Viking Challenge - update

Survived the ride, 50K, no punctures & mostly intact in 3hours 24.  Very sloppy going, much puddles and mud, so 4 minutes slower than last years' hard packed dustbowl, was quite pleasing.

1300 riders, so very well attended. Lots of colours and types of bikes at the start, all the same colour at the end:)

Huge thanks to the organisers and marshalls....

No thanks to the idiot who stopped right in front of a waymarker, causing a bunch of riders to go the wrong way...

Dusting off the cobwebs

Bizarrely, not done an awful lot of riding these past few weeks. All good intentions, mind. I stupidly thought the school hols would bring opportunity with the passenger free commute. How wrong could one be? Never ending lists of pickups, home by x o'clocks and freezers to transport.

Still, have managed a few Sunday rides, generally in preparation for:
The Viking Challenge

A local 50k off road thingy that me and the Nikster did last year. I have a feeling that the terrain wont be as hard and dusty though. Still apparently, its been worse.

Training has been limited to the Possessed Life Fitness exercise bike.  It's meant to keep your heart rate at 80% (of what?) by adjusting the tension or whatever. Seems though, even when my hands are not on the sensor, it sometimes reads a very low rate, so ups the difficulty...hmph.  Best music for this is any Ramones, at 90+ bpm, keeps the cadence at the right pace.

Will report back with time, although unlikely to beat last years 3h 20m.

J

1st ride since

Had a great ride after work today, some of the favourites in the North Downs around Peaslake. fun, not worrying about heart rate, average speed, distance, just blasting it for the craic

wow good times, first real technical ride on the new full suss too. absolutely great, need to tweak a couple of things, grips possibly longer bars, felt wierd after all the time on the hardtail training, squidgy back end and slack front end. needs washing again. Introduced a Scottish colleague to the trails too, he was surprised to find that it wasnt rubbish even though its in the south of england. Showed him some of the best bits, but I'm holding a bit back for next time, dont want to reveal my hand too early. Badgerberry was out too so 3 orange 5's out looked a bit unoriginal frankly, but cant knock the ride, the guys are loving theirs too.

The Directors Cut...

hopefully it will work on most devices and pass an amusing couple of minutes, if not then I'm sorry but there's no money back

enjoy.

We got there, phew...

After all that rain for weeks, the trails were dry and the weather was hot. We made it to Beachy Head at about 7.30pm last night. It was a long day made easier by the fantastic support crew, being cheered into each checkpoint and fed and watered. Lemon cakes and tea at the end too smashing. According the GPS widget top speed was 35mph and 8399 calories used and 98.2 100 miles exactly ;-)

Feeling OK today, bikes washed, breakfast eaten, stairs avoided. It looks like we've got over £1500 raised now.

More updates later.

The beginning.

Nothing left but setting the alarm.

Well we've had dinner so now to mix up some energy drink and go to bed. May have overloaded on the kids left overs.