I put my four day weekend to good use,121 miles cycling and 11 miles running is a weekend well spent in my books. Other's might look at me rather oddly and tell me it's a waste of four beautiful days of sun. But I enjoyed it, and still found time for some beers and a trip to the pub.
On Thursday evening Dad and I had a mainteance malfunction. The Joe Blow bike pump was with Luke in Norfolk, so that left us with an old school hand pump, not designed for high pressure fancy bike tyres. We gave it a shot, and only succeeded in breaking the valve for the tyre.
I was now bikeless, this gave me the perfect opportunity to go for an 11 mile long run on Friday as a test for the Stratford Marathon next weekend. I'd give myself 5/10 pace was good, a little fast, but I had to work much harder than I should of. But theres no ducking out of the Marathon now, the hotel has been booked and the support crew is expanding with each day. So I'd better suck it up and get myself round, preferably with a PB or I'll be unbearable on the trip home.
Lauren and I got up early Saturday to go to Halfords to get a new pump that would allow me to fit the new tyre. I grabbed the last pump for the princely sum of 32quid! Lauren dropped me and my gear off at the parents and left me to mend the tyre, simple you would think given the amount of practise I have had lately! But alas 40mins and a whole lot of frustration later the pump wouldn't work and I was defeated, ready to call Lauren to come and pick me up. But as I locked up my rusty, sorry looking bike I saw my Dad's shiny new white racer and I just had to take it for a spin. So out I went on the slick new wheels and managed just under 37 miles on 4 loops of the Rayleigh, Rochford, Hockley circuit at an average of just under 16mph.
Followed that up with 48 miles on Sunday, 5 more loops of the circuit, slightly slower than Saturday, and definately slowed in the final third. Managed 35 more miles on Monday, the pace was again down on the previous two days but still well above 15mph.
I Got the flying white pace machine back to my Dad on Monday evening, and we got to work on my back tyre. It turns out I'm not quite as stupid as 40mins trying to pump up a tyre would suggest. Halfords had sold me the pump missing a few vital parts. So we used a working pump and got the tyre fixed in 10mins. I then cycled the 3 downhill miles home, and realised that my bike was in desperate need of some TLC!
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