After a 23 mile outdoor ride yesterday, today was meant to be a recovery ride. However, despite yesterday’s ride knackering me, I felt pretty fresh tonight and decided to give the 10 mile quest a bash.
So, courtesy of BBC iPlayer, I watched an episode of Top Gear (the one with the Alfa Romeo 8C – probably the prettiest thing with 4 wheels ever made) and got going.
Boy, it hurt. I’ve never been a high cadence kind of guy, but I do try to keep it up to 80-85. So, in top gear, 80-85rpm, at 27 – 28mph. The last 3 miles weren’t the most pain I’ve ever experienced by a long shot, but there seems to be a mental block that won’t allow me to really punish myself yet (for reference the most pain I’ve experienced is when I went to the hospital to have fluid drawn from a mashed knee).
At 10 miles, with Suzy brandishing a serving spoon ready to dish tea as soon as I dismounted (something about the window of opportunity that experts talk about) I check the clock to be pleasantly surprised.
Previous Best – 21 minutes 58 seconds
New Best – 21 minutes 7 seconds
That’s a 51 second improvement – and hopefully an indication of increased fitness despite no real weight loss to speak of recently (it’s slowed down somewhat – but I’m at 18 stone 3lbs, that a 4 stone and 1lb loss so far).
As the weather improves, I intend to mark out a course with as much uninterrupted road as possible to try 10 miles in the real world – however bad the time might end up being!
