Distance: 84.07km
Time: 3:08:12
Avg Speed: 26.8km/h
Max Speed: 63.8km/h
Calorie: 3229
Avg HR: 145bpm
Max HR: 181bpm
Ascent: 920m
Goals for this ride were to cover a metric at as close to midweek pace as possible, eat and drink well on the ride. On the whole it went well. The knee gets better every ride, it was over 60km today before I noticed it and even then it wasn't painful in anyway. I've invested in some chamois cream to smear on before riding. This kept me comfortable in the saddle for over 70km. It might just be a jar of glorified nappy-rash creme, but it was £8 well-spent.
I was almost home when I took my eyes of the road to fumble around with an energy bar. In my periphery I thought there was some debris from a tree across the road. This turned out to be a piece of scrap metal that sliced clean through the carcass of my rear tyre and brought me to an abrupt halt. It was quickly apparent that it was beyond the scope of replacing the inner tube with the spare, so I called Long Suffering WIfe to come get me. It did make me wonder what I would have done if I was out in the hills, because I could have ended up with a five mile walk to the nearest village for a rendez-vous.
Next ride is the 100km IoW Randonee. Thereafter I'm going to have to try find the time to start riding 100 miles every other weekend. It's difficult to fit a 7 hour ride into the weekend while spending quality time with the family. I'll probably have to head-on out at 5 or 6am to make the most of the early light.
Sunday Blow-out at EveryTrailMap created by EveryTrail:Share GPS tracks
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4 comments:
Hi
Really pleased to find your blog mate. I am a first time Etapiste this year too and getting anxious...
I am getting about 400-500k in per month, but and conscious I haven't got anywhere near enough climbs where I live (Oxford).
Your blog is an inspiration!
Climbs are a real problem. Around here the best ones last maybe 2km which is not comparible to the two 15km+ climbs on the day.
Good luck with the training :)
I don't know about you but I seem to flip wildly from being fairly optimistic about finishing the Etape some days, to other days when I feel I haven't got a cat in hell's chance.
Having never done a sportive before, it's almost impossible to visualise how hard it's going to be.
I am getting in about 130km per week, usually with one long ride at the weekend. A couple of weeks ago, i did 122km and felt pretty much fine. That was an "Etape good day" - hey, you can do this!
But yesterday, I went out and did just 84km (it started raining half way through) and it felt really hard coming back and I seemed to be hurting all over. I got depressed (an Etape bad day) and wondered if I should even have entered...
:-(
YOu have to try 'Boudreaux's Butt Paste' mate its just great:
nappy rash
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