Yesterday morning the heaven opened, I was planning on going out in the afternoon but decided to give it a miss. I was not the only one, only two riders turned up for the ride, they went on the ride and never had any rain for the duration of the ride…

Went out this morning, decided I needed to do long ride after yesterday non ride and as there was some new paths I had found and wanted to try and I also wanted to have another test of my Zero High5 tablets so I decided on a home to Moors Valley Country park and back ride. A total of 32.8 miles with 80% of it off road and unlike previous ride from home to Moors Valley, I did not ride over the same section of trail more than once. I can report that I did not have any problems with cramps although that may be related to the fact that it was not particularly warm this morning so I was not sweating as much as normal. In fact it was that cold this morning that I had to stop after about a mile and put my winter gloves on rather than my fingerless gloves that I started with. By the time I got home I was knackered.

Now for a farewell, I started this blog on the 6th May 2009 it was just general chit chat nothing special, no theme. Like many new blogs it soon seemed to loose its way and within a few months it was on its way to becoming another dead blog. Towards the end of 2009 I came across a blog called MassiveMTBer (Don’t ever stop). The blog was written by a guy called Clive Chapman, he had a serious weight problem and had rekindled his love of cycling as part of a plan to get his weight back to where it should be. I found the blog easy to read, well written, funny, humorous, frank and honest. In fact it was good enough for him to be asked to pen a couple of monthly column for one of the national cycling magazines, that no mean feat.

This weekend Clive announced that he had penned his last blog post, with a new job and new coaching commitments (he is a rugby coach) he does not have the time to continue writing a daily blog. But Clive blog has touched so many guys with a weight problem who have got back into cycling as part of a plan to get there weight under control it is really going to be missed. His blog was a kind of meeting place, not in the real sense like meeting your mates in the pub. But in the way where you knew that other guys with the same weight problem as you were suffering from were there reading the same blog. Clive’s frankness honesties of his own weekly weight ups and downs made those readers reflect honestly on their own weight when it came to standing on the scales. Clive’s blog became a sort of weigh loss club for guys.

Good luck with your future Clive, you blog will sorely be missed.

Question is what do I do now? I don’t really want to fork out £15\20 for new bearings as it is less than a year old and it would seem the fault was with the bearing when purchased. Hope gave me the options back in October when I contacted them. But having ignored their previous offer to send it back to them I may have shot myself in the foot if I contact them again about the bearing. I think at the moment it is a case of watch this space….

No ride today, windy and wet. I woke up in the night to a very cold back (other half had pinched all the quilt again) and I could feel the blowing in from the open bedroom window. Lifting the blinds this morning revealed a rain splattered window and the pampas grass waving happily in the garden. The rain has been on and off all day while the wind has been getting stronger all day.

A little windy

So with no rides today I did what everybody else does on a wet bank holiday Monday, we went shopping, we are now the proud owner of 6 Tomatoe plants and 6 pots of onion seedlings (is that the right word baby onions??). It was suggested that I spent this afternoon stood out in the wind & rain getting wet and cold replanting said plants etc. the reply to that is not printable…….

In a quest for a cheaper life here is a web site I used recently to purchase some electrolyte tablets. The company is called Dolphin Fitness, they seem to do all the energy drink type stuff that cyclist normally use and certainly cheaper than what the local bike shops are charging. My order was delivered a day earlier than advised when I placed the order (I took the 5 day free postage option). Hope it helps somebody out there.

Tomorrow night is stepping on the scales night, I am not hopeful…..

So as I stepped on the scales at slimming world tonight I watched the digital read out as it first flew past my last weeks weight and then came back down to rest 4lb less than last week, I think it was then that I let out a loud sigh…. I think that was very good considering I lost the plot Friday night after the bad news (I’m a stress eater). I was even more surprised by the fact that I won slimmer of the week and had a large bowl of fruit to take home.

In regards to the doctors I have have some new cream to try which will hopefully resolve my problems and stop it flaring up again. I was a bit surprised when he said it was two years since I had the last lot of cream, which was why they would not let me have a repeat prescription and had to make an appointment.

Don’t think an evening ride is going to take place this week, have a couple of ideas for the weekend but need to check what the weather is offering before I decide.

Was hoping for an early night to night as I am up early and off to head office tomorrow but that not going to happen now especially as the daughter said she might phone me to come and collect her from the concert she is gone to if she comes out too late for the bus. The last two days have been a case on answer the desk phone and the mobile rings, answer the mobile and the desk phone rings. I spend half the day answering the phone and the other half trying to catch up where everything is behind.

