Week 2 of the Round the Bay training log.

After a pretty big week in week one for me, 196kms, I managed 179kms last week. Three mid week rides, then out for my first Century for a while.

In my previous post regarding my training program, I said I wanted to do a 4 hour ride the weekend just gone. Well, after doing the best part of 4 hours the previous weekend, and some thinking about the schedule, I have moved myself forward a week. I didn’t really want to be doing a 6.5 hour ride just 7 days before the big ride in October.

So I took off on Sunday morning on a belter of a day, and pretty much retraced my steps from last week, just went a little bit further this time. As discussed in last weeks ride report, it was going to be important to stop and eat, and as it happened, the first hour came up in the same spot as last week.

Intersecting Lines

Then it was up that nasty little bump known as Nowra Hill. Once again I managed a terrific time with out busting a gut. Maybe slower is faster after all. It was then a turn onto Braidwood Road and about an hour of constant up hill. After exactly 2 hours on the bike, I stopped for a Nutella sandwich and a big drink of water.

Lunch on the side of the road.

My aim was to make it to Wandean Rd. As it turned out, I turned around about 5.2kms from there. Wandean Rd will have to wait til next weekend. The run from the turn around point to nearly all the way into Nowra is downhill. I stopped at the 3 hour mark, about 6kms short of Nowra. Another drink, half an energy bar and a stretch and I was off again.

Getting low on water.

I rolled into Nowra and stopped at a servo for a bottle of Coke. The plan was to stop by the river and eat my remaining sandwich, drink the Coke and have a 15 minute spell before the last hours ride home. It was at this point that I realised that the new bib knicks were excellent, and also, I had been using far to little chamois creme. I went crazy with the chamois creme this week, and it helped greatly.

A final sandwich before the final leg home.

The final hour home wasn’t to hard, despite a bit of a head wind, and I got home feeling a hell of a lot better than I did the previous week, having done 14kms more.

So far, so good. The training seems to be working. Eating hourly is working. Stretching hourly helps. And a good hand full of chamois creme works better than a tiny bit on the end of your finger.

I just want to thank Bicycle Network Victoria for there continued support re Tweeting my blog posts. I have had some great suggestions and support from people all over.