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Having crawled through the finishing line last week, I decided to go for it AGAIN this weekend. This time I had an early start (05:30) so I would not get into darkness on my way back. It didn’t quite work – but only the very last hour or so was dark-ish.

I certainly felt MILES better this time. It may be the weather (warmer) the food (dry fruit) or, much simpler, the fact that I have trained for it and my body was ready for the shock. My average speed was much slower than the last one (17.3 compared to 18.4) but I managed a very similar overall time, explained only by me taking shorter breaks on route.

I would like to believe that if it was not for the head wind which confronted me during most of the time, I would have done better, but i can’t obviously prove it 🙂

I would like to go for a really long ride – with a night break in between. Something like London-York-London (700 km). For that I need my GPS to be available without fail at all times – so I bought a special gadget that allows me to recharge it from mu hub dynamo. I can’t wait to test it and see if it does the trick!

It has taken me three weeks to recover – but I felt that I am nearly as good as new so I went for that ride again – on a fixie – the Pearson Touche.

I did it – but this ride was tough. It was certainly the toughest yet on my muscles – I felt completly drained by the end of it and managed to climb Muswell Hill on what seemed to me will power alone. I took a whole week after that to recover and I think I needed every minute of it.

Riding a fixie for that distance is really not easy. The legs don’t stop – they just HAVE to fo on and on and on – pushing uphill and revolving at frightening speed downhill. I had to walk about 5 times, and only at the steepest hills. I managed some climbs that I really had no idea that I would – but up and over I went!

ALl in all it took me about 14 hours – so just inside the time limit. I must admit though that I could have not faced a second day on my fixie straight away. Those people that do end to end or LEL on a fixie are really something else!

We were invited by my daughter to see a play she made the poster for in Oxford and also had in mind to visit my son who studies in the University there. Alas, the only day that looks remotely cyclable on that weekend was Saturday, which was just the day we intended to go there. My wife then came with the brilliant idea ‘why won’t you cycle to Oxford?’. I checked it and it seems very doable exercise – and so I did!

It was just great. The weather was chilly but not freezing and the sun was shining throughout. I was really concerned about riding my fixie up the hills between London and Aylesbury but it was not difficult at all. Yes, I had to walk two or three times, but overall I did well and was amazed to clock speeds of 20 km/h uphill. Obviously, once I reached the plateau between Aylesbury and Oxford I was riding faster than I recall being able to in the past.  My overall average was 20.4 – which I thought was just awesome!

I arrived in good time, had a shower and went to see the play – a highly enjoyable original comedy.

A good day.

It’s a bit depressing to ride 100Km and have very little to say about it. Perhaps the fact that I managed a best average speed of 19.3 Km/h is a good sign for the future. Overall, a good smooth and quite uneventful ride.

Although I did it on the Pearson Fixie, I am increasingly inclined to sell it. I did whatever feasible to bring the handlebar higher and it is still lower than my Specialised Sirrus by 4-5 cm – at least. So it simply does not feel comfortable. It seems that my only remaining option is to change the fork. Even that is feasible, which I believe it is, I am not just looking at an extra expense of at least £100 but the end result may look absolutely hideous. So I guess I could just ‘cut my losses’ and sell it. It’s a bit sad, having invested so much in it but one has to know when to quit I guess.

It seems like AGES since I had a ‘real’ ride and I was itching, to say the least, to get going. What can I say – I really like riding… I was planning to have a ride on the 1^st of January (seemed a good way to start the new year) but I did not feel too well on Thursday so decided to have a day rest. On Saturday I was as good as new (+/- 50 years) and off I went.

I (obviously) used my Fixed bike for that journey and did not regret it. I carefully counted the number of times I had to walk up hill (4) with the clear intention to try and reduce it if I possibly could. It was COLLLLLLLLLD – no more than 5C (sorry I know F all about F temp), and even though the sun WAS shining throughout there was no warmth in it.

I don’t think I broke any speed records but I do think I managed it in decent time. Looking forwards to my next one