Today’s ride began with a hurried departure after spending an hour watching the oven clock.. the only clock NOT adjusted for daylight saving last night.

Uxbridge Rd. was dead and I arrived with 5-10mins spare. Most people rocked up to the Denham start after me anyway. A ‘group’ of three rolled off for the short ride to Staines, the Quest lads rolled off for god-knows what and then we left, a dozen strong. Lindell(sp?) was back after her name change from Linda. 😉 Mike was there, Sas/Sus (I’ll get it right when I see it written down) was there. The ride leader (might be called Martin?) in his white top and beanie, Brian the chairman met us later. There were a couple of new faces – backpack guy and the Scottish bloke and maybe the younger-looking dude in the black.

The ride itself headed to Marlow and was another groovy ride through the back lanes west of London. As another rider pointed out, somone must have too much free time to be able to find all these little roads, lanes and even unpaved err goat tracks!

I know we passed some shooting range or pheasant hunt around Knowl Hill, I think we rode through Maidenhead, there was talk of a “Winter Hill” but I’ve no idea if we got near it. We certainly did end up at Marlow and the town and surrounds look beaut – very “English”. The clouds had disappeared by then and riders got in on the striptease at the cafe stop. I was actually warm on this ride (the shame!) with undershirt, vest, arm warmers and full legs. Even carried a head warmer, just in case it decided to snow again!

Skipped the fried stuff again in favour of a choc muffin and coffee. Discussed bikes and pedal systems until Lindell’s eyes glazed over. Brian told me to make it to the Thursday session at the track.. I said “I’ll try, work is busy” and then appeased him by telling him I would join Willesden CC. 😉

The ride back involved more back lanes, lots of horses and a headwind. I felt better this week than last although my left shoulder is aching for some reason. I need to work on positioning again methinks as something is obviously different to my old setup – I’ve never had arm issues before. I’m not used to riding on the hoods for so long – I’ll give it more time and see what develops. Ride total was a bit longer than last week 119k but this is offset by a total lack of commuting. Showers are working now apparently so I’ll be knocking down jay-walking peds quicker than you can say “Oxford Street shopping is for suckers”.

Out:

Duration: 2h 51s

Distance: 68.1k

HR: 138/171 (avg/max)

Speed 25.3/52.4 (avg/max)

Ascent: 380m

Back:

Duration: 2h 17s

Distance: 51.7k

HR: 147/180 (avg/max)

Speed 24.9/45.4 (avg/max)

Ascent: 265m