Brilliant couple of rides with this weekend.
I completed a 90km ride on Saturday with 2 category hill climbs (1) cat 4 and (1) cat 5. The ride started after about 10km with the cat 5 climb and that was a great way to get the body warm and settled in to the next few km's. I tried to consume a good amount of food whilst making this ride, but at the end of 90km, how can you consume 3000+ calories? This is a learning curve that dad and I will certainly need to consider whilst doing 90km+ during the Land's End to John O'Groats ride. It is highly likely that we will be burning this amount every day for 14 days so we do need to ensure that we are keeping the intake up. The weather on Saturday was essentially perfect with next to no wind and good light, with some brilliant sunny spells. 3hrs 40mins (roughly) with good breaks to complete this ride which is the first of its kind this year (2012). I will now aim to stretch my legs on this type of distance every weekend - rain or shine.
Today we (the wife (Lucie) and I) ventured out on a 45km ride on reasonably flat route, but great in terms of peddling time. Due to the flatness of the route where we cycled there was the need for continuous peddling, which was great. Lucie had the chance to extend the distance that she is used to. As I know to well, you can't just jump in to 100km+ you need to work up to it. Although I am used to long distances, the 14days of continuous cycling will certainly be a shock to the system. If I can train my body to be used to cycling (cycling legs or cycle fit) then Land's End to John O'Groats should not be too much of a shock. As the the first day approaches there are some nerves which are kicking in - I just hope everything will be okay.
I need to start looking on finalizing the route, finalizing the kit and ensure I am happy with everything. I do still need to purchase some new tops and some better padded shorts etc. I have also revamped the e2ecr website and this should hopefully now be the final one to run with. This will be updated as often as possible.
Please don't forget to donate: www.justgiving.com/e2ecr
Sunday, 11 March 2012
7 weeks to go
With now only 6 weeks to go and missing my post last week (so there are to be two posts tonight) there is a good amount to catch up on...
At the 7 weeks to go point I had completed two rides with load totaling 90km. However this was filled with probably the best combination of riding weather. The first 45km was in damp, but sunny and a slight head in places. It was also my first ever experience of carrying a load other than just a back pack. The panniers were awesome. I did decide to purchase the Altura Dryline 56 Panniers and it turned out last weekend was the perfect time to test them. I found the adjustment of the bags to fit and clip onto my rack, very easy and with no complications. I would most certainly recommend these panniers. To back up my reasoning its fair to say cycling in the damp but with the sun, you did ride through the odd puddle. Did my over night cloths or anything for that matter in the pannier become wet; no. My maiden voyage with panniers went with great success; even through a trickey one-way-system.
And so the ride home on the Sunday. wow. so the ride started immediately with rain, which is no issue - I'm not a fair weather cyclist. However I was not prepared for the fourth coming sleet and then the (out of the blue) thick heavy snow and massive drop in temperature. The snow, but particularly the drop in temperature really hit me hard. I had only taken spring and rain stuff with me, no snow/winter riding clothes. This was a massive mistake and its fair to say that Sunday's ride was a very big struggle.
The positive to come out of last weekends rides were the tests I put my newly purchased panniers through. They literately had all types of weather conditions thrown at them and I would certainly agree with other reviews I have read. ( Altura Dryline 56 Panniers ) Waterproof - yes. Large loads - definitely. Value for money - Yes (from Wiggle) They have a very large main compartment and then a small (not medium) area for bits 'n' bobs. They fastened nicely and kept all my belongings in perfect condition.
The lesson learnt from last weekend, take some winter gear with me just incase!
At the 7 weeks to go point I had completed two rides with load totaling 90km. However this was filled with probably the best combination of riding weather. The first 45km was in damp, but sunny and a slight head in places. It was also my first ever experience of carrying a load other than just a back pack. The panniers were awesome. I did decide to purchase the Altura Dryline 56 Panniers and it turned out last weekend was the perfect time to test them. I found the adjustment of the bags to fit and clip onto my rack, very easy and with no complications. I would most certainly recommend these panniers. To back up my reasoning its fair to say cycling in the damp but with the sun, you did ride through the odd puddle. Did my over night cloths or anything for that matter in the pannier become wet; no. My maiden voyage with panniers went with great success; even through a trickey one-way-system.
And so the ride home on the Sunday. wow. so the ride started immediately with rain, which is no issue - I'm not a fair weather cyclist. However I was not prepared for the fourth coming sleet and then the (out of the blue) thick heavy snow and massive drop in temperature. The snow, but particularly the drop in temperature really hit me hard. I had only taken spring and rain stuff with me, no snow/winter riding clothes. This was a massive mistake and its fair to say that Sunday's ride was a very big struggle.
The positive to come out of last weekends rides were the tests I put my newly purchased panniers through. They literately had all types of weather conditions thrown at them and I would certainly agree with other reviews I have read. ( Altura Dryline 56 Panniers ) Waterproof - yes. Large loads - definitely. Value for money - Yes (from Wiggle) They have a very large main compartment and then a small (not medium) area for bits 'n' bobs. They fastened nicely and kept all my belongings in perfect condition.
The lesson learnt from last weekend, take some winter gear with me just incase!
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