Holiday Madness

So, its a bank holiday weekend. I am in London at a loose end as I am not seeing Michelle this weekend. (why you may ask- well I cocked up on my dates, thats why. Sorry again Michelle!)

So, what to do on a Bank Holiday Sunday?
Recover from the night before?
Go to the seaside?
Go to the pub for a sunday session?
Clean the house?
Clean & fettle my bike(s)
Have a lazy day?

Well sensible people might do one of the above or something similar.

So, I chose to do the most stupid thing I could thing of and decided to visit my parents who were staying with my godfather and his wife in Norfolk and have lunch / dinner with them.

I know that doesn’t sound too stupid. In fact some people would say that its the sort of thing a dutiful son should do.

Even if I told you my godfather lived 86 miles away? What’s that you say, 86 miles won’t take long in a powerful car like yours. If you left home at 10 am you could be there before lunchtime.

All this is very true. However, the stupid thing was I decided to make the trip by bicycle. Let that sink in. I decided to cycle 86 miles today. That is longest ride I have had in well over a year. Indeed in the last year I have only done 2 rides of over 50 miles.

Now add into the mix I was meeting people for lunch. Thus it’s not 86 miles in a day but instead its 86 miles before lunch! Madness

Hence why I was up at 5am on a Sunday morning preparing to leave the house @ 0600.

Setting off wearing new cycling shoes is not a good idea on a long ride. I really should have broken them in & checked the cleat position in advance!

0600 was 1 minute after sunrise & a great time to be out cycling. The roads were empty. The air so still and calm and fresh. Perfect cycling conditions except the earliness of the hour.

Riding through Essex & Suffolk to Norfolk should be a flat ride? Well I rode using my sat nav as guidance and for the first 15 or so miles every road seemed to have the word hill in it! I had ridden most of these hills before, but they seemed harder than I remember. Clearly I was less fit than I thought. Either that or the rear brake was rubbing on the wheel because I hadn’t checked it. Guess which option was the correct one.

It was a glorious ride through the Essex lanes, being so early there was little traffic on the roads. I used to often go out with Tom, my son at this sort of time when he was little. It’s great to ride without the traffic to worry about. The only problem was that as it was just after sunrise, the sun was very low in the sky. As I was heading in an east/ north-east direction I was riding into the sun. At times it was impossible to see in front of me and it was a chilling reminder of how easily it would be for a motorist to fail to see me.

My plan was to ride about 20- 25 miles and stop for a cuppa and then do another 20-25 miles and stop again. Plodding along at the speed I do, being overtaken by tortoises, it would mean a stop every couple of hours. That sounds like a sensible idea? Well, it would be if I had started at a sensible time. How many cafe’s are open at 0800 on a Sunday morning? Answer is none I passed.

I knew there was a cafe in Halstead open from 0900, but as I got into Halstead my GPS told me there was a “big” hill on leaving Halstead. I didn’t fancy doing a hill immediately after a cafe stop, so I rode through Halstead without stopping. The “big” hill? well, it was a small incline. I had the graph on my GPS set up to make the hills look steeper than they were! D’oh – I’ll learn from my mistake. I missed a cafe stop.

So, no cafe open, it meant keep plodding on until i found a cafe. Well, I did find one in Sudbury after about 55 miles. I was due to meet my father and another there. It was now just after 10am. I checked my phone and there was a message from my father saying they had only just set off to ride the 25 miles to meet me. So I decided to carry on and meet them further up the road.

I rode onto Lavenham which is a pretty little town/ village with lots of expensive tea rooms. Still there was one there with lots of cyclists in. That must be the cheapest one. A couple of texts to my father and they came to Lavenham to join me. This stop after some 62 miles was my first food / drink of the day. I don’t recommend riding on empty. It’s the 2nd time I’ve done it in just over a month – its not big and its not clever.

From Lavenham we deviated off my planned route and went the route suggested by our local guide. It meant we did an extra 5 or so miles, but all on wonderfully quiet country lanes.

Finally arriving in Walsham le Willows after some 86+ miles. Tired but ready for the cold beer my host had ready. It is only around 36 years since I was in Walsham le Willows – not much has changed!

After a light lunch my godfather took up all down the local pub for a couple of welcome beers. I think it was brave of him as I had no other clothes so had to go to the pub in my cycling kit – not a pleasant sight. After this, we returned to his house for a great bbq before I had to dash off to get my train back to London.

Yes, I took the easy route home. 86 miles is enough for one day.

The train home was interesting. Firstly a 2 carriage train from Bury St Edmunds to Cambridge. For some reason they thought it necessary to tell passengers that at one of the intermediate stations the could only alight from the front 2 carriages! I’d be more impressed if anyone tried to alight from any other carriage.

Then on the train from Cambridge to London, the blonde female who was using the toilet was rather embarrassed when she realised that she had not locked the door and someone opened it giving the whole carriage a view of her on the loo. Sadly, I was too slow with my camera.

Eventually I ended up home at around 11pm, shattered but happy. It was worth the ride to spend some time with my parents. If they won’t come to me, I’ll have to stalk them. I think they thought they were far enough from London to be safe from me!- That’ll teach them.