Hello,

Slightly ambiguous this, but having played 5-a-side football for the last 10 months on a weekday evening, and reaching the same conclusion I did 30 years ago in that I’m rubbish at it, and it destroys me knees, I have been searching for an alternative that gets the heart rate up and leaves me feeling shattered.

Ideally bike related, but I live in Sutton/Morden in South London and there aren’t many options that don’t involve road rides, or a drive.

Any ideas? I’ve heard of spinning classes, but I’ve never been to a gym in my life. Not against the idea though.

If I could do CX every week locally, all year round, that would be great. Not much going on though.

Cheers.

WELCOME TO HERNE HILL VELODROME

http://www.londonbmx.co.uk/find-a-club/

Touch rugby?
Not as hard on the knees, similar sort of training in the it’s fast bursts. Not bike related but improves fitness hugely.

+1 for Herne Hill – now the new track is in and the new grandstand completed it’s a real focal point for SE London cycling – CX in winter, track in summer.

You also have Crystal Palace crits on summer Tuesday evenings…

Join one of the SE London clubs to find out just how much is going on – there’s a great scene…

Hipster polo?

I had a go at those Crystal Palace crits thinking they would be relatively easy like other 4th cat crits.

OMG… they are absolutely shattering. I don’t think I ever held on for more than a few laps. It’s a 3/4th cat race together, averaging around 27mph per lap and it’s a tight course too. In most cat 4 races it’s not too difficult to build up a lead if you get in front because you can hold more speed through the corners when you’re not in the bunch but not here!

I don’t know of much else though i’m afraid. You do have lots of bridleways and back routes so you can link up some nice routes around there but probably not the sort of thing to hit max HR.

Dont know London so not sure how far away this would be but always looks a laugh

http://eastlondoncyclespeedway.webs.com/

Track 40 on Belmont/Banstead Downs

Or go and visit Pearson Cycles in Sutton High Street, supposedly the oldest cycle shop in the world (that is still open). Browse around, have a chat, ask them what’s going on locally.

BMX!

Dorking is 27 mins from Sutton on the train 😀

Surrey Hills blast should be workable in the summer months?

Thanks for the replies. Some good ideas there. Never thought of bmx – could be fun.

Cheers.

Nod or climbing at Tolworth, friend does it says it’s good fun. Yoga is also surprisingly hard work. As per cycling, We ride cx from near Morden, South Wimbledon you can get out to headley , box hill, ranmore hardly touching road

Well, I never knew there was a climbing centre in Tolworth. I used to work in the building next to it in my Bluepoint days. Will have a look into it.

Kilo: I probably know you, as I know others that go from Morden to box. Do you have a route of the twiddly bits?

Cheers.

Drop me a pm with an e mail and I’ll ping you some tracks

Polo as above

Speedway

Herne Hill is amazing, I can’t recommend it enough. Also close to you is Richmond Park where a lot of peeps gather to do laps (not completely traffic free but certainly much fewer cars), not super exciting but better than an exercise bike. You can also do muddy laps around Wimbledon Common, which used amuse me when I lived down that way.

If I was in your shoes I’d be looking at what the local cycling clubs have to offer- long gone are the days when they were as rare as hens teeth in London, now there are new ones springing up all the time so you should be able to find one that starts pretty much from your doorstep.