Well, I feel well and truly b.r.o.k.e.n!! What a weekend! Yesterday, as with most Saturdays for the past 26wks, was another long ride day. I missed last weeks due to Norseman commitments and the weekend before had a long-ish attack on Dartmoor, only to be rescued by Jimbo because my planned route was taking too long!
Friday evening we had a lovely swim in the river Avon, which was lush, then followed by 1.5hr run, which was pretty tiring. Saturday am we decided to have a lie in and eventually, after chowing on heaps of porridge and filling our pockets with gels and bars etc, we headed out about 11.30. The plan was to have a bit of an adventure - so the usual start to the ride, up AG hill on cold legs (killer!) then across to Kingsbridge to head on down to Torcross, along the coast to Dartmouth. This all went pretty well - of course I was a bit pooped as had had a lengthy enforced break from training. We got to Dartmouth in 1.5hrs and stopped to grab a quick pastie before jumping on the ferry to Kingswear, the pasties were very welcome and consumed on the ferry. At Kingswear we headed up the hill (hillariously named 'Slappers hill') then up to skirt Goodrington and Paignton, then along the Totnes rd, to Totnes.
My thighs felt like they were on fire - and not in a good way! All the climbs seemed to take forever - but there were some great downhills - coming into Goodrington, then coming from the top of Paignton where all the holiday parks are to roll back to the top of Totnes - though the wind had picked up and was against us, so not much speed gained. The hill down into Totnes was great, until a taxi pulled across and forced me to break heavily to void ploughing into him!
We popped into Totnes quickly to grab a couple more copies of the Totnes Times for Ma and Pa, then dropped them into Maz and Rem's postbox on the way out of town. Out on the road to South Brent via Avonwick, then at South Brent along the back road to Wrangaton, then Bittaford and Ivybridge. I was really starting to feel exhausted and found myself desperate for the next gel - every 30mins I alternate between gel or 1/2 Torq bar - which seems to work. I also have a bottle of water and 1 of energy - which I alternate too depending on gel or bar. Imagine my alarm to hear that so far James had only consumed a pastie and half a bottle of energy - we were at 3.5hrs and already I had consumed 4 gels and 1.5 bars, plus half a bottle of energy and most of a bottle of water, I must be doing something wrong!!!
At Ivybridge we headed back in to Ermington, then Modbury, at which point I left James to potter on home (amybe not enough fuel consumed!) - I carried on up the hill out of Modbury to California cross, then along to Loddiswell, up to Sorley cross and back down into Kingsbridge to retrace my earlier journey back up the hill, along the top and the best bit, down AG hill, whoopie!!!
I was knackered! And still had an hour's run to do, I played it safe with an easy route, up the short sharp hill by Jubilee corner and into the river valley - about as flat as you get around here! With the return along the opposite side of the river, I did pretty well and I think I ran most of the way - I always get distracted at the bridge and look out for fishes. I started to notice a hot spot on one of my toes, uh oh!! All in I covered 65miles on the bike and about 5 on the run, so a pretty long day in the office for me!
Today I had a 1hr ride to do, followed by a 2.45hr run. We had popped to Totnes, so James kicked me out with my bike there and I rode back. It was agony!! Every climb I would try to get out of my saddle, but there just wasn't enough in the tank. I was overtaken by some slightly more pro-looking male cyclists with their clip on tri-bars and felt all a bit slow and plonky. They stopped at Avonwick to wait for their mate - who had been behind me on the descent, but I realised as I passed them, that we were headed in the same direction, which is pretty hilly. So I pretended to answer a call so I didn't have to have them pass me on another climb, sad I know!!
Then from nowhere, as I was puffing and panting up another climb another cyclist passed me by, I tried to make some joke about hills, but he wasn't very friendly, clearly in the zone!
Eventually I made it to the top of the hill and bombed back down into AG, just in time! 1hr 02mins!
I put off doing my run for as long as possible, in fact, felt so exhausted that I had a bit of a tearful moment, I was achey all over and my blistered toe from yesterday was already smarting like mad, so James got me a cup of tea and some soreen to try to perk me up! Eventually about 4pm I headed out and straight away hit the wall, it probably didn't help that I ran down to the carpark and straight into a steep climb up to Icy park, across the main road, down to the valley bottom, then into a bonkers steep climb out the other side to Drunkards hill (I think aptly named because at the other end it is so steep that people climbing it probably sway alot!) I wasn't prepared for how awesome the lane becomes as soon as you start to descend. I had no idea where it was going to come out and I always like the discovery element with trail running, so I had a good pace on now, not for long!! At the bottom I had 2 choices, a climb to the right or a climb to the left. A bunch of kids were walking a dog to the left, so I went right.........and kept climbing, and climbing..eventually it petered out and I enjoyed the undulating valley for a mile or so, before some more gradual climbs, past a great scenic cottage called spring bank - because a spring comes out of the bank underneath it, of course!! I threw a handful of water over my head and neck and carried on. Eventually the road wound its way back to a lane that I knew, so I made my way back down towards AG, crossed the bridge and headed out to the other side of the valley. By this point I was really struggling to run and to anyone passing my telling off of myself probably would have sounded a bit mental. I was feeling very annoyed that I have had such great willpower so far, yet I couldn't will myself on to run! I decided to take it literally one step at a time and count to 20 - but then realised that I didn't stop at 20, infact I kept going, so I divised a way of counting every 20 steps with a finger, 5 on each hand several times over and soon I was running 500 steps, walking for a bit, followed by another 500 steps, and so on...! By the time I reached the bridge I was doing great - then got distracted again by spotting the fish! After a few minutes faffing I decided to head back to AG, then tag on some bits to make up my time. Along this road with hills and all I managed to do 1000 steps then a breather..... I like this game. To make a bit longer I had a bit of a steep climb up 'hoppy green lane' then back to the village. I still had 30mins to go, so thought I'd head down along the tidal road - but to no avail - the tide was in! Stupidly at this point I decided to faff, I could have taken another route and got an extra couple of miles under my belt, but I walked up to Icy park again and round the back way and cut my run/walk short by a few minutes!
So now I am broken and pretty sore, it hurt to climb the stairs, so at least I know what I'll be feeling like in 4 weeks time! Infact, I'll still be racing!!
Lessons learned from this - I am slow and am now getting extremely tired! Bring on 11th September when it'll be too late to make a difference and what will be will be! I think my rest day is well deserved!
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