We had quite a few weeks of cold weather lately, for the first time since I’ve lived here I can really say that it was winter in the UK. We are normally ready in 10 – 15min to take the kids out into the play ground or on the roads.

But this time it took forever since they would not listen to us or understand that we are going to be out for 2 hours in -1c to 2c and that would quite quickly become cold. Very cold. So every day we told them to run back in, get extra fleeces, jackets and gloves. And out they would come with the school uniform: a nylon jumper which has as much heating ability as a fridge. “No, no! Go back in and get more on. Borrow from your class mates if you need to, a beanie hat, scarf or jacket.”

Out they come again with a thin jacket telling us that they’ll be fine even though you could already see on them that they are turning blue.

And five minutes into the ride we’d get “Sir, I’m freezing”!

Tags: cycle training, Cycling