Veg box time!

 I didn’t think I’d ever return to this blog, but I’ve just started getting a veg box delivery from Campy Growers and felt like this merited a bit more than an Instagram post. There’s a couple of other experiments I’ve started recently, so there may also be talk of kombucha and sourdough, but for now I thought I’d keep a bit of a record of how I’ve been using my veg supplies.

First of all, if you’d like to know a bit about Campy Growers, you can read about the project here: https://campygrowers.uk/

During the pilot, the subscription is £30 per month and you get a veg box once a fortnight. This is my first box which arrived last Monday:

Beetroot, courgettes, green beans, runner beans, purple kale, a patty pan squash, 2 of the biggest cucumbers I’ve ever seen, tenderstem broccoli and some herbs, so a pretty decent selection! The website has pictures of what you can expect in your box, which definitely helps with meal planning.

This is the meals we got out of box 1, for 2 people.

Meal 1: 

Runner bean frittata with steamed broccoli and a jacket potato. This was from a book called Cook your own veg by Carol Klein and I found this a really good way to make the most of summer veg. The runner beans are steamed and diced  and mixed with eggs and a generous amount of fresh herbs before frying in a little oil then finishing off under the grill or in a hot oven. This would also have worked with the courgettes or broccoli I think. I did add some Guancale (pig cheek bacon) to the frittata as I had it leftover from a carbonara but it would work just as well without. 

Meal 2:

Pasta with green beans, potato and pesto, from the River Cottage Veg Every Day book. Another quick, easy one tonight. I used shop bought pesto, but blended in extra parsley, basil and walnuts to liven it up - this was a good shout! You cook matchstick sized pieces of potato with the pasta, which is much tastier than it sounds, and apparently an authentic Italian dish! This is a great mid week supper.

Meal 3:

Beetroot soup with yoghurt and dill. I added the beet shoots and leaves to this, so as not to waste them, but I think this actually took away from the earthy beetroot taste so I’d probably just use the actual beetroot in future. This was just the beetroot roasted with thyme and garlic then blended with veg stock.

Meal 4:

Loved this one - kale and onion pizza with tomatoes from my greenhouse. The onions are sautéed till sweet then shredded kale wilted down with them. The heat of the oven turns the kale into something like crispy seaweed, which is the best thing I can think of to do with it! This was another River Cottage veg recipe. Oh, and the cheese is Smoked Anster from St Andrews cheese - delicious!

Meal 5: courgettes and patty pan with a chilli and tahini dressing served with halloumi and a grilled flatbread. The tahini dressing is from a noodle salad recipe in the River Cottages veg book but it goes really well with the halloumi and courgettes.

The rest of the courgettes ended up as a bruschetta topping for lunch, and the cucumber got juiced and mixed with kombucha and mint - currently on a second ferment in the fridge so I’ll be interested to see if that works! 

It’s early days, but I’ve had fun thinking of ways to use veg I wouldn’t usually buy and I’m looking forward to box 2 next week ☺️

Cycling in the time of a pandemic

I’ve been in two minds about whether to revive this blog - does anyone really need to know my thoughts on the current global crisis? On the other hand, maybe it’ll be good to have something to look back on after this is all over to remind myself of  what I was thinking. One things for sure, it’s certainly not a training blog any more! Had it not been for COVID 19 we’d have been on the home leg of training for the charity ride at the end of May, and less than two weeks away from the Kinross Sportive. As it is, cycling is now how I get to work whilst avoiding public and the best possible way to get the daily exercise we’re still currently allowed outside for.
Perhaps predictably, every tiny thing has become a potential controversy at the moment, and the one that’s irking me is how long counts as exercise. There is no time or distance specified in government guidance, which I think is as it should be, as what’s suitable will vary hugely. Let’s face it, for a lot of people, any sort of exercise is going to be a novel experience so both Jason Leitch and Michael Gove are probably in the right ball park to suggest 30 to 60 minutes a day. For those of us who count walking, running or cycling as a hobby it really is a different matter - and no, my teenage self wouldn’t have dreamt I’d include myself in that category! For me personally, more than 2 hours would feel like pushing it a bit, even though there’s absolutely no logical reason for me to feel that.
If the key to not spreading the virus is to avoid being within 2 metres of another person lest either of you cough or sneeze I can do that just as easily on a 3 hour ride as an hour ride by picking my route well. In fact I’d argue an hour walk from my front door is more likely to bring me into contact with people.  I think maybe part of it is a weird guilt about being lucky enough to be able to spend 2 hours out on country roads if I want to.  Social distancing is incredibly difficult for a lot of people so maybe I just feel bad that it’s really my default setting.
Yesterday I actually cycled through the city centre which I wouldn’t usually consider doing. It was a bit of a happy/sad experience as the lack of traffic was lovely but the lack of people not so much. It would be great to think that once this is all over councils might have the courage to take private cars away from town and city centres to leave them for people on foot and bikes. I suspect people are still too attached to their cars to ever go for that though.

