127, 126, 125 ; The Regent's Park Training Ground

I am most fortunate to live equidistant between the two big green spaces of central Lunnon. Both HP and RP are often bursting with people indulging in all kind of meaningful, but ultimately meaningless exercise.  From dawn till dusk there are cyclists and pavement pounders obssesively kow-towing to their Stravas' statistical demands.  Hyde Park is welcoming and open armed while The Regent's Park, originally hunting ground known as Marylebone Park, for most part hides behind hedges. The latter is famous for the Zoo, where, in this kind of weather, the famous Brahs Monkeys can be seen swinging from tree to tree. RP does have at least one secret - it possesses the only road in London where one can ride infinitely and indefinitely without having to stop for pedestrian or car. The Inner Ring Road, 1km  long, has no beginning or end or lights and so is perfect for training though it is a bit dull going round and round. Going round and round on the IRR is not, however as dull - or precarious - as the even duller circuits of the 5.5km Outer Ring Road.Once you have got over the Outer Road's few sights: the Mosque, the Armed guard outside the US Ambassador's crib, the running track and the neighbouring seasonal trapeze, and the Zoo, the endless hedges get very boring. The ORR does attract many road cyclists and if one is lucky one can be swept to one side and into the gutter by a passing peloton.

Easter, despite being the coldest ever known since the earth was formed one week 6500 years ago, has been OK for cycling. I 'enjoyed' climbing Swains Lane ( London's steepest hillock) twice. I have the 1005th fastest recorded time - just in front of a fun cyclist dressed as a pumpkin and cycling a big yellow, inflatable bike. 

M&S Spring Collection

66 miles on the bike
5 miles running.

129, 128: Wheel power

Geddit? Wheel power as in 'will'. Ah, wheel - I mean 'well'.
There are two lifestyle issues that feature in the battles of  the consciousness's frontline trench system: smoking and bad diet. Both these have edged ahead of drinking as no-nos but at the same time are presented as tough nuts to crack requiring must have expensive alternatives and substitutes to help you cut down. If smoking was promoted as something easy to give up then more people would succeed and they would not have to spend a bundle on plastic pretend cigarettes or patches or sprays or gum.  Chuck them away and just use will and wheel power. Chuck the fags out the window, buy bike with the money you're gonna save and knuckle down and beat it. Same with buns and donuts. Get over over it and get on with it. Losing weight has been a tough one for me simply because I simply cannot resist one of those donuts I keep talking about. In fact, I cannot resist a pack of four, especially custard donuts like the ones below:

It is, unfortunately, Easter. Easter is a troublesome time for eating discipline. Easting disorders are the order of the day. M&S are currently advertising these full blast on the box:
  

And these:

Of course, rather than eat any of the above - including the the edible straw, I will continue doggedly with eating this:

and as it is Easter, treat myself to some of these:

Tasty!

132,131, 130

I must have missed Spring and Summer when I popped into the broom cupboard in search of my spandex. A big thanks to Debbie for her donation. Due to the nippy weather - that biting wind curling and caressing every goose-bumpy patch of skin you thought was covered up good and cozy in your triple layered thermals  -  I have resorted to the running up and down the stairs routine as previously mentioned and adapted said exercise by carrying a large, heavy bag of new potatoes. Apparently, I am reliably informed by someone who goes cloud spotting for a hobby, that this darned nuisance of a climate will be serving up this weather for the next month. 

Meanwhile and in spite of the weather, the last few days has seen the melting of plastic from the sheer overuse of my credit card as plans turn into overdrafts as we purchase airline tickets for the summer trip. And, just only today, Le Dash took shape: Overnacht ferry to Dieppe with at least an hour's sleep then 140 miles up the coast over two days to Dunkerque (the church in the dune, funnily enough). Read all about previous visitations to these necks of the woods in the blogs up on the right.

135, 134, 133: more miles

I have downloaded the free and easy to use Strava ap. This is a GPS device that, once you have turned it on and off correctly, records your rides in detail using waypoints and the like, thus providing the distance, average speed, top speed, elevation and calories burnt. It also provides the wattage (power) output of your ride, which means nothing to me at all. My first ride was for 24 feet in a time of 38 secs and at an average speed of 14.8 with a top speed of 14.8 and total elevation of 1.2 feet. My calories burnt were 4278 as I'd put in my weight as stone and not pounds. Strava sees no issue with a 208 stone rider. All in all I hadn't quite got the hang of it on my accidental 'first ride' - it turned itself on in my pocket - a hip ride, so to speak.

