Welcome to Pedaller’s Rest

Nodge247

The joy of cycling is to stop. Stop to enjoy the view.  Stop for a good lunch. Stop for a pee rather than pressing on, holding on and missing out. 

It’s not about the getting there, it’s about the being “here”.

Whatever your tribe – whether its road cycling, off road, gravel, touring or city commuting – sometimes we all need a break to refuel the body and refresh the mind, do something different or do nothing at all. 

Pedaller’s Rest looks across all types of cycling – at the break rather than the journey; we will always stop to take a photograph; we will always try something different; we will always stop for lunch – and the only chains we use are on our bikes.

And so it begins

Nodge247

Sometimes when you slip into the water you can slip into a rhythm – you’re in the groove – where you stop thinking about your technique (poor), your speed (leisurely) or whether you’re slowing down the other swimmers in the pool (usually!); today was one of those days. After 400(?) days of working all through the pandemic, this was my first day of furlough.

I hadn’t really thought about it too much when I was working – good to be busy and glad my role was considered necessary to carry on; it was only when I was told I would have to be furloughed one day a week I started to think maybe my role wasn’t that vital; maybe I wasn’t as secure as I thought I’d be. The thought of sitting at home doing nothing scared me, and I knew from past experience that that’s when you start to dwell on the negative, and before you know it you’re on the long slippery slope to depression and self loathing. I knew I had to keep myself busy on my furlough day – but what to do? Not enough time to learn a foreign language or to get the ukulele out of retirement for another stab at mastering a musical instrument; little incentive to decorate the house as we’ll be moving in the near future, and DIY jobs never get finished in one day anyway.

As I started to tire towards the end of my swim I started to lift my head and look outwards, beyond the limits of the steamy windows to the fluffy clouds drifting along in the blue sky beyond. Suddenly I wanted to be out there, under the open skies, swimming in and with nature, or at least swimming unfettered by concrete and steel; open water swimming, wild swimming, lidos – I’d spend my one day a week visiting different swimming locations – getting out of the house and keeping away from depression. I knew I’d get as much pleasure and distraction from the planning as from the swimming itself, and if I could combine each swim with a cycle well, even better. And so it begins.

That’s January done then!

Nodge247

12 rides – 4 indoors and 8 outdoors

Total mileage 203.5 miles (Jan ‘21 163.6 miles)

Longest ride 28.9 miles

Most memorable ride – New Year’s day, riding from Seaview to the end of Ryde Pier and back again. Any ride on the Isle of Wight is special, to do so on New Year’s day was magnificent.

With short days, bad weather and freezing temperatures, it can be hard to find the get up and go to get out and about in January, but this year I’ve got a big target to motivate me – my first 100.

I never managed to get a place in Ride London, the ballot hugely oversubscribed every year, and for the past two years there hasn’t been an event to aim for. In 2022 it’s back, with a new route heading out into rural Essex, a new start on Victoria Embankment and finish on Tower Bridge, and fortunately for me a new application process – a guaranteed place for the first 10,000 applicants followed by an open ballot for the remaining places and the usual high commitment charity places. I wasn’t first in the queue, but I wasn’t far behind!

The long, cold winter nights are all about planning for me, optimistically looking forward to the long summer days and warm post ride nights; planning the training programme, plotting the long rides on the calendar, pouring over maps and bookmarking websites for places to stay, eat and drink and dreaming about the adventures to come.

January hasn’t all been bleak and bleary, there have been some bright sunny mornings when the wheels have spun a little faster and the “photo opportunity” stops have become more frequent. Riding along with the frost barely lifted from the ground, wrapped up in as many layers as I could squeeze under my jacket, has been refreshing and restorative, and my poor fingers always warm up eventually!

2022 – I’m planned and ready – bring it on!