Surrey Hills

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.