Some days you're the hammer, other days the nail. Today I'm a hammer.

Just got back from my first 200km ride of the winter in prep for the 312 next year. We couldn’t have picked a worse day for the weather this week. It started raining around 10am and poured down for 4 hours, meaning both Nick and I were soaked to the skin. There’s only so much that modern cycling clothing can do, however the saving grace was that at least it was warm(ish) at 10-15c. Once we got 75km in we stopped off for the obligatory breakfast, a fry up. This might sound strange, but actually it’s a great fuel for a long ride. The only problem is with eating a full meal is that for the next 30mins on the bike you feel dreadful, as your stomach is using a lot of energy to digest the food, but that fades quickly.

The next stop was at 130km for a quick snack and water stop at a co-op in Wem, where the till lady exclaimed that we were bonkers for riding in this weather. She then asked us how far we had to go? A quick explanation of 80miles done and 45 to go meant she almost spat out her coffee.

It was then a case of fighting the wind on the return leg but at least the rain had stopped and at some points we even had sunshine!!!

We clocked in at 203km, 1770m of climbing and close to 6000 calories burned over the day. For comparison that more than an entire 2 days for a typical male. Therefore I feel somewhat justified to order a chippy tea and sink a beer or two tonight.

Today’s ride, despite the awful weather wasn’t that bad and I feel I could have continued for another 50-100km given another feed stop, however doing this when it’s freezing cold will be an altogether tougher deal. However I’m happy with the progress I’ve made in such a short period. Doing a 8hr ride just a few short weeks ago would have been unthinkable.

Onward and upwards mes amis….