Went out today to do my 3.5 hour ride as part of my training for the Around The Bay in a Day ride with not ideal prep. Bad nights sleep never helps.
I left Culburra Beach and headed for Forest Road, a nice lumpy start to the ride. The across the Highway and onto BTU Road, which is the run up to the Nowra Hill climb. I stopped as I had been going 1 hour and I want to try and train myself to eat whilst riding. I have hit the wall a few times due to not eating enough, and it is a horrible feeling. A power bar and a drink and off I went. Managed a PB there today, much to my surprise, as I wasn’t pushing as hard as normal because I knew I still had a fair amount of time to ride.
Once I got to Braidwood Road, I thought I would ride out to Turpentine Road, a ride Lewy has spoken about a few times. For some reason I thought it was just under 10kms. Well, after riding 12kms from the turn off, I stopped to check the GPS. Hmm, says I have about another 7kms to go. It was kicking my arse, I had gone out to hard to early. Then a women stopped me to ask directions to Canberra. All I could tell her was that she was going the wrong way. I will never know if I would have beaten Lewy’s time, but I will have another crack at it soon. You aren’t safe yet Lewy. 🙂 A quick drink and off I went again. The ride back is good because it is all down hill, well 95% would be. At the end of Braidwood Rd I stopped again for a feed, another energy bar and a drink of water. I noticed that my, er, backdoor was feeling a little worse for wear. Hmm. I had put some chamois cream on the knicks, but I was sweating like a bastard and I think that wasn’t helping. From the Corner of Braidwood Rd and Albatross Rd it is about a 8km run down hill. There are a couple of little rises, but nothing to taxing. I rode into Nowra needing a sugar hit, so it was a bottle of Coke and some more water. It was here that I knew my rear was going to look like the Japanese flag by the time I got home. The 26km run home, which is my commute from work, was hard going. I made a stop about 12km from home for a lie down and some stretching. From there is was 30 minutes of trying to get comfy on the saddle. By the time I rolled into Culburra Beach again, I knew I was getting close to the 100km mark for the day, but my tender date could take no more. 96.9km for the day, and more importantly, I did the 3.5 hours needed. Best part of 3h 53m actually.
Now, has anyone got one of those inflatable donuts? 🙂