10 rough miles

This week John was absent from our little biking club so I decided to take on the role of leader and test out a route that I had done in the summer with a friend of mine. It was a much shorter route than last week so I had in my mind that shorter = easier. It definitely did not. I somehow managed to pick a route that was almost entirely uphill. A lot of it was also off road - which was not a big problem in the summer but in the winter it is a very different story. I have a hefty bike with mountain biking tyres (for the first time I was actually not envious of Soo and her skinny road tyres) but even on that it was tough going. Still, we made it (with several chocolate stops along the way) and came to the conclusion that I should not be allowed to plan routes anymore...

19 Miles

Much of the same route as before only with a lot more rain and much colder this time!

29 miles and counting!

A few days ago, my friend Soo suggested nice a Sunday ride to me. Brixham - Dartmouth (about 4  miles). Of course, getting into the swing of training I happily agreed.

One thing Soo forgot to mention to me was the Brixham - Dartmouth, via Totnes part of the ride! We started out at 8.30am (on a Sunday, I know!) and headed off on our ride.

Brixham - Churston - Waddeton - Stoke Gabriel - Aish - Longcombe - Totnes - Tuckenhay - Dartmouth - Kingswear - Brixham.

Suffice to say, I was very very tired after all that biking! Surprisngly though, it really wasn't as hard as I had expected. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination but it definitely wasn't as tough as I had expected. I've definitely surprised myself by what I can already do.

Even more suprisinging is that I still had both the feeling in my legs and the ability to walk on Monday morning!

Again, I realise that 29 miles is a small portion of what I will be doing on challenge days but I'm really starting to feel like this is a manageable task.