Day 40 (Sunday)

Woke up and got up early.

Had porridge for breky, then set of in the rain!
(Heres a couple of piccies of me setting of!)

I don't like getting rain in my face so the peaked cap under the phsyco helmet helps ;-)

I did the 23 mile Lyneham ride in reverse ;-)

It was great ;-) I felt much stronger, Problem is was this a state of mind, the rest day yesterday? The descent sleep, the poridge for breky or the cooler weather?

I do know that it was FUN ;-) especially the muddy cycle way from Calne back into Chippenham ;-) In fact it was that good I definitely felt I could do the same journey again (No fatigue at all)

(Here's a piccy of the return!)

It was like being a five year old again, the more I splashed myself the bigger was my grin ;-)

I have learnt that it is easier to maintain the bike at the end of the journey instead of the start so here's me oiling the chain after giving the bike a wash down.



My problem now is that the red mountain bike seemed very comfortable and I could have continued! so I am more than a little concerned that the Dawes may need LOTS of tweaking.

Its good that Dave is coming over on Wednesday as he will be able to give some real advice (Instead of me reading it from books and the interweb), I now definitely know that the toe clips are forcing my feet in the wrong position, My feet are comfortable twisted slightly outwards. The toe clips force my feet straight and cause my feet to become numb and my right ankle to ache.

But the Dawes is a better bike and it just needs fitting to me ;-)

I have been reading 'The complete long-Distance Cycling' book and it is actually quite useful! It suggests that constant cadence is the best and it explains about energy usage and effort. But ultimately is states there is no substitute for actually sitting on the bike and doing the miles, But I will have to watch for fatigue and ensure I eat correctly! I think yesterday was entirely fatigue!