The long way round

This evenings idea was a quick leg stretch of 20-25k on the bike. I was hoping to keep it to a short and quick run due to me running a half marathon race on Sunday and I wanted to save my legs for that. Unfortunately I decided to go a different route and then my natural sense of direction let me down and after getting lost twice I ended the evening in the twilight after doing a rather overworked 62km in 2hrs 29mins.

A nice distance of course but it wasn't planned and as a result my legs ran out of juice around the 50km mark. I felt it creeping up on the legs after about 50km and then by 55km I knew I'd burnt out all the energy in my blood.

The last 12k was run purely on grunts and guts. I was totally washed out at the end but I knew it was due to the lack of energy rather than the distance. I certainly could not have ran once I parked the bike. I could hardly stand up if I'm being honest. I'll be adding an energy gel to my emergency bike kit to avoid this in future. I can also declare my nether regions took a nice beating.

A couple of energy drinks, a shower and my dinner and I'm feeling fine. Average speed of just under 25kmph over a normal route. The road surface made a huge difference and where it was new tarmac I even managed to go up some inclines and keep it well over 30kmph. When I'm riding in the cycle paths and its rough its hard to keep that pace up as the bike is shaken all over the place.