Girls on Cogs

Preparation: Roadside repair course and did some route planning
Training:…ermmmmm, bit lacking
Miles: 17
Punctures: 1!

It’s the weekend before LEJOG, and again the sun is shining. Em is away for the weekend, but I thought I should try and get a few miles in anyway.

Friday:
I’d booked a roadside repair course at Bikes4All, conscious that we were doing the ride unsupported and didn’t want to be completely helpless should anything happen apart from a puncture. So, I learnt how to replace my chain, the brake cable and the gear cable. Very good!

Elaine was over for the weekend, so obviously we went out on Friday….we met up with Stav, Caroline and her friend Ruth, visited a couple of bars, went on to the fan club for a little dance, and were home by 4am!

Saturday:
After a hearty brunch in the garden sunshine, we made a plan. Elaine was up for a little bike ride, so we drove over to Rutland, and set off around the water. A nice leisurely ride in the sunshine, clocking up 17 miles (we didn’t do the peninsula as time was a bit short…. we’d got a folk festival to get to!) and managed to get caught by a man training for a charity ride in august where he was going to do 2 laps of Rutland! This was obviously a big deal for him and he was very excited about being sponsored £1 a mile from the lady in the ice-cream shop, so we made some encouraging responses and didn’t flatten his achievement by mentioning LEJOG, although it was quite tempting after the third time he’d told us!!

Sunday:
I’d planned to cycle over to Calke Abbey to meet Pen at the food fayre..however, after fixing the first puncture since my puncture resistant tyres had been fitted, it was looking a little overcast and raining heavily over in the Abbey. So instead I watched the men’s tennis finals, planning a little ride later…it was very gripping even for a non tennis fan and didn’t finish until after 6, by which time I’d lost my enthusiasm..so no training today. Meanwhile, Mat, Stav and Anna had completed 120 miles in the Dunwich dynamo over Saturday night so did feel slightly shameful with my lack of training…oh well.. will be doing plenty of miles starting next weekend…. Tried to redeem the situation by doing some route planning, and got as far as Land’s end to the Lakes, so feeling a bit better!