I never started cycling for fitness or even as a sport really. When I first began cycling as an adult it was for transport, then for fun, and finally for a job when I became a bike messenger. A healthy, active lifestyle was not something I was seeking – in fact if you search far enough back in the 9 year old blog you’ll find many, many references to beer, parties, smoking, hangovers and general tomfoolery.

Somewhere along the way my priorities changed – possibly as I grew older I became less able to handle the aftermath of drinking or maybe I just became bored of it; I’m not sure. I moved to Devon on a whim, began riding more and more and more and somewhere along the way I started drinking protein shakes, doing HIIT workouts, using a foam roller, racing bikes and going to the gym. WUT!!!

I’m now a fully fledged sports nerd, fitness geek, cycling obsessive, gear junky and more – let me tell you, this healthy lifestyle thing is seriously addictive! So when Speedo got in touch and asked me if they could set me a new challenge, what do you think I said? Yes please!

I LOVE a challenge and @speedouk set me a fun one – adding swimming to my training to see how it can benefit my cycling as I prepare for road, track and mountain bike races this summer. Follow my progress on Bikes n’ Stuff and on the @speedouk site to see how I’m getting on with it. For the first video instalment click the link in my profile to find out more about how and where I ride and what I’m hoping to get out of swimming. #getspeedofit#cycling#swimming#speedo#training#fitness#crossfit

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Aug 1, 2016 at 12:39pm PDT

I have to admit, I was intrigued by the tagline ‘There’s fit, and there’s Speedo fit,’ because I do consider myself to be reasonably fit already (although not as fit as I want to be – damn you illness and injury!). I wondered how I would get on in the pool and whether it would reveal weaknesses. Would be cycling mean that my training is a bit one dimensional? If I stuck with swimming, would being ‘Speedo fit’ make me a faster cyclist?

With a nod from me, Speedo came down to Devon to find out more about my cycling goals, what I think swimming could help me with and why I signed up for the project. Watch the first episode of Pedal To Pool below to find out more about me and to see some of the incredible places I get to ride in Devon.

Click here or below to check it out:

Swimming for cycling?

I was actually already researching swimming for cyclists when the team contacted me –  I’d seen a tweet pro-cyclist Richie Porte has posted about swim training and its benefits but I wasn’t really sure what pool sessions could deliver that would be of benefit. Whether it’s true of not, there’s a commonly held belief that running gains do not cross over to the bike, so whilst you can and should run if you’d like to, it’s not going to help your cycling. Would swimming be the same? I had to believe it wouldn’t be – I figured it’s doing Richie good so would most likely help me too.

Back to pool.

Like an enormous number of people, I hadn’t swum properly since I was a teenager so I didn’t even have the right kit. You don’t need much to start swimming but my antique goggles had seen better days and none of my bikinis or swimsuits seemed to stay put if I did anything except lounge about, which was quite off-putting. Speedo came to the rescue with some new kit and I learnt a couple of things immediately:

• A quality swimsuit feels supportive and comfortable and covers everything properly!
• You have to switch the nose bridge in your goggles to one which fits you otherwise you can’t stop water coming in.
• If your goggles fit properly you won’t have awful marks around your eyes for hours after your swim.
• Swimming caps do not keep your hair dry.
• No one looks good in a swimming cap.

I began with a swim at the local leisure centre and as I was always a reasonable swimmer, I just got in and got on with it, swimming around 40 minutes of mainly Freestyle. It felt really nice to be back in the pool, the magical watery world spiriting me away from the reality of chores, work and worries. It was relaxing and refreshing, calming and meditative and I felt invigorated when I emerged afterwards. I deemed the session a success because I enjoyed it and it was exercise, and any exercise is good, right?

The next few sessions were dotted about in different pools – I found the minimal equipment needed for swimming made it easy to squeeze in a swim when travelling and tried to swim at least once and if possible twice a week, I crossed off outdoor swims at Oasis in Covent Garden and the lovely London Fields Lido in Hackney where I was enjoying myself so much that I swam the furthest I’d ever swum. So far so easy!

But that’s when it struck me…. If it’s easy, is it working? Am I getting fitter, stronger, better on a bike or am I just mucking about in a pool? For how long are you meant to swim? How fast should I be going? Is Breaststroke good or is Freestyle better? How do you stop water going up your nose when you swim Backstroke? Is once or twice a week enough? Am I doing this right?!

Follow my swimming journey with Speedo over the next few months to find out how I get on!

I feel like my feet have barely hit the ground over the last few months. With such a busy schedule of work, travel, rides and races, it’s been hard to find enough time to notice summer, so I find myself in August with little idea where all the time went. Mishaps and general life have really got in the way of my training this year and the squeeze on training have meant missing out on the more relaxed side of summer… I haven’t been to swim in the River Dart, had an evening BBQ by the sea, ridden by jump bike at The Track or gone surfing yet and the allotment is in a poor shape (though we did actually succeed in growing some vegetables!).

I’m not really complaining, merely observing; in fact I thrive on being busy and it’s inactivity and too much time to ruminate that cause me greater problems than a packed schedule. I won’t go in to it in too much details right now, but suffice to say that the focus training has given me has been a most useful gift, and of course the endorphins don’t go amiss.

So what have I been doing?

Red Hook Crit London was quite the event and something I will not forget in a hurry. Read my post about racing with an Olympian and watch my video overview of the whole day on my YouTube channel. Look out for an article in Urban Cyclist too!

Photos: Ginger Beard Photo

Mountain Biking & Vintage Bike Rides

After riding mountain bikes in Verbier (creating features for MBR and for Wideopen Magazine – click here to see it!) I headed out to the Netherlands to ride the first edition of Eroica Limburg with my buddies at Brooks England. We had a brilliant weekend exploring the very pretty countryside surrounding Falkenburg, racing up Cauberg, testing out the new Cambium C13, dining in a hall of mirrors at the Eroica fairground and then climbing ever so many hills on vintage Glory Day’s bikes.

Read all about it on the Brooks website here.

I’m in Holland for the weekend to ride Eroica Limburg with @brooksengland – stoked!!! Just picked up my ride from @glorydaysbikes and I got a good ‘un #eroicalimburg #eroica

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Jul 1, 2016 at 11:24am PDT

Coaching and guiding

I followed that with the launch of our (Dave and I) Women’s Progressive Skills Sessions at Torbay Velopark back in Devon. Run through our club, Mid Devon Cycling Club, the sessions are open to all women looking to develop their riding with a view to racing, or indeed for novice racers to refines their techniques with the nominal fee of £2 going towards hiring the track.

We’ve yet to set the date for our third monthly session, so please join our new Facebook group to stay up to date. We will also be organising a Go-Ride race for those of you looking to take your first steps in racing. I myself started with a Go-Ride race and would recommend it to everyone – you don’t need a race license, it’s cheap to enter and there is little or no pressure! Generally, everyone rides around together for the first 15 minutes getting used riding as a group then for the last 15 minutes it’s a race to the finish. There’s no harm in just pitching up and having a go to find out how you like it.

Containing on the theme of coaching, next I took some groups of school children out on mountain bikes putting my British Cycling Mountain Bike Leader qualification to good use. I have to say, quite a lot of my work is good fun but getting paid to ride bikes and explore the Quantocks with a group of kids on a sunny day felt like a pretty sweet deal!

Getting annoyed

After a fun few days, my next experience – a women’s road crit – was frustrating. I sometimes feel that in a (well placed) desire to encourage and show solidarity with one’s gender, we can be ultra wary of criticising anything to do with women’s sports, even when things clearly aren’t working well. What I’m about to say makes me feel awkward given that I’m an advocate for women in sport, a coach, a mentor but sometimes you have to call a spade a spade, so here goes…

At some of the local women’s races, I’ve noticed that women are so desperate not to spend any time on the front that they slow down to INSANELY slow speeds if they are forced to take a pull. The idea presumably is to never go on the front and conserve all your energy by sitting in the bunch then just go for a sprint at the end and win. If you are forced to take a go on the front, it seems you must make a point about your displeasure at sharing some of the work by barely moving. To clarify, I’m not talking about riding smart for an important victory, I’m talking about taking 5 minutes to do a 2 and a half minute lap.

I don’t get it. Riding around at 10 miles an hour and doing nothing until the end is BORING, plus I don’t understand why some very, very, VERY strong women are so reluctant to have a proper race – they’re sure to win it at the end WITHOUT saving all their energy and sitting in. Just to be clear, I have no problem whatsoever with riders who are new, learning or building fitness slowing things down – it isn’t women such as these that I’m talking about and I have a great respect for anyone who tries really hard.

I spent all my time in the race larking about, going off on breaks on my own (I’d be reeled back in then everyone would slow down again), sprinting and trying to get things moving. I would rather come last than ride around at an embarrassing slow speed for 40 minutes then just sprint. It’s rubbish. Racing is meant to be hard and fun; if I wanted it easy I would have stayed at home on the sofa. I’m interested to know whether anyone else has ever experienced this kind of thing and what they think is behind it.

