Yesterday I made all the decisions, what to wear, which bike and when I would bail out. I had studied the map most carefully and much though I wanted to cycle to East Meon, as I had once visited a school chum who used to live there and I have never been back, I thought that the ride back to W Horsley would get me home long after my elder daughter had departed following her flying visit. And as teenagers like lying in bed I would have been long gone before she surfaced.
Today, I put one top on but a few minutes later changed my mind having felt the chill when I let the chickens out of their house. I was aiming to leave by 7.50 but my indecision meant it was 7.55. It is 16.8 miles to Elstead so I was going to have to get the wings on. I had chosen the grin machine, currently sporting the power tap hub so I have all the stats to see how the legs were shaping up. One hour and 5 minutes at an average speed of 15.37 mph and an average (normalised – see one of my earlier blogs which defines normalised power or look here http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/normalized-power,-intensity-factor-training-stress) power output of 198 watts including the climb up the Farnham Road to the Hogs Back from central Guildford and into Elstead via Shackleford.
To my great delight John W joined us for the ride making excellent progress in his recovery. Lead by Nick and with a host of regulars, seven of us set out for Lasham. Nick definitely finds interesting routes around Farnham – via Rowledge – and enjoys taking the wrong turn somewhere north of the A31 on the way to Well. In deference to John the 21.9mile to Lasham took 2 hours 8 minutes, an average speed of 10.2 mile and an average (normalised) power output of 123 watts. Don J was just leaving as we arrived and Dane was finishing his drink. Do I have the lemon meringue pie or cake? There are times when even a choice of two things is too much choice. Cake wins.
Bailing out, as the was the original intention, means about a 70 mile run, I get to see my daughter but I would like to see East Meon again. I phone home and say that I have changed my mind. I am going to East Meon. We climb on the bikes, the sun goes in and I get those nagging doubts. 2 hours to East Meon, an hour for lunch, almost 50 miles home, easily going to be well over 100 miles and a very late time home. As we set off from Lasham airfield I change my mind again – I am going to bail out; even the suggestion of a train ride from Petersfield back to Guildford doesn’t sound like the right option. Catch up with Nick and share the news.
33.2 miles to home, average speed 15.6 mph and average (normalised) power 154 watts (no big hills). Home by 2:30. Yes it was the right decision.
The power tap hub always draws comments so for the record the actual power stats were:
Instantaneous peak: 708 watts
5 seconds sustained: 625 watts
30 seconds sustained: 430 watts
1 min sustained: 356 watts
2 min sustained: 291 watts
3 min sustained: 273 watts
4 min sustained: 266 watts
5 min sustained: 263 watts
10 min sustained: 244 watts
15 min sustained: 232 watts
20 min sustained: 214 watts
30 min sustained: 205 watts
40 min sustained: 205 watts
60 min sustained: 202 watts
Not my personal best; maybe Paul is right – you slow down with age and I won’t catch up with the 25 year olds.
Suspect I would have to get a therapeutic use exemption for my asthma drug to enable me to claim I was drug free but Chris Froome won’t be loosing any sleep over my stats