Monday 30 April 2012

October 2011 - Talked into racing!

October 2011 was when I guess I started to actually say that I was a Cyclist !  i tracked myself covering 171 miles In October..... so with a few additional untracked journeys here and there, I would think the true mileage was probably just under 200 miles in the month.

I rode my bike to work quite a few days ( 5 miles round trip ) and was aiming to build up to 15 mile or so rides on the weekends.  i was riding out quite a bit along the Grantham Canal.  This is a nice place to ride, and with the main part of it being flat along the canal, it was giving me a good measure of improving fitness as the route is consistent!

The month also saw my first regular rides of over 10 miles (!) and a trip to Sherwood Pines where theres a red route around 8.5 miles long.  I did a lap around it in a bit over an hour.  My business Partner Lee talked me into actually entering a mountain bike race at Thetford Forest in November so i was starting to build up some mileage in preparation for that race!

This was the first month that I started to see a difference in myself in terms of fitness.  I started to notice that I was noticeably less tired riding, and recovery time afterwards was much quicker... so that had to be a good thing.  I was pleased that I'd let Lee talk me into entering a race as it was part of a 4 race series over the winter, so I hoped that this would give me an incentive to carry on riding despite the darker nights.

At the end of the month I also decided to buy a new mountain bike after trying Lee's at Sherwood Pines . my Specialized hard rock was a good bike, but was now 8 years old and bikes keep progressing technically, and Lee's new GT handled and performed so much better!

In October I also had a trip to Rutland Water and had a look at the Giant bike shop there, where I tried a Giant XTC3 ....  which I really liked.  Its an XC race designed bike, it has a nice fast, cruising stele.  Its not designed for throwing around as such, but I liked the feel of it.... so a search began on Ebay to look for one... in time for my race first weekend in November



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