Polka Dot Short Course

As planned I did the short Polka Dot Challenge course on Wednesday. I decided to get super organised, drive my daughter to nursery, come back with the other two, collect the bike, walk them to school with bike and then cycle straight from the school.
I plotted the route in bike hike and rather than rely on the automatically included course points, I added my own to the route so that I had confidence that the turnings would all be accurate. The route plotted out at 72 miles so I would have to maintain around 12.5 mph in order to make it back in time for school pick up at 3pm. Getting lost with so little time to spare was just not an option.
As forecast, the skies were clear and the sun was hot - perfect conditions to test out my Etape clothing. As I got going, I noticed that it was also a bit breezy. Things were going well - my regular climbs: Brickworks, Windgather & Derbyshire Bridge were all straight forward. The breeze meant that the heat wasn't too much of an issue although I could feel that my back was a little damp. Next came a fast descent to Allgreave - absolutely fantastic & really fast. The climb up to Flash was fine - I remembered it well from the first time I did it a few weeks ago when the conditions were much worse.
I had planned to refill my water bottles at the half way point around Longnor but when I came across Flash stores, a quiet shop which I felt comfortable leaving my bike outside, I decided to bring the refuel forward. I bought a very cold 2l bottle from the fridge and a piece of Lemon Drizzle cake. As I set off again, I started feeling a bit crap. It occurred to me that actually, I wasn't enjoying it all that much. The speed starting dropping a bit, my kidneys seemed to be aching - a similar feeling to that I experienced in the heat of the Bike Radar Sportive. I upped the drinking and had another gel and ploughed on. The countryside was absolutely beautiful but all I could think was that I *should* be enjoying this more. The wind was cooling but sapping, the heat was just sapping. I started to think that my silver dream goal was just a stupid idea as I obviously don't do heat very well and Derbyshire isn't going to be anywhere near as hot as Provence in July.
I plodded on, noting various points that had been memorable on the Polka Dot - the feed stop lay-by, the place I stopped to get a text from Colin which said he was dying, the grass where I had a wee, the wall where a 20miles to go sign had been hung, the quiet car racing track, which had been humming with motor activity early in the month. I got to the top of Axe Edge and knew that I'd done most of it now - over the Cat & Fiddle and only one more serious bit of climbing to go. My average speed was around 12mph but I knew that the last 20 miles or so can be polished off at around 18mph and so it turned out to be.
I arrived at school at around 2.45pm. Some of the mums asked if I had actually been out on my bike ALL DAY. Oh yes I have! When I saw people's reactions to the distance I'd just done, it did make me feel better, even if I'd felt rubbish at the time of actually doing it.

Here's my ride:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/7504538
Summary Data
Total Time (h:m:s) 5:36:48 4:44 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 5:23:10 4:33 pace
Distance (mi ) 70.92
Moving Speed (mph) 13.2 avg. 41.3 max.
Total Speed (mph) 12.7 avg
Elevation Gain (ft) +6,835 / -7,024

Avg. Heart Rate 122 bpm Zone 0.9

Thursday morning I woke up with a sore throat with painful swallowing - it didn't go away during the day and I started to think that perhaps I might need to go to the docs. I forgot all about the diet and just concentrated on eating well and getting some rest. I also take quite a few various herbal remedies every day:

Cherry Active drink with 10 drops Plantago & 30 drops Pelargonium (to help the sore throat); 2 tablets of Echinacea; 2 tablets Vitamin C with Quercetin (antioxidants); 1 spoon Manuka honey.

I have to say, the sore throat has pretty much gone now and I'm feeling much better. I'm not sure why I felt so rubbish on Wednesday; my son was sick at night so perhaps I just had picked up a little bug from him. I also wonder if that cold, cold water was a bit too cold - can that be a bad thing? Anyway, I've had a couple of days off, I'm feeling much better and hoping to get out on the bike for a short ride tomorrow.

Ah, found this interesting article http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=15049 It looks like James Cracknell with be riding with us. I also checked the rider list and Alain Prost is also down to ride :-) He's number 5.