Tour de West Bromwich #Juneathon day 24

"Are you going to cycle to work on Friday?" Sarah asked me this morning. Actually, this didn't seem like a bad idea as I'd switched days at work so I had a long day on a Thursday and a short day on Friday. This meant that for the first time I attempted the ride to work, I had a little more time to play with both in the morning and in the afternoon. However, although I'd ridden home from Decathlon on Saturday, I didn't think it was sensible to try and just ride to work on Friday without having tested some of the distance first. (I also confirmed with reception at work that there was shower available to rinse my stinky body when I got to work).

When I have used the exercise bike at both home and at the gym, I have been able to cover 10 miles in half an hour if I'm pushing it or a little longer if I'm not so I picked a route about 10 miles long and allowed myself about an hour to complete the distance. The route was a combination of road, towpath and the cycle route that runs alongside the Midland Metro.

About a minute into my ride, I realised that runkeeper decided I had covered no distance. In my attempt to preserve my phone's battery, I'd flicked it into airplane mode and so hadn't picked anything up. A quick change of the settings solved the problem and I set off again.

Tonight, my attire involved my padded cycling shorts, underneath my jogging pants. I also borrowed Sarah's gel seat and I must say that the ride was a lot more comfortable as a result. I was quite pleased with the way things went in the first half of the ride, with the only times I had to get off the bike was either to go up some steps or to let another cyclist past (the surprise was from the guy behind who absolutely caned it past me!). There were several sections that I wasn't keen on - particularly under bridges where the surface is either designed to shake every bone in your body, or to get you right next to the edge of the canal.

Although I was enjoying my ride, I left the towpath around the 5-mile mark (If I'd carried on, I'd have reached the office around 2-3 miles later), however my next challenge was a road section, starting with a hill. After I'd succesfully climbed it without getting off, I must admit to having my doubts as to whether I was capable of riding both to and from Birmingham the same day. (Sarah's managed it a couple of times and there's always the safety net of being able to ride to the station at the end of the day and get the train back again).

One of the benefits you get being outdoors as opposed to on an exercise bike is downhill. Gym equipment doesn't give you the credit for the distance if you freewheel it! and so started my route back alongside the tramline. This both was and wasn't a route I was familiar with as when we lived in Wolverhampton, we used to commute by tram to Birmingham every day. However, the path alongside the tramway does cross the tracks on several occasions with kissing gates either side of the track to prevent stupid people from trying to cross in front of a tram. This meant dismounting again, although by the end of the path, I had just about perfected the 'postman's dismount' - something I'd never got the hang of when I was a kid!

At various points during the ride, I felt a sharp pain in my back around my right shoulder from where I'd been hunched over, so Sarah kindly ran me a bath to soak in when I got back. I know I'm still shaky at slow speeds, but all in all it was a very good workout and bodes well for later in the week!

Cycling: 9.43 miles in 1h 03m 36

Splattered!

Juneathon totals:

Running:
Distance - 25.11 miles
Time - 3h 35m51

Swimming:
Distance - 5.27 miles
Time - 3h 50m 38

Cycling:
Distance - 98.88 miles
Time - 6h 02m 53

Walking:
Distance - 17.98 miles
Time - 4h 37m 18

Cross Trainer:
Distance - 8.77 miles
Time - 1h 16mm 47

Rowing Machine:
Distance - 1.24 miles
Time - 09m 07

Total Distance - 158.49 miles
Total Time - 19h 32m 34