Keep your head - Wear a helmet!

"But it'll mess my hair!"

I know I have posted about this before, although the last time was a bit more morbid and included a number of names of people who had recently been killed whilst out cycling - from what I remember it was a significantly large number of people in a very short space of time that had meant that the mainstream papers were running stories about it as well!

With the advances in technology and style, it still amazes me the number of people who still don't wear a helmet whilst out cycling, surely coming home from a ride has to be the most important part of a ride even behind having fun?! You never quite know what is going to happen when you set off and so wearing a helmet goes a long way to making sure you arrive back safely.

Source : Mirror.co.uk

The number of excuses that people use when you ask them why they don't wear a helmet really is baffling at times! It can range from them being uncomfortable to not being cool, the ever popular "it'll mess my hair up" or the fact that "it's only a training ride/commute". With the sport becoming more and more popular by the year it's down to those already in the sport to ensure that newcomers, especially youngsters, keep themselves safe whilst out on the ride before they make themselves look the coolest!

I think the old concept that pro riders don't wear helmets when they are not racing is beginning to be quashed as most of the material you can see online which involves media of the pros training you will be able to see them with helmets on, I even remember that a number of the riders I've seen signing on at the Tour of Britain or Tour de Swiss have their helmets on when riding between the buses and podium which I'd hope will encourage others to wear a helmet even if it is for a short ride out to the shops or into the office.

Source : Scotbycycles

Another thing that's helping to make sure that more people wear a helmet when out on the road is that club rides are telling riders that they will not be welcome on the club rides if they aren't wearing a helmet - so even if you turn up on the flashiest bike with the newest kit, if you don't have a helmet with you you're going to look pretty silly when you are asked to leave the ride before it's even begun! It's also very common for sportives or other events to require you to be wearing a helmet when taking part, which is a great idea especially with the wide variety of skill levels who are all out on the road at the same time often taking on challenging routes where they are less likely to be familiar with the roads (so never quite know what's going to be around the next corner!)

I feel the solutions that are being developed by the cycling industry are also giving people less opportunity to give excuses - what with the new helmet styles that are coming out all the time it's surely more cool to have a helmet like the pros (which are developed to keep a rider going far faster than the majority of us do when we're out on the road), and also the air helmets that are also available - providing a way to make sure that hairstyles are not ruined during the ride.

Source : Pinterest (Bzemer)

Give me my trusty Specialized helmet any day of the week, I don't think that there is a ride I've been on since I took the sport up again nearly five years ago (whether it be the current helmet or the old one), and even along the cycle path by the canal last weekend when pottering along with the dogs it was securely on because you can never be certain what's going to happen whilst you're out on a ride...

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

2017 - The Plans!

Wow, didn't 2016 go quick?!

It really doesn't seem like that long ago that I was sitting down to do my first piece of 2016, and here I am doing the first one of 2017... Whilst a lot went on (and that's probably why it went by so quickly) I'm certain if I looked back onto the things that I wanted to do sporting-wise and to do with this blog I certainly wouldn't have met half the targets I might have set myself!

The idea for 2017 is to set myself a few targets and see how I get on against them - you could call them New Year's resolutions, but that just gives them a feel that they are only for the beginning of the year and so halfway through they'll be forgotten! If I call them 2017 targets then at least I've got something to aim for by the end of the year rather than just the start!

My three areas that I want to build these around are health, events, and my blogging/vlogging. They've all got challenges, but I can see the events and blogging sections being the harder to keep up, so any support from you guys is really appreciated!

Health

This might be one that some people find contentious, I'm lucky in the fact that I still have a pretty high metabolism and can therefore eat quite a lot and still remain roughly the same weight, however as I'm sure mum has said for a number of years "it'll catch up with you at some point!". To that end I'm trying to make sure that I eat more healthily during 2017, meaning less takeaways and booze, and more home cooking and forward planning about meals!

To help with this section a late Christmas present Ali and I bought each other were Fitbits, and so I'm tracking how I'm getting on through the app. I've set a step goal each day of at least 6,000 steps which is below the recommended number when you first open the app but is a more realistic goal given that my job consists of sitting at a desk for a decent amount of the day! So far this year I've actually managed to meet the target each day, so fingers crossed this will continue!

I am also aiming to exercise at least three times a week for a minimum of 30 minutes each time - whether this be running, cycling or going to the gym. Looking at the app for the Fitbit it counts a brisk lunchtime walk as one of these exercises but I'm hoping to get in three "proper" sessions as well each week.

The final (and possibly likely to be the most debated in the household) health target I'm aiming for is to lose the little bit of additional weight I've gained over the past couple of years. As I said at the beginning of this piece, I'm lucky in the fact that I can often eat whatever I want and still maintain a relatively constant weight, however when I compare myself to how I was at peak fitness when I started uni and was playing badminton constantly last year's lack of training and post wedding relaxing has definitely won! I'm hoping to get myself down to around 84kg (I'm somewhere about 86kg at the moment) but at the same time have muscle instead of wedding excess!

Events

I'm really looking forward to doing a few events this year, as it makes the pain of exercise and training for bearable, and gives something to work towards. As it stands I'm only entered into one event for the year - a 5k night run in Bristol at the end of February, but I'm hoping to complete at least five running events and one triathlon by the end of December and maybe even a cycling sportive or two! These might not seem like a lot of events to challenge myself to enter nad complete in a year, but given that last year I only took part in (and completed) one event this is quite a step up!

As for what sorts of running events I'm going to take part in we'll have to wait and see - things like Tough Mudder don't really take my fancy, but the Endurance Life Coast Trail Series looked quite good fun when Ali took part in a number of their events last winter so I might be eying up a few of them towards the back end of the year. The main aim for any of the events is to have a fun and to finish - if I end up getting a good finish time out of it then that's a bonus!!

Blogging

Where would I be in setting targets for 2017 on a blog if I didn't set some targets for that as well?!

One thing that I really want to make sure that I do is doing a monthly 'progress' piece on here to see how I'm getting on against the targets that I've set myself for the year, what this should do is make sure that I'm keeping focused on what I plan to achieve over the course of the year because these posts could be super boring if ever month was "I did nothing"!!

I'd like to upload more content onto the Keep em Spinning YouTube channel through the year - whether it be a monthly vlog to accompany these blog update posts, reviews/videos of events that I've taken part in, or snippets of races that I've been to see. Make sure that you keep your eyes on there for any new content that's uploaded!

All the blog posts and videos will be shared via the Facebook page, so it'd be really great to get a few more 'likes' on there before the end of December! I'm going to set myself a challenging target of 500 likes by the end of the year, and will be running a few competitions to try and help me on my way - so watch out for those…..

If you'd like to take part in posting on here, by sharing your experiences about your sporting time or a specific event that you've taken part in, then either drop a comment at the bottom of the post or send a message on the Facebook page - it would be great to have a few more people to share their stories!

'til next time

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

Rob