Regents Park: Officially London's number 1...

Toks
Toks Posts: 1,143
edited January 2014 in Training, fitness and health
Training Loop? On Christmas morning alone I counted 31 people out training. Madness, what the hell is wrong with us? lol. Every Sunday there are now 4-5 groups wizzing around, we even out number the joggers/runners now :twisted: I gotta say well done to The Regents Park Cycling club about warning lots of us about the icy conditions early on Sunday AM. I hear a group of 6 all came down together :(

Comments

  • Big_Ring_Rider
    Big_Ring_Rider Posts: 86
    You should try Richmond Park on a nice Sunday morning... In fact, Don't bother, really not worth the hassle!
  • TakeTurns
    TakeTurns Posts: 1,075
    Quite like Regents Park. 10mins from home, can't complain.

    Great training loop if you know how to use it properly.
  • okgo
    okgo Posts: 4,368
    And how does one use it properly?? Its not bad in there, but the traffic lights are annoying.
    Blog on my first and now second season of proper riding/racing - www.firstseasonracing.com
  • TakeTurns
    TakeTurns Posts: 1,075
    okgo wrote:
    And how does one use it properly?? Its not bad in there, but the traffic lights are annoying.

    By knowing the timing of the lights (the two systematic ones) and going hard on sections where you can make the most of it without interruptions. Yes the lights are a pain but most of my laps are uninterrupted by the lights. Although, OP did mentioned AM, so it might be when it's closed to traffic.

    Richmond does have the edge on Regents, but it's just too far/congested to get there for us North Londoners.
  • boris54
    boris54 Posts: 11
    Oh go on you tease - I've never managed to understand the timings of the two sets of lights (I know the ones you mean) - I live quite close by and would love to know if you've got some secret for this!
  • TakeTurns
    TakeTurns Posts: 1,075
    Well there's what I call a sweetspot lap. This is generally speaking my average lap time. With that in mind, I've figured how many seconds I have +/- till the light change. It's a thing which has more or less developed with experience.

    Once you get it right, it's a beautiful feeling flowing through the lights lap after lap.
  • izza
    izza Posts: 1,561
    You must have to train the pedestrians as the timings of the two bottom sets depends on them pressing buttons.
  • TakeTurns
    TakeTurns Posts: 1,075
    izza wrote:
    You must have to train the pedestrians as the timings of the two bottom sets depends on them pressing buttons.

    From my experience, they don't. I'm talking about the two intersections where another set of traffic joins. Those are the systematic ones.

    The ones where the pedestrians initiate the light change are out of hand, obviously. And believe me, not many people fancy going to the Zoo or the park when the temperature is below 5 degrees.
  • izza
    izza Posts: 1,561
    The Southern intersection has the yellow 'Wait' buttons for pedestrians and this sunday, a dayglo covered policeman to ensure everyone behaved themselves.

    One of our party didn't which didn't go down to well. In order to avoid a ticket, we imaginately explained to Mr. Peel's finest, that our friend was Italian and only visiting London. It was a shame that our friend shouted back two seconds later "Its alrite, the lights were red for the other direction".

    We then had to explain why the Italian accent is so similar to a cockney twang at a range of 20 yards.

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