Cambridge 100

Today was the second big test of my Ironman training - an over-distance ride. Plan was always to ride to and from the event to make a nice 120-130 mile ride and it was always going to be about getting saddle time rather than average pace.

Alarm set for 6am, was out the door by 6.25 to meet Mark and Dan at the business park. I set out in just shorts, jersey and sleeves. I had assumed it would be a cold start and that it'd quickly warm up. Wow, talk about wrong. It was freezing and as we headed the 12 miles to the start it became clear we were all becoming a bit hypothermic. I could not stop shivering when I got to the start line, luckily Kye who we met there had some spare gloves which were a life saver.

The ride to the start was always planned to be a pootle and 15 mph avge along the busway was about right. The first 5-10 miles of the sportive were pretty shitty out of Cambridge and it was impossible to get any decent speed. There were some knob head cyclists out there, flying through the middle and riding on the wrong side of the road just to get ahead. We had the last laugh as we spat them all off the back later in the ride.

Finally, after we cleared Cambridge we hit an A road and Kye ramped up the pace to a decent 20 mph and we cruised at that till the first feed station - a pub - at about 30 miles. We met Ian D there, quick stop and a powerbar and we were off. From here on it was good riding with wind behind. The 5 of us pushed the pace pretty much from here to the next feed station at 63 miles (don't forget we had 12 miles to the start line!). The pace only dropped for junctions and turns but it's fair to say we had a real good blast out there and a giggle doing it. Mind you, we hit a village where every house had a jumble sale outside their front door and that was slow going -10mph through there with nonces everywhere not watching where they were walking or driving!

We picked up some stragglers along the way who sucked our rubber, but the 5 of us managed to blow them off the back for taking the piss just before the stop!

Tea, chips and another powerbar and we tackled the home straight. We knew it was windy and it did it's best to slow us down. From here back to home it was wind in face all the way. Kye and Ian stuck some shifts in before I had a go. For 15-20 miles we kept 19-20 mph avge up before we started to ease the pace to the finish and kept to around 17 mph.

Hitting the finish line felt good. 112 miles (Iroman distance) in the bag already and I felt pretty OK about myself. Quick tea and a burger then Mark and I hit the ride home. Ian had peeled off at Ely and Kye/Dan drove back to Cambourne. Mark and I eased back at an easy 15/16 mph and had the biggest hill of the day (only hill of the day) in the last 10 miles!

124.2 miles in the bag - longest ride by 34.2 and over distance. Over the moon with that especially off the back of the week's riding I have done.

305 bike miles in the last 8 days, 2 good swims & a couple of OK runs on raggy legs. I got to get my bike strong and this is a monster step towards that.

Next week - got to get back to running 6:30's, got to nail the club TT and do 2 x 1 hour swim sets.