May 21st, 2006
Singlespeed Saturdays
Well, that plan lasted precisely a week. Instead the good wife had booked us in at midday for some local riding club show-jumping. At least all the miles I’ve been putting in lately have slimmed down my shapely calves and I can pull my riding boots on without passing out or throwing up.
Horses are somewhere in the same area as fighter jets in terms of maintenance to riding time.
At the yard by 10:30:00.
On the wagon by 11:30:00.
Into the arena at 13:00:00.
Out of the arena after two refusals at 13:01:00.
150 minutes preparation for 60 seconds in the ring.
Still, at least I managed to stay on.
So Sunday was the day for a big ride out. The weather forecast was for downpours of biblical proportions, rains of frog, that kind of thing. Yet the day dawned bright and sunny. On the road by 9 o’clock into a stiffening breeze. I don’t quite understand how the weather was arriving in the opposite direction to the stiffening breeze, but it was.
At 11 o’clock it officially started raining enough to put the waterproof on. This tempered some of the descents somewhat. 40mph on unfamiliar rain slick roads and cattle grids was fun.
At 11:30 climbing over towards the Tatham Fells and Yorkshire I saw the last two cyclists I would see all day.
At mid-day I discovered that Cateye cycle computers can’t cope with a bracing dampness as it reset itself. Now I could only tell how far I’d been now using the Odometer. Half an hour later my water resistant to 99ft watch decided that it’s sympathies lay with the computer not with me, and joined it in resetting itself. I now had no idea what time it was.
Somewhere roughly 30 miles from home the computer decided that actually, it wasn’t going to play at all, and stopped recording anything. It worked only intermittently from now until I got home. So my indicated mileage of 68 miles is a guess at best.
The day was a success and a failure.
On the success side I’d managed to extend my normal road loop from 50 miles out to somewhere over 75 without breaking, or even coming close. I’d also found that by not relying on carb-laden drinks I hadn’t bloated up either.
Sounds good. So what failed? Well, going out and breaking was the intention, and I’d hoped that this hilly loop was going to be more than just six hours. For the first two hours I was very slow, so I must have really upped the average speed for the last 2/3 of the ride.
Next week I’m going to have to extend the loop even further.
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