Best Ride This Year
Actually, it's almost eight months since I last cycled this far, and more than that since I last did this route. What I really enjoyed was discovering (now I can measure it properly) that this familiar circuit was a little bit longer than I thought.
That and the sights, sounds and smells of what seemed like early summer.
I 'guesstimated' between 30 and 35 miles for the circuit via Long Melford, Lavenham and Cockfield Green and finally measured it yesterday at 35.44 miles. On a humid and breezy day my usual route south towards Long Melford via Hartest hill was hard work. As I planned to do this longer ride I tried not to over-exert myself in the first leg against the wind but did hope for some serious help on the northward leg to compensate.
I also now know that I slow to between 3.5 and 4mph on Hartest hill...
Reaching the main road at Hartest I was pleased to see 12.7 miles indicated (meaning all my 24-25 mile rides in the past had actually been 25.4 mile long). Long Melford was reached at 15 miles and then I was able to turn northeast-ish towards Lavenham, although the tailwind wasn't making itself particularly evident yet!
Lavenham church was at 20 miles. I seem to remember estimating it at around 18-20, so that was encouraging. My average speed to that point was around 14mph. Turning right at the other end of Lavenham High Street I headed towards Thorpe Morieux and stopped for a snack at the end of the track where I lived for a while some years ago.
It's lovely open countryside out there, gently rolling and almost traffic free. This was just past the 25 mile mark, and after a steady climb followed by a level stretch I reached Cockfield Green at 27.5 miles.
By now my average speed was around 14.5 mph and I started to believe I could manage 15mph overall. With the tail wind (not that you can ever feel a tailwind, you just feel stronger) I was able to ride at 18-20mph for quite long stretches, although I dropped away to 8mph on the last hill of any consequence. By the time I reached Nowton, the average was 15mph exactly and I knew my road speed would be above that for most of the last few few miles so relaxed a little and cruised at around 16-18 most of the way back into town.
I got home to see my average had reached 15.1mph for the 35 plus miles and I had hit a maximum early in the ride of 31mph.
That's probably as good as I was managing last summer when I was supposedly in serious training for Paris to Venice - although the serious work was mostly done in Yorkshire. I don't think the stamina is there yet but it is nice to know I'm not too far off.
The St Edmunds and Norwich 50-milers in 4 and 5 weeks' time are definitely on. A century isn't out of the question, although I don't think we'll be doing any big weekend rides before then.
Roy
That and the sights, sounds and smells of what seemed like early summer.
I 'guesstimated' between 30 and 35 miles for the circuit via Long Melford, Lavenham and Cockfield Green and finally measured it yesterday at 35.44 miles. On a humid and breezy day my usual route south towards Long Melford via Hartest hill was hard work. As I planned to do this longer ride I tried not to over-exert myself in the first leg against the wind but did hope for some serious help on the northward leg to compensate.
I also now know that I slow to between 3.5 and 4mph on Hartest hill...
Reaching the main road at Hartest I was pleased to see 12.7 miles indicated (meaning all my 24-25 mile rides in the past had actually been 25.4 mile long). Long Melford was reached at 15 miles and then I was able to turn northeast-ish towards Lavenham, although the tailwind wasn't making itself particularly evident yet!
Lavenham church was at 20 miles. I seem to remember estimating it at around 18-20, so that was encouraging. My average speed to that point was around 14mph. Turning right at the other end of Lavenham High Street I headed towards Thorpe Morieux and stopped for a snack at the end of the track where I lived for a while some years ago.
It's lovely open countryside out there, gently rolling and almost traffic free. This was just past the 25 mile mark, and after a steady climb followed by a level stretch I reached Cockfield Green at 27.5 miles.
By now my average speed was around 14.5 mph and I started to believe I could manage 15mph overall. With the tail wind (not that you can ever feel a tailwind, you just feel stronger) I was able to ride at 18-20mph for quite long stretches, although I dropped away to 8mph on the last hill of any consequence. By the time I reached Nowton, the average was 15mph exactly and I knew my road speed would be above that for most of the last few few miles so relaxed a little and cruised at around 16-18 most of the way back into town.
I got home to see my average had reached 15.1mph for the 35 plus miles and I had hit a maximum early in the ride of 31mph.
That's probably as good as I was managing last summer when I was supposedly in serious training for Paris to Venice - although the serious work was mostly done in Yorkshire. I don't think the stamina is there yet but it is nice to know I'm not too far off.
The St Edmunds and Norwich 50-milers in 4 and 5 weeks' time are definitely on. A century isn't out of the question, although I don't think we'll be doing any big weekend rides before then.
Roy
Labels: Bury St Edmunds Wheel, cycle touring, cycling and health, cycling and life, norwich 100, paris to venice
posted by Roy Everitt at
09:19
1 Comments:
Perhaps what this really shows is how under-prepared I was last year and how lucky I was to manage the 900 miles and 50,000ft of climbing in two weeks.
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