I've just got home from a most enjoyable morning's cycling,
bathed in glorious spring sunshine. I went and joined up
with the local club for their Sunday morning training run.
They split into two groups - those in serious training do 70
miles at an average 20mph, but the mere thought of that is
terrifying so I joined the shorter, non-serious group to do
35 miles at 14mph.
Actually, it turned out to be closer to 17mph, so I feel
like I've had quite a workout - especially when you take
into account the getting there and back part of the outing,
which means I've done a total of 56 miles this morning - add
in the 40 I did yesterday and I call that a pretty good
weekend's cycling. I might go out later and do a five-miler
just to round up the total.
It was quite an eye-opener, in many ways. Of course,
everyone (except me) was on lightweight road bikes but the
condition of some of them was quite astonishing - one of the
club members is an ex-pro and his bike (judging by the
fleeting glimpse I got of it as it flew past) seemed to be
in immaculate condition, but some of the rest looked
surprisingly grotty - frames splattered all over with mud
and chains caked in thick layers of black grime. I had
previously imagined that any serious racing cyclist would be
meticulous about keeping their bike clean, especially the
chain, but apparently not. Since learning a few little bits
and pieces about bike maintenance, I have been quite well
disciplined about keeping my bike clean and I notice the
difference in performance even at the relatively meagre
speeds I do - surely the difference to a racer would be
hugely magnified?
I also proved a couple of old adages today: "It's not the
bike that counts but the rider." There was me on my clunky,
ancient, non-STI, ten-speed Raleigh with fat Schwalbe
Marathon tyres, and I had hardly any trouble keeping up with
the chap on his rather lean-looking road bike equipped with
full Dura Ace, Mavic Cosmos and slick racing tyres. That was
very satisfying - though as it was a training run rather
than a race it probably doesn't count for anything, and I
expect he could have dropped me easily if it mattered.
"It's more fun and easier to cycle in a group." I would be
very hard pushed to do a 35 mile run at 17mph on my own, but
having a few people to keep up with really gives you an
incentive to keep going, as well as being very useful when
cycling into headwinds, and it adds an enjoyable social
element to the ride. I'm really keen to get into Audax and
I've been under the impression that I'm not in any kind of
shape to manage even a short event, but I'm now coming round
to the idea that I'm not that far off being able to manage a
150k event, or maybe even further.
Anyway, as I said at the start of this long ramble, it's
been a most enjoyable morning's cycling and that's what
really counts.
d.