Jul 29 2008
Day 38
I don’t know if today was a landmark or a mistake. Following on from how surprised I was with my cycle on Sunday I thought I would try a bit of a cycling experiment. I thought I would try and ride the mountain bike route that I followed in last year’s End to End cycle challenge. This would give me a benchmark as to if I might finish the event this year (last year I made it half way in 4 hours).
I got out of bed around about 9:00 am. and after having a fruit smoothie and loading my bottles with water I set off on the cycle at 10:00 am. I followed my normal Ballacrye and The Cronk route to warm up the legs before assaulting the off-road mountain climb. So, 22 minutes into the cycle I came across Ballacob. Ballacob is a very steep climb that takes you up to the top of the first hill. It is so steep I found myself in the lowest gear on my mountain bike within a minute and travelling at 2.5 mph while being out of breath. Within 10 minutes the legs were burning and I tried to keep a steady rate of climb stuck in that low gear. Near the top the climb gets so steep and ‘loose’ that it is virtually unrideable. I got off and pushed for about 80 metres through the challenging bit. It took me about 30 minutes to get to the top of Ballacob.
At the top it levels out but it is still a climb on tough, rutted grass for 3 miles. After that I rode for another 15 or so miles off-road up climbs and down hills. Some climbs were gentle and others found me back down in that low gear at 2.5 mph. I am unsure if I am just unfit or if those climbs really are just tough. I am sure that if I follow this route a few times over the Summer my body and legs will adapt and I should find it easier.
The weather was mixed. I had bright sun, fog and mist, drizzle, heavy rain and cold driving winds. I haven’t seen the weather so changeable for a while but at times I found the riding tough having wet hands on the handlebars and riding on slippery slate rock tracks.
Once I got to the end of the trail I followed the road back home. The ride took me 3:08 hours and I covered approx. 25 miles. Not a great average speed but a very tough and challenging ride. In the challenge last year I covered a similar distance and challenge and it took 4:00 hours exactly. So, I must be fitter or more able this year. I never trained for the challenge last year and it was a complete shock to the system.
For the rest of the day I found myself exhausted. My legs were extremely tired and I found myself wanting to sleep. Now that the evening is here I find myself a bit more relaxed and not thinking about my legs. Other than my early morning 15 minutes I don’t plan to do any more exercise tomorrow.
I still have my abdominal exercises to do this evening and I am now on 14 reps per exercise.
I don’t know if you can see it but I have started to get ‘tan marks’ on my arms from riding out in the sun today.
Wow Andrew – Sounds like a n extreemly challenging ride – - and the weather does add an extra dimension to it as well. My hat goes off to you for giving it a go and succeeding! Sounds like a fun ride.
Andrew, thanks for stopping by my blog. I didn’t realize you were eating raw for a month already.
Great job on the bike ride!