The weather is darned freezing and a wee bit snowy - Regents Park does look rather bleak:

But, despite the inclemency, I have managed 55 miles this week, at an average speed of 3.24 miles an hour, according to Strava.

137: the route

Thank you for starting the ball rolling Jason and Sally - great ex neighbours!
When I can't get out on the bike or the pound the streets, I sometimes run up staircases. I try not to do this when anyone is watching as, once I get to the top, I skip down and run up them again. If you get obsessed about burning calories, er, like my friend does - not me, there are plenty of ways you can slip in a novel little exercise into whatever you are doing - so my friend says.  Speed-walking everywhere is a favourite and there are lots of us, er, them, at it - jockeying for position at traffic lights; argy bargy when the pavement narrows; unruly gaits as the path widens, brushing mere pedestrians aside. Then there is the weekly shop. Don't use a trolley - carry two baskets - and away from your body. Use the supermarket as a gym. Buy in bulk and carry it all home!

For those of you who haven't gone that unnecessary step-too-far and visited to the Ride100 website, here is the route...

my morning run

139: more preparation

I get all dolled up in my high viz shoes, high viz sweat pants, high viz jacket, high viz helmet, high viz goggles, high viz ear muffs, high viz nose warmer, and high viz gloves; cycle 400 yards then it tips down. Cold, wet and windy - the perfect storm. No ta. I turn back and when I get in, there is a break in the clouds' thinning membrane. Spring: no season for old men on bikes.

The trip to France in July is taking shape - a rough sketch, perhaps, in light pencil on the back of a Left Bank Parisian cafe's napkin. It could be 630 miles or so, from Dieppe to Marseilles. We'll return a week before the Ride and in that week I shall learn to love my bike again. 

140. Preparation

There are little over four months to go before the event. Over the period I will, along with cycling buddies Deuan and Neil, undertake several sorties into the Surrey Hills. We often find ourselves at the top of Box Hill, England's Alpe D'Huez, with a zillion other cleat tapping cyclists, enjoying carrot cake and tea. And then, at some point in May or early June, we'll do a three day dash in France, probably into a headwind. This will prime us for a ten day tour in France in mid July. The tours normally involve a  series of ridiculously massive climbs such as the Col de La Bonnette, La Tourmalet and Mt. Ventoux. This tour, in turn, will hopefully set us up nicely for the 4th August. The trip to France will involve camping and so the aforementioned ridiculous climbs are done carrying 15 kilos of essential tenting gear.
The blogs listed up top on the right all provide blow by blow accounts of the previous dashes and tours. 
Right now, I am just putting in the 40 miles a week on the bike just in the normal run of things while laying off custard doughnuts and 3-for-2 Easter Egg offers.

141: Issues

The Ride 100 route follows the route of the 2012 Olympic Road Race - the competitors from the lesser cycling nations still in that race should have finished by August. 40 miles, roughly 40%, four tenths or 0.4 of the distance or so covers the gently undulating, potholed, shard strewn streets of London while the bulk of the ride takes place in the Surrey Hills. England is not noted for its vast expanses of snow covered mountains as we do not have any - particularly in the South East. However, we do have the Surrey Hills. These short, winding, and exceptionally steep 'climbs' appear out of nowhere in the deceptively green and pleasant land. With this in mind I spent the morning adapting my bike, as seen in yesterday's blog, slightly...

142: Bike

After a thorough search of my flat I found my bike down behind some boxes. A significant problem solved. My bike is designed for long distances. This does not mean it has a engine and is in fact a motorcycle - it mean it possesses the features designed for distance. Therefore it is not a Brompton - the one with the little wheels that commuters fold up and put in their pocket.

Here is a picture of the bike and me:

I will be putting in the miles to build everything up so as to complete the 100 miles in a staggering time of 7.5 hours. (The organisers hijack and remove anyone who falls behind a nine hour pace.)