On Sunday we had a completely free day for training, the weather forecast wasn't great but only promised drizzle or light showers for the bulk of the day.
The plan was to ride 40 miles then top up with bars and water and continue for another 30/40 depending on how we felt.
It drizzled...and drizzled and drizzled...the first 40 went pretty well, steady pace, once we got "a bit wet" then we settled in for the mileage. The climbs on the first loop went pretty well.. I'm getting happier and happier with my performance on most hills. I'll never be a mountain goat, but I'm not breathing through my...um... ears at the sight of the first speed bump any more. The roads were fairly quiet too.
The 40 miles brought us back to the house where we stopped and grabbed fresh bars, ate quickly and had a "natural break" and set off again... A few miles in the cloud cleared enough for the sun to peep through and I saw a clear crisp shadow of my front wheel on the road...I smiled...that was enough.... the cloud rolled in and it got darker...and darker.. around the 52 mile point, the heavens opened..so.. instead of the planned munchie stop we ploughed on to a petrol station (that had a shelter).. pushing just a little harder than we had been...standing water very quickly formed and the roads really got nasty. The rain was coming in really hard. making seeing the road ahead pretty difficult. When we stopped, the rain eased (obviously) and we set off after a quick snack (more Sponser bars... excellent and fast nutrition intake and uptake) . A little slower but still steady.
As we turned on the route, of course, we caught the top edge of the rain system again...knowing that as we circled back towards home, we'd plough right into it...and so we did...after a nervy ride down from Bramshill (the Wiggins Copse hill in reverse) we had decided that 70 in these conditions (basically, constant rain or drizzle the whole way) was enough...heading back towards the house, the weather really hit again..and even harder. I know that P was tiring a little, I was feeling hungry and wet but I pushed on as hard as I could at that point. My choice to push interrupted P's rhythm quite badly and has helped prove that for LEJOG, we really need to ride at a steady pace throughout (averaging about 12.5 mph is the goal) the 70 miler was at just under 15mph average with some parts really pushed ...I knew the last stretch was the last stretch so I gave more than I really should and felt the effects after .
All in all, the actual ride went well.. we managed the 70 with no major aftereffects. The horrific weather and road conditions made it much harder than a sunny 70 or 80 (or 90) would have been.
With guests on Monday and yesterday being another wash out, we didn't ride again this weekend...aided by the fact that I pulled a muscle in my back on Monday (not cycling related).. which is annoying.
A good, but hard, training ride...all good stuff really...
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