Hooray! Laura's coming to London (at some point).
There's still a lot of paperwork issues that we need to figure out before she can come out here permanently, not to mention how we are both going to survive in that tiny flat. But still, I'm super excited and you should be too.
31 August 2007
28 August 2007
Bank Holiday Weekend Recap
That was a fantastically fun, and painful, ride - all at the same time. I had some great weather on the way down, and the whole weekend. Once I made it to the castle and to the beach I had a very relaxing weekend of doing nothing much at all aside from recovering.
The “beach” term is a bit of a misnomer, since it’s basically 30 meters of rocks between the ocean and the road. There is a tiny sliver of sand right where the water laps up against the shore, but that’s about it.
Here’s the route I stuck to for the ride.
I managed to follow it just about perfectly the whole way down. There was maybe half a kilometer of extra distance added on, but other than that, it was a marvel of directional know-how.
There were two distinct points where I was planning on turning in my wheels for a train ticket. First, around km 80 or so, I was biking through Buxted and travelling up a hill for what seemed like forever. Both of my quads cramped up on the climb and I was not a happy camper. I stopped for a bit and stretched out, got some water, then I kept climbing… and climbing… and climbing. I finally crested the top of the hill and was glad I only had 2 hours left in the saddle.
The other main I’m-about-to-get-off-this-bike-and-just-take-a-damn-train-home moment was about 15 km from the end. My left leg managed to get the infamous and dreaded simultaneous hamstring/quad cramp. There’s nothing you can do to make it go away. If you keep your leg strait your quad goes crazy, and if you bend your knee the hamstring locks up. After another few minutes of agonizing riding, it managed to work itself out and the rest of the ride went on without incident.
All in all, I made it to the castle 30 minutes ahead of schedule (5:28 of ride time), then managed to find my way to the hotel a few miles away and enjoy a much needed shower and rest.
The ride home was much easier and a lot quicker… possibly due to the fact that I was “riding” home on a train. Oh well, I think the 150ish km of the weekend was quite enough for me.
I’ll put up some pictures in a few hours once I get home and sort through them all.
The “beach” term is a bit of a misnomer, since it’s basically 30 meters of rocks between the ocean and the road. There is a tiny sliver of sand right where the water laps up against the shore, but that’s about it.
Here’s the route I stuck to for the ride.
I managed to follow it just about perfectly the whole way down. There was maybe half a kilometer of extra distance added on, but other than that, it was a marvel of directional know-how.
There were two distinct points where I was planning on turning in my wheels for a train ticket. First, around km 80 or so, I was biking through Buxted and travelling up a hill for what seemed like forever. Both of my quads cramped up on the climb and I was not a happy camper. I stopped for a bit and stretched out, got some water, then I kept climbing… and climbing… and climbing. I finally crested the top of the hill and was glad I only had 2 hours left in the saddle.
The other main I’m-about-to-get-off-this-bike-and-just-take-a-damn-train-home moment was about 15 km from the end. My left leg managed to get the infamous and dreaded simultaneous hamstring/quad cramp. There’s nothing you can do to make it go away. If you keep your leg strait your quad goes crazy, and if you bend your knee the hamstring locks up. After another few minutes of agonizing riding, it managed to work itself out and the rest of the ride went on without incident.
All in all, I made it to the castle 30 minutes ahead of schedule (5:28 of ride time), then managed to find my way to the hotel a few miles away and enjoy a much needed shower and rest.
The ride home was much easier and a lot quicker… possibly due to the fact that I was “riding” home on a train. Oh well, I think the 150ish km of the weekend was quite enough for me.
I’ll put up some pictures in a few hours once I get home and sort through them all.
20 August 2007
Saturday Bike/Train Ride
Well, in what's turning into a series of "where did Bob ride this weekend" posts, I had another very long ride on Saturday.
The goal for this one was to actually follow the path that I will take this coming weekend and make sure I won't get too terribly lost along the way. And in that effort it was a great success. I managed to ride from my flat to Gatwick Airport. (Here's a map from south of the river to Gatwick.)
