Week six - Saturday

Another day training with the husband on Saturday. He is doing London – Brighton in just 2 weeks. This is approximately 54 miles. He was keen to do a long ride so we flicked through the ‘Cycling in South Northants’ booklet and decided on Route 7. We added on riding to Brackley which we knew would increase the length by about 10 miles. The instructions in the booklet are excellent and we had no problem following the route despite it taking in roads we were not familiar with.

 We set off at about 10:30am with the husband feeling rather ropey. I felt great and regularly had to slow down for him to catch up. He had a nasty headache and was suffering from hay fever. He was determined to get through it though as if he wakes up feeling rubbish on the day of his sportive he will need to do the ride anyway. As the ride went on, he felt better and found the going easier. 

Hilly!

 We had several brief snack stops enjoying lumps of salami and Haribo. We were headed for Canons Ashby which has a fantastic café. I had stopped there once before and knew they were very welcoming to cyclists and had really nice cake! We reached the café and enjoyed our break then continued. 

Cake time

 We stopped again a little later to eat some lunch which unfortunately is where it started to go a bit wrong for me! The pasty I had really didn’t sit right. I felt nauseous for the rest of the ride. This was not helped by the fact the end of the ride felt really hilly. I found the last few miles incredibly difficult and by the time we reached Brackley and had another short break I was shaky and feeling generally rubbish. 

 We soldiered on though and rode the rest of the way home. By the end we had conquered 34.5 miles which is the furthest either of us have ever ridden in one go. This is obviously really impressive and should have left me feeling great but I can’t quite shake the worried frame of mind it has left me with. After lunch I really struggled and this concerns me greatly. I need to be able to do three times the distance we did by August and the way I felt after about 27 miles honestly left me doubting it was possible. In addition our average MPH really wasn’t good enough. 

Too slow?

Now obviously there are many factors that the sensible part of my brain needs to take on board about Saturday. 

 a) I have not done a great deal of training recently 

b) This was the first time I have ever cycled that far 

c) My choice of lunch really feels inappropriate

d) I have 2 more months of training

 Despite all this I do feel a little disappointed in my performance on Saturday. It is playing on my mind which is really irritating. I want to be able to celebrate my new achievement but the overwhelming feeling it has left me with is that I’m not good enough. Maybe however, this is how professional athletes work. Maybe the feeling I am not good enough will spur me on to get better. 

 We will be trying for even further next Saturday – hopefully 40 miles. I intend to train consistently all week (rain or shine) and to look carefully at my nutrition during the ride. Hopefully this will sort out my frame of mind and give me hope going forward.