Planned for a hilly ton with a mate; it was a great route he'd improvised and we had a great cafe stop. First thing in the morning I felt like something in my calf wasn't right and didn't think I'd do much but the hills for some reason seemed to warm things up and it settled down, unfortunately he started to feel something so I pulled him home. That was at 90miles and an average of 17.5mph. I had planned to go to my flat and get a light, jacket and more supplies as I wanted to make it a decent warm up to LBL. But that would mean going back into the city via the busy A47 or through a busy park and he invited me in for a coffee, so I decided it was more prudent to go north to make it at least a ton before the light faded. That was at 90miles and an average of 17.5mph. I was making good progress, so I then decided to make it a 200km and the average was still good 17.4mph. I decided light would have been gone if I went much further so I doubled back via a parallel route. I decided though I had just enough light to go up the local hill climb only problem, rather than than trying to navigate around a local town with fading light, I decided it was better to go through it. It was traffic jams all over and totally killed the average, down to 17.1mph after I was through and with the hill climb it was down to 17mph. However, I then had the crazy idea that the best way to warm up for LBL is to do the same distance and with my bright rear light I be ok lightwise. I was right but at 160ish miles I started to fade and the average dropped dramatically, so the last 15 or so miles were a slog and close to not enough light (perfect for me to see but just on lighting up time). So I took the emergency gel I've carried for about 6 months and
176miles completed I was back with 7867ft of climbing (half of LBL
).
Fantastic going there. Wish I had that turn of speed.
)
Was hoping to do it last weekend, but got stuck in church on Friday 
plan is 84 mile Heart of The Wolds sportive on Sunday then cycle home afterwards, should be few miles over a ton. looks like poor weather again for my ton attempt, need to plan things better 
i'll post details soon