Well last night was crunch time, just before Christmas I left Slimming World due to a funding crisis with the intention of starting again when funds were in a better condition. Well last night the time had come to rejoin.

I knew it was not going to be good news, trouser that were once nice and baggy are now once again tight and in some case are to tight to wear. At Christmas I always let myself go a little bit and enjoy the food, but in this time my Christmas did not finish until last night. I have not stood on a set of scales since my last slimming world night (its not something I normally do anyway). I had wondered what the damage was going to be but soon put the idea out of my head because had I under estimated my weight gain I would be really annoyed if when I stood on the scales I was way over my estimate. What ever my current weight was I was not expecting it to be good and I was not disappointed from that point of view. I have gained 2 stone (28lbs, 12.7kg take your pick it is all the same) since just before Christmas. If I am honest it is about where I though I would be, any less and I think I would of got of lightly, any more and I think I would be feeling very depressed about the situation.

So now the hard works starts, my first target is to get back to where I was pre Christmas and from there get my weight down to where it should be. I am going to need help, so feel free to give me a nudge in the right direction when you see me heading in the wrong direction……..PLEASE!

When I go for a ride I have no energy, it is getting to the point where I don’t even go for a ride at the moment (I never went out last Sunday or today). I want to go for a ride, it just my get up and go has got lost. Last Sunday I woke up early (still dark 6:30am-ish) and just laid there in bed before fulling back to sleep, when I woke up again it was 9am. By the time I was up and had breakfast I had no interest in going for a ride. This morning I was in two minds where or when to ride, go out in the morning over the heath and come back and do some work on the bikes (more of that in a minute) of do the work on the bike and go out on the club ride in the afternoon. I decided to do the work on the bikes and by midday the wind had picked up and it had started to rain so no riding for me.

Now with the rain this afternoon, tomorrows ride is going to be muddy (assuming I do go for ride). I had picked a ride which hopefully would only have a little mud but it is only a short ride so now I don’t know if I will do that ride or do another ride or even go for a ride? Why am I trying to avoid the mud anyway, it has never worried me in the past?

I spent this morning swapping the rear wheels over between the Whyte and Cannodale now the Hope hub on the Cannondale wheel has been rebuilt. While I was at it I played with the rear mech hanger bolt now that I have a tool to hold the chain ring like bolt that secures it to the frame. I also gave the jockey wheel a clean and grease while I was at it. Once that was done I started on the Whyte, I refitted the rear wheel (which I had fitted on the Cannondale when its rear wheel failed) and then took the rear shock off the bike ready to go for a service. As well as a shock service, the rear brake calliper needs a service, a new rear brake rotor is required and a new rear mech cable before it is ready to hit the trail again.

I had even put off typing this post as I did not want to write about the fact that I had not done anything constructive in the past few days. Going back to my diet, I have made a decision, I am going to rejoin Slimming World (we both left just before Christmas to save some money), I have set a date for rejoining in an attempt that I can bring my eating under control before I rejoin, it is not working very well at present.

Well I have bored you enough, hopefully my next posting will be more entertaining…

Well last night was weigh in night and I lost half a pound, now after the the gain last week (and three weeks of losses previous to that) I am not to sure how to take last nights weigh in. On the one hand a loss is a loss is a loss, but should of it have been more?? Well I never got back onto the straight and narrow until Wednesday, I was to frustrated with the previous Monday (last weeks) weigh-in. During the remaining 5.5 days (of last week) there were some unhealthy foods, Sunday lunch is a normal Sunday roast. On the Sunday ride there was just under 1ltr of SIS Sports drink was consumed which is on the face of it, is not diet friendly. But then on the other hand, having just ridden 38 miles I would of burnt off a lot of the energy that I drank, so where does that leave me, well don’t ask me I am just a dumb overweight mountain biker.

I am just going to try harder to keep a positive attitude towards my weight loss and review what I currently eat to see if I can change anything out for something more healthy eating friendly.

Earlier today fellow blogger and mountain biker with a weight issue Clive the Massive MTBer posted a link to a web page that he found, the 6 step plan It outlines how you should handle what happens when you gain weight rather than loose it. I am not going to repeat what it says (you will have to go and read it) but it what I have been told and it make sense so I don’t know why I have not been doing it.

