Strikebuster! I ride to work and back!

It's not often that I miss a week or two on the blog, but as desperate readers must be thinking, where IS he? Well, I'm here. I haven't gone away. In fact, the week before last, due to the train strike, I managed to ride into work from Tuesday to Friday, roughly 25 miles per day... and the weather was absolutely perfect, arguably too hot, especially on the the hilly return ride. Normally, riding to work is a bit of a pain and can be fairly stressful when you consider that the threat of puncture always looms large and it's the last thing I want when I'm riding in; on the return journey it's a little less threatening but probably worse as I'm tired from a day at work and looking forward to getting home to relax. But fortunately, no punctures, in fact, nothing was wrong with the bike at all so I was, if you like, blessed with good fortune.

The bike in an empty car park ready for the ride home...

The weekend prior to the train strike I didn't cycle anywhere because I was going away for a night, down to darkest East Sussex. I didn't ride on the Saturday morning to Oxted and then, because I woke up in a hotel on Sunday morning, no riding on Sunday either. But then I more than made up for it the following Tuesday (day one of the train strike) when I rode to Redhill through Whyteleafe, Caterham and Chaldon. The ride in, as I've said before, was a piece of cake, mainly because most of it is downhill, but not until I've cleared Whyteleafe Hill, which is not too bad, it's just long and dragged out. But once at the top and once having turned right just beyond a small park, the rest of the ride is plain sailing along Stansted Road, into Chaldon and then down White Hill Lane, turning right on to Springbottom Lane and then left and straight on, over the motorway and into Merstham. In fact, riding down White Hill Lane is arguably the most dangerous part of the ride because the downhill is fast and there are a few twists and turns and then I have to slow the bike down and make a right turn.

Sign for Route 21... no, not today!

Once into Merstham it's pretty much plain sailing through the village and then along Frenchies Road into Redhill. When I arrive at work I can shower in the office and then, refreshed, walk up the two flights of stairs to the office feeling energised and ready for the working day. The best bit about riding to the office (when the weather is good) is that I get excited about the ride home. It's great knowing that all I have to do is walk downstairs, unpadlock the bike, jump on and ride home. I can even let the folks at home know the exact time that I will return (barring hassles like a puncture) as it takes roughly one hour and 15 minutes to get home, give or take. The problem with the return ride is the hills. I encounter them just outside of Merstham on the Warwick Wold Road leading up to the bridge across the motorway and they continue from there. The first big one is White Hill Lane: dangerous riding down and bloody hard work cycling the other way. Oddly it's little more than around five minutes of pain and then it's over. Suddenly I'm approaching the Harrow pub in Chaldon and all is well. As the week progressed I got better and better at climbing up White Hill Lane, although on one day I decided to seek out Hexstalls Lane, a gravelly road that bypasses the hill and deposits me right at the top on War Coppice Road which leads down to the Harrow pub. But all that gravel worries me: what if I get a puncture? As I said earlier, it's the last thing I need on the ride home, even if the sun is shining.

Cycling over the motorway, with more hills to come...

On the Friday of the week of riding to the office I only rode in. I left the bike in the office over the weekend due to a calamity that needed immediate attention but then rode the bike home the following Monday and, much to my amazement – after another weekend of not riding the bike – I sailed up White Hill Lane. It was odd as I saw another cyclist a few yards ahead of me on a racing bike. I watched as he stood up and pedalled his way to the top and so decided that I would adopt the same practice. I found it worked well and realised that I'd conquered the hill and that it would never be a major problem for me again. I put this down to two things: one was all those rides to Oxted and the ride back up Titsey Hill; these rides would have put me in a good position for the pain of White Hill Lane. Two, the fact that I'd been riding on four consecutive days to Redhill and back meant that I was accustomed to the hill by the end of the week so when I tackled it on the Monday, having not cycled in to Redhill (which must have helped) I took the whole thing in my stride.

Reaching the top of White Hill Lane

White Hill Lane, however, is not the only nasty incline on the return ride, there's also Tithepit Shaw Lane. On the Monday evening I decided to stand up for as along as I could and change down as the hill reached its steepest point; this proved a great success and once over I felt the relief of knowing there were no more hills and that I would be home within around 10-15 minutes. 

On one of the days, I think it was the first Tuesday, the day of the strike, when I reached home I felt tremendously energised. So energised in fact that I set about making myself a homemade pasta and sauce (basically fusilli with chopped tomato, red pepper and onion. I ate the lot.

Ever since returning from Prague, where I started drinking green tea, I started to watch my diet a little bit and soon I was down to 12st 7lbs. I had weighed around 13 stone and wasn't happy so it was good to jump on the scales and find myself half a stone lighter, which I put down to not eating more than two to three slices of bread per day and trying my best not to eat between meals. By and large I've laid off the cakes too, although over the weekend just past I did eat a few chocolate digestives (at my mum's) and some digestives and a slice of chocolate cake (at my mother-in-law's). Not ideal, but then last night I didn't eat a big meal. Today (it's Monday and I was going to ride in, but will probably ride tomorrow morning depending on how I feel) I had Alpen and fresh fruit with yoghurt for breakfast, no toast, and mug of green tea. I made myself a tuna and mayo sandwich, just the one and that's all I've eaten today so far (it's now just gone 5pm and I'm about to go home, albeit on the train. I would like to get my weight down to around 12st, just over perhaps, but that would be enough.

Queen's Park in Caterham, I think that's what it's called...

On Sunday I rode to Westerham to meet Andy who told me all about his ride to and from Cornwall. We sat on the green sipping tea for around one hour talking about the ride and I must say the whole thing was inspiring. I'm pleased for Andy as he broke his hip, you might recall, earlier in the year, but was determined to ride to Cornwall and he did, so respect is due, top man and all that. I would like to have a crack at a longer ride, perhaps a trip to the south coast, but I'm not going to commit to anything as I have enough travelling to do in my job as it is. Avid readers will know that over the past month of so I've been first to Pittsburgh in the USA and then to Prague in the Czech Republic. There's a trip to Sweden and Finland coming up so I don't want to be away for longer than I have to, but a one-day ride to Felpham would work, I'll just have to see if an opportunity arises.

The last hill of the ride... and it ain't a walk in the park!