Settling into a sigh of relief – Coast to Coast in a day has been done and done in a near-identical time to last time (which was three years ago and 10 kg less). So my fitness isn’t as under-trained as I’d thought it might be – the ride is 150 miles and 11,000ft climbing (not entirely evenly spread). That’s a lot more climbing than on any stage of LEL.
… still noodling & experimenting
As ever, work gets in the way – and I felt lousy through last weekend so decided that sanity dictated some rest. A pub ride this week dispelled some lingering paranoia that all fitness might have disappeared.
Skewers and the devil
Skewers have arrived. Wheels will be sorted … any day now. Just need some time.
Last weekend’s long ride was the London Ditchling Devil, at 204km with 8000ft of climbing (yes, yes, I should do that in metres … but the feet go by faster!). I finished about an hour earlier than I had anticipated, which I’m thrilled by – the overall elevation gain is approximately the same as the hardest stage of LEL, so that’s a reasonable test (and the hills are harder/steeper than on LEL).
Still amused by the number of other cyclists who find it amazing that I ride alone, and tend to say that they couldn’t … I find it difficult to ride with others, worrying that I slow them up! And I also don’t much like taking breaks (see the title of this blog …!), preferring to plod on.
Kit assembling
Dynamo wheelset has been completed (Son 28 hub, Archetype rims, DT Comp double-butted spokes) and brought home; now I need to install the cassette and tyres/tubes (the bits you always forget about in costings; I’m too lazy to shift them from one wheelset to the other. The wheels do have rim tape, though). The dynamo front light has also been acquired and the wiring sorted (spade connecters added on, heat shrink tubing shrunk).
I still need a bracket to turn up to fit the light to the underside of the Carradice bag (the alternative is clamping it onto the brake bolt and I refuse to mess with the brakes when they are working!), and I’ve ordered some new skewers for the wheels (yeah, I thought they’d come with, but apparently not …)
Also acquired a bell (a splurge, on the Spurcycles bell), and I’m waiting for some custom bar end plugs to finish the tape install (I’ve added Specialized Bar Phat gel pads and tape in the hopes of reducing some hand numbness; early indications are that it does in fact fulfil that hope).