Training / Club / Advice Required

jondavis30

Not exactly new to cycling, but had a break for two years due to a sports injury and losing confidence in myself.

Was previously cycling around 100-200 miles a week, depending on what my work schedule was like.

I have just bought a new road bike and managed to grab a Garmin Edge 520 with Cadence / speed / HR Sensor for £200 brand new - may be useful at some point in the future with longer rides, I guess.

I work as an Intensive Care nurse, so my days at work are pretty long and tiring, I was previously in the armed forces, so I was able to take time considered 'work time' to train, but now I am unable to do this.

I am wanting to enter the London-Paris Cycle next year (not this year) and could do with some decent tips for kickstarting my training, as well as any decent training courses that they know of - Essentially, I have bought the Garmin edge 520 for training purposes that I can upload courses to it and use them for training, as I am not the best with orientation to home - especially once I'm a good 10 miles into a ride - I used to use my phone but this used to die within a couple of hours of riding and continuous use of GPS.

If anyone knows of a good club to join near this area, too, that has regular training events, I'd be interested to get opinions and thoughts on various ones.

With consideration to the fact that I do not drive at present, I would either need to cycle or use the train to get to said club or routes.

I have entered the Manchester100 as a reasonable challenge to meet, which is in September, so I have something to train reasonably hard for.

Any tips / advice / assistance would be greatly appreciated. Many Thanks.

timothyw

It might be because it's late but I can't see which area you are in?

London? Paris? Manchester?

Finding a local club to join rides with is a great way to get going, although it sounds like your schedule might make it tricky.

Certainly I'd suggest planning routes using Strava (which you should join if you haven't already) or Komoot or RideWithGPS and saving them onto your Garmin is a great way to learn your way around the local area and gradually build up distance without being tied to the same roads that you know.

jondavis30

TimothyW wrote:

It might be because it's late but I can't see which area you are in?

London? Paris? Manchester?

Finding a local club to join rides with is a great way to get going, although it sounds like your schedule might make it tricky.

Certainly I'd suggest planning routes using Strava (which you should join if you haven't already) or Komoot or RideWithGPS and saving them onto your Garmin is a great way to learn your way around the local area and gradually build up distance without being tied to the same roads that you know.

Sorry, I thought it was in there, but I live In Birmingham (Bournville), work in selly oak.

When it gets lighter, finishing at 8pm I'd be able to go on a decent 2-3 hour ride once the nights are lighter after work, it's the days / nights that kind of screw things up for me energy wise.

I've had a look at Strava, but not joined yet.

I'm not particularly good at building routes without knowing the roads; I usually end up on flat roads, or roads that are too steep for me, that was my experience previously, however.

I'm looking at trying to do at least 100 miles a week to start with, increasing to about 150-200 miles a week.

Midlands Grimpeur

I can't vouch for them as I am not a member but Beacon Roads and Solihull are probably closest to you. University of Birmingham also has a cycling club but I am not sure if it is specifically for students or staff. If you are able to head out towards the North of Brum bordering on staffs then Sutton Coldfield/Lichfield area has quite a vibrant cycling community with Boldmere Bullets, Giro CC, Lichfield CC, Royal Sutton CC and Chapter II cycling all being very welcoming clubs with a good range of club/training rides to get involved with.