FutureCycles Blog

The Garden of Forgotten Engineers, Smiths and Bicycles

Matt — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:00:17 +0000

Exhibition of Sculptures by Serena Thirkell
Worthing Museum & Art Gallery
Chapel Road Worthing BN11 1HP 01903 221447
Jan 21 – May 5 2012 Tues-Sat 10 – 5

Serena is a local artist that makes sculptures from welded steel and found objects. Including parts from our metal and spares bin.

http://www.serenathirkell.co.uk

Riding update

Matt — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:24:22 +0000

We have been putting in the road and turbo hours over the winter months.. Hopefully it will all pay off!
The weekly Turbo Sessions have been a great test of fitness, 12 weeks split into 3 blocks. The first round was strength and endurance work. Starting a 5minutes on and 5 minutes off and then building up to 10minutes in 53 x 12, with 2 minutes of rest inbetween. The idea was to keep a smooth cadence and basically slug it out. Concentrating on rider composure and stability, while trying to pedal in perfect circles.
The next block consists of interval training. A great way to put speed into your legs in a very quick amount of time.
A steady warm up to around 80% of your max heart rate.. Before heading straight into a super fast seated sprint for one minute. Possibly the longest one minute you will ever experience. The aim here is to then get to your maximum heart rate and keep it there. After about 25-30seconds you can really start to feel the burn as the lactic acid builds up in your legs.

Over the next few weeks the rest periods will get shorter, with the idea of speeding up recovery time and conditioning the body.
Apparently just 4 of these sessions over the month, with no other training can knock a minute off a 10mile time trial.

Killer Turbo is happening every Wednesday in Uckfield. It is ok to turn up to the odd session.. Just give John a call in advance.

This is a screen capture from one of my favorite new pieces of kit. The Garmin Edge 500. It has completely changed my training. I still haven’t figured out all of its possible functions, but just the possibility to upload your data and see it on a screen is worlds apart from relying on a little cycle computer.

So where is this training leading to?
Well.. I have already sent off my forms for a weekends worth of pretty hard time trialling being organised by our friends over at Southdowns Bikes. February the 4th sees a 18km ride and the day after is a 34km. Both extreme tests of winter fitness. A good mix of riders to compare against as well. Locals as well as pro calender professionals often take part.

Then in June there is the series of races being promoted by the Lewes Wanderers. Three evening races over the same amount of weeks. Only 50 riders are allowed per race apparently. So get your entries in quickly! A good chance to experience properly executed local racing. Complete with support cars and motorbikes!

George is now almost back on the bike. Hopefully next week he will get the all clear from his doctor to get back on the training rides.

Will update the blog with more racing dates as they start appearing.
For now, i will leave you with this fabulous video promoting Garmins new Edge 800

-Matt

EPIC VIDEO: Life Cycles

Matt — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:11:32 +0000

Christmas Opening

Matt — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:31:16 +0000

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our customers!
We are open until 4pm on Christmas Eve and then closed for the holiday period.
Reopening on the 3rd of January.

Don’t go too overboard with the tofurkey and mince pies!

Le Velo

Matt — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:04:32 +0000

The FutureCycles Pre Christmas Sale!

Matt — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:35:17 +0000

Future Cycles mega Christmas sale at both our Forest Row and Lewes shops.
Offer is valid on all bikes we currently have in stock.

Reserve yours now and collect on Christmas eve.

(Mega.. isn’t a word i would usually use, which means that this must be an epic deal!!)

Traffic Sham

Matt — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:21:34 +0000

The Onion

Freddie Mercury

Matt — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:47:15 +0000

20 years ago today Freddie passed away. Time to listen to some Queen.

Drivers knock down cyclist. Helmet Cam!

Matt — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:36:23 +0000

Ride Everything

Matt — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:26:24 +0000