Post Holiday Ride Out!

Hello Blog lovers!

Its been a while hasn't it? Well I did have a few days away with the Old Boy, eating drinking and waling and singing!  That's right, we had a bit of a break from all the keep fit that we have been doing, even though the hotel had a swimming pool or two and somewhere a gym, but we didn't find that!

So today, the OB though we would do a nice easy ride out! Yeah right! Easy for him, not for me, who has put on several pounds over the 5 days we were away! Our route was the usual route, up the A21 and up to Halstead. It was a warm day, the OB was encouraging me to 'keep going, don't stop!" As if I would stop! My legs was peddling like mad! getting nearer to the turn off towards Halstead, a couple of fast cyclists rode on past me! I felt a little discouraged, one chap had a bigfoot jersey on, so he was quite an accomplished rider really, so I shouldn't be.

We took the right turn to go to Halstead. As we crossed the main road, the two cyclists that had passed us by a little further back was having a break! "They couldn't 'ack" I thought to myself, as I rode on past them. I had it in my mind to get as far up this road as I could before they rode on past me again.

I peddled and pushed myself as hard as I could, the OB was behind me, telling me to keep on going, push harder. There was a couple of times when I stopped peddling to take a quick 'breather' of course the bike was still moving, so why on earth he says to me "Don't stop, keep moving" I don't know!

I got to the roundabout, and realised that, maybe they were not going to be coming up this way afterall, but it sure made me peddle my ass off!  But now I started to get aches and pains. My bum was hurting, my knees were hurting, my feet were cramping up! Is this because I have not done any exercise for the last 5 days, or is it because I just pushed it a little too hard after having a break?

From here until we got to the George in Hayes, I was continually shifting about in my saddle, standing up to stretch out my knees, shifting my feet on the peddles to try and stop the cramping? I started to think then, "Is my bike set up right for me, should I be thinking of getting it checked out" I know I have been riding this bike for quite a while now, but I started off slowly and maybe my body got used to the position. Last year we even took our bikes with us when we went on holiday!

So any thoughts from fellow cyclists out there will be appreciated immensely. It could be that I have put on way too much weight after my holidays and I am not used to pushing that much on a bike anymore!

As you can guess, it was the Biggin Hill route today. The OB left it up to me about which way to go, I chose to go to Biggin Hill, rather that down to Shoreham. Shoreham is a lovely ride, but I just couldn't face the up hills on that route. The Biggin Hill route is still continuing to go up. There is not many down hill sections. This may seem strange to go this way, considering I am a known hill dodger, but I just thought it would be easier to keep pushing hard to go up and then enjoy the long down hill all the way virtually to my home! Plus a stop before hand for a refreshing pint of Amstel!

So geeky stats. Now, these stats are from the Old Boys Garmin, but they can count for me as well, as he stayed behind me all the way from leaving our house, and they only time he overtook me was when we got onto our road. For some reason he wont let me beat him home!