My Own Personal Best

Yesterday was another one of those cycle runs out to the coast, we have been trying to do these every other week end as means of building up the base milage. My problem is that this run always ends up totalling around the 80 mile region, I really want to break the 100 mile mark, just so I know I can do it. So this time I convinced Dave to start from my house rather than his (nothing to do with a extra hour in bed) but keep the same route which meant we would have a few extra miles in hand.

Despite a curry the night before I was up and ready to go before Viv arrived; expecting me to still be in bed. Dave was running late due to the after effects of grape juice but the sun was shinning so we left with every intention of making the most of it. In fact the journey out was great, the wind behind us, the sun was in full colour and the roads were clear. That was until we changed direction and hit that cross wind! This soon slowed us down but as much as the head wind when we hit the A12, talk about a sudden crash down to earth.

We arrived at Thorpness in about 3 hours and 15 minutes having covered 60 miles, not bad averages but the thought of that head wind most of the way home was not the most promising, add to that the forecast for rain in the afternoon. Relentless we set off on the homeward leg knowing that the wind would be in our face most of the way, luckily the section of the A12 that proved so hard earlier was in our favour. As soon as we peeled of the main road it hit us in the face and reality of 50 miles of head wind stuck in.

We made a quick stop to re-fuel only to be hit by the first shower of the day, out came the waterproofs and Dave’s go-go gadget mudguard. It took a lot to carry on in the rain, especially when the car looked so warm and dry but my goal of 100 miles was only 20 away. Time to dig deep.

At the 99 mile mark we stopped again, only because we knew this would be the last stop before home so time to stock up on gel’s and juice. This was it the final leg, but the hardest part, we were off the main roads, on the country lanes and being hit by the wind full on and energy was low.

I spent most of the next few miles slumped over the bars just hanging onto the rear wheel of Dave until we hit familar landmarks. Right time for a textbook Adam schoolboy error; fly off leave your wingman and burn out! Nope I got away with it and we soon saw the town sign for Sudbury, one final effort and we pulled in front of the house to find Lucy already had the kettle on.

Thanks to Viv and Dave for helping out and making me realise that I can do 100, in fact we ended up doing 122! My Personal Best, so far.