2 big cycle days

Yesterday and today my mate (Chris) and I set out on a mini 2 day bike tour. We planned to cycle from Cardiff to Pembroke in West Wales as part of our IM training and cycle back the following day.

Chris has got about 4-5 weeks until IM France and I have about 9-10 weeks until IM Regensburg in Germany, so this bike trip should stand us both in good stead for our individual races. It is just under 100 miles to Pembroke, we planned to stop overnight at my parents house and then cycle back another 100 miles today. Sounds like fun eh?!?!

I decided it would be a good opportunity to try out my new TT bike position on a longer ride and also trial some new nutrition products. I've just started using Torq products and decided to trial 2 different gels (Forest Fruits & Banoffee (both with Guarana)), 2 different energy drinks (Orange & Pink Grapefruit) and the great tasting Organic Mango bar.

Day 1 started off really, really well. We picked up another cyclist who was going our way, maybe for the first 40-50 miles anyway. He was pushing the pace, a little quicker than we really wanted to go, but we went with it anyway. He was strong for the first 30-40 miles and then we came to a huge long hill and he exploded, I thought a grenade had gone off! He was gone from that point on, so tucked in for a few more miles and then peeled off to continue his bike ride solo. We continued on feeling pleased with the first 60-odd miles of the trip completed, this is where it started to go wrong, for me anyway. Long story short, I ended up with 7 or 8 punctures!!! A mixture of genuine punctures, a few pinch punctures due to low tyre pressure from a mini pump and a few failed repairs meant we had a long 30 mile final leg of the journey. Couple that with tiredness in the legs and the freaky heat we were getting meant I was not a happy bunny! Thanks Chris for your patience.

Day 2 was great! We rode back a slightly different longer route (by accident!) which included some monster hills, that'll stand us in good stead for our individual IM races! Again it was very hot, couple that with 6 hours of hilly riding we had to ensure our feeding and nutrition was spot on, luckily we managed to nail it.

Very tired now! A well deserved rest day is on the cards for Sunday and then back to training on Monday. I have a middle distance race in 2 weeks time and a sprint race on Wednesday, but will train through the spint race as it's not a main focus for me. This might lead to a slower than hoped race, but IM Regensburg is my A race this year and will purely focus on that. Train smart all!