Training ride 4 (Day 3) - oh dear

I couldn't fix my gear problems last night, so arranged to pop round to Simon this morning to see if he could figure it out.

We figured my derailleur was probably bent, and I decided to take it to Beyond Mountain Bikes for them to take a look.

The guy at Beyond quickly confirmed our suspicions, and also straightened the gearshift, checked the wheels & brakes & generally gave the bike a quick once-over.

By the time this was all done, I wasn't really in the mood to get back on the bike, so Jules and I spent the afternoon gadding about doing nothing in particular which was very enjoyable!!

A well deserved rest

I gave my bike (and me) a well deserved rest today. Having done the longest ride I've ever done on Saturday (exceeding my previous by 10 miles) and my most miles in a weekend (exceeding my previous by 20 miles), I decided it would be sensible to take a day off.

In any case, I had booked my bike in for a service.

I'm not sure whether to be proud or not, but I needed a new chain for my bike. Good old Beyond Mountain Bikes did a wonderful job doing the service, and asked if I had been pushing hard. As you'll know if you read this blog, I've been pushing hard for me, but I dont think in the grand scheme of things I pushed that hard such that I'd be stretching my chain. I can only assume the one supplied with the bike was not that good a quality, and after 600 miles that is just normal wear and tear. Anyhow Beyond Mountain Bikes fitted a new dura-ace chain which is apparently far superior to the one I had previously. They also did a fantastic job cleaning & re-lubing the bike. It looks like new - I felt very guilty for the state I left it with them.

I used my free time to positive effect though, and added the Latest News & Thankyous pages to the website.

Time for a service

I've booked by bike in for it's first service today. I've done 600 miles on it, and I've only had it just over a month. I'm pretty sure thats more miles than I've done in total for the rest of my life prior to that month!!!

I wanted to do a 30 mile ride, so GoogleMapped a route from home to Beyond Mountain Bikes via East Horsley, Ranmore Common, Dorking, Coldharbour, Ewshot & Cranleigh.

I found it really hard to get going. My legs just didn't seem to want to move. After 8 miles or so I turned off towards Ranmore which I had remembered as being fairly flat woodland road. That was in a car. There is actually quite a steep hill before the nice flat woodland road. I really struggled up it. A group of cyclists overtook me on the hill and asked if I was ok!!

I learnt a good lesson today: read the names of the roads before you set off on a route. After the unexpected climb at Ranmore, and having cycled through Dorking I then found myself on the Leith Hill road. Bizarrely that lead to Leith Hill, which I'm sure I remember is the largest hill in Surrey.

Leith Hill certainly made me realise the hill at Ranmore wasn't that bad. I struggled to go fast enough to stop my Garmin going into automatic pause mode.

Once I got to the top of Leith Hill, my legs finally woke up, and I ended up doing the 30 miles in the 2 hours I had planned, despite the hills.

Rest day tomorrow though....

Working at home

I had a slightly odd day today. 6 months ago I booked my follow on appointment for a dental check-up. At that time I was working at home every Wednesday to spend more time in the evening and before work with Fraser & give Jules some extra support mid-week. I would therefore try and book Fraser's hospital appointments, check-ups etc for a Wednesday so I did not need to take more time out of the office and I could be there to hear what the experts had to say. I would also book appointments for myself on a Wednesday again so as not to have more time out of the office.

So today I was working at home on a Wednesday again, because I'd booked my 6-monthly dental appointment on a Wednesday. It's amazing how often silly litte things like that come up and remind you of Fraser.

What it did mean however was that I could go for a quick bike-ride before work. I cycled out to Beyond Mountain Bikes in Cranleigh and back. Found out it is exactly 8 miles from my front door to the front door of the shop. I pushed it a bit harder than normal so I could get back in time to have a shower & start work in good time. Consequently I managed 16 miles in just a smidge over the hour. Very pleased - especially as I did 14 turbo miles last night.

Lonely ride to Beyond Mountain Bikes

Today I set out for a short 30 mile route via Beyond Mountain Bikes. I remember when I bought my bike from them back in December, I joked about cycling home on it (thinking it was a long way). Now I cycle there, and do a further 22 miles afterwards...

I was hoping to pick up my new cadence sensor, but it had not come in yet. Bought some new shorts, a new light (my old one packed up), some energy bars and some Zym electrolytic drink. Oh yeah, and bought a bum bag to put it all in so I could get it home!

Bumped into Paul just after Milford. We were both looking for the Shackleford road, but neither of us thought we had passed it. Paul had been out for a while, and needed to get home (he'd already almost got to Farnham after a wrong turn at Elstead). Hope he's not too late!

I managed 30 miles in 2 hours. Felt much stronger today, and am looking forward to another long ride tomorrow. Planning to meet up with Rich near Windsor. The scary bit is Rich has organized the ride, so you never know what will happen....