This is why cycling is my calling
Refuelling my ride
After last weeks long ride I couldn’t sleep, I felt like I’d drunk 5 cups of coffee and I stared at the ceiling all night. So I’ve spent the past week asking questions, reading and researching alternative ride food. Thank you everyone for getting in touch with suggestions and ideas. I’ve been eating gels and bars for years because I thought this was the only option for easy fuel on the move but I’ve now discovered there’s loads of alternatives.
On Saturday evening Savannah and I had great fun making Team Sky’s rice cakes. I found the recipe here on the Rapha website, I found the recipe easy to follow and really easy to make. I don’t have a rice cooker, I just used a saucepan with a lid and checked it throughout the cooking process and gave it an occasional stir. I opted for Team Sky’s favourite chocolate flavour mixed with cinnamon. I used a quarter of the recipe and this made 4, very thick cakes. Savannah helped me stir the mixture together and she was rewarded with the spoon to lick. She was very impressed, she thought her cakes were delicious.
I also bought some Soreen Malt Loaf and Fig Rolls. A few people had suggested them and because I’ve eaten both before I knew my stomach agreed with them. The Soreen Malt Loaf comes in really handy lunch box, individually wrapped portions so I thought these would be easy to eat on the move. Packing up my jersey in the morning was a bit challenging but after some forcing and squashing, it was all in. I did feel a bit overloaded at first and I was unsure how much I’d need for the ride. I took 4 rice cakes, 2 malt loaf slices and 8 fig rolls. I waited until 40 minutes in to the ride before I consumed any food, I’d eaten a big bowl of porridge before I’d left home.
I’d just ascended Hexton Hill and I was riding through an area called the valley. I managed to get the small foil parcel out of my jersey and unwrapped all whilst riding, it wasn’t as easy as getting a gel out but with a bit of practise it will get better. The rice cake tasted so good, it really made me smile. There’s a very faint taste of coconut from the coconut oil, it’s quite firm, it held together well so it’s really easy to eat. You can bite in to it but it breaks up easily in your mouth, there’s very little chewing required and the taste is subtle, it’s not sweet like all those bars. I’m completely sold. I motored along and soon came to a well known incline The Poggio, I powered up it and felt really strong but level, this felt good.
As the day went on my jersey emptied and my energy levels kept up at a really good level. I was riding with an old friend Nick, although he’s only just recently returned to his road bike after years of mountain biking he’s not really lost his pace, he’s been riding for years and I was managing to stay on his wheel and do my bit at the front. When I got home I felt completely different, it was a lovely feeling, I just felt a bit tired. I could’ve curled up on the sofa there and then and had a little snooze. This has changed the way I ride.
The mountains are getting closer
I made a big cycling purchase a few months ago, after my bike it was the most money I’ve spent on a single item related to cycling. I thought I was in the market for a new turbo trainer, something that would give me feedback, show me how I was progressing and get me motivated to stay on there longer, that was my goal. I already owned a turbo, it was a very basic one and to be honest it was just gathering dust, I love spinning classes but I found turbo training really boring.
I’m really time poor, work is busier than ever and Savannah has become a little person with a voice and with her own view on how we should spend our weekends together. I’ve entered some really big events this year so I’ve had to up my training, last year I was riding before work at 06:00 (after the clocks changed) but they were fairly gentle rides 10-20 miles with one bigger ride at the weekend. I knew that wouldn’t be enough this year but I couldn’t commit the time to real road miles in the week with work and a 2year old.
I went all out and purchased a Wahoo Kickr. I did all the homework, I read review after review and compared it to all the others on the market but I decided nothing else really compared to the Kickr. It was a huge outlay of money but it really has been money well spent. I’ve already clocked up some great mileage on there and simulated some big climbs but what attracted me to the Kickr was it’s open source, it allows software developers to create programs and training aids for it and I’ve used quite a few of them already.
It was easy to set up and it connects to my iphone, ipad and laptop. The Kickr does come with a 10 speed cassette so my Dad and his mechanical skills were required to change the cassette to a 9 speed but he did this with no problem. If you haven’t got the skills your local bike shop could always help with this too, there’s really clear instructions on You Tube.