The outward ride to Moors Valley went ok the only bad point was crashing into a tree on the “Through the Forest” trail, caught my handles bars on a tree and the bike just spat me off into the undergrowth fortunately without injury. When I reached the end of the trail for some unknown reason I headed for the main park exit via the road to pick up the Castleman Trail rather than back along forest trails down to the Castleman Trail.

I had marked the GPS where the turn off should of been for the West Moors plantation and the turning turned up as planned on the GPS. I followed the planned route until near the end I was unable to find my exit. In the end I had to take plan b which would take me further away from the foot bridge at St Leonard through a residential area before reaching the A31. I think further investigation is required here as I am pretty sure there is a route from the Castleman Trail to the A31 there somewhere.

Once I had crossed the A31 it was into Hurn Forest and the normal Throop loop return leg as normal……….apart from two punctures. Picked up a puncture going down the path along side Oakdene caravan park. It made a bit of a mess of the slime filled inner tube. I decided to stick a patch on the tube and carry on. Well I got about 2 miles before I felt that backend wiggle that indicates a flat rear tyre. When I got the tube out the patch had lifted and was leaking green slime, not sure why the patch lifted. This time I opted for another inner tube and the slime tube will be investigated at leisure.

A quick check on the gps when I got home revealed a PB of 37.8 miles for the ride, I was pleased with that.

I don’t know how tomorrow nights weigh in will go, I have been trying something different this past week, it has been a so so week eating wise and I took an energy drink with me on this morning ride. So all in all a mixed bag so I don’t know what to expect.

In the end I opted to contact the local council and see if they would help as some of the house that connect to the drain are council house while others are privately owned (all were council at one time). Well they past me from one department to another before I landed at environmental health who were helpful but could not do anything unless I refused to clear the drain (had I gone down that route it would take several day to resolve by which time sewage would seeping from the drains and our toilets out of action). So I contacted the local water company and they said they understood my problem but if I called them out and they had to use a high pressure hose to clear the blockage it was down to me to pay and then recoup the money from my neighbours. So I opted for one of their engineers to come out and make an assessment of the problem before deciding what to do next.

The guy turned up within the hour and let just say he was there for 5 minutes and all my problems drained away. Apparently on the outlet side of the drain there is a U bend (like you have on the back of a toilet). This is to stop sewage from coming back up the pipe if the main sewer floods. So the actual outlet pipe is at about 45degree downwards to the main pipe so there no chance of having a severe bend in the rods when you use the rods to clear the blockage.

One thing that did come to light is that from October 1st, the water company will be responsible for all the drains from the point of leaving the building. So had this of happened after the 1st October it would of been a simple call to the water company.

As I had been sorting out the drains I never got to go for the planned morning ride. I had planned a ride with the wife for Tuesday, she has been out of the saddle for over 12 months following a knee injury and then hayfever induced asthma. So we decided to do the ride in the afternoon. I spent the rest of the morning checking her bike over and fitted a new padded seat cover. In the end all the bike required was air in the tyres, not bad for a bike that has not been used for over 12 month.

I had decided on a simple flat route along the river down to Throop round to Merritown and back to Throop and along the river. Number one son was coming with us as well so not only did I have to ensure the wife would not do anything to injure her knee again and I had to make sure number one son did not ride into the river. Turned out to quite an uneventful 7.8 mile ride, the wife rode of into the distance as I sat back and guided number one son, even he never complained about the distance. He made up for it later that night, he woke up screaming as he had cramp in both his calf muscles….

Last night was weigh-in night and I can happily (if a little bemused) report another 2lb loss. I thought thing were going to be a bit iffy after a meeting with several packets of biscuits last week. I am once again back into the 16st arena and this time I intend to stay in the there unlike the last couple of visits.

Tomorrow I off to somewhere new for a ride and more usually it is a trail centre, after my last trip to new riding area was followed by a visit to A&E I have dug out my knee pads just encase, won’t help my shoulder if I come off but at least my knees will be a bit safer!! More of my road trip tomorrow if I make it back in one piece.

Talking of eating into my will power, in Fridays post < a href="http://xendistar.co.uk/2495-sorting-things-out" target="_blank"> Sorting thing out I mentioned I was getting fed up with sticking my head above the parapet only to have someone knock it back down again. Well obviously somebody did not like me sticking my head above the parapet on Friday night, I only had to wait till Saturday morning before somebody tried to knock us back down again. Regardless of the reason or the outcome, it still eats away at you, making you wonder why you keep going.

