Posts tagged kent

Lots of cycles

Jul05
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Charles Barsley

This week I haven’t done one long cycle but rather several smaller cycles. My cousin (who also enjoys cycling) was back home for the week so I took the opportunity to get out on with a different cyclist. So was out Monday and Thursday night after work and also today.

Really enjoyed going out for a cycle after work, After the train journey home you feel shattered and it’s so easy to just lounge in front of the tele. But once you get out it’s really enjoyable with the warm light evenings we currently have.

Unfortunately no stats, in all the week I have cycled over 50 miles, but I didn’t plug in my garmin after each cycle, as a result it didn’t reset itself so it has merged all the routes into one. Also its batteries ran out today!

Oh well,

Now up to 798 miles so 1000 is the next target, which I would like to hit by the end of July. Only 1 month 29 days to go! Agghhh so soon!

Posted in Cycling - Tagged barsley, Cycling, week, work

41 miles round Kent

Jun08
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Charles Barsley

A bright an early start this morning at 8am (well early but not so bright. Had a great morning’s cycle with my cousins. It was a clear day but took till around 9am to warm up. The route was similar to the one I took last week but in reverse and slightly lengthened. So headed off to Brenchley and down towards Yalding. Between Yalding and Hunton was the steepest hill I have ever cycled up. Had to stop a couple of times and catch my breath! Then a nice long flat section and steep downhill into Grafty Green. Stopped at Headcorn Green for a chocolate bar, at this point I had averaged 16 mph which I was very surprised by, it was helpped by keeping a good pace on the flats.

After a chocolate bar headed off again towards Frittenden, joined the A262 and saw several classic cars heading in the other direction, past Blanytre House and into Curtisden Green. From here it was the standard route past Lordship Wood, Horsemonden and home.

Stats

41.35 miles

2hours 46mins 42secs

Average Pace 4.01 minutes to the mile

Average Speed 14.9 mph

Max Speed 37.4mph

Calories 2767

Although I dropped the pace slightly in the second half I am still very pleased with an average of 14.9mph especially as it was over 41 miles. I want to try and keep doing these longer cycles each weekend in preparation for the Pedal to Paris. By the end I felt knackered! But still managed to get a few bits done at the house.

I mentioned yesterday I got a free pouch of Lemon and Lime Go Electrolyte Sports fuel. I find it hard to know if it helped me more than my normal apple and blackcurrant squash but certainly I kept going faster and longer than I usually do, nearer the end I struggled a bit on the hills to put the power down, I felt better in myself but my legs really ached. I think though practice and getting in the miles is as importnt as anything though.

Off work tomorrow, plenty of kitchen tiling to do! But hopefully will get in a late afternoon ride.

This blog charts my training towards the Royal British Legion Pedal to Paris where I will be cycling from London to Paris, please sponsor me at https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/Barsley

Posted in Cycling - Tagged bike, cycling plus, matfield, Pedal to Paris, royal british legion, The Road to Paris, Yalding

18 miles in the morning

Jun07
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Charles Barsley

Left at 8:40am, it was slightly cloudy so still a bit cold, but soon warmed up. Went out of Matfield and straight over at Kippings cross following the lanes towards Frant. Turned left and followed a beautifully smooth road out to Lamberhurst. It makes such a difference cycling on a flat road. Though that said before I left I checked my tyres, In a month they had gone from 100psi to 40psi, as they’re at such a high pressure its natural that they would lose some but didn’t realise it would be that much. From Lamberhurst we went out to Lordship Wood in Horsemonden and took the back roads home.

Stats

Distance 17.74 miles

Time 1hr 19mins 39 secs

Pace 4.29

Average Speed 13.4mph

Max 31.6mph

Calories 1431

Didn’t feel like I had maximum energy this morening, perhaps it was because I didn’t have my porridge! But just took it all at a steady pace and fairly pleased with the end result, though should have pushed more up a couple of hills. Looking forward to tomorrow when I will do a longer ride with my cousins. Also I’ll try out some sports energy powder I got free with this months Cycling Plus magazine!

Just a short note/rant/musing – Cycling in London, loads of people do it which I think is great, I know whether I would like it with so many cars around. But my point is helmets, personally I think everyone should wear them, but its up to them and I can’t force them. Though walking back to the tube station I saw a women cycling with a helmet which wasn’t clipped on. I just thought what is the point! It’s on her head so how much extra effort does it take! Anyhow!

