Lisa Emms

So Borris Bikes are getting a makeover then!

Injuries healed, it's time to step up the training for London to Brighton

I got some speed up along the flat costal path and smiled as I passed The Minnis cafe, It was my first mile stone and a big achievement just a few months ago, now I'm comfortable traveling many times that distance before I even think about a stop for a coffee!

Onto Recolver and the road towards Hern Village, It wasn't the most direct route, ok i was lost in Hern. Who cares I was enjoying the ride. I hit a familiar road, and started to climb uphill towards Calcot. Traffic heaven, so I turned right, only to find I was spinning down hill through flower filled woodlands, carpeted with Blue bells and white flowers that i think is wild garlic?

What goes down, has to go up, the climb was not so steep, I ambled along through beautiful quiet road. Tyler Hill was a bit of a killer, but once I reached Canterbury university, it was all down hill to the city walls. I need to check if there is a cycle path around there, as the road stated to get busy.

Dorris my trusted bike, was dropped off for a service and left me feeling like a prat, as I waked around Canterbury in padded cycling shorts, killing time. I hid out a tiny little walled park near the Cornwall Pasty shop, stretched out in the sun and spelt freshly cut grass as I scoffed about six hundred calories and downed a coffee to the sound of birdsong.

The last couple of days, I've given some serious thought to this project, Plans of getting to the Start and home again, all need consideration and that occupied my mind. Shameless self promotion needed and ideas on how to promote what I'm doing, and the cause I'm fundraising for started to fill my mind.

Social Media policies where I work, restrict what I can say, so take a peek at their web site, The Avenues Trust do good work, and like all charities they need the money, So please did deep and donate what you can. The poster says three quid, now that's less than the pie :-)

Today was a decent ride, breaking a personal distance record completing 65k. Starting out on the Viking Coastal Route, through Broadstairs and Ramsgate, In the spring sunshine, Pegwell bay look glorious. The Pfizer sight rather empty and sad, and tranquil Sandwich.

Heading along the coast to Deal, I change my route and turn inland, to find some hills. A bit mad, but I need to be able to tackle hills as there are a few on the London to Brighton ride, which is just six weeks away.

I was fine through the village of Eastry, and then got a bit lost.

Lambs in the Kentish country side were so cute, in full momentum and gaining speed on a down hill stretch, I put aside any idea of stopping to take a photo, my mind by now was thinking of food at Wingham Garden Center. Disappointed to realise food would mean a re-route, as I ended up in Wingham Main Street, on the wrong side of town.

Tired and hungry, I pushed on but had walk up Preston Hill, having broken the momentum, stopping to look at the map, it was hard to get going again. Here my legs were screaming at me to take the shortest route home, and it was another twelve miles.

Grove Ferry pub looked very inviting, I struggled uphill from the level crossing to the Canterbury Road and A28. I could have taken a straight road home, but wanted to get out of the traffic, so opted for the Sturry road, and cross country, around Thanet Earth and through the village of Acol.

The advantage of living on the coast, it was all downhill home, from the A28 ;-)

Struggled with the hills, breathless.

Cycling is a great way to recover from knee injury, but an hour in and my body was telling me to cut it short, go directly home, find a bag of peas.

Blue sky's and the sun sparkling on the sea, Thanet has beauty and you don't need to look far to find it.

I give apologies to my buddies, for holding them up, and walking up two of the hills, breaking off from the group at Ramsgate. It's it feels great to be out, and although not 100% over the stinking cold, lungs full of fresh air have helped, it would be silly to do too much too fast after recent injury, but I'm getting there at a slow plodding pace.

The last 4k was all downhill!

A soft tissue knee injury, busy Easter with necessary paid extra work, family visits. DOCTOR'S advice to REST.

Gym sessions have been more chair aerobics than endurance challenge, the weather is a poor excuse, but with a hundred other things to do, is not helping.

Tomorrow's plan was to cycle to Medway, first real commuting, and I'm going to bed with a couple of paracetamol, half a packet of throat lozenges, and a fresh box of expensive Balsam scented tissues. Hopefully sleep better than last night.
Medicinal hot toddy, and steamy shower before bed, may help

Red nose, should be reserved for charity events. Ideas to save he world are on hold, and I'll be contributing to carbon emissions and take the car on the M2.

