Essentials – Mavic Avenir – 1 Year and 4000 Miles on

Thought I would write about these again as I’ve been ridding on them for about a year and a bit.

I had to switch over to the old Sidi’s last week and it made me realise how much I appreciate these. These are far more comfortable and although they don’t have all the featured of the sidi’s they are far better for riding in.

They have seen 4 seasons of commuting and all racing and rides I’ve done. They’re not as clean as they once were but they still work really well. Especially when you consider they’re just £70.

Before:

After:

Garage fully set up

New commuting route

I tried the new commuting route this morning. It was lovely weather so I figured I might as well. I wanted to avoid the unnecessary north/south cycle to get up to uxbridge road- and if I could avoid southall so much the better!

I got onto the road I wanted (although kings St. was crowded) relatively easily and just stuck with it all the way past Hounslow. The big pain is the A4/M4 which seem to intersect that whole section.
I ended up far too south (~4miles) and took the Heathrow roads up the the office.

new garage!

So I’ve moved places, which is awesome for the bike since it means that it no longer has to stay outside.

Here is the new garage with the bikes laid out in it:

I also took the chance to put the new cables and tape on the bike. The pink tape had done about 2000 miles, which seems to be an average for the tape change – although so far its been a change every time I move.

With the rollers set up and both bikes there hopefully I can get some more miles done.

2012 week 1

So this week was about 60% jet lag. Started on tuesday immediately back to work after arriving and got a months worth of jetlag from the 1st night onwards.
Couple that with crazy weather and gale force winds and it meant the bike hardly got a look in.

I managed 30 miles, all on rollers, with an emphasis on keeping a steady HR.

Hopefully next week will have some more natural riding.

This weeks logs:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139671598

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139142980

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/140002754

New years weight loss challenge

The Christmas season is always full of excess. Mix that with the food habits of the south of the USA, and you can’t help but gain weight. In total about 8/10 lbs, which isn’t bad. But then there’s been a lot of muscle atrophy and fat gain, so its probably worse than it sounds.

I’ll be aiming to loose most of this by my birthday at the start of February and I’ll keep the blog more updated in the mean time.

I’m aiming on loosing this by several approaches:

• Good solid miles [not commuting]
• Commuting miles [roughly 60+ a week in this weather]
• a more solid diet  [less convenience food and more cooking]

Illness

Its that time of year. I’ve got a cold and I’ve not been out on the bike at all.
The commute is the same as ever and I’ve been too lay to actually put the guards on.
There are Tuesday runs and Thursdays runs and the winter series coming up- but in all honestly its probably a wind down to Christmas from now on.

Sunday Run 1/11/11

I managed the club run on the first on the month out to wendover woods. Some lovely colours, so I thought I’d take some photos:

Work bike shed

Got to give the work credit for this. Its a good arrangement. Made worse by people leaving their over enthusiastic bike-2-work purchases there, but otherwise perfect for the job.

Cyclocross!

Last Sunday I rode my first CX race. It was the herne hill course and it was tough.

There were a couple of things that could have made it tough

1. It was about 29 degress and bright sunshine. The cross bike doesn’t have a bottle cage. I had one 500ml bottle I finished on the way there.

2. I cycled the 10 miles there.

3. Given how dry it’s been recently we ran tires at 30Psi.

Anyhow, after the warm up lap it became obvious that it was going to be a new experience. Bike handling on dusty paths at 30psi was not something I was used to at all. Even going through the tight corners on the grass was a new experience and didn’t feel quite right. But I was there to race, and had a number on, so thats what I did.

It was great fun. Busy, cramped, full of crashes (including some by myself) and completely draining. I came 126th out of 140+ so, not too bad for a first one.