Life is like a Box of Chocolates

Forrest Gump had some great one liners, but the one most relevant to me this week refers to his being shot in the 'boo-tock'. Which is how I feel. Let's say some chaffing occured on Sunday and climbing into a hot bath was a fairly slow process afterwards and sitting on hard chairs is quite painful right now. Enough detail? No pictures I'm afraid.

The 100 miles went relatively well, I say relatively as I was a spent force by the end of it, although we did give it some hammer, averaging 14.9 mph (that's an ooh, as it was 15.5 for most of the way) and the heart rate was averaging 138, quite high for a bike ride. I enjoyed it though, and whilst I know the 140 miles of the real thing is going to be tough, I reckon if we take it easy, it should be doable.

I don't know why I felt so good but I do have a number of theories;

1. Training in the Peak District is good, I haven't done lots of long rides but most of them have been very hilly, and it must be good preparation. Once you are south of the A50, Staffordshire is somewhat flatter and it's easier to keep a reasonable pace going.

2. I'm good at carbo stacking, i.e. I'm a greedy whatsit. I could eat for England and I think my efforts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday served me well.

3. I may have stumbled across the secret of Aussie sporting success,......there is something in their beer (it certainly ain't beer that's in their beer). If this is the case, then I have made a case for a case of Tooheys to always be on hand. I drank more than my share of it on holiday and it hasn't done me as much harm as say, a few Riggwelters. Still, given the choice, I'd always go for the Rigg!

I managed a short recovery ride on Monday evening, as much to stop my bike rusting up. We did get a tad wet on Sunday, all the way back from Tamworth to be precise. My 'waterproof' socks acted like wet suit booties once they were full of water, although you can't get the pleasure of warming your legs in the same way as with a wetsuit by....well if you don't know, it's not for me to tell you.

That's me for now, can't sit for too long at the minute without discomfort. Thank goodness for 1 year old wee Archie, it means we have plenty of pseudo cream in the house.