W/E 18/05/2008
May 19th, 2008Until the weekend this week was spent mostly on the trainer putting in a bunch of half hour speed sessions trying to maintain an average speed of 20mph. The first 5 minutes of the half hour was spent trundling along slowly building up to hit 20mph at the end of the 5 minutes, giving me 25 mins to get the avg speed up from around 15 to 20+ mph.
It was pretty tough going, especially given that the previous week had been spent entirely on the sauce. I’m sure I could have bottled the sweat spewing from my pours and sold it down my local park. Double filtered, extra fermented, sipping liquor.
On Saturday I was cycling down to Rhu with PH joining me on route. The route I’d planned would take us to Balloch on the cycle path and then up through Glen Fruin to Garelochhead and down in to Rhu.
Glasgow to Rhu via Balloch and Glen Fruin
It works out just shy of 40 miles with a few hills along the way. Paul was struggling a bit at the end which was understandable as it was his fourth day in a row he’d been out, racking up over 120 miles in the process. Thankfully there was a cold beer waiting for us when we arrived at my folks place in Rhu (just in time for the 2nd half of the FA Cup Final).
On Sunday the sun was splitting the skies and it looked like a good day to hit the road so I went and mapped out a route around the peninsula. The route I came up with worked out at about 36 miles taking in the very nasty Peaton Hill at Coulport.
The sign at the bottom of the Peaton Hill says 17%. I’m not convinced that’s right though, I could have sworn it was more like 83% and they’d measured it the wrong way. It just so happened that when I got to the bottom of the Peaton it was the hottest point of the day with not a breath of wind to be felt. I managed to struggle on up to the top with my lungs bursting and barely able to see from the sweat streaming in to my eyes. When I got there I promptly ditched the bike at the side of the road and collapsed in a heap to catch my breath.
After managing to avoid throwing up in the ditch I’d just got myself back together and got back on the bike when a paramedics ambulance drove by, if only they’d arrived 5 minutes earlier!
I carried on round to Garelochhead and had stopped for a bite to eat in the picnic area overlooking the Faslane Naval Base when I discovered Robert had texted saying his ankle was feeling better and he wanted to meet me on route. So I arrange to meet in Glen Fruin and carried on along the road. I eventually me Robert on the road out of Glen Fruin and we headed down in to Helensburgh and on to the Ardencaple Hotel beer garden for a couple of beers before eventually heading up the nasty hill back to my folks place in Rhu.
N.B. the elevation profiles from Bikely.com are goosed as usual. Hopefully they’ll be rebuilt tomorrow.
Weigh in
- after week on the sauce: 15st
- post weekend cycling: 14st
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