It's Christmas!

Today is officially day 1 of my personal highlight of the training plan - Christmas break! I've still been out for a ride, but it really was a 'just for fun' mixed in with trying to get up my confidence on my new bike. If I'm being honest I am slightly concerned about that at the moment. I've not worked out how to move my hands off the bars to indicate properly yet, never mind grabbing a water bottle on the move. I'm hoping it is just a case of practice, practice, practice. One of the other club members has very kindly passed on an old indoor trainer so just as soon as I figure out how to set up my bike I'll be using that to practice the technical aspects whilst stationary and hopefully will then be able to transfer that to outdoor riding. 

After Christmas we only have about 20 weeks left till the big ride, so fundraising will need to start properly, though I don't know if January is the best time for that. Still, getting some sponsorship in should be good motivation as we hit some of the harder bits of training just when we could be heading in to the worst weather.  I know most of us are training indoors at the moment but it would be good to get at least some outdoor rides in, and we do definitely need to practice group riding.  Ian has given us some very precise instructions for our group ride on 12th January so we'll see how we get on with them! 
We've also been given lots of advice on nutrition and hydration which is going to be really important as training steps up, though the advice for this week is definitely eat, drink and be merry 😃

The next stage of training is 'build muscular endurance' so in 8 weeks time I'll hopefully be the fittest I've ever been (which admittedly isn't saying much...) so that will probably be my next update.

Merry Christmas and keep cycling!

Prep phase 1 - done!

It feels like a long time since we were given our training plans now, and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how I've managed to settle in to something of a routine since then. Of course the real hard work is yet to come, but most weeks I have managed to go out on the bike every Saturday as well as fitting in a spin class on Tuesdays and either walking or swimming on a Thursday. Do I enjoy spin? I don't know if I'd go that far, but I think the fact I'm approaching it from a slightly more disciplined perspective than last time I tried helps - that and it's a different class. Last one I went to felt like being shouted at in a nightclub....
My training actually sort of started with a trip down to Yorkshire for the UCI world cycling championships, so you can't get much more inspiring than that! Unlike David I didn't sign up for the sportive (far too hilly for my liking) but I did manage to persuade his mum to join me for a Breeze ride around Harrogate. It was a beautiful day for cycling, and really good experience for me as a Breeze ride leader to see how other leaders approach rides. Our route took in some of the Beryl Burton cycle path, named on honour of one of Britain's greatest ever cyclists, which seemed perfect for a women's ride.
 

The other ride I did was a ride out from York to Beningborough Hall with David - a really flat route so I actually managed a reasonable pace by my standards. Well worth it for the scones!

So far I've been really lucky with the weather for my weekend rides, though as we're now into November I don't expect that to continue. I have bought some warm clothes but it's still going to be a struggle going out for longer rides once winter sets in. This also probably means it was the wrong time of year to finally get around to buying a 'proper' bike, as I'll mostly be on the hybrid over the winter. Anyway, meet Mavis Grind the gravel bike....

Gorgeous bike, but as I've only ever ridden flat bar bikes before it's taking a bit of getting used to the different riding position. It'll be worth it though to improve my pace, once I get my confidence up!
We're now in prep phase 2 till Christmas so things are getting a little more technical - I'll just have to see how that goes....

Time for a challenge

It’s been a while since I posted here - this time it’s to keep myself on track with my training plan for a charity bike ride I’ve signed up for. A group of us will be cycling from Broughty Ferry Lifeboat Station to Killin and back over 3 days next May, to raise money for the Lifeboat Fund. The final day is 77 miles, and the furthest I’ve done in a day is 62 so I fully intend to stick as closely as I can to the training plan. So far it’s going okay, but let’s see how I get on over the winter months!
I’m also planning on losing a bit of weight (always helps on the hills!) so expect foodie pics and a weekly weigh in...current weight is 68.1kg and I’m targeting 65 so nothing too arduous hopefully!

At the moment we’re in the prep phase of training which means I have the option of non cycling cardio, so I’m planning on getting back to swimming, and my gym card’s finally getting some use at a weekly spin class. I’ve also treated myself to some new cycling gear to get me through the winter months.

