I do when I have chance! I think it makes you feel like a kid again when you can feel the wind flying in yr face ( or maybe that's just me!) and just for the record, I look like the clown when I cycle!
Me too ! I have just got a bike and love it just as much as running. The plan is mon-frio run then weekends cycle. I am only a baby runner and a baby cyclist, I don't go on 60km+ rides.
So your not alone I like running and I like cycling!
Now Sally it doesn't take a genius to know that, your name alone is a kind of give away
I'm cycling and rowing at the gym these days instead of running due to injury, but I don't think I'm a bad person, I also swim. Now what would cause me to say you were a bad person would be that you announced you were riding the couch for hours on end, that is a big NO NO. Happy running, cycling and any other exercise you choose to do to keep fit and active
I hope you will soon be back out running, but I equally hope that the cycling and rowing are keeping you occupied.
We are off to Nottingham at the weekend with the son and hair for the National Rowing Championships. He is racing a double and fingers crossed, may do quite well...
Sadly Sally my rowing is restricted to a machine in the gym also cycling, our roads up here are too fast and dangerous for oldies on bikes. I'm rather getting hooked on the rowing though. I'm working on my 2000m time and thinking about trying to extend the distance to 5000m but not sure what is the best way to do it!!!
Wishing your son all the best at the weekend, hope he does well, is it being televised?
Thanks for the best wishes ~ he will need them! The competition is going to be incredible, but they are good. Not televised, as far as I know.
Nothing wrong with rowing machines. ALL good rowers use Ergos over winter. As the saying goes, 'I am made of all the days you don't see me; not just the one you do'.
Cycling can be a tad hararedous, but down here it is as safe as it can reasonably be.
I'm a cyclist too. In fact I've been cycling for almost 50 years more than I've been running.
I've just checked my stats on Garmin and I average about 250km on my bikes each month. That's about 75% on the road and 25% on forest tracks/estate Landrover tracks on my mountain bike.
Just this morning I took delivery of a pair of shiny, new Ortlieb rear panniers for my bike. Ready for more cycle touring now (hubby and I did a little 2 weeks ago, me with son's panniers). When I wheeled my bike out of the shed to try these on the rack I felt tempted to go for a wee spin. But today should be a rest day. A PROPER rest day (with yoga/stretching) as yesterday was a new longest distance for my long slow run, so although I feel great I know I should give my knackered body a wee rest.
This is my on my lean, mean, choccie-powered machine:
Excellent pics of a lovely part of the world. We took our Scouts up to Barra a couple of years ago. ~ yes, I am a leader...
My touring bike is sitting loking rather dusty at the moment, but she will be back out on the roads very soon. I too have new panniers, but I went for Altura Orkney ones. The Mrs has grey and I have red. Same bikes, but differnt panniers.
250K is pretty respectable, particularly as 25% is off road.
Watch out for two rather red-faced individuals with matching Dawes bikes and slightly different panniers puffing and panting along the highways and byways...it may just be us!
Super pictures and sites, thanks for posting. Inspire me to use my mountain bike now as I tend to stick or road bike locally - seeing your photos makes me want to cycle and camp in an amazing place too!
The pics are lovely, aren't they; and the spur of seeing the Tour de France in Yorkshitre with 7 million spectators is enough to make anyone want to get their bikes out.
Also, if you work, youy can buy abike through the Cycle to Work Scheme.
We're big fans of the tour and are cycling on Sunday in yellow t- shirts followed by a French food themed picnic (watching the tour come to it's finale). Just wishing I was in Paris!
you already know that I cycle with my pink Land Rover I generally only go out once a week though
Please pop-up to Grizedlae (avoiding the biting insects) and give it a try. We would all love to hear the results.
I've just come back from an 8 mile lunch-time ride to a local dam. Had to avoid a coupe of cars, some walkers with dogs and children and I had to dismount and go round a couple of gates~ 4 miles on public road and 4 miles waterboard road.
