Sunday 14 June 2015

Miles, records, snot and all the grace of the fairy elephant...

So here it is this weeks blog of another fantastic week of riding. As the title suggests I've put a few miles in, made some improvements, witnessed remarkable records, suffered with hayfever like never before and erm...had a spectacular tumble!


First off I got out a couple of times for my usual pre work spin. I'm happy with my progress here as it indicates I'm gradually speeding up. If you get PR's on segments you regularly ride then something is going well.




No ride for me on Saturday this week due to Mrs Lindsley being on a Hen day. They went to see Dirty Dancing and then to Jamie's Italian in Nottingham. Sounds ghastly doesn't it! I had to take SuperSam to sailing and whilst he played with boats I did a circuit of Pitsford on foot bagging 16 geocaches. I did this because it was soggy and I didn't feel like messing up my 29r. Well that serves me right for not obeying the rules as I now have sore ankles from a thousand soggy bits of grit getting stuck down the back of my socks. Next time I'm riding!



Sunday was time for a bit of proper cycling. The club had two choices as Andy Brown had created another undulating route this time 100 miles in length and also Steve was running his usual 50 mile mystery tour. I opted for the latter for both time reasons and it's only six days to D2D.

On my way into Kettering I passed the 100 mile mountain goats going the other way. Thanks for the greetings and the abuse guys, I sincerely hope Andy ruined you all!

With very healthy numbers for a Sunday ride in both groups the club really is going from strength to strength. I know Andy is rightly proud of C&D Cycles CC and today was one of those days when you can see why.

Steve's ride was great as usual. We did some of the stuff we did the week before with the climb past stinky Chettles. Steve himself was unusually quiet and it dawned on me he was on a personal quest to achieve a PR you won't find on Strava. Steve was determined to break his record for the most miles ridden without dropping the 'C bomb!' You really have to love the prince of profanity at times. The new standard is exactly 50 miles.

Riding wise I felt I was keeping up with the whippets better than ever and a good average for me plus a hatful of PR's bears this out. However my crowning achievement of this ride was on arrival back at the shop. I dismount my bike by swinging my leg over on one side, coming to a stop and then unclipping on the other side and hopping off. I've done this 100's of times without incident...until now. Today as I put one foot done it slid like a skate on the cleat and I landed on my posterior with the bike on top of me in the middle of the road. Both my legs instantly cramped and I was stranded on my back like and upside down turtle. Everyone tried really hard not to laugh but to be fair it must have been a hilarious sight and despite being in agony I was struggling not to laugh myself, that is until people started giving me 'helpful advice.'

Andy was highly amused

After a good recovery dinner and some re-hydration in the Queen Adelaide, Dad and I had a look at the revised D2D route and planned the food stops. 10 of us are planning to attempt the 200 mile route on Saturday. The route we are following can be found here we won't be the first C&D Cycles CC riders to attempt it though as our very own Nat completed the route on Friday. This is going to be a massive achievement as a group ride so big kudos to Nat on a mahoosive solo ride.

The day before D2D the Women's tour comes to Northamptonshire for the second year in a row, This is a massive honour for the county and I can't wait. Lots of us are planning to see the event and as it comes through Rothwell and then takes a roundabout route to Kettering my plan is to see it in my home town and then ride to Kettering for the finish. link to the route

Next week could be the best cycling week ever!
Happy Pedaling



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