# A plastic wrapped Suffolk. My frist 100 mile cycle ride.



## Jon George (21 Apr 2013)

I have developed an increased aversion to alarm clocks. So because I set mine for 5 o'clock when I went to bed, I consequently remained awake until gone midnight and awoke at 4.30. All done in the name of getting a good start on a training ride to assure myself I can do 100 miles before I complete a charity event. And yet I still got up.
Knowing that the weather forecast was for sunny and possible Spring temperatures later in the day, I decided to use my experience of cycling throughout the winter and tough out the early part just after sunrise with minor thermals. This was the first mistake of the day. I was to make a number of others.
My intended route (a hint of forthcoming revelations about the other errors), was to take in the area south and southwest of Ipswich, then complete a more direct route to Aldeburgh and back. As the initial hour-and-a-half slipped by with self-recrimination for not wearing my warmer gloves and amazement as to how many people were about and about that early, things became a bit vague. This was not because I had a hypoglycaemic attack brought on not regulating my intake of food and water, but because the mist became thicker. And colder.
Ask anyone who wears glasses the opaque view they have on the world when everyone else’s vision has already been reduced by fog and they will tell you it’s a constant, seemingly futile exercise to keep their spectacles clean. So from East Bergholt to Flowton – a little hamlet just north of Hadleigh – I saw a lot of cloud. Mostly all around me. There were less people about now and I began to suspect they knew something I didn’t. I seriously though about going home.
And then I saw the light.
And remembered why I have rediscovered cycling.
I had a race with a cock pheasant down a lane as it tried to decide whether to carry on running beside me or fly. (I saw dozens this morning, but this one’s feathers were particularly iridescent. I just hope it made it through the day without becoming a victim of the numerous people with shotguns I heard out and about, or got hit by a vehicle to join his many relatives I passed splayed on the tarmac.)
I had muntjac dart across the road in front of me.
I saw a hare race up a dirt track, the earth being thrown up behind it like some Mel Blanc cartoon.
I had a pair of Canada geese swoop over me, so low that they would have been within hands reach if I’d known they were coming. 
I saw primroses festooning the hedgerows.
I saw fields wrapped in plastic.
I was born in Suffolk and I will always retain a tribal link to the county and what it has to offer away from the towns. Even the Clingfilm fields. It is my link to the natural world. It is a kind of bliss.
And in this state of nirvana, I got lost on the second section. 
We’ve all done it. We listen to our internal SatNav, rather than trust the road signs or memory. I did not make it to Aldeburgh. I got within three or four miles, but the extra distance I had already added in getting back on my intended track meant I would have been pushing the boundaries of my supply of food and drink. (At this point, I didn’t trust myself to find a shop, let alone remember where Ipswich is on the map.)
I headed home.
A little over a mile away from it my computer ticked over that senseless, but magical figure of 100 miles. And then I was nearly knocked off my bike. It appears I still retain some semblance of instinct. And reactions.
I wish I could say the same about alarm clocks ...


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## compo (21 Apr 2013)

Good write up. I consider Suffolk to be where my roots are. Congratulations on your 100 miles, a great achievement.


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## numbnuts (21 Apr 2013)

Well done on your 100 miles


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## Andrew_Culture (21 Apr 2013)

Excellent Jon! Which event is your charity 100?


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## Jon George (21 Apr 2013)

numbnuts said:


> Well done on your 100 miles


 Thanks. The fatigue is beginning to make itself known.


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## Jon George (21 Apr 2013)

Andrew_Culture said:


> Excellent Jon! Which event is your charity 100?


 The Suffolk Sunrise 100. I believe you were thinking of going with me?


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## Jon George (21 Apr 2013)

P.S. Writer's crime #1: I only gave the original post a cursory edit. Hope you all sorted the wheat from the chaff.


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## Pat "5mph" (21 Apr 2013)

Great write up, well done on the 100 miles ... very well done on getting up at 5am


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## ianrauk (21 Apr 2013)

Awesome stuff.
Well done.


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## fullcycle (1 Jun 2013)

well done on the 100, you described the beauty of what we all get to experience being cyclists aswell, those moments where you get out the towns and on the quiet lanes where you become at one with nature


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## BUR70N (9 Jun 2013)

I am glad that you still did it. I have been wanting to do a 100 miles but the timing always seems to be wrong this year.

How did you feel the next day?


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## Jon George (10 Jun 2013)

BUR70N said:


> How did you feel the next day?


 
Actually, not bad.( At little redness in the saddle area, but that's not really an image you need.) At 54 I thought I'd be more knackered, but as I rode throughout the winter and built up to the 100 in twenty mile weekly extensions beforehand, I must have done something right.


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## BUR70N (10 Jun 2013)

How did you build it up, do you do more miles in one ride or over many rides during a week?


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## Jon George (10 Jun 2013)

BUR70N said:


> How did you build it up, do you do more miles in one ride or over many rides during a week?


 Not much difference with my weekly regime as now is. Monday and Saturdays are rest days, with Tuesday - Friday spent on 20-25 mile trashes, and with the longer rides on Sunday to enjoy the scenery. It took me about five weeks - adding about 20 miles each Sunday - before I felt comfortable with the idea of attempting it. And with the idea of setting the alarm clock for an early start.


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