Decided to go for a ride this morning but didn't know where to go
, so set off from home (sutton) and headed toward the club run route.
As I was going down the Merstham drag I thought maybe it would be nice to go and see my Mum at Turners Hill
, as it was new year. So I turned off and headed along the London to Brighton route, which looked decidedly different without the thousands of other cyclists along the way.
It started to rain and I thought maybe I had made a mistake, should I turn back
Of course not, I'm a bloke, I'm 'ard', a little bit of rain can't stop me.
So now I'm soaked through with half the journey out, and all the journey back, still to go. Physically I was doing ok, but not riding very often on my own, mentally it was starting to get tough.
Then I take a wrong turn and don't know where I am, mmm not good
. My mum's only been there a couple of years and I always drive down the motorway, and on the L2B I'm following everyone else, so not concentrating on the bloody road signs
. Help
Anyhow, I managed to find a road I recognised, turned onto it the wrong way for about 1.5 miles, turned around the correct way and ended up getting to my mum's in 2 hours flat. Probably 15 mins of that going the wrong way
Tea, cake and a tumble dryed base layer later, I set off for home, thinking I now know the correct way back along the L2B route
. Alright so I got lost, so what.
At least it had stopped raining
I'm now at a crossroads, do I go left, or do I go straight on? Ok straight on it is. 800m later I have a change of heart and turn back around, only to get to the junction again and decide that I was right in the first place
. But as it happened, wrong.
When I was riding I was pushing pretty hard and my legs were starting to tire quite badly. By this time I had found myself on the A22, so stayed on it all the way to Purley, stopping off at a petrol station for much needed fuel. I got home in 1 hour 35mins, with the help of a tail wind.
I found the ride to be pretty hard physically, but much harder mentally.
I know its not a huge ride compared to Stu's Brighton and back or you guy's that go out and knock in big numbers of miles on your own, but 65miles (guess) was tough enough for me
Happy New Year
Steve