Saturday 1 October 2011

September Round-Up and a pretty BIG milestone

So, September has been and gone and as regular readers will know, my mojo has also been coming and going; leaving one of my weekly totals way off target. However despite that, I somehow managed to ride 197.4 miles! (Yes I know I should have got it up to 200... but I had much bigger fish to fry and this slipped my mind.)

Last Sunday when tallying up my totals, I realised that with a concerted effort I could get my overall (yearly) total to 2000 by the end of September. It would mean doing 45 miles in 5 days... but that was do-able! ... OK, it would be a little harder as I had just ridden everyday for the last 4 days to meet last weeks target and could really do with a day off - as my legs were feeling the strain, but I could do it. Couldn't I?

On Monday I managed to muster up 10 miles. But it was hard work - I was running late to get to our meeting point so raced into Penzance. As I was late I had little time to regain my composure before we were off. Mikey was with Turbo John, who although he slows his pace down considerably for me, he still takes me that little bit faster than I can comfortably go.  In fact it was insanely fast (for me), I think the average that day was 13.5.

My legs were burning by Tuesdays ride which I hoped would be a little slower, but yet again, stupid me got my timings all wrong - This time, I'd decided to do a 2 mile loop before heading into Penzance to get a little extra mileage in, but annoyingly I'd underestimated how long that loop would take and then I had to push really hard to get to our meeting point in time.

By Wednesday I was a little bit broken and despite it being Mikeys day off I just couldn't bear to get back on the bike! Stuff the 2000 milestone, my thighs and knees just couldn't take any more! Despite the still fatigued legs, I was back on the bike on Thursday, another ride done and much closer to the target. By Friday I only had 9.5 miles to meet the target! I could do this. Yeah!

At 5.25 on Friday evening I was rudely awoken by the telephone! It was a witheld/international call so I ignored it... hang on.... NO! Why was I asleep on the sofa when I should have been on the bike! There was no way I could make it to the meeting point in time. A quick text to Mikey and then I was back in the world of nod. My body wanted a break!

The lack of a commute meant I still needed to do some miles. I couldn't face setting up the trainer, or doing any more mundane laps of the village, so the idea of a MTB night ride - that I have been putting off for months - was the only option if I wanted to meet my goal.

With a fun-filled night ride done... (I wish I hadn't been a wimp and put it off for so long) I met my goal and hit the 2000 milestone! I am ever so happy - it feels like such an achievement particularly as last year it was the end of November when I hit the 2000 mile mark!

3 comments:

trio said...

Fab mileage, must look at my September mileage as I know the start was rubbish but since then I think it has built up.

So the big question is how many for the year?

Pedalling Polarcherry said...

congrats on the milage! thats a fab effort well done.
I'm aiming for 2000 for my yearly target - wish me luck!
Reckon you could do 2500 easy now matey x

Small Adventures said...

HUGE congrads on making your goal,my friend!!! AWESOME!!!

I'm sorry I haven't been able to get logged in here,been having a problem with Blogger where I couldn't pull up ANY of the blogs I follow-today it magically worked,so here I am,LOL!