1 second, 1 SECOND off equalling my PB for that route. Hoiw close and how annoying.
Bike: Commencal Combi disc with Schwalbe cyclocross tyres.
The waterboard road is a usual morning run for me.
I have a mountain bike and used to pop up onto the North York Moors at weekends but haven't been out for a while. It's there, ready, to get back on when I'm not running
I cycle, not as often as I run, it's hard just going out for a 30 minute cycle before work. I'm as much geeky with the numbers on the bike as I am running (track my runs with the FR10, my rides with Edge500).
I have a mountain bike which needs new tyres as there's not much tread left after 10+ years of chasing the kids round various campsites and tracks and trail. I have a newer (brand new last year) hybrid, a bit lighter but no-where near as light as a road bike, it has a luggage rack but I only have a saddle bag, hubby has the panniers. We also have a couple of trailers, one that the dog can go in that we've had about 8 years, he comes on holiday with us but he's only got short legs so can't keep up, not to mention when we're riding along roads. He thinks it's great, so long as the person towing it is in the front, if not he barks like mad! The other trailer we've only had a couple of years, it's just for kit and is lighter, but we've yet to pack up and go away for the weekend just using the bikes.
And sticking my head even further over the parapet, I swim. I've done a couple of triathlons (both this year) combining all 3.
And I walk, my walking partner and I did the Soctratic trail last year (out on day trips, not all in one go) and this year our 'walking project' is the London LOOP, we're just over halfway round. Next year's may be the North Downs Way, or maybe the South Downs Way, or possibly even the Vanguard Way. We've also tentatively suggested cycling the Grand Union Canal.
I am impressed! TRIs are hard, but then I'm an appalling swimmer!
Good luck with the walks. I teach navigation on Dartmoor, so I spend a lot if time walking.
I must say that I love the image of the dog in the tag-along. Our Mut would hate being tucked-up, but then she is part Sheep Dog, and only 8 months. Off for a run with her later. Guess who will cover most ground?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not some sort of fitness freak/muscley athlete, these are only short tris, the first was a sprint (300m pool swim/15k ride/5k run), the second a super sprint (400m lake swim (Serpentine, Hyde Park, what fun!)/15k ride/2.5k run) and the next one is a 'proper' sprint distance (750m lake swim/20k ride/5k run).
I'd love to do a 'standard distance' one (1.5k swim/40k ride/10k run) and would sign up if the run was before the ride (not fussed where the swim comes) but the thought of a 10k run after a 40k bike ride (which is sufficient to wipe me out at the moment) is too daunting. Maybe if I get a bit better/fitter at the ride section......
I am seriously impressed by any TRI distance, be it sprint or full. I would love to do one, but I would still be splashing around in the water whilst the rest had finished. I just can't swim. I (scuba) dive, but I just can't swim.
Whatever ones you sign-up for, good luck, and enjoy(?) every minute of it...and as fopr the Serpentine...at least they treat the water before events.
I used to be a keen cyclist in my youth, but am resisting the temptation t get out on (or off)road again partly because there aren't a lot of non traffic heavy roads round here, and partly because of the whole 'Middle-aged-man-in-lycra' syndrome.
I do spin 3 times a week though, including doing hour long hill climb sessions with the saddle removed and other such tortures. It has done wonders for my leg strength and general fitness.
I saw a spinning class once....insanity, absolute insanity! As for MAMILs, don't worry, you don't have to wear it, but it is so comfortable. I may bulge in places I would rather not, but if any drivers say anything, I console myself with the thought that I am out doing it when they are not. Not such a colsolation on wet days, but on dry, sunny ones.....
I cycle because I'm I training for a triathlon.. Only been cycling since march and it terrifies me. I dread my workouts and I really have to drag myself to do them. I have a total love / hate thing going on. I have 15km to do on 31 august and there are six laps with a massive hill In The middle of each one. I might love it more when I finished the triathlon and everything is more relaxed. Like you, I've admitted it now. Hehe we all have our own things. Love swimming though.
