Flippin' Clip Ins!

Right - enough sodding about - it was time for a bike ride, company or not. VArious local events conspired to mean that my usual riding pardners were all busy, so I set off on my own, trying the clips again for the first time in ages. It needed to be done. Because of the clips, and the fact I was on my own, I decided to do 50km, call it a day, and do a 50 mile ride at least partially with Greenie on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I did struggle to clip in at first, but pootled up towards the "Mad Mile", or just short of it, and came to my first major junction. Was I going to have to stop, or would that van go through the gap in the traffic. Yes...no...yes...no... SMACK!

I'd rather got used to these situations, and being able to just put my foot down when I needed to stop. What I'd forgotten was that with clips, you need to unclip first. Simple really innit? Apparently not!

Anyway - apart from that, all was goign well, although I did think my legs were feeling tired. I've had a problem with the outside of my quads (ITB/TFL) being tense lately, and I thought that perhaps this was going to be a tough ride. I headed up past the prisons, and towards Banstead - planning on following the club 22 mile route, and add on an extra loop somewhere.

Half way up here, I remembered I hadn't hit the start button on the Garmin (the bike computer starts automatically) so the map below doesn't start from my house!

map when blogger lets me!

Anyway - I climb up Bolters Lane and up through Banstead, then realised I couldn't do the usual right turn onto the dual carriageway (not on foot!), so headed left in the opposite direction until I found a gap in the central reservation. Then it was downhill to the top of the mad mile, left down towards the Driftbridge garage (this is a lousy piece of road - must avoid it) and then the climb to the Downs. At this point I decided to do a loop through Tadworth and Headley, possibly popping into the Box Hill tea rooms that weren't far away.

Somewhat surprisningly I reissted the urge, and headed back owards Epsom Downs up Hurst Lane. I took a minor detour through Epsom, and then headed back home at about 23 miles. I stuck some lunch in the oven, and then headed out on a loop to bring my up to 50km (31 miles). All went fine here, apart from a daft chav who decided it would be fun to dance in the road in front of me and yell abuse. I was so tempted to stop, but I was in cleats and didn't want anything happening to the bike. Maybe a swift unclip and gouge his leg with my cleat would be the best plan of attack next time!

Then home, lunch, and a quick nap, before heading up tot he gym for a sauna. I was feeling energetic though, and somehow churned out a mile of swimming for the first time for ages. I was getting shoulder twinges though, which is unusual - perhaps as a result of cycling, and quite a bit of weights done the past few days. All in all a good day's work though, and my legs didn't feel too bad either. It was almost tempting to pop out for a six miler!