61.5 banked

Easy 10k run was followed by beers and curry yesterday. Good news that calf held up.

Today met Ed & Dan for an easy 50 on the bike. Rode to Hilton to meet everyone. 7 miles for everyone and a nice 20 mph avge for me to warm up :)

Set off to Gravely & Offards before hitting Paxton hill. The guys wanted a hilly ride and we certainly succeded!!

Over the A1 to Hail Weston was really slow going with the track more suited to a mountain bike!

Hit some really good roads through Kimbolton and up to Old Weston. Stopped at 30 for a quick break as Dan was feeling the pinch. Dan split to go back direct via Alconbury and Ed and I headed north to Great Gidding and Gladon. We really poured on the pace and hit some massive climbs at 20+ - really good fun.

Over the A1 and down bang into the wind and things started getting messy. Ed bonked quite early and struggled to keep it going. Making it to Huntingdon took some effort, the wind was BRUTAL, worst I had ridden in.

I'd done a big shift in the wind by Huntingdon and headed direct down the B1198 - a really fast and dangerous road. Struggled home via Papworth - the 23-34 mpoh sections dropped to 16-18 mph but batled back safe and sound for 61.5 in 3.23 which considering a good 15 miles were at 15-16 mph was good going.

Really pleased - bike legs are much much stronger than the start of the month and I am really starting to go well. Way ahead of where I need to be already so happy with that. On a less windy day with maybe Ian T to take a large shft at the front that would be pretty comfortable at 20 mph. Before we turned into the wind I felt double easy and was happy pouring the pace on the hills.

Great company with Dan and Ed - had a great laugh out there and some extra riding together we'll really start shifting.

Legs tired towards the end of the ride but feel really confident that I can do 2 1/2 hours hard riding without any problems at a good pace. Will probably do the majority of my riding in the 35-50 mile range for now - no need to go too far.