Good luck with the TRI, serious businesss. I can only dream of those as I am carp swimmer!! Never been able to swim. I could try (or should that be tri) a duathlon.
Get out cycling and feel the love, or feel something else when you next get on the saddle! It can smart a bit, but you do get used to it.
Just a baby one, crystal palace park. The Tri Toegther sprint for LCDisability. The hills are hell. I'm terrified and it's getting worse as It gets nearer. The things we do to ourselves hehe.
You can do it! Practice makes perfect as they say. Practice your transitions as well as the cycling, running and swimming, and if you have clip on shoes for your pedals remember to I clip them before you get to the dismount line! David was watching up in Hyde Park and kept seeing the 'serious' bikers fall off coz they didn't unclip!
Why do they call clip-in pedals, clipless? I've never understood that one.
Excellent advice about un-clipping and transitions. So much time can be lost there. I heard recently someone say that no one ever won a race by gaining time in a transition, but many have lost by losing it.
Why do they call clip-in pedals, clipless? I've never understood that one.
Excellent advice about un-clipping and transitions. So much time can be lost there. I heard recently someone say that no one ever won a race by gaining time in a transition, but many have lost by losing it.
Of course! I think there are at least 40 of us on here signed up to do Dozzer's triathlon in the new t two weeks so we will all be out there wobbling about!
That would be a long run for me ~ I'm on Dartmoor in deepest Devon. I will try Grizedale next time I'm up that way (way too long since I was), but we used to go to Hawes/Keswick/Castleton most weekends before heading south.
Now I have Dartmoor, the South Hams, Devon and Cornwall coast, but no REAL hills...hey-ho.
If I see you I will get Izzie-dog to say hi to your pooches.
I love to get in a high gear (or should that be low?) and see the surprise on the face of other cyclists, as I go whizzing past with my flab wobbling and the wind streaming through my grey hairs!
That's not a road - that's a bush track !! But - I have been on bush tracks like that in the UK - and I usually find a black BMW or a white courier van up by bum every 5 minutes -- and with nowhere to let them get by!!!
It's quiet. I can hear the buses and lorries approaching. The bus drivers are friendly and pull into the passing places to let me pass, or I wait in the passing places for them to pass. The timber lorries are less patient and I leap out of the way when I hear them approaching.
Looking at my Garmin stats for last year, I see I rode for just over 100 hours, most of which all started on this road or on similar roads.
If Bazza thinks that is dangerous, he ought tr try something really dangerous like crossing a road in a city, or going into a city vcentre pub at night....
At the moment it's usually timber lorries that are the main problem as they are harvesting the local forest. But on a bike you just ride onto the verge (trying to avoid the ditch) and give them priority.
This is a bush track - or as we'd say, a forest track. This is my local forest when it's dry - which is quite rare. Often this track has deep water in each wheel rut.
This was my part of my commute to work last summer. I had about 10km on this road, 5km on a busy two lane road and 10km on the local single track road in previous photo I shared. I met on average 3 cars on this section of road.
Can I come and live with you? I'm not big, and I'm fully house-trained!
25K commute, that is a pretty good one, but with scenery like that....
My commute is a little shorter ~ fall out of bed and down the stairs, roll into the dining room and start computer...Oh, take son to the bus stop 8 mile away.
I've got the maddest Yakkay helmet which looks like a tweed hat too - my husband bought it for me at vast expense because I refused to wear a normal geeky helmet (not chicky enough). It looks weird. People absolutely fall about laughing whenever I go past. I rise above it.
Riding round the aerodrome last Sunday there was a girl (10 or 12, not a little one) on her bike with a pink helmet on, the helmet had a mohican!! I have no idea where to get them but I NEED one of those!