Oh well Tuesday awaits…………..or is it a case of tomorrow never comes??

For one reason or another life as been a bit rough for the family these past 12 months, no sooner do we think it safe to stick our head above the parapet we find someone\something is ready to knock us back down again. Now when you have an existence like that your motivation takes a hammering, you become stressed and for me, that means eating as I am a stress eater.

I have managed to stay around the same weight for the past year, while this sound good, I should of lost at least another 28lbs in that time (about 8oz a week!). According to all the web sites I checked, I am still obese (either by weight, height calculation or weight, height bmi calculation).

I was asked why if I was not losing weight why I kept going to Slimming World, that is very simple to answer, if I had stopped going to Slimming World then my weight would of gone back to what it was pre-diet. It is that simple, going to the weekly meeting gets me back on the wagon when I have fallen off. There is just simple encouragement to pick yourself up and keep going.

I have the will power of a flea, we did the weekly shopping tonight and it was a damm hard journey around the supermarket, particularly as everytime I stopped with the trolley to let the wife catch up it was always next to the cakes, pies, biscuits or sweets all the things I would love to eat. Got to the kitchen and toilet aisle’s and I walked straight through them without stopping, I wonder why?? It is just so damm tempting to put those wrong foods in the trolley and say just this one.

So the question I asked myself on Tuesday while I drove to Sussex (and back), was what am I going to do about it? I still want to loose the weight, I may have lost around 4.5 stone to date but I still have a long way to go yet to be where I should be so I need to keep going. I need to get\find some will power, I need to try and stop things from stressing me out (I work in IT, it is not going to be easy). I need to learn to say NO! But not to other people, but to myself, I am quite happy to say no to somebody if they offer me a cake, but when it is me asking myself if I should have a late night snack or that bar of chocolate, I normally say yes, which is what has got to stop.

So what have I done this week, everything I have eaten this week has been correct to my diet, even to the point of weighing out the correct amount for me to eat. The wrong thing I have eaten are as follows, 2 crisps (that is individual crisps not packets), 3 chips and a 1/4 of pizza. Yeah real small amounts but I have to say I have eaten them because if I don’t say anything about them I hide them away and convince myself that I have not eaten them and before long I do it again and then again and……………..

I sorely want to loose the weight, I just need to do it……..

As I never rode last weekend I have been out for two evening rides this week which were quite enjoyable. I tried something a little different on both rides, the first ride was a short ride but ridden a little faster than I normally do. The second ride was part of a route I normally ride but done in reverse. I tried riding this a little faster which I think worked. The idea of riding faster was to make myself work a bit harder on the bike. Looking at the weather it looks like it might be the only riding I get this week.

Sunday morning dawned and I was up and out for a ride, did my normal loop around Throop and Hurn and went up to Ashley Heath Country Park and tried a few new bits up there. I did not have the gps with me but I would guess the ride was about 27 miles in all.

Having seen the weather forecast for the rest of the week yesterday I decided to finish early (to compensate for working Saturday morning) and go for a ride yesterday afternoon. I headed for the local heath as I had not been over there for a few weeks and it showed. There was one section of heathland that had been burnt and new greenery was well and truly growing through the black burnt earth already, last time I was over there that area was green heathland. An enjoyable 2hr ride, nothing exciting, just enjoyable.

Last night was weigh in night, I did not go last week as we were supposed to have been returning from a short break (on the Monday), although we did not go away in the end I still decided not to go last week weigh in. So it was with a little trepidation that I got on the scales last night and I was happy to see a pound loss. I need to get something sorted on my weight loss because I just can’t get my head\full commitment into my weight loss at the moment despite wanting to loose more weight.

Tomorrow will be my third day of working from home and I am starting to get cabin fever, Thursday I have to go out for work but fortunately it is not to far away and then on Friday I have the hospital apponitment and then I have a meeting near Southampton.

While my shoulder is getting better, I now have a fairly full range of movement of my right arm now without pain (until I try to either push, pull or carry anything) trying to sleep is a nightmare. The only position I can lie in without pain is on my back but I can’t sleep on my back. Lying on my left side is reasonably comfortable but the position I rest my right arm in soon become uncomfortable and I have to turn over. Well I would turn over if I could, I can’t lie on my right side as my shoulder is still to painful. I have tired lying in various new positions but they feel so alien I can’t get to sleep. Then when I do fall asleep I will turn over in my sleep and then wake up in pain as I turn on to my right side.

