50 miler

We did it! 50 miles through the Essex / Suffolk countryside. I can definitely say that it's the maximum distance possible on my 15 year old, heavy old mountain bike; especially as it only has five working gears. It was very hard work towards the end, my legs had had it. I'm taking it as a huge positive in my training though, that when I get a new, light bike with fully working gears, I should have at least another 20 odd miles in the tank. I feel very proud to have tackled 50 miles on the Ogre!

Despite the bike woes, it was a beautiful ride. Laura and I were accompanied by Greg and Claire for the first part, before they left us to get back to do other weekend things. We then went via Alton Water where we stumbled across the Great East Swim, so sat and watched that for a while, taking advantage of the farmers market and bought a veggie roll to take for our lunch at Pin Mill. I pretty much ran into the pub when we arrived to get a shandy, it was much needed by that point! After lunch by the river Orwell, we started back and cycled home in a great time. My new gadget records all sorts of data, including maximum speed, which is always fun to see. We reached 29.3 mph today down the horrible 20% gradient hill at Manningtree.

When I got back I went straight down to the quay and met Greg for another shandy and the discovery that I'd been wearing my bike gloves the wrong way round all this time (really). I flopped for the rest of the evening, Claire came round for pizza, football and bike talk. What a great day.