#festive500 This week has been really hard work. We started with a little warm up on Sunday riding to John and Gill's for Sunday roast, a short 15km with a long lunch break in the middle, plus a blowy walk on the beach.
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/162090234

Christmas eve we started in earnest, a 50km ride with Mike from Totnes to Dartmouth via Paignton, Kingswear and a short ferry crossing. A quick pasty lunch, then on back via the coast to Torcross, where there was a huge flood to cross.
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/162089190

On Christmas day we rode to Totnes for our Crimbo with the family. 23.5km
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/162098060 

On Boxing day James and I spent the evening riding a lovely 50km route across into the Ermington valley, then up to South Brent, before bombing back down towards Modbury and home
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/162102180

Thursday was a very easy day - we met with Mike, Rosie, Maz, Rem and the boys at Haldon forest for a mountainbike ride - this was amazing fun, but we barely covered any real distance, approx 26km. The trails were everything the should be, wet, wild and bumpy.

On Friday, Mike, Rosie, James and I headed out to Dartmoor to cover some more miles. The weather was about as bad as you can get, gale force winds, rain, wet roads and 20% climbs all made for a ride to remember. I pushed up a few of the hills after a while, my legs were turning to jelly and I was struggling to keep my front wheel on the road. On the descents the wind was so strong we still had to pedal to keep going, it really was something else. We had a long lunch stop in Princetwon while we waited for the weather to clear, it didn't, but this was an opportunity to dry off and warm up before heading back out. The drop down off the moor had very poor visibilty, but then we dropped down into the valleys through the rain and the ride became much nicer. the total distance covered was 115km, phew!!!
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/161989732

Today, Jimbo and I headed back into the Ermington valley for an easy 100km - looking at the stats afterwards it had a lot more climbing than we thought - a total of 2382ft, phew!!
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/162083936

Tomorrow, there's more to cover, my calculations say that we have 1 remaining 120km, can't wait to get my roundel for all this hard work!

Rapha Festive 500 challenge, Christmas eve to New Years eve 2012

Well, here it is, I've been putting off committing to a physical challenge all year and now I've found it - James and I are going to take part in the Rapha Festive 500 challenge.
Earlier this year I went a bit quiet on my blog and since then have been super busy - too busy even to share what I've been up to. I ended up working for Rapha on a top secret project for 5 months. This meant that finally I would have a stint of career-time in London, where I met some amazing and inspirational people, and also that I got to ride my bike to work every single day without being considered odd! I absolutely loved every minute, even the rush hour argey bargey with London taxis and buses, and my bike handling and road confidence shot sky high.
Unfortunately my beloved and well mileaged Specialized Tricross sport became a casualty of London when some oik decided to prematurely end our relationship. This was incredibly hard to come to terms with as I was suddenly destined to tunnel underground with all the other miserable looking commuters day after day to get to work. My contract came to an end, so I decided to treat myself to a much swankier bike, and so I took delivery of my amazing Ridley Orion, much more of a bike than I actually needed for such a commute, but perfect for eating up the holiday season miles.
Tomorrow we start - 500kms of currently pretty flooded Devon roads, hopefully the rain will stay away, but if not, no big deal, I love riding in the rain and while everyone else is locked up indoors stuffing their faces we'll be out in the elements having fun, fun, fun!
http://www.rapha.cc/festive-500

My favourite riding products....

http://www.2xushop.co.uk/triathlon/nhrange/wt2059b.html

These were my absolute fave until I ripped them on some velcro, very upset ;-( but now I've pinched James' new pair of compression shorts (below), they are super comfy and I love them. The pad is not too big (always a grumble of mine - I hate big pads, like wearing a nappy!!) and they are long enough in the leg too, brilliant!!
http://www.2xu.com/product/750/Compression-Cycle-Short/280

Gloves: I really want a pair of these, they look so cool!
http://www.rapha.cc/grand-tour-gloves

I love this new running jersey from Salomon - I have an older version and it rocks........ coveting time!!

http://www.salomon.com/uk/product/exo-s-lab-ss-zip-tech-tee-m.html
and of course, I can't wait to get one of these from Rapha - so beautiful!!

http://www.rapha.cc/womens-lightweight-jersey-1

I also quite want one of these for my more feminine days:

http://www.ananichoola.co.uk/syr/blue-cafe-jersey-dress

 Oh, and last but not least, I really LOVE this bag:

http://www.timbuk2.com/tb2/products/d-lux-laptop-messenger-racingstripe

June already!!!

Hey, so I've not been on for a while, been a little busy and totally stuck in with my new job at Rapha, which is a brilliant challenge.

Just completed the Wales Sportive (72m) with my bro and his mates this weekend and ramping up to some bigger challenges to come. I am hoping to be able to compete at the Bearded man  3 day event: http://blackmountains3day.co.uk ,  but can't afford to enter yet, gutted, as this is where James and I got married back in 2008 - maybe it' one for our 5yr anniversary instead!! James is talking about me joining him for Cape Epic 2013, http://www.cape-epic.com, very keen to give this a go as it'll be a real grrrrrrr event! and I'm still really keen to go 24hr solo mtb at some point..... just need to pick the right race to 'break me in' so to speak.

I am loving riding my bike around London right now, it's a real adrenaline boost before a day in the office and it's helping my MTB skills alot too, I'm finding that I'm not putting my foot down so much and can get through anything, plus, having nothing technical to ride here makes me more daring when we cycle at weekends, I'll drop down almost anything now - I've finally grown some nuts (not sure on that one!!) My lovely hand-me-down Felt is after a much needed strip down, clean up and re-spray, which got me daydreaming about the new Focus Raven 29er 1.0 - it's beautiful: http://www.focus-bikes.com/int/en/bikes/bikes-2012/category/mtb-hardtail-11/subcategory/29r/model/raven-29r-10.html , well, I can dream can't I?

Also since Ironman I've got my eye on a Specialized Ruby Elite, also a beautiful bike: http://www.specialized.com/gb/gb/bikes/road/ruby/rubyelitecompact , top it all off with some Rapha kit (I wish!) and I'll be the most pro female rider I know!! http://www.rapha.cc/womens-grand-tour-gloves

I'm planning with James for once we've both finished our stints in London, to have a cycling adventure - a coastal ride, eg; fly into Seville and out of Barcelona and ride between, or maybe fly to Nice and out of Pisa perhaps........ just really need some freewheeling cycling time with my hubby to loo forward to soon ;-)

2012 challenge

Happy New Year (think I can still say that!) After a very long break it is time to get back on the ball, or my bike  and decide what my challenge is going to be for 2012, this, for me, seems to be the hardest thing about a race!! I know that I LOVED doing Ironman distance, so going long is definately for me. Trouble is, there are so many races out there that I don't know what to do, so here is my bucket list.. please help me decide....

http://www.thebrutal.co.uk/single_iron.html

http://blackmountains3day.co.uk/

http://www.cxtri.com/

http://www.inferno.ch/index.php?page=270


More suggestions to come, and welcomed    ;-)