It was a pretty nice ride for about the first 2 hours, a little bit more traffic-y than I prefer, but nothing too bad. Then it started to drizzle a bit, and that's just no fun. I rode in and out of the rain for about another 45 minutes to an hour. I really wanted to find the entrance to a footpath that will (hopefully) lead me most of the way down to the coast. I managed to find the path, and I took some pictures of the planes landing in Gatwick.
At this point, I had been riding for about 3 hours, and was exhausted. I also hadn't really prepared as well as I should have by packing some food or gel or something. So I decided to turn around and find some food along the way back.
Along the route there's a town called Redhill, and I had seen the South Redhill Train Station on the way down to Gatwick. After the turn, I biked back about 45 minutes to get to Redhill and I decided that I would find some food, give myself 20 or 30 minutes to recover, then try to make it back. But then again, there was always that train station as a fall back.
So anyway, I got a footlong Subway sandwich and devoured it along with some crisps. Delicious.
Then I hopped back on the bike and started to get back on my route, when I noticed my punctured rear tire. Fantastic. I stopped and did a quick tire change. As I got back on the bike, realizing how heavy my legs felt, how full and happy my stomach was, and that it would be another 2 hours back home on an underinflated rear tire... yeah, I bought a train ticket and went home.
The good news is that first, it was a really great ride, and I have the first half of my route planned for this weekend. Second, my route follows along train tracks almost the whole way down, so if worst comes to worst, I can always pop off the bike and be home in about 30 minutes.
I still need to do a bit more prep work, especially when it comes to having some food for the ride. But I think I can take care of that this week and be ready to make it down to the coast on Saturday.
The goal for this one was to actually follow the path that I will take this coming weekend and make sure I won't get too terribly lost along the way. And in that effort it was a great success. I managed to ride from my flat to Gatwick Airport. (Here's a map from south of the river to Gatwick.)
It was a pretty nice ride for about the first 2 hours, a little bit more traffic-y than I prefer, but nothing too bad. Then it started to drizzle a bit, and that's just no fun. I rode in and out of the rain for about another 45 minutes to an hour. I really wanted to find the entrance to a footpath that will (hopefully) lead me most of the way down to the coast. I managed to find the path, and I took some pictures of the planes landing in Gatwick.
At this point, I had been riding for about 3 hours, and was exhausted. I also hadn't really prepared as well as I should have by packing some food or gel or something. So I decided to turn around and find some food along the way back.
Along the route there's a town called Redhill, and I had seen the South Redhill Train Station on the way down to Gatwick. After the turn, I biked back about 45 minutes to get to Redhill and I decided that I would find some food, give myself 20 or 30 minutes to recover, then try to make it back. But then again, there was always that train station as a fall back.
So anyway, I got a footlong Subway sandwich and devoured it along with some crisps. Delicious.
Then I hopped back on the bike and started to get back on my route, when I noticed my punctured rear tire. Fantastic. I stopped and did a quick tire change. As I got back on the bike, realizing how heavy my legs felt, how full and happy my stomach was, and that it would be another 2 hours back home on an underinflated rear tire... yeah, I bought a train ticket and went home.
The good news is that first, it was a really great ride, and I have the first half of my route planned for this weekend. Second, my route follows along train tracks almost the whole way down, so if worst comes to worst, I can always pop off the bike and be home in about 30 minutes.
I still need to do a bit more prep work, especially when it comes to having some food for the ride. But I think I can take care of that this week and be ready to make it down to the coast on Saturday.
13 August 2007
Saturday Ride
I had quite a nice ride on Saturday, although it wasn't exactly as I planned (when does that ever happen really?).
I've been using Google Maps drawing feature to plan my route to the castle, and also I've been tracking the path of most of my rides in the same manner. So I'll share those with you now.
First off, here's the original plan for my out and back ride (part 1, part 2). I would ride from my flat along a canal towpath and then into the Docklands area of London. From there I have to walk my bike through a footpath that goes under the river Thames to pop out on the Greenwich side of things.
I actually did pretty well for that first part. Made it along the canal just fine, but I missed the proper turnoff. So I got a little lost and then recovered and made it to the tunnel. So far, so good.
