SkyRide and Sports Day

Feeling sore and achy today after yesterday's SkyRide and charity sports day event! I got up at 6:30am and headed down to East Coast Bicycles to help them set up a display for the passing cyclists as it would be great publicity for ECB. I had the pleasure of riding a few bikes from the shop to the event including the beautiful Electra Mullholland.
I then returned home to get my bike and together with Fruitfingers and my brother we rode into the city center and joined the mass of people (5500) to cycle the route around the city center and 'The Deep' and after a couple of laps we then had to head home and go out again for a charity sports day that Fruitfingers had organised to raise money for the 'Great North Run' she's doing in a few weeks.
The sports day was great fun and featured all the classics....egg and spoon, sack race, skipping etc. Of which I won the skipping of all things! I also got second in the egg and spoon and 3 legged race and got third in another event.
The day ended in exhaustion and sunburn but the Chinese we had from the takeaway made up for that!

Another Ride Another Run

I took another ride out with my fellow ECB Knights on Tuesday evening! Once again we met up at the shop just before 19:00 and then we were off. The ride was a lot faster then the previous week and I could really feel the strain from Monday nights 10k run on my legs as we sped along at the faster pace, with my thighs feeling like they were on fire.
We cut through the avenues, then up towards Orchard Park, through to Cottingham and then back down Priory Road. We then cut through onto a cycle path and followed it to Anlaby Road, we had a cycle around the KC Stadium then back to East Coast Bicycles to collect baggage before riding a hundred yards up the road to Pave for a relaxing couple of beers.
I was delighted to find they served Brooklyn Lager, my favorite beer, which I hadn't been able to find for a couple of years (apart from the bottle I had in London last year) and after chatting for an hour, I headed home! A very enjoyable evening.

I came home from work today with the intention of running another 10k in preparation for the 'Jane Tomlinson Run For All' in a couple of weeks. I popped to the shop for a Boost chocolate bar to charge my batteries before I set off. 20 minutes later I left the house and immediately found it a struggle due to my legs being stiff from Monday nights run, the first 2k was horrendous and not very enjoyable at all, but eventually my legs loosened off and I picked up the pace and was really enjoying the run until about 3k from the end when I could feel my legs start to tighten, managed to keep going until I was just 1k from home and then they totally seized, I halted running and walked a hundred yards to see if a short rest would help but much to my anguish , when I tried to run again they had completely locked up and I had to stop my timer and walk the last bit home. I was on track to beat Mondays time by a minute despite running slowly at the beginning and towards the end so at least that was a good sign. I'll now rest my legs until either Sunday or Monday and see how they are feeling then!

Now I await the imminent arrival of Fruitfingers with a Chinese takeaway for tea...yum!!!

The ECB Knights - Cruise No 1

Last night was my first ride out with the "ECB Knights" on my single speed! The ECB Knights are Nick, owner of East Coast Bicycles (ECB), Colin, his best mate and a rag tag bunch of ECB customers who've bought single speed and fixed gear bikes from ECB, which now includes myself.
One of the things I was looking forward to (apart from getting to and from work quicker) was participating in these regular Tuesday evening bike rides,, open to anyone with a fixed/single geared bike where a different route is undertaken each week but always finishes at Pave bar.

I had been very excited about my first ride since getting my bike last Friday and when yesterday finally arrived I literally couldn't wait. When it got to less then an hour before I was due to depart for East Coast Bicycles (the 19:00 meeting point) I suddenly started feeling very nervous and started worrying that my fitness levels were not going to be of a high enough standard.
Finally the time came and just as I opened the door to set off the sky opened up and the rain began to pour down. I immediately hesitated and tried convincing my self I would foolishly be the only one to turn up. I then thought it stupid that after being excited and waiting for so long about doing this, that I should go anyway and just see what happened.

A few minutes later I arrived at ECB and already there was a guy waiting outside with his bike whilst Nick and Col locked up the shop. Sure enough after another minute or so a couple of other lads turned up and then another one, then another and another, until there were eleven of us!
Pleased with the turn out Nick suggested we set of, much to our delight the rain had also stopped. Colin also informed us he would be filming the ride with a bike mounted video camera...cool! I too had brought along my camera to snap a few pics during the journey.

We headed from the shop along my route to work and turned off near the Hull College at the periphery of the city center to head across to The Deep and then onto the river front. We then cycled along the river front to the North Sea Ferry terminal, here we then cut onto the terminal access roads and headed over to Hedon Road and back towards the city center. We then changed course and headed past my work and onto Wilmington Bridge (of which I have previously taken pictures of on this blog) and headed down a few bike paths back to Princes Ave and Pave bar. The route took approx 50 minutes and was at a good speed which I found easy to keep, my worries were totally unfounded!

We locked the bikes up outside Pave and enjoyed a few beers and talked about bikes and I had a comical discussion about Jazz (a Jazz band were playing in Pave) before the short ride home! Very enjoyable, can't wait for next week!