On last night's 3 hr ride (to the bus lanes and beyond) I took a 1 litre
bottle of squash and headed out east for 10 miles and found alarmingly that
I had used all of the drink after only 5 miles or so due to the hot sun
which I hadn't allowed for. I also foolishly had no money or card with me
and started to get a headache. Probably psychological; I also have this
trait whereby if I know there is some paracetamol in the house the headache
I can feel coming on goes away and yet if there's none it gets worse - isn't
that funny?
I thought about mentally scanning the locals pubs for ones with outside loos
(they still exist here you know) but didn't fancy drinking from that source,
so it was off home on reduced power.
Suitably chastened I loaded up with two bottles, two bananas and those
fantastic moist and chewy "dried" fruits you can get in Lidl and headed out
again. After about 2.5 hours and listening to 1970s German synth music (how
did Klaus Schulze fit his 32 min long tracks on one side of an old vinyl
album?) I suddenly hit this most amazing zone where on the flat (with a 15
mph back wind admittedly) I could ride at 30 mph for about 5 minutes.
It takes hours to reach that perfect zone, but boy when it happens it's a
great feeling, if you could can it and sell it you'd make a fortune.
10 minutes afterwards I was pig sick, tired and bored and went home for a
beer.
--
Simon Mason
Anlaby
East Yorkshire.
53°44'N 0°26'W
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net