Road cycling newbie to LEJOG and Ride London.
+ 25 watt in 3 months.
+ 0.46w/kg in 3 months.
Completed LEJOG Challenge ride (1,000 miles in 10 days).
Completed in 5h35m.
Before Njinga
I'm relatively new to cycling. I cycled as a child, then had a 25-year break until age 39 when I decided to cycle from London to Paris for a fundraising event. I purchased a road bike six weeks before the challenge in the spring of 2016 and experienced quite a lot of "baptism by fire". But I absolutely loved every single thing about it – I was hooked!
Four months later, a friend convinced me to sign up to ride across Britain from Lands End to John O'Groats (LEJOG) in June 2017. I'd received the "recommended" training schedule but, as a working mum, I quickly realised there was no way I'd have enough hours in my week to train properly for such a challenge. It was then that someone from my local yoga class suggested I try wattbike sessions.
Enter Njinga
I had no idea what a wattbike was or how it worked, but while I was stuck in traffic near the Kingston bridge, I noticed "wattbike" written on the back of someone's cycling jersey in the window of a local cycling lab called – you guessed it – Njinga. I rang up Njinga, had a very friendly chat with someone called Leigh, and was booked into my very first class with someone called Josh!
Let it be known that Josh is a fantastic instructor and motivator as well as a great Ride Captain. He was very quick to get me setup on my wattbike and took me through a few basics like "no elephant stomping".
Larisa on our Tour of Cambridgeshire Group Indoor Training programme at the Njinga Lab.
Larisa making it to Scotland on her incredible LEJOG cycling challenge.
Larisa during her LEJOG cycling challenge.
.
Larisa after completed her cycle from London to Paris.
Larisa with her fellow Tour of Cambridgeshire Njinga programme riders..
Larisa making it to John O'Groats on her epic LEJOG cycling challenge.
Larisa with fellow Njinga riders at the start of Ride London.
Larisa at the top of Mont Ventoux having conquered the epic climb 3 times in 24 hours.