Friday 11 July 2014

More Single Speed Commuting . .

So it's been a while since I posted about life commuting and an office move for my company meant that direct comparison between my first few commutes with gears was not possible.  We are now settled in the new office and I've been doing two or three commutes a day, which I'm really enjoying, particularly as I'm starting to get some reasonable fitness.  The even newer commute is just over 26km over almost the same route, which is pretty flat but largely free flowing and mostly traffic free.  

My previous goal was to get the single speed time down to the original time that I did on the geared road bike, which I aim to do again for this new commute, but I may have made a rod for my own back.  After several rides on the single speed I rode the road bike last Wednesday in preparation for heading up to Yorkshire to watch Le Tour and have a crack at Stage 1.  My best on the single speed on the new route was 58:36 as can be seen in the Strava link below:

http://www.strava.com/activities/163438601

The time recorded on the road bike was 52:53 as can be seen here:

http://www.strava.com/activities/160996301

The single speed is real hard to keep at high speed but I all too often ease off and coast which is probably why a lot of pro riders incorporate some fixed single speed riding into their training, but for safety I run the single speed with a freewheel as London presents a lot of hazards.  So I will really have to push myself to try and get that time down - and then see if I can go quicker again on the geared road bike.

This is going to wreck my legs, but with a twelve week old baby I can't join a club, race or train specifically so this is the best way to get some sport and have a target to focus on.  

I'll check back in on this in a month with my success/failure* . . 

*delete as applicable


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