You can help, sponsor me and help me get motivation mojo.

www.justgiving.com/Lisa-Emms

Tyres Valves and Patches

Doris, my much loved bike, got her first puncture, so I changed the tube at the side of the road, changing my mind about a possible long walk home after about 500 meters. I finally got home to receive an email from Prudential ride London Marketing team on how to fix a flat! Ironic or what!

Armed with a bowl of water, half inflated tube, patches, glue, chalk and a marker pen, I set about mending the slow leaky puncture. The spare tube, that was fitted at the roadside had a different type of valve, so I read up in the Internet and learn something!

Valves
There are two types of valves in common use for bicycle tires:

Schrader valves are the same as the valves used on automobile tires. They are common on less-expensive bicycles, particularly those with wide rims and tires. Schrader valves are also sometimes called "American" or "automotive" valves.
Schrader valves have a removable valve core, which may be unscrewed with a special wrench that is often found on better valve caps. They have a spring-loaded valve mechanism. There is a small pin in the center of the valve opening which must be pushed in to put air in (or to let air out.) Before the introduction of the Zéfal HP pump in the 1970's, there was no portable pump that would do a decent job of inflating high-pressure tires with Schrader valves, which led to the popularity of:

Presta or "French" valves. These are smaller in diameter than Schraders. This makes them a bit lighter, and allows a smaller hole to be drilled in the rim (desirable for very narrow rims). Presta valves are used on most high-performance bicycles, and all tubulars. Presta-valve inner tubes come with valve stems of different lengths -- longer ones, for deep-section æro rims.
Presta valves don't use a spring, but they have a captive knurled nut to hold the core tight. Before you can pump up a Presta tube, you must loosen this knurled nut. It is also a good idea to tap the end of the pin, to break the seal loose, because they are sometimes sticky. After inflating the tube, you should re-tighten the valve nut to keep air from escaping.

Listening to party political broadcast, I switch off the TV and want to take Doris, my bike for a proper ride, because this political spin sucks.

News reports tells of people sleeping in cars all night, stationary vehicles, snow and ice. Hazardous roads, strong winds. Advice coming over the radio not to go out on the roads unless necessary. Only thing to do is wrap up warm, and walk across the park to the Gym and get on the stationary bike for some beneficial spin!

Besides burning between 400-500 kcal in 40 minutes, indoor cycling also strengthens the muscles of the lower body. It tones the quadriceps and hamstrings, along with working the back and hips.

Amazed be the number of hits my blog has received, I posted a new page, just to see who was viewing it. Surprising only 15% of hits come from Internet Explorer, 8% from Chrome and a whopping 33% from Firefox. Ok that's the browser info, what about operating systems and movie devices.

I'm not surprised how many hits come from mobile devices, but I was surprised to see just
1% from a Blackberry 8% from a Mac, 40% from an iPad, 50% Windows

Did you Make a Plan - on how to get to your goal, goal was to get a bit fitter, my plan was to give up Pringles and Jaffa Cake

Update your workout, walking is now cycling

Measurable: If you're tracking pounds, get a scale. If you want to complete a marathon, run with a pedometer or GPS tracker.  I use Runkeeper.

Attainable: Make sure your goal makes sense. Losing ten pounds is doable for most people. Getting back to your teenage weight, is probably not, nor healthy.

Realistic: Even if your goal is possible, before committing be sure that you're willing to make the necessary changes to get the results you want.

Timely: Set a timeline for your goal that helps it fit into the “realistic” category (for example, you might want to aim to lose10 pounds in three months, not weeks).

Hitting mini goals keeps you interested. Signup for a local race - this gives you targets,
I gave myself target places to get to

Walk to Westgate
Cycle for Coffee at Minnis Bay 7K and then
To see the Christmas tree in Hernbay 19K
sandwich in Sandwich   (That's 57k Round trip, I'm proud of achieving that within three months)
Cornish Pasty, in Canterbury, after pottering along the back roads, downhill on the way home!

Habits can be formed mentally rather than just physically.  My target is to get out on my bike three times a week, I haven't managed that yet.  I'll just blame snow and rain, for now.. Rome wasn't built in a day.

An idea that occurs to you on December 31st—like finishing a 100-mile bike ride, may be hard to plunge into whole-heartedly on January 1. The Ride London 100 is not until August, I have the small 54 mile ride, London to Brighton in June.

Resolutions can be made at any time of year, not just 1st of January, I started in October with the purchase of 'Doris' my trusted bike, I'm not ready yet to give up the car just yet.

The waterproofs banished and i've been wearing shorts, padded ones at that! Cyclists wear tight Lycra to keep muscles warm, my legs were red from the cold, think the shorts might of been a bit of a mistake.

