Day 96 - On with the Shorts

It's been 4 days since my last blog, I've just been so busy preparing for a 2 week trip that I've had no time for much else ... but I have been out on my steed!

We've completed 3 circuits this week, I took Monday as a rest day. In spite of the glorious weather we're having right now, I can't say it has been that easy and I've tried, where possible, to give the hills a rest, having no real climbing energy left after last week's hilly circuits.

You'll recall the improvement I made to performance and safety last week, by adding air to my tyres? Well I made another before the start of this week, I oiled my chain! I'd been thinking that my gears were out of alignment and that this was the cause of the noisy clicking of chain on cogs that I could now hear over my tunes. Alas no, a spray of WD40 and we're back to the silky smooth rides I remember. Gear changing is now fluid and I've stopped dreading switching down to gear 1 - the small one - which increasingly resulted in a chain off incident. I'm thinking, like all the great riders, that I need a service team!

Blue sky over the gateway to Seaton

Back to the circuits and with the weather so beautiful it was on with the shorts. Not so beautiful, however, are my winter white legs framed between black lycra and training shoes, but at 7:00 am there are luckily few out and about to upset.

Day 94 was my running gnome route (refer back for route art explanation of this) and I've not much more to say on this, apart from it's a sub 7 mile circuit with a plus 30 mph drop down into Colyford and and average 12 mph return along the estuary .. a circuit with a little of everything.

Stats: 6.75 mi, 32m 29s, Avg 12.5 mph, Max 31.4 mph, 360 kcal

Day 95 was a longer ride, 8 miles plus, out into Colyton, returning via the tram station and back along the estuary. I was so tempted to stop at the cafe and take on fuel but thought I'd save that 'till Friday .. Michael, are you reading this?

For the route art today .. a bunny sniffing the air! Book Munchin, I thought you'd like that.

Stats: 8.28 mi, 40m 26s, Avg 12.3 mph, Max 25.8 mph, 448 kcal

Day 96, today. Although my legs were feeing like lead, I headed out early with the good intention of heading out to Colyton and across the hills into Beer. Alas, riding into quite a strong wind, out of energy and at the point of no return, where the road forks either up our of Colyton and into the hills or back down into Seaton, I decided on a 'stall turn' into a down hill run, exiting onto the newly gritted (the new excuse for resurfacing) Harepath Road. Back in Seaton, I headed out for a loop of the seafront and then, just to prove I could, took the steep climb up Castle Hill to complete the circuit. Another 6 mile ride, but I was hoping for more, particularly as I won't have time this evening to join the Axe Valley Pedallers on another epic ride. Probably a good thing, considering my current performance.

As for the route art, I think I've just won an Oscar!

Stats: 6.23 mi, 32m 44s, Avg 11.6 mph, Max 25.2 mph, 363 kcal

Just one more day before I get a .. and I think well deserved .. two week break!