Anyone for a training ride?

And so Saturday dawned and off I jogged (not literally!) to meet friend and teamie  Izie in Easingwold for one of our regular Saturday morning training rides. It was a typical flat grey Yorkshire day with a gentle easterly breeze - reality, freezing cold and friggin hard!

After a quick bike set up in the car park, as we often  meet in a town between our homes, with Izie very kindly giving me an extra energy bar with a rather smug grin on her face ( I discovered why later!) we set off,  uphill naturally, as you do, and, you know that feeling when it’s going to be one of those rides, well today went something like this - please use your imagination to add in suitable expletives……….

Izie…..we’ve done 10 minutes
 
Me…. Really ? Are you sure? Does your computer work properly? (Rule # if in doubt about the numbers, blame technology)

Iona….Yes     
                                                                                                       
Me….Oh

Fast forward 10 minutes…….

Iona …..we’ve now done 20 minutes and 4.61 miles

Me……silence……….think 4 letter words!!!  (it was uphill into a headwind on rough roads, honest!)

And so it continued, no Izie we are not going up that 25% hill and I’m certainly not chasing that carrot (aka another cyclist) up there, please have just a little respect for the elders of the team! 
Then came the short steep hill into Ampleforth, sprint effort, hateful things. 

Chasing a flying Izie, knowing I shouldn’t have believed the ‘my legs hurt’ statement from her, she suddenly ground to a halt half way up, and I mean a proper halt. Feet on the ground. Stationary . Bent over the bars. Concerned for my teammate I did a quick turn near the top of the hill and dropped back down. With a grin and between uncontrollable, unable to breathe type laughing she said,
 ‘Thought you’d like to do a second ascent of this one!'. Thanks Izie, how thoughtful….heavy sarcasm!!

Clocking up the k’s in the hilly terrain and the cold temperatures can only mean one thing after a while, hunger knock. Being appreciative of my team mates’ generosity at the start I opened the
energy bar.  It was not a culinary experience I wish to repeat in a hurry is all I can say. It tasted like what I imagine a mixture of glued together rabbit food and sawdust would, not to mention the fact you couldn’t actually eat it, breathe and ride at the same time. Being female I know I should be able to multitask - overrated anyway in my opinion - but that was actually impossible; to eat, breathe and ride. Suppose it was maybe like advanced interval training in some respects.

Thankfully the High 5 energy bars are very tasty (too nice really) so thanks , but no thanks Izie, you can keep the rest of those energy bars! 

Time rocked by, k’s adding up, legs shot, from the continual rolling hilly terrain and the Yorkshire road surfaces, we finally both decided it was time to head for home, starting to fantasize about the coffee shop we always finish up in back in the town.
 
Now most of us are fully aware that ‘Road Closed’ signs very rarely mean it, especially when on a bike, so we took a joint decision to ignore one such sign and take the most direct route back to the cars. Bad move! Bulldozer, big proper barriers, no side roads to dodge round it, yep, how  do we deal with this without adding on another long loop. Fortunately eagle eyed Izie spotted a small snicket while I opted for a rest and photo shoot.  

Zig zagging up our final QOM hill (all of 1:20) the Stats Queen was busily informing me that we’d need to do a few finishing circuits of the town centre – all of 400m round - to make up our 3h ride (that computer is so wrong, needs checking). Fortunately, the cold weather and terrain had taken its toll on both and by the time we made the town, an executive decision was made to bail straight to the coffee shop regardless of the fact we were a couple of minutes short of our target time. Happy days!

And so, energy levels replenished, we set off in convoy for Planet X in Sheffield to collect our new speed machines for the season. Following Izie round York ring road I noticed her gesticulating at me, total confusion, what was she trying to tell me? And again, and again….then, enlightenment…..it was mixing recovery drink time! Forgot mine… ‘Planet X will have coffee’ said Izie helpfully when we arrived! But, on the positive, being a tight Yorkshire lass, I did find that if I drove close enough behind her, then I could share her screenwash when she used it!

Arriving at Planet X we were very well looked after by Craig and crew, and our time trial bikes, wheels, and High 5 energy packages collected.  

Many thanks to Stewart for working so hard to make sure that this was all in place for us and collection smooth and easy.

Also many thanks to Carnac- Planet X and High 5 nutrition for all their sponsorship and I think I speak on behalf of all the girls when I say we are really looking forward to flying the Carnac-Planet X flag over the coming season.

Til  next time…..  

Sarah x