It's a lovely day out, on the Thanet Viking Trail, spectacular views of the sun shimmering on the sea, as I follow the route from Palm Bay into the sun in Broadstairs. Foot slipped of the pedal as I climbed on of the hill over Ramsgate marina, wobbled but didn't fall off.

Best of all I burned over 700 calories, so stocked up on Thanet's finest at the farm shop.

I've been out training today and reached a top speed of 29.66 kph  well within the speed limit on Kents country roads!

I've heard it said that with enough support, everything is possible. Over the last few days I've been seeking help, and I'm truly amazed at the offers and goodwill that has been returned. Thinking about, working on, and starting to put into practice a fund raising project, the work is not just about getting fit to Cycle the 54 miles London to Brighton in June. Just doing the ride is a huge challenge, especially the massive, mile long hill, 50 miles in. Me being me I expect more of myself and want to use this fundraising opportunity to help support others to enjoy life as I do.

My requests for help, are being met, one offering to proof read my fundraising pages, my spelling is appalling, another giving advice on Tshirt over printing , two people offered to drive to Brighton be my support team, carry the sandwiches and drive me home. Excellent service and advise on Text Giving from Vodafone is just the beginning.

On what is officially the most depressing day of the year, after Christmas and before payday, cold weather and general economic gloom, I have felt the love of friendship

Thank You

Working on fundraising strategy, just setup JustGiving and JustTextGiving accounts to make giving online or by text easy.If only the training was this simple!

Every pound counts, if you would like to sponsor me £1 on the 54 mile ride from London to Brighton please text the code

LNBN54 £1 To 70070.

Of course you can give more :-)

Mostly I was cycling at the speed of a snail, And no excuse was needed to stop at the Minnis for a warm comforting coffee, I may have been better to push on 20k isn't that far, in an ideal training session I should be riding twice that distance. If I can do 40K regularly then London to Brighton shall be easy.

I'm sure it's more down hill on the way back! But as it was black sky and starting to rain, i caught the train. Bring on dry weather, and I will be out in shorts and suntan oil! For now it's just cycle oil on a soaked bike.

Top speed 15k per hour :-)
Distance 20k
Weather: headwind and gusts of upto 30mph

It's been three years since I've been there, but once-apron-a-time I was a frequent visitor. Guess where I'm going in January

Small clue one side is Europe the other Asia, three day break.

E-learning's it's supposed to make life easy! But I'm sure for some less technical people this may be the first stumbling block.

My old laptop is got some long over due, 'LOVE'

Apple isn't everything, but I haven't used Microsoft products for a long long time, so they must be doing something right.

Thursdays cycling on The Viking Coastal Trail and I'm feeling stiff, I knew it yesterday, and felt every revolution of the short hop's around Town, trips to dentist & hospital, cycling was better than car parking.

Proud that I managed the hills for the first time. So no more pushing uphill to the Northdown road, I CAN do it. The toothache, distracted from sore jelly legs, and in a hurry I went for it like Pendalton at the velodrome, kidding myself, just a bit, but put in just as much effort, as I raced up my hill to the Dentist.


A busy few days ahead, the big question is do I go out for a spin now before a long drive, and weekend away? Or let those aching muscles rest before I dance the night way?

Sunday I guess I should take a long walk- Tunnel2Towers?

My friends keep asking, wii one ordering the iPhone 5.

Probably not just now, it's a lot of hard cash and I have other luxuries on my want list.

I will however be firing up the laptop, to upload the IOS6 software to my existing gadgets, just as soon as possible.

These are just a few of the new features I'm looking forward to in IOS6

Group messages (So long as my mates use it responsibly, otherwise it could be a real headache)
Share calendar that I create, this will save the long winded work around I'm currently using
New iPad Clock app, simply missing!
No more pop-up in Safari when there’s no internet access available (a real plus, cause I'm often with no signal)
Search all fields in Contacts, so simple and so useful.
Music ringtones, alarms - (Please, Please are we going to get a silent ring for those annoying people?)


With caution:
Government alerts (AMBER and Emergency) in Notifications, Useful but feels like Orwells 1984

Passbook, to be honest I was hoping for NFC, with full banking integration, maybe Apple know more about the security risks involved than I do? Or simply not working in collaboration with big banks?


New features that impress me, but I possibly wouldn't use

Made for iPhone hearing aids - great for the hard of hearing