Shires and Spires

On Sunday I took part in the third of my planned long distance Sportives, the Shires and Spires, which is a cycle around rural Northamptonshire and Warwickshire. The 80 mile course (reduced to 72 this year due to a clash with a VW rally) is much more challenging than the Quatro with the last 20 of the 80 including a series of short but sharp climbs.

Not only was the course tougher but the weather had turned cold and windy, and as luck would have it roughly the last half was into the wind which made it even tougher. I decided to travel light and took my rack/bag and mudguards off just carrying a puncture repair kit and tools.

Having missed 3 weeks of training I was a little concerned that I might struggle but I didn’t appreciate just how much of my fitness I had lost. After a good start, with the wind behind, I made some good progress and was finding it all quite pleasant. The country side was beautiful and there were some picture postcard villages we cycled though.

At one point I managed to join onto the back of a pace line of 8 or so other riders for a few miles,  but as soon as we got to a short but sharp hill at about 30 miles I wasn’t able to keep up and they disappeared over the horizon.  This was my first experience of a pace line and although they didn’t rotate it gave me an idea of how much energy you can save by hanging onto the tail of another rider; I was able to travel 3 or 4 mph faster without any real extra effort but as soon as I dropped a little too far back the wind just slammed into me as if I’d put the brakes on. I can see this will be an essential skill on those high mileage windy days across the central plains in Canada.

After about 40 miles I began to struggle; I was comfortable enough on the bike but my legs just lacked any real power and as we turned into the wind for the last 20 miles in particular I had to dig very deep in deed, spending most of the time in my lowest gears just to keep moving and climbing the hills very slowly and getting out of the saddle much more than I would normally.

I managed to grind out the last 20 miles, eating as much as I could at a second  feed station break and taking onboard a number of energy gels etc but despite all that carbohydrate my legs just wouldn’t come to life.  I had to just keep turning the pedals until finally I got to the finish.

Having said all the above there are some positives to be taken from the ride. Most importantly I didn’t fall off!  In addition I didn’t get any pain from my elbow, shoulders or ribs and I was much more comfortable on the bike so it would appear there is no lasting damage.  The new SPD pedals seem to have solved the mysterious clicking sound so that was a cheaper option than new bearings and I managed to test out the waterproofs which I hardly knew I had on.

Overall I’m happy as I know with some effort I can get my fitness levels up relatively quickly. Monday was a Bank Holiday in the UK so an extra day off work; I managed to get 45 minutes on the turbo, just to get the legs moving again, and did some strengthening exercises, although tired I actually felt a lot better than I thought I would.   

The plan now is to complete a 2 hr ride each evening this week with gym work to build the legs and shoulders up again; then it’s off for a week in the sun whilst the TREK goes in for its pre-trip service.  Hopefully I can continue the fitness work whilst on holiday and then get a few longer rides to Nuneaton etc in to help build resilience when I get back.

Not long now only 51 sleeps to take off, onwards and upwards!