Jerrah

I only made it through 36km of riding tonight but thankfully I didn’t get any leg cramps until much later in the ride. I believe I’m actually making a noticeable improvement. The downside to this ride was I started getting asthma on the home stretch. I made it home ok but I’ve learnt my lesson about pushing myself riding especially in the middle of winter. 

A workmate has suggested that the two of us enter the Noosa enduro which is on in about two months. We would be choosing the ‘easy’ 50km offroad option rather than the more extreme 100km course.To build up to this I’ve started riding my mountain bike again. Monday was ok. I rode 13km and afterwards I felt fine. The next day I was due to meet up with my workmate, but I got a bit lost on my first time through a suburb and unfortunately she left the meeting point possibly seconds before my arrival as it was cold and she had been waiting for me for a while. I decided to do the ride by myself and it was all going quite well – I was surprising myself but about 30km into the ride I started cramping up and feeling sick to the stomach. When I got home I was really hungry but completely unable to face food due to my heaving stomach. I made it home and to be honest for someone who is in bad shape like I am, it’s not a bad start to leap straight into a 44km night ride in winter.  Tonight went ‘mostly’ to plan. My workmate decided to ride to my place so we didn’t miss each other (and give herself some more distance training I presume) but I got sick of waiting around for her to arrive so I called her and arranged to meet her on the way. I made it all the way to the meeting point from Tuesday night without catching sight of her so I called her again and discovered she was up the other end of the road near my house. We both turned around and managed to find each other quite quickly. I have to say my workmate is in a much fitter state than I am, I spent most of the ride feeling like she wasn’t working very hard but I was pushing myself to the limit for most of those 39km. That said when I got home I felt fine and I really feel fantastic tonight, especially compared to Tuesday night. I’m hoping to be able to get my average speed up and be comfortable in completing 50km offroad prior to entering the Noosa Enduro. 

I rode 44km tonight on my mountain bike. Just on bike paths and streets doing a lap of Brisbane. My legs are killing me, my stomach has been churning and my legs are periodically cramping. When I was about 30km in I started to get worried I wouldn’t be able to get home but somehow I managed to go the distance. Whilst 44km isn’t a big deal for probably many people who ride bicycles, the next biggest ride I’ve done in recent history was 13km and that was yesterday! Talk about stepping it up! I’m a little worried that my legs will cramp up in my sleep and how sore they might be tomorrow but  I was serious about getting back into cycling. I’m not sure if 44km is a good place to start though. I might take tomorrow night off the bike.