It’s that time of year again, when an evening in front of a roaring fire with a mince pie in one hand and a glass of mulled wine in the other, seems much more appealing than jumping on your bike. However, here in the Deloitte RAB office, we’ve come to the conclusion that if we don’t start training now, we never will – plus, if we can get through the winter training period, I’m pretty sure the LEJOG will be a breeze (if only, we know). For every excuse we’ve thought of to not get our bike out of the garage, we’ve also annoyingly thought of a simple solution. So this is what we’re going to share with you, in the hope that when we’re pulling on our waterproof trousers for the commute to work – someone, somewhere is doing the same and all in the name of the Deloitte RAB 2014.
Here are our top 5 excuses, and their solutions:
1. Excuse: ‘It’s getting dark, I’ll just do a longer ride at the weekend’
Solution: Buy some high-vis, a couple of bike lights and off you go.
2. Excuse: ‘The roads were looking a bit icy earlier, I think I’ll wait until they clear up’
Solution: Go to the gym, or do a stretching class – anything is better than nothing.
3. Excuse: ‘I’m going to start training in the new year, I’m just too busy at the moment’
Solution: Start training now, find the time – wake up that little bit earlier and cycle into work.
4. Excuse: ‘It’s freezing and I read in the Metro that we’re forecast heavy snow later – better leave the training tonight’
Solution: Put your thermals on, we promise layers is the answer to everything – we’re always cast ‘heavy snow’.
5. Excuse: ‘I don’t like going on long bike rides on my own’
Solution: Find a training buddy or join your local cycling club – you can motivate each other up the hills and maybe even have a tea stop en route.
Also, Halfords have kindly posted some handy winter cycling must haves – these will definitely be going on the Christmas wish list and then we really don’t have any excuses.
Happy winter training everyone, stay safe.
