I'll be honest, last week was a pretty difficult one mainly due to all of the rain. I mostly chickened out of cycling outside and relied on spin classes at the gym at Brockwell Lido. Spin classes are pretty high intensity so i figured they would count a bit! There are lots of different people who run the spin classes all of whom have a different style which at least keeps it interesting. '6.45am on a Monday morning man' is extremely sweet and generally chuffed that anyone has made it there at that time in the morning. He doesn't shout at us too much, I think partly because like us he is still trying to wake up. Still, he works us pretty hard and a banging remix of "smack your B***h up by the prodigy at that time of the morning is sure to wake you up. Then there is 'super fit and super enthusiastic Wednesday evening lady' who likes to call us all 'team' and makes us pretend we're racing her up some horrendous hills.She's of the shouting variety which I didn't think I'd like but she sure does keep you going. I wish I had her energy! The masterplan was to go out for a proper ride on Saturday but instead I decided to spend much of Saturday drinking tea, watching Dr Who episodes on BBC Iplayer (other online TV players are available) and plotting my inevitable marriage to David Tennant (whether he likes/knows about it). The punishment for this laziness was that I had to instead go cycling on Sunday. Sunday. The weather on sunday was, as Andrew Marr described it on his eponymous TV show as I ate my porridge, "unutterably disgusting", and I hummed and hawed for some time before biting the bullet and heading out into the wind and rain. Thankfully, just the week before I had received two items in the post which make the experience much more bearable! Looky!
A rather attracive SealSkinz Skull cap. Wind and water proof! With wee holes where your ears are so you can still hear. Fancy. NOT to be worn on its own at any time if you want to retain any kind of style.
And these bad boys, which I think are my favourite things in the world right now. Granted, they are a pair of socks and cost £25 but they are waterproof AND thermal. YEAH! Since I've started cycling again one of my major issues has been getting completely numb toes within about two minutes of getting on my bike despite usually wearing at least three pairs of socks. Not aided by the fact that my cycling shoes have handy vents. Great for the summer. Not great for the chilly winter! These socks are AMAZING.
So, despite it chucking it down and blowing a gale, after two hours on my bike on Sunday I still had toasty warm and dry feet and head. The rest of me was soaking and freezing mind you but small victories....
Now that I know that I won't come to a soggy and cold end if I go out cycling in the rain I have NO excuse and this week I'm on a serious mission. One spin class down and planning a proper ride on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. You can give me a good row if I don't.
Anyway, thanks for reading! And don't forget to sponsor us! Every £10 donated will help Book Aid International to send five books to libraries in Africa, like the one at Petit Dan and Sarah Orphanage in Cameroon....
“Our library has been so useful for the children in our school, but also for people in the surrounding area. We have many children’s books but you have given us especially good books in higher education topics such as linguistics and biology.... This has given us the opportunity to reach out to many more people. We thank you very very much for this programme to support libraries like ours, because it is so widely used” Ms. Jeanne Veronique Atsam, Director
Thanks!
Lesley
p.s Frank is still in house moving mode but he's moved to the bonny Borders and will have many fantastic and scenic roads to train on. He'll no doubt update us all soon!
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