48 miles......

Well today I did some more serious training. When I say serious, I mean, not just my commutes to work etc.... They're only a maximum of 4 miles each way. Today I did a total of 48.4 miles, 4 hours 26 mins 55 secs (they are just as important LOL).

I had arranged to meet a friend in Eye, Suffolk. Although I'm not sure it should be Suffolk as I got some strange looks saying "you're not from round 'ere" like you get in Norfolk ;-)

Anyway, I set off around 8:40am to give me nearly 3 hours to get there. I tried to start off gently, as they suggest, but unfortunatly every way out of Ipswich normally entails some kind of hill. This time I headed out along Westerfield Road (B1077) which is a steady long incline. The B1077 takes you all the way to Eye and the only time I've been along this road is when we go to Debenham (town, not the shop) at Christmas time. It's normally dark whenever I drive along this road, so it was nice to actually see some scenery.
http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/brookesy/2ptabb7mgvuge9mk
You can check out the route and some of the photos I took en-route.
My main aim was to get to Debenham as I knew how far from Ipswich that was and then that Eye wasn't too further. On reaching Debenham I did take a picture of the church in the daylight :-)
The next point of interest, apart from the whole Suffolk landscape, was Aspall's. For those not from round here, and those tee-totaller, it's the local cider round here.
http://www.aspall.co.uk/ to see the history of it......been there ages!!! You need to check route back for the photos of the orchard/sign
http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/brookesy/1anmq9gj8sad2bf1
You will also see a nice picture of a funny looking man, no it's not Vince ;-)
Throughout the ride I went through various mindsets. "I can't do all the way to Paris it'll kill me"  "I can do all the way to Paris I'll be fine" Most of these weren't at the hill points. Yes going up hills were killers, but you normally have a down hill at some point. Most those thoughts were when I was going along flat bits.

I arrived at Eye approx 11am with a slightly below average of 10mph average speed. However I'm not too worried about the speed it's more the endurance.

I met my friend at the Beard's cafe (a quaint little cafe) at 11:30 and had a spot of lunch, had good catch up, and discussed some business.

I then set off for home at approx 1:30pm. I think the fact that Eye doesn't have a train station (that I know of) prevented me doing my Colchester trick of biking only one way. I knew I HAD to bike back and surprisingly it felt good. The worse bit was America Hill, Witnesham. I knew this was going to be the worse hill, as it's the best hill going TO Eye (top speed down it). I MADE IT up America Hill without stopping. There was a slight incentive. A woman had pulled out of her house on her bike just before the hill. She had a monkey backpack (I WANT) with a massive bicycle pump sticking out......er......"get a smaller handheld one". Anyway, she didn't look a regualr cyclist but was obviously going to try and get up the hill. So, me, being the professional cyclist (ha ha ha)......had to make sure I got up it. Once on the home straight I had to decide which route to take in Ipswich. If I went the way I left, that would involve more hills. So I decided to go the longer way around (Colchester Rd/Heath Rd/Landseer Rd) to prevent more hills.

I arrived home around 4pm and decide to follow advise and have a cold (ish) bath. Aaaarrrrggggghhhhh!!!! It's suppose to help the muscles.....I'll let you know tomorrow!

It's now 9:35pm and I am beginning to ache, especially the back of shoulders, but the proof is how I feel tomorrow........watch this space

NEW BIKE :-) :-) :-)

Firstly a very big THANK YOU to my wonderful husband VINCE!!!!!!!!!
He kindly purchased me a new bike for my birthday, especially for the bike ride.
It is a Claud Butler (good make) Explorer 100 Hybrid. For those non-technical people a hybrid bike is a cross between a mountain bike and a road bike. It's lighter than a mountain bike, but sturdier than a road bike.
It is a lot lighter than my other bike, which had dual suspension so it was very heavy. I could tell the difference straight away when I rode it away from the shop.