A whistle stop tour to see friends in Dorset gave rise to a Bank Holiday spin in the local countryside. Set off at 8am to get most of it done before the heat of the sun kicked in, it was a tad blowy although we were largely sheltered save for a few minutes midway through.
The pace was pretty good going if a little on the high side however the climbing I found especially difficult, HR notably not dropping below 150 for the entirety of the ride. Initially I put this down to general lack of fitness as due to personal issues I’ve not ridden as much as I would have liked, combining this with increased alcohol and junk food consumption the inevitable result is a significant weight gain! However any attempts to put power through the pedals began to be met with severe cramps and then it all began to make sense- I was massively dehydrated and it showed!
On the subject of excessive alcohol consumption I’d been drinking all day yesterday at a barbecue and the combination of this and the heat of the sun obviously wiped me out more than I realised. With 5 miles to go after a largely rolling route, it flattened out however I was just soft pedalling because I had nothing else to give. The drinks I had during the ride were clearly in vain- the damage was done and as the morning wore on, the heat rose and thus sweated more and more! Arriving back at my friend’s village there was a steep little kicker which I had to stop on because the cramp had pretty much disabled me, to the point where I couldn’t get off the bike and had to literally crouch down to relieve the symptoms!
A harsh lesson learned, and a reality check on my current fitness for sure today, however it was good to just ride again and strangely enjoyable nevertheless!
55.6 in 3:27.