At the end of the day, it’s not my own personal race, so maybe wanting it to run in a different way is silly or even egotistical. The fact remains, I crave relevant, valuable experience alongside a good workout so with that in mind, I entered a Cat 4 men’s race next instead of a women’s one – as a Cat 3 female I’m allowed to race in men’s events if they are of a lower category. I had an absolute blast, finishing just outside the points and learning heaps. I’ll be back for more of that! Onwards and upwards!

I’ve now been swimming regularly for a few weeks, inspired by Speedo’s #GetSpeedoFit Campaign and the challenge they set me of adding swimming to my training. Click here to see the first part of the challenge on Bikes n’ Stuff and here to see the introduction and profile on Speedo’s site

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I’m still very new to swimming and whilst part of the challenge is to see how swimming helps my cycling, I wanted it to be helpful, realistic and fun. To that end, I’ve been sticking with roughly 45-minute swims as that seems manageable rather than daunting. I feel like you can be doomed to fail if you bite off more than you can chew and that you’re more likely to throw the towel in if you set yourself unrealistic targets.

A few weeks is possibly not enough time to see or feel real physical results, but certainly long enough to notice the mental benefits and I’m enjoying the time I get in the pool. I’ve come to consider swimming a treat; I find the water a real escape, regardless of when, where or how it happens.

Fitting it in

What I would like to do is schedule in a regular swim at the same time every week, a non-negotiable slot in the diary but in practice I have to be a bit flexible as I’m often travelling or racing.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the minimal kit required for swimming is a big help as I can always fit a swimsuit and goggles in my bag. It’s also helpful that training in the pool can be done fairly quickly compared with cycling, where clocking up the required miles can be pretty time consuming.

The other difficulty in scheduling my swim has to do with my on the bike training – sometimes I have some pretty intense interval sessions in my diary or a big endurance building ride and I don’t always feel like swimming on the same day as quite frankly, I’m knackered. I therefore always make sure to get my first (sometimes only) weekly swim in the bag on my ‘rest day’ from cycling as I have more energy, but I have to say, the times I’ve persuaded myself to go for a swim even though I’m tired from cycling I’ve actually found I really enjoyed it once I got going. I just emerge incredibly hungry from the pool!

Alongside my prioritised, 100% unmissable weekly swim, I try where possible to squeeze in an additional session. This is as there is more than one kind of swim that I enjoy and that will benefit me (I think!), so two mixed swims feels right.

Different swims for different purposes

The first kind of swim is a relaxed, recovery swim that I use to loosen up my body if I’ve been hammering if on the bike, kind of like oiling my joints or stretching. I feel like make me feel more limber on the bike.
I take it pretty easy in these sessions, swimming fairly slowly with no breaks as I really enjoy settling into a quiet rhythm and allowing my mind to float away.

I find these sessions a treat as they’re the swimming equivalent of ‘just going cycling,’ something I can fail to do sometimes as I’m always riding with a purpose thanks to my training and race schedule. It’s nice to just float and splash about and it’s seems to be helping to ease my creaky back and unlike (some) yoga it’s all soft movements rather than held, strong poses that make me quiver.

The other kind of pool training session is very different and is taking some getting used to. The kind of racing I favour is short, fast and almost entirely at Threshold, so I’m looking to use swimming to help my cardiovascular system, expand my lung capacity and improve my breathing.

As I’m pretty clued up on training on a bike (and in the gym) I know the kind of intensity I need to train at in order to see results, so I’m taking steps towards replicating that in the pool. I’m not sure of the correct swimming terminology (is there any?) but I’ve completed some sprint interval swims that involved swimming flat out for a certain distance and repeating it after a short recovery, much as I might do on the bike.

I’ve been having fun testing out a Garmin Forerunner watch in the pool too, as it can record your laps, pace and distance so I tried the swimming equivalent of a Time Trail, trying to swim 200m as fast as I can. I rather enjoy working with data and recording and analyzing my stats and it was only a matter of time before I became competitive with myself.

What’s pretty damn weird at first is having your head underwater whilst you are out of breath – it can be quite disconcerting to be honest as it’s just not something you would ever do in normal day-to-day life. Don’t worry, I’m not endangering myself as that would be stupid – I don’t go so hard that I’m going to pass out and I always swim in monitored pools . Regardless, the the sensation of being breathless in water takes some getting used to, and I’m not even a nervous swimmer.

So what next? Well I’m hoping for some feedback from Speedo on what I’ve been doing, maybe some guidance on what sessions might specifically benefit cyclist would be useful too. And now that the weather has improved, perhaps I can really Pedal to the Pool, and head out for some wild swims!

My most recent mountain bike race involved a trip to Hampshire to camp out and race Round 3 of the Southern Enduro series. I’m not 100% convinced that sleeping in a tent with my incredibly loud, snoring husband is the ideal start to a race so I turned up feeling a bit ropey, though that could have been the Doom Bar we were drinking the night before. I’d also done some Interval training AND been for a swim the previous day and with hindsight, perhaps doing both wasn’t wise. But whatever, I don’t think I ever turn up for a race thinking ‘I feel great!’ Not ever, ever!

The race took part in a private section of woodland near the official mountain bike trails at Queen Elizabeth Park. I wasn’t sure what to expect but when I saw everyone wearing open face helmets I chucked my Met Parachute back in the car and followed suit. It turned out to be a wise move as it was searingly hot and the event required plenty of flat out pedaling and a stinker of a climb that that had me sweating buckets. The race tracks themselves were more Singletrack or even Cross Country in places than they were ‘Gravity’ so a high degree of fitness was a prerequisite for doing well. But then it is in Gravity Enduro too, isn’t it? I remember being astonished at how tiring riding down a hill could be the first time I raced… Prior to that I’d just assumed it would be the uphill transition stages that would wear me out!

The format allowed for practice in the morning so I pedaled off to try out the tracks. All four started in the same place in the woods at the top of the aforementioned climb! Dripping with sweat, I checked out Tracks 1 and 2, both of which required a fair bit of pedaling though Track 2 also had a fun, steeper rooty section through the trees. I missed out on practicing Track 3 as I didn’t have enough time, something that would come to haunt me later.

The tracks were to be ridden in order with one chance to set a fast time and at the end your times from all four tracks would be added together for your final result. I had no idea who any of the other women were, whether they were fast, whether I was fast or how I’d do so I was interested to see how I’d fare if I put in good runs on all tracks. Blasting off down Track 1 I had a mega smile on my face – mountain bike races are SO fun!

Unfortunately, I caught the rider in front of me rather quickly and was unable to get around for quite a long time, which I found really quite disheartening as it was only my first run and I felt that would surely spoil my chances in the race – not matter how fast I went on the other tracks I’d never be able to make the time up. Once round her I gave it some beans and finished the stage as quickly as I could, riding very erratically as a result. Whenever I try hard I mess things up!

Riding back up to the top of the stages, I got chatting to some of the other female racers, which for me, is one of the best things about mountain bike races as I don’t often get to ride with other women or chat about bikes with them. Adel and Francie both turned out to be super nice but sadly live bloody miles away from me, so I doubt we’ll be going riding together again any time soon, which is a shame. I guess I’ll have to sign up for a few more races!

Up at the top, we decided to switch the order in which we started to try and avoid any faster riders catching slower ones, but we didn’t get it quite right and unfortunately I caught a rider in front of me again on Track 2, and just as we were hitting the steepest most technical section. Luckily for me, she was super on the ball and nipped to the left of the trails so I was able to squeeze past, just having to back off and slow down for a while so we could both continue safely.

Track 3 turned out to be wildly different from any of the other stages and I found it pretty tough, not least as I was riding it blind. It was pretty flat, with tight, flat corners strewn with large flinty chunks of rock so really hard to find any flow and I felt like I was riding it particularly badly, just going hell for leather with no style or technique and making a real mess of it. In the end, I crashed not once but twice, the second time bending my pedal pretty badly and tearing my lovely Fox shorts. I really need to learn how to calm the hell down when I race and how to not ride like an idiot.

The final Track was a fast, hardpacked, fairly flat trail through the trees that I found a lot of fun as you could really get some speed up if you got it right, and I finally found some flow as I bombed my way to the end. A short, flat out sprint near the finish left me entirely breathless and doubled over as I gave it everything to claw back a few seconds. In the end, it wasn’t quite enough – despite finishing third on every Stage except Stage 3, my mistakes on tricky Stage 3 (the one I’d skipped in practice) meant that I finished just shy of the podium in 4th place.

Well done to Traharn Childley on her well deserved 1st, Francie Arthur in 2nd and Natasha Litherland in 3rd.

Strongher are an international collective united by a desire to promote cycling for women, be that road, fixed gear or mountain bike, novice, pro or anywhere in between. With a diverse crew of riders such as Marian Vos and Manon Carpenter and myself on board, we want to share stories that inspire, lead rides and workshops that are fun and put on events that bring female cyclist together in a way that makes everyone feel comfortable and part of the gang!

