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London to Cambridge bike ride. Twice.

Did a big old bike ride last week. Cambridge to London via some nice sweeping country lanes and then back to Cambridge again along the official London to Cambridge route. Apart from a few short rides for an hour or two here and there, it was the first ‘proper’ ride I’ve done on a road bike.

Surprisingly, legs were fine pretty much all the way, although I was starting to run out of steam for the last few miles. What I struggled with most was the pain in my arms and hands; I’m pretty sure my bars could do with being closer and a touch higher, although for the first few hours they felt absolutely fine.

Covered 104 miles in total, here’s a little map of the route.

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Career change


A lot has happened since January. In February my employer announced a restructure, with some inevitable redundancies. At the end of March my time at Cranfield University came to an end, after nearly eleven years. During that time I gradually moved from IT to marketing, working as a sys admin, then web application developer and finally as online marketing manager, qualifying with the Chartered Instistute of Marketing only a couple of months ago.

Time for a change now though and a chance to pursue something that’s been on my mind for a few years. In September I begin my PGCE year to train to become a secondary maths teacher. Time to start revising my calculus.

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So, 2010

Here’s a few notable bits and pieces from 2009

  • Got married
  • Had an amazing holiday in New Zealand and Australia
  • Got a half marathon personal best of 1:56
  • Entered my first triathlon
  • Bought a few bikes
  • First sports car free year since 2002
  • Set up a darkroom in the garage for ‘proper’ B&W wet prints
  • Completed my CIM Diploma (awaiting results)
A few of those were realised 2009 new year resolutions. There were a few other failed resolutions that will have to carry over to this year though, notably spending more time in the darkroom printing up and framing some photos for the house and perhaps making a photo book or two.

Now is also the time to start looking at the sporting calendar for the year. I’m so far booked in for another ‘Rat Race‘ urban adventure race (in London this time) in September and will no doubt also do the Milton Keynes NSPCC Half Marathon and maybe one or two ‘Ace Races‘ one-day adventure races. I’m going to have another crack at a sprint triathlon again too, I know what to expect this time so can concentrate on getting a slightly better time. Something in particular I’ve got my sights on this year is trying some enduro events – endurance mountain bike races that last 8 hours/100km-ish – I like the idea of pacing something like this out rather than going hell for leather and coughing my guts up hard for 45 minutes.

Finally I want to visit at least a couple of MTB trail centres in either South Wales or the Scottish Borders. My last trail centre visit was Coed y Brenin in about 2000ish so I’m keen to take the riding a little further from home again.

So there it is. Basically, take more pictures and ride more. On that note, here’s a picture from a recent ride.

(click for larger version)

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First ever blog post

Hmmm, let’s see. First ever blog post. I’ve set this up, mostly, to test out available blogging facilities with a view to setting up something similar as part of my role at work.

Expect to to find all sorts of drivel on here over the coming year, ranging from training notes for two half marathons, a triathlon and four adventure races, wedding plans, possible notes from our killer honeymoon round Oz and NZ and various bits and pieces testing blogging functionality for work.