It’s been a hugely frustrating three weeks as family, fate and mostly weather have conspired against me getting out on the road. I’m just grateful that it is not until August that I'll tackle the RideLondon, this hasn’t really impacted my main training schedule.
At long last, though, I got out today. Determined not to be beaten by the cold, or the remnants of a cold I’ve enjoyed this week, I decided to make up for some lost time by pushing myself.
I blogged about the Oakman Sportive last week, and looking through the route they’ve done a great job designing a 70km course that includes many of the landmark climbs in our area. We’ll be doing about 2,500ft of climbing in those 70km. And today, I decided to go out and ride the route
Well, I rode most of it... 15 miles in, riding through an area I don’t really know, I managed to take a wrong turn that cut about 4km off the route. I had to find a new way back up onto Ashridge too, but that provided a good excuse to ride the long Dagnall Climb for the first time this year.
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| Bracing |
There may not have been any cobbles on my route today, however the number of potholes along the roads made a suitable substitute. Throw in plenty of loose gravel, melting snow patches and plenty of debris, I think my main achievement today was not puncturing.
A really thoroughly enjoyable ride, but I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t hard work, and I do ache a little now. The great news, though, is that in length and volume of climbing my ride today is very comparable to miles 35 to 75 of the RideLondon, the Surrey Hills section, so clearing that in 3hrs 10mins is really encouraging. The miles either side of this section are pretty flat, so there is nothing I should be too scared of. Just need to keep working on my endurance.
But I won't be doing that tomorrow, as I have a date with the TV and a little corner of Belgium. Here’s Inring’s brilliant as always preview: http://inrng.com/2013/03/preview-tour-of-flanders/
