With Amanda visiting her parents this weekend I had planned to really test myself, both in terms of the mileage and circumstances that would test my mental resolve - and so it proved.
Planning the route on Friday night I decide that I would do the major part of the Southern Sportive route that I completed in September. A few adjustments we needed but the main idea was to try and complete 100 miles - It would be the first time that I had tried to complete so many miles on my own.
Glancing at the weather forecast the signs were not good - a strong southwesterly wind was forecast which meant that the whole of the second (and home leg) would be straight into the wind. No worries I thought, I am quite a strong wind rider and this will give me the test I need.
Waking up Saturday morning I was greeted by the sound of howling winds outside - still, I downed my porridge, got the bike ready, had some muesli, packed two water bottles, 5 snickers bars, a banana and a tub of mixed nuts into my various pockets and headed out at 7.20am towards West Meon, where I would meet the Southern Sportive route.
This route is a delight really - nice roads, including some main ones, but at no point were they too busy, and I plugged on towards Petersfield with the wind at my back. I was determined though, not to go too fast as I knew that I would need to keep all the energy I had for the return part of the ride.
It began to drizzle, which meant the drops were coming in sideways on the back of the wind, and it almost felt as though mother nature was throwing drawing pins at me. It wasn't that cold though and this led to my first mistake - as it wasn't raining hard, I decided not to put on my rain jacket as I thought I would overheat. I had now turned and the wind and rain was coming in diagonally from the left hand side - horrible. Turning left and heading up towards the climb of Harting Down my legs turned to lead and it felt as though I had put the bike in reverse. It was only once I got home that I realised that the top of this hill is the second highest point of the route.
I finally arrived at the top and had to stop to eat my banana - five minutes later and now starting to feel cold, I put the rain jacket on and headed off again, downwind towards Goodwood.
Once over the fifty mile mark, it seemed the best idea was to find somewhere for a coffee and hopefully something warm to eat, so a sign for "The Pheasant" was just what the doctor ordered. Once inside a nice spot next to a large radiator beckoned, and so the process of de-robing began.
As I took off my jacket I started to realised just how wet I was. My Alzheimer's jersey was soaked through, and so was the jacket below. I duly hung them over the radiator and looked down at my base layer which was also soaked - no wonder I was starting to struggle with all that extra weight.
Forty five minutes, two coffees, a coke, a bowl of soup and numerous trips to the hand dryer later, most of the gear was OK to put back on - I couldn't really have had any complaint if the Landlord had been waiting at the door to charge me for all the extra power that I had used.
Once back on the road, and heading back into the wind I was feeling much better and around 12 miles further on I met a main road with enough cars coming past to make me stop and take a drink - Nooooooo!!
I had left both my water bottles in the pub after I had filled them up - too far to go back - not feeling quite so chirpy now - silly sod - never mind, no point worrying about it now, SUMO (shut up and move on).
And so it continued.... into the wind.
I think I am quite a good rider in the wind - you make yourself as small as you can, and just try and keep a rhythm and keep your cadence sensible. At least that's what you try and do, and then the elements slap you down and throw in a gust - all momentum lost and your legs get sapped just trying to regain your ground.
This is where your mind is tested, you want to give up, your mind plays tricks.
Arriving in Clanfield, popping into a shop, and stocking up on water (I couldn't take it with me as the bottle was too big), gave me a sense of revitalisation and having popped my lights on the bike, I was finally on the last stretch and eventually turned onto our drive at 4.20pm (ish).
A fib about no pictures - here's the screeenshot from the Garmin.
Until next week. (Wow 47.6 MPH - that's fast :-) )
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