Lickys/Clent/Bromsgrove/Holt End Sat 3rd March
Distance: 61 miles
Elevation Gain: 4,266 ft
This was really a tale of 2 types of weather. Either grey, raining, windy and miserable or bright sunny and actually very pleasant to ride in. The day started off miserable to be fair, but after about 20 miles as I reached the trig point in the Clent Hills the clouds opened up and the sun shone through. I thought for a while that my perseverance had been rewarded and I would treated to a sunny ride for the rest of day. Sadly this was not the case and as I got close to Bromsgrove the wind picked up from no where, day turned to night and the rain came down. It was a head wind too and if the rain had not stopped after 10 mins or so I’m not sure I would have trudged on with the rain in my face for another 30 miles. Thankfully the sun came out for a second time and if anything it actually cleared a little too well, causing me to start cooking in my water proof like a bag of rice. Never happy eh?
I warmed up at my normal pace this week so after 20 mins or so I feeling fairly good and ready to push on. The odd thing today though compared to last week was that I never really had any moments of feeling strong or particularly tired either. I felt far more consistently worked over the whole ride. On the whole I think this is a much better place to be in as I was never uncomfortable or tempted to push on too fast. My glutes feel a lot more tired today than normal and my back is aching far more than last week. I went into this ride however with my back hurting a bit and I think the ride just emphasized this more. I think I might drop some weight in my strength sessions for the next few weeks and see how that effects it.
