Jason's Blog Site

The summer has now come and gone, well almost, refreshing morning bike rides just before the day warms up have been on the cards these past few weeks.

My new training partner, Mark, has proved to be a worthy adversary. At the beginning of the summer Mark approached me and asked if I won't mind letting him join me when I went out on the bike, truth be known I'd been struggling to get the enthusiasm to get out, so this was what I needed to get back into the saddle. Mark is a 'Personal Trainer' and has his own gym, so I was somewhat nervous about how I would fair.

To start with we had to convert his bike from a full suspension lead weight to a hardtail ridged fork feather weight beasty! This no longer gave me the edge on my lightend bike. Lifting weights and cycling are completely different, so for the first month he struggled, but soon his own fitness caught up and our 12mile route soon turned into a mad speed fest, with us both having strong sections, and no real advantage over the other. Part of the course was a 3 mile sprint from Elmstead to Colchester along a duel carriage way, this was not an ideal stretch to be on, and I was always waiting for some truck not to see us and turn us into 'brown bread'!

Then a few weeks ago Mark asked if it was possible to lengthen the course, this was good news as I had an alternate route that I had used a few times, and was happy to get off the main road, as the new course cut the road out completely, and so the new 14.6mile course was born.

Below is a googlemap of the course:
(not sure why the route sometimes does not always show)

View It's only 14miles in a larger map

The new route adds another 2 miles of off road cycling, this is good, with some up and downhill sections to get the heart pumping. This also has increased our ride time by 15mins, which although does not sound like much, when your continually pushing on over rough terrain it really saps your strength.

First time out, I forgot the route and had to cut it short, second time out I remembered the route but got a puncture, which Mark took great advantage of. I never realized how much more effort it takes to ride on flat tyres!!! But the third time out was a charm, and I enjoyed every minute, bump, hill and speed sections.

Hopefully we will keep getting out as the weather turns colder and wetter. I know I certainly need to just to keep my body in shape. Did I mention Marks about 18years younger than me, which makes me feel a little better about myself.

See old people can still hang with the youngsters!!!!