The weekend presented a good opportunity for training. The big ride was scheduled for Sunday and Saturday was the warm up ride. I had about a 35 mile loop in mind for Saturday and I was determined to take it easy. I ended up doing 50 miles and racing round so no easy ride. My plan therefore was to have a 70 or 80 mile ride on Sunday. Robin came up from Kent intent on doing a 100 miles. The weather was perfect for cycling and we had a good route around the lanes of Norfolk so anything was possible. The obligatory pub stop came at 55 miles and whilst it was most welcome it was about 10 miles too soon so the second leg was going to be a long one. Rob 'the blob' had a full plate of fish and chips while I was a little more frugal with my duck egg omelette. As we set out from the pub I was still thinking we would only be doing around 80 but I felt a surge of leg strength from a combination of the beer and the duck egg omelette so a new route was decided upon on the hoof and the end result was a 100.1 mile ride. Now, one 100 mile ride is all fine and well, but, we are going to have to do it 10 times in a row!
With reference to Simon's previous post about his freewheel mechanism sticking I had a similar event on my mountain bike in Cape Breton. Stuck out in the wilds I had no luxury of 'phone a friend' so I had to strip the mechanism down using the tools in my bag. I managed to get it to engage as long as I kept tension on the chain and had a difficult ride home but made it.
So, my plan this week is a couple of 40 mile rides in the evening then a 100 miler on Saturday with a 60 miler on Sunday.
My Brooks saddle has come into its own. It gave me a lot of pain breaking the leather in but now it is working really well. The 100 mile ride over nearly 6 hours left no discomfort so whilst it looks like an old boot sat on top of a stick I don't really care.
I have some pictures to download but the iPad does not allow so I will need to wait until I am on the laptop.
Thanks to Blobby Robby for providing the motivation to break my first century ride.
I you've started something, Dad. "Blobby Robby" is going to stick for the whole of LEJOG.
ReplyDeleteAnd a duck egg omelette... Really? Where did you stop for lunch, The Ritz?
We stopped at the Ship Inn at Brancaster. It is near Burnham Market which is called Chelsea by the Sea because of the number of second homes owned by rich Londoners.Let me say that the only tattoo you will see is on repeats of Fantasy Island. It cost me £6 for the omelette and there were not even any chips!!
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