I had a great week last week! I did 4 back-to-back rides – Wednesday 50k, Thursday 135k, Friday 200k and then another 200k on Saturday.
I’m chuffed to bits with myself. I’m so happy that my body allowed me to do the distance and the time on the bike, and I felt strong throughout it all. This gives me even more confidence that I can do the ride next year. I still have lots of training to do and am nowhere near ready yet but I will be on the day.
People think I have loads of time for training and that the ride is a long way off, but it really is close and I have to push as hard as I can to be ready for next year.
After these 4 days on the bike I discovered out a few problems that I’m working on now. The main problem is pain in the 3 points of contact on the bike - my hands, feet and bum.
I’m going to go back to the shoe company that did my insoles as they are better but my toes are killing me, so I need to try and fix this. My bum is still killing me as well, so I’m now trying new seats to see if I can find one that’s better for me. My hands hurt because I’m putting too much weight on them, so to help with that I’m going to train my core a lot harder at the gym. I’m raising my handle bars by 1cm, tilting them up a little and trying a new gel strap that wraps around the handle bars to see if that helps.
I am also trying to strip weight off the bike too. A new carbon seat post should save me 50gr, new seat 25gr, new carbon pedals, which move out a little wider to help on the pressure on your knees and hips, save 60gr.
I’m also going to try something called Q rings. Q rings are the 2 plates at the front of the bike that the pedals are attached to, and instead of being round they’re oval! This gives me 2 more teeth on the pedal stroke down when my leg is at the angle with the most force and 2 teeth less on the angles where my legs have less force. This should make my rides faster and help me recover quicker. I could write a whole essay on the things, but if you’re interested in knowing more about the Q ring just Google it. With the Q rings I’m also getting new pedal arms, so in total I’ll have lost 235gr off the bike. Don’t even ask me about the price as it is getting ridiculous! What I can tell you is, it’s a lot cheaper to lose weight at Slimming World than trying to do it on a bike!
Love the comments on Facebook and the website, Keith Walters seems to be having the time of his life on his bike, well done to him. Thanks to Dave my trainer for his funny blogs (just to let you know I always get him back every week after his blog taking the mick, but he never tells you! Numb nuts Dave is what I call him - he needs to find a better saddle too!)
And well done to John my ride buddy over here in Mallorca for doing his first 200k last Saturday.
Keep you posted
Love
Ben
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