Posted in Cycling - Tagged bike, Cycling, cycling plus, matfield

494.8 miles down

May18
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Charles Barsley

After a very gloomy Saturday the weather picked up today. Unfortunately only a short cycle, as I was not around for most of the day, so just a quick 10 miles or so down to paddock wood and round through to Rams Hill and Castle hill and back through Brenchley. Still eventful though!

I had forgotten today was the Kent Castle 100 cycle. So there were lots of cyclists out on the roads cycling 100 miles round several castles for the Action Medical Research Charity. Well done to all those who took part, particularly Ben who I have discovered is also doing the Pedal to Paris (what a small world!)

The other event was cars! Generally I have to say I have never had a major issue with cars, but there is always an exception, I was coming down a gentle hill at about 25 miles an hour and a car pulled out of a drive about 15 metres ahead and proceeded to pull off really slowly, As I reached it scant seconds later it had pulled across the road to overtake a cyclist (not part of our group). I was quite frustrated as I had built up speed and didn’t want to lose it as a hill was approaching. So I carried on pedalling and with a gap of about a metre to the right hand hedge, squeezed through and overtook it, I kept up my speed and easily made it up the hill, I was of course soon overtaken again by the car, the drive gesturing wildly at me. All I ask is to be treated like any other road user, if I was in a car you wouldn’t pull out in front of me so don’t when I am on a bike. Rant over, In all seriousness, never usually have any problems with other road users.

No stats today, despite having two cycle computers, user error meant no stats. I forgot to reset my Cateye Mity 8. My Garmin worked fine, until I stopped it while at a store, and forgot to restart it again, Oops! Though excitingly up to 494.8 miles since the beginning of February, Will break the 500 barrier soon!

Posted in Cycling - Tagged Action Medical Research, bike, brenchley, Castle 100, Cateye, cycle, Cycling, garmin, Mity 8, Pedal to Paris

Saturday 26th April, Summer Sunshine

Apr26
2008 1 Comment Written by Charles Barsley

An early start today, left home at 8:30am, it was good weather no wind and the sun was up! I started the route on my normal circle up to Pembury, past Kent College and down to Capel, but this time turned left toward Golden Green, East Peckham and Paddock Wood.

Spent about an hour in Paddock wood, in Everden Cycles and Barsley’s Coffee shop. I need to get some Summer kit as it is starting to get much warmer when out on the bike. Also I am seriously considering getting a Garmin Edge GPS for my bike. I just don’t know which to go for! I have narrowed it down to either the Edge 305 or the 705.

The 305 does not have street maps programmed into it so it is primarilaay a training device which measures a lot of data. (The advantage over a traditional cycle computer is that you can plug them into your PC and see maps of where you went, graphs of speed vs altitude vs heart rate rather than just an average speed) If you cycle a route regularly you can even use one of your previous cycles as a pace. To navigate you can pre program GPS coordinates with the relevant marker eg turn left. As there is no map you see a compass arrow directing you to the next waypoint.

The 705 does all of the above and have full street maps in colour so that you can say tell me how to get to…. and it would give instructions. It is also £150 more expensive.

I am leaning towards the 305 as I don’t think I am buying to navigate my route at the time but to see my stats as I cycle and more importantly download them after and analyse them.

After a coffee I headed back, again in a roundabout way through to Rams hill, Castle Hill and Matfield.

Here is the map of today’s route, again made with Memory map. This time I used the route function which was a lot quicker as I could free draw it but therefore I made more mistakes!

I am still only just scratching the surface of Memory map but another cool thing I found was the elevation graph.

The stats (Incomplete, I accidentally stopped recording for about 2 miles)

Distance 20 miles,

Max 33 mph

Time 2 hrs 5 mins

Av 9.5 mph

I think this is very wrong. Was playing around with the cycle computer and I think I turned off auto stop, so the stop watch kept counting all the time. But had a good morning on the bike. I hope the weather lasts but I know it probably won’t

Posted in Cycling - Tagged bike, brenchley, Cycling, east peckham, garmin, garmin edge, garmin edge 305, garmin edge 705, matfield, paddock wood, pembury