I started off using the Sufferfest videos, I’d used them before on my old manual trainer. I have to be honest and say I got about 10 minutes in to it and I couldn’t turn the pedals, I gave up. The Kickr controls the resistance, it sets the gradient / resistance you should be riding and I really struggled. When I used these videos in the past I clearly didn’t have the resistance up high enough.
I logged on to Trainer Road, an app that connects you to a variety of training programs and through this I found the 3LC videos. I’m not usually drawn to ladies specific cycling products but on this day I downloaded their Ladies Road Race, I had no idea what to expect. The 3LC workout is a studio based fitness session, in this particular session there’s a group of ladies on turbo trainers and 2 coaches taking them through the stages of the ride offering guidance and motivation. It’s designed to make you, the person at home feel like part of the class and it works. I was immediately immersed in to the session and I enjoyed having the coaches there, giving me the instructions. You ride and train with cadence so ideally you need to have the ability to measure this as you’re riding. I really enjoy group exercise so this 3LC session was a great way to ride for an hour at home and never feel bored. The session had everything, we warmed up and we did some intervals, threshold, hills, sprints and cool down. I’ve never had any coaching or professional instruction on how to ride a bike, I just jumped on and worked it out so having this professional support and guidance through the session was quite a revelation. I’ve worked with PT’s in the gym and seen huge benefits from this, having professional cycling coaches guiding you through the stages on the ride was a similar experience, I gained so much from that hour on the bike.
I repeated this video over a period of 3 weeks, it was a really busy work time and I didn’t get to ride on the road at all. The next time I did get out on the road I was a little bit taken back by my own progress. I came to the first hill and kept my cadence up, like the coaches in the video trained me to and I got a PB on the hill (in January on my heavy, winter bike). It wasn’t just the fact that I got a PB but it was the way I rode that hill, I felt strong, I went in to it with different confidence and more power because I knew I’d been riding hills with a high cadence and at high speed in the video session so I knew I could do this on the open road, I just had to commit to it in the same way I’d been riding in the 3LC session. My ride that day, out on the open road felt like one of the best so far this year. That was completely unexpected with no road miles over a 3 week period.
I live a really busy life, I’m a single Mum and I commute to London every day for a job that isn’t 9-5. I’m often traveling abroad and I’m usually in the office late at night. I obviously understand the benefits of a structured training plan but I’ve always dismissed them in the past. My life isn’t structured and I didn’t think a plan would suit me but after seeing such quick development, such rapid improvement I’m keen to try and make this work. The 3LC endurance plan is 10 weeks, there’s 11 weeks until L’Etape Du Tour. I have some big events between now and then so I can’t stick to it completely but I could try and structure my weekday training within the 10-week plan. Could this be the difference, could this get me over the Alps this summer.
The journey of cycling
When I finished the Prudential Ride London event last August I wasn’t sure I could do it again. The event clashed with the tail end of hurricane Bertha, heavy rain and strong winds were forecast but it wasn’t the weather that put me off.
I’ve taken part in the event in 2013 and 2014 and I thought I should give everyone a rest for 2015. The event means quite a lot to me, I got back on my bike to train for the inaugural event in 2013 when Savannah was just a few weeks old. I’d gone from fearing the broom wagon to confidence that got me across the finish line in 5hrs 27mins. I hadn’t ridden a century before this day, my longest distance ever on my bike before this was 74 miles. Last year I chose to ride again for Bliss, the official event charity for 2014. Bliss cares for babies born too soon, too sick and too small. My Mum lost a baby, my sister was still born so I wanted to support this amazing charity and help them continue their great work. After my daughter Savannah was born and I was ready to get back on my bike my Mum drove me around the local roads, helped me plot out routes and showed me where the good hills were. I grew up in the area but I’d lived away for 20 years so I needed a refresher. My Mum actively encouraged me to start riding again and has been my biggest supporter and helper to keep riding and even more so now I’m a single parent.
The summer of 2014 had been busy at work but somehow I’d managed to squeeze in my training time and I was enjoying increased fitness with my new bike. I get up before work and ride in the early morning, it’s a really special time to be out and I think seeing the sunrise is a great way to start the day. I was away for an extended period in Glasgow working at the Commonwealth Games so I hired a bike and managed to get some miles in there too but when I crossed the finish line in 2014 I was empty.
