Sunday 24 June 2007

Training: EF-Broxbourne-Hertford-Essendon-EF

Solo ride on the old heavy Ridgeback aluminium bike - just taking it easy. 2 flats in the rainy conditions

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Sunday 17 June 2007

Training: EF-Dane End-Buntingford-Walkern-Colney Heath-EF

Well, I turned up early for the group ride and waited until 10am but no one arrived. Just as I was about to depart for a solo mission, Werner came wheeling in, so we took off for our Sunday ride. The road through Dane End to Buntingford was flooded in some places from the heavy rain the night before so our progress was impeded in parts - gravel around corners and huge pools in dips in the road.

After trying a random route and discovering a dead end we finally made it to Buntingford - which is where I discovered my pedal was squeaking strangely. We stopped to tighten it only to be overtaken by a huge group of 20-30 riders. Werner asked if I wanted to jump on the train - hell yes! We TT'd for a 1-2km to catch the group and sat in the back for a few minutes recovering once caught. They seemed like a pretty decent group and got chatting to a couple of guys - they were from St. Albans - just down the road from Potter's Bar. I was given details of there meeting place and time - I discussed this with Werner and suggested we hook up with these guys on Sundays from now on. He agreed.

The pace was brisk but nothing too heavy - I liked it. We stayed with them for 50km and eventually turned to Potters Bar when they made a turn for St. Albans. I was pretty tired at the end of the ride and Werner admitted he was feeling it too - we went our separate ways - we'll see each other again in about 3 weeks. Werner is doing a 200km Audax next weekend and I'm doing the British Sportive 192km the weekend after. The weekend after that is the Tour de France starting in London which I'll definitely go and watch over the 3 days its in England.

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Monday 11 June 2007

Training: EF-Sandon-Buntingford-Welwyn-EF

Ride was steady until 30km to go when I started finding hard breathing hurting my ribs. A few km later and I punctured my back wheel. Rode back at recovery pace.

I rode with 2 new guys - one of which was pretty good - taking pulls in the front 75% of the time.

Another hard day.

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Sunday 3 June 2007

Training: EF-Bull's Green-Whitwell-Colney Heath-EF

My birthday! ...and a Sunday in purgatory...

Group ride started off with 5 players - me, Werner - the other Saffa, Dermott - the Irish guy who can deal out pain with a smile, and the other two regular guys. The sun was out, the wind was low and it seemed the recipe for a lovely day's riding.

We had 3 punctures in the first 20km which slowed us down considerably. A few k's later and I was starting to feel the pain in my ribs from Wednesday's crash - I would have preferred a slower pace, but didn't want to put a drag on the group. After 60km covered the hills started kicking in and Werner and Dermott were dueling over them - the rest of us struggling to keep up. My gears were slipping and my ribs were hurting badly from the exertion. On top of that the temperature was soaring to about 25 celcius and I was starting to dehydrate and bonk.

With 20km before the end of the ride, Dermott punctured again and then again 2km after that. I welcomed the stops, but the sun was beating me down without any wind to cool things down and my bottles had been drained. We eventually made it to the meeting point and went our separate ways, though one of the other guys went the same way as me so we rode back together.

After stopping to refill our bottles and grab a Coke, we pressed on for the last 13km home. 2km later I saw the other guy suddenly lose control of his bike and crashed into the pavement - his front wheel had punctured, hence his fall. His damages included a scraped knee, butt and he landed in a patch of nettles - his arms quickly became red and puffy. After helping him change his tube we took it easy for the remainder of the ride back.

A very strange day indeed...

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Saturday 2 June 2007

Training: EF-ColneyHeath-Welwyn-EF

Nice medium paced ride on a pretty flat route to get me going again after my crash on Wednesday. My ribs are still sore and bumps in the road made the going painful - still by the end of the ride I could hardly feel any pain there - just my legs! The weather was superb - warm and very little wind.

Distance: 63.4km / 39.4mi
Time: 2:01:16 (5 min subtracted due to traffic)
Speed: 31.3kph / 19.4mph
Elevation gain: 567m / 1860ft
Heart rate: 156bpm (avg) / 179bpm (max)
Calories: 2720

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