Friend & former colleague on my recent cycling exploits. He's been no
slouch in the past, having done the Cambridge->London->Cambridge round
trip with me a few times (he pulled out the day before this year, due
to a hangover). However, taking it to the level of doing a 300 this
coming Saturday (and the general number of miles, DD, 200ks, etc)
prompted the comment.
Well, have I? :-)
I expect to be pretty well exhausted at the end of the ride. It'll be
my first, but I take heart from the fact that after my first 200k (the
Fenland Flight) back in April I felt like that, but after the Tan Hill
200k I actually felt pretty normal. I will probably find it a harder
step than that 200k was, though. Having said that, I'd not done as
much as I would have liked upto that point - and only managed 1300
miles in the whole of 2005 - so I did not have a great deal under my
belt, and only had one afternoon ride of 55 miles done since the start
of the year when, at 2 weeks to go, I agreed to enter. I rode home
from work the long way round a few times in that 2 weeks, never doing
more than 35 miles in a day in the process. I wasn't able to do a
decent weekend ride the weekend before, and instead ended up staying up
til 6.30 am at a party - hardly ideal prep! So it was a big step, in
the context of the training I'd done, even if I had done 110 miles in a
day in the past.
This week, I'm being a bit more careful. I did 100 miles again on
Sunday with the CTC group. Had a rest day on monday, and am limiting
my pace this week on the commutes and errands, so I can have nice big
glycogen stores. As if by magic, my weight has dropped a bit after
refusing to do so (no-one thinks I need to lose weight, but I *know* I
went up hills better as a 9.5st cyclist than I do as an 11.5st one) for
some time, now I'm about 11st3 in the mornings. I'd like to be back to
10st7. I've given the new bike a thorough cleaning, and bought a huge
pile of energy bars.
All being well, if I pace myself, I should be OK. I will make sure and
write up my experiences on the day. I will try to set off in the
peloton this time so I can sit at the back and conserve energy in the
first few 10s of kms. Hopefully. They might hare off, which I won't
want to do.
I know one or two other urc-ers will be there; I'll try to say hello.
Simon
PS I think he's right. I keep thinking "PBP".