Week thirteen - Tuesday

Cycling 1.5 hrs 

Ride at steady pace, increasing your cadence when climbing hills. Stay in the saddle as long as possible and make sure you maintain your speed right over the top of the hill 

Buoyed by the Sky Ride on Sunday I was really looking forward to tonight’s ride. I was, however, keen to find some new routes. I’m getting too fast for my favourite one hour route and between now and the sportive I need to do 1.5 hour routes. 

I checked out this website and decided to alter one of the routes to suit me. I was, however, a little unsure of the route so I decided to pop out in the car with the child to check it out. Just as well we did! I could not figure out the route at all and ended up on a very busy road! Ant and I have decided to check it out on Saturday when we can ride together so fingers crossed! 

Instead I decided to tackle a slightly curtailed version of a route I did the Sunday after I got the road bike. 

I knew that this included a really horrible hill which I had actually had to walk up last time. I found the hill was very much playing on my mind as I started the ride so decided to do my planned route in reverse meaning I would actually descend this hill. This may sound like cheating but regular readers will recall the hill is actually one half of a dip, so there is a hill opposite it which is pretty much as long and steep. 

When I got to the hill and descended it I realised that, as is so often the case, I had dramatically ‘over remembered’ the difficulty of it. It is steep but it is not as scary as I had thought. As such I am pleased to report I made it up the other side relatively easily and I did, in fact, stay in the saddle throughout the whole ascent. 

As expected, this increased my confidence even more and I whizzed along happily for the rest of the ride. I felt great and really enjoyed the ride. 

By the end I had completed 21 miles, averaging 14mph with my top speed being 32mph. 

    A fantastic ride

I would still like to get this average closer to 15mph by the sportive but if I continue to feel as happy and comfortable as I did on this ride I know I will be able to achieve this.