Two Little Boys Had Two Little Toys . . .

Today is Sunday, and that means a longer than average bike ride. Seeing as I’d not been out for a while with my friend The Irishman, I agreed to meet at his house, and then we’d go for a slightly longer version of our usual route to the tank factory at the end of Scotswood Road and back.

It seems that the Bike Fairy’s been visiting The Irishman (though I can’t think why, as he’s obviously not a good little boy at all), and he’s just bought a pretty much brand new Revolution Cullin Sport from one of his colleagues who needed a ‘better bike’. Not sure how he knew though - this one looked like it’d never been ridden - brakes pretty much unworn, no dirt, and hardly any lube transferred from the chain to the chainrings’ teeth.

As he never goes offroad beyond the occasional shortcut across a lawn, the Irishman’s locked down the front forks’ suspension, and will be replacing the super knobbly tyres with something a little more sensible. But in the meantime, he was eager to get out on his new ride for the first time . . .  so I suggested we take in a couple of hills.

Unfortunately, his new bike was lacking in things like a bottle rack (with a bottle in it) (with water in that), and by the time we got to the top of Burnopfield, the strain was starting to show - heavy bike + knobbly tyres + big hill + no fluids = a tough time of it.

Of course, I couldn’t just leave him for dead (what would his wife say ?!), so I waited at the top of the hill, waving supplies temptingly. The Snickers, home-made protein bar, and 3/4 litre of Funky Rehydration Mix seemed to do the job nicely, and kinda reminded me of what was my favourite song when I was four years old - Rolf Harris’ “Two Little Boys”.
At this point, you may want to sing along - Rolf Harris’ site has a sample of the music for you to get the hang of the tune, and the lyrics are available here.

ANYWAY . . . we got home OK without further mishap, and although I was a little dehydrated (/selfless), I wasn’t too badly off - no headaches, visual snow, or extreme tiredness to talk of.

When the Irishman and I cycle, it’s more of a social rather than a training thing. So although I averaged 18.7mph for the ten miles each way to and from his house, the average for the trip was down at just over 14. Not too fast, but not too slow either!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 07/15/2007
• Total Time: 3:00:00.00
• Distance: 42.6 miles
• Average Speed: 14.2 mph
• Max Speed: 41 mph
• Average Cadence: 84
• Max Cadence: 132

Filed under: Cycle