Skip to content

Stretching Stretching Stretching

Recovering from Sunday's attempt to cycle up all the largest mountains in the Kent Alps, twice. I only managed to ride up them once, but at this stage of my training, once was more than enough.

A recovery ride on Tuesday was a bit more intense that I needed, but more practice on longer hill climbs

Applied to Clojurists Together for funding Practicalli Clojure, creating a modern professional video series that introduces Clojure, Clojure CLI, Clojure Standard Library and REPL Driven Development.

Practicalliλ︎

A complete video series covering the fundamentals of Clojure, REPL Driven Development and the Clojure CLI tool.

The series will start at installing the Clojure CLI, understanding dependencies and creating projects.

The series continues with appreciation of the Clojure standard library by completing a series of challenges that explore the use of common functions.

Each challenge will use the REPL to test out different design options and create test and source code from REPL experiments.

All challenges will be supported by a detailed code design journal and example solutions.

Common Clojure Idioms will be explained and demonstrated throughout the series.

The series will be editor agnostic, although will use common tools such as Clojure CLI, Clojure LSP (clj-kondo) and a Clojure aware editor (connected REPL).

Although out of scope of this Clojurists Together project application, supporting video content for Emacs & Neovim editors will be created (or updated), once sufficient video content for the Clojure series is published.

Rationaleλ︎

A practical guide to learning Clojure or helping teach Clojure to others, supporting the content already published at https://practical.li/clojure and Clojure.org

Existing Clojure developers can use the material to guide other people in there team or organisation to use Clojure

Those new to Clojure can quickly build a solid foundation in writing Clojure code and making the most from REPL Driven Development workflow.

The Practicalli Live Coding videos are from 2018-2019 and some of the tooling is outdated. As these videos are live and unscripted, then they are not as professional or of sufficiently high quality to demonstrate the joy of Clojure, especially for those new to the language.

Current Fundingλ︎

Applied for the $9,000 funding from Clojurist Together on Sunday 15th March 2026. This would allow me to differ starting a commercial role for 3 months and work solely on new video content.

GitHub sponsors only pays around 30 USD per month to cover all the maintenance for Practicalli.

Video Transcriptsλ︎

feat: Clojure fundamentals professional video series

Cyclingλ︎

Tuesday recovery ride, taking the longer and much more 'interesting' route to Melia's Cafe. It turned out to be more of a workout than a recovery ride, but wasnt too taxing.

There were quite a few roads I hadnt travelled on and some roads I hadn't used for quite a while. This time we went up "New Road" from Sundridge village rather than the Sundridge road to Idle Hill village. I fell back a little as my legs were tired from Sunday's ride (and the Bianchi had smaller rear cassette that my fellow riders had).

The route back from the Cafe was much easier, although I did push harder on the second half of Pol Hill and surprisingly got a personal best time. So although the Bianchi requires more work to climb hills, it is 'encouraging' my hill climbing muscles and cardio vascular system to get better 🤣

Hilly route to Melia's Cafe - Strava

I am taking it easy for the rest of the week, doing lots of stretching and yoga to keep my body working well.

As there are many hills where I live (the Kent Alps), leg muscles are used quite hard and become very stiff after a few rides.

It is important to stretch all the muscles in the legs, open the hips and stretch the back, neck and arms.

Dynamic Cyclist

Yoga With Adriene

Hill climbingλ︎

To get better at climbing hills on a bicycle requires practice. As well as strength and stamina, practice also increases confidence.

The more hills that you climb, the more your physical and mental self becomes accustom to climbing.

I created new routes to practice hill climbs in my area:

Use a sensible cadence for hills. 70-80 RPM for modest hills should avoid grinding all the way up the hill (until you run out of gears).

NOTE: some grinding can be useful training, but not for a ride where lactic acid will build up and greatly increase fatigue in your legs

Standing whist climbing

  • takes more effort
  • a little less pressure on the legs, so it can be useful to alternate between sitting and standing
  • makes more use of upper body strength
  • may increase heart rate slightly
  • rock the bike (gently) in rhythm with peddling will make the most of your climbing effort
  • can help you get up the most steepest parts of a hill
  • can make you feel like more progress is being made

Sitting

  • uses less energy overall
  • puts more pressure on the legs than standing
  • push the lower back backwards to maximise the effort through the peddles

Hill Climbing tips and tricks for cyclists - Dynamic Cyclist - YouTube

Thank you.

🌐 Practical.li Website

Practical.li GitHub Org practicalli-johnny profile

@practicalli@clj.social @practical_li