Slightly off topic...research has shown that the safest way for a man to cycle is not to wear a helmet, but to wear a woman's wig.....drivers give more consideration to ladies.
I make car drivers give way to me, at the cycling lesson thing I had a couple of weeks ago to regain confidence on roads the instructor told me to head to the centre of the lane on a junction so cars can't cut me up and to not be so close to the edge to make cars have to give me more room when the pass
I am also very considerate when I'm in the car I won't pass a cyclist unless I can give them the room they need I piss a lot of people off cause I won't take chances and try to zoom round them on bends.
I think in order to get a drivers licence you should be made to see the cyclists perspective and you should also have to have trip out in a lorry to fully understand why they need so much space.
I couldn't agree with your last paragraph more, except to add that all able bodied people should have to spend a day in a wheel chair.
Ride out in the road so that it is difficult to squeeze past, and it gives you a cushion of space if you need to move over ~ ride close to the edge and some A3 driver on their phone WILL try and squeeze by, and you have nowhere to go.
Not just in a wheelchair but also pushing one - people are so rude, I couldn't believe the number of people that would hold open the door for a parent with a baby buggy and leave me struggling with the wheelchair and don't get me started on how heavy disabled doors can be
I'm lucky in that I have never had to be in one or push one, but I know exactly where you are coming from. Lots of reasons I suspect, but none valid for not helping. As the saying goes, 'there but by the grace of God go I'.
I must admit that I was left a little embarrassed by a young chap in a wheel chair many years ago....there I was merrily minding my own business in a newsagents, spending my lunchtime flipping through some magazines, when this voice pipes-up. 'Excuse me, could you pass down a copy of ......' I can't remember the name of the mag, but it was a a 'girly' one.
I'm lucky in that I have never had to be in one or push one, but I know exactly where you are coming from. Lots of reasons I suspect, but none valid for not helping. As the saying goes, 'there but by the grace of God go I'.
I must admit that I was left a little embarrassed by a young chap in a wheel chair many years ago....there I was merrily minding my own business in a newsagents, spending my lunchtime flipping through some magazines, when this voice pipes-up. 'Excuse me, could you pass down a copy of ......' I can't remember the name of the mag, but it was a a 'girly' one.
Not last week, blummin' driver needed to overtake, ok fine, but also needed to slow down for the traffic ahead, either would be fine with me except they hadn't actually gone past when they decided to pull to the left. It was hot, they had the windows down and got a mouthful of 'either go past or stop moving sideways' in a very loud voice!
Cripes, of course there would be. What sort of picnic would it be without?
There would be never-ending summers with swallows nesting in the farm house we are renting....cows to milk, a stranger roaming the hillside and adventures galore!
We have some friends; let's call them Tim and Fiona, for that is their names. We were out one day and Tim licked Fi's ice cream, to which she commented, 'Oh, Tim. You are so licky.' A moment later she went bright red and a raucous burt of laughter broke out.
Tim and Fi don't run!!! They walk, and walk, and walk, and walk....I shall try and persuade them, but I fear they are a lost cause.
You probably went on demonstrations in your student days too. Not bad "just" subversive. I am trying to convince my family that I don't have a dark side. So far only Bad Mood Bear believes me. (A teddy for an unfortunate disposition.)
Was Bad Mood Bear used for your children? We had a wooden spoon with a smiling face on one side and a grumpy one on the other. Mij knew if we were 'displeased'.
Subversive? Little me? I only ever went on one demo, or was it two, or maybe three...
I knew it - a trouble maker. You have that look about you.
No my daughter found Bad on a shelf of very happy smiley bears at a garden centre. She said it reminded her of her Dad. So her Dad took her off to the cafe whilst I stole the bear (I paid for it honest). We put his arm in a sling and wrapped him up & put him under the christmas tree telling her he injured himself fighting. He was a much misjudged little bear. He is just a serious individual & if you look under his chin, you'll find a smile. (I think they just sewed it a little lower than where it should have been.) We think he has become a much happier little bear since he came to live with us especially when you lean his head back. Now that was more than you bargained for & I went on a bit didn't I, but it just goes to show you can change & there's hope for you yet.