One event I’m particularly looking forward to, (actually that’s an understatement – I’m MASSIVELY excited about!!!) is Manon’s mountain bike weekender taking place this autumn at Afan. We’ll get two days of riding the bike park, jumps and trails under Manon’s guidance, plus meals together and we’ll all stay at Afan Lodge, which is a really nice place. If you’d like to join us or find out more, click here.

Alongside these events, the Strongher website is a great resource for women looking for advice, or you simply wishing to find out more about what makes cycling great. And you can find out all about the women already onboard or join up yourself.

I’m delighted our team captain Marit Huisman found me sufficiently interesting to run a double interview with me over on the site – thanks Marit! Click here to read part one of the interview and here to read part two.

My exploration of the the mysterious world of swimming continues apace and it’ fair to say, I’m pretty much hooked. I have an very addictive personality and tend to have extreme reactions to things either loving them or hating them or devoting all my time to them before ignoring them or changing my mind. Curiously, I’ve found that the more I do something the more I want to do it and conversely, the less I do something the less I even want to. It’s almost as though the act of participation itself fuels my passion and it fizzles if I don’t stoke the fire. For instance, if I’ve not ridden much, sometimes I feel very lazy and really can’t be bothered whereas if I’ve smashed a load of miles and ridden hard all week long, I just want to go again straight away!

In my last post about #PedalToPool challenge I detailed what kind of training sessions I’ve been doing and reached out to Speedo for a little help as I really wanted some feedback and some ideas for more purposeful training sessions in the pool. I was really excited when the team invited me up to London for a one-on-one session with a coach as I really love being given help and finding out the right way to do things – I figure if you’re going to do something, you should do it properly armed with as much info as possible. I can spend HOURS researching training and stuff on the internet – I’m super boring like that.

It was a big surprise when I met highly decorated swimmer Mark Foster and realised HE was going to coach me  – talk about making me feel self conscious of my technique! I genuinely had no idea whether he would notice I was doing something really, really wrong. Read more on the Speedo website here and watch the video from the coaching session below.

Making mistakes

It turns out I was making enough mistakes that Mark ‘didn’t want to overload me with corrections and advice,’ so he decided to focus on a few. Hahaha!

I discovered:

• When swimming freestyle your hands should not enter the pool in line with your head, they should enter in line with your shoulders. I need to widen my stroke.

• You are not meant to keep your body totally flat in the water, it’s mean to roll. This was big news to me!

• When you push off from the side, you shouldn’t do it ‘like Superman’ with one arm outstretched, you should have both arms in front.

• You should keep your fingers slightly open and hands relaxed.

• You should be lose and relaxed rather than all stiff trying to swim perfectly.

Swim Coach Sessions

When it came to specific swimming training sessions that would be relevant to my cycling, Mark directed me towards Speedo’s Swim Coach training plans, which I’ve found a revelation. There are about 200 different swim workouts that deliver different things but what’s really cool is that you can select which sport you’re cross-training for and what kind of thing you want to work on then download a relevant session and print it out. The only problem I’ve found is my workout tends to get wet or blow away when I’m swimming outdoors!

The sessions for cyclists are designed by Mark Foster and Richie Porte and include all sorts of things I’ve never tried before so that has made it really fun. I took home a was given a bag full ‘swimming aids’ that I’ve been enjoying using, in particular a pair of miniature flippers that

a> make me feel like a penguin

b> are so much fun to use that they make training feel like a game

Swimming using a ‘pull buoy’ between my legs and just using my arms has been hard to master but has forced me to improve my stroke – it highlighted how short and inefficient it was. Using a kickboard without flippers is probably the least fun as it takes me about ten years to do a length, but I can definitely feel it in my legs so it must do some good. The snorkel they gave me has remained in a cupboard as I’m too self conscious to use it at the pool, but maybe I’ll take it to Barcelona as I’ve planned some swims over there.

The city is home to some lovely looking pools including the Olympic pool at Montjuïc that has incredible views down to the sea. Club Natació Atlètic Barceloneta looks like another banger that I’ll have to visit whilst I’m in Barcelona racing Red Hook Crit.

But even more exciting, I’ve just read about the Vies Braves, a series of marked sea swimming routes along the Costa Brava designed to provide a safe and enjoyable way to enjoy the sea (read more about it on the Guardian.) Apparently you can sign up to join guided swimming sessions, either enjoying a one off swim or making your way all the way along the coast, which sounds pretty awesome. I find the website slightly confusing so I think the nearest swim to Barcelona is Port Ginesta which might be a little far, plus I can’t find a swim that coincides with my visit, so we’ll see. Fingers crossed I can join one – I’ve never done more than bob about in the sea (and surf) so I’m intrigued to try a proper swim.

Apologies for the delay in getting this post live, I actually penned the first part of ‘What I Eat For Cycling‘ an inordinately long time ago and didn’t mean to be so slack about writing it’s follow up. Spring and Summer are my busiest times both as a competitive cyclist and a journalist so I’ve just been a bit stacked with work, travel and events, if I’m totally honest. Now I’m back in the UK post Red Hook Crit Barcelona, I’m hoping to get this blog back under control, catch up on a few things and even take a moment to relax!

So what to eat for cycle racing and training?

I mentioned in Part 1 that I eat a normal diet (albeit with no meat), but my portions can be pretty hefty if I’ve been doing a lot of cycling. My Dad is always surprised at how much I eat as I’m pretty small but I seem to burn through calories very quickly. Because of this, I have to be careful about what to eat when I’m training, riding or racing to ensure that I fuel myself properly, otherwise I risk bonking (when your energy levels plummet so low that you feel really odd and can barely ride home) or simply underperforming.

Although I don’t diet, sometimes if I feel like I’ve been eating too much junk I’ll try and cut down on the crap a little bit, but what I will never, ever do is cut down on food when I’m riding – it’s a false economy as it negatively affects your performance. If you do need to lose weight and are trying to do it through cycling, I’d advise you to fuel yourself properly for/when riding and to cut down on food at other times when you are not on the bike.

What do I eat and why?

What I eat for training or racing depends on the duration and the intensity of my ride or workout, the kind of race and what I’ve had during my warm up.

If I’m riding for less than an hour, I’ll take plain water in my bottle and no snacks. On longer rides, club runs, sportives etc I switch to an Electrolyte drink and make sure to eat plenty, whether I’m hungry or not.  I nibble my way through roughly one energy bar per hour for the duration of the ride or I’ll take almond butter sandwiches cut into squares and eat one of those from time to time. If it’s a really long ride or getting a bit tough, I’ll have gel or a few Clif shot blocks to give myself a boost.

Things change if I’m training hard, for instance doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). For these sessions I’ll use an electrolyte drink and make sure I eat something small, say half an energy bar, as soon as I’ve finished the intervals and before I ride home. Obviously I don’t feel like eating during these sessions but a small snack afterwards prevents my blood sugar levels crashing and makes sure I don’t get dizzy (it’s happened before when I tried to ride up the hill to our house in Torquay after training at the Velopark – most unpleasant!)

When it comes to racing, well again, it depends on the event. In the run up to a race, I’ll make sure I’m really hydrated by drinking plenty of water in the 24 hours preceding. During my warm up I’ll drink roughly a bidon of water/Electrolyte drink and right before we start, I’ll have a gel. During the a short, fast race such a a crit or a cyclocross race, I probably won’t eat or drink anything at all but I might try and sneak another gel halfway through to keep myself going. For longer stage races, I make sure to eat little and often and to sip my Electrolyte drink throughout.

Post ride, unless it’s a particularly tough ride, I prefer to eat some real food such as sardines on toast but If I’ve really depleted the tank, I’m away from home or I’m short on time I’ll have a recovery drink or bar.

What Tastes Good?

It’s worth testing out a variety of products to see what suits your tastes and your needs. I haven’t tried everything but i’ve consumed a hell of a lot of sports nutrition products in the past and honestly, I find a lot of them vile, but I guess some people must like them or they wouldn’t still be on the market!

In order to give you a bit of a head start as there are so many products out there, here’s a guide to what I consider the better sports nutrition choices on the market. It’s worth adding, I’m not being paid by any of these companies for these recommendations; I just like the products. Also, I don’t universally like the products made by any one brand, for instance Sis Go Bars are not for me, ditto Clif Gel Shots.

Gels. There are a few kinds:

• The smaller, thick ones that you must consume with water. These are nice and compact so work well if you need to take several on your ride, but  this kind of gel often tastes horribly strong or just plain disgusting. I find most of them unpalatable apart from the Wiggle gels which are not bad at all and have the added advantage of being cheap.

• The larger gels do not need to be taken with water and to me taste better. My absolute favourite of all are Science In Sport’s Isotonic Energy gels, which taste a bit like watered down jelly and are actually really nice!

• Finally, you have gel cubes where unlike squeeze gels, you can choose your portion size, perhaps just eating a couple at a time. I recommend Clif’s Shot Blocs as they taste like gummy sweets, are easy to chew and swallow and they’re vegan (some competitors gel cubes contain gelatine).

