Friday 5 September 2014

Coaching The Coach!?

Hello blog lovers.

Fridays are going to be our days out on the bikes!  Either a nice leisurely breeze ride, or a bit of hill training at our own pace.  But today it was kind of both, kind of, well sort of.

DiscoRich, our coach at PWR's is wanting to add cycling to his repertoire of sports, but apart from a little poodle along to the rec, and a coaching job a mile or so away, he hasn't been that far.  So me and Bims asked him if he wanted to come along and join us on a Friday Day Out for a Meander, or FriDOM as I am going to call them from now on! Sounds just like Freedom to me!  A nice pootle about in the country side or even in the city!  Perfect.

Anyway, I arranged to meet everyone at Petts Wood Station and we were going to cycle to Keston, stopping at the Grey Hound for lunch, taking in Down Village first!  As it's DiscoRich's first ride along with us he did ask us to treat him kindly!  We guessed that he meant not to take him up too many hills.  As if!  I hate hills, but I also know that to get anywhere nice, and put some saddle time in and miles on the clock there will be hills!

I gave DiscoRich three options but after hearing him say that I decided that maybe the shorter route would be better, it has got that long climb up from Shire Lane to Downe Villiage.  I have done this a few times and so has Bims, so we put D.R. in front of us and said to go at his own pace, and stop if necessary, as this is not a race, just a fantastic friendly social!  Well, did I have egg on my face as DiscoRich seemed to glide effortlessly up the hill, me and Bims were left swearing as usual at the hill.
DiscoRich did pull over, of course I thought it was because he needed a rest, but I expect the real reason was to wait for us to catch up!  We got to Downe Village earlier than I had originally thought, (men, they are just so much stronger, right?) and so a unanimous decision was taken to ride along to Jail lane and then into Biggin Hill.  At least that will take up an extra fifteen minutues and then we wont have to wait too long before lunch!

Of course those down hill sections are just fantastic and I took the lead, and we all rode along past the Airport and then turned left to head for Keston.  A great ride today, but I do think that maybe DiscoRich can easily make some of those other hills, novice rider or not!

Geeky stats.

<iframe width='465' height='548' frameborder='0' src='http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/583355229'></iframe>

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Rest Day!

Hello blog lovers.

Rest days, don't you just love rest days!  It's also absolutely neccesary to have rest days to to make sure all your hard work that you have been doing has time to filter through to your bones! Get right in there and make you stronger, well that's how I am seeing it, and the principle is kind of right! things do need to heal and to grow stronger.

But the evening is such a lovely evening, no good just sitting in doors, lets get out on our bikes and do a lovely social 15 miles.  That's what we did, me and the Old Boy.  With a stop at the Grey Hound for some light refreshment before making our way home it made for the perfect evening social, nice and easy!

For all those that live in my area, to make a nice social ride of about 15 mile is difficult to keeping it nice and flat, especially if you want to include a favourite watering hole!.  I decided  that Downe Village would be a great turn around point.  Cycling from our house, up to Downe and then along Jail Lane to Biggin Hill.  At least from Biggin Hill it's all just a lovely coast down to Keston, with maybe just a couple of smaller hills to slow me down!

We got to Keston just as the sun popped behind the trees making the clouds a lovely orangy pink colour.  Perfect.  I love being out when the sun goes down, or indeed, when it comes up, but I have not seen the sun rise for ages! All in all a lovely social, easy paced (with a hill) ride!

Geeky stats up until we got to the Greyhound, and then we we left I forgot to re start my watch!  But the Old Boy had his Garmin and it said 15.01 miles.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/582124459