Evening! Im writing this blog laid in bed with my feet up feeling the effects of a grueling 67 mile ride with Ben that was quite different to the one of last week!
The start of this blog replicates pretty much last weeks update. This week at work has yet again been a combination of driving (700miles not including Coventry) and pretty long days out with the team but all has ended pretty well with the team finishing No.1 on a period focus we have every month. On the back of this we have £400 to spend on a day out so will let you know how we get on and what we decide.
This weekend we had planned to do back to back long rides, this time down in Coventry at Bens. Ben has planned this route after doing several stages himself but not all at once. We were really proud of our ride, time and average speed but didnt want to led into a false sense of security as the ride we did last week, although 65 miles was relatively flat. The challenge Ben had set this early Sunday morning was a 67 mile route that took in the surronding countryside arou8nd Coventry, including Foss Road (the longest Roman built road in England).
The route Ben had done looked as follows:
1. BT Towers (approx 1-2 mile cycle to coombe abbey then clear countryside)
2. Brinklow village
3. Kings Newnham (short climb to a farm top)
4. Little Lawford road (fast rolling descent approx 1mile)
5. Harbourough Magna (steady queit rolling roads to the village)
6. Pailton (possibly via Easenhall back roads)
7. Monks Kirby (fast exit from Pailton 1mile stretch)
8. Claybrooke Parva/Magna (country back roads to villages in a loop)
9. The Fosse Way (Most famous Roman road in England! Runs all way to Bath)
10. Withybrook (mega country lanes rolling virtually never seen a car!)
11. Fosse Way
12. Bretford
13. Kings Newnham lower village = continue down to Church Lawford village
14. Cross and down to A45
15. Dunchurch
16. Draycote Water (Lunch stop 30-45mins?) X2 5mile loop velodrome style if we feel up to it to clock up the miles)
17. Draycote Water to Kites Hardwick
18. Leamington Hastings to Birdnigbury
19. Frankton to Streton on Dunsmore
20. Streton = Fosse Way
21 . Wolston
22. Binley Woods to Binley = Home to BT Towers
67 Miles
Summary of the Ride:
1/ 67 Miles done
2/ Average Speed of 16.9mph
3/ Completed in 4hrs
Credit to BT, the circuit we did was great. Great in the respect of it pushed us again to new limits and was quite different to last week. The roads were very quite, with some really challenging hills. My preparation going into this ride wasnt that good in terms of training and diet. For me the build up to any ride like this you have to be well prepared in both training and diet for the ride so you can reach your full potential. Once again I felt we worked really well together as a team in terms of taking the lead and the other in the slip stream for half a mile at a time. This ensured that at the more difficult areas and also the sections we could get ahead of ourselves, we did just that.
The wind played a major part in the ride as well. It was very windy in places, no more so than at Dracote Water. What a beautiful this is. A 5 mile cirucit of this against the wind at full pace (after 45 miles) was a real test of both our legs. By the end of it we were both ready for the bacon and egg sandwich that awaitied us!
Another learning from the ride today was that on race day we must try and limit our stops to only toilet ones. In your mind sometimes all you want to do is stop and have a break but in practice, when we did this for 10 mins we would seize up quite quickly and it would then take us a couple of miles to get back in the rythmn.
Overall, a really enjoyable ride and with 2 weeks to go one which we both really needed.
Objectives for the next two weeks are:
Light training every night this week (minimum of 20 mins on the turbo) and light wieghts.
Big ride at the weekend at some point (70 miles)
The week after will be one of taking it easy with just maybe a couple of 20 mins cycle to keep the legs stretched and ticking over.
PS. Ben G - Thanks for letting me borrow your Trek over the last few weeks. Although the frame might be a little too small i just love the bike and feel I can just keep pushing and pushing. I promise to look at getting one soon!
Other great news is that BT and Anoushka are having a baby girl in about 7 weeks. Congratulations, cant wait for you to join the world of parenting!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment