I have never given / taken anything up for lent but this year my challenge is to ride to and from work at least once a week, so far so good!
For those of you who started out triumphantly giving up chocolate or bread this week and feel like 40 days is going to be a lot to bear, why not give up a cycling bad habit instead?
Here are my top four bad habits you could have ago at breaking.
Not cleaning your bike after riding Regularly cleaning and maintaining your bike reduces the impact of standard wear and tear and can lessen the chances of mechanical failures down the line. It also gives you an opportunity to check your bike over for any issues that may stop you riding next time you head to the shed.
Going out unprepared for punctures We’ve all been guilty of this one. About as far from home as your route allows and you suddenly feel like your dragging a dead weight, that awful feeling when you realise you have no puncture repair kit or pump… Even if your going out with friends who are usually ‘prepared’ you should be able to look after yourself. This leads nicely onto my next bad habit…
Not knowing how to change an inner tube I was rather shocked to find out my Mum, who is a budding road cyclist, has no idea how to change an inner tube. It is a simple skill and a vital one if you want to be independent when your cycling. I will do a video on this soon so watch this space and let me know if there are any other skills you would like to learn?
Braking in a corner
The first rule of cornering is to scrub off all excess speed before you arrive at the corner, braking in the corner disrupts your flow and on the road can make your tyre grip less effective. My top tips to improve your technique are, scrub off all your speed before the corner, take the corner wide and head in towards the apex, when choosing your line take the straightest one possible. As you begin to exit the corner, keep looking ahead up the road to ensure you spot and anticipate any obstacles or hazards.
Thanks for reading, I hope you have enjoyed my blog post.
This week I decided to take up something for lent. I have never taken or given anything up before but for the next 40 days once a week I am going to commute to work by bike. This week was my first week and it was a great experience, on my ride home i decided to step up the pace and increase my miles, making use of the lighter evenings. The next morning the weather was ideal for cycling I was greeted by big blue skies and a warming sunrise as I pedalled the 33KM route to work.
I arrived at work feeling exhilarated and ready to face the day! Happy to have not sat in a single jam not had to wait for a single light (my route is all back roads) I had had a stress free journey to work, burnt some calories and released endorphin’s.
Training to gain strength and increase my endurance.
Today was week three at the gym, I started off warming up on the cross-trainer before heading over to the mats for my circuit workout planned by Steve my Personal Trainer.
My first exercise in the circuit was a kettlebell sumo squat, we started with 12kg just to warm up and to get my technique correct before moving to 20kg.
The sumo squat develops strength in all of the major muscles in the lower body. Including the kettlebell sumo squat exercise into my training is more beneficial than training each lower body muscle group independently. During the sumo squat, your glutes, quads, calves and other muscles have to work together to coordinate the movement. Squats are great because as well as strengthening a large number of muscles they help build your coordination and balance. Remember to keep your legs wide and feet at a 45degree angle, open your chest and breathe on the up.
After this squat I moved to hip thrusts (kettle bell swings) with the kettle bells, these are initiated with a powerful hip thrust using your glutes and hamstrings. This powerful movement develops the entire posterior chain of muscles while providing a great platform for building endurance and athletic conditioning. Right up my street. 🙂
So that I could focus on getting the movement correct we stuck at a weight of 12kg for these reps. it’s important to make this a hip and glute exercise and not use the momentum from your arms swinging.
After these two leg strengthening exercises I moved to work on my core using the dead bug! The dead bug exercise works your deep core muscles and pelvic floor whilst stabilising your lower spine. Building a strong core is really important as an endurance athlete as it helps me maintain good form during long distance events. As a cyclist I use my core when cycling to keep my other muscles firing correctly however you don’t build core strength on a bike which is why Pilates or core exercise in the gym/home is important.
Next it was time to work my upper body, the kettle bell row is a simple yet effective exercise for building back, arm and core muscle. To start with I used 8kg kettle bell working on sweeping my arm back in a slow sweeping action this was actually harder than using a heavier weight and doing it quickly.
