Petrifying profiles, a phonecall and a parrot!

The weekend began with a newsletter from the organisers of our London to Paris trip. The sun was shining and we already had an evening ride planned, so the newsletter was initially a welcome e-mail on a Friday afternoon. There are currently 54 people signed up for the trip...details of booking accommodation etc, how exciting! The excitement then turned to worry (and I see it had the same effect on Kate too from her blog...). How are we going to get ourselves and our bikes to Blackheath? Are we really going to be up to speed for the challenge? Our initial briefing will be at 6:15am, which means we need to breakfasted and ready to go before then and ready to set off at 7am. The first day is 87miles with some tricky hills and we've got to be at Dover by 4pm...that is a tall order. 10 miles an hour is managable - but not without a break and not with all those hills! Then there was the page of route profiles...that brought me right back down to earth again.

Anyway, ignoring the seemingly impossible route profile and logistics of the trip, we set out into the sunshine to get on with some training. We headed down to the Turf Locks again, this time out through Exminster to add a bit of a hill and make it a slightly longer route. It was a beautiful evening and we decided to stop for a drink and enjoy the peaceful surroundings...until the phone rang! It was Ant's mum so we had a pleasant chat, finished up our drinks and headed home. The journey back home was excellent! The light was starting to fade, the cycle paths were once again free of families and dog walkers and for the first time I felt able to put some power into my pedals and enjoy speeding along. This may have had more to do with the cider I'd just drunk than any improvement in my knee, but I was having a great time!

On Saturday morning we took a trip out to Bickleigh. Enjoying another beautiful morning and getting an early start so that I could get back for work in the afternoon, we headed out on the road to Stoke Cannon. There was a definite chill in the air, but we soon warmed up and it was lovely to find ourselves in the quiet lanes after passing over the railway line. My legs were feeling tired from the previous night's ride and I was dreading the hills on the main road which had completely beaten me on my first trip out with the CTC. I needn't have worried as we took a couple of wrong turns and it was ages before we made it to the hilly section! The detour gave us the pleasure of entering into the territory of a ploughing competition! Thankfully I think we were too early for that and we didn't have to face lots of tractors in the narrow lanes! The stretch along the main road out to Bickleigh was much longer than I'd remembered. I coped quite well with the first couple of hills, but it got tougher as I went along. However, my spirits were lifted by a whole load of sheep and lambs being herded along by a family and