The Wilds of Walthamstow

I'm back!  I've had a couple of days off because I've been to a wedding in Somerset.  A fantastic time had by all, but it's played havoc with my training schedule.  So, I've taken stock of what I have and haven't done and at the time of writing, I'm down two runs and a swim, but up a long cycle (having done tomorrow's training already).  I'm not sure how I'm going to sort it out, but I'm not too worried about missing a couple of sessions at this early stage.

Today was all about the cycling.  I had missed a 30 minute cycling session on Thursday, and tomorrow's training is supposed to be an hour's cycling, so I decided to combine the two and go out for an hour and a half on the bike.  This morning was nice and sunny and I knew the forecast was for showers in the afternoon, so I set off at just after 10 a.m. towards the Lea Valley.  On the way I had a major cycling skills breakthrough.  It might seem like nothing to the experienced cyclist but, as I was cycling down Woodberry Grove, I had a couple of strands of hair trying to get into my mouth.  Before I even realised what I was doing, I took my right hand off the handlebars and brushed the hair off my face and tucked it behind my ear.  Hitherto, any departure of hand from handlebar, whether to readjust hair or clothing or to signal at a junction has been a major event to be undertaken, if possible, while at a standstill (at traffic lights being a favourite), and if that isn't possible, all of the concentration in the universe is required to make sure that I don't fall off.  Therefore, my completely instinctive action of brushing the hair off my face represents a huge leap forward in my skills and confidence on the bike.

My plan, once I got to the river was to go the other way.  Every other time I've been to the Lea Valley (apart from the time we just popped over to the marina on the other side of the river to see James's friend Matt, whom, incidentally, I bumped into today), I've turned left onto the river towpath towards Waltham Abbey, Hertford and other areas of Not London.  This time, I intended to go onto the other side of the river, past Matt's marina, and follow National Cycle Route 1 towards the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Canary Wharf and Greenwich.  I didn't have any pretensions of actually reaching any of these places within the 45 minutes until I had to turn around and go home again, but the purpose of the trip was to do a recce to see what the route was like for future reference (by the way, I don't think I've mentioned that I'm doing the London to Brighton Bike Ride again this year, and it's only two weeks after the triathlon).

Where I wanted to be, from where I had ended up.  Note
Canary Wharf in the distance, just right of centre.

Unfortunately, National Cycle Route 1 is not particularly well signposted at this point.  I was reminded of trying to find the yellow brick road to Welwyn Garden City and being thwarted by non-existent signposts.  This time I knew the path went away from the river and that there was a right turn to rejoin the riverside path, but I hadn't seen a turning.  I put it down to clonking my head (helmet) on a bridge I had to go under that had a five feet high clearance - I had remembered that I had my helmet on and so had to stoop extra low, but had forgotten that I also had a light attached to the top of the helmet, giving me an extra couple of inches on top of my head.  Eventually, the path bent around to the right and I wondered if I was on the right track after all.  That is, until I realised I was in the centre of Walthamstow.  I did not wish to be in Walthamstow.  Not that I have anything against Walthamstow, it just wasn't where I was aiming to be.  I turned around and retraced my steps.

The rain from the mythical National Cycle Route 1
(which apparently does actually exist!)

After a few minutes, I was back at the car park I had passed on my way out.  I had a little look around, and there it was - the sign for National Cycle Route 1 - through the car park.  Of course!  Why would the cycle route not go through the car park?  I followed the route for a little while but, thanks to my detour (and maybe because it was starting to drizzle a little), it was time to head for home.  I went back over the bridge and turned up the river the other way as I wanted to explore a route back to the main road that didn't involve going up the dreaded Spring Hill.  This took me past the rowing club where, to date, I have only seen young crews training (largely with London Youth Rowing).  However, it was my pleasure today to see an eight just going out which was made up entirely of women over about 45.  I have no idea whether they were novices or pros as I didn't see them on the water, but I was impressed nonetheless.

I found my alternative route back up the hill which was, thankfully, significantly less steep than Spring Hill, and then I made my way back to base.  Altogether, I cycled 15.45km today, which makes 35.08km in total to date.  This distance (given the hour and a half timescale) initially concerned me as it is just shy of the actual distance of the triathlon cycle, but when you take into account getting lost, having to get off the bike to go under five-foot bridges, stopping to take a couple of pictures and the 10 mph speed limit on the best-surfaced bit of National Cycle Route 1, it wasn't bad at all.  In addition, the route was significantly more hilly than Hyde Park will be, so all in all, it wasn't a bad effort for a first long cycle of the year.

This afternoon, I attended to a couple of things I have been meaning to do for ages.  I went to Sports Direct and bought two pairs of padded cycling shorts (I'm not convinced that the world at large is ready for my legs, but they fit me better than any of the longer-legged bottom half clothing they had, so they will have to do), two swimming hats and a tri-mask (i.e. humongous goggles so that you can see all round you - I'm not sure if they'll mean I can see behind me, though...)

Tomorrow, I'm planning to catch up one of my runs by going out before church in the morning.  We'll see if I make it out of bed in time.  If you'd like to sponsor me to get up in time to go running, you can make a donation to Marie Curie Cancer Care by clicking the Justgiving button on the right hand side of the page.