Dealing with damp whilst building endurance.

It's been a while since our last post and we have been busy during the month of June.

I suppose most notable is that we've had to pay up for the trip, so now we are officially committed and all our training efforts are focused on "Le Grand Depart" on Tuesday August 26th.

June has seen Mark and I upping the mileage a bit and since we got back from a week in Croatia we have really hit it hard with a couple of shorter rides plus a weekend Sportive of 70 miles.

The sportive was a good test of our mental stamina, in that although it was relatively forgiving in terms of terrain, we were subjected to a really heavy and sustained downpour about an hour into the 4 hour ride together with some nasty gusty winds. The forecast had been for sunshine so although I had my waterproof jacket which I keep in my saddle bag, my hands and feet got absolutely drenched. Mark was worse off than me as he hadn't packed his waterproof so he must have been freezing. However after about an hour the rain stopped and by the end of the ride we were almost dry again. 


The reality is that as a friend once put it "cycling is an outdoor sport so you are going to get wet at some point".

You could spend a huge amount of money on sophisticated waterproof tops and leggings but no matter how good they are they wont let the sweat escape so you end up wet from within anyway. I've found the best thing to do is to ensure you can stay warm and then although it might be a little uncomfortable it won't stop you moving.  In Canada I got into the habit of packing a small zipper bag with a shower hat (liberated from various hotels) a pair of latex search gloves to wear under my cycle gloves and my waterproof booties. I could carry this in my shirt pocket so that if we unexpectedly got caught in some rain I could put the shower cap over my helmet which would keep my head warm and the gloves and booties prevented wind chill on my fingers and toes. I don't care what the manufacturers say I have yet to find a pair of gloves that remain waterproof for more than a couple of hours and once they get wet they can get really cold. You would be surprised how much more comfortable you are with warm extremities. Add in a decent lightweight waterproof jacket you can roll up and stuff into your saddle bag or pocket and you will find you can just carry on going without too much trouble.

Despite the weather we both enjoyed the ride. It was billed as a 100km ride but turned into well over that, I clocked 70 miles and NO we didn't get lost!

It was quite good fun being back in a larger group of riders again and being able to practice pace lining, something Mark hasn't done before coming from the triathlon world. He soon realised the importance of finding some young guns to ride at the front of the group and do the hard work and how important it is to look a little old and knackered so that you are allowed to hang around about 5th in line with the occasional visit to the front just to show willing. We managed to zip along for about 20 very quick miles before the group split as people waited for mates etc, we then hopped from group to group for another 10 miles or so until the food stop. After that we were largely on our own, although we were joined at this point by Mark's daughter Jo, and we just rotated the lead when into the wind and relaxed when the wind was with us.

We both finished really strongly, it was quite entertaining to spend the last few miles catching and overtaking several riders that had blasted past us after about 30 miles or so, obviously running out of gas near the finish. Although it was relatively flat we averaged a couple of MPH faster than normal on our longer rides and we both felt we had more miles in our legs so we were happy with our days efforts. The key point for us was that we know we can knock out 70 miles or so in 4 hours so when you think we have all day to do 80-90 miles we are confident we can manage that and have time to enjoy the trip as we do so.

July looks like it's going to be a busy month too. We have provisionally planned to try to ride at least three times a week, hopefully a couple of  40 miles plus higher speed rides with a longer more relaxed weekend ride each week. We have planned in a couple of longer sportive events for late July and early August. The first is 133km around the Peterborough fens area so relatively flat but apparently it can be brutal in the fens if the wind is in the wrong direction and then a tougher 75 mile Wiggle event in Cheltenham on the first Saturday in August. That should certainly test the legs as there are several lengthy climbs up and around the Cotswolds. Add in a couple of back to back rides and we are fairly hopeful that we will be ready to go in time for late August.

Onwards and Upwards!