Having spent much of the winter taking in long Sunday rides and tacking brick sessions (biking after runs and running after bikes - painful but necessary) onto runs etc. it was time that we got a feel for what LEJOG would do to us...
Well to be more accurate Becky decided that it was. As we were due to be in Kirby Lonsdale anyway on the Sunday - Becky volunteered to drop us off in Ironbridge and then drive up to meet us. Great idea and much appreciated - however it was only upon looking at the atlas and the number of times we had to turn the page that the distance dawned upon us!
This bit of the route is relatively flat - however the elements conspired against us. Strong winds blew NNW against us all the way making drafting essential to share the work but there was no shelter from the harsh Baltic hailstorms that lashed down on us time after time.
Yes this was definitely good training.
It helped us sort out fueling as well. Even on a long Sunday ride there isn't a huge amount that you usually need to take on board, however, at one point 80 odd miles in we both started to fade. Thinking that we may have reached our limit we decided to stop and take some food on board. One shop stop, two coffees and large slices of cake and Chris and I were right as rain again. Lesson 2 never stop eating!
Eventually with light fading we made it into Lancaster just in time for Chris to jump on the bus back to Manchester.
It was a great psychological boost to have done a day. It should stand us in good stead when we're really suffering on day 3! Hopefully when we do this day for real we'll have a bit of support as well as we past the North West.
Andy
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