Chisel says...: Starting to train for the London Bikeathon

Being slightly sensible for once in my life I've decided to do a little training for the Bikeathon in September.

Nothing super serious ... but I needed to get from short 5-10km rides up to distances closer to the 42km I'm aiming to cycle.

My first longer ride was with some of the cyclist from work. One thing I learned on the ride was that it's really difficult to keep up with three road bikes on a hybrid. Especially when after having barely cycled anywhere in six months.

Richmond Park - May 2013

Cycling to, and round, Richmond Park

It was my first real self-test of myself and my bike since picking it up a week earlier. I didn't do too badly at keeping up on the journey to the park, mostly thanks to traffic and junctions slowing them down.

Once the road bikes hit the amazing roads in Richmond Park it was impossible for me to keep up. I didn't have the legs, or the gears.

I didn't mind seeing them disappear off into the distance as they were really good at waiting for me to catch up at sensible points round the park.

The guys kept talking about this tough, short uphill stretch. About 5-10 minutes into the park I was cycling up Sawyer's Hill thinking they were right, it's a tough one.

Cycling home after a
well-deserved drink

Gathering my breath again at the roundabout I discovered that was just "a hill" and I still had the beast to look forward to - Dark Hill. That was one short, sharp steep beast that felt like it was never going to end ... and we went the 'easy way' from Kingston Gate.

Thankfully I was rewarded with a long downhill section to recover from the climb. After that we completed our lap of the park and headed back out of the park ... stopping off near the Wetland Centre for a well earned pint or two.

Afterwards I took a somewhat inefficient route back home.