I'm Doing The London To Southampton Bike Ride!

Evening Everyone

On September 11th 2011 I will be doing the London to Southampton bike ride in aid of the British Heart Foundation.  Its an 82 mile bike ride, starting at Bushey Park next to Hampton Court Palace, and finishing at Hoglands Park in Southampton.

The BHF is a charity very close to my heart as we have a history of heart problems in my family and the BHF's research has helped keep us running like clockwork

I am aiming to raise £200 for this amazing charity, so if you could spare any money at all it would be greatly appreciated

http://www.justgiving.com/Sam-Montague

Cheers

Sammo

I forgot how tiring cycling was!

I have gone out for about 10 miles every night for the last 3 nights.  So far its not getting any easier hehe!

Mate, I feel for you. I want to do one of these rides but I only have a Mountain Bike and although comfortable to ride it's just so slow. I went for a 12 mile ride the other night to see how it was on the road and it took me nearly an hour! I need to get a road bike.

A friend of mine has two, one for off-road and one for road. Each one cost about £1000 which puts my Halfrauds present properly to shame.

What are you riding mate?

T

Tian said

Mate, I feel for you. I want to do one of these rides but I only have a Mountain Bike and although comfortable to ride it's just so slow. I went for a 12 mile ride the other night to see how it was on the road and it took me nearly an hour! I need to get a road bike.

A friend of mine has two, one for off-road and one for road. Each one cost about £1000 which puts my Halfrauds present properly to shame.

What are you riding mate?

T

Hehe yeh Mountain Bikes are seriously slow.  I actually do all my training on my Mountain Bike with skinny road tyres fitted.  My body then gets used to shifting the heavy weight of the bike over long distances.  I then switch to my road bike for the last few days of training and the actual event.  Makes the whole experience much less demanding that way  :mrgreen:

I manage to do 10 miles in around 45 mins on my Mountain Bike at the moment, although once my fitness is back up (I havn't ridden a bike in over 2 years!) I hope to be able to cut that a bit.  At the moment I am also contending with back problems due to me breaking my back about 2 and a half years ago (hence not having ridden for a while), and it starts to ache after a couple of miles.  Hopefully as the muscles strengthen up they wont ache as much.

If you can spare anything for a donation it would be greatly appreciated  :mrgreen:

Cheers

Sammo

Hehe you asked what bikes I had as well and I forgot to answer.

My Mountain Bike is a 2007 Specialized Hardrock Sport Disc with skinny road tyres fitted.  My Road Bike is a 2010 Specialized Allez 24. Due to the back problems I am actually have great difficulty riding the Allez at the moment but I am hoping I will have it sorted by September  :mrgreen:

Don't worry I'll bung you some cash, it's for a good cause!

The whole family went for a cross country ride today and we managed to cover 4 miles in 1 1/2 hours! Needles to say I dropped them off at home and went for a ten mile blast to actually break a sweat. I never thought of getting skinny wheels fitted. I might have to have a look in to it. The fastest I've managed to get out of it is 27mph out of my tractor but that's flat-out.

I'll keep plugging away with the training, trouble is between that, my fitness classes, work, this place and friends and family I'm running out of hours in the day.

As to your back rehabilitation, Pilates is ideal for you. I teach it in the evenings and you'll be amazed how many applications it's useful for and how strengthening your Core helps your back.

T

Tian said

Don't worry I'll bung you some cash, it's for a good cause!

The whole family went for a cross country ride today and we managed to cover 4 miles in 1 1/2 hours! Needles to say I dropped them off at home and went for a ten mile blast to actually break a sweat. I never thought of getting skinny wheels fitted. I might have to have a look in to it. The fastest I've managed to get out of it is 27mph out of my tractor but that's flat-out.

I'll keep plugging away with the training, trouble is between that, my fitness classes, work, this place and friends and family I'm running out of hours in the day.

As to your back rehabilitation, Pilates is ideal for you. I teach it in the evenings and you'll be amazed how many applications it's useful for and how strengthening your Core helps your back.

T

I was in the New Forest this weekend and ended up going for a 40 mile circuit    That fully reminded me how unfit I am!

I managed to get 35mph on the Mountain Bike which I think is the fastest it has ever gone.

Yeh a couple of people have mentioned Pilates to me before but like you its finding the time to squeeze anything into my day.

After riding 40 miles round the New Forest last Sunday I have decided its time to get a new road bike.

I have been looking at the Specialized's again around the £600 mark however while in a shop earlier I saw one of the full carbon fibre bikes for £1300 and its really nice!

I need to have a word with myself over the next week or so to make sure I dont buy it lol!

I went for my usual ride with my kids this weekend. After two hours we returned home and I dropped them off to go for a proper ride. As I set off - full weight on the pedal, I heard a bang. I'd snapped my chain!

Not having much luck at the moment. I pulled one of those big metal handles off an external door last week, the bolts flew everywhere! Last year I pulled my handbrake out of the floor in my Golf too.

T :roll:

Right I've fitted a new front disc brake, new chain and new rear sprocket so the damn thing should be as good as new. Back to training!

How are you going mate?

T

Tian said

Right I've fitted a new front disc brake, new chain and new rear sprocket so the damn thing should be as good as new. Back to training!

How are you going mate?

T

I was off work all last week with a stomach bug so no training was done.  Although due to the stomach bug I did manage to lose almost half a stone in 5 days  8O

Training will commence this week.  I have sold my road bike and will be ordering my new one in the next couple of weeks.  So all training will be done on the mountain bike for now.

I've bunged you a couple of quid mate, times are hard so not much but good luck with it.

T