More Miles Added, and Off-Road, Too
I've had a quiet week since our Cotswolds weekend, but the weekend itself was a great success.
When John wasn't trying to brain himself on various doors and items of door furniture he was impressively strong on Saturday in almost keeping up with John 2, who was on his unladen Trek road bike. Meanwhile, JR was cycling down from Nottingham to join us...
I tagged along behind, as usual, with the usual excuses - heavier bike, fatter tyres, advancing years, lack of training - but not so far behind it was actually any more embarrassing than usual.
Sunday was a little tougher than I expected, although a late night, some beer and a little whisky might have contributed to that. I don't know why, but I didn't anticipate any hills quite as steep as the fourteen percenter we met about a third of the way round. Anyway, we all made it up that one in our various ways, my head had cleared by the time I got to the top and I felt pretty good the rest of the way round.
By riding to the start and back from the finish, John and I added ten miles to the route, while JR added another thirty or so as he headed back to catch a train home.
That made our total for Sunday fifty miles, to add to almost forty the day before, while JR did over 180 miles in two and a half days!
A busy week meant I didn't ride again until yesterday (Saturday), and the same was true for John, although he had been running. A family get-together at High Lodge in Thetford Forest was all the excuse the two of us needed to do something a bit different in the form of the black run. I put the old knobblies on my bike and John switched to his MTB and we set about it.
It's been notably dry lately, even though it's been cold, and the forest trails were all either dusty, sandy or rutted and set like concrete. While my legs felt fine (and much stronger than last time we did the route) my wrists and hands were aching after just a few minutes of this unfamiliar treatment. John has front suspension, so I had my usual extra excuse in place. After a while, though, the aching went away and I was up for a second lap when we got round the course faster than expected. This meant some more runs down 'The Beast', which was fun.
John lost his tool roll at this point and had to go back to retrieve it while I headed for the finish and the food and drink. The two circuits amounted to about fifteen miles. John's extra loop added another three. Probably add about fifty percent to that for the extra effort in riding quite fast off road.
After the drive home I headed out again on the road for another fifteen miles. With the knobbly tyres being quite soft, this was a decent workout, too. I averaged near 16 mph, which isn't bad.
But even allowing extra for the off-road session it still amounts to under forty miles for the weekend. I need more miles, simple as that.
It's the Norwich 100 in two weeks. Will I be doing it on the mountain bike (with road tyres), or not? I'll let you know.
A week after that, Bury St Edmunds has its own event, also with a 100 mile option. Now that's the kind of thing I need to be doing to get my mileage up. Two centuries in two weeks might sound quite tough but remember we'll be stringing together two solid weeks of metric centuries (while crossing at least three mountain ranges) in less than four months' time!
Roy
When John wasn't trying to brain himself on various doors and items of door furniture he was impressively strong on Saturday in almost keeping up with John 2, who was on his unladen Trek road bike. Meanwhile, JR was cycling down from Nottingham to join us...
I tagged along behind, as usual, with the usual excuses - heavier bike, fatter tyres, advancing years, lack of training - but not so far behind it was actually any more embarrassing than usual.
Sunday was a little tougher than I expected, although a late night, some beer and a little whisky might have contributed to that. I don't know why, but I didn't anticipate any hills quite as steep as the fourteen percenter we met about a third of the way round. Anyway, we all made it up that one in our various ways, my head had cleared by the time I got to the top and I felt pretty good the rest of the way round.
By riding to the start and back from the finish, John and I added ten miles to the route, while JR added another thirty or so as he headed back to catch a train home.
That made our total for Sunday fifty miles, to add to almost forty the day before, while JR did over 180 miles in two and a half days!
A busy week meant I didn't ride again until yesterday (Saturday), and the same was true for John, although he had been running. A family get-together at High Lodge in Thetford Forest was all the excuse the two of us needed to do something a bit different in the form of the black run. I put the old knobblies on my bike and John switched to his MTB and we set about it.
It's been notably dry lately, even though it's been cold, and the forest trails were all either dusty, sandy or rutted and set like concrete. While my legs felt fine (and much stronger than last time we did the route) my wrists and hands were aching after just a few minutes of this unfamiliar treatment. John has front suspension, so I had my usual extra excuse in place. After a while, though, the aching went away and I was up for a second lap when we got round the course faster than expected. This meant some more runs down 'The Beast', which was fun.
John lost his tool roll at this point and had to go back to retrieve it while I headed for the finish and the food and drink. The two circuits amounted to about fifteen miles. John's extra loop added another three. Probably add about fifty percent to that for the extra effort in riding quite fast off road.
After the drive home I headed out again on the road for another fifteen miles. With the knobbly tyres being quite soft, this was a decent workout, too. I averaged near 16 mph, which isn't bad.
But even allowing extra for the off-road session it still amounts to under forty miles for the weekend. I need more miles, simple as that.
It's the Norwich 100 in two weeks. Will I be doing it on the mountain bike (with road tyres), or not? I'll let you know.
A week after that, Bury St Edmunds has its own event, also with a 100 mile option. Now that's the kind of thing I need to be doing to get my mileage up. Two centuries in two weeks might sound quite tough but remember we'll be stringing together two solid weeks of metric centuries (while crossing at least three mountain ranges) in less than four months' time!
Roy
Labels: cycling for fitness, cycling up hills, paris to venice
posted by Roy Everitt at
17:08
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