Busy week!

It would appear my Chinese training partner "One Lung Lee" has now departed and George has recovered from what he affectionately calls "Canning lung", as he's convinced I passed it onto him, and both have declared themselves fit to train.

With the weather holding up on the approach to the holiday weekend we felt it was a good idea to make hay so to speak and get a couple of rides in this week.

On Tuesday we were joined by Phill "the taxi" Conaty and the four of us set off from George's house and headed South down towards Olney. Although it wasn't going to be the longest of rides we were under a bit of a time constraint and so were intending on a non-stop trip of about 40 miles.

The countryside in rural Northants and Buckinghamshire is beautiful and we rode through some pretty typical English villages, complete with thatched cottages and village greens, the stuff my Canadian and US friends would die for back home. The roads were quiet and we made good time getting home without any real incident to be greeted by cake and coffee. All in all a decent ride with both the invalids getting through unscathed and keen to get out again later in the week.

Pitsford Resevoir

Thursday's ride was based on a local Sportive, The Shires and Spires, route amended slightly so that we could start at Pitsford Reservoir, just outside Northampton. The route was 50 miles long, our longest ride yet, and involved 5 or 6 significant climbs so all in all it was going to be a bit of a challenge. We were joined this week by Heather Watts, always keen to get a few miles in as part of her IronLady training.

Unbelievably for the UK we had our fourth or fifth day with bright Spring sunshine and although there was still a cool breeze it was a second opportunity of the week to air the Canning legs. We set off in high spirits if a little apprehensive about the hills. The last time I had ridden this route was a month or so before my Tour Du Canada trip in 2010 and that wasn't a ride I enjoyed as I really struggled with the climbing. I was really hoping the 2014 experience would be much better.

Early on I had my now customary whinge (I am told) about a mystery intermittent clicking the source of which I can't identify. A couple of miles into the trip George's phone dropped unseen from his pocket, luckily Mark saw something bouncing off his wheel out of the corner of his eye and shouted so George went back and found it. Once again I demonstrated my superior technological skills by not being able to get my Garmin to navigate properly, however despite the odd late call or missed turn we managed to stay on track.  The route was what some might call undulating, with not much flat stuff and lots of winding through narrow country roads and more quaint villages, even a couple of gates to open and close as we went.

Post Fried Sandwich

About two thirds of the way round we pulled in at Daventry Country Park for a coffee and something to eat. We ordered toasted sandwiches which sounded lovely, however, in Daventry they obviously get toasting and frying confused so we ended up with Bacon and Cheese sandwiches made with fried bread. I guess with the calories we were burning it wasn't that important but it did make me chuckle.



During lunch we attempted to switch on the turning guidance on the Garmin without success and had to abandon attempts and resort to having to read the instructions when we got home, something us men find almost too much to accept.

The remaining 15 or so miles was relatively tough with a run of 5 sharp climbs in short succession as we crossed the valleys back towards Brixworth. I'm no professional cyclist but I doubt Bradley Wiggins has ever overtaken a couple of horses going up the final climb and then found them catching him up as they broke into a trot behind him!!

I think both Mark and I felt it a bit during the last few miles and there was a lot more spinning up than attacking of the hills, but overall we were both happy with our progress so far at the end of the ride and I was certainly much happier than the last time I rode this route.