Friday 9 July 2010

Grrrrr

ROUTE

50+ hilly miles with an average of 20mph has been my aim the past couple of months but my extended, fast commutes have always tired me out for my target ride on my days off work. I thought Id give it another go even if I am no where near my best and have resorted to eating all sorts to keep the energy up. Carbs, sweets, good stuff ( salmon, tuna veggies), bad stuff ( pies burgers chips) and lots of it all.

Same ol' wind present which has been blighting this country recently and changes direction every few hours. I noticed on the weather maps on tv that the pattern it follows is usually a circular one as in swirly so you're constantly fighting it.

Going quite strong up the climbs even though I've barred myself from standing up. Sometimes I just can't resist and need to give myself a big slap. Edenfield road is a deceptive climb as I always think I should be going faster than I actually am, struggle maintain 10mph all the way up. Bacup/Tod road which climbs to 1300ft seems alot easier in comparison but it doesn't look like it on the maps. Can usually maintain 12mph and deffo try not to go under 10. Performance was fine, 20.5mph average at the half way point but traffic was bad in Todmoreden and Hebden bridge which slowed me down considerably. Difficult to overtake as the village roads are tiny especially with heavy traffic on the other side too.

Next climb was Cragg Vale and I did it all sitting down. Im doing a lot of sitting down pedalling as Im concentrating on my time trialling technique which at the moment isn't yielding as much power as I would like but it is getting better. Wind was blasting in my face all the way back home but my averages up Cragg were quite good. Just the exposed couple of km's near the top let me down. My average was dropping all the way home even though its generally downhill and I was pushing very hard. I wasn't going to reach my target today but I gave it a good shot, the state of my legs can tell you that.

Average 19.5mph
Ascent 4000ft
Distance 52miles


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