills.

Best bit of the day was making it up a 25% incline without getting off when lots of others had to and when we got home realising that we had averaged 16.2 miles over the 84.66 miles ( my longest ride to date)

Certainly feeling more confident about the whole lejog but I still know its going to hurt.

Worst bit, the captain hunting down cyclists up ahead in the last 5 miles and being under dressed...the blue skies fooled us...and the wind was extremely chilly!!!

Here's our route and stats......
Untitled by sjscott21 at Garmin Connect - Details