Aiming for 70miles we plotted a route and headed out with the maps. But the map is so deceptive; we kept arriving at our destinations to find it was only half the distance we expected. Adding on more loops became a bit frustrating, it was also getting late. But we were determined to hit our target, to the extent the last 10k was through rush hour traffic not far from home. All good bike handling experience for me and Carsten likes a bit of traffic dodging.
The computers registered 68.49 miles when we pulled in to the driveway, that’s close enough for me. I couldn’t manage another mile, my shoulders were sore to the point I couldn’t keep my left hand on the handle bars and my backside was so painful I could barely stay on the seat! Carsten annoyingly was in a much better state, just suffering from general aches and tiredness.
The 70 miler made us realise we probably weren’t ready for the 115mile round London
Stopping to map read was getting a bit tedious so I invested in a Garmin Edge. Alas it was worse! Within minutes arriving at the start we were "off course". We didn't have maps to cover the entire route either. Two hours later we hadn’t got far and realised it’d be quite late by the time we completed our planned 80 miles even if we could find the way. Being lost, doubling back, taking hills twice and listening to the Garmin repeatedly beeping its “off course” alert was taking its toll to say the least, tempers were frayed and expletives were flowing. It was a lovely day and we decided we weren’t enjoying ourselves at all and we’d much rather be sitting in the garden. So we routed ourselves back home, clocked up 40 miles and contemplated lessons learned over a cold bottle of prosecco.
Next event was the Evans Brighton Ride It. We were pleased to see a mechanic on hand and got him to look at why our chains kept falling off. Relieved they had been fixed we set off, only to find I now couldn’t reliably change to a high gear which resulted in a lot of leg spinning on the downhills and flats for 30 miles until the next mechanic. We were just pleased we didn’t have to follow maps! Sadly we still managed to go the wrong way. Common sense told us it we’d gone wrong, but we ignored it, convinced the arrows sent us this way so it must be right. We ploughed on through the boggy muddy churned dirt track which led us into the woods….eventually we realised the error of our ways and turned round. By then our bikes and shoes were caked in countryside crud. The rest of the ride went well and we completed a nice 60miler taking in the heights and sights of Ditchling Beacon. I’d done some research on line and picked up some tips on shoulder/neck positioning and was pleased to finish the ride without any pains. I took the other saddle back too, I’m still looking for a better one but felt a lot better this time round.
We’ve not given up on the 100miler, I’m determined to fit it in before the winter sets in. I’ve reserved a few days off next week and downloaded a flat 100 miler onto the Edge. With a bit of navigation practice and some dry weather the century ride will be in the bag by the end of the month.
We did the 3.8k lakeside swim in September, here’s Carsten’s account of the day.
I definitely would have liked to have been quicker … as I saw Melanie disappear in the distance! We started the day pretty cold standing on the dock waiting for the off, and when it came to our turn there were only about 30 people waiting to go; which is good in a way as there’d be less bumping and grinding so to speak but on the down side it also meant a smaller field to try and stay ahead of. The five laps weren’t that bad, I felt quite comfortable in the swimming and mentally I broke the sections down and concentrated on the ‘now’ so they also went by quite fast. I managed to keep up with Melanie most of the way, some sections I would forge ahead a bit and likewise on some she would, as each of us found our groove. But on the last lap in the last half Melanie started to move away from me and pushing as hard as I could I couldn’t catch up, in fact my technique started to go to pot so I slowed it back down and decided to just keep the pace even. So in the end Melanie beat me by a minute or two … but more importantly I wasn’t the last of my wave, there were still two people behind me!
I don’t think our swim was a bad time, and of course a bit faster would have been nice, but I wonder how many of those ahead of us could then have cycled and ran any distance, not too many I reckon … I hope.
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