For me though, the standout piece is the Country Jersey.

Image copyright Rapha

I'll have the black one please. If only I could justify the outlay. I need to ride more, thats it. Then I can have one...

I didn't go far, but the resistance from the snow provided me with a great work out!

I really want to keep training over the winter months, but the prospects of tacking the pitch black rat runs (country lanes) around here were not very appealing! So I decided to give the track session a go and I am glad I did.

The sessions run from 8.15pm until 10pm at the outdoor floodlit track. I arrived just after 8pm to find a packed out car park. I quickly changed, and wheeled my bike through the sports centre doors to pay my £3.35 to ride. I signed in at the trackside and as a track 'virgin' had a quick run through of track etiquette.

I was quite nervous to begin with if I am honest. Partly because I didn't think I could keep up, but also because I didn't want to get shouted at for cutting someone up! I need not have worried as everyone was really friendly and there was a real mixture of abilities.

To begin with I stayed up on the banking and warmed up. Gradually I moved down nearer the blue line, constantly keeping an eye out behind me for anyone approaching fast! I soon realised that I was doing an Ok speed and settled into it. After about half an hour a train formed of about 30 riders. It was my first experience of riding in a bunch and I had not prepared myself for the concentration needed -- it really was 'eyes out on stalks' time! But a lot of fun too.

Will I go back? Yes, for sure. I want to try and make one session a week through the winter if I can.

You can see how Runkeeper handled tracking my ride below:

My aim was to try and do a longer ride. In fact, further than I had ridden in years. I wanted to go to Wallingford and back, which I reckoned would be about 25 miles. This would start to show me if my fitness was improving and would be a break from usual shorter routes, which seem to follow the same roads.

I picked out a rough route on google maps before I went, donned my new windstopper (a Gore Oxygen SO) and set off.

As usual I struggled for the first 30 minutes of the ride, but tried to keep in a lower gear and a higher cadence to live with it. The route was a gradual drag up hill past Goring Heath and to Woodcote. Then I kept to B roads across to South Stoke, which featured a monster downhill. I seriously need to get fitter before attempting to climb back up that! Then a few rolling roads across to Wallingford.

I skirted around the outside and headed back on the other side of the river. The route through Cholsey and through to Streatley was a little up and down but the main feature was a terrible head wind. It really knocked the stuffing out of me and my legs were feeling heavy.

I turned left at Streatley and went through Goring. I knew I had a big climb ahead back up to the top of the hills before heading home, but I didn't realise quite how big! About a third of the way I turned a sharp left and the road just rose in front of me. I went to drop into lower gears and I realised I only had one left! I'm not afraid to say I did walk a small bit until the slope levelled a bit. I need to get fitter and loose weight to help my climbing...

The rest of the climb was still steep but easier for me to get into a rythm, followed by a nice blast back into Caversham. All in all a great ride.

I did learn that I need to increase my base fitness a lot and loosing some weight will really help me up some of the hills.

Even more annoying, I was going to visit Palmer Park Velodrome for the first time tonight and ride in their Thursday night open sessions. Looks like that will have to wait until next week.

Before I set off I did a quick route plan, as I knew I wanted to go further than I had managed in my brisk 1 hour hacks on the road on my mountain bike. I also wanted to cover part of those routes, to get a feel for the difference the road bike would make.

Firstly, a road bike is going to take some getting used to! I think the position is spot on but it feels very stretched compared to my mountain bike. But then that is to be expected. The campag shifters are quickly becoming second nature, though I think the biggest difference is the harsher ride. Being used to big squashy 2" MTB tyres, I sould noticed the rough surface of the roads!

Saying all that, I did love it. I even attacked a few hills, dancing on the pedals, so I must have been having fun!

I ended up doing a 21.5 mile route according to Runkeeper (tracked using the Runkeeper app on my iPhone). The elapsed time of 1hr 40mins did included a stop for a breather after one big hill and traffic hold ups in Henley. I was expecting a slightly faster average speed, but then I did spend a lot of time playing with the gears and getting used to the brakes.

Back in the summer, when I decided I wanted to get back into cycling, I wanted to buy a road bike. I have never owned a road bike before, but for the type of riding I was planning it seemed a great choice. Plus I really wanted a new bike and another mountain bike would not be as exciting!

Clare made a deal with me. If I made an effort (and didn't give up after a couple of weeks) then I could buy a road bike. A perfect incentive! So in September I visited my local bike shop AW Cycles. They measured me up using the Bike Fit system and we discussed bikes that suited my shape. I picked out a 2010 model Bianchi and went home and waited. And waited, and waited and... well you get the idea!

It turns out that Bianchi could not deliver a 61cm Bianchi before February 2010! It was a great bike, but that was really too long for me to wait. Luckily, Rikki and Darren at AW Cycles pulled out the stops and delved into their catalogues to try and find me something in my size and within budget. After much looking they found something. A Cinelli XPerience, kitted out with Campagnolo Veloce kit.

I picked the bike up on Friday and it is amazing. Stunning to look at and I'm very pleased. Now to hit the roads.