We won’t go into Monday nights weigh-in the weight loss went out the window which based on what I ate after Wednesday crash is hardly surprising, just got to try and keep the food intake sensible this week and hope I can get back on the bike Saturday.

I have just swapped the rear wheel over from the Cannondale to the Whyte (fortunately they are both Mavic 717 rims with Hope Pro2 hubs). To be honest the Whyte wheel is not looking to good, I found a another broken spoke (a third) and this one had broken the shoulder off the nipple, it was still stuck in the hole in the rim and it was only when I was checking each spoke that it came away in my hand. Several other spokes felt loose but that maybe because the wheel is out of true, have to wait till see what the LBS says.

In my very infrequent “what dead animal have you seen when riding” column, on Sunday I saw a dead Otter, to be honest I have never seen a live Otter in the wild only in zoo etc. It was at Parley Cross roads a busy local junction, about half a mile from the river. It had obviously had been run over and either crawled of was picked up and dropped onto the grass verge. To be honest I did not know that we had Otters in the area.

Finally another picture from my gallery

Kite buggy racing at Westward Ho!

It was weigh-in night tonight and when I got on the scales they showed a loss, not a big loss but a loss non the less. I was a little disappointed as I had expected a bigger loss having ridden the last three days, I have had no easter eggs or hot cross buns, but hey a loss off any amount is better than a gain.

I rode through the golf club car park and stopped at the top of the trail, removed my cycle helmet, switched the Veho on and then hit the trail, I then spent a couple of hours riding around the heath dodging the fire engines. Apparently the local chavs had tried to set the heath on fire (which they do with regular occurrence), I could smell it but never actually saw the fire (or smoke). I actually managed to cycle through the clay pit (a small section of muddy\clay area along side a pond) where the Fire Brigade Landrover was being winched out after getting stuck much to the amusement of the Firemen.

Here a video of the early part of the ride, I have more including the above Clay bit section still to edit.

Saturday was another great days and another great ride again on the Cannondale, more XC this time as I crossed the local heath, crossed the main road into Delph woods and then on to the Castleman trail to Upton House and back. Not sure of the exact distances as I was using my phone GPS and it said that the signal had been interrupted several times but it recorded a total of 20.3miles. Along with the 12 or so miles on Thursday my butt was letting me know that it did not like the unsprung rear end of the Cannondale.

Sunday sort of fell apart. I had intended to get up early go for a ride and then get back in time to watch the start of the Formula 1, well as I never got out of bed early enough, so I decided to watch the F1 and then go riding when it finished. As I am watching the F1 wife decides that she needs to go to Poole so I postpone the ride to take the wife to Poole. Unfortunately we only got about 50yds down the road before I found the car had a flat tyre. Now have you ever tried find an open tyre centre on a Sunday?? Thankfully the third tyre depot we tried was open, unfortunately it also seemed to be the most popular tyre centre in the area, we left 2.5hrs later. After returning from Poole it was case of eating lunch, it was now a bit warm for a ride so I opted for a late afternoon ride. From a heat point of view the timing was perfect, it was lovely and cool, but from a fly catching point of view it was a nightmare. every time I opened my mouth to gasp for air I was swallowing midges & flies. While my butt was ok with the ride (I took the Whyte, my legs felt quite heavy by the end of the ride.

Tonight was weigh-in night and tonight was a loss night, now just have to stick to the straight and narrow till next Monday.

Since Monday I have been fighting Trojans, or to be more precise, fake Trojans. The type that pop up a fake security warning saying you have 20,000 infections on your PC, enter your bank card details below and watch us empty your bank account!! Just a pain in the arse to deal with (goes well with the pain in the groin).

Well last night was weigh in night and it was a loss. Bit of a surprise really after what I ate of Friday and Saturday, but hey I will take it. Just need to get my mind into gear and get into a new number (e.g. 16st area).

As spring has sprung (and despite the forecast rain tomorrow) here is a view of summer for you.

Sunset over Poole Harbour

Last night was weigh in night and I managed to get a small loss, all of half a pound, but a loss is a loss. I think the low loss of the past couple of weeks is down to eating to much bread. I normally only have bread at lunch times, normally only a couple of slices one or two times a week. But last few weeks it has been more like 5 or 6 times a week. So going to watch how much bread I eat this week and see how it goes.