After that, things got a little shakey. I had remembered the general path of how to get down to Beckenham, which is to say I remembered one or two turns and a few towns I should have passed along the way. I wasn't really sure where I was, but I made it to the Lewisham train station, which I knew was along the route. Then, I gave up. I decided to just pick a direction and start riding. So yeah, my path diverted a little bit from that point on.
Oh well, I managed to make it back to my flat in once piece, so I'd call it a successful ride.
Next weekend I'm actually going to print out section by section maps beforhand so I know where I'm supposed to go along the way. I think that will make quite a difference in my chances.
I've been using Google Maps drawing feature to plan my route to the castle, and also I've been tracking the path of most of my rides in the same manner. So I'll share those with you now.
First off, here's the original plan for my out and back ride (part 1, part 2). I would ride from my flat along a canal towpath and then into the Docklands area of London. From there I have to walk my bike through a footpath that goes under the river Thames to pop out on the Greenwich side of things.
I actually did pretty well for that first part. Made it along the canal just fine, but I missed the proper turnoff. So I got a little lost and then recovered and made it to the tunnel. So far, so good.
After that, things got a little shakey. I had remembered the general path of how to get down to Beckenham, which is to say I remembered one or two turns and a few towns I should have passed along the way. I wasn't really sure where I was, but I made it to the Lewisham train station, which I knew was along the route. Then, I gave up. I decided to just pick a direction and start riding. So yeah, my path diverted a little bit from that point on.
Oh well, I managed to make it back to my flat in once piece, so I'd call it a successful ride.
Next weekend I'm actually going to print out section by section maps beforhand so I know where I'm supposed to go along the way. I think that will make quite a difference in my chances.
10 August 2007
GBBF
How could I possibly have posted that last entry without mentioning the Great British Beer Festival I went to last night? Crazy.
So it's this huge event that lasts from Tuesday to Saturday and I went after work with some people from the office. There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of different hand pulled "real" ales at the festival... aka... heaven.
I sampled about 8 or 10 I think (only half pints each, don't worry) and had a great time. The guy who organized my little group is very into beer, as am I, but in a much more serious way. I like all beers, and while I may prefer . Therefore, I make the decision about which beer I'm going to have next based entirely on how clever the name is and/or if it has a cool looking label. I've used the same basis for picking wines and it works out so well. Plus, then you get to try things that you normally wouldn't if you were only drinking a specific type of beer (or wine).
So yeah, I can't quite remember all of the beers I drank, but they were delicious. Plus, I got a cool pint glass from the day.
So it's this huge event that lasts from Tuesday to Saturday and I went after work with some people from the office. There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of different hand pulled "real" ales at the festival... aka... heaven.
I sampled about 8 or 10 I think (only half pints each, don't worry) and had a great time. The guy who organized my little group is very into beer, as am I, but in a much more serious way. I like all beers, and while I may prefer . Therefore, I make the decision about which beer I'm going to have next based entirely on how clever the name is and/or if it has a cool looking label. I've used the same basis for picking wines and it works out so well. Plus, then you get to try things that you normally wouldn't if you were only drinking a specific type of beer (or wine).
So yeah, I can't quite remember all of the beers I drank, but they were delicious. Plus, I got a cool pint glass from the day.
Some more pictures
Here are a few more pictures I took last weekend outside of my flat.
http://picasaweb.google.com/harwig/MyFlat
It's way too annoying to put them in the post, Blogger really needs to fix that.
I should be writing this post from my couch, but sadly the internet isn't quite working at my flat just yet. Hopefully I can get it up and running in the next day or two.
Another bike ride planned for Saturday. Last week I was thinking about riding the first leg of my Pevensey Castle journey, but ended up just wandering for a while. This time I've mapped out the journey so I'll go for my first test run of about an hour out and an hour back. And hopefully I remember sunscreen this go round.
http://picasaweb.google.com/harwig/MyFlat
It's way too annoying to put them in the post, Blogger really needs to fix that.
I should be writing this post from my couch, but sadly the internet isn't quite working at my flat just yet. Hopefully I can get it up and running in the next day or two.
Another bike ride planned for Saturday. Last week I was thinking about riding the first leg of my Pevensey Castle journey, but ended up just wandering for a while. This time I've mapped out the journey so I'll go for my first test run of about an hour out and an hour back. And hopefully I remember sunscreen this go round.