Energy Bars. I’ve tried loads and most are too sweet or sticky. I won’t bother listing all the ones I don’t like, here are some that I do.

• CLIF bars taste good, are not overly sweet, travel well and are relatively easy to eat on the bike. I eat them half at a time. The best flavours are Oatmeal Raisin & Walnut (tastes like cinnamon flapjack), Peanut Butter and White Chocolate & Macadamia.

• Powerbar’s Energize Wafers are not bad if you fancy a change from ‘normal’ energy bars.

• Olly Bars are my newest discovery and I love them. They’re made of nuts, seeds and dried fruit and are not held together with sugary brown rice syrup etc. They’re handmade, vegan and taste amazing.

• Some of the Bounce Energy Balls are amazing. I tend to eat these when out mountain biking as they’re fairly dense so I prefer to stop and chew rather than gobble them down whilst I’m panting on my road bike. The peanut butter flavour is so nice and I could eat the Coconut and Macadamia one all day long.

Electrolyte / energy drinks

• Science in Sport’s Blackcurrant SiS Go Electrolyte drink is my favourite – has a great flavour and it not at all salty or too sweet. Also contains carbs to keep you going.

Recovery products

• After a big ride or hard training sessions I chuck frozen banana ‘coins’, vanilla MyProtein Impact Why Protein, nut butter and water, milk or coconut water into a blender to make a thick, totally delicious protein drink. Then I’ll try to eat a proper meal within the next hour or two.

• If I’m away from home, I’ll have a Clif chocolate peanut butter Builder’s Bar or a Powerbar Natural Protein bar, which is vegan.

• And finally, SiS have another winner with their REGO Rapid Recovery drink in strawberry – it tastes like strawberry milkshake.

I hope that some of these recommendations might help you out when it comes to navigating the vast array of products on the market. I’ve yet to try Gu’s products so I can’t recommend them yet but it looks like they have some good flavours. As I said before, not everything will suit everyone so I’d suggest buying single servings of products from your local bike store rather than just diving in an buying an entire box from one of the online retailers. And if you’re planning on using sports nutrition products for an important event, whether that’s a sportive, big ride or race, try them out beforehand in case they don’t sit well with you.

Happy cycling!

It’s now been a little over a year since I began racing semi seriously, or at least if not racing in an entirely serious way (I’m not in the Tour de France!), actually paying attention to how I train for racing and giving it some thought. In that rather short amount of time I’ve learned a great deal about training; I really like to know the mechanics of things and be armed with the facts, so I’ve read up a lot about what to do and why.

I’ve learnt what works for me so I’m now able to figure out my own training plan and I’ve been doing this fairly successfully, to the extent that people are now asking me to help write theirs. As I’m already a qualified coach, that sort of thing definitely holds an appeal so it’s something I’d like to investigate in the future!

Photo: Dave Noakes

My training was derailed pretty early on in the year when I crashed racing my mountain bike. Being in plaster unfortunately coincided with me needing treatment for something else that left me feeling very tired (and fat and grumpy!). I then reignited an old back injury and could hardly walk let alone cycle, so had to take yet more time off the bike and skip many elements of my gym routine, particularly squats and the like. I started seeing a sports therapist on a weekly basis and gave my body time to heal whilst still remaining as mobile as I could without putting my back, hips and glutes under too much strain. It was around that time that I started swimming again as it fit the bill perfectly. I’m getting more and more into it so something good came from the mess at least!

Photo: Ginger Beard Photo

The broken bones and illness messed up a lot of my competitive plans for the year and meant I couldn’t race the entire Red Hook Crit series as I was off the bike for the opening round in Brooklyn.

Equally disappointing was missing all the mountain bike races I had planned and generally just not getting to shred as much as I wanted to. After doing my first downhill race, I had plans to race a lot of Enduro events on my mountain bike, but these mainly had to be ditched, firstly because I was in plaster and then a splint and latterly as I needed to focus on training for crit racing and I just didn’t have time to do everything properly. When it comes to mountain biking, competitions aren’t a big part of what I do anyway, but it was certainly disappointing not to be able to race more than a couple, or to ride at many of the places I intended to visit this summer.

I was also hoping to try my first road race this year but had to forget that as my endurance went down the pan with all the time off the bike. Maybe next year!

Photo: Carlos Vernandez Laser

Despite all the set backs, I managed to get back on the bike in time for some races and to achieve some results that I’m really proud of including 2nd place at the Fixed 42 ‘World Champs’ in Berlin and most recently, a top ten finish at Red Hook Crit Barcelona. I wasn’t expecting too much after such a bad start to the year but it seems that the base miles I put in over the winter and the gym work I was able to continue when in plaster were not entirely a waste.

The main thing that’s helped is that this year I’ve more experience and a better understanding of what to do and what not to do in races. In the main, I’ve figured out how things work simply by racing as much as I can, which hasn’t been as much as I’d like but every single race helps. I make plenty of mistakes but I take something away every time I compete, without fail.

I’m finally starting to feel like I’m as much a part of the race as everyone else whereas previously I felt like I was kind of tagging along or even a bit of an imposter. It’s a lot of fun helping shape the dynamics of a race and infinitely better than feeling like you should get out of people’s way – something I actually used to do!!

Photo: Josh Greet

Now the crit and road racing season is drawing to an end I’m excited about all the mountain biking I’m going to do. When it comes to racing, there’s cyclocross to explore which I’m strangely drawn to despite the fact I had an awful race last year that actually made me cry!!

I was hoping to race all of the South West Cyclocross Series but as per, life has got in the way so though I raced round 1 last weekend, I’ll have to miss the next few – should save me a few tears at least!

But seriously, one thing I’ve learnt through my ups and downs with racing is there’s no point in stressing about it too much – it’s meant to be fun and when I go into things with no demands of myself other than to enjoy it, things tend to work out for the best.

Red Hook Crit in Barcelona is without doubt every fixed crit racer’s event of the year Those that can tend to fly in early or extend their trip after the race because it’s so much fun hanging out at the beach and riding around the city with friends you sometimes only get to see at a few events spread through the year.

Much like last year, Dave and I decided to treat it as our summer holiday taking a whole week off to ride bikes, swim, eat out, relax, go for beers and race, so pretty much a dream holiday for me. But unlike last year, rather than spending the days before the crit kind of nervously anticipating racing, this year I felt relaxed enough to forget about it until a few last minute nerves right before the main event.

Our budget for the trip didn’t stretch as far as normal – thanks Brexit – so it was a real pain trying to find a place to stay that wasn’t crazily expensive whilst slightly rubbish. Luckily, our friend Sami came through and arranged for us to borrow her friends place, turning up with a jangling bunch of keys on our first night as she did the rounds sorting out apartments for various out-of-towners.

The next morning we woke to an incredibly hot bluebird day and hopped on our track bikes to ride up to the Velodrome d’Horta. I was on the same Charge Bikes machine as the year before which I’d modified slightly by switching to Cinelli sprinter’s bars with Supacaz tape, adding a longer stem and removing a spacer to lower the bars. Anticipating hills, I rode up on a city gearing of 48:18 taking a spare sprocket so I could switch to a different gear at the velodrome.

Photos: Sami Moreno

After a detour over a few hills and up several staircases we made it to the track for a sweltering 40-degrees ride. The heat packed a real punch so I tried not to overdo it plus I didn’t want to trash my legs for Saturday’s race. I tried a few flying laps and rode around with the guys for a bit then couldn’t resists the lure of the beach and a dip in the sea.

Friday meant more beaching and swimming (with flippers!) then a decision to skip the pre-race party at the Dosnoventa store – both Dave and I enjoy a beer and would have found it impossible to resist having a few so it seemed safer not to go at all. Red Hook Crit is one of my favourite races of the year so I’m not going to give myself a disadvantage by dehydrating myself and having disrupted sleep. Having said that, it was pretty much impossible to sleep anyway as it was so crazily hot, in fact one night I tried sleeping next to a large, chilled bottle of water I’d got from the fridge and more than once I drenched myself in a cold shower in the middle of the night. Thank god I don’t live somewhere hot!

Photo: Dave Noakes

The day of the race we rolled down to Park Del Forum, gazing at the incredible blue of the sea to our right. This year, the organisers give riders the chance to test out the course before qualifiers so I had a quick go and then got stuck into the main topic of Red Hook Crit race day – which gear to use on your bike. Everyone wanted to know what gear everyone else was using because selecting the wrong one could prove costly.

Photo: Dave Noakes 

For those of you not into riding track bikes, let me explain:

Unlike ‘normal’ bikes, on a fixed gear/track bike, you only have one gear, that you can adjust before the race by changing the toothed sprocket on the hub of the rear wheel or by changing the chain ring at the front. Choose a heavy gear and it will be very hard to push the pedals around at first (after a corner), but once you are rolling you’ll be going very fast. Choose a lighter, spinnier gear and it’s easier to push the pedals as you sprint out of a corner but once you’re going fast your legs with be going like the clappers.