After the weekends credit card scam attempt I phoned the company concerned and asked them about the comments I had been reading about the problems on bike forums. They were well aware of what had been written and while not admitting there was a problem they did say their systems were being checked by independent security consultants. Now I am not saying that there is a problem with this companies security but there is to much smoke for there not to be a fire, so if you have purchased items on-line from Chain Reaction Cycles, then keep an eye on your credit or debit card accounts or better still cancel them and get new cards issued.

Not a lot else planned for this week, was thinking about going for a ride tonight but lack of planning (read not putting the battery pack for the light on charge) and not feeling great killed that idea, so it look like only two rides at the weekend. Saturday’s ride will be an out early affair so that I am back in time to sort the bike out and then make myself comfortable for the 6 nations rugby climax on Saturday afternoon

Went for a couple of rides at the weekend, the ride on Saturday was not until late afternoon as I had to replace the bearings in the headset which a local bike shop had cocked up. Not impressed when I found out what the cause of the problem was. I should of gone back to the shop but I just don’t have the enthusiasm to argue with them, better of sorting out the problem myself, avoiding the shop and getting on with life.

The ride was a bit of a disaster as I started to suffer from chain suck, not the best thing to happen in the middle of the forest in the pitch black, so I cut the ride short and headed for home, still managed around 16 miles. That is the last ride on the Canondale now until the bottom bracket and crank are replaced. Sundays ride was out in the New Forest, my legs were feeling a bit heavy from the ride the night before, added to that the mud I found in places, it was hard work. Did not help when I took a wrong turn and ended up having to walk through a bog, still managed 17.6 miles.

Dentist early this morning for root canal round 2, the gunk he put in my tooth on the last visit to kill the nerve worked as I could not feel him drilling it out. Then he found the third nerve which was very much alive so the dentist filled my tooth with gunk again and I have to go back in about 4 weeks to have the third nerve removed.

Yesterday there was no riding, as forecast it rained and the wind blew. I spent yesterday morning servicing my DMR V8 pedal from the Cannondale. I had to stand the bike in the rain to remove the pedals as there no room to put the bike on the floor in the shed (bike normally hangs on the wall). I had intended to set the new chain up on the bike (actually measure the chain to ensure it is the correct length. But with the bike dripping wet from standing in the rain I was told in no uncertain terms the bike was not allowed into the kitchen, so that a job for one night in the week. I spent yesterday afternoon editing a bit of video I took with my Muvi Digital Camera. Editing the film was easy, trying to get the film into a format I wanted was a pain in the arse but I got it sorted in the end.

Unfortunately I ran out of time to upload it last night and as I had intended to post it in my blog I never got to write this blog. So I started the upload this evening when I got back from Slimming World, well at least I though I had. Checked the PC 40 minute later 0% uploaded, seem like the upload process fell over before it started. So I restarted it and it is going quite slowly and has another 45 minutes to go as I type so it has missed tonight blog post, ho hum.

When I got up this morning and lifted the blind over the window I realised that the car had not moved off the drive since Friday night, don’t ask me why it came to me at that moment as I don’t have a clue. In fact I only went out the house on Sunday to go to the shed, when the daughter came in from work at 4 o’clock we had to unlock the front door for her as it was still locked from where she had locked it when she left for work at 8 o’clock yesterday morning.

Then there is the cycling, I need to find the balance of the right food to eat (and drink) before and during a ride. I am ok going at my pace on a 25miler, but if I try a longer ride or I ride at a faster pace then I start to get problems with my calf and thigh muscles. Tomorrow I am hoping to do the same ride as I did the other week out to Moors Valley and back but I intend to ride the complete cycle trail at Moors Valley this time rather than start a 1/3 of the way round. The extra bit riding to the start of the trail and then the extra third should see me over the 30 mile mark. But my thighs tighten up last time and I ended up riding quite slowly. Tomorrow I want to also do the ride quicker than I did the last time, that means I can expect my muscle problems.

Now I know a lot of the food to eat prior to riding and during the ride, but two favourites I hate, Porridge and banana’s and they are pretty good diet wise as well. So there are two out the so called best energy foods out the windows to start with. Other favourites like energy drink and energy bars are not exactly diet friendly, which is ok on the one hand as I will burn them off, but I want to burn the stored energy I am carrying around with me. I don’t want to take on-board the calories before or during the ride just so I can go the distance. I have several idea’s in my head for food tomorrow, which one I will choose I don’t know, you will have to read my blog tomorrow to find out.