Week 7 - Gilly becomes a Club Cyclist!

I can't believe it's week 7 of training. If you've been following this since the start, that means I'm 30% of the way through my 21 week training plan. Do I feel 30% ready? - errrrrrrr, well I was........then I wasn't, read on to know why!

So I've been a bit worried about my speed, so far my average rarely gets over 10mph, which means that on Day 1, I could end up in the saddle for 9 hours - ouch! Now as awful as that sounds, there's something far more awful, we have a ferry to catch on the first day, it leaves at around 5pm I think, and we set off at around 7am from my beloved Crystal Palace Park - hmmmm yes do the maths - that leaves me approximately 1 hour, for stoppage time, toilet breaks, getting lost time, crying time, pushing the bike up hills time - yes it's going to be tight, so in nutshell I think I need to work on my speed - pronto!

So I emailed my local bike club - Big Foot Bike Club with my dilemma, I had seen on their site that they were running some training rides for their own London to Brighton jaunt in April and I thought that might be good for me. Now I've seen the Big Footers pedalling around the country lanes over the last few weeks - and boy are some of them serious, although not as serious as some other clubs, I'll mention no names, but some of they fly past so quickly they scare the bejesus out of me! Big Footers have been known to give me a few words of encouragement and a friendly good morning wave (or at least that's what I like to think they were doing). I love playing the "morning" game when I'm out on a Saturday - shouting a cheery "morning" to everyone I pass to see who is cool enough in my eyes to say hello back, and those who are think they are too cool to even acknowledge me.....pah!

So anyway, I digress, Adam from Big Foot emailed me and invited me to join one of their club rides and said I would fit in nicely with their Level 7 riders, check me out! So I went on their website and discovered they grade their rides with the lowest number being the hardest and the highest being the easiest peasiest, and yes you've guessed it, there were 7 levels in total!!! Oh well, the fact I could even be considered to partake in a club ride made me happy - who'd have thought I would EVER think that!

So on Saturday morning, I set my alarm for 7.15am, to ensure that I was at the meeting point at 8.15am, even now I'm getting into this, I still have to stop sometimes and do a double take at how times have changed. In Saturdays of old, I'd be getting home at 7.15am now and again!!! So anyway I rode the 3 or 4 miles to Hayes where the club meets, as I got closer I saw more and more cyclists seemed to be coming out of side streets and heading in the same direction, when I got to Hayes High Street there were LOADS of very serious looking cyclists at the meeting point. Like the new kid at school, I looked on rather awkwardly until someone took pity on me and directed me to the small group of Level 7's, who all looked very friendly, a bit more like myself, all but one had ridden with the club before. Our leader John introduced himself and explained the route today was fairly easy with only one big hill. Phew!

So off we went, the pace was actually a little slower to what I'd been used to the last couple of weeks with Ed so all was feeling good! We then went up Nash Lane, what I would call a hill, and one I've struggled up several times previously. When we got to the top, I said to John "I didn't think the hill would be so soon".....and here endeth the first lesson Miss Standeven, THAT was not a hill, THAT was a Kent countryside UNDULATION.....and these are what I must get used to as there are lots in France apparently! So along some more beautiful countryside we go, for about an hour, it was so great to be out early in the fresh air, and I was reminded how I love cycling in a group, I can't explain why, it's not like we chat all the way around or anything, but I do, I just bloody love it - good job there's a few of us going to Paris then! (100+ actually - party time!)

So anyway, here it was, just after Warlingham Station, THE hill, I'd had an energy bar at the bottom, my chain fell off on the very gradual incline up because I was so scared about getting into the lowest gear before it started climbing, there was a very steep sharp left and then it went on and on and on and........you get the picture. I stopped 3 times, but I only got off and pushed once, and I wasn't the only one. Two thirds of the group had to do the same, so I didn't feel too bad (ok there were only 6 of us, but still I wasn't alone). So there I had it, my moment of clarity, I don't think speed is really my issue. It's strength I need to work on. If I build up the strength in my legs to master those hills, the speed will come.....so whilst it was agony......next week I'm going to do some more of those hills........I really have got this bad!!!!