Out with the Old in wit the New

 Here is the Old

So here is the old...

It was an alright bike, but I wrecked the back wheel on it and it was wobbling around all over the place by doing hops and stuff on it.

Sold it for £40 and bought my new one, really pleased.

I went and got photos of the old bike at the shops today because I felt it right to add those photos and take off the photos of my face on the motorbike on the blog which had this bike in it and it was my only photo of the bike.

Basically I bought the bike to get to and from my house whilst I was decorating and these things are difficult to afford in taxis so I bought a cheap mountain bike.

I have covered a lot of miles on the bike and it more than paid for its self from what I saved. Couple of years after I moved here, I found that I wanted to do mountain biking and found some off road trails and rather enjoyed them and basically wrecked the bike doing them, so bought a new bike.

Poor Figures But I Enjoyed Myself

Went out for a little ride today, totally took 4 hours to complete including the train journey, was really happy with it though.

Trying out the new mountain bike and was pretty pleased with it, took the Garmin and those were the figures and the route I took.

Bike was very responsive for a bike not worth much money. I don't see what I would get out of another more expensive brand at this point in time for the money I would spend.

I went through a shallow part of the river and did that well climbed a bank on it as well, pretty steep, not too bad, I was wearing normal shoes (trainers) no professional clipless pedals or anything, feet did move around on them quite a lot, to be fair until I am fitter more confident on the bike I will probably use trainers plus I use the bike for town as well, it does slow me down this way and does build wrong muscles up, but until I have a bit more power in my legs clipping in and unclipping when I get something wrong up a steep climb is not really what I am after.

Disk brakes were good, they kept dry though the water, bike went easily through it, pretty pleased with that.

Anyway, so after 10 years pretty much of smoking and no riding that's what my figures look like. Hope to improve a lot.

The Magic of Two Bikes

Cycling and Re-kindling!

Race win 2011

Above is the new Carrera bought from Halfords, I haven't been uploading lately but training has been going slowly. Really pleased with the bike it has been in the comparison of a mountain bike 11 years ago of the value of about £800 - £1000.

I am now 33 and only just getting fit again so the bike suits the sort of off road trails there are available around here.

6 Days Later

I have been off the bike a day or so

19:00 is the plan to get out on the bike, for 30 miles or something, probably going to do the ride I didn’t complete the other day. To be fair, I went back to alcohol to sleep and ended up looking and feeling a lot better because I got sleep, but these aren’t great things.

I think just getting out on the bike and completing a couple of hours will be good, need a drink when I get back though probably to sleep, or I will just play the repetitive song “I know a song that will get on your nerves!"

I am probably needing some food, think I will get fish and chips in a moment, its a bit much before a ride but cannot be bothered to cook, very tired still. The bags under my eyes have gone, but tired feeling are still there along with a headache.

I have not completed that many miles this week and it annoys me, not feeling positive about things and need to keep going, I think I am not eating enough and getting bored in my spare time, it is distracting.

The Flat Tyre

Recovery and Maintenance

I have a parcel coming today, it comes with all sort of new kit and repair things which will enable me to complete a ride today. I am excited about it, comes with new shorts, gloves, tyre and all sorts of repair things for my tyres.

I am not fitting the new back tyre today, I am taking the old one out as it has only done 120 miles before this puncture happened, not too worried about it failing, I have some extra repair kit type things that will get me home or allow me to continue the ride, plus I want to test this repair stuff I have already put in the back tyre, it seems to have stayed up, all good things come to an end though. It should not stop me from completing the ride and is all a good learning curve, it will save me loads of repair times in the future if I get it right.

A tyre normally lasts about 6000 miles and to say this thing has only lasted 120 is a bit bad to be fair, going to try and squeeze as much out of it as possible whilst learning about the products to use for punctures, I have been lucky in the past and have not really suffered these types of setbacks.

So the plan today is to go out and cover about 3hrs worth of riding, I really wanted to crack 50-75 miles but thinks it is best just to aim for the 40-50 in 3hrs, should be do-able, got Saturday and Sunday planned as well, need to stick in a good zone though. I am thinking zone 4, bring those heart rates down and push the speed up, I know I need good recovery from these things though.

It's all a learning/reminder of how to get the most out of myself, things are fine, need to check my zones on Garmin Connect to find optimum heart rate for zone 4, it's going to be epic.

Today is Not Yesterday

Blinded by The Lights

Yesterday was awful, today could be much better, still a risk though, could get stranded, prepared to wreck a back tyre over it.

I have a 35 mile journey planned today, just cooking myself some fuel for the ride, good old steak and chips. Going out to Newark, big loop, its the biggest ride I have done for a while, really happy. I have a couple of things lined up in case it all goes wrong.

I ride Tubulars at the moment and can't get a new back tyre on Thursday/Friday time, these are expensive tyres, about as much as your average car tyre. They are on offer at the moment for £25, but ordering day is Thursday, along with a load of other kit.

Cannot wait to crack on with this ride and get it out of the way. I had a problem at 1:30am and had to cut my ride short and pedal home. The tyre fixed on the way home(due to the liquid in the tyre), I have pumped the tyre up and it has stayed good all night.

I am going to miss traffic hours on the way out I think, not too much of a problem there aren't many miles of them on the way out, on the way back it should be about 7pm.

Check This Out For Bad Luck

 Back Tyre

Had things planned and it all failed on me, this is bad, still got 4-5 miles in, got a plan for tomorrow and need to get gas cannisters.

These things are not great to be battling with at the moment but experience says I might be able to accomplish this weeks training if the back tyre hold up over night like planned. Desperate to get this side of the training done.

Anyway, shower and possibly sleep time. What a waste of time today was, nice to get out and spin the legs.