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Thursday 30 May 2013

Lots of cycling at last!!!

  Well, the weather put paid to….
  …our camping trip to Cornwall so I decided to use this week as a monster training ‘overload’ week. It’s only Thursday though and I’m already a bit smashed!

  My season officially started on Sunday. It was a warm but breezy day so I decided on an adventure up to Norwich for an off-road blast along Marriot’s Way. I’ve always loved this route – I used to ride on it a lot when I lived in Norwich in the mid-90’s. It’s like having a few hours bumping along a lovely fuzzy green corridor, surrounded by wildlife and (usually) completely on your own.



  I tend to park at Sloughbottom Park these days (near Asda) as it’s free and pretty close to the start.

  The first thing that became obvious was that being a Bank Holiday (doh!), it was packed with walkers and ‘cyclists’ which impeded progress occasionally. However, most of the traffic was within 300 yards of the car parks along the route and, especially beyond Thorpe Marriott, it became slightly less congested.
  Did piss me off slightly when I got hissed at by groups of people whilst whizzing past them, I mean it IS a major cycle route and you ARE walking 17 abreast across it. WTF am I supposed to do? Plus, a major bugbear of mine generally – uncontrollable dogs off leads. It got to the stage where I just felt like running them over to be honest, feigning a crash and then rolling around for a while pretending I'd broken my collarbone or something, mumbling 'insurance details please' between moans to really shit their owners up...
  Having said that, I did get a squirrel, no, no, not on purpose. In fact I nearly crashed trying to avoid it. It ran out in front of me, went left, went right… then went left again… then decided to run alongside me before throwing itself into the spokes of the front wheel. It sort of bounced off and vanished. There was no sign of a mangled corpse on the return trip so it must have survived. Stupid thing.

  Anyway, quite a sluggish trip up to Aylsham (which I put down to the strong NW wind) before a quick flap jack and a turn around. Went like a maniac on the way back, getting some air on the jumps etc and despite numerous stops to put my chain back on (really need to spend some money on the MTB) and avoiding walkers / dogs / families on bikes and detours around sections closed because of large holes caused by ‘badger activity’, I equaled my fastest ever ride back from Aylsham. Trouble was, I could barely stand up when I got back to the car….


Shhhh... Any minute now... Wait 'til you see him go over the handlebars, you'll piss yourselves...  Don't forget, go straight for the flapjacks in his back pockets hee hee hee...


  Monday’s ride was a much more sensible ride on the road. To my surprise, I found I was rolling big gears quite nicely at lower intensities but as soon as I tried to go reasonably hard my legs just didn’t want to know so I took it steady for a couple of hours.

  Felt slightly better on Tuesday so went out on a nice tempo loop towards Beccles / Bungay for 2 1/2 hours. Was probably about 30-40 mins too far as I got quite a serious hunger knock at that point (which is quite rare for me incidentally – don’t know what that was about).
  Felt much better towards the end of the ride, in fact I decided I fancied a crack at a TT that evening! The weather looked better in the north of the county so I headed up to Sheringham for the NN Wheelers 10.

  Few spots of rain but managed to stay dry for the ride. Bloody windy though! Felt tired from the off so I suppose the screaming tailwind to the turn did me a huge favour and served as a warm-up if nothing else. HR stuck at about 155 and legs feeling pretty puny but I overtook a couple of people so obviously wasn’t embarrassing myself too badly.
  Holt roundabout in just a bit over 10 mins then the looooong grovel back to the finish. The smallest gear I’d got was a 56 x 18 and I really struggled with it into that wind, especially on the uphill bits. Got to the finish in 23:30 something feeling like I’d had a seriously hard workout! Back at the start though, I found out that a couple of blokes had ridden it ON FIXED! Chapeau lads….



  But that bloody Boardman saddle! Been saying it for ages but it’s got to go. Might scavenge the super comfy Avatar saddle from the MTB for the rest of the season…

New real leather Boardman saddle for 2013


  Felt absolutely stuffed the next morning but after a huge bowl of porridge I perked up a bit. Opted for a steady couple of hours again and the old legs felt much more nimble afterwards.  We had planned to go for a swim & sauna but people were queuing out of the doors for the leisure centre so we didn’t bother. Plan B was to visit Hales Hall nursery and have a browse around some of their exotic plants… but they were closed.
  Plan C was to visit CJ Ball’s Motorbike showroom at Hales and perhaps even take the latest superbike out for a test ride but when we got there it had changed hands and had become a mobility scooter showroom.
  Plan D was go home and have an enormous fry-up….

  I woke up after a longer than expected nap and had the mad idea of riding the CCB TT out towards Dereham that evening. Ridiculously strong coffees and Trigger in the back of the car and we were on our way!

  This was a 15 miler which is an unusual distance I suppose.  To my surprise, my legs didn’t feel too bad warming up… initially at least. I had that nice sensation again of rolling a big gear quite easily at steady speeds but as soon as I tried to go fast the legs turned to a kind of tetanised jelly. Hmmm…

  Windy again but 3 x 5 mile laps broke it up quite nicely and it wasn’t too much of an ordeal. I just ‘rolled’ most of the first lap, not feeling particularly racey at all. Tried slightly harder for the second lap and tried to go flat out for the 3rd but it wasn’t happening really. Max HR was 158, well short of normal. Managed significantly positive split times for the 3 laps which is something I suppose but disappointed that I didn’t beat the magic 25mph average. Never mind.



  Weather permitting I might nip out for a couple of hours this afto then try the local GYCC 10 up the road at Somerleyton this evening. Then I’ll have few well earned days off!

  Haven’t performed fantastically well this week but I’m happy with the basic fitness.  Not broken out in a sore throat or bubonic plague either. Result!

  

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