Velvet
Sunday being the designated 'cycle for hours to make a
multitude of body parts complain' day, we did the great
thing of finding out where the local CTC's tea stop would
be, planning our own route there, meeting up for a good nosh
and bit of chatter, and then limping home again.
Will *try* and keep it brief... As usual, what I refer to as
hills you might think are pimples or mountains, depending -
keep your views on that *firmly* to yourself ;-P
Headed out to 6 mile bottom again, in slightly windy but
bright sunny weather, but only once we'd straightened my
front mudguard (very necessary given the lack of
clearance on it!)
Fairly hard work initially till my legs/body had warmed up,
but noted small hill was considerably easier work than
previous, and a short small climb in one of the Wilbrahams
went virtually unnoticed (Yay!)
Cars tended to pass by pulling out too late - some were only
barely pulling out as they passed my back wheel, we (two)
were cycling further apart this time (I get to see the
potholes a bit earlier that way!) and I wonder if that had
something to do with it - driver miscalculation on when to
start pulling out based on two cyclists with a gap (not big
enough to slot back into) rather than two cyclists with very
small gap, ie nearly one cyclist... But there were others
that passed properly, so not all bad.
Six mile bottom was reached fairly quickly (or so it felt -
hard to believe that was a major acheivement involving
several rest stops a couple of years ago) and we crossed
over and up long climb to brinkley. Always a killer on my
legs, last time I managed to just get up it in lowest gear -
same this time except once round the slight corner and at
the top of that part of the climh I stopped to let the legs
recover, having ended up in the burning-leg zone of things,
and then had another mild bout of being unable to breathe,
feeling very faint, etc.
This time I actually thought to look at the heart rate
monitor I was wearing and discovered a reason for this...
I'd felt tired but ok on initially stopping, the faintness
etc kicked in a few seconds later - my heart rate had gone
from 176 on the climb to 100 in less than a minute, suddenly
the way I was feeling made loads of sense... so this is
something to investigate - it didn't happen again in the
ride, despite getting the heart rate way up there again, but
for shorter stints perhaps.
Continued with small descent then another climb to Brinkley,
then along to Carlton. My recollections of the ups and downs
from this point get a bit sketchy, cos I've not shoved the
data into the PC yet from the HRM. I remember it as being
fairly constant around the 100m mark, but some rolling
up/down parts to it.
Then it was on to West Wickham (I think), Shudy Camps,
Castle Camps (more hills) the legs were getting tired by
now, but quite pleased that they didn't fill up with lactic
acid for a lot of the climbs that previously would have
killed them and ended up with me walking up them.
T'other half made my day by exclaiming with some suprise
after a quick stop for a drink, that my calf muscles were
really quite visible. This is quite an achievement, given
the amount of flab, and proves the muscles I've been
discovering on my thighs aren't just all in the mind!
However, as we set off again, my inner thigh suddenly ached,
and though I pedalled on for a bit, with it not improving
and an inability to put any power through it (gosh, cycling
one-legged's not as hard as I thought it would be) a quick
stop and prod and poke decided me I had cramp (normally this
is in calves and utterly agonising). More squeezing and
poking and I told my body it would just have to live with it
and set off again, hoping gentle use while the other leg did
most of the work would help loosen it up again.
Rain was threatening - I could smell it in the air and the
clouds looked ominous, and I *HATE* cycling in the rain -
I've only done it once, and it was possibly one of the worst
rides I'd done to date - pedals like ice with wet shoes. It
managed to hold off though, and we arrived (much looked
forward to) Helions Bumpstead, and tea at the Three
Horseshoes with the others from the CTC rides. Fantastic tea
there, too. Sarnies, and the all important cake. YUM!
And the heavens opened. It rained. And rained. And got
brighter. And rained some more. And while I was very glad to
be inside, my thoughts were on slippery wet roads, pedals
like ice, and the thought of cycling home in the rain for 23
miles - which was NOT in the least bit appealing.
Eventually it stopped, and we headed out (quite some time
after the CTC left) - only for me to get a puncture a mile
down the road. I think I picked it up at the pub, or just as
we left - and I wasn't the only one, someone from the CTC on
a recumbent got one in the pub carpark too!
New tube on, brakes sorted out, and we were off again, via a
slightly different route - past the Camps, along to Bartlow,
climb up to West Wratting, then heading down toward Six Mile
bottom again.
This has to be the hardest bit of the entire ride (West
Wratting/6 mile bottom). The wind was strong and gusting,
and I'm not experienced at all in cycling in wind.
Hedgerows and trees gave a little shelter, but made it
worse when the wind found a way over/through/under/around
and a sudden gust blasted you sideways. Very hard going
even though it wasn't a headwind - I could have cycled
faster but the unpredicability of the wind pushing me
sideways wasn't pleasant. I made the decision to cycle in
the centre of the 'car' lane of the road, rather than my
more customary left-wheel-track sort of position - any cars
would just have to put up with that and overtake more
carefully, I decided, given the wind.
