Rule 5

How much training do you need to do?  It’s a question that I’ve asked myself many times as I have prepared for this trip.  If I wind the clock back to last summer, Jo was doing some running and then she took up rowing, which she totally got into in a big way (she’s a rowing nutter). 

When you’re living with someone who is training six days a week, and many days she’s on the water twice a day, you feel a bit left out!  I have been doing lots more running over the last year, so when I decided to do this trip around March this year, I realised I needed to significantly increase time on the bike.  The only bit I have struggled with is an hour’s run is a good workout, whereas I needed seat-time on the bike, not just the workout.   This meant some early morning training rides before work, sometimes up to 30 miles, and then up to 40 miles after work.  Getting the time to do this proved difficult.  Whether I have done enough is yet to be seen.

However today demonstrated vividly that that training is only part of it.  A big element is all in the mind, and hence the reference in today's update to Rule 5 of the Velominati Rules.  As I left the B&B in Wells this morning, my legs felt a bit rubbish and I could have done with 10 miles of flat spinning to warm them up.  However Somerset decided to have a laugh at my expense – within 5 minutes I was climbing a ridiculously steep hill…

 … all I could think about was “I’ve not warmed up” or “this is too steep” or other rubbish like that.  Which meant I got off the bike and pushed it up the steepest part of the hill, and when cars went by I sheepishly pretended to by doing something to the bike rather than admitting I chickened out so early on.  Of course I could have done it, but my mind hadn’t switched on properly.

I’ll talk about the day more fully below, but later in the day I was cycling along and two cyclists on some pretty shiny bikes whizzed past on a Sunday ride and started to disappear into the distance.  You can see them as a very small dot in the picture.

All morning I had been thinking about quitting up that hill so early, and how annoyed I was about it, so it left me no choice but to put the hammer down and give chase!  I decided to just go for it, and ignore the fact that I had another 50 miles to go at that point, there was only going to be one outcome, and after about 10 minutes I had caught them, and then stuck on their back.

When the guy at the back looked round, he was a bit surprised to see me with a touring bike with big panniers chasing him.  It was great fun to just go for it.  Clearly in doing so I contravened Rule 19 by just sticking to their tail, but who cares.

What today taught me is my training counted for nothing – I needed to harden the f**k up!

Going back to the day, I soon hit Chew Lake which is a reservoir for Somerset.

And then at last got to Bristol.  I lived here for about seven years so it was really nice to see a very familiar place.   

I descended down through Long Ashton to the Ashton Court estate where we have returned for the last few years for the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta (and the last two years have seen no balloons launched because of the weather!).  

Then through Hotwells and along the Clifton Gorge and underneath the Clifton suspension bridge.

I was a bit worried beforehand about the roads around here as they can be very busy, particularly big lorries on single carriageway A-roads.  However since starting to plan this trip I have discovered something called the National Cycling Network, which is a whole network of bike routes that I never even knew existed.  It even used an old railway bridge which is now used for bikes and pedestrians.  It feels so much safer away from the big roads.

Then off to Avonmouth which is the main docks in Bristol and an industrial area.  

And finally to the Second Severn Crossing.  There are two bridges over the river Severn, I took the new one...

...which had a great view of the original Severn Bridge. 

Finally into Wales…

… and through a tunnel underneath the road for the bridge, to get me onto the cycle network route.

Past Chepstow Racecourse, which had a sculpture of a racehorse made out of tree branches which I’d never noticed before…

… then went through Tintern with its famous Abbey…

and through the beautiful countryside by the river Wye.

By now the roads were undulating again, and the closer I got to Hereford the more they started going up and down.  It got harder and harder again.  Man up, Zubin, just get on with it.

Finally, the landmark I had been spending the last half hour looking for – Hereford Cathedral.  What a lovely sight for tired legs!

Over the bridge into the city, and I couldn’t resist taking this picture.  If you have seen the film Ronin, Robert DeNiro thinks Sean Bean is not telling the truth when he says he was in the SAS, so asks him “"What colour is the boathouse at Hereford?"   (Hereford is home to the SAS).

Now you too can bluff your way through SAS interrogations (the roof is grey). 

Past the Cathedral…

…and finally my place tonight – not a B&B but tonight I’m staying with Jean, my mother-in-law.  She cooked a steak, chips, onion rings, salad – just what the doctor ordered!

Here’s my route today.

And two videos (which are a bit rubbish) – one crossing the Second Severn Crossing

June 2013 - Lejog day 4 - Second Severn Crossing from Zub on Vimeo.

and one in Herefordshire going down hills and then struggling to get up the hill.

June 2013 - Lejog day 4 - Down and up a hill near Hereford from Zub on Vimeo.

Finally, a big well done to my brother, Peter, who did a big cycle race in Melbourne yesterday.  He dropped me an email this morning where he said it was the hardest thing he's ever done.  Well done Peter - I am very proud of you!

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