In April as my training was building up and my fundraising for Bliss started to grow my friend and Savannah’s godmother also lost her baby, she was 38 weeks pregnant, in touching distance of holding her baby for the first time. Fiona was at her final midwife check and they couldn’t find a heartbeat, Fiona and Oli’s baby had died. After receiving the terrible news Fiona had to spend the next few days carrying her baby inside her, knowing he wasn’t alive, she was advised it was safer to give birth naturally.
I was in Malta, working when I heard the news, I was boarding a plane to come home and I cried all the way home. I cried for Fiona and Oli and I cried for Sienna their daughter. I remember being that little girl, losing a sibling and not understanding or knowing what was happening around me.
Some weeks after Fiona and Oli announced their tragic news they announced their plans for Sebastian’s Hero’s. They’d selected 99 people, chosen people that had reached out to offer comfort and support in their time of need. Those 99 people were asked to each raise £99 for a charity and also do a good deed. I’d been selected as one of Sebastian’s Hero’s so I chose to add Sebastian’s name to my Ride 100 jersey and ride in his honor.
As I rode through the torrential rain last August all I could think about was Fiona and her amazing strength and bravery. The weather that day was horrendous, it was so bad the organisers took the hills out of the course and shortened the distance to 86 miles from 100 miles. I’ve ridden in bad weather, my ride in Yorkshire just a couple months previous was quite a similar day but I’d never ridden in bad weather at the speed I rode that day, my average at the end of the event was just over 20mph. What kept me going (when it felt like someone was throwing a bucket of water in my face for 4hrs) was Fiona. She has experienced something so devastating it’s beyond my own words to even try and describe. As the rain came down there were sections where I added to it with my own tears. Everyone had such high hopes for me; they had expectations that I would ride a good time but all I could think about was Fiona and the pain she’s been through. They’ve had all the checks done, a postmortem and nothing could be found it was simply one of life’s mysteries.
So a few weeks ago one of those Congratulations you’re in magazines dropped through my letterbox. The event is brilliant, it’s so well organised, raises millions for charities and offers cyclists a magical experience of riding on closed roads with thousands of spectators cheering you along. I filled out that ballot form again and I’ve been lucky enough to be selected. Fiona and Oli have built a wonderful legacy for their little boy and it was an honor to be part of that. Sebastian never managed to breath life on this earth but he has left a very long, lasting impression thanks to his amazing parents and their incredible courage. In 2015 I will carry his spirit with me once again as I set off on this cycling adventure.
This video was created to commemorate the activities of Sebastian’s Hero’s
Fiona was brave enough to share her story with a national newspaper to help raise awareness of still births. Every bit of money raised for Sebastian’s Heroes has gone to supporting families having to endure similar tragedies and to the research into stillbirth and the prevention of it happening to others families. You can read her story here:
The perils of night riding
I’ve been riding with the club, midweek at night over the last months. It was an initiative of one of the club members, to keep our miles up in the winter. If we all got together and rode in a group it would be safer and we’d be more motivated to keep it up. One of the things that surprised me, that I found most difficult about riding in the dark is returning my bidon to the cage when riding at speed.
I was adding an extra light to the front of my bike tonight because only 2 of us were going out. However with my Garmin on one side of my handlebar and my other light on the other side I didn’t have any space for another light. Just as I was about to put the light away, I had an idea. I tried it for size around the stem and it fitted perfectly with the light pointing down. This gave a nice glow of light towards my bidon. Voila an illuminated bidon and safer night riding for me.
My biggest cycling challenge so far
There’s something I’ve wanted to do on my bike for a few years now. The time hasn’t been right in previous years, I was pregnant, on maternity leave or just not in the right place. I’ve been thinking about this challenge a lot recently and after my Grandad passed away this June it felt like this would be my year to enter L’Étape du Tour. My Grandad, Jules Tur was born in Casablanca, Morocco and raced with great success on his bike in the 1940’s. As a Frenchman, Le Tour de France was something he spoke of with such enthusiasm and high regard.
