First Brick - the bike bit.

I’d originally intended to do this at Early O’clock on Saturday morning. But after the previous week’s burning the candle at both ends in a pure oxygen environment experience, I opted for a lie in instead. For some reason, 08:00 now counts as a lie in, but there you go.

Anyway, the plan was to do 30 miles reasonably hard, and then between 4 & 6 miles at a medium-ish run pace. So I got plenty of fluids ready, prepared some home-made gel, and eventually set off at about 11:30.

BTW - my new home-made gel recipe, which now includes oats to give a slightly slower burn:

Mill down 2 TBSP of porridge oats to a coarse powder in a food processor. Put these in a bowl, add 2 TBSP milk & 2 TBSP water, and cook in a microwave for 30 seconds, before returning it to the  food processor. Add ~1/2 a banana, 3 TBSP honey and 2 TBSP smooth peanut butter. Process to a runny paste, and pour into a suitable container. Bon Appétit!

Bored with my route through Newcastle, past the tank factory & the Metro Centre, I headed off to Sunderland. It was a good day for a ride, and even before I’d got to the Tyne Tunnel, I had to shed a layer. I was riding Christine (Giant SCR LTD), which now has a TT-setup on the handlebars (Profile Airwing, T2+ aero bars, Dura Ace shifters & Crane Creek brake levers), and I’ve clearly not got the setup right yet. The reach on the aero bars is just about perfect . . . but given the state of my neck, it’s just too low to be comfortable. I’m wondering if this is:

• Something I’ve just got to get used to. Like making the rider fit the bike. Surely it should be the other way round though?
• Something I can fix by adding spacers under the T2’s to raise them up 3/4″ or so.
• Something that for my 1/2 IM, I should just forgo. Over this kind of distance, am I better to have a comfortable if somewhat slower ride on standard drops, rather than a pain in the neck ride that leaves me in poor condition for the run?

Hmmm, some more thinking to do on this. One thing I do know though is that it was warm, and I didn’t drink enough fluids. I went out with 1.25 litres on the bike - a 750ml bottle with watered-down fruit juice (a surprisingly good carb mix), and a 500ml of Zym. And after 110 minutes, I’d barely finished the fruit juice, and not even started the Zym. I think it was because I was distracted by the whole comfort thing & trying to keep the cadence in the zone.

Whatever the reason though, it was something I was going to pay for later . . .

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 05/03/2008
• Total Time: 1:50:00.00
• Distance: 30.3 miles
• Average Speed: 16.53 mph

Filed under: Brick, Cycle, No More Excuses, Nutrition, Recipes