Support Crew!

Hello blog lovers.

Yup I was on my bike today, as support crew for NaggyNeighbour!  She has decided that she is going to do an ultra marathon and I had promised her that I would ride along next to her on one of her long runs! Today was that day!  Thirteen miles of a nice slow ride!  It felt nice to get some saddle time in, no matter how slow I went!  But that didn't mean I didn't work hard!  Oh no!  Naggy likes to challenge herself with a few hills!  Well, actually, if you want to do a nice route, that doesn't take you around and around, driving you crazy on a long run, then hills will feature in your run, quite a lot!

The first hill was up the A21.  This is where I found that I can't ride slow up the hills.  I now understand why the Panagua ladies all zoom past me when we get to the hills. I wasn't as fast as they usually go, but I still needed to put a bit of power up on the hill!  I waited for her to get to me when I got to the flat bit!  She was still running!

At the top of the next hill we turned left to run down Locksbottom towards crofton.  A nice flat part of the route.  Naggy is running nice and steady, quite fast....deffo faster than I would be at this point if I was running!  We were chatting away, she is deciding about her nutrition on this run, whether to have gels first then the foody drink.  Last time she did it the other way around.  When you are doing ultra marathons keeping your energy levels is extremely important, and it's best to sort this out before the big day!  But she was still running!

I was her support crew, I had to bottles on my bike to hand over to her when she needed it, one with the 'food' in and one just plain water, I had visions of grabbing out the bottles from the bike cages and handing it over like they do on Tour de France!  No stopping, just keep on moving!  But I can't do that!  I need to stay focused on the road ahead and traffic behind me and blimmin plebs  getting blimmin close to me on my side! Why do drivers do that! Ok so I am riding a little slower than I normally do, but there is still no need to get that close!

We ran/cycled all the way down Crofton Road and into Petts Wood. Our next bit is going through Jubilee Park.  At least this will be traffic free, no more idiots wanting to see what perfume I was wearing! Well, when I say no more traffic, there were people! Lots of them.  Naggy just slipped by them I had to manoeuvre my bike through the gate and around the people!  Is there no where I don't have to dodge people!  Once past the gate though I caught up with Naggy!  Who was still running!

Up and over the bridge on Blackbrook lane, our next little hill is Plaistow Lane!  I remember this hill used to terrify me! Just before we go there though, Naggy swapped bottles, so she had her energy drink with her now! I know I can do this hill, but I will have to go a bit faster than what I have been doing!  So I rode on up and waited for Naggy to get to me! She ran the whole way!  I was so impressed!  I was feeling a tad guilty, thinking that I was keeping the pace a little fast for her as she tried to keep up with me, but she looked so comfortabe, still chatting too!

We ran through to Bromley North, and then I had to hit the pavements to stay behind her.  I wasn't quite sure which way she was going.  We headed over Kentish way and then took the back street to get to Norman Park.  This is where Naggy usually fades.  But looking at her now, there is no fading at all!  She was looking strong!  I on the other hand was feeling a little sore!  It's been a while since I've been on my bike, I need to do a few more miles to get my saddle ass back! We entered the park and she was looking good, she was chatting away and had no intention of going straight home.  Nope!  This time she will be doing the loop around the park!  Just the one! And then head on home!

It was amazing to see, she ran the whole way!  I am totally inspired!  Just running a nice steady pace, not speeding up, no slowing down, just keep it going!  That is the trick!  I am going to try and do that on my next solo run, or parkrun, which ever comes first!  I was just totally impressed.  I think my Garmin must have had a hissy fit because it was reading something different to hers, so I am going by her Garmin, which read over 13 miles where as mine was under!  Whats that all about!

Any way, geeky stats!

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