Hilly Hundred

You see the thing about Rich is that he's a bit random. You either choose to go along with him or you get scared & steer well clear. Todays plan was to meet up on the Windsor loop, then go do some Surrey hills & meet a friend of Rich's called Fraser en route. After I'd got my hundrd in I could duck out and go home while Rich continued to cycle with Fraser, and then when he'd had enough he would cycle home again (after all it's only 50 miles...). Rich's plans are always complicated.

Skeptical, I set out alone for Windsor at 6am. It was the first time I'd cycled alone for a few weeks, and I found my mind wandering thinking about the race, thinking about Fraser (my Fraser, not Rich's friend...) and thinking how blummin cold it was.

I arrived at the loop in good time, and decided just to cycle round it as I was early rather than phone Rich. As it turned out Rich was running late, so I got a complete circuit in before we met up. By this time I'd done over 30 miles.

We set off back towards Guildford following the route I'd taken to get up there.

"Right, let's get started" said Rich - he was looking forward to getting some hills in. I took him up Pebble Hill (out of West Horsley) as a warm up. Then a nice long downhill towards Ranmore, and up Ranmore via Crocknorth Road. Once we'd got to the top, we did a U-turn straight back down and up the long descent we'd just dropped down in order to meet Fraser at Shere.

As it turned out, we were a bit early to Shere (I'd thought it would take longer to get back up the hill), so we did a quick blast out through Gomshall and back.

By this time we'd done over 60 miles, so I was pleased when Fraser called to say he was in the Lucky Duck tea-room. We had a quick break & Fraser bought us some tea. I'm sure it was the nicest tea I've ever tasted.

It's been a while since I've seen Fraser, and I'd fogotten just how fit he is. Whilst we were drinking our tea, he told us about how he had won the Dorking 10k race for the third year in succession a few weeks ago having completed a triathalon earlier in the morning!! He is currently in training for an iron-man race in July.

After tea, Fraser decided to show us one of his routes & we took the long hill up out of Shere up Sandy lane and on to Hound House lane. This was a fantastic climb - I've only ever done it coming down, and remember thinking I didn't fancy doing it in the upwards direction, but it's actually quite nice; gentle gradient for 3 miles or so.

Sharp left & a long descent into Peaslake then straight up a hill again across towards Holmbury St Mary. Another nice long descent through Holmbury and Abinger Hammer. A short blast along the A25 and then left up White Down hill. I hadn't appreciated that White Down hill is a bit of a legend (along with Leith Hill & Boxhill) amongst local cyclists. Up until this point, we'd all been sticking together on the uphills and I noticed that Rich & I were more out of breath trying to talk than Fraser was. However at White Down hill, Fraser just disappeared leaving Rich and me looking like amateurs!

The top of White Down brings you onto Ranmore common again, and we turned along my normal route towards Boxhill.

Time was ticking on (I'd said I'd be back by 1pm), so I decided not to join them on Boxhill, and turned back towards Guildford. I was worried I wasn't going to make my 100 miles I'd been aiming for, but Rich seemed confident I should do it; and since everything else had gone well with his random plans, I had no reason to doubt him.

I decided to go back via Polesden Lacy because I thought it would be flatter. Wrong! Still it was a new hill I'd not done before. When I say I went via Polesden Lacy I mean it quite literally, and cycled all the way up to it before realising it is a dead end!

Back down to the A246 and my morning training ride home through Effingham.

Rich was wrong by the way. My Garmin said 99.98 miles by the time I got home!

Effingham once again

Did my usual plan to ride on Tuesday night, but worked too late. However, this week (feeling tired from working late) I did not go out on Wednesday morning instead, but waited til the evening.

Felt strong...probably after the long ride this weekend. So got all the way to the traffic lights in Effingham and back in just over 50 minutes (16.5 miles).

Quite pleased with myself.

Early start again

This is starting to become a habit. Plan to ride Tuesday night. Something comes up at work, end up going out on Wednesday morning. Not helped by the fact that for the last couple of weeks I've had a social on Wednesday evening, hence long days & tiredness!

Managed my Effingham route easily enough, and headed into work nice and early to make sure last nights excitment had settled down. Unfortunately for the first time in ages, South West Trains let me down, so I ended up getting in at 9am just in time for my first meeting.

Tonight I was out with my friend Robin who doesn't seem to be comfortable with the idea of me not drinking very much!!! Good to see him though, and decent food at Browns near Bank station.

Since my posting on the weekend, I've got the details of John & Tims ride. Wow! 150+ miles on Saturday followed by nearly 80 on Sunday. Good effort....especially compared to my 140 mile total for the whole weekend. I haven't read John's blog yet, but I assume he will have mentioned he fell off his bike at Sheffield and hurt his leg. His wheel got caught in tramlines and he ended up travelling in a different direction to his bike. Ouch.

In adding labels for this post, I noticed that I haven't used the "green poo" label a 2nd time yet, so this is a blatent mention just so I have more than one. There really is no reason for adding it here except that I know more people are reading the blog now, so may be tempted to explore a little.

A new light

After my ride on Sunday, I popped in to Beyond Mountain bikes to buy some more energy drinks & some recovery drink of my own (I got to feeling guilty about taking Ciarans all the time, and in any case his is beyond its sell by date!). While I was there I decided to buy myself a new front light....one that I can see by and not just be seen by.

I had planned to ride/turbo on Tuesday night, but ended up working late, so decided to go out before work on Wednesday. The new light makes a huge difference, and I managed to get all the way to the traffic lights in Effingham & return home within an hour.

I was quite pleased with this ride because once I was out of Guildford, I pretty much only used 2 gears all the way to Effingham and back, AND I was on the big cog at the front. My legs are certainly getting stronger than they were a few weeks ago!

Drizzle

Having Turbo'd on Wednesday, I figured I'd wait til this morning to get up early and get some miles in.

Alarm went off at 5am, and I was out on the road at 5:10. Just did my Guildford-Effingham-Guildford route (approx 15 miles), which took about 50 minutes.

Traffic was quieter this morning than the previous occasion. I hardly saw any cars at all.

I think a good summary of the ride would be 'drizzle'

Early morning start

After my experience on Tuesday evening, I decided to try going out first thing in the morning instead. Also, as I'm planning a long ride tomorrow, I did not really want to train this evening.

So, I got up at 5am & did my Effingham route as on Tuesday. This meant I was back at the house around the same time as I normally get up anyhow. I made sure I did the full 16 miles this time, and made it properly into Effingham. Also, because it was actually light, I did this extra distance in the same time as I did on Tuesday.

Jules had made me some breakfast & offered to drive me to the station, so after having a bike ride and some breakfast at home (neither of which I normally do in the morning), I ended up on an earlier train than I typically get.

This is going to be great - now its light enough and not icy in the mornings!

I checked the weather for my ride tomorrow though. Oh dear. Looks like its going to be tough. Sleet/snow, strong winds from the NW, and cold temperatures....

Need some better lights!

When I got home from work today, I just did not feel like sitting in the garage on the turbo. I decided therefore to go out on the road for a ride. I managed to go almost to Effingham and back in about 50 minutes (so almost 16 miles) which I was quite pleased with, but it was a bit scary as my front light is more a 'be seen' light than a 'see' one!!

It was fine unless there was any traffic coming towards me, which there was, most of the way....

Still, the time & the miles went much more quickly out on the highway than sat in the garage!