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.

Training ride 4 (Day 1) - complicated meeting up

Training ride 4 did not start well.

Initially it looked as though we would have between 6 and 8 of the team, but first Henry then Ciaran then Tim decided they would not be able to make it due to one thing or another. Of the remaining 5, only 3 of us could make the full 3 days we planned to do; Paul could make Friday and Saturday and Rich could make Saturday and Sunday.

Since John was coming down from Hertfordshire, Paul, Simon and I decided to cycle up and meet him half-way so he could cycle back with us and join us for the ride on Saturday. We decided to set off at 9:30am aiming to meet up near Amersham/Chesham around midday.

When Rich heard of our plans, he decided he could join us after all, at least for the morning, and since he lives near where our intended meeting up point was, we decided to meet at his house.

So Rich set out at 7am to cycle to John's house, and Paul, Simon and I set out at 9:30am to cycle to Rich's. Rich & John met up at 9:30, and then cycled back from Johns to Rich's, where we all met up. Keeping up?

Hence, having cycled just over 45 miles, we stopped for a snack & a cup of tea at Rich's house, and then set off back to Guildford.

There has been some debate within the team about the length of lunchstops on the ride itself (some want to minimise them to 20 minutes or so so we get there faster & can rest more in the evening, and others think we should allow 60 minutes to allow us to rest, feed & digest properly en-route). It was interesting to observe therefore that we stopped for around 55 minutes; especially as we were at Rich's house, and Rich was towards the 20 minute end of the spectrum! It was also observed that one reason our stop was as long as it was was because we were waiting for Simon to complete a business phone-call: Simon was more towards the 60 minute end...

Anyway, far be it from me to stir up tensions within the team, so probably best not mention the length of our lunchstop if you happen to talk to anyone on the team....

After another 20 miles or so we stopped for an energy bar and took a look at John's chain which had been making some clicking noises. It looked as though one of the links was almost sheared, and we decided we needed to go back via a bike shop to get it looked at before the big ride tomorrow.

After about 80 miles John's knee (which had been niggling all day) began to get extremely painful. So the last 10 miles to the bike shop we had phoned were not at all comfortable for him. The good news was though that having been to the bike shop, they told him that the chain, front socket & rear socket were all "completely b*ll*x*ed". They did a temporary fix so he could do the ride tomorrow, but that it would need a proper repair. When they told him what this would cost, John got a good hour or so respite from his knee.

On returning to Guildford we were greeted by Val & Belle who had volunteered to help us with some stretches after our ride and cake cooked by Gilly. What a FANTASTIC way to finish a bike ride. The shoulder and leg stiffness that normally coincides with finishing a long ride were noticably improved by Val & Belle's attention, and the cake was delicious!! Thanks to them all!!

By this time, John's knee was sore again (or rather he had got used to the idea of the work necessary to his bike and noticed his knee again), and he had a long soak in the bath. Not looking good for a ride tomorrow.