Diary update Week 13

Overall a very good week (except for the puntures that is!!).

Tuesday I was in the gym working on my leg strength and my shoulders - have a niggle with my right shoulder's rotater cuff muscle. The session went well and my weight seems to be holding constant (although my belt has come in another notch!).

Wednesday I managed to do a ride through West Clandon and then along the A246 to Brocketts Farm 21 mile round trip at a little over 17 miles an hour - I was pretty pleased with this. By the way thanks to Brocketts Farm they are the first to response to the wife's request for prizes for the May fair stall.

Rich and I had planned to meet up on Saturday for a 100miler, with his family coming over for lunch and the afternoon. The plan was to meet near Windsor and then come back towards Guildford for the Surrey Hills. e decided to join us and it was enroute to Windsor that I got my puncture. Front wheel this time! Still I got the new inner tube in pretty quick and although we had a bit of a problem with working out which loop we should be on we finally met up with Rich (what did we do before mobile phones!!). As we set off Rich took us back a more direct route and at a faster pace. We eventually left e (who had to get back early) at just before 10am and headed off to the Surrey Hills.

Rich was very keen to push the pace and our strategy was if there was a hill we should be going up it! We went up Ranmore, round across country taking in Leith Hill, Box Hill and a few others without names. At 12 noon we decided to make our way back from just outside Dorking, via Ronmore. This is a much harder ascent than from the A246 and I was very pleased to get up no problem. We eventually got back at 1.15 having completed about 105 miles. I have to say that although I have completed over a hundred miles a few times this was the hardest I had worked and the worst which I have felt.

Fortunately I am getting good at recovering and after a lovely lunch we had a great time with the kids from the two families.

The forecast for the next day looked good and as I have the most understanding wife in the world I was given a pass to go out again Sunday morning. This time just until 10am. SO after some confused messages on my behalf to e I met up with e and Simon at 7am. It was on our way back out of Guildford that I got another flat tyre again on the front tyre. This time whilst in the process of fixing the tyre e found the leak and we used one of Simon's instant puncture repair patches to fix it - more about that later. So we were back on the road again.

This time we went a different route up Ranmore, whish was a nice steady climb - one which I might use on my short runs out from home. Then across and down to Box Hill which I went up much faster than on Saturday. After a great decent (thanks Simon for the directions) we got to the bottom of Box Hill. It was at this point that Simon suggested that as I needed to get home quickly and e wanted to get a lot more miles in, e and I should go on ahead. So we went off and did a though ascent back up Ranmore - different to Saturdays but maybe even harder! Then back home, the weather had been great all weekend until my last 5 miles when the heavens opened. So I got home a bit like a drowned rat but with another 45 miles complete and the satisfaction of knowing that I can complete a really tough day and get back into the saddle the next day with no noticable ill effects. I am really looking forward to the team ride next week.

Sunday night I completed by bi-weekly bike clean up including the gears and the chain. As a brought my bike out of the shed I noticed that the font tyre was flat. So the temporary fix was temporary! So I also put two new patches on my inner tubes - I getting good at that too!
I have now ordered some new tyres and plan to fit them before next weekends 2 day team ride!!