Monday, April 13, 2009

Going the distance

After being rained off the other day, I thought it was time to bite the bullet and do the Cowman bike distance - 90km. Weather wasn't too inspiring but there was no wind, and the sun did come out for a little while. It was good to be out!

It was bad luck that my plans didn't match up with anyone else's, so I was out on my own. Not really a problem except it is easier to keep speed up in a group, so I wasn't expecting too much from the average. However, I managed to match last week's of 27.4kmh (17mph) - amazing! It was actually 27.5 until I wearily slogged up Church Lane to come home. At max I hit about 44kmh, and it wasn't down a big hill either!

I put my saddle up a bit (quite a lot really - about an inch or so) and that made a big difference. I was tired at the end, but I didn't find the hills quite as bad as last week in terms of leg fatigue. I'm beginning to think I may just need a different bike, as the reach still feels too long. My arms were stiff from being extended all the time. But I don't think I can quite justify it at the moment. We'll see.

A nice little lift towards the end of the ride, when I was tired after climbing up from Thuxton towards Mattishall, was a barn owl (with prey in its talons) flying parallel to me over the fields for about 200m. Beautiful.

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