218km this week!
After a long winter, I've come right up against a series of long rides on the calendar, so I'm doing my best to make up for lost time on building up the fitness! Last weekend, I rode part of Adam's "Tilting At Windmills" ride plus the ride out from home and back, for a total of about 70 miles (~115km). This weekend now gone, I did my first overnight ride, which came to nearly 100 miles (~153km). I am a lot stronger generally than I was last year, due to a ketogenic diet and Pilates twice a week, but time in the saddle is still the key and that's where I'm finding it a little tricky to accelerate the mileage while being careful not to get an injury or, in particular, over-stress my knees.
I still need to do a ride report on the Windmills ride. Meanwhile, however, the overnight ride will be reported in full below, as there were no photos so no real need for it to have its own post. The ride leader (aka Wowbagger on the
YACF forum) has also written a lovely, more detailed report
here.
The next long ride is the Friday's FNRttC to Burnham-on-Crouch next Friday -- a flat 55 miles and our tandem debut! A week later, we are off on a hilly 72 miles (~122km) to Whitstable. A week after that, Adam is running an unofficial Dunwich Dynamo of approx. 113 miles (~180km) -- all the goodness of the DunRun but with FNRttC rules (midnight start, pace of the slowest rider, no one left behind).
From mid-June onwards, the rides calendar lets up a bit but I'm keen to obtain and maintain as much cycling fitness as I can, perhaps rearranging my week so I can get out for a 20-30 mile loop 5 mornings a week.
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Sat, May 18, 2013 - 153.92 km |
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153.92 km in 09:25:24 hours at 16.33 km/h on Surly Pacer.
RIDE REPORT: Wowbagger's "Unseasonable Visit to the Grotto" ride.
Left home at 8pm to cycle to Hitchin, where we caught the 21.22 train to
Cambridge: total cycling 23km. We then met up with Peter aka
Wowbagger and had a second dinner at Pizza Express, before setting off
at 23.40 for Southend! Approx. 120km of lovely rolling country
lanes, broken by an hour's break at the 24-hour Tesco superstore in
Great Dunmow. Arrived at Peter's home in Southend approx. 09.20,
whereupon he served up bacon, sausages, eggs and mushrooms, with
lashings of hot tea!
Along the way, we saw: myriads of rabbits and a couple of hares, two
hedgehogs, a screaming peacock on the roof of a house (at 5am - someone
will shoot it one day!), two barn owls hunting at dawn, two cats (one an
unusual colour I have no idea of the name for), one Jack Russell, and a
llama. Far more chocolate-box villages than I could keep track of --
thatched roofs and all. Very little traffic all night -- even on Friday
evening between Luton and Hitchin -- until we were approaching Southend
(after 8am). The most people-related excitement we had all night was the
police car tailing us before Saffron Waldron, then overtaking us and
stopping ahead of (prompting us to expect queries of the "what on earth
are you doing out here on bikes at this ungodly hour"? type) but then it
shot off into town ("something better to do"). A few minutes later, we
passed a couple of officers interviewing drunken young people as we
cycled through town.
Weather far better than forecast: we all had full sets of waterproofs
but fortunately none were needed. Skies overcast with mild temps of
around 7-8C and slight tailwind. Clothing from top down: Gore headband
with Walz wool cap; L/S merino baselayer, L/S Smartwool jersey, Gore
Windstopper jacket; Gore Windstopper tights over Ibex 3/4 knickers;
knee-high merino socks; Shimano MW81 boots. After the Tesco stop, I
swapped headgear for Endura merino cap, and also my gloves from my new
AnaNichoola Sorbet winter gloves (lovely warm & breathable fabric
but rubbish padding) for my Specialized full-finger gloves with merino
gloves over them (quickly shed once I'd warmed up). Had Spesh mitts for
return journey home during the day.
First overnight ride I've completed this year. A shade under 100 miles
in old money - which is the longest ride I've done since June 2012 and
only the second of that kind of mileage since the Dunwich Dynamo in
2010. Extremely exhausted and cross-eyed for the last 15k or so -
probably more from sleep deprivation than exertion.
Home around 1pm - slept intermittently til 8am the next morning. I've
had very little in the way of soreness or aches afterwards, except for
clicking and stiffness in my bum knee, which had begun complaining at
about 100k.
end odo 2751.3
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Thu, May 16, 2013 - 39.51 km |
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39.51 km in 02:39:23 hours at 14.87 km/h on Surly Pacer.
Train assist to TRL near Bracknell and back; 3 hours testing traffic light patterns. end olo 2597.
REPORT TO FOLLOW. |
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Mon, May 13, 2013 - 24.26 km |
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24.26 km in 01:26:22 hours at 16.85 km/h on Surly Pacer.
To Harpenden for Pilates, then home via Harpenden-Luton cycle
path as far as Newmill End, left on W. Hyde Road, up over the hill
behind Luton Hoo to drop down to London Road A1081 to pick up usual
route, with detour to Pepperstock to pick up Amiiee's dress. end odo
2557.9 |
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