Monday 15 February 2010

Resistance Training.

I have a forthcoming trip out with some mates who are all dirty mountain bikers, I mean that in a nice way they are friends who just happen to like riding their bikes in dirt.

I will be borrowing a bike from one of them and attaching my road pedals, and to ensure that I stand out a mile wearing a big white Giro road helmet.  So the last thing I want to do is get left behind huffing and puffing up a muddy hill.  So for the next 3 weeks there will be training of some sort (nearly) every day.

Todays opportunity came in the form of a cafe ride / resistance training.  Sarah had taken our eldest to a party so Sammy was lashed to the back of her bike and off we went to feed the ducks.

I once had to attach this seat to my old road frame and take him out, it made for an interesting ride with the front wheel permanently off the ground.

No such problem on the Trek.  Having raised the seat up to the limit of the post and filled my jacket pockets with teddy bears we were off.

This bike is surprising, its fast over the ground and handles confidently and quickly, even loaded up in this way.  At first the riding position felt odd but comfortable, by the time we got home my butt was killing me, perhaps I should have swapped the saddle over.

As predicted Sammy was asleep after a couple of miles so I rode straight past the ducks, off down the river and a loop around our local nature reserve and back to the ducks upon his waking.

After much fattening with seed and talking about last nights Chinese New Year dinner of crispy duck pancakes in ear shot of them it was off to Starbucks to warm up with a coffee and a marshmallow lollipop.

By the time we got home almost 12 miles had been covered and I was glad of the triple on a couple of occasions.  Whilst your riding along you cant really tell he is on the back, when you stop gravity seems to have twice the pull of normal and tries its level best to get the bike to the floor!

So another 12 miles in the legs, a week of evening turbo to come and if the weather holds perhaps some local hill repeats, just not with a child for resistance.

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