Sophie Radcliffe has spent the last few years taking part in some awesome endurance events, which she writes about at www.challengesophie.com.  Sophie loves Cyclebeat, and Cyclebeat loves Sophie, but before they live happily ever after, she’s going to blog regularly for us, telling us how Cyclebeat is helping her to hit her goals.

In life we need goals. Sometimes we scream our goals from the rooftops, write them down in huge block letters and tape them to our computer screens. Other times, we keep them quietly ticking over in the back corners of our minds.

Some days, our goals pop into our heads the moment we wake up in the morning and provide us with reason and drive for us to do things, anything. Other days we wake up and feel as though we don’t know what we want, where we want to go or how we can achieve something. Sound familiar?

One thing is for certain, we struggle to live a meaningful life without goals. Love them or hate them – they ARE the reason we get out of bed in the morning.

I realised a few years ago that life was too short to just watch it pass by, so I decided to set myself some interesting goals.  I started to participate in exciting physical challenges, which I write about on my Challenge Sophie blog.  From cycling to Amsterdam to mountaineering in the Alps – if it sounds like fun (in a tough test of physical endurance kind of way) then I’ll have a go.

Cyclebeat is a big fan of goals and helping us Beatniks achieve them.  Inspiring us to make small changes that build up to make a big difference in our lives. When I was first drawn to Cyclebeat, my goal was my first Ironman. The race (which I’m about to take part in at the time of writing) involves rather a lot of cycling (112 miles) and a lot of hills with the race being in Wales. Cyclebeat offered me the chance to get myself in the best possible shape to take on this challenge whilst also maximising my time spent training. It’s an opportunity to get fit, fast.  I’ll let you know how I get on.

I’ve found Cyclebeat to be ideally set up to ensure I can fit rides into my busy life, and get the maximum training benefit in the minimum time.  Otherwise it would take me 45 minutes to cycle out of London to just to find a good training route.  Their instructors are fantastic, the Beatboard is a real motivator, and receiving ride stats after every ride is a dream for anyone who is serious about hitting their goals, because you can really measure your progress.

Cyclebeat’s mantra is “Whatever your goal, you can Cyclebeat it!”  Whether your goal is to get fit, lose weight, do your first 10K run, triathlon, get in shape after having babies or to live healthier and feel great – Cyclebeat is the place to get cracking on your goals.

It’s amazing to be in the studio and see people of all backgrounds in there sweating it out side by side. Even if I’m not in the mood when I arrive, the music, the instructor and the group energy combine to give me such a lift.   I hope to share that great feeling in class with you soon.  Happy riding folks.

I’ll let you know about how I’m getting on with my challenges.  Meanwhile, I’d love to hear from you about the goals you are working towards. Please leave a comment below or get in touch on Twitter.

We love our riders! Schmaltzy? Yep. Sentimental? Undoubtedly.

True? Abso-bloody-lutely.

You lot are amazing, you turn up at the studio, work your socks off, and make Cyclebeat the special place that it truly is. And every one of you has a goal, each of you has a story to tell. We are going to start sharing some of those stories.

Starting with Tom. Why Tom?

It's not because he is an extraordinary cyclist, who has topped our leaderboard on both full months since we opened.

It's not because he is about to take part in the Lanzarote Ironman (though more of that shortly).

No - the reason we're starting with Tom is because Tom has been with us from the very start. He rode in the first ever Cyclebeat class, and he's been riding with us ever since.

Tom's thing is triathlons - he regularly competes in them, and got into Spinning as a form of interval training, which is what brought him to Cyclebeat. Tom says, "I’d previously trained on a turbo trainer on my own indoors but can honestly say I’ve never gotten close to the intensity on a turbo that I’ve managed in the Cyclebeat studio. I’d probably end up in the flat downstairs if I tried."

A big fan of Delvin's rides, Tom has certainly experienced the Cyclebeat effect - "My hill climbing ability has definitely improved. The amount of power I’m generating now compared to when I started has increased massively. Just training 2 evenings and 1 lunch each week has really made a difference."

Tom manages to build up a fine level of intensity, alright - he knocks out some amazing scores on the Beatboard, and has topped our monthly ranking two months in a row. He's now going to take that energy level over to Lanzarote, where he is competing in Ironman Lanzarote on Saturday - that's a 3.8km swim, a 180km bike ride, and 42.2 km run (yes that's right folks, he finishes by running a marathon!)

We will be cheering Tom on from afar, and hoping that his Cylebeat training helps him motor up those notorious Lanzarote hills.

So that's Tom's story - not everyone's going to compete in an Ironman, but you all have amazing stories of goals that you have set yourselves, and events that you are training for. We'd love to here about them - just email us and tell all.

And remember, folks...

Whatever your goal, you can Cyclebeat it!

You guys love the Beatboard!  It turns out the good folks of the City of London have a bit of a competitive streak.  Who knew?

The Beatboard adds an element of of fun competition to each Cyclebeat ride, and more importantly, it gives you something to aim for.  During each ride, you can try to catch up with the person just ahead of you, and over time, you can aim to increase your power. 

The Beatboard is pretty simple, but we thought a quick guide to the numbers would help everyone to understand what the data means, and what you need to do to move up the rankings.  So we hereby present a bluffer’s guide to the Beatboard:

Rank – That’s how you’re doing.  Your place on the board, based on the energy exerted (see below).  Don’t worry about where you rank overall, bigger people have an advantage, and stronger cyclists have an advantage.  But why not use this as a motivational tool – can you stay ahead of the person behind you, or catch up with someone just ahead.  That, fellow riders, is the joy of the Beatboard.

Bike – That’s your bike number.   Easy.

Power – This tells you how hard you are working at any given moment.  Power is measured in watts, and is based on a combination of your speed and your resistance.  So you can increase your power either by cycling faster (i.e. increasing your RPM) or by increasing your bike resistance (using the red lever on your bike – resistance ranges between 1 and 24).

During a ride, look at the power level that you can comfortably maintain.  From one ride to the next, push yourself to very gradually increase that figure.  If your average power goes up,  that means you are getting fitter and stronger.  And you will move up the Beatboard.

RPM – That’s the rate at which you are pedalling.  Increase your RPM to get that flywheel spinning faster.

Energy – That’s the overall work that you have done so far during the ride.  The higher your average power, the more work you have done.  Whoever notches up the highest energy score rules the Beatboard.   Your energy score is measured in Kilojoules, and is not a measure of the calories which you have burned (more about that in next week’s blog post).

Coming soon:  We are going to colour code the Beatboard, to separate the guys from the girls.  So you’ll have the chance to be Queen, or King, of the hill.

Next week we’ll have a look at the results you receive by email and online, and we’ll explain why the person who heads our online leaderboard is not always the same person as the one who heads the in-class Beatboard.  

So how are you all doing on the Beatboard?  And let us know if you have any more questions about it.