Mother Nature brings me back down to Earth

Sunday 24th June 2012

Cycling
03:11:24 –  51.35Miles (16.10 MPH / HR Zone 2  / 73% Max / Cadence 82rpm)

This is my last long(ish) ride before Frankfurt.  I will not be back on the bike for this length of time again until I am on it for real on the 8^th of July.

The first 30 miles were an absolute joy. The weather was not too bad, reasonably warm and the wind didn’t feel too bad, and I was delighted to be clipping along at an average of about 18mph for the first 30 miles, even though it was mostly through the rolling Co. Down countryside, which is far from flat.

When I reached Killyleagh, I turned West and back towards Saintfield and Lisburn.  It was almost immediately at this point that I realised that the wind which I thought had been mild or non existent was just hiding round the bend waiting for me.  And bloody hell did it take it’s revenge on me.

The first 2 or 3 miles out of Killyleagh are pretty much up hill, which is not normally all that bad, but with the strong wind it felt really tough.  The only positive thing was that the wind was not cold, but it was certainly strong.

My average speed just melted away and at one point I thought I had a puncture as it was so hard to push up the hill.  No puncture, just the wind having a laugh at my expense.

I slogged on through to Saintfield and hoped that the slight change of direction home would mean that I moved to a side wind and get a little respite.  No such luck.  Pretty much the same picture for the next 10 miles, and by the time I got back to Lisburn I was thoroughly P’d off with the wind and was glad to get finished.

Once I got off the bike and back in to the house and had a chance to review the data from the Garmin, I was actually quite pleased with myself.  The route was just over 50 miles, covered in a bit over 3Hrs and there was almost 600M of elevation gain, which is a bit more than I can expect on each loop of the Frankfurt course.  I still managed to maintain an average of over 16mph throughout, even in the blowy conditions and this gives me a bit of confidence ahead of the main event.

It definitely was a bit of bump back down to earth from Mother Nature though, as I had been feeling so strong and almost invincible with my recent PB in the half marathon and overall felling of strength.  It just took a bit of a strong wind to put me back in my place and realise that the conditions on the day will play somewhat of a role in how I do overall, but I take the positives from this and use it as a learning experience and a chance to affirm that training that has gone before.