Training Ride - Day 1 - Bishop's Stortford to Guildford

Today is the first of a three day training weekend. I have deliberately rested my knee all week and hope that it'll be ok for the three days.

Rich is leaving Chesham about 6ish, and cycling towards Bishop's Stortford. I am taking the kids to school and plan to leave about 9:30am, meeting Rich somewhere on the road to Ware. All goes to plan and Rich see's me in the distance just as he is about to head down a steep hill. He stops sharply to avoid having to cycle back up it!

Rich has already done over 50 miles, I've done about 8. It's about 45 miles to Chesham so we have about 37 miles riding together ahead of us.

Rich's wife has an exam today so Rich needs to be back about 12ish to make sure he is around in case the nursey his son attends calls.

I've not riden with Rich before and it was a good experience! We matched each other for pace well and knocked the miles off relatively quickly, especially on the A414 from Hertford to Hatfiled. Rich started to feel more at home as we went through St Albans and Hemel Hempsted, before we takled the climb through Bovingdon and then on to Chesham.

By the time we got to Rich's house - about 12:15pm - Rich was feeling tired (as he has a bit of a cold). We get back just in before his wife heads off to her exam.

Rich feeds us with tea and toast and I refill my bottles. We wait for Iain, Paul and Simon to turn up (they had left Guildford about 9:30am), and were cycling up about 45 miles. They arrive, more tea and toast, a chat and some bottle refilling. It's nearly 1:30pm before we leave, somewhat later than planned.

We had stopped long enough to rekindle the recent debate over the optimal length of stop on the ride itself. I'm staying out of the discussion for now!

We set off, cold - clothes are wet and it isn't warm today, down the hill to Chesham and then up some nice back roads to Amersham (much nicer than the route I took late time I cycled to Guildford).

There an almost vertical hill going out of Amersham towards Beaconsfield (with a crawler lane). Iain's chain came of, Paul cycled into the back of him and ended up with his face in close contact with the tarmac. I think Paul was very concious that it was a busy road and needed to get out of the road! I stopped to check Paul was ok, Simon just kept going up the hill. We got going again, and near the top, my chain came off too - luckily there was no-one behind me!

We stopped for a snack about 3pm. I checked my chain because it had been slipping a bit during the ride. One of the links was on its way out. We phoned Cycle Workshop in Guilodford and let them know that we would be popping in later and asked a favour to see if they could have a look at it!

We set off for the last 20 miles, but with about 8 miles to know, I pulled away from a roundabout quickly and my knee suddenly felt a lot worse. I couldn't put any pressure down with my left leg without it hurting.

So, my right thigh gets a good workout and carries me to the cycle shop. Simon headed off to get his car and agreed to pick me up from the shop. Iain literally pushed me up a few hills on the way to the shop - many thanks! We've just done 90 miles as we turn in to the shop. Iain and Paul head off back to Iain's for a stretch and a massage!

I get a Power Link in the chain and it appears to be ok, but the chain, rear cassette, and chain rings are not in good condition, so I'm looking at some repairs in the next week or so...

Simon, picks me up, offering me his salty nuts, thanks, I think! Back at Iain's I get me massage, a stretch instruction - extremely useful! Have a lovely hot bath and relax. My knee is sore, I'll sleep on it and see how it is in the morning.