Hi there! I'm Matt Williams; For my day job i'm a Helicopter Instructor in the Royal Air Force but this blog is here to track my progress towards starting competitive cycling this summer; Follow the Sidebar links to visit my YouTube Channel… There's just a few videos at the moment but fingers crossed we'll make lots of Exercise Routine, Training Tips and Healthy Meal idea videos as time goes on...
Welcome back to the Blog! So, it's been suuuper cold here in the UK for the last couple of weeks and i've finally had to invest in a proper set of Winter Cycling Golves! The video below is just a short review of the gloves i've bought to try and help fight my way through the winter training rides! I'm really glad I spent the money on them, despite them being a little more than I really wanted to pay, you cannot put a price on being comfortable and not feeling like your hands are going to fall off when you go for your post ride shower! :)
I've not found anything about them that I don't like so far, they kept my hands toasty warm on a 2 and a half hour ride in -3 degrees celcius the other day and when I wore them on a rainy commute to work a couple of weeks ago they were reasonably waterproof and certainly kept the wind from getting my hands cold!
If you want to purchase a pair then please use the link below to purchase them on Amazon, it's the cheapest place I could find them and by purchasing through the Blog, you will help me to create more review / info videos in the future!
Thanks again, train safe and until next time, wrap up warm! :)
Hi everyone & welcome back to the blog! As many of you who have been keeping up to date with my training over the past few months will no doubt be aware, it's all coming along well and I have been putting a lot of time in on the Turbo Trainer at home! There are a number of reasons for doing the majority of my training on the Turbo, the main ones being my lack of 'winter' riding gear and the increased risk of riding/commuting on busy roads in the dark and in poor weather. These dangers have been highlighted over the past few months in particular, by some high profile accidents, including Sir Bradley Wiggins being knocked off whilst training and the unfortunate death of Pro Mountain Bike Rider Burry Stander in South Africa a few weeks ago (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/20905142).
Whilst I fully agree that there needs to be more awareness and respect towards cyclists from drivers, this is definitely one process which works both ways! How can we possibly expect to gain greater respect from drivers if we don't look after ourselves and do everything we can to give us a 'fighting chance' whilst out on the road? A few questions and answers will probably help to tie this up quite nicely;
Would you drive your car, at night with the headlights off?
No - So why don't you have lights on your bike?!
Would you drive without wearing your seatbelt?
No - So why not wear a helmet and the correct safety gear?!
Would you ignore red traffic lights in your car and just 'drive on'?
No - So why skip through red lights on your bike?!
Would you purposefully drive on the wrong side of the road?
No - So why ride on the pavement or in Pedestrian Areas which are designated 'Bike Prohibited' zones?
I know this seems like a bit of a rant and I like to think that the majority of cyclists would do everything they can to stay safe and ride defensively, but if we don't start doing all we can to look out for ourselves and each other how can we expect motorists to do the same?
On this very subject, there is a great website out there which may be worth taking a look at which provides some great educational material for both cyclists and motorists on how to stay as safe as possible and what to do if the worst should happen; feel free to check it out and let me know what you think; http://www.stop-smidsy.org.uk .
As part of your winter cycling gear, please consider finding ways to improve your visibility to other road users and give yourself a fighting chance of making it to your destination safely... Invest in a good set of lights, wear reflective bands and buy a high vis jacket - let's stop SMIDSY and get through the winter safely together so we can get out and spend the summer riding hard!
I've recently purchased a cracking High Visibility, Altura Night Vision jacket for my daily commute; it's the best thing i've found, having searched far and wide, for getting yourself noticed whilst out on the road... Ok, it may not look cool wearing garish, bright colours but if it stops that one person from not seeing you and knocking you off then it's worth it's weight in gold in my book! Check out the review video below and make your own mind up! :)
If you're thinking of purchasing one of these awesome jackets then please, use the link below to get it through Amazon. It's the cheapest place I can find it in the UK and by purchasing through the Blog link, you will help me to create more review / info videos in the future, thanks! :)
Happy New Year everyone, and welcome back to the blog! Well, with Birthday, Christmas and New Year's celebrations now behind us I guess it's time to get serious about this training! :) I've hit it pretty hard since having a couple of days off over Christmas... LOTS of training miles, a few Insanity training sessions and lots of time spent working on upcoming videos for both the Fitness Channel and the Williams and Grey Creative blog... Unfortunately, pretty much everything is 'Work in Progress' at the moment and there's a whole heap of content which is 90% completed and needs the final few bits doing before it can see the light of day; It's pretty exciting though all told, kinda knowing what's to come! ;)
With regards to my fitness/weight loss, my weight has remained the same over the festive period, which I have to say i'm more than happy with! Looks like putting the effort in with the training has meant that despite the over indulgence of the last two weeks, I haven't put any on... 13Kgs lost so far and ever so slowly creeping toward my optimum power/weight ratio! :) Feeling really motivated at the moment and hope it continues; Speaking of which, I have started to sign up to and look for events to do over the coming months, mostly to provide me with a goal to train for. So far, I have signed up for a track cycling day at the Newport Velodrome, South Wales, at the end of February and am looking at some early season 'Sportives' to take part in, can't wait to get amongst it! If anyone has any recommendations please let me know.
Talking of cycling... This week has been a bit of a killer; I've signed up to the 'Strava Base Mile Challenge' and am trying to see how many miles I can ride in January to help set me up for the season. 3 days and just over 100 miles in, it all seemed to be going well - until I decided to do a 50 miler the other day! Made a bit of an error with clothing (don't be tempted to wear underwear under your bib tights thinking it'll give you 'more protection') and didn't realise until later in the day that I had given myself some pretty savage 'saddle sores'... Since then, it's been a case of trying to do gentle mileage on the Turbo Trainer so there's no vibration from the road and lathering the Sudocrem on at every opportunity. A bit gutted about it to be honest; It was all going so well and I had been invited to go for a Club Ride with Zappis' CC in Oxford today, which I couldn't go to for fear of making my injury worse (that and I had to go pay the deposit for the Wedding - Nat's cool with my life revolving around training but I don't think i'd have gotten away with us missing the venue for the sake of a club ride! :) ). Hey ho, there's always next week and I guess it's better to take a couple of 'easy days' now than have to be off the bike for a couple of weeks if it's not allowed to heal!
As I mentioned earlier, i've been working pretty hard on review videos and ideas over the last few days so please feel free to subscribe to the vLog (http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=signaturephotog) to get updates as and when they get added... If you have any ideas for exercise or cycling related videos that you would like to see, then drop me a line & i'll see what I can do!
In the meantime, here is the latest update the the Training/Weight Loss vLog.
Until next time, i'm off to put some cream on these saddle sores, do some miles on the Turbo and then put my feet up to recover! ;)
