It's not been a great week for Lee! It started well as she was overjoyed to get the job of sorting the parkrun finish tokens. That's genuine, Lee loves sorting and organising, this is literally a dream come true for her. As I write this she's back in A&E after a rough night. Current temp is 39c and with some other symptoms I strongly suspect she has another infection. I'm not allowed to stay in A&E so it was another drop off and reluctant parting. Now I'm just waiting to see if our Queen of Cakes is staying in or if I can pick her up later. Despite all of that we did have a good day yesterday I did manage to get out on my bike which, if you want to, you can read about later. We also had a really nice barbecue with friends in the evening. UPDATE: just gastroenteritis, going to pick her up now!!!
In the week I was able to get to time trial Despite being on call due to the help my lovely colleagues.
I'm happier with my bike set up and felt that I was going faster. In places I got Strava PR but overall it was about the same time. Still very enjoyable and I'm glad I'm doing it. Sam didn't join in this week due to the Europa league final. Hopefully he'll be back next week.
Alongside the dog walks I've done the usual couple of runs which felt good.
The healthy eating continues and before Friday I did 43 days without drinking alcohol. The outcome is I'm now 14st 7lbs (92kg) with 9lbs lost in 5 weeks of trying! My alcohol rules are only: when entertaining, proper special occasions or if I'm out. However fearing an untrained liver I had a few beers on Friday night to warm up!
On Saturday I successfully met the cyclasylum riders in Rushton for another group ride. Having dressed in all my winter kit last week, this week was the (un)polar opposite. Shorts, short sleeves, summer shoes and factor 50 sunblock!
We headed out via Pipewell to East Carlton, then Middleton and down that glorious descent into Rockingham. Oh no Rocky Hill!
Andy P, experimenting with new cycle luggage led the way and I settled into the suffer of this climb. I've mentioned the history we ride through a few times. At the top of Rockingham Hill is Rockingham Castle. This has been a defensible site since the Iron age due to being on top of the biggest hill in the area. William the conqueror ordered a proper castle built there and successive chunks of nobility have resided there sincethen, apart from a short expulsion during the English Civil War. Now the Sheriff of Northamptonshire lives there. Here's some more info Rockingham Castle
As I climbed my wahoo turned on the Strava live segment and showed I was close to my best time. This spurred me on and I went as hard as I could to beat my previous best by 10 seconds. This bodes well for Dartmoor! The problem with Rocky Hill is it ends in Corby. You instantly leave quaint old rural Northants and are deposited into an industrial urban carbuncle. Only for a few minutes though as we headed into Gretton and then down another good hill to Harringworth.
Another piece of history is the impressive Harringworth viaduct. It is in fact the biggest viaduct in the UK and contains more than 30 million bricks Welland_Viaduct or Harringworth or Seaton!
A further good hill took us up to Spanoe Airfield. From this base part of the fight to regain mainland Europe started in WW2. If you've seen films like " A Bridge Too Far," then this is one of the places the paratroopers flew from. RAF_Spanhoe
This was our official banana 🍌 stop and as usual the banter bus roared into life. After a tough week at work it was just the medicine I needed. Also the Friday night beers were having no effect and I think that's the best I've ridden in ages. So I kept pushing as hard as I could because it's fun, rewarding and good for me! I'm not saying 5 beers the night before improves your cycling. I think losing some weight, pushing myself and a 5 week break from booze is starting to show results...so starting tomorrow its back on the wagon, stick to myfitnesspal and keep up the activity.
One of the banter targets was Tony's clip on aero bars. It's not the done thing to use these on a group ride but in Tony's case it's fine because he only employs them as a Garmin mount. I feel like submitting this picture to GCN's 'hack or bodge,' although I think they'd have to redefine as 'bodge or massive bodge!'
We had a good ride back through Benefield and Brigstock and up the bumps to Grafton. I headed home from there as I had cleaning and prep to do before the barbecue! As I arrived at my house the wahoo showed 49.7 miles...we can't have that can we? So I rode up and down the street until it got to 50!
This morning I was Run Director for the first time at Junior Parkrun. If you've ever wondered how much work takes place to enable Parkrun to take place, the answer is: quite a lot! In the week Lee helped me sorting the finish tokens and hanging the hi-vis vests on the line. My job, making sure we had enough volunteers was made easy by everyone else. Firstly the roster was nearly full before my week began and then after one appeal we were full. Previous Run Directors have put such a comprehensive pack together and are so available that all problems are easily resolved. I now know my barcode number by heart due to logging onto the Parkrun website frequently. On the day things went really well for one simple reason. The volunteers at Parkrun are great, the rest of the core team are great and the parkrunners are great! I think Amanda who worked alongside me today should also have a successful first go as RD.
As I write the final stage of the Giro is on the telly. What a fantastic grand tour!
Happy Pedalling
I only read the bit about Lee tbh but really pleased she is better and it waI s nothing more serious. XX
ReplyDeleteThats okay I don't mind who reads what bit. I write because I enjoy it.
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