After 6 sets of timed activity on each exercise it was time to move back to more core strength with jack knives and pikes using the rowing machine seat as the platform for my feet, again this makes your whole body work instead of isolating one muscle group. These were super hard and I had to do each one for one minute with a 90 second rest in between.
I am thoroughly enjoying working with a personal trainer he pushes me to lift more weight than I would on my own and also keeps the motivation going when I feel like I want to give up.
So you want to enter a mountain bike race? Go for it!
I have raced cross-country mountain biking for 4 years now and it is a really great way to get into mountain biking and meet awesome mountain bikers who will make you feel part of the family. As a women rocking up to a mountain bike race, which is a male dominated sport, can feel a little daunting!
I remember my first nationals; I drove myself to Kent which was about 3 hours from where I was living to this big field. I arrived mega early and hardly anyone else was there. I went out and practised the course, which was far tougher than the regional I had been used too, but I enjoyed the challenge. Returning to the field it was now full custom lycra kits, rollers and turbo trainers humming away, everyone looked so serious I felt out of my depth and a little daunted.
Before we were gridded we had to go into a holding pen, a little bit like sheep at the county show, and ‘warm up’ I was over thinking everything and feeling quite uncomfortable and not ‘ready to race’. Until a lovely girl called Fern started to chat to me and within moments I felt calmer and not so alien. The race went well and I left feeling happy and a lot more confident in my ability and looking forward to my next race.
From experience these feelings I felt are not uncommon among the women I have coached, so I wanted to share my top 10 tips.
Don’t take yourself to seriously, everyone starts somewhere, the fact you’re out doing instead of saying you would ‘like to’ is something to be proud of
Believe in yourself, your stronger than you think
Have a good breakfast – Whatever works for you just make sure you eat and also drink
Have a pre-race/challenge meal ready and waiting with a friend or in the car
Know where the start and finish of the race is (usually the same place, but I did miss coming third once because the finish was somewhere different!)
Make sure you drink whilst you race
If you have a number on your back, pin it on whilst bent over so it’s not too tight
Have a practise lap, if something seems technical do it a couple of times, allow plenty of time to arrive and feel able to do this before the start of the race
Last weekend my Mum came to stay and introduced me to my new favourite kitchen item, the spiralizer!
I have been having spiral vegetables in all my salads for lunch. Grilled chicken, spiralled carrot, cucumber, chopped pepper and cherry tomatoes on top of cous cous and red split bulgar wheat is a healthy lunch dream!
Healthy eating can seem like a bit of a mine field one day sugar is the enemy and the next it’s fat. My thoughts are that you should eat a variety of foods in all the colours of the rainbow, stay away from processed, unnatural looking products and make sure you pack loads of vegetables and protein into your diet.
As an endurance athlete carbs are my best friend! So I can’t cut them out, I tried a reduced carb diet whisky training for the Trans Alp Bike Race, but it made me crave sugar so now I reduce carbs slightly (like no carbs at lunch) on non-training days. The rest of the time I eat wholewheat pasta, rice and bread to make sure I am refilling my glycogen stores and can push myself in training knowing their is enough fuel in the tank.
Tonight I made courgetti and wanted to share with you this super quick, super healthy dinner idea.
Ingredients:
Courgettes
Spinach Tagliatelle
Fish cake / Salmon
Cherry tomatoes
Lemon
Pepper
Garlic
Method:
I cheated and brought Thai fish cakes from Morrison’s – pop those or your alternative in the oven at the temperature on the packet
Get your spiralizer out and chop your courgette, then create the spirals, put to the side
Put on your tagliatelle
Squeeze one lemon into a frying pan with a dash of pepper and garlic
Put your cherry tomes in the oven
Once your fish cake/ salmon is done turn off the oven and your pasta
Add your courgette to the warm lemon juice and cook until soft – add pepper to taste
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