And then the rain started. Did I say I hated cycling in
rain?
It's actually not so bad. Yes, it was cold, my legs found it
a lot harder going once they were cold (wish I'd taken my
waterproof leggings), and they got to the burny phase at a
lot lower heart rate (another interesting discovery). I was
snug and warm inside my jacket - they're right when they say
you just need to be dressed right to be comfortable in the
rain, and I NEVER thought I'd agree with that. The rain's
bloody noisy on both helmet and jacket. Helmet helped keep
me dry. Gets harder to see with rain on your glasses, and
rain (as with flies) has a habit of getting into the
eyeballs over the top of the specs somehow. Was very aware
that roads might be slippery, so careful not to do sudden
little swerves around things, and braking was a good deal
less effective (and it's always been hard work to stop my
bike). Luckily the roads didn't end up awash with water.
6 mile bottom afforded some shelter and the rain soon
cleared up, bright sunshine on rain-dropped glasses made
things interesting for a while :-) By the wilbrahams I'd
overheated and was wetter on the inside of the jacket than
the outside, so that got stuffed in t'other half's pannier
(purely cos it was quicker than re-folding and wedging back
on my bike, honest!). Then I quickly realised it was a lot
chillier than I'd thought from inside my snug jacket, but no
way I was stopping again to faff with it, I decided I'd just
have to cycle faster to stay warm. So nice to be able to
decide that and have half a chance of *doing* it!
Short climb up in fulbourn was still hard work but not
impossible, and then it was zipping along the bypass with a
tailwind (and me going 'wheeeee! Faster! faster!' to myself
in my daft brain) and home.
46 miles of very pleasant though somewhat challenging
cycling. And then I proceeded to ache a lot, get stiff, and
discover a blister on my bum :-)
Definitely getting faster - similar sorts of hills covered
to the last ride we did, and generally faster speed. Hills
aren't as imposisble as they used to be. Still not quite up
to the level of the London to Cambridge bike ride, which is
coming up fast, but more and more happy that I'll manage to
get to the end of that (as long as it's not pouring with
rain or a stiff headwind) at an albeit slowish pace.
Can't help wondering why I didn't manage to get to this
stage two years ago, but I have to keep reminding myself
that in the two years I've made a lot of changes to the bike
to get it to fit me better, and until I'd done that the
confidence just wasn't there, and with no confidence there
was precious little in the way of enjoyment either.
--
Velvet
multitude of body parts complain' day, we did the great
thing of finding out where the local CTC's tea stop would
be, planning our own route there, meeting up for a good nosh
and bit of chatter, and then limping home again.
Will *try* and keep it brief... As usual, what I refer to as
hills you might think are pimples or mountains, depending -
keep your views on that *firmly* to yourself ;-P
Headed out to 6 mile bottom again, in slightly windy but
bright sunny weather, but only once we'd straightened my
front mudguard (very necessary given the lack of
clearance on it!)
Fairly hard work initially till my legs/body had warmed up,
but noted small hill was considerably easier work than
previous, and a short small climb in one of the Wilbrahams
went virtually unnoticed (Yay!)
Cars tended to pass by pulling out too late - some were only
barely pulling out as they passed my back wheel, we (two)
were cycling further apart this time (I get to see the
potholes a bit earlier that way!) and I wonder if that had
something to do with it - driver miscalculation on when to
start pulling out based on two cyclists with a gap (not big
enough to slot back into) rather than two cyclists with very
small gap, ie nearly one cyclist... But there were others
that passed properly, so not all bad.
Six mile bottom was reached fairly quickly (or so it felt -
hard to believe that was a major acheivement involving
several rest stops a couple of years ago) and we crossed
over and up long climb to brinkley. Always a killer on my
legs, last time I managed to just get up it in lowest gear -
same this time except once round the slight corner and at
the top of that part of the climh I stopped to let the legs
recover, having ended up in the burning-leg zone of things,
and then had another mild bout of being unable to breathe,
feeling very faint, etc.
This time I actually thought to look at the heart rate
monitor I was wearing and discovered a reason for this...
I'd felt tired but ok on initially stopping, the faintness
etc kicked in a few seconds later - my heart rate had gone
from 176 on the climb to 100 in less than a minute, suddenly
the way I was feeling made loads of sense... so this is
something to investigate - it didn't happen again in the
ride, despite getting the heart rate way up there again, but
for shorter stints perhaps.
Continued with small descent then another climb to Brinkley,
then along to Carlton. My recollections of the ups and downs
from this point get a bit sketchy, cos I've not shoved the
data into the PC yet from the HRM. I remember it as being
fairly constant around the 100m mark, but some rolling
up/down parts to it.
Then it was on to West Wickham (I think), Shudy Camps,
Castle Camps (more hills) the legs were getting tired by
now, but quite pleased that they didn't fill up with lactic
acid for a lot of the climbs that previously would have
killed them and ended up with me walking up them.
