Wiki, Susan, Nick and Susan's flat mate (Sorry, but my aging memory has let me down on his name, Matt or was it Ben?) went out for a short ride around the Oxfordshire countryside a couple of weeks ago.
We were lucky to probably catch one of the last warm days of summer. We met up and went straight after work for about three hours.It started out as a gentle ride along the road up and down some hills. Wiki made up the route for us and she did say that it was a gentle route with only one big hill, which was off road. I tend to think when Wiki says the route is gentle then it's probably average for most other people. :-)
As it turned out the route was quite gentle and there was only one really steep hill. It was quite good fun to cycle up it as well, as the off road bit was more of a wide bridle path and I managed the up hill in one go.
Mind you it was probably only because the hill was in a forest you couldn't see the route up and the top. As the route up was divided up into lots of hidden steep bits and not so steep bits it was quite easy to just keep chugging along till I got to the top. I think if I had seen the route up from the beginning I might not have made it.There were the usual number of stinging nettles on the way back along the bridle paths. At one point I was following Wiki along the paths and while going though a very overgrown set of nettles Wiki started to slow down. I shouted at her to not slow down at the nettles and to speed up. I think she had a long sleeved top on and shorts so wasn't quite feeling the nettles as much as I was in my shorts and T. Either that or she just doesn't notice them. Once she heard me she did start to speed up again. Susan later on said that she could hear me laughing and shouting at Wiki to speed up, all very funny. I really felt the nettle stings all night long!
On the way back we had the fortune to see a really lovely sunset while cycling along some fields. A marvellous end to a good fun cycle ride.
I've also been trying to train harder and harder at the gym and on my weekend cycle rides in preparation for the Real Ale Wobble in November. I've had some mixed results as the gym training is working out quite well, but trying to do longer and longer cycle distances is proving difficult. My last cycle to Bath and back really took a lot out of my legs, I can do it in one go with one brief stop in Bath, I covered 34 miles but it was all on tarmac. I'll be much happier the sooner I can invest in a road bike rather than having to take my mountain bike on the roads!
My bike was serviced earlier this week and I was quite proud as the tyres needed changing as they had worn down enough. A proud first for me. :-)