06 August 2007
Tower Bridge
So I took these last weekend, but I've been lazy about getting them online. I was planning on taking some more, but it started to rain and I didn't want to get my camera all wet (usually bad for electronics I've found).
I also took some pictures outside of my flat a few days ago, but... you guessed it... I'm lazy. Maybe sometime this week I'll post them. Hopefully by Thursday I'll actually have internet at my flat, so I won't have to trudge in to the office to connect.
It was beautiful this weekend, so I went for a ride Saturday down to Wimbledon, about 45 km roundtrip. I didn't really have a route in mind, just wanted to head south for a while, but then I saw some signs for Wimbledon and thought it would be fun check out the courts. Sadly, I didn't find the tennis courts, so I went home. And, since I hadn't planned out a route beforehand, I think it's safe to say that I actually didn't get lost on the way home (as in, I did not deviate from a prescribed path). But yeah, I wasn't sure where I was for most the second hour. At least now I have a sweet farmer's tan/sunburn.
I also took some pictures outside of my flat a few days ago, but... you guessed it... I'm lazy. Maybe sometime this week I'll post them. Hopefully by Thursday I'll actually have internet at my flat, so I won't have to trudge in to the office to connect.
It was beautiful this weekend, so I went for a ride Saturday down to Wimbledon, about 45 km roundtrip. I didn't really have a route in mind, just wanted to head south for a while, but then I saw some signs for Wimbledon and thought it would be fun check out the courts. Sadly, I didn't find the tennis courts, so I went home. And, since I hadn't planned out a route beforehand, I think it's safe to say that I actually didn't get lost on the way home (as in, I did not deviate from a prescribed path). But yeah, I wasn't sure where I was for most the second hour. At least now I have a sweet farmer's tan/sunburn.
01 August 2007
Work, Work, Work
Well, I've been busy at work, so there hasn't been too much going on over on this side of the pond.
There are still about 5 boxes left that I can't quite bring myself to deal with. I keep hoping that one day I'll come home from the office and they'll all be unpacked and put away nicely, but it hasn't happened just yet. Seriously, where are the unpacking fairies when you need them?
I had been all set for a mini-vacation this weekend. My calendar listed Tuesday, Aug 7 as a Bank holiday, so I was going to take Monday off and have a nice four day weekend cycle trip. Luckily before things got too out of hand, somebody let me know that Tuesday is not a Bank holiday and that my calendar was all messed up.
My plan has now shifted to the actual holiday weekend of the 25th - 27th of August. I'm going to bike down to Pevensey Castle on the southern coast of England. I'm mapping out my route now, but I figure it will be about 140 km to get there (it should look something like this). So I'll ride down Saturday for about 6 - 7 hours, take pictures and check out the castle and nearby beach on Sunday, then ride home on Monday. And, in the event that it all goes sour (aka, I can't feel my legs after hour 2), I can always find a train station and catch a ride home.
Also, I took some pictures of the Tower Bridge, but I've been lazy and haven't put them up yet. Maybe Friday.
There are still about 5 boxes left that I can't quite bring myself to deal with. I keep hoping that one day I'll come home from the office and they'll all be unpacked and put away nicely, but it hasn't happened just yet. Seriously, where are the unpacking fairies when you need them?
I had been all set for a mini-vacation this weekend. My calendar listed Tuesday, Aug 7 as a Bank holiday, so I was going to take Monday off and have a nice four day weekend cycle trip. Luckily before things got too out of hand, somebody let me know that Tuesday is not a Bank holiday and that my calendar was all messed up.
My plan has now shifted to the actual holiday weekend of the 25th - 27th of August. I'm going to bike down to Pevensey Castle on the southern coast of England. I'm mapping out my route now, but I figure it will be about 140 km to get there (it should look something like this). So I'll ride down Saturday for about 6 - 7 hours, take pictures and check out the castle and nearby beach on Sunday, then ride home on Monday. And, in the event that it all goes sour (aka, I can't feel my legs after hour 2), I can always find a train station and catch a ride home.
Also, I took some pictures of the Tower Bridge, but I've been lazy and haven't put them up yet. Maybe Friday.
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