Photo: Ian S Walton for Soigneur

Gear selected, it was time to warm up and ride the qualifiers, the aim of which is to set a fast lap that will see you seeded or gridded near the front of the main race. Like many Red Hook women racers, I have no team mates so setting a fast time is made difficult by the fact I either have to go on my own or try and figure out when someone else is going and ride behind them to take advantage of the slip stream effect. In the end, I didn’t set a great time but called it quits before trying again as it was so damn hot that I felt pretty crap, plus I wanted to save my legs for the race.

Photo: Dani Ap

When race time came that evening, I lined up in grid position 21 eager to get a good start and get round some of the riders in front of me as soon as possible. My heart rate was so high – Zone 2.8 – because of my nervous anticipation even though I was just standing there not even moving! When the race began I pedaled round a couple of riders and made up a few places then tried my hardest to hold on to my position in the lead bunch whilst everyone went hell for leather trying to win the ‘prime,’ a special prize for the first person over the line on the opening lap.

The first few laps done and dusted, I settled in for a tough half hour – Red Hook Crits are brutally tough and the field included full time professional road racers. The course was quite open and fast with just one tight, technical hairpin turn that people took ever so slowly, way slower that I would have taken it but as I was not on the front I had no option but to slow down too then try and get back on top of my gear and sprint away again. The gear I’d chosen proved tricky at that point though I was glad of it on the straights.

Photo: Stefan Heahnel

After settling into a bit of a rhythm, I remember thinking to myself ‘wow, you’re still in the lead group, you’re really doing it!’ It was really nice to feel like I actually could and moreover was riding a good race. I’m often unsure of how my body will respond until I’m in the thick of things so I don’t like to anticipate or hope for any specific results when I race, I just set out to enjoy it and complete it. But sometimes, like with Fixed 42 World Championships, I notice things are going well and I think ‘ooh,’ I could do OK here!

As the laps counted down I began to figure out who to avoid, who not to worry about and which lines various people took around the corners. And I began to think about the finish. As we got closer and closer to the last few laps, I made sure not to leave it to late to get myself a good position, moving up the inside a few places and staying there. With half a lap to go, I just thought ‘sod it,’ and stomped on the pedals to blast up the inside and past the other riders, getting a surprise head start on the other sprinters. I briefly enjoyed being in the lead before the pain of my legs and lungs took over and I felt the black mist of the pain cave cloud everything.

Photo: Ginger Beard Photo

I tried as hard as I could to push on and fight through the pain, aware of riders overtaking me as I tried to reach the finish as quickly as possible. At that point, I couldn’t tell how many had done so but I became aware of Red Hook Crit series leader Ash Duban creeping up on my left. The pair of us battled it out and both pushed our bikes forwards as we rode through the line, hoping to gain an extra inch and finish one spot higher. In the end, I managed to hold her off (by about a centimeter!) and finished 8th as well, my best ever result in the Red Hook Crit.

I’m really proud of my result and it still makes me smile to think about the race!

My race day video is below. Hope you like it! If you do, please Subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thanks!

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One of my new year’s resolution back in January was to go camp out somewhere by bike. It wasn’t meant to be fancy, complicated or far away, it just had to involve bikes, a tent and beer. Despite my relatively small demands, you simply would not believe how hard it is to find a couple of days where all the people we wanted to ride with could make it – I was actually beginning to think it was never going to happen, particularly after it was cancelled the first time around.

At the beginning of August we finally found a window of opportunity and made a mad dash to meet John from Marin Bikes, Dave from Paligap and Jamie from Paligap/Wideopen Magazine for a very mini adventure of just one night.

In a car park early on a Thursday morning, Dave and I set eyes on our steeds for first time, Marin’s new Four Corners’ adventure/gravel/everything bikes which looked like they’d be whole bunch of fun to ride. Mine had a triple up front (which I was later to be glad of) whilst Dave was on a Rasta number with a 1-11, the Four Corners Elite. I also had a pretty meaty, heavy rear tyre (which I was not glad of when my legs got tired) and Dave was rolling on some 45c WTB Riddlers.

In the month’s preceding the trip, John had ordered custom Marin x Restrap bags which made our bikes look even more badass, with a saddle bag, frame bag and bar bag apiece. Apart from the frame bag, they made use of waterproof stuff sacks that you just bung your gear before securing using the tough, handmade carriers with strong clips. Our 1.8 kilo tent fitted into Dave’s saddle bag perfectly and stayed secure throughout the trip. But I’m jumping ahead.

The route we were to ride was the Ridgeway, an ancient track that’s described as Britain’s oldest road. I was really keen on going as the largely off-road route not only runs through some stunning landscapes in the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs but also passes some really fascinating Neolithic sites. People have been using the Ridgeway for about 5000 years, transporting goods along the chalk ridge as it was easier than navigating through woods, over streams and through villages below. One of the things you can see on your way is the chalk White Horse on the hill in Uffington that’s approximately 3000 years old. There’s all sorts of other amazing stuff too.

Bikes and bags sorted, we jumped in a van and from our carpark near the end of the trail, drove back to the start at Ivinghoe Beacon where we were dropped off. Then all we had to do was ride (and navigate).

Luckily John had brought a Ridgeway trail map which made the whole thing possible because the route for cyclists does meander a bit on and off-road so it can be confusing. The riding was a mixture of roads, bridleways, forest tracks and trails with the surface changing between tarmac, hard packed dirt, grass, a LOT of very sharp, flinty gravel and some chalk. We were lucky it was dry as it would have been extra tough work otherwise. As it was, the main fatigue came from endlessly bouncing over chunky, lumpy tractor tracks that had sun-baked or grinding our way through grass. The best bits were (of course) the few downhill, dirt trails through the trees but even the road sections were memorable – it’s such a pretty part of the world.
We’d been considered camping out in the wilds but decided we preferred civilization because: beer. Momentarily leaving the trail, we headed to Crowmarsh Gifford, a really nice little town on a river with assorted pubs for us to choose from. We camped at Bridge Villa Camping which was pretty pricey (£10 per person!) but really lovely; clean, quiet and with amazing showers. Dinner was really good too, just up the road at The Queen’s Head.

The following morning we rode back to the Ridgeway and continued. It was more off-road than the previous day, probably at least 85%. We suffered a couple of punctures on the flinty gravel bridleways and enjoyed some hardened chalk sections that meant we could roll a little faster. It’s just amazing how little distance you can cover off road compared to on and how tiring it is, even when not in a hurry. There was the odd crappy bit where you had to ride straight across a field through grass for WAY longer than was fun and some incredibly bumpy sections too, but all in all, it was a right good laugh!

At the end of the day we rolled up to our cars, pretty pooped – it was also baking hot and we were covered in sweat and dirt and just generally gross. By some kind of mistake we’d actually parked the cars a mile from Avebury itself and not made it to the town itself which I really regret because it’s means we didn’t really ride the whole Ridgeway plus Avebury is totally amazing!

Way more impressive than Stonehenge, Avebury is a village and Neolithic monument containing three stones circles and nearby there’s Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow. The stones have been there for 4500 years and it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, made even greater by the fact you can walk amongst the stones. Next time (and there will definitely be a next time – we packed so much fun into 36 hours!) I’ll do the whole thing and spend some time strolling about Avebury.

Here’s my video from the trip:

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, it’s been a bit of a funny year. I’ve had so much time off the bike due to injury and ill health yet I’ve also had some of the best results I’ve ever achieved and some amazingly fun times.

One of the best things that happened this year was that I took up swimming after Speedo got in touch and set me the challenge of adding it to my cycling training regime. It’s been really nice to have that constant what with everything else being so up and down.

Swimming is something I can always do easily. It’s quick and easy to fit into my day, you can find a pool most places, the equipment is minimal and it’s cheap. But most importantly, I can do it however I feel and whatever the condition of my body, adapting training (or relaxation) sessions according to what I need.

If I’m injured or my back pain flares up, I can still swim as it’s low impact and supportive of my body. If I’ve smashed out a really hard ride, I can swim as it’s helps my body to recover better than just lying on the sofa. Rest days from cycling can be put to good use with a pool session too, which is great for me as I actually find it hard to just do nothing. Swimming always affects me in a positive way.

Aside from that, swimming has helped me make new connections and opened up new lines of conversation. I’ve been invited to swimming training sessions and clubs and even an exciting new swim camp that I’m really hoping I get to attend.

Some of my friends have been inspired to get back in the pool too and I even managed to get Dave swimming – he was convinced when it magically washed away the shoulder pain he was carrying from a long ride the day before. Over in Barcelona, a big group of us went to the amazing swimming pool in Monjuic, did laps, splashed about and swam lengths underwater before emerging ravenous and heading to feast on seafood. It was one of the highlights of my trip!

So stop wondering whether you should try swimming or not, just go and jump in the pool – once you’ve been once you’re likely to go again.

Head over to the Speedo site for my new blog on swimming.

