Met up with the Quest riders this morning, and embarked on a pretty gruelling ride, but we will get to that in a bit. Met a very nice Lady who "recognised me from somewhere"......turns out she used to be in the Royal Navy too, and we were based at HMS Dryad at the same time. Small world.
Also caught up with Deadly Dave, who is a sterling chap; very knowledgable on the various trails the South Downs (SD) have to offer and deceptively quick up hill. I hadn't seen him in a few months, (and he has since take the look of an Antarctic explorer) but we got on well and are going to be doing some more endurance runs in the next few weeks and months.
Anyway, the ride was excellent - but unexpectedly very cold on the SD. "Unexpected!?" I hear you cry. "Have you not seen that the UK is under 26.3ft of snow? FOOL?". I have, but here in Worthing we have an unusual Microclimate, as we have the sea to the South, the River Adur to the West, The SD to the North and another river to the East.
Apparently, this means that the temp in Worthing is generally slightly higher than our Neighbours, such as the peasants in Brighton, who have no doubt spent the week snowed in singing and writing poetry.
Anyway after that thrilling interlude, don't just take my word for it I have pictures. The 1st hill nearly killed me, but as I warmed up I got a good Ready Brek glow going on and managed to hold a pretty good pace on the flat. My achilles heel, and the absolute key to success on the randonnee is my performance uphill. Shut it Capel.
I was averaging 3.3mph on some of the climbs, which is walking pace so I need to learn to love hills. The last 35Miles of the run are the miles with the big climbs so I need to improve my general fitness and stamina to be able to mash this up.
We covered around 17 miles today, at an ave speed of 6.5mph, which is OK. If you recall my target ave is 10mph, but at least in know now what that pace feels like and I have a good run under my belt.
El Steederino performed very well, but is booked into Quest for a service on Tuesday. The rear brake needs adjusting, lateral movement on the rear wheel, the top cog in bent so I have lost 5 gears and needs an all round tweak.
I am a little knackered and my homemade Lucozade Isotonic (Salt, Sugar, Ribena and 3 litres of water has made bad magic in the stomach and now pints of boiling hot magma come from my bottom.
Roll on Saturday, next ride in anger, but until then I will be doing general fitness activities. You sometimes forget how beautiful this country can be...
Will let you know how I go.
Rock on.
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hmmm...Chardo + "uphill riding" = pints of boiling hot magma come from bottom.
ReplyDeleteSeriously?...dude?...first the pink flightsuit, now this...your poor, poor wife.
All kidding aside, Keep on trucking, you big ole..ummm...trucker, you. You can do this.
What's with the sudden influx of monkeys?
ReplyDeleteThe photo of deadly dave reminded me that all you Euros, haha I can say that now, drive tiny little hatchbacks. I think my car would eat that car.
Not a sudden influx, young Space Monkey. I do believe that Drunken Monkey out ranks you. And yes most of us Euros do drive little hatchbacks or diesels. That I why I can point my finger at your American ass and blame you and your Chevys for the waterlogging my garden has recently recieved.
ReplyDeleteYup...This monkeys been around the block a few times and, like, TOTALLY out ranks, young man (see, you'll always be the ankle biter who kept trying to nick my TMNT and Punisher comics and not the hard arsed US Marine sniping nutjob you grew up into..)
ReplyDeleteAlso, My car's pretty huge. It's not "Texas big", sure..but it's the size of a small van.
Mostly cos it is a small van.
But with windows.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Hope this weekends ride out is a good one, dude.
ReplyDelete