The infamous Mendip Rouleur (aka GB) planned a long ride for today, and opened it to all comers.  Which meant that him and I left the Square at a little after 9:00am this morning.  Go figure.

Even though it was just the two of us, a plan is a plan, so we stuck to the route he’d created.  Which was, as promised, mostly flat.  There were some hillier bits in the middle, and quite a few roads that were new to me, which is quite an achievement after years of cycling around here.  It was also warm, if cloudy, and not too windy.  That wind was, as is always best, in our faces on the way out and, in so far as it was ever behind us, it was behind us on the way back.  It was also all very seasonal.  Cloudy, mild, and attractively autumnal, with a great many leaves of varying shades, and copious quantities of mud.  Lots and lots of mud.  Mud on the roads, mud on the bikes, mud on us.  In fact we had to stop and scrape the mud off the bikes at one point, before it started interfering with how things worked.  But mud washes off, right?  Apparently it’s easier to wash off if you don’t have hairy legs or, as in my case, you’re wearing longs.  I still don’t think that’s a good excuse for MAMILs shaving their legs though.  MTFU and scrub harder ;).

GB had found a brand new venue for coffee – at Fenny Castle.  After a patch where things got darker and greyer, by the time we arrived, 43 miles in, it was warm and sunny enough to sit outside to eat exceedingly good carrot cake, and drink very acceptable coffee.  Considering that the carrot cake also had dried apricots in, I reckon that counts as two of my five-a-day, right?  Definitely one to go back too :).

Cycling time: 3:42:47 hrs
Distance: 59.01 miles.
Avs: 15.8 mph
ODO: 10763 miles

We’d have been faster if we hadn’t had to slow down so much so as not to end up on our behinds in the mud.  Or if we hadn’t been chatting.  Or if there hadn’t been hills.  Still, even with all of that it’s not like we were slow.  Actually I’m pretty impressed, since within 10 minutes of setting off, my legs made me aware of the fact that I climbed a lot of hills on Friday.  Aerobically I was feeling fine, though maybe not on tip top form.  However, the legs?  Achey.  I can’t explain why, but I’m oddly pleased about that.  It’s been quite a while since I’ve had any after effects from a ride, which presumably means I’ve just been operating within my capabilities.  Mind you, I don’t normally do a ride like Friday, and follow it by another long ride two days later.  Still, it feels good to have proof that I worked hard.  I’ve been pretty tired since I got in too, so I guess that’s double proof :).

I have to admit to having cheated when I got in.  Do you remember when you were a kid and got paid to wash the car?  Well I paid eldest to wash the bike.  Considering the state of it, it was possibly the best £1 I’ve ever spent.  Well even if he did a bad job, it was going to end up cleaner than it was.  And he didn’t, he did a very good job.  Two birds with one stone – bored teenager occupied for a while, dirty bike clean.  Result!  Knew there was a reason I had kids 😉 *grin*