Pedal2Pool3-Juliet

One of the good things about sportives is that you get to explore a new part of the country without having to research an unfamiliar area and plot a route. You know that there’ll be plenty of food along the way at the rest stops, heaps of people to ride and chat with and a measured distance for you to ride.

Which is all fine and good but I feel sportives can sometimes lack an element of adventure that I crave. The other problem I sometimes have with them is that they can cost an absolute fortune and as the roads are (usually) not closed, essentially you’re paying a lot of money for some flapjack and the chance to ride roads you can ride anytime you want for free, without a hell of a lot of other people.

Rapha Prestige is different, largely because it’s not actually a sportive, but bear with me as it does have similarities, being an organised group ride with feed stations. The main difference is the lack of route marking – riders are sent a ‘safe route’ 48 hours before the event and encouraged to alter it whilst keeping in some mandatory check points, which are also the food stops so you wouldn’t want to miss them anyway. On the day, it’s up to you to correctly navigate from point to point which is easier said that done, particularly if you’ve altered the route without paying enough attention!

Cyclists ride in groups of four who must all arrive back together, am element I really like as it encourages you to all work together and support each other. I rode the Rapha Prestige West Country last month with a really cool bunch of women and we had quite the adventure. Head to the Brooks England site for my write up and find out how we fared, because whilst it’s not really a race, someone mentioned there’d be prizes for the first teams back….

www.brooksengland.com

I sometimes ponder what the people of the future will think of us and our society when they examine their history books a few hundred years hence. We can sometimes look back at some of the things our ancestors did and think they’re pretty weird and feel all superior for being smarter and more advanced –  certainly some of the beliefs held in the past are downright bonkers. But I don’t think we’ve evolved to a stage where we won’t feel embarrassed about our failings in the future.

I strongly feel that people will look back on our times and say,

‘can you believe that in the 21st century they didn’t think women were equal to men?‘

 

‘it’s crazy that in 2016 women were still routinely paid less than men in nearly every profession.‘ 

The sad reality is that if I have a daughter, she won’t have the same opportunities as a boy. How am I meant to explain the reasoning behind her being valued less? Will she be brave enough to compete against boys and forge ahead in sport when there are few female athletes receiving high level coverage in the media?

So it’s pretty clear that I consider inequality in inexcusable, whether it’s on race, sex or religious terms, but where does that leave us when we come to prize money in competitive cycling?

There are many reasons given for paying out a smaller prize fund to female cyclists that I’m aware. I’ve given the arguments for and against parity a enormous amount of thought and I’ve discussed the topic a lot with my friends who race. I raised the issues on both sides in an article that I wrote for Total Women’s Cycling, pondering out loud whether the winner of a women’s race with a relatively small field should take away the same as the male winner who may have raced five times as many people, which is often the difference between the male and female field size at local races.

But what about ten day stage races such as the Giro Rosa where the winner takes home €1.050 which is a massive kick in the teeth consider the winner of the Giro D’Italia, the men’s equivalent nets €115.000

For me, the issue of prize money and pay are inextricably linked as lack of parity in both make is incredibly difficult for most female cyclists to make a full time living out of cycling. A friend of mine was just offered £300 a month to sign for a UCI team – how the hell is she meant to live on that? As of yet, the president of the UCI Brian Cookson doesn’t think that women deserve a minimum wage, whereas he has set one for the men that teams must adhere to. Cheers Brian.

Cycling Tips and Ella Cycling Tips recently asked me to contribute to a new podcast focused on the issue, along with Kris Auer, a race promotor who firmly believes professional women should receive equal prize money at races that are identical to mens, so in Cyclocross for instance.

Head over to the Cycling Tips website to download or listen to the podcast.

CyclingTips Podcast, Episode 13: On equal prize money

I’ve been using WTB products on my mountain bikes for yonks as I’ve always got on with their range of grips, tyres and rims. I’ve actually got a pair of their amazing carbon Ci31 rims upstairs waiting until I finally have enough money to buy some hubs and get them built. I really, really want to ride them but every time I get paid I have to spend it on something annoying like getting our front door replaced (after it blew off it’s hinges) or having a clamp removed from the car (for forgetting to renew my tax).

My WTB grips are really comfortable, being just the right ‘feel’ without needing ages and ages to wear it – they’ve just enough squidge to be grippy and damped buzz, so I suppose I wasn’t waiting for a new, improved version as the old ones are so good. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by the new Padloc grips so I got hold of a couple of pairs to try out.

WTB totally rethought grips and redesigned them from the ground up. Normally, what holds your grip in place are the two metal collars at either end, which you fasten tightly on the handlebars to prevent movement. The problem is that you can’t tighten them too much on carbon bars as whilst carbon is very strong in certain directions there’s a limited about of torque that you can apply to it. Having a grip slip or rotate whilst you’re hurtling down some technical terrain, say in a Downhill race could have disastrous consequences so the Padloc grips are designed to make that impossible.

This is achieved by using a totally new system – there’s a wedge shape inside the grip into which you insert you bars which you’ve cut to the same shape by trimming a 30 degree wedge from each end. The outer ends of each grip are a rubber compound right the way to the edge, rather than having a metal collar which juts up against the side of your hand, so they’re super comfortable.

Here’s more about the grips and how to fit them.

www.wtb.com/

Every autumn I like to spend some time thinking about next year, what my goals will be, my target race, which countries I’d like to visit with a bike and which rides I’d like to factor into my schedule. Aside from a few important competitions that I have to get in my diary right away so that I know whether I’m training for them or not, I like to take my time to daydream about where I might go. I explore new regions vicariously through other people’s blogs and spend time researching events that I might be able to write about either here on in one of the publications I contribute to. It’s a fun thing to do but it does mean I’m sat at the computer for great stretches of time, something I’m used to as a writer but still… sometimes it’s nice to disconnect.

And that’s where this brilliant new book comes in; Epic bike rides of the world.

I really love books and along with spending many hours a week with my nose stuck in a novel, I get really excited about big, lush, glossy coffee table books that you can dip into, particularly those with beautiful photography and something to do with the outdoors. Dave recently bought be Cabin Porn and I tried really hard not to just read it all at once as I wanted to savour it and prolong the enjoyment. I’m weird like that. And it’s the same with this Bike Rides book – I don’t want to finish it. Curling up with it on the sofa is a heavenly way to relax and provoke a daydream or inspire further research.

Rather than being a kind of guide book with a list of rides with overviews of the terrain, maps, directions and stats etc, this book presents each ride as a story or feature written first hand, much like you might read in a cycling magazine so you get a great sense of place. The locations of each ride are stunning (that’s why the ride are in the book!) and some of the photography is incredible.

There are some very brief bits of advice in the ‘Tool Kit’ at the end of each story such as where to start and finish, how to get there, approximate distance and when to go, but that’s it and the book’s better for it. It’s more about enjoying the experience of reading the book and then doing a little research of your own to make the trip yours, rather than simply replicating it. “These stories should spark other ideas,” we’re told in the introduction.

After each 4-6 page ride/story are the brief outlines of three similar rides. For example, one of the featured rides is ‘Riding The Rif’ in Northern Morocco which is appended with three more ‘self supported adventures.’

The diverse rides vary enormously in length, difficulty and level of adventure so it’s good for anyone interested in seeing more of the world with a bike. The book covers off-road and on, remote and metropolitan. It covers all the continents with some good options for those of us not wanting to travel to far (one apiece in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) and a good selection of European rides.

Covering 30 countries and 200 ideas there’s plenty to stoke your curiosity. I’m particularly inspired by the Family Bikepacking In Ecuador feature – will I be brave enough to do that when I have children? But I think the ride I’ll be doing first will be ‘Pedalling The Spanish Picos’ as I can get a ferry from Portsmouth straight to Bilbao with my bike and ride straight out in to the beautiful mountain range.

If you fancy buying a copy they have it here on the Lonely Planet shop.

After all the fun of August with it’s Red Hook Crit racing, swimming in the sea, larking about on beaches and having fun with friends, September turned out to be absolutely rubbish. Told in no uncertain terms by my doctor that my body needed a break, I was forbidden to cycle (and run!) for 4 – 6 weeks.

My first thought was of Red Hook Crit in Milan which I was hoping to enter. But as one of this year’s goals was to ride the entire Red Hook series and I’d already ballsed it up my breaking my hand and missing Brooklyn, it wasn’t like I was anywhere near completing it anyway – I’d only managed to race London and Barcelona. I was philosophical about it really – this has been a tough year and I’m kind of used to things not going to plan.

Not riding my bike was far, far harder to deal with, in fact the though of it sent waves of panic through me. At certain tricky points in my life, cycling is the glue that holds everything together so I was worried how I’d cope without it.

More civvy cycling today – I can't train, race or workout at the gym for a few weeks but rolling around town on a hire bike is still fun

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Sep 19, 2016 at 5:56am PDT

I’ve always enjoyed cycling and it’s always made me feel good, but despite my initial worries about training making riding less fun (which sometimes it does when it’s horribly cold and wet, you’re knackered and your legs hurt) in actual fact training gives me a real boost. It gives me a purpose, give my week structure, gets me up and at it when I’m feeling blue, boosts natural endorphins, makes eating cakes more pleasurable, makes me more calm and rational and just generally soothes.