T'other half made my day by exclaiming with some suprise
after a quick stop for a drink, that my calf muscles were
really quite visible. This is quite an achievement, given
the amount of flab, and proves the muscles I've been
discovering on my thighs aren't just all in the mind!
However, as we set off again, my inner thigh suddenly ached,
and though I pedalled on for a bit, with it not improving
and an inability to put any power through it (gosh, cycling
one-legged's not as hard as I thought it would be) a quick
stop and prod and poke decided me I had cramp (normally this
is in calves and utterly agonising). More squeezing and
poking and I told my body it would just have to live with it
and set off again, hoping gentle use while the other leg did
most of the work would help loosen it up again.
Rain was threatening - I could smell it in the air and the
clouds looked ominous, and I *HATE* cycling in the rain -
I've only done it once, and it was possibly one of the worst
rides I'd done to date - pedals like ice with wet shoes. It
managed to hold off though, and we arrived (much looked
forward to) Helions Bumpstead, and tea at the Three
Horseshoes with the others from the CTC rides. Fantastic tea
there, too. Sarnies, and the all important cake. YUM!
And the heavens opened. It rained. And rained. And got
brighter. And rained some more. And while I was very glad to
be inside, my thoughts were on slippery wet roads, pedals
like ice, and the thought of cycling home in the rain for 23
miles - which was NOT in the least bit appealing.
Eventually it stopped, and we headed out (quite some time
after the CTC left) - only for me to get a puncture a mile
down the road. I think I picked it up at the pub, or just as
we left - and I wasn't the only one, someone from the CTC on
a recumbent got one in the pub carpark too!
New tube on, brakes sorted out, and we were off again, via a
slightly different route - past the Camps, along to Bartlow,
climb up to West Wratting, then heading down toward Six Mile
bottom again.
This has to be the hardest bit of the entire ride (West
Wratting/6 mile bottom). The wind was strong and gusting,
and I'm not experienced at all in cycling in wind.
Hedgerows and trees gave a little shelter, but made it
worse when the wind found a way over/through/under/around
and a sudden gust blasted you sideways. Very hard going
even though it wasn't a headwind - I could have cycled
faster but the unpredicability of the wind pushing me
sideways wasn't pleasant. I made the decision to cycle in
the centre of the 'car' lane of the road, rather than my
more customary left-wheel-track sort of position - any cars
would just have to put up with that and overtake more
carefully, I decided, given the wind.
And then the rain started. Did I say I hated cycling in
rain?
It's actually not so bad. Yes, it was cold, my legs found it
a lot harder going once they were cold (wish I'd taken my
waterproof leggings), and they got to the burny phase at a
lot lower heart rate (another interesting discovery). I was
snug and warm inside my jacket - they're right when they say
you just need to be dressed right to be comfortable in the
rain, and I NEVER thought I'd agree with that. The rain's
bloody noisy on both helmet and jacket. Helmet helped keep
me dry. Gets harder to see with rain on your glasses, and
rain (as with flies) has a habit of getting into the
eyeballs over the top of the specs somehow. Was very aware
that roads might be slippery, so careful not to do sudden
little swerves around things, and braking was a good deal
less effective (and it's always been hard work to stop my
bike). Luckily the roads didn't end up awash with water.
6 mile bottom afforded some shelter and the rain soon
cleared up, bright sunshine on rain-dropped glasses made
things interesting for a while :-) By the wilbrahams I'd
overheated and was wetter on the inside of the jacket than
the outside, so that got stuffed in t'other half's pannier
(purely cos it was quicker than re-folding and wedging back
on my bike, honest!). Then I quickly realised it was a lot
chillier than I'd thought from inside my snug jacket, but no
way I was stopping again to faff with it, I decided I'd just
have to cycle faster to stay warm. So nice to be able to
decide that and have half a chance of *doing* it!
Short climb up in fulbourn was still hard work but not
impossible, and then it was zipping along the bypass with a
tailwind (and me going 'wheeeee! Faster! faster!' to myself
in my daft brain) and home.
46 miles of very pleasant though somewhat challenging
cycling. And then I proceeded to ache a lot, get stiff, and
discover a blister on my bum :-)
Definitely getting faster - similar sorts of hills covered
to the last ride we did, and generally faster speed. Hills
aren't as imposisble as they used to be. Still not quite up
to the level of the London to Cambridge bike ride, which is
coming up fast, but more and more happy that I'll manage to
get to the end of that (as long as it's not pouring with
rain or a stiff headwind) at an albeit slowish pace.
Can't help wondering why I didn't manage to get to this
stage two years ago, but I have to keep reminding myself
that in the two years I've made a lot of changes to the bike
to get it to fit me better, and until I'd done that the
confidence just wasn't there, and with no confidence there
was precious little in the way of enjoyment either.
--
Velvet