So I’ve got my registration confirmed and I’ve booked my accommodation in La Toussuire. My Mum, Dad, Savannah and I will set off on a road trip next July 2015. I will follow in the iconic wheel tracks of Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome with a summit finish in memory of my Grandad.
It’s going to be a long, hard winter of tough training but that’s the bit I love the most. My cycling club has started a weekly night ride, we ride with lights and high viz. I hope to get out on that as much as possible and we still ride every Sunday whatever the weather. If I can keep up a few miles a week then all my hard work this year will set me up well for this challenge but I’ve never climbed a real mountain. I climbed to 902m recently on a club holiday in Portugal, Mt Foia but this is going to the next level and beyond. 142km and 3 mountains.
A copy of my Grandad’s cycling club membership card from 1940 – 1941
My Grandad lined up with his cycling team mates in Casablanca
Cycling through the streets of Casablanca in 1941. I might be the only girl happy to inherit her Grandad’s legs.
AVC nightriders winter training
Sunday club ride to the Hub in Redbourne, Herts with AVC
Getting ready to climb Mt Foia in the Algarve
The 14% steep cobbles back to our villa in the Algarve
Cooking up porridge for the boys (and me) each morning in the Algarve
It was very cold on the way down from Mt Foia
Climbing all day long in the Algarve
The bonus of riding in a club
I was out riding with my club a few days ago, it was a beautiful Sunday morning. The sun was up in the sky, the temperature was about 16’. We were rolling through some beautiful country lanes at an average speed of 18mph. It was classic Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire countryside and just perfect for cycling. I felt an amazing feeling that day, it’s really good to ride with a club. I was riding roads close to home that I hadn’t ridden before and they took me to a lovely stop off for tea and cake Church Farm Ardeley
My club, Ampthill Velo Club meets up every Sunday at 08:00 in our town square, when the clocks change this moves back to 08:30 to allow for the darker mornings. AVC is unaffiliated, it’s a Sunday social ride. The group is all male except me and we ride 60 miles at an average speed of 17/18mph sometimes a bit faster depending on who’s on the front. Our group has some really strong riders and I credit my ability, my strength, power and endurance to riding with this group.
Sadly I haven’t been able to make as many Sunday rides this year as last. My work took me abroad a lot in the early winter months so I lost fitness and I wasn’t fast enough to ride with them through spring. However I have been able to keep involved with the club via a club challenge, the AVC Grand Tour (GT). The GT uses a well known app that’s free to download but also has a premium service Strava. If you haven’t discovered it yet I would encourage you to give it a try. If you have a competitive streak (like me) be warned you may find it addictive.
One of the club members conceived the GT, Martin and it’s all credit to him that we go out whatever the weather and ride as hard as we can to compete against each other for points. Being the only girl I compete against the boys, there’s no ladies competition, there wouldn’t be much point. The AVC GT is a competition of stages and bonuses. Each stage is a segment on Strava, a segment is a section of road that’s been mapped out by Martin that we must learn and ride. As we pass through the segment GPS tracks us, records our time, and puts us in to a leader board based on who’s ridden the segment the fastest. When we upload our ride (either using a Garmin or via the phone app) it lets Martin know we’ve riden the segment and the time we rode it in. On paper it’s a simple yet genius idea, it’s using modern technology in an brilliant way. It allows a very small, social club like AVC to have a timed, competition, riders can go out and ride the stages at their own convenience. Not knowing who is going to go out and ride next just adds to the dynamic of it all. Segments are live for approximately 2 – 3 weeks, sometimes more, sometimes less and they range from short sprints to long, lung busters of up to 9 miles with a bit of everything thrown in hills, fast flats etc. AVC has it’s own club on Strava so Martin can sort the leader by AVC so if another cyclist passes through the segment they can be excluded from the competition. However as with all Strava segments there’s always the hope that you’ll grab the King of the Mountain (KOM) or Queen of the Mountain (QOM) which is the No1 position overall on the leaderboard for that segment.
Martin has spent hours going out riding and creating segments, discovering, reccing, and building the competition for us all to have something to focus on when we ride solo. The GT takes us to local places we might not normally venture out to and some of the segments are quite complicated, riders have been known to go out and recce routes in their car or on their bike beforehand to learn the route. It’s become fairly serious.
