So went out today for the last proper training ride before the start of Ride for the 96 next Friday!
Will go out a couple of times in the week for rides of about an hour or so in length just to keep the legs moving but today was the last longer ride with some short hill intervals thrown in for good measure.
Feel good. Feel ready 
76.43 km in 3h:22m:25s using Endomondo.
Rested the knee for 5 days, and made some bike tweaks to saddle position and pedal cleats to get my knee tracking better with less lateral movement.
Intended to go out yesterday for a 40km ride to ease back into it but everything felt great and went twice that distance.
Feeling confident and ready for the ride.
78.26 km in 3h:11m:01s using Endomondo.
Out for a ride with Godric CC today.
Started getting some knee pain after about 20km, but not too bad. Stopped at a cafe around 40km and made some adjustments to saddle fore/aft position but to no avail – pain just kept getting worse. Thought I’d be able to ride it off as is often the case but nope. Left the group at 44k as they were heading back (in retrospect I should have gone with them). The last 35km were very painful (a good workout for my right leg though which had to do the lions share of the work.).
81.45 km in 3h:40m:42s using Endomondo.
Intended to do 100K today but it was hot when I left so I went back and took a few layers off. An hour into the ride it got cold and wet. Kept going for a while and the rain stopped but the temperature didn’t get any better. The harsh northerly wind didn’t help. Out again tomorrow with Godric CC for another training ride.
Aiming to do a few shorter rides in the week, followed by a 100 mile ride next weekend to finish off the training programme. Not long to go now!
69.19 km in 2h:53m:28s using Endomondo.
Great ride out to Gorleston today – cold and grey on the way out but sunny and warmer on the way back.
My Garmin completely reset itself at the cafe stop though and I lost the outward part of the route, and only captured the return leg which was 42.27 km – Endomondo Cycling Workout.
The full actual route we did is here: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/78083158
So despite the aching legs and tiredness, I broke the imperial century (100 miles) mark today for the first time. I rode 170km in all – thats 50km more than I’ve ever ridden before.
I felt pretty good for much of the way. Started off with my old Charge Spoon saddle but rode 100 metres and quickly realised why I hadn’t used it in a while so went home and put on the Specialized Romin Evo 155mm, which (due to the Body Geometry cut-out) felt great in the perineal area, but a little uncomfortable on the bruised sit bones. I persisted and felt the sit bone pain on and off throughout the ride, but never too bad.
The San Marco Regale is perfect on the sit bones, but even with a fair amount of forward tilt still puts a little too much pressure on the perineum. I really need some hybrid of the Romin and the Regale.
I chanced upon a restaurant/shop/cafe called Browns Kitchen (www.brownsfarmshop.com) at around 80km into the ride, and it was a great find! They make delicious fresh food. They didnt have any pasta on the menu, but had fresh pasta for sale in the shop and the owner (Mark) suggested the chef could cook me up something especially. Cue a delicious fresh pasta, tomato, pepper and pesto dish, accompanied by a mini loaf with a touch of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Winner. Its a bit far away from where I live but I definitely plan on going there to eat one evening and sampling some stuff from their menu.
As I set off a bit later than I planned – and because the Garmin took me down a couple of dead ends and some footpaths barely suitable for a mountain bike, let alone a road bike – with 30k to go I had to dig deep and pedal hard to make sure I got back before the sun went down. Really didn’t want to have to do that as I wanted my legs to be fresh for tomorrow, but I hammered them for that last while, and I can feel it now for sure.
Should really have had an ice bath when I got back but couldnt face it so opted for a very hot bath instead.
The garmin only recorded 164km as I forgot to start the timer again when I stopped for a pee at around 47km.
164 km in 7h:01m:18s using Endomondo.
Great training ride out this morning in glorious sunshine, and due to some pretty heavy carb loading the past few days, I felt fresh the whole 57k, and didn’t feel the need to refuel once throughout the distance. Considering I wasn’t really pushing too hard, was a pretty good pace too.
Think this was a good distance also considering my sit bone bruising – was just starting to feel a little discomfort toward the end.
57.16 km in 2h:19m:50s using Endomondo.
Just a gentle 78km solo ride today after yesterdays Audax.
Used the second of the saddles I have on test (A San Marco Reagale) and it was so much more comfortable than the saddle I used for yesterdays 110km (Fizik Kurve Snake).
Great ride out today with 3 other Godric cc members at the 110km Norfolk Mardle Audax event. Took it pretty slowly most of the way going at the pace of the slowest in the group, but didn’t make too bad time.
Would have been perfect but for three things:
1 – The weather was a bit pants (could have been worse though!)
2 – My right sit bone is still bruised and the saddle I was trying out today was quite uncomfortable
3 – at 108km I had a blazing row with an idiot car driver that almost ended in a punch up.
Steve and I were heading down back to the start/finish point around 1km away, and traffic slowed to almost standstill – 3 cars in a queue waiting for the first to turn right.
We started slowing down, ready to stop, and the driver of the car at the back decided to overtly swerve in towards the curb. If Steve had gone up on the inside (which he wasn’t doing, thankfully) he would have been taken out completely. I shouted and stuck my finger up at the guy. He returned the gesture, slammed his brakes on and got ready to get out of the car. I think he thought I’d just bottle it, but my blood was boiling and I was ready for a row, so I pulled right up to just behind his door. He opened it, and I just let rip on him. He looked like he really wanted to get out but I think he saw that I wasn’t gonna back down, and thought better of it.
I wouldn’t normally get into confrontations like that on the bike but he could have killed someone, and what he did was deliberate, so I couldn’t help but let him know what I thought of him.
Other than that little incident, had a great day
Kept it gentle for most of the way as I wanted to make sure I didn’t aggravate the pain at the back of my left knee that I was feeling after the 3 day B2B rides last weekend, and also because I was fiddling with th enavigation settings on the Garmin 800.
I pushed the pace the last 8km or so though.
39.62 km in 1h:44m:48s using Endomondo.
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