#festive500 This week has been really hard work. We started with a little warm up on Sunday riding to John and Gill's for Sunday roast, a short 15km with a long lunch break in the middle, plus a blowy walk on the beach.
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/162090234
Christmas eve we started in earnest, a 50km ride with Mike from Totnes to Dartmouth via Paignton, Kingswear and a short ferry crossing. A quick pasty lunch, then on back via the coast to Torcross, where there was a huge flood to cross.
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/162089190
On Christmas day we rode to Totnes for our Crimbo with the family. 23.5km
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/162098060
On Boxing day James and I spent the evening riding a lovely 50km route across into the Ermington valley, then up to South Brent, before bombing back down towards Modbury and home
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/162102180
Thursday was a very easy day - we met with Mike, Rosie, Maz, Rem and the boys at Haldon forest for a mountainbike ride - this was amazing fun, but we barely covered any real distance, approx 26km. The trails were everything the should be, wet, wild and bumpy.
On Friday, Mike, Rosie, James and I headed out to Dartmoor to cover some more miles. The weather was about as bad as you can get, gale force winds, rain, wet roads and 20% climbs all made for a ride to remember. I pushed up a few of the hills after a while, my legs were turning to jelly and I was struggling to keep my front wheel on the road. On the descents the wind was so strong we still had to pedal to keep going, it really was something else. We had a long lunch stop in Princetwon while we waited for the weather to clear, it didn't, but this was an opportunity to dry off and warm up before heading back out. The drop down off the moor had very poor visibilty, but then we dropped down into the valleys through the rain and the ride became much nicer. the total distance covered was 115km, phew!!!
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/161989732
Today, Jimbo and I headed back into the Ermington valley for an easy 100km - looking at the stats afterwards it had a lot more climbing than we thought - a total of 2382ft, phew!!
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/162083936
Tomorrow, there's more to cover, my calculations say that we have 1 remaining 120km, can't wait to get my roundel for all this hard work!
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Rapha Festive 500 challenge, Christmas eve to New Years eve 2012
Earlier this year I went a bit quiet on my blog and since then have been super busy - too busy even to share what I've been up to. I ended up working for Rapha on a top secret project for 5 months. This meant that finally I would have a stint of career-time in London, where I met some amazing and inspirational people, and also that I got to ride my bike to work every single day without being considered odd! I absolutely loved every minute, even the rush hour argey bargey with London taxis and buses, and my bike handling and road confidence shot sky high.
Unfortunately my beloved and well mileaged Specialized Tricross sport became a casualty of London when some oik decided to prematurely end our relationship. This was incredibly hard to come to terms with as I was suddenly destined to tunnel underground with all the other miserable looking commuters day after day to get to work. My contract came to an end, so I decided to treat myself to a much swankier bike, and so I took delivery of my amazing Ridley Orion, much more of a bike than I actually needed for such a commute, but perfect for eating up the holiday season miles.
Tomorrow we start - 500kms of currently pretty flooded Devon roads, hopefully the rain will stay away, but if not, no big deal, I love riding in the rain and while everyone else is locked up indoors stuffing their faces we'll be out in the elements having fun, fun, fun!
http://www.rapha.cc/festive-500
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