Fitness - Fat Girl Fit

2014 Events

Looking back and writing this blog I am actually surprised at the events I did if I am honest. I used to laugh at my husband for his ever growing medal collection and yet I find myself right at this moment looking at my little collection that I will be adding to this year!

I cycled a total of 1,740km, 12,860 metres of elevation, 49 bike rides and 37 runs totalling 95 hours and 52 minutes and gained 21 QOM’s (queen of the mountains are basically awards where you get the best time for a certain segment of a route). My longest ride was 133km, and got 533 medals on Strava (an app to record all of this information from a gadget I also don’t really know how to use but does technical stuff to record the rides and runs and my husband swears blind that I need them).

In 2014 I took part and completed the following events:

Sport Relief 25 mile bike ride
Tour de Tendring 60 mile bike ride
Hertfordshire 50 mile bike ride
Essex Explorer 60 mile bike ride
Little Havens 60 mile bike ride
London to Southend 54 mile bike ride
Essex castle 76 mile bike ride
Prudential Ride 100 mile bike (that was only 86 miles) – yes i did it! In torrential weather hence they cut short part of it but I did it!
Essex Season Ender 42 mile bike ride
Electric Run 5k running event
Two Race for Life 5k running events
Race for Life Pretty Muddy 5k running event
Colour Run 5k running event
Nike Run to the Beat 10k running event
Even took my running gear with me to New York when on a weeks holiday and did a 7.5k run

Now to plan the events for 2015! What have i become?!

Category: Cycling, Fitness

Clippy shoes!

I had been dreading the moment for a long time and put it off for as long as I could but I had given in and purchased some cleats for cycling otherwise known as clippy shoes. As I have said before my husband is part of a cycle club, all of whom have helped me massively, but all of whom use cleats and had told me endlessly it was the way forward if I wanted to carry on cycling on the road.

The concept baffled me – you have different pedals and you wear special shoes that clip into the pedals? Is that not hugely dangerous or just a stupid thing to do? I was told it would give more power and all cyclists wear them and I needed them. So the hubby changed the pedals – I get his hand me downs so it works out great for me as cycling is not a cheap sport and as a new cyclist I couldn’t justify the cost of some of the expensive items so I get his pedals etc and he gets to buy new ones. I think I missed a trick here somewhere! Or am just a great wife – I will go with that one 😉

So beginning of April we head off for our first ride with my new shiny white clippy shoes. At the first road we had to stop at there was no traffic so we paused, signalled and continued without unclipping and then got to some traffic lights with my husband on his bike to the right of me. Apparently you should always unclip with your left foot so that if you do fall you fall into the pavement rather than the road and potentially a car (short bike ride that would be)! Up until now I had been wearing trainers and so I stopped at junctions and must admit this was my biggest fear – stopping on the bike. I couldn’t get the simple concept of getting out of my seat when stopping so would break and lean and hope for the best! Like I said sporty I am not! Also in the trainers I always put my right foot down. So we stop at the lights and I unclip with my left foot and lean to the right. With the foot that is still clipped in. Luckily my husband was there and sort of pushed me over to the other side and all was ok, lights changed and off we went.

Shortly after we reached a second set of lights and I did the same thing. Idiot. Thank god I fell on my husband both times otherwise I think I would have just curled up in the foetal position until the world just passed me by out of sheer embarrassment!

Anyway we finished our 20 mile ride testing out the new shoes and although I was really really nervous I got home in one piece although i very quickly put the clippy shoes back in their box! Out of sight out of mind!

Category: Events, Fitness

My first event EVER!

I will start at the beginning. So I was ready for my first event. Well I was not ready but I had signed up for it with a number of people and it was for charity so there was no backing out of it now!

In February 2014 I took part in my first cycling event – a 25 mile cycle ride for Sport Relief. Having a husband who is part of a cycle club helps as we are surrounded by so many lovely people from the club and everyone is more than happy to help newbies like me! I wasn’t sure if I would be able to finish the distance and was grateful to be riding with some lovely people as the ride was actually fun, though I am sure I was probably a grumpy old cow on the route if the members of my group were being totally honest with me.

We set off from the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. My husband had set off with a friend earlier for the longer 50 mile route and we would meet at the finish line so I would have someone cheer me on rather than me cheering someone else, which would be new for me!

As we cycled one lady with our group, Lisa, sang a lot of Prodigy so that made it fun! Another lady with our group, Sophie, is a whippet and would speed off up hills as I huffed and puffed my way up them trying not to die from an asthma attack (I don’t have asthma but that is how I feel when cycling up a hill or in fact any sort of incline). At the top of one hill I wanted to take my jacket off as I was getting hot and so our group stopped by the side of the road and one of the guys in our group, Nate, made me laugh as I had taken off the jacket and was oblivious to the fact that my cycle jersey was unzipped so I was completely flashing him my chest! Little things like this with lovely people make any event fun ( not that I plan on regularly flashing people on events!) and so we set off for the finish line – me more red than usual from just exercise as I was also blushing.

Nearing the finish we got stuck at some traffic lights and a lady cycled up next to me and started making friendly chat asking me how the ride was and what distance I had done – 25 miles of course as 50 miles to me then seemed an impossible thing to attempt! Midway through talking to her I realised she was Victoria Pendleton and so in my true stupid form pointed at her and said ‘Oh my god you’re Victoria Pendleton’ because of course she needed to be reminded of who she was! I should point out I can be dim but when people are in full cycle gear including helmets and glasses you don’t often recognise them instantly. At this point my husband had caught up with us and started cycling with us – us being me and Victoria Pendleton! He has a crush on her so that was hilarious pointing out to him who she was and his voice getting progressively higher as he more or less squeaked hello.

We finished and I got my medal and then to top it off I got a photo with Victoria Pendleton!

Ride complete and medal earned!

One happy lady on a bike!