19 March 2006
Surrey Hills
Posted by tony under: Training .
Met up with Ben, his brother Steven and lawyer and all round sports demon Mark Lloyd for a bike session along the Surrey Hills. Unfortunately this necessitated cycling across London just to meet them. I’ve been doing more cycling recently as it seems to mimic the kind of grind we face on expeditions pretty well and I have entered a 24-hour mountain bike race in July (as part of a team of four), but this was the first time I had been out with a group as a mini peloton and I was a little nervous as to whether I would be able to keep with them.
Unfortunately Ben manages to persuade the others that a course over every single steep hill in Surrey would be the way forward and Surrey has a lot of the sods. The first big hill is relatively short but feels vertical, I push up out of the saddle and feel my quads start to scream. The top is marked by a bridge and I focus on just getting there and hoping that my legs recover on the downhill. However, it turns out that I was being overly optimistic when I called the bridge the top. In fact, halfway point would have been more accurate. I know this is going to hurt tomorrow.
The hills didn’t stop for another four hours, but I kept a cheerful grin (albeit with gritted teeth) and by the time I pulled up in my driveway I had logged 80 miles in the saddle. Not bad for a days training, though I’m sure I will be able to reflect on it better after an icebath.
3 Comments so far...
Mark Lloyd Says:
20 March 2006 at 11:23 pm.
It was a good ride and a pleasure to meet you Tony. Pleased to hear you made it to the 80 mile mark! All good training.
tony Says:
21 March 2006 at 3:21 pm.
It would be easy for you to forget seeing as the last time you made it north was sometime just after Maggie Thatcher came to power.
Moreover, knowing what you know about my driving I think you would give me some latitude about how I describe the path leading to my door.