Training plan and new cycle tights 👍

Still fiddling about with the technology, but I think I’ve added a donation button to my page if anyone  would like to sponsor me 😎

A quiet one

Not much to report this week - we’ve had a fairly quiet weekend to make up for the rest of the year looking pretty busy! I’m looking forward to all the busyness, though I’ve yet to work out when I’m fitting in Christmas shopping 😏
No cycling this week, just a couple of beers and a cafe trip. On Friday night I enjoyed a bottle of Campfire Porter by Box Social, a sweet, coffee porter that was delicious but didn’t quite hit the toasted marshmallow it promised. They have pretty much the most hipster branding I’ve seen (in a crowded field) but I’ll let them off since they’re based in Newburn 😉

I fancied something lighter on Saturday night to go with tea, so picked up a bottle of Good Times by Williams Brothers, who are one of the bigger, more established independent breweries I know of, with a pretty wide range of beers available in supermarkets and decent pubs you wouldn’t associate with ‘craft beer’ as such. Their Heather ale, Fraoch, is one of my favourites, even if I’m never confident on the pronunciation! I hadn’t tried this one before, but it turned out to be a good choice. A lightly floral pale golden ale, it complemented the spinach and ricotta cannelloni we had very well. I do like their label designs:

As an aside, even this supermarket purchase worked out at (I think) about 75p per unit, so well above the Scottish Government’s minimum unit price of 50p, and that was despite being on a price offer. It’s obviously a controversial policy but one I fully support, probably more robustly than was really necessary on social media to be honest. It is baffling to see dyed in the wool lefties making the same arguments against it as the Adam Smith Institute, and Rod Liddell on Question Time, but I think it shows how entrenched heavy drinking is in certain quarters.  Unsurprisingly, I have a reputation for being a beer lover, but the actual amount I drink is well within what’s considered healthy limits, so it’s been eye opening realising what some people think of as moderate alcohol intake...

Today we wandered into town for coffee and cake. Empire State Coffee must have been open a couple of years now, but this was our first visit. I’ve bought takeaway coffee from their new cafe in Broughty Ferry, so had an idea what to expect, plus I suspect it’s run by the same folk as the ‘secret’ bar! Downstairs was busy so we ordered and found a table upstairs. I’ve never been to the States, so I couldn’t say whether they succeed at creating a New York vibe, but the carrot cake was decent enough, and I enjoyed my chai latte. It was certainly busy. We might have to back for pizza, which they serve in the evening.

Winter cycling

Just been looking at photos and realised I didn't post last week, so this will be a two weeks for the price of one post.
It's definitely turned cold, but we've been lucky to have two consecutive weekends of the kind of crisp, sunny November weather that make you want to wrap up warm and get outside - or is that just me? Dave was full of cold last weekend, so on Saturday afternoon I took myself off for a wander into Broughty Ferry for a nosy round the shops. I did take a couple of photos for the black and white photo challenge that's currently doing the rounds:

Sunday looked promising weatherwise so I decided to get the bike out and do a ride I've not done in a while - Carrot Hill. It's a bit of a killer but figured it would be worth it to get some nice autumnal photos. I hadn't really accounted for the bitingly cold north wind, which certainly added to the challenge! I bumped into a friend from work in the car park at the top - she'd been for a walk with the family so good to know I wasn't the only one braving the cold! I considered stopping for a coffee at Dobbies but by the time I got there it was so close to lunch time I just headed sraight home.

Curried spinach and egg with pitta bread from the Hairy Dieters veggie cook book - I'll defintely be making this again as it was really tasty! I stood for ages at the junction of the road down to Dobbies watching a flock of geese flying around and making a right old racket. You can probably just make them out in the first picture, in front of Dundee Law. I've had a cold all week, but I think I would have caught it off Dave whether or not I'd gone out cycling in the cold!
Sunday was 5th November so we headed along to Baxter Park for the fireworks:

Dave was feeling better today so we cycled over to Fife for lunch at a new cafe that's opened up just near Tentsmuir Forest. Dave had been before with the bike club, but I missed that ride so it was my first visit. It's in a converted barn, and they've kept it pretty rustic looking. It was lovely and cosy, and busy with walkers and cyclists when we arrived. I had a tasty sausage and egg roll, followed by a slice of coffee cake, and my first gingerbread latte of the season!

We'd opted for a circular route, going through Newport and Wormit then on to St Michaels and Leuchars, but we hadn't factored in the Remembrance Sunday ceremony in Newport, which meant we were diverted up a bit of a steep hill - good job I've had my bike serviced and the gears are working well! The wind had picked up by the time we set off back through Tayport, so the ride back over the Tay road bridge was a bit of a slog - I was definitely glad to get home for a cuppa and a hot shower!

On the beer front, I've reached that time of year when I mostly drink porters and other dark beers, and I've had some good ones from the stash I picked up last time we were in Newcastle.

The top one's a salted caramel porter and the Sublime Chaos is a coffee laden breakfast stout. Both quite sweet and creamy. I should say I drank them a week apart - I think  they'd be a bit much to drink in one sitting!