Immediately next … once I got past the biomechanical issues, back out with some club members for a 50 mile ride to test out a route (it passed). Club 100 mile ride tomorrow. Ride Across Britain in about 5 weeks.
LEL DNF
Things learnt:
- Stuff happens. In this case, a medical issue I had no control over and which would probably have caused me significant injury if I had continued. Sometimes you just have to call it.
- Carry food. Even if the controls are supposed to be able to feed you, things do not always go accordingly to plan (two controls have run out of their planned food already – and that's before anyone gets there southbound)
- Test everything completely. I did the first stage from a routesheet because the gps file somehow didn't make it onto my account – I suspect it got deleted by mistake when I updated another file.
- Don't try and fix a valve problem on a tube, just replace the tube immediately – although that second tube also went flat overnight, damnit
- Don't forget your buff. A door frequently opening into a well-lit corridor does not help sleep
- Market Rasen station has a track crossing to get from one platform to the other. I didn't think those existed in the UK any more!
I think it’s ready … not sure I am
Bike, luggage, kit generally sorted …now I just need to sleep and get over the nerves.
Now to taper …
The training is done. Last ride – which was more of a spin – was today with my cycling club (who most likely had forgotten my existence, as I’ve been off doing longer rides etc in training). 62.5 miles, to get it to the Rapha #womens100 ride as well.
Attempted DIY 400k = 360k
Almost, but not quite – I would have kept going out if it was an event, but it wasn’t and so I didn’t.
I thought it would be a useful testing ground for a few things, and so it proved – although some of the things tested were unexpected.
It’s all in the details
Details, and some more details, and things like that – I’ve been amusing myself by tweaking parts of the bike. Besides cycling, I also tend to take photographs (theatre productions, landscapes, architecture, random stuff) and I came across these headset spacers in the form of lens rings … which led to an ongoing quest to see how many bike parts I could find, in the form of camera parts.
Random kit update
Socks: not always the most interesting thing in the world, but some are better than others. I’ve basically settled on Kalf mid-length (ankle, in other words) reflective socks.
Ride high, ride long(ish)
Settling into a sigh of relief – Coast to Coast in a day has been done and done in a near-identical time to last time (which was three years ago and 10 kg less). So my fitness isn’t as under-trained as I’d thought it might be – the ride is 150 miles and 11,000ft climbing (not entirely evenly spread). That’s a lot more climbing than on any stage of LEL.
… still noodling & experimenting
As ever, work gets in the way – and I felt lousy through last weekend so decided that sanity dictated some rest. A pub ride this week dispelled some lingering paranoia that all fitness might have disappeared.
Skewers and the devil
Skewers have arrived. Wheels will be sorted … any day now. Just need some time.
Last weekend’s long ride was the London Ditchling Devil, at 204km with 8000ft of climbing (yes, yes, I should do that in metres … but the feet go by faster!). I finished about an hour earlier than I had anticipated, which I’m thrilled by – the overall elevation gain is approximately the same as the hardest stage of LEL, so that’s a reasonable test (and the hills are harder/steeper than on LEL).
Still amused by the number of other cyclists who find it amazing that I ride alone, and tend to say that they couldn’t … I find it difficult to ride with others, worrying that I slow them up! And I also don’t much like taking breaks (see the title of this blog …!), preferring to plod on.