Training, Planning and Running the DW Race

I have had a couple of quiet days, my shin splints have come back a little bit and are making running a bit painful.

On the weekend though my car went into the garage and didn’t come back out again which then left me working out how to get into work on Monday morning. This time last year I would have gone for the soft option and got a lift, but instead I chose to cycle the twenty odd miles to work.

I gave myself two hours to get to work and timed it so I had a bit of time to get refreshed and changed before anyone else came in. In the end I covered the distance in an hour and a half and had plenty of time to get ready for a day at work.

My car then got better and was ready to be collected. My plan was simple. Blast back to collect it before they closed. The garage was four miles closer and closed at six, I finished work at five. So I had to cover sixteen miles in sixty minutes… My cycle computer claimed that I normally average about thirteen miles an hour, so for this to work I would have to go faster than my usual cruising speed.

The long version of this story has me battling with rush hour traffic, an incident with a red Audi and a white Transit van. There is also a bit where I blast past other cyclists as thought they were not moving and of me hitting thirty four miles an hour, but the short version of the story has me covering the distance in a couple of minutes under the hour and collecting my car with steam coming off my legs.

All in, I cycled 36.3 miles in the day. Now I appreciate that isn’t exactly Tour De France sort of distances, but they don’t ride with a rucksack of stuff for work, and then do a full days worth of work do they?...

Anyway, I slept like a log last night and I have those good aches when you know you have worked hard in my legs and my back and shoulders. I had to cycle to work out of necessity this time, but next time the weather is looking decent, I might well do it again.