First Group Ride

Ian, our brummie habitant ride companion, text me at 7am on Saturday advising he was on a train headed towards London. Which was nice. So with a quick stop at Marylebone we headed over to Essex for a sprackle out to Mersey island. 

I was looking forward to this as I'd just spent £190 on a new back wheel and a full service, so was expecting my bike to sing along without the usual jolts and clangs. Which thankfully it did. I'm not touching it now until the ride! 

After a few of the usual running repairs, and a few fags on Ian's part, we set off. 

It turns out that all of our training and bike customisation has been a waste of time! Judging by Ian's incredible speed and climbing ability, I should have just started smoking 20 B&H a day and dancing in nightclubs until 3am fuelled only by an assortment of whiskeys. Who'd have guessed! 

We did 60 miles, at a reasonable pace and I felt fine afterwards so pretty pleased about that. Might go to Surrey again this weekend to hit some hills, then again I could just buy a bottle of Jack Daniels and a pack of Golden Virginia and stay in watching reruns of diagnosis murder and the Jeremy Kyle Omnibus. Probably just as good... 

Surrey 100

Well, we covered 105 miles this weekend through the beautiful Surrey countryside, I've logged the Sunday ride on Strava here

The ride on the Sunday was particularly nice going over Leith Hill, the second highest point in SE England ... apparently. We were on our CX bikes, the ones we are going to use for LEJOG, with hybrid 35mm tyres and took a few bridleways that I would certainly not recommend on a standard 23mm road tyre, but nice to get off road.

I felt okay both days but certainly slowed down for the last 15 miles, and still feel knackered, but pleased that I managed to get on the bike and do some significant climbing and miles without feeling I couldn't get on the bike the next day. Anna's lower gearing looked good, I need to put the same 11 - 34 cassette and long arm derailleur on my bike now... Still thinking I might get Condor to do it though, save my knuckles and stress levels (and living room carpet). 

5 weeks to go!

So, it suddenly dawned on me that in 5 weeks time I'll be busy last minute packing and stressing about boxing up my bike.

First Great Western still haven't sorted out the issues with our booking and its looking likely that three of the four bikes will have to be transported as 'luggage'. As far as I can tell this means we have to put them in a box and stick them in the guards carriage, all this despite me booking three spaces online when I made the booking! Not very happy with them at all...to be continued.

Anyway, training has been intermittent, and I've certainly not done as much as I'd hoped to do by now. The idea was to be a lean cycling-monster by the end of May, however I appear to still be a slightly doughy human who has trouble getting up a flight of stairs without a rest half way. Wiggo doesn't have this trouble, mind you he doesn't live in London and work a full time job either... Slacker! 

As I sit here the sight of bike parts on my desk has become a usual occurrence. Today is no exception with brake blocks, chain, deraileur and cassette all stacked up next to my computer. 

We're off for a couple of rides around Surrey this weekend, I'll be happy if we do 100 miles all in and I don't collapse...