Leigh and the Gym-Bunny were trying to out-Herb the Herb by steaming along at about 23mph on the flat, and both Angry and I expressed our concerns about what that would do to us later. This received the expected lack of any serious consideration and the pressure stayed on...
The boys, flying at the start...
We hit 20 miles in a gnat's over an hour, and at about 30 miles the pressure started to show as Rick fell off the back for a while and took ages to catch up. I stayed back with him (glad of the rest - no fraternal chivalry here!) but then we caught The Herb and we lost him again. We assumed that he was having a bad day so set about catching the rest of the team, which we did as they were having a quick wee in Delamere Forest.
We kept going to the lunch stop at 56 miles, which we reached in just under 3 hours from the start. A quick butty and a coffee and we were off again, and I was glad the stop was that crucial 6m beyond half way, so we were now into "counting down" territory. At about 65m Angry hit his usual wall and dropped off with Gym-Bunny staying back with him, whereas me and The Herb managed to stay with Leigh, who was proving to be the strong man of the group.
Gym-Bunny eventually came back up, according to him he'd got sick of Tim whinging! Shortly before this we'd come across Rick, who'd obviously been not having that bad a day and had only lost 10 minutes or so, had a short stop for lunch and got out again in front of us! Leigh by this time had got sick of waiting for us and had buggered off into the distance - so now there were 4.
Once the mileage got into the 80's the wind that had been an irritant all day got stronger and ahead of us, and remarkably I found myself taking the lead quite a lot as Herb and Peter were feeling the pace. We went past the last feed (well, "feed" is stretching it as you have to pay for anything you have) stop at 77m without pausing and here Rick dropped back again - so now there were 3.
The last couple of times I've done this ride the last 20 have been purgatory, but whilst I wouldn't say I felt fresh, I did feel ok this time. The nasty little hill at Styal was conquered in the big ring (so big ring all the way for 100m!) and then it was the usual nonsense from Gym-Bunny and Herb as the lads with big thighs started to push the pace in the last couple of miles. Fortunately there's quite a few sets of traffic lights to slow them down, so eventually we all finished together with 5:25 on the clock for an average speed of 18.6mph, which is very pleasing given my lack of mileage.
My legs were fine when I got up this morning, but there was no way I was getting up early enough to cycle in (although The Herb did, the loon). However I decided I'd better get out so I set off at lunchtime for a 4 miler with a 3 mile effort. It was clear as I set off on my effort that whilst my calves were fine my legs generally weren't, so it quickly became a mile effort which passed in 6:42, so respectable pace - however my legs weren't keen to keep going at that rate so I slowed to about 7:30 pace and ran to the 2.5m turn at Riddlesden.
From here I did another mile effort in 6:38 then ran back to work - 7:35 average pace, HR behaved, no calf pain but decidedly tired legs!
The plan is to bike in tomorrow despite the crap forecast - so hopefully I'll be back tomorrow to report that I stuck to my guns and did it!
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