You stole/kidnapped the bear, and you call me a troublemaker!
What an excellent story with deep moral undertones...whatever they are.
There are many things I would change about be...but that's a whole other story for a different forum! I suspect on that issue, it is far too late for me...
That is stunning, and no midges! You were very lucky to be out there, and yes, I am a rather fetching shade of green.
I was out in quite cold conditions a few years ago, and I didn't have my ear-warmers on....I got frost-nip on the top of them. It hurts! Learn form my mistakes, wear a hat!
I have never toured in snow, but it is an increasingly appealing idea...watch this space,
I was almost crying with cold hands that day (I suffer with poor circulation), but my lovely son gave me a pair of pogies for a christmas present this year.
What a thoughtful pressie!
I hope you have had loads of use from them, but have them tucked away for the forseeable..
One more lot of photos for you to drool over, then I'll shut up for a while!
Neil and I enjoyed a super cycle along a minor road in a remote glen today. Headed west following the road on the south of the river, visited Croick church (famous for the crofters seeking sanctuary there during the Highland Clearances), and returned along the other side of the river.
Grrrrrrr, whilst you were enjoying the stunning Scottish scenery, we were stuck on a Motorway and in the delights of Nottingham National Water Sports Centre. A great and successful time rowing by out son....but not Scotland.
He is now the 5th fastest double and quad sculler in the country, so a massive achievement by him and his crew, and I wouldn't have changed where we were for anything.
Just one question? How is it possible to make clothes SO smelly after 2 days that after washing they come out of the machine in need of washing again?
The flask of tea is all Sallycycle's fault. With his talk of picnics and lashings of gingerbeer and the fact it was too hot to go far that day, I planned for a slow leisurely cycle with a picnic. So I packed salmon and cucumber sandwiches (that's dead posh for me!), homemade banana cake and tea. Big improvement on the usual trail mix and water.
I am honoured to be of help! There is nothing wrong with a gentle cycle and a picnic to suppliment our running ~ after all, it is just a little hot to be running.
I have only managed a long and hilly dog walk today....I still managed to look like an extra from Wuthering Heights though with my skirt catching in the wind....but the running shoes didn't look quite right!
Dear swanscot, thanks for your recipe posting! I will try this out to surprise the girls on the 1st when'd of August - I love tried & tested recipes especially with a story behind it x
Not sure at this silly o'clock if it was you or sallycyle who asked where we were having our Tour de France picnic but it will be after our semi - serious but fun loving cycle in yellow T's this Sunday at my friends Liz's home (champagne included maybe a good prose co though)! Well it is my 50th the day after so why no eh!
If I get my techno head on I should get around to posting pics of our 25 miler from South Northamptonshire. Thanks for the recipe & your time x
I cycled today! I won't tell if you don't! I try to cycle when on half term but friend insists on trying to kill me with really nice long rides not as addictive as jogging but still really enjoy it
Hi Sally! Another one coughing to doing both cycling and running, sorry..... *hangs head in shame* ;-0 Have been cycling for about 4 years, running for nearly one but broke my toe a couple of months ago and only had the cycling to keep me sane! I'm a fair weather cyclist, but an all weather runner. Like Net68, I have a crazy friend who keeps signing us up for cycling challenges, and we did the "Way of the Roses" last month - 170 miles from Morecambe to Bridlington! It wasn't the distance, it was those flipping "hills" over Yorkshire that nearly killed me! Beautiful views and got to cycle a tiny bit of the Tour de France route, but never again - will take my local (fairly flat) Essex from now on...........
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Cycling on rest days?
Running etiquette
My love of running is well and truly resurrected!
No more running this week :(
