As you may have guessed from the title of this blog, it's not just about our car. 2013 was a good year for me as far as cycling goes. I've been into it for a while. Now of course I was into it as a kid (I think most people have memories of bikes as Christmas presents when they are young don't they?) but generally cars win out once you reach your late teens and your bike ends up rusting away in your parents' garden shed. My love affair was rekindled after an unfortunate/irresponsible brush with the South Wales traffic police in 2002, when I was forced back onto 2 wheels during a 28-day driving ban. When I realised that wasn't too painful I kept the bike in use and then a few years later did some off-road mountain biking with friends at Cannock Chase, something which eventually encouraged me to splash out on a nice shiny 30th birthday present for myself, a Specialized Rockhopper. That got some good use, both on the roads and the mud, but it was a purely seasonal affair. On the few occasions that I tried cycling in the winter I quickly decided it was far too cold and wet to be a regular thing. I briefly flirted with a road bike but storage issues once I moved up to Glasgow ended that, and I kept with only the mountain bike. Unfortunately though, the rider was becoming a mountain himself. A few long rides in the summer often ended in premature asthmatic crawls home and
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| "The results have been increbidle" |
off-roading was particularly embarrassing. I was seriously overweight and unfit, and something needed to change. In early March 2013 I dusted the bike off and did a short ride, 2 or 3 slow miles, and enough was enough. Amy & I had both decided we needed to lose weight, her Slimming World book was dug out, we pledged to eat healthily for as long as was necessary, and once I'd lost a few pounds I got back on the bike to try and improve my fitness too. My the end of May I'd cycled 120 miles and lost a stone, by the end of August it was nearly 2 stone, and I'd upped my cycling to about 550 miles. One of the catalysts for really racking up the miles was that I'd starting using a phone app called Strava, which tracks how far you cycle and works out your average speed as well as timing you over certain popular sections of your route. This makes every cycle ride very competitive, you're
always trying to better times and eek out more miles each week and month, comparing your rides to those of your friends. Around that time, buoyed up by the addictiveness of Strava, I'd started cycling to work fairly regularly and my mountain bike was proving to be less than ideal for the amount of road riding I was doing, not to mention it also being quite slow, so my work's Cycle to work scheme came in handy to get myself a hybrid road bike (mountain bike shape but with thinner road tyres). So I got myself the very funky Charge Grater. This meant that my mountain bike was reserved for off-roading only, which suits me fine, seeing as there are a number of excellent places to get muddy within a couple of hours drive of Glasgow. With the combination of on and off-road cycling I was able to push on to 3 stone of weight lost by Christmas, with over 1200 miles cycled, despite the fact that the light and warmth of summer had long gone. I guess now I'm prepared (although not always happy) to cycle in the wind, rain and cold, and of course dark. Ice brings its problems, but luckily the snow hasn't hit yet though. I'm commuting 2-3 times a week, 6.6 miles each way. If I wasn't able to get a shower at work then this wouldn't of course be as attractive an option, but as it stands I reckon I've lost my "fair-weather cyclist" tag. My aim is to get to the year mark, early March 2014, having reached a weight and size I'm happy with, and at that point I should hopefully have reached 1600 miles (which sounds more impressive as 2500km!)
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| Charge Grater hybrid bike at Draycote Water, Warwickshire |
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| Lean mean winter rider (with embarrassing but v sensible clothing) |
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| Specialized Rockhopper MTB at the Cathkin Braes trails near Glasgow |
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