Sunday 22 April 2007

My legs ache

It's been a long week in the saddle - 180km in five days. Compared to someone like Stuart O'Grady, that's a walk in the park. I read about some race the other day in France that was about 260km in length, and the winner romped home in about 6.5 hours.

It took me the better part of 8 hours over 5 days to do 180km, and I need 3 days off to recover.

Still, it's nice to be able to get up to that kind of number. I managed to do 200 before the crash without falling to bits, but 180 at the moment is really a bit over the limit of what the body will handle. My neck starts to hurt at that distance, and I need to start popping anti-inflamatory pills to survive.

Doing 180 in a week from our current location is also a stretch as it means taking the long way home every night. I am constrained by geography. The leg into work is a short one, so I have to make up distance on the way home. I could do more per day by simply stretching my morning leg, but there is no easy way to just add a few kms to the route - I would be adding 10 or nothing.

Now I figure I could do the long route in a few times, but then I would probably fall apart and need to catch the bus to work for a week. Unless I get one of those stationary trainer things, there is no easy way for me to just add a few kms and build up slowly. It is all or nothing.

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