As well as the weekly stages Martin releases opportunities to win bonus points. It was my quest for some bonus points that was a real moment in my cycling year. It was late on Saturday night and I realised that no one had done the Stelvio challenge. The Stelvio was part of the Monster hill climbing bonus challenge. The idea for this challenge was born out of Everesting. This challenge aimed to honour the highest mountain passes in the 3 Grand Tours. The first Grand Tour of the season was the Giro d’Italia so we had to equal the height gain of the Passo dello Stelvio 1808m/5931ft. We had to confirm in advance, with Martin what hill we planned to tackle, where we’d do our reps and agree the number of reps then it was up to us to go for it. I sent Martin an email hoping he’d get it in time. I was completely set in my mind I was going to do a stealth manoeuvre the next morning and go for the Stelvio. I picked Hexton, it was a hill I’d climbed many times before. It was steep enough maxing out at 8% and almost a mile long. The elevation gain required 25 reps from me but I had to keep a check on my Garmin elevation too as I didn’t want to do all that work and get disqualified for falling short of elevation gain. Luckily Martin replied, we agreed 25 reps of Hexton, he wished me luck and I tried to get some sleep with a head filled of nerves about what I’d taken on.
I set off the next day on my bike from home, it’s a few miles ride there and I figured I could do with the warm up. The weather was almost perfect, it was warm and the sun looked like it would make an appearance with a light wind. I let my family know my plans for the day and they said they would come later and cheer me on. After I’d completed 8 reps I got in to a good rhythm and knew I could do this, it was merely a matter of keeping my head straight as my legs were feeling strong but my brain was becoming completely twisted with each rep. I lost count on several occasions and had to start a tally chart with pen and paper. The repetition was surprisingly confusing, I started to think about what it would be like to attempt an everest, the number of reps would be over 100. Hexton is a busy hill with cyclists on mosts days, we don’t have many big hills in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire so anyone that likes hills will ride here as it’s one of our longer ones. It was a real boost meeting and talking to other cyclists and letting them know what I was doing. They all thought I was completely mad but they all gave me so much support and encouragement. They would ride a rep with me and really cheer me on then say their farewells at the top as I would turn around for another descent. I preferred the climbs as the challenge went on, the descents became quite unsettling, my brain was so fragile from the repetitions and hammering down the hill.
My family arrived as I was about half way through. My daughter was all big smiles and was only speaking a few words at this time but she was able to say “come on Mummy” and it spurred me on so much. I started taking a couple of minutes break between reps at this point, fuelling up regularly and taking on board a lot of fluids. The temperature was well in to the mid 20’s by now and my mind was completely scrambled but I was totally focused on completing the task. My family stayed for around an hour and after they left I felt quite low but I had 6 or 7 reps to go so I had to keep my motivation up and keep going. The passing cyclists were few and far between now as the day was almost over but every so often one would come along and I’d share my story and it would lift my spirits so high and get me to the top of that hill and keep me going for at least another rep.
What spurred me on to keep going that day was knowing that I would surprise the other club riders, the only person that knew I was doing the challenge was Martin. I’d tried to send him a couple of updates but Hexton is quite remote so the lack of signal stopped the texts and emails getting through. The rest of the club had no idea what I was doing. As I rode that last rep the excitement lifted my body up that hill like it was the first rep, I’d done it. I’d pushed myself up and down that hill 25 times. Every time I ride up Hexton now it surprises me that I rode up and down there 25 times but on that day I was in the zone, I was completely focused and I was fixed on completing that challenge.
The GT has pushed my cycling efforts on a number of occasions this summer. For 5 bonus points I pinned on a number and took part in my first TT. For 6 bonus points I rode across 5 counties Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex and Buckinghamshire totalling an epic 106 miles and on the last day of the GT I completed the yummy 4 cake challenge on a wet and wild day. Riding 66.9 miles and stopping at 4 nominated cafes for a slice of cake in each for another 5 points.
