suecsi
Active Member
- Location
- Feltham, Middlesex
I have only been cycling since January after a 25 year break, and usualy only do 5 miles a day in short 1 to 1.5 mile bursts as part of a mixed bike-train-train-bike commute - typical Brompton usage.
Due to a fatality at Surbiton at 09.30am yesterday morning, the entire Southwest Trains network was completely messed up all day. In addition, the National Rail information boards went down (assume this was everywhere?) so you couldn't even tell how long your train was delayed for! I cycled over to Kingston station as usual but the concourse was chaos (I dread to think what Waterloo was like) and the staff there knew sweet bugger all - looks like they are relying on the same IT system that was broken for their information.
It was the back end of the school rush and the bus station next door looked even more chaotic than usual - it was a nice day, so I thought I'd start cycling. Part of the route shadows the bus anyway, so I figured if I got too tired I could fold up and cover the Brompton and try and get on the bus for the rest of the way.
In the end I went through Bushy Park to Hampton Hill, cut through a quiet back road and came out near a big Sainsburys that has a Starbucks (where I used to stop for coffee each morning when I had the car). A quick pit stop - and then the remainder of the journey. Total mileage 12 miles.
A very short distance for folks here, but I felt quite pleased with myself after all these years of not cycling, and very happy indeed that I had the Brompton and thus had the alternative to hanging around for ages with bunches of very unhappy people.
The total journey, excluding the coffee stop, took just over an hour; the bike-train-train-bike combination takes about the same under normal circumstances.
Obviously the lovely weather helped - and I'm not sure I'd want to do it in the morning going to work, as I did get quite sweaty, and we don't have showers - but it has made me a little more confident that I could do longer runs if needed. It would only be another couple of miles to cycle from home to Central London, though that might have more hills (this route was nice and flat). It would be nice if the Superhighway Route along the A4 was due before 2015. I didn't feel too puffed out, so I think my stamina has definitely improved - my thighs ache a little more than usual this morning though.
Due to a fatality at Surbiton at 09.30am yesterday morning, the entire Southwest Trains network was completely messed up all day. In addition, the National Rail information boards went down (assume this was everywhere?) so you couldn't even tell how long your train was delayed for! I cycled over to Kingston station as usual but the concourse was chaos (I dread to think what Waterloo was like) and the staff there knew sweet bugger all - looks like they are relying on the same IT system that was broken for their information.
It was the back end of the school rush and the bus station next door looked even more chaotic than usual - it was a nice day, so I thought I'd start cycling. Part of the route shadows the bus anyway, so I figured if I got too tired I could fold up and cover the Brompton and try and get on the bus for the rest of the way.
In the end I went through Bushy Park to Hampton Hill, cut through a quiet back road and came out near a big Sainsburys that has a Starbucks (where I used to stop for coffee each morning when I had the car). A quick pit stop - and then the remainder of the journey. Total mileage 12 miles.
A very short distance for folks here, but I felt quite pleased with myself after all these years of not cycling, and very happy indeed that I had the Brompton and thus had the alternative to hanging around for ages with bunches of very unhappy people.
The total journey, excluding the coffee stop, took just over an hour; the bike-train-train-bike combination takes about the same under normal circumstances.
Obviously the lovely weather helped - and I'm not sure I'd want to do it in the morning going to work, as I did get quite sweaty, and we don't have showers - but it has made me a little more confident that I could do longer runs if needed. It would only be another couple of miles to cycle from home to Central London, though that might have more hills (this route was nice and flat). It would be nice if the Superhighway Route along the A4 was due before 2015. I didn't feel too puffed out, so I think my stamina has definitely improved - my thighs ache a little more than usual this morning though.