What was I to do? I was already trying to cope with some difficult personal stuff and cycling felt like the one beam of light.

At first I decided my doctor meant ‘no riding hard, no training or pushing yourself’ so I stopped going to ride fast pre-work laps in Regents Park and went for a slow ‘recovery ride’ with my buddy Marigold in Regents Park. This drew disapproving glances from all involved in my treatment.

I put my road bike away.

Rather than riding my carbon road bike with it’s race geometry that just makes me want to go fast, I decided I’d swap to London’s slow, sturdy Boris Bikes for very gentle, occasional cruises to and from appointments. I figured any kind of cycling would keep me from going crazy. And let me tell you, illicitly free-wheeling over London’s bridges with the sun in your face and the Thames glittering beneath you felt nothing short of amazing.

With people close to me questioning even the Boris Bike riding, the next time I saw my doctors I asked him again if he was certain he really mean no cycling at all. And who’d have thought, apparently ‘no cycling’ means just that. The news genuinely made me tearful.

The next five weeks were really, really tough. I’ve been doing weight training in the gym for the last year and was gutted to watch my quads shrink and my abs melt away. I took any and every opportunity to sneak in exercise when I could, marching up all the stairs at tube stations as fast as I could. I was disappointed to notice myself getting more and more out of breath as the weeks passed. Fitness is so slow to gain and quick to lose!

I’m now fully back on the bike, having taken my first proper ride on my mountain bike yesterday at Haldon Forest and today I took my road bike for a 2.5 hour spin along the coast. Both rides were really hard. My legs are so damn weak my lungs feel teeny and ineffective. I can’t go on any club runs or ride with Dave until I’ve put a few base miles back in the tank, I don’t think I could cope otherwise!

But at least I’m back, and I’m more motivated than I’ve ever been. I’ve lots of exciting plans for next year so I’m gonna get the ball rolling this year and do some quality training over the winter so I come out all guns blazing! Next on my agenda is a training camp in Gran Canaria with Polartec, Alberto Contador and the winners of Follow Contador. I’ve ten days to get myself in some kind of shape before I head out there which is tricky as on the one hand, I want to make quick progress but on the other, I need to be cautious so as not to wreck myself before I get there.

At the end of November, when I should be a little fitter, I’m making my first trip to Australia to ride the first ever Etape Australia and visit Sydney. I’m so excited. Any Australian readers fancy going for a ride?

Last month at the Assos women’s event at Look Mum No Hands, I was given a pair of their new women’s Tiburu S7 padded cycling tights to try out. It’s always exciting to get totally new Assos stuff to try, the brand works for about five billion years on every product, researching, testing, adjusting and refining every detail for well over a year so only a select few items are added to the range at any one time. The products that make up the range are designed to last for multiple seasons rather than being retired at the end of one, which is great – it means I’ve got over any desire for quick, fast turnaround disposable products and learnt to appreciate timeless designs. But still, new stuff is always cool!

I took them for a little spin in London but wasn’t really able to give them as much testing as I wasn’t actually supposed to be riding at all in September after my doctor prescribed a total rest.

I’ve now finally had the the chance to wear them, up in London on a recent video shoot for British Cycling, over in Switzerland on a photo shoot with Assos in the mountains and most recently, here in Devon during a rapidly cooling Autumn.

The tights are designed to be a spring/autumn piece, making use of several different fabric types in panels cut to follow the shape of the body and add comfort. The curved seams also just look really nice – those that wrap around the back of the leg extending down from the chamois are particularly good.

The use of fabrics in different weights and textures enhances the performance of the tighs. They’re insulated on the front of the leg using a light fleece material, which has a sort of geometric dimpling to trap warm air. Naturally, it’s important to keep your knees warm and the warmer material at the front protects you from wind chill. Round the back of the tights the material is slightly lighter, meaning there’s no bunching around the back of the knees.

The tights come up nice and high at the back to keep you cosy and ensure you don’t have a gap between jersey/baselayer and tights and the soft waistband did a good job of holding the tights up and in the right place. Round the ankle, you’ve a soft elasticated band with some silicon dots designed to add grip to keep them in place. Another nice detail is the reflective band that adds visibility in low light.

The chamois is Assos’s new S7 insert, which is exceptionally comfortable, and I’m not just saying that because Assos give me free clothes – ask anyone about the quality of their chamois and they’ll tell you the same – the brand is pretty much on the craftsmanship of their shorts.

This a pair of leggings that will see you through multiple years in style and comfort and as such it’s reflected in the price – they are not cheap. But if you want something that’s going to last and allow you to #sufferincomfort, they might just be the pair for you.

After five weeks off the bike resting my dodgy back, the second week of October I was given the go ahead to get back on the bike and get on with my life. I’m still not 100% and at this point in my injury/recovery, I’ve basically given up hope of ever being fully fixed, but that’s a different story for a different time.

The first thing in the diary was a four day video shoot with British Cycling in London, filming a series of 13 videos aimed at commuters, to help make things easier for those already cycling as well as provide tips for those thinking about it.

Commuting is how I first got into cycling myself, turning the drudgery of travelling to work into something I’d actively look forward to and ultimately leading me to the position I’m in now, so I’m passionate about helping more people to factor something fun, healthy and environmentally friendly into their day.

Having previously worked at the London Cycling Campaign, I am well aware of the issues city cyclists face and the reservations some might have about travelling to work by bike. But I feel like things are looking up. Whilst no British cities can compete with some of the most well known ‘cycling cities’ such as Copenhagen, a great deal has been done in recent years to improve things for cyclists in the capital, with some fantastic, entirely traffic free cycle superhighways that are a real pleasure to ride when you find them.

In the videos we demonstrate safe riding in tricky junctions, good road positioning, clothing and luggage options, how to train on your commute and heaps of other stuff. My hope that these videos will help make things a little easier, or more fun for commuters – I can’t wait to see them!

After four days shooting in very cold conditions in the UK, I jumped on a plane and flew to Switzerland (well, Italy actually, the nearest airport is in Milan) for a shoot with my clothing sponsors, Assos. I’ve now been working with the brand for nearly two years, during which time there has been a whole load of exciting developments so it was a thrill to head back to beautiful lake Lugano to catch up with the guys at HQ.

Whenever I visit Assos, I always stay right by the lake in the aptly named Paradiso, just out of the city centre and facing Monte Bre, which I climbed at dawn last year. After arriving in the evening, I took a stroll on the shore and up to the centre, enjoying the mineral scent of the crisp, mountain air. Dave and I used to live virtually round the corner, on Lake Como and it was nice to see those familiar mountains that I’d circle on some of my rides.

Luckily, I’m not big on going out, preferring instead to spend my time either outdoors or resting up having a bath, reading or watching films, which was somewhat fortuitous – Switzerland has always been expensive but holy moly, thanks to Brexit the prices were startling. To put it into context, a Burger King meal was about £12 or £13 (not that I had one!!!) and a cup of coffee was about £4. The only thing cheap was supermarket wine!

The first day of the shoot, we drove out to Sustenpass, a high mountain route that connects Innertkirchen in the canton of Bern with Wassen in the canton of Uri. Obviously we were shooting photos, which means lots of stopping, starting and repeats so I was unable to do the 18km climb in it’s entirety without pause but I can’t wait to give it a go another year, slightly earlier in the season. The average gradient is 7.4%, so it’s long and steady, and what’s nice (depending on your viewpoint) is that it’s quite open rather than being switchback after switchback so you can really enjoy the descent because you can see what’s coming next.

Day two was the video shoot, the aim being to produce a film next year that will introduce some new women’s Autumn/Winter 2017 pieces. I’d already been warned that the crew was hoping for disgusting weather, so we could really showcase the performance of the clothes and the conditions they allow you to ride in and we were ‘rewarded’ with torrential rain, minuscule temperatures and even snow. We based ourselves at Rifugio Lago Ritom in the Piora valley, a lovely mountain hut run by an easy going chap who could not have been more accommodating.

I imagine the area would be very beautiful and popular in summer, filled with wildflowers, orchids, marmotts and eagles, but as it was, all I could see was snow! Bypassing the terrifying looking Ritom funicular (which has a gradient of 87%!!!!!) I rode along the delightful little road hugging the hillside, weaving through the occasional tunnel on my way to the lake. I think it would be a fab ride in summer, stopping at the lake for a picnic. It’s now been added to my vast list of places to revisit – I have been to some incredible places but I’m often busy shooting or filming so vow to return. At this rate, I’ll need about five lifetimes to fit them all in!

Post shoot, I swung by the ASSOS store in Lugano to grab some clothes and was surprised to see Elena and I on the wall, just about life size. There was also a video on my playing on a large screen behind the counter, making there more images of women riding bikes in there than of men. Win!!!

