Sore Bums!

So much for a good nights sleep. The thing about a long bike ride is that you sweat. Therefore you spend a lot of time taking on liquid to make sure you dont get dehydrated. On the ride yesterday and after I got home, I drank just under 5 litres of liquid (a combination of carbohydrate drinks, protein drinks & electrolytic drinks). Unfortunately if you dont get the timing right, and sweat off all the extra liquid you've taken on board, your body has to get rid of it some other way.

Therefore I did not get the good night sleep I had hoped for!

Joining John & Tim for breakfast, I was complaining about my bum. It felt uncomfortable enough to share my discomfort with some other guys - you know? Anyway John piped up that he thought it might have something to do with the saddles, which Tim & I found most insightful.

Simon had fixed his tyre, so the 7 of us were up, breakfasted and ready to go by 7am. Just before setting off Henry stated that his bum was so sore that it felt like he had been violated in his sleep.

We spent some time trying to decide which of Henry & John's observations were the funniest.

The good news was that as soon as we set off, I realised that in fact the pain in my bum was not as bad as all that. Nope - it was much worse when I sat back on the saddle!

We did my 60 mile loop over the 5 mile ascent between Borden & Hindhead. On the way up that hill, after about 40 miles, Henry's knee started to get very painful & Ciaran's rear sprocket broke hence they both had to drop out of the training ride. Hopefully Henry's knee is just because he did such a big jump yesterday in terms of his longest ride.

Back at the house again, we stopped for some sandwiches & a drink. If it was hard first thing this morning to get going again after 150 miles yesterday, it was even harder to get going again this afternoon having done that PLUS 60 miles this morning already!!

Still, set off we did, and we completed the final 50 in 3 hours which was pretty good. This time Ciaran & Jules followed us around for much of the route in a car to get some more photos.

250 miles this weekend. The longest I've ever done, and the most I will do prior to the ride itself.

Yikes.

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!

Figure of eight

Paul & I decided that it was high time we did the 50 mile circuit and the 20 mile circuit. So Paul devised a cunning figure of 8 circuit of approx 70 miles which we started at 7:30 in the morning. We were back by 1pm, but had a couple of stops for snacks & drinks, so were only cycling for 4.5 hours. Quite a decent pace - you begin to think that the LEJOG route might actually be achievable after all.

Oh dear oh dear

Last night was not a good night. I have already learnt that more exercise lowers your immune system, and have successfully seemed to catch every cold going since Christmas. However last night I learnt that it's not a good idea to drink too much either.

It was a work function, and great fun, but I did not enjoy the after effects of the alcohol. I kind of got out of the habit when Fraser was alive anyhow. We never quite knew when we would be rushing into hospital with him, and Jules and I never felt too great about being drunk under those circumstances.

Hence a combination of that, plus me cutting out most alcohol due to the training plan, plus my dumb idea of drinking flat-liners after a few bottles of wine.....nuff said methinks.

Not looking forward to my ride tomorrow morning. Have been trying to counter the dehydrating effects of the alcohol all day....