Link to my My Strava ride
My Herbalife
By March I was starting to feel quite good, my weight loss was going in the right direction. I’d lost 2 stone since Savannah was born the previous August. The first stone came off very quickly, just a few weeks. The second took a lot longer, a lot of effort. I messed about with diets. I did the Dukan diet for a while but I already had very low energy because I wasn’t getting good sleep, Savannah was just a few months old. Serving myself a plate of ham and cottage cheese as dinner was quite bad for my self-esteem. The diet made me feel quite unwell both physically and mentally. I’d done it before, successfully and it was ok because I was well, I had good energy and I was getting regular sleep but this time, straight after pregnancy when your body needs nutrients and energy, for me it was really bad.
So Jamie and I were heading up to Liverpool for a friends surprise birthday. It would be our first night away together and our first proper night out since Savannah was born. Luckily we have a lot of local family support, Mum, Dad, sisters, Aunts, Uncles so we have lots of opportunities to get out.
I knew Grace, my friend’s sister had been successful in her own weight loss with Herbalife but I hadn’t seen her since her major transformation. I also knew a bit about the Herbalife program and I thought it would suit me. I’m very all or nothing, I’m either 100% focused or I’m totally off the wagon. Finding balance is the missing link for me.
Later in the evening I got chatting to Grace and she offered me a 3 day trial of Herbalife shakes which included some vitamin tablets. I knew I could do it for 3 days so I agreed to give it a go. Typically, of me I mentally sat by my post box for the next few days waiting for the package to arrive. I was completely set and focused ready to take this on. I was almost certain the mix of protein shakes and healthy dinners and snacks would suit my lifestyle because I often found myself, at home with a young baby eating really nutritionally poor food that worked around Savannah’s feeding time, mostly toast with cheese in the day and if I was feeling time rich a slice of tomato on top.
My Herbalife pack finally arrived, I read all the instructions and went off shopping to buy all the other items I needed. For the first day I did feel a little bit light headed but I just sucked it up and got on with it. I figured you’re cutting down on the number of calories and having mostly liquid so I put this down to normal body adjustment. The next day I felt OK, a few tummy rumbles but it was so convenient, a shake for breakfast, a mid morning snack, another shake for lunch, another snack then an evening meal of protein and veg or salad. In terms of cooking that was simple, throw a load of salad on a plate and grill a piece of meat or fish. It worked perfectly around Savannah because the shake took a few seconds to prepare and it was easy to drink. I ate nuts, yogurts and fruit for my snacks. After my 3 day trial I’d lost 5lbs, amazing. This is so easy, I can do this and I actually feel great, no bloating, I’m full of energy and I can adapt it easily to fit in around my cycle training. On the days when I was planning to ride my bike I’d make myself a bowl of porridge and mix 2 scoops of chocolate protein powder in, it’s tastes really good. There’s no way I could get up the hills without carbs. Grace also recommended some of the other products from the Herbalife 24 sport specific range. I started drinking a product called prolong when I was out on my ride. It’s a carbohydrate drink designed for cyclists riding around 4hrs. I found this worked really well for me, it’s nicer than gels. So I was making this plan work for me, I kept in touch with Grace via email, text and she has a Facebook group. We’d exchange recipes that we’d make and enjoy to help each other break any potential monotony of meat and veg. I did live on chilli, I’d prepare a huge batch with 2 or 3lb of mince and fill it with protein rich beans like black beans, pinto beans and some nice vegetables. I’d serve this up with a big salad or if I was riding the next day I’d include a small portion of lentils, quinoa or other protein rich grains and sometimes brown rice. I’d also mix my shakes in my blender and add a banana to get extra carbs if I was going for a ride. I wasn’t sticking to the Herbalife weight loss plan exclusively; I was making it work for me and my active lifestyle.
Within 6 weeks I’d seen a total body transformation, I’d lost over a stone and I’d hit my dream target weight of 9st12. I was bursting with energy, my skin was glowing and my body was looking pretty good for a new mum. The benefit to my cycling was enormous, my average speed on a ride started to increase, my stamina was improving and overall my confidence was growing. I started to feel really strong and the big event in August no longer felt like an impossible task. My own personal goal post of crossing the line before the broom wagon of 9hrs was moving, I was now starting to focus on a potential, decent time of sometime around 7hrs.
Only Girl In The Club 