2016 has been a tough year.  If I’m totally honest, I’ll be really glad to see this back of it and though it’s only a kind of virtual, fake, made up new start each January 1st, there are things I’d like to feel are behind me so I can’t wait!

Generally, cycling helps see me through turbulent times, but this year’s multiple injuries and ailments meant that even pedalling wasn’t always on the cards. So thank heavens above that Speedo got in touch with me, as if they hadn’t, I wouldn’t have started swimming and I would have been far grumpier.

As an adult, I think there can be a lot of fear about starting something new, either that or there’s just too much analysis or deliberating. For sure, there can be a perceived lack of time, but I don’t think that’s truly behind our reluctance to dive in – there always seems to be time to TV.

Often, we need a shove in the right direction, which is what I got!

Initially, Speed wanted me to swap a ride a week for a swim and I wasted no time in telling them was never going to happen – less time on the bike will never appeal to me. Instead, we agreed that I’d add in a swim a week, which seemed desirable and doable.

A few months later, swimming is firmly part of my schedule, and dare I say it, I look forward to my time in the pool as much as my time on the bike. A lot of what I do really gives my body a hammering so I like the free and easy, long, silky movements of swimming. It feels like a treat for my limbs.

It’s also a treat for the mind. Sometime the kind cycling I do can also require a hell of a lot of concentration, whether it’s picking my way down a technical descent on my mountain bike, focusing on power zones and training intervals or trying to beat a PB down the Velopark. That can be mentally tiring. Of course I do enjoy easy going, carefree rides to unwind but swimming is different.

It has a strange effect on me. It gives me a quiet energy, a nice gentle buzz that’s kind of like a good massage. I emerge from the pool feeling supple, relaxed and calm, shoulders thrown back. I love that swimming is all just me with no equipment at all – I know bikes are propelled purely by our bodies but you’re using a tool to move, rather than just your limbs. I also love that I use my whole body rather than just my legs.

So I’d like to say thank you to Speedo for reintroducing me to this new way of training, relaxing, meditating, energising and stretching, because I’d been thinking of starting swimming again for so long but never got around to taking the plunge.

On the Speedo site my new Pedal To Pool video shows how and where I’ve been swimming this summer, the training I’ve been doing and also how I believe it’s affected my performance. Check it out for some fixed gear crit racing footage too.

And finally, if you’ve any questions about getting started with swimming again or helpful workouts for cyclists, leave me a comment below – I’d love to share what I’ve learnt.

http://bit.ly/P2P4Juliet

As an athlete, blogger and journo, I get asked on quite a few pretty sweet trips, but Polartec set a new standard with the last one. What could be better than a five day trip to train in Gran Canaria with seven times Grand Tour winner Alberto Contador’s and his under-23 development team, Fundacion Contador?

The training camp was the prize in a contest run over the summer months on Strava by fabric manufacturers and sponsors of the Fundacion Contador, Polartec. Participants had four weeks to rack up at least 1000km whilst completing various challenges in order of difficulty, winning badges before proceeding to the next. The eventual winners were selected from those who successfully completed the challenges by a panel of judges, then awarded what has to be one of the best competition prizes ever – the chance to live and train like a pro.

Whisked away from the shortening days and chilly temperatures of autumn, the trip would give us some bonus, unexpected sunny miles and the opportunity to focus entirely on cycling for a few days. Everything was to be taken care off, we’d have special Follow Contador clothing, a team car, mechanics, masseurs, guides, the works.

Alongside Contador, the competition winners, journalists, and under 23 team, we had Ivan Basso and Jesús Hernández joining us, so things were gonna be fast and difficult! But it wasn’t just the professionals that would be pushing us hard, the competition winners were fiendishly tough – UK winner Dagmar Pfieffer had put in around 2500km during the four weeks of the competition and Camila Cortes was training for the Tour of Columbia. After spending all of September and part of October off the bike (damn you, back injury!) I was nervous about how unfit I’d prove to be, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me trying.

Arriving at our hotel (six hours delayed after a broken plane and a detour to Tenerife – thanks Ryanair) I grabbed a quick sandwich before heading up to bed – we were due to ride at 8am and it was already 12.30pm. I was sharing with Elena Martinello, whom I was yet to meet so I tried to sneak in quietly when all I really wanted to do was tear open the amazing personalised kit bag and dance about in the new stuff I’d just been given. I set the alarm on my phone and it did that awful thing where it tells you have long you have to sleep –  5 hours!

Follow Contador Day #1

The following morning I was up at 6.30 to prepare for the day’s ride and had my first chance to see the hotel properly. We were staying at Lopesan Costa Meloneras, a swanky resort with numerous heavenly looking swimming pools, including a 100 metre long infinity pool stretching out to the ocean. After helping myself to muesli, yoghurt, fruit and eggs from the plentiful breakfast buffet I popped down to the bike room to meet the rest of the crew and pick up my rental bike from Free Motion Bike Centre – a Canondale Supersix Evo.

Our first ride was due to roll out at 8am but it was decided to postpone until the afternoon – it was raining (very rare in Gran Canaria) and the previous day’s downpour had washed gravel onto the roads and left them kind of greasy.

After lunch we headed on a shortened route to the one we had mapped out in our guidebooks, taking a leisurely roll along the coast to warm our legs up then turning inland to test ourselves on a climb. Each day of the trip there was one nominated Strava segment on which we’d pit ourselves against one and other. The climb wasn’t that steep but it was hot, long and slow – I suck at climbing even when I’ve not had time off riding. After a fun descent (trying to avoid rocks on the road) I gave it some beans and powered along the valley floor to the coast road, all smiles.

Follow Contador Day #2

Gran Canaria is a climber’s paradise and our schedule was designed to take to challenge us. Our briefing the day before had outlined what sounded like a pretty tough ride – 82km with a 1800m of climbing.

Joined by Contador, we rolled out along the coast at a much speedier pace of around 35km/p/h with plenty of 45km/p/h surges, quite the opposite to Day 1’s warm up. After around 27km we turned up into the hills for a climb of around 30km, the road hugging a series of rocky hills and winding its way up and around the arid landscape on the way to San Bartolome de Tirajan. We’d left rather late and it was hotter than is usual – by this time in the proceedings was scorching, nearing 40 degrees. I tried to settle into a rhythm and get on with it, sipping water as I watched the climbers shoot off and Contador basically fly!

By the time I’d climbed around 10km I was feeling truly awful, boiling hot but covered in goose bumps and struggling not to puke – surely not a good sign. I battled on for as long as I could, not wanting to be a wuss but in the end decided it wasn’t worth making myself ill. It was a tough call – as a cyclist I’m used to ignoring pain and never quitting but in this case I’m glad I listened to by body. Getting back to the hotel was no piece of cake but a few lengths in a lovely pool, a salad and smoothie later and I felt just about normal again.

Follow Contador Day #3

Day 3 was billed as the most challenging of all, 101km with around 2,500m of climbing up to the highest point of the island. Setting off from our hotel in Maspalomas, we headed inland straight up what we’d been told was nearly around 50km of climbing – at our briefing the night before it has been described as a 48km ascent with 3 easy km included.

Like the day before, it was absolutely scorching so I was grateful to Contador for giving me a bit of a push up the hill – I never imagined that I’d ever be riding side by side with him! It’s worth mentioning here that our guides Ronny, Bart, Martin and Michael from Free Motion Bike Centre were fantastically helpful and motivating too – thanks guys!

Our Strava segment for the day was 8.7km at an average 6% gradient, although several parts were significantly steeper to balance out the odd flatter section. As per usual, everyone went tearing off whilst I settled into my pace, determined to push myself as fast as I could, no matter what they were doing. I sweated and gurned my way up.

I’m far from superwoman. Sometimes I find stuff really tough. Today I gave it everything I had and it still wasn’t enough. I had to call it quits 13km in to a 30km climb. I just couldn’t take the heat and my recent six weeks off injured mean my fitness is shot. I doubt I’ll ever be a climber either way. My prize for failing was a fun descent followed by a not so fun 27km into a headwind. You win some, you lose some #followcontador #training #cycling #womenscycling

A photo posted by Juliet Elliott (@julietelliott) on Oct 30, 2016 at 11:45am PDT

At the end of our stay in Gran Canaria, I made several resolutions, inspired by my time with the Polartec crew, the under 23s, the competition winners and the professionals. One is to train my ass off over winter so my hill climbing catches up with my sprinting, the second to take better care of my bike (we had a talk from the Fundacion Contador’s mechanic one evening and it made me realise I need to) and the third to return to Gran Canaria. Myself and the other women have come up with a sneaky plan to ‘Follow Follow Contador’ – come back next year and just tag along…. but in case we chicken out, I’ve just booked a week in February with my husband, Dave.

A really, truly enormous thanks to Gaia and Alessandro from Polartec for inviting me along, to the Fundacion Contador riders for chit chat on the rides, to Contador for pushing me up a hill and to Free Motion Bike Centre for the great guiding. Thanks to Your Big Stories for the images.