Team Member: Kay Bowen
36 year old Kay from Southampton is a very active person. She overcame thyroid cancer last year which has inspired her to try a whole host of new activities, including sailing, tennis, skiing and triathlons. As a triathlete, she already does a lot of cycling, but is keen to work on this aspect of her training. Her goals are to sustain longer distances and to go on a cycling holiday
My Garmin now tells a tale – I am uploading my rides and runs and will soon be able to repeat them to see how I am improving, although I can feel I am improving, without looking at zones or heart rates – hills that were a struggle now being a joy, and new hills tackled without fear. Despite the freak northern weather (rain) I have got out there and enjoyed the time on the bike, with some exploring of new lanes and routes, including a unusual flat bit of road in the Meon Valley, where I spotted 3 other cyclists. I am getting quite good, I think, at perfecting the nod of recognition, slight smile and secret handshake required from the brotherhood of road bikers. I even smile at mountain bikers – hope that’s ok with everyone?
One exciting ride down a hill on my homeward stretch involved 3 ladies tacking (excuse my mixed sporting metaphors) up the hill across its entire width, quickly followed by 2 fast cars, a deer running alongside me and a horse and cart. Somehow the Garmin told me my heart rate was too low – surely not with all that excitement to contend with? Looking at the stats, it dropped to 40bpm, which is beep worthy as my resting is 60. Clearly Garmin have figured out that I might be dead, or near to, and its worth beeping me – but could they send a 999 call with my exact position if it drops that low again?
I finally went along to the swim club training at Esporta on Tuesday night, and loved the drills and pushed myself to swim well and fast. Well, as well and as fast as I can, and still breath and have fun. I am looking forward to building that in to my weekly program. I also got my money’s worth out of my gym membership by fixing up a hour with Andy, one of the gym staff, who has a more progressive approach to exercise that I love – we went out in the rain to run around the car park so I could try out being more ‘centred’ in my running. Essentially, his philosophy is to enjoy moving your body, to love what you are doing and be in the moment, not desperate to reach a goal. This almost spiritual sense of the value of exercise resonates with me and I will book in another chat and wonder time with Andy – a real find of a mentor.
I got a puncture at the end of a ride – and Rob sat me down with tyre levers and an inner tube and I wrestled with them for nearly half an hour but I did it. Finally getting my hands dirty!
And to finish the week – a 3 hour Evans Ride It! from Liphook in Hampshire. I was doing the ‘fun’ route ( 17 miles) with 9 year old Hannah. Unfortunately the choice of route was not much fun for the first 6 miles, being on fast country lanes with a lot of traffic. The rest of the route was fine, lots of ups and downs and I kept Hannah going by shouting out our top speeds down hills, but she needed a lot of support. Road riding with her is not much fun for me – I am so worried about the speed of traffic and am trying to protect her all the time. I found the area a bit of a rat run for Chelsea tractors, to be honest, and would have been better off taking her out at home. Evans meet and greet was good, but still no goodie bag at the end – how about an Evans branded mug with a free tea or coffee inside it guys? Cheap, free advertising and would raise the events from ‘does the job’ to ‘ah – they care!’
Who are Team Cycling Plus?
Team Cycling Plus powered by Verenti are readers Andy Ward, Kay Bowen, Malcolm Ratcliffe and Sam Shaw. We’ll be following them in the magazine for the next few months as they train towards their personal cycling goals under the guidance of Team Wiggle’s Ben Simmons and we will be publishing their weekly trials and tribulations here too. For regular updates check our twitter page and the Team Cycling Plus facebook page.
This entry was posted on Friday, August 27th, 2010 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Blog, Cycling Plus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
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