Sorry for the lack of update for a while. For those of you who have been paying attention, my propensity to strop may not have gone unnoticed. I'm afraid my bout of silence has been due to a strop of epic proportions.
Things were looking up. I had got to the point with training where it stopped hurting all the time and I was starting to rise to the dizzying height of OK. Dare I say it, I was starting to enjoy myself! I managed to go out with the local cycle club (Charlotteville) and met a group of lovely people and ate cake. I started to find a good cycle buddy in Chris, and started to eat up the miles in the evenings. I could breath during spinning and no longer felt like I was about to pass out.
However it was not all going without a hitch. Every time I took my road bike out I seemed to spanner it trying to change gears. Some how I was managing to get chain suck and mangled the chain into the front derailer. This was happening about twice a ride. Then the inevitable happened. I had just got to the point where I felt I might just keep up with the Oxford Zappi's club ride (in the slow group). This was a big deal for me. It was a milestone I had been building up to. With some trepidation Nick I headed out early on the Saturday morning. Less than a mile from Nick's I changed gear and then herd a snap. Not good. The derailer had finally given up the ghost and snapped straight in two. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Awful timing. No club ride, and with only 5 weeks to go until the 100 it was an important time for training. The parts needed to be ordered from the interwebery and it would be a week before I could be back on board. The Surrey 100 bubble burst.
This really felt like a kick in the balls (OK I don't have balls, but if I did they would have been obliterated by the blow). To put so much effort in only to be thwarted by bike failure. The dream of 6 and a half hours seemed to be evaporating. Dear God Borris is going to beat me! The sulk which followed was gigantic, to be honest I have not quiet recovered. Nick dutifully order parts and re-built me bike a week later. I did get back on board and kept training, but my heart has not been in it.
Since the incident I have managed a painfully slow 70 mile ride to the coast with Chris. I survived 40 miles of near vertical hills in Devon with Nick. I did cry... 3 times, but I kept going. I've kept up with spinning though I have not been as regular a disciple as I once was. I've even attended endurance spinning.
Unfortunately, I continue to keep breaking my bike! Every time I feel like I start to get better and a seed of hope of doing well springs forth its first leaf, disaster strikes and I twist my deralier again, stamping the hope back into the ground. I'm terrified that I am going to snap it during the 100. It is sole destroying. I also started to get sore knees so I had to raise my bike seat to avoid further pain. The net result is I can no longer get on or off my bike. Stopping has become a thing of fear. Traffic lights are terrifying. I am inept!
I suppose I should not be too pessimistic. I managed to cover 40 flat miles in 2 hours with Chris last week. I am not as good as I would have liked to have been, but I am fit enough to get round. Maybe it will be OK...
... and then I looked at the weather forecast for the ride. We are only due a bloody hurricane! OK I'm being a bit melodramatic, it is the tail end of a hurricane. Turns out swimming might have been more appropriate preparation. I'll pack a snorkel!
Wish us luck
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