From that sounds of it, people are reading this blog! This makes me happy as I thought I'd just be reading this myself in a few years as some kind of strange diary. Some people that I've bumped into have said they are looking forward to the next post. Well, look no further.
This goes back to Saturdays ride. We (myself and my friend Ross) cycled down to Bristol and back. There was underlying incentive behind this cycle: Mission Burrito on Park Street. After being told about this I had to check it out, Ross also wanted to get 100 miles in. Ideal.
The morning started like most mornings, woke up late. Didn't have everything I needed prepared and Lola (the dog) wasn't eating her breakfast. Texting Ross telling him to leave at 8 instead of meeting at 8 was a smart idea. I frantically rushed around sorting my life out ready for this ride, whilst the coffee machine was pouring my all important coffee! The kettle also on for my just add water porridge oats (Lidl 54p well spent). While getting dressed, drinking coffee and eating oats, Eve rather sarcastically said that I look rather sexy in my bib shorts, heart rate monitor, leg warmers and arm warmers combo. No pictures I'll leave that to your imaginations. ;)
Ross arrived and a few minutes later we shot off. The morning weather was overcast, it wasn't cold but not tropical. We hit the first climb of the day heading up Fiddler's elbow up to Painswick. Shortly after we dropped down into Stroud, quickly followed by the climb up Selsley hill up onto the common. Never having climbed this in memory, it's steep at the bottom and flattens out towards the top. Even though I'm a lump I enjoyed this climb. The common rolling roads take us to the fast twisty descent down to Wotton-under-Edge, from there is a fairly straightforward run into Bristol arriving with about a 17mph average speed.
Arriving in Bristol we decided to go MudDock local bike shop and cafe in Bristol. After having a look around we decided to head off to our main location Mission Burrito. We asked if we could bring our bikes in they were happy for us to do so. We ordered up their regular with pork with all the trimmings and a bottle of Lemon and lime. Getting stuck in I pondered if this was one of the best cycling decisions I've ever made.
Heading back fully fuelled up with Mexican goodness, leaving Bristol was always going to be "fun" but after clearing the main city we slowly made our way out onto the A38 for a minute or 2 before turning off into small quiet lanes. With Ross making the navigation calls as my Garmin wouldn't upload the ride. We made a wrong turn. We carried on down this hill, never the less we got our bearings and carried on, knowing we could take a right at some point and catch back on to ourselves. This would add some miles to the ride.
We got back on the loop about half an hour later. Pulling over to remove leg warmers and arm warmers the sun had really come out. Glorious sunshine then followed us all the way home to Cheltenham.
My legs really started to feel it at this point 70ish miles with what I thought was 30 miles to go, turns out I had almost 10 more miles to suffer. We plodded along with my legs dying. I can only describe this as someone letting all the air out of a balloon. One moment full of air the next deflated and saggy.
Pulling on to the A38 we only stayed on for a few miles then pulled off to Stonehouse. We stopped at the service station on the way in at the Starbucks for a pep me up. Sitting in the sun reflecting how it should only be about 15ish miles home. Most of the way back from Gloucester is a complete blur. All from the exception of a rider from a club I shan't name. It's not hard when overtaking someone to say a quick hello and check up on them. Simple really!
I remember riding down the Shurdington road taking my turn on the front regardless how much energy I had left. I was taught to always do the fair share of turns. I was fixated on getting home.
I don't think I'd ever been so happy to see my front door. Ross had turned off at the end of my road and was cycling back to Cleeve to rack up an 114mile day. Getting my CNP recovery out of the fridge, opening the back door sitting outside in the sun while Lola came over and sat on my lap, most likely confused as to why her human was this tired.
So there I did it. 108 miles: the longest ride since November, longest ride this year by 60 miles.
It was so worth it for that burrito. Sorry this post is late its been a very busy week!
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