Rest Week

This week I've decided to take a rest from cycling - well not completely, but no long rides and no big efforts. The last few months have been full of hard work on the bike, mainly getting ready for the Aberdovey Bike Ride I did on the 17th June 2011 - before this blog began.

That was a corking ride - 300 cyclists riding from Wolverhampton to Aberdovey in Wales for charity. It was a mass start event with a full police escort out of Wolverhampton, a big thank you goes out to West Midlands Police for that.

There was a choice of 2 rides, 100miles and 125miles. The longer route took in the climb at Dina Mawddwy towards the end. I started the day at the back of the group - some colleagues from work were doing this ride and I started near to them. However, I quickly made some ground through the throng and got towards the front as we went through a village called Shifnal. I then hooked up with a group of 10 riders that seemed to be about the same standard as me and we made some good progress - hitting some really good speeds along the road from Telford to Shrewsbury.

The group remained together all the way to the turn for Dinas. I would have liked to do it - but, I didn't consider myself fit enough despite feeling really strong on the ride, and, Tracey (my long suffering wife) was acting as support and she was working nights so we had to get home as soon as possible. So, four of us carried on along the short (short - I ask you, who decided to call it that?) route.

The last 9 miles were hard, I'd say the hardest of the day, with several climbs at a grade of 7% or more and on the one we dropped one young lad. I'd already waited for him a few times and bridged him back to the group but this time, and with the finish so near, I decided to press on. I was riding with the hubby of Vanessa from work, Tony is his name and for a 47 year old chap he was amazing. On the descents and the flat he was perfectly able to match our speed and only on a couple of the climbs did I need to bridge him back. We'd ridden together all the way so we decided to finish together, Tony and I crossed the line in 5th and 6th spots out of the folks that did the 100 mile route and with a time of 5:17 hours.

It was a brilliant day, really well organised and the atmosphere was great. My colleagues from work all finished, no mean feat when you consider that they were all non-cyclists and had only trained for this for about 4 or 5 months. Well done lads.

Here is the Endomondo route.

As for this week, I've done one ride so far in wonderful weather but I couldn't stop to enjoy it as I had a fearful appointment at the dentist. I finished the day washing the car and dribbling all over the place!

Here is the Endomondo route for that.

I'm going to try to get out later in the week but I need to service my machine more as next week is AUSTRIA fortnight.......yay. I bet is pisses down all the bloody time!

I'll do my best to keep you updated on both the weather and my weight loss achievements....which are negative this week!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for reading this far.

Rich