So 2012 was the year I finally had the means to attempt Rapha's annual 'Festive 500' challenge. Being that I had four whole days off work in this period, and now have a bike at my family home up north, the challenge seemed - with a bit of planning with my ride windows, it might get off the ground. The Festive 500 is a great way to put a nice little brick into a solid winter base, get the confidence up and fight the flab of indulgence that seems to take hold over the month of December.
I rode some wicked new routes back up north in Yorkshire, with a particularly lumpy 120k on boxing day to try and work off the heinous amount of naughty food id eaten the day before. I headed out past Bolsover castle, and found some gnarly new hills that will be perfect training for my attempt at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege sportif come April.
I had to work from 27-29, so didn't get much riding in at this point, and also missed xmas day due to having a smashing time with the familia. So in order to meet the mileage I had to pull out a long 210km solo ride. I battled an energy-sapping headwind it seemed like the whole freaking way to the coast from London. Everytime I tried to up the pace, id simply red-line due to having to work way too much. The only respite came from knowing I might catch a bit of a tailwind on my return to the capital.
Hearty shouts go out to my understanding family for letting me zip off on the bike for 2 out of the three days I was home visiting, to my trusty overshoes & clingfilm (sadly bike at home is sans mudguards!) and finally to everyone on strava that racked up the 500ks... It was a wicked escuse not to give excuses for not riding, and the motivation was appreciated. Im now looking forward to the January 'Base-mile Blast' as Iv got some exciting riding coming up at the end of the month to prepare for. All the best and a happy 2013 to all readers! Hopefully we will catch up on the tarmac this coming year...
3 comments:
You totally rocked it Gem, especially that ride down to the south coast! Happy New Year!
Genius - I've used carrier bags before (very noisy!), but it's never occurred to me to wrap feet with cling-film. p.s. Good luck with the training.
Happy New Year, Gem. Putting the rest of us to shame with this, I think I might have done about 50k over the festive season, slowly. I'm doing L-B-L with a couple of friends in April as well. We did Amstel Gold last year and that was a superb event. Liege-Bastogne-Liege (or as my Dutch brother-in-law insists on calling it Luik-Bastenaken-Luik) is meant to be much harder. Gulp.
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