With a static sportive, a successful search for London Hills, some magic bending and an eventful cycle in Hertfordshire this week has been a bit of an epic.

Monday 5th April
Putney, not Ibiza

Easter bank holiday today and what better way to celebrate it than with a 1 ½ hour special at the spin studio! The weather was predicted to be awful, as it the British bank holiday tradition, so the studio have created a longer class to simulate a sort of Pedal Studio Mini-Sportive. Chris and I cycled down to the studio which was about 10 miles, a nice warm-up.

So, on what actually turned out to be a sunny day I found myself alongside 11 other loons cycling like nutters listening to some pretty eclectic but very awesome music. When they play particularly good dance tunes in spin class I often find myself reflecting on days gone by, clubbing in Ibiza and drinking beers at dawn… before being snapped back into reality by a glance at the steamy windows and the whir of spinning wheels. I am not in Ibiza, I am in Putney, sigh.

You can see from my print out that that epic session alone equated to nearly 4 cream eggs, which is eggcellent. Pedal Studio Sportive

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Katie’s Uphill Battle – Week 8 – clocks, bras, doubles and a VERY long ride

Katie’s Uphill Battle – Week 7 – White Week

Katie’s Uphill Battle – Week 6 – Back in the old routine

Katie’s Uphill Battle – Week 5 – officially back in the saddle!

Katie’s Uphill Battle – Week 4 – on the mend…

Katie’s Uphill Battle – Week 3 – disaster strikes!

Katie’s Uphill Battle – Week 2 – a world of pain…

Katie’s Uphill Battle – Week 1

Katie’s Uphill Battle – Getting Started

Katie’s Uphill Battle – Training Plan Etape Caledonia

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Wednesday 7th April
Hills in London?

Click here for My Route of Hills In London

There is something of a fixed gear revolution in London and one of the strongest arguments in their favour is that London is flat, so you don’t need gears. This is pretty much true, unless you live in Muswell Hill or Hampstead. In light of that I headed off to both those places this morning in search of some steepness.

You can see my route by clicking on the link above. It worked pretty well and I definitely found some OK climbs, the two best hills were down the side of Hampstead Heath and the infamous Muswell Hill (well known on the London cycle circuit as the best hill in London). Both were steep but both were doable, I think next time I’ll aim to do repetitions of those two hills and cut out the rest of the ride.

I was looking at my map and a fellow cyclist asked if I needed some help. I told him I was looking for hills. His response was, ‘Looking for hills at 7am on a Wednesday morning? That’s dedication!’ yeah right, or madness (although I secretly felt quite proud).

Ride Summary:
Distance: 21.55 Miles
Average Speed: 13.5 Mph
Ride Duration: 1 hour 35

Thursday 8th April
Yoga for Cyclists

Everyone knows how important stretching is and pretty much nobody does enough. With this in mind I have found what sounds absolutely brilliant, ‘Yoga for Cyclists’, its at bodywise, in East London.

I have signed up for a full course of six weeks and started tonight. The class went through the basics such as correct breathing, and worked a lot of basic postures. The posture work was very varied using ropes, bricks, partners and chairs in order to help you get familiar with the correct position. I am sure this will help hugely over the duration of the course. The teacher, Rebecca Bogue, a cyclist herself was really thorough in going around the class and checking everyone so I felt confident that what I was doing was right (I haven’t always found this in yoga classes!)

My calves were obviously not very happy about the ‘yoga for cyclists’ situation but that is a good sign of just how much I needed to get into this class and give my body a break from the repetitions of turning those wheels and take some big deep breaths…

Saturday 10th April
Hertfordshire Hills

Click here for our route of Hills in Hertforshire

So this week’s big ride took Chrissy and I to Hertfordshire, once again in search of elusive hills. My friend Andy had signed up to join us too. You can see our route by clicking on the link above.

The weather was amazing and the route was great, with quite a few rolling hills exactly what we were looking for. Sadly probably not what Andy was looking for as he had borrowed a hybrid for the ride, the bike weighed about the same as Chrissy and my bikes put together – hills were, a struggle to put it mildly. He did amazingly well though against the odds of his tractor like contraption until, just about eight miles from home, we lost him…

One moment he was there, chugging away at the pedals and the next moment he was gone. We went back to the last point that we had seen him, which was unfortunately a double roundabout – eight possible options as to where he could have gone. We circled the roundabouts, we waited. I had his phone, his keys, his wallet and his malt loaf. Andy was alone, suffering somewhere in the back streets of Barnet with nothing but a heavy bike and his wits. What to do?

So, we did the only thing we could do. We went home praying that I’d find him sitting on my doorstep when I got there. Arrived home, no Andy. Waited… no Andy. Called his flatmate to see if he’d turned up at his house… not there. As the story of what had happened rippled around our friendship group Andy was still lost and his reputation as a super fit, macho man was in tatters.

“Why doesn’t he have his phone?”

“I’ve got it”

“Why have you got it?”

“Because I was carrying his bag.”

“Why were you carrying his bag?”

“Because he was struggling a bit….”

After an hour and a half there was a knock on my door, the wanderer had returned! Full of hilarious stories documenting his mission back to Hackney. He looked like a broken man but was in high spirits never the less. After some epic eating I packed him and the hybrid in a taxi back to West London. Will he ever ride out with us again? Maybe, but I think he is talking about buying a new bike.

Ride Summary:
Distance: 56.41 Miles
Average speed: 13.8 miles
Time Duration: 4:03 (not including waiting time…)
Riders at start: 3
Riders at end: 2

Katie Gormley, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine