December #srrty

Since my last blog post the weather and one event in particular have played a role in progress and how I have changed my perception. I made a conscious decision to try and ride either a 400km or 600km as early into each month as possible. Firstly to keep the two big distance rides a couple of weeks apart to help aid recovery and also to allow as much time as possible each month to respond to unforeseen events. My perception was changed by a crash and how I discovered something I had not previously considered.

So after a 400km ride on 1st November it then rained for long periods during the rest of the month. I figured that I would get at least two separate dry days where I could ride a 200km and a 300km event and that did actually happen. However as the month went on it looked less likely that there would be two back to back dry days. I made a decision that if I was going to get a soaking on the 600km I would prefer it to be on the second day so put in my DIY entry for the following weekend starting on a day with a mostly dry forecast and then take my chances at the back end of the ride. As it turned out the whole of the 42 hours remained dry for me but descending into Bruton at around 120 miles on the first day I crashed at speed going downhill.

I had ridden over Tinkers hill and as the remainder of the first 300km was then mostly flat I probably switched off a bit and let my concentration lapse. My front wheel hit a sunken drain cover at speed and the front tyre blew out. Almost instantly this flat tyre skidded on a patch of mud and my front wheel locked and hit my foot because of the overlap of pedal revolution and wheel. Anyway, I hit the deck on my left side and then bounced hard onto my right. On my left side my clothing was torn and muddy and sensed I would have cuts on that side. My immediate concern was my right ankle which was very painful and I feared I may have re-broken it. I limped pushing my bike to a nearby gate into some woods to replace the inner tube and assess the damage. It then hit me that if I had fractured my ankle I would be off my bike for several weeks as happened last time and that my #srrty attempt would be over.

I honestly can’t remember fixing the wheel only thinking about the consequence of abandoning and whether I would have what it takes to re-start my #srrty attempt at a later date from scratch. I immediately thought about Steve Abraham, not that I am in the same league or comparing myself in any way, but would I have similar inner strength to begin all over again in a few months? Once my bike was roadworthy again I plodded into Bruton and a nice lady in a pub gave me some ice for my ankle which I put in a food bag to try and ease the swelling. After about 20 minutes I felt like proceeding and planned to buy some painkillers at the first opportunity. Amazingly for most of the rest of that day the pain subsided and I carried on to my home at the 300km point. A highlight that evening was passing Audax Club Bristol friends in Barton hill tunnel heading the other way as they were about to finish their group DIY that day. It was a massive lift waving as we passed.

Once I got home I was able to clean my cuts and assess the wounds. My ankle and shin on my right leg were very swollen and had become painful again. I slept wearing tubi-grips on them and woke four and a half hours later feeling remarkably healed and so rode the remainder of the ride wearing the tubi-grips under my cycling clothes. The second day was eventful right from the beginning too. As I started out again through Bath at around 04.00 my rear gear changer struggled to shift the rear mech and suspecting a frayed cable I forced several changes and lo and behold it snapped. I quickly headed back home and changed bikes and transferred all my lights and kit over and set out again. I remember feeling quite stressed but also amazingly lucky as it at happened in such an ideal place so close to home.

The rest of the ride went fairly smoothly but I felt as I was riding on the time limit for the whole of that second 300km section. On the other hand I told myself that is what contingency is for…to be used when needed. By attempting to always have at least an hour in hand I could deal with such uncertainties. What really struck home was that attempting a goal over the course of a year different forms of luck come into play that I had not considered before. Not just the weather but my accident had made me realise the deadlines involved were different to anything I had previously attempted.

On December 1st I rode a 400km DIY to start off the month and carried a hand held still camera round and set it to movie mode to try and record a typical ride. I have put a short film together in an attempt to capture the spirit of one of my rides  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpgQwszYK7Y  By complete chance I came across a murmuration of starlings at dusk and this is the first time I have ever seen it apart from on television. The noise of the wings was overwhelming but unfortunately my camera is simply not good enough to record that but I can say that the sense of power and lift of mass numbers of these birds was a very impressive part of that encounter. It’s up there with seeing salmon jumping up a waterfall in Scotland as witnessing nature at it’s most impressive.

On December 5th I rode a 200km calendar event from Tewkesbury which although very windy went smoothly and gave a welcome chance to ride in some brilliant company. Next up is a 300km DIY planned for Tuesday 8th December and hopefully my 600km December ride will be on the following weekend. I am deliberately condensing the super randonneur rides into two weeks instead of four this month. Partly because I want to spend more time at home over Christmas. It also means that the shortest days will be over and from the January events onwards I will have the knowledge that the days are lengthening. This should help compensate for what I expect will be the hardest conditions to come during January and February. Another way to keep me going during January will be getting my fourth 600km ride of the 2016 season and then being listed at http://www.aukweb.net/results/detail/this/srh/ as a kind of intermediate goal to aim for.

I did say I would write about a sleep discovery eye opener (‘scuse the pun!) and a sports drink preference in this blog but, hey ho that’s life, other events just happened….they will have to wait until next time.