Sunday morning saw me line up in the supermarket car park with the guys from The Crowborough Mountain Bike Collective (http://www.daysofspeed.com/) and Mike Pettit guided us on a spin through Harrison Rocks, Eridge Woods, Broadwater Forest, High Rocks and into the pantiles in Tunbridge Wells for breakfast. One latte later, we were off through Hungershall Park, back through High Rocks and Eridge Rocks (below).
Then off towards Rotherfield on tarmac, before a tour of Hornshurst, Limekiln and back to Crowborough. About 27 miles with a reasonable amount of work involved, but the conditions were quite dry, I didn't get my legs ripped off and they said it was a much better pace than previous weeks. I think they were trying to make me feel better.
Tonight was the last chance of a road blast and, as suspected, the legs were heavy and any thoughts of a fast lap soon vanished. A concerted effort was rewarded with 31 minutes, which equals my best time anyway !
A couple of days away working next, but will take a bike, just in case! I wasn't sure whether I would get the chance to ride. Heavy rain was forecast, so I opted to take the Giant because I have done the last bike clean before Colorado and didn't want the girls getting rusty while I am away.
Things fell into place and I hatched a plan to ride on Snowdon after work on Tuesday. I pulled into Llanberis at 19:00 after a '450 mile / one appointment' day and surveyed the options. Maybe I should have thought this through a bit more .. I brought a hardtail so I could hike-a-bike if necessary but brought the rigid shoes - not good on slick, damp rock.
The Llanberis path starts with an unnecessarily steep tarmac road, straight from the car park, so I opted for the five mile road grind up the Llanberis Pass to the Pen y Gwyrd YHA instead.
Then it was off road on the (newly re-furbished) Miner's track up past Llyn Llydaw, the old Melin Falu crushing mill and onto the steeper, looser, rockier bit. Running out of light and always conscious of being on my own and not doing anything too stupid, I opted for a hill climb session and decided to have one go at how far I could get up the steeper path to Llyn Glaslyn. I made about 150 yards and only fell due to lack of concentration - so the gradual improvement continues. 
The return trip was faster than anticipated and was able to rip and hop my way down to the road in a few minutes with a little help from some vintage Doobie Brothers. Back in Llanberis about twenty minutes later, I had an urge to cycle up that tarmac at the bottom of the Llanberis path too, so I turned left at the Victoria Hotel and prepared for an extra mile of pain. I selected le granny, Faithless on the iRiver and set off. I made it, but with some discomfort I will admit, but at no stage was going to be defeated, despite having my nose on the front tyre and the front tyre off the ground a few times. That will be the last exercise before Colorado then ... I wonder if my 20 mile round trip with 2000 feet of climbing has helped in my build up to the assault on Colorado's Monarch Crest Trail next week ? We'll see. Later :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment