Training Log Archive: Ollie

Dunwich to Dalsham station, then Liverpool Street Station to home. Very tired.

To/from Decathlon. Trying out cleats in anger, for the first time.

Dunwich Dynamo 2009 - from London Fields in Hackney, to the beach at Dunwich in Suffolk. Starting at 8:50pm...

I was riding with Jenn and Michal, also trying out various new accessories I'd bought in the day - a fell-runners' bag, saddle bag, frame bag, padded shorts, a proper cycling top, cleats and a couple of bike lights (which proved to be woefully underpowered.)

There most have been close to a thousand cyclists in this year's Dynamo - a free turn-up-and-go event taking advantage of the calm, dry and clear weather, although it got surprisingly chilly quite quickly.

The pace was far faster than I was expecting - once we had passed the highest point of the route (Epping Forest) the pace really went up and we pushed hard until the food stop at 100km. The pace then on was also quite fast, at one point a wonderful 10km with the Dulwich cycling club peloton. Then, as dawn broke properly, we started to tire a lot.

We finally made it to Dunwich at 6:10am, where the cooked breakfast in the cafe was very welcome - the rain shower, the first of the night, wasn't. We took a risk, cycling 8km through the second rain shower to get the first local train of the day. 20 others had the same idea, but the guard let us on, and three hours later we were back in London. An extra 50km to cycle to Ipswich for the main-line trains was thanfully avoided.

The high point was tearing down the Suffolk Coastal District part in the back of a fast-moving (~35km/h) peloton. The low point was definitely waiting for the rain to clear at Dunwich and dreading the cycle to Ipswich. The most memorable sight was seeing a long stream of flashing red lights in front of me, sweeping around invisible corners.

Despite the pain near the end, it was great fun and good training for when I set off to cycle the length of Britain (Thurso to London) in a couple of weeks time.

Time was moving time - we spent a couple of hours taking breaks, including nearly an hour at the 100km feed station. The first 100km was virtually without a stop, but the latter section had more frequent stops, as Michal's bike started to make strange mechanical sounds.

On the back of a disturbed night the night before, and obviously no sleep at all last night, I don't feel too bad right now. However I did nod off numerous times on the packed train back from Ipswich to London.

Drinks-wise I got through 1 litre of Lucozade and around 1 litre of water, + coffee at the feed station and at the cafe at the end. Food I ate included some chewy sweets, three Power-bars and few Clif Shot Bloks. At the half-way point a had a pasta salad plate and a couple of bananas. At the end I had an SIS sport bar and a Clif bar, as well as the cooked breakfast. As a consequence I didn't bonk at all and feel fine now!

After dark - went along the canal, without lights, very carefully! Suprisingly, the park was also still open - took the road route for the first section, until I saw the open gate.

To/from Peckham Rye Park. Very hot indeed (~28*C.) New tires performing pretty well.

SLOW Peckham Rye Park. Finished 6th out of 42 starters on the Long course. Ran 5.85km.

Really hot.