audax: Old Roads DiY

August was pretty dismal in terms of me getting out on my bike. Just seven rides all month.

Ride with GPS summary card for August 2026: a seven-day calendar marked with individual rides, totalling 698 km distance, 7,548 m elevation gain, 1 day 6 hours 59 minutes of moving time and 7 rides logged.

Pretty sure this was down to an imbalance between effort and recovery. I was taking things for granted. Not enough body maintenance.

The time out was in some ways imposed on me by changes in my physiology and mental state. Muscle soreness. Generalised aches and pains. A big dip in performance. Poor sleep. Weight change. Lack of enthusiasm and motivation - not just for cycling but also at work and home. I was also feeling a bit down and moody.

Happy to have started September on a good footing. I’ve adapted my behaviour. I’m aiming to get out on the bike every day. Shorter, regular, low effort rides. That’s about small wins and maintaining an identity that aligns with a future self I’d like to be. If you’re familiar with people like Charles Dugigg and James Clear you’ll know where that comes from.

Different routes. Different bikes. Different times of the day. I’m taking a camera out with me. It helps me to slow down and enjoy the ride rather than simply getting in the miles while lost in thought. Routine is important but when it’s countered with variety a habit can stay feeling fresh rather than becoming a bit stale.

I’ll still do the couple of 200k rides each month for the ongoing RRtY1 award. Got the first one in over the weekend and really enjoyed it. Old Roads 200 DiY2 - revisiting places from my past.

route map showing a 207 km loop from Medway into Kent, Surrey and central London, with 2,054 m of elevation gain and 9 hours 41 minutes of moving time.

My first photo stop was soon after leaving home, on the motorway bridge over the River Medway. There’s a cycle/foot path on the bridge.

Boats moored along a tidal river at dawn, their windows lit, with a pink-and-gold sky reflected across the calm water and the silhouettes of towers on the far shore.
The River Medway. The sillouette of Rochester Cathedral and Rochester Castle are just below the sky line on the left.

At 58 km I stopped again to get this snap.

Round blue heritage plaque mounted on a brick wall, reading: The Bourne Society - this was the entrance to St Lawrence’s Hospital, formerly the Metropolitan Asylum, 1870-1994.
I was born in one of the staff houses just beyond the gates.

Soon after riding on from here I remembered a video which suggested a few pictures tell a better story. Could have been a close up, an abstract and a landscape perhaps. Something to remember in the future.

A few miles down the road to Netherne Village (formally Netherne Hospital) in Hooley nr Couldson. This is where I started working in mental health. First as a Community Service Volunteer then as an auxilary nurse. Just before I got there I noticed these odd looking lines in the sky.

Black and white photograph of a wide open sky streaked with faint parallel cloud formations above a dark treeline and a pale field.
The lines looked very unusual but were really quite faint. A good opportunity to get creative with the camera and experiment with setings.

From Netherne I made my way over to Nobel Park (formally West Park Hospital) in Epsom where I completed my nurse training. Happy days. Lots of fun times here and at Netherne.

A bare concrete slab surrounded by rough grass and mature trees, with a caravan and a small portable building visible behind it.
The building occupied by Epsom and KIngston School of Nursing and Midwifery used to sit on this concrete slab. All the study days during my nurse training took place here.

From there it was into London where I dropped in to see an old friend now living in East Dulwich. I then cycled over to Notting Hill and walked my bike through Portabello Road Market.

A dense crowd of shoppers filling Portobello Road on a sunny day, with market stalls, lamp posts and tall pastel-coloured buildings behind.
The place was heaving with people. I needed to get off and push my bike along here.

From west to east and over to Hackney. This is where spouse and I bought our first home in 1997.

Red-brick terraced houses on Whiston Road, Hackney, with bicycles and chairs behind a low metal railing outside a black front door.
The first home we owned. Whiston Rd, Hackney, E2. We lived here before selling up and moving to Chatham in June 2001.

The flat was adjacent to the Regents Canal just past Pickets Lock and Broadway Market. When we lived there it was still relativly unknown. Nowadays its quite different and seems like a very popular place to be.

From Whiston Rd it’s just a short ride down the canal tow path and into Victoria Park. I then followed the Greenway over to West Ham and onto Beckton where son 3 is at uni.

The lift at the North Woolwich Tunnel was out of order. It was as well the last time I used it. That was in July 2025. I did wonder if it had ever been fixed.

Once up and out on the south side it was along the Thames Path to Erith, onto Dartford and finally back home in Medway.

It was a really good ride. I very much enjoyed it. Just one more 200 to do later this month and that will be four consecutive RRtY series done. Things are looking good.

  1. Randonneur Round the Year, awarded to those riding a Randonneur event (=> 200k) in each of any consecutive 12 months. ↩︎

  2. DIY events allow riders to plan and schedule their own events and still have them validated by Audax UK. New to Audax? ↩︎

šŸ’¬ Any thoughts? Iā€™d be happy to hear from you via LetterBird. šŸ’¬

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