My Firsts:

[Cannondale Lady]

I'd tell the doc that you're getting much more exercise now, it's supposed to be good for blood pressure. Yes, legs will get stronger and the heart will get stronger too.

As for climbing, I found it helped to think of an appropriate bit of music. (this was exactly what was playing in my head at the time). I found it a tough climb then and I nearly stopped twice.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRmTxDVzHk4

Hubby snatched my tablet off me to watch that! He really is rude lol...will remember that music on my next little incline

 

[Cannondale Lady]

More Firsts:

1. My first 200 miles overall distance
2. My first time just setting off with no planned journey, just a destination
3. My first skid - have you seen Bambi!
4. My first encounter with a friendly, chatty cyclist who was a total stranger
5. The first time someone thought I had just finished the C2C and offered to take my photo of me, Roker Pier and my bike! He laughed when I said I had only done 5 miles. Not in a nasrty way, but at his own mistake. He said he thought I had travelled light.

Got a bit lost. Hubby not answering his mobile so called my mate from work. He told me where to go! As in the path, he wasn't being rude lol. I still got on wrong path put got there in the end. Did just under 10 miles

ODO - 200 miles
BUM - not at all sore
LEGS - like blancmange (do people still eat that and are you impressed I spells it right)
FEELINGS - euphoric
THOUGHTS - wish I had more time so I could have gone further but work beckons

 

[Wafer]

Bet that 2nd hundred felt a lot easier than the first!

Just as a reminder, this is what you posted 1 month ago (19th July)

Distance - 10 miles
Ease - OMG
Bum- Felt like I had been kicked several times by a horse
Husband - experienced cyclist who had to keep waiting for me and insisted my seat was too low
Calories burned - husband, about 200 me about 600 (all to do with his fitness). I'm aghast
Feelings after ride - elation, sense of achievement, pride, sore a*se

That looks like pretty brilliant progress from nothing! And interesting your comments today are more about how you feel and no mention of calories That's a good thing in my book.

 

[Yazzoo]

I find hills are (largely) a mental issue.

I'm not saying I find them easy by any stretch, in fact climbing is my weakest aspect. What I have noticed however is this - if i'm riding a route I know has a big hill in, I will be dreading it on the approach, over thinking etc. If I'm in unfamiliar territory and come across a monster I don't have time to think about how awful it will be and how rubbish I am at climbing and generally the hill goes better. Also works for hills on busy roads with no safe verge - knowing that getting off is not an option, I have to just sit and spin my legs in the easiest gear and get to the top, however long it takes me, as long as I'm still moving it still counts!

Similarly choosing mentally at the approach to a hill to attack the hill, rather than dread it will change your whole way of riding and get you up there quicker. As Chris Akabusi would say "PMA - Positive Mental Attitude!"

That said, I live in Suffolk, so what is a monster hill to me is probably a slight undulation to those of you in hillier counties!

 

[Wafer]

That said, I live in Suffolk, so what is a monster hill to me is probably a slight undulation to those of you in hillier counties!

Heh, I'm not saying Suffolk is flat but some years ago a friend from there visited and her ears popped driving round the Somerset Levels...

 

[Yazzoo]

haha actually spat my tea on my keyboard! I quite believe it!

 

[Garry A]

I find Google maps on a smartphone handy in case I don't know exactly where I am (Saved me on some drunken nights out too).

 

[Cannondale Lady]

I find Google maps on a smartphone handy in case I don't know exactly where I am (Saved me on some drunken nights out too).

You have drunken nights on ya bike? *makes a note - no more worries about drink driving - take the bike*

 

[Garry A]

You have drunken nights on ya bike? *makes a note - no more worries about drink driving - take the bike*

Nah just parties in new areas and trying to find a train station. Don't think I could clip in steaming

 

[RichardB]

I've only cycled drunk once. A colleague had a leaving party in Beverley (E Yorks) and we spent the night in Nellie's (anyone else know it? - beer in jugs from the back room, gas lights etc) and got completely w@nkered. I took the bike as I don't drink and drive (hah) and had to cycle home about 8 miles in the dark. Never again, it was horrible. I kept going off the road onto the verges, and my legs wouldn't behave. No strength, no co-ordination, no road sense, no fun at all.

 

[Cannondale Lady]

Stupid noise coming from my bike.........

Hubby who is a bike mechanic extrordinaire but old school (he don't know disc brakes or hydraulics) can't suss it out. It's like a metallic scraping noice like something's catching something else. He thinks its one of the disks. You can only hear it when someone's on the bike too.

Might need to take it back to my LBS!

 

[Funkus Munkus]

@Cannondale Lady I'm new not just at cyclechat but at getting back onto a bike after a lot of years. It's my 3rd day and I'm taking it easy (not through choice it's cause I'm knackered) and I managed a mighty 3 miles :/ so was well impressed by your progress even from day 1.

 

[RichardB]

Getting the wheels off the ground and spinning them will identify if it is the discs or not. On a car or motorbike, a slight scraping from the discs is completely normal. I don't know about bicycle discs and how the caliper ensures the pads are retracted, so it may not be the same. The discs on my ebike are silent apart from when they are used. However, if it only happens when the bike has a rider aboard, I would doubt if it was the discs. I'd be looking more for something that alters when there is a weight in the saddle - tyres scraping mudguards, a free cable end catching a chainwheel, suspension, something like that.

 

[Cannondale Lady]

@Cannondale Lady I'm new not just at cyclechat but at getting back onto a bike after a lot of years. It's my 3rd day and I'm taking it easy (not through choice it's cause I'm knackered) and I managed a mighty 3 miles :/ so was well impressed by your progress even from day 1.

Well done, keep it up

 

[Cannondale Lady]

Getting the wheels off the ground and spinning them will identify if it is the discs or not. On a car or motorbike, a slight scraping from the discs is completely normal. I don't know about bicycle discs and how the caliper ensures the pads are retracted, so it may not be the same. The discs on my ebike are silent apart from when they are used. However, if it only happens when the bike has a rider aboard, I would doubt if it was the discs. I'd be looking more for something that alters when there is a weight in the saddle - tyres scraping mudguards, a free cable end catching a chainwheel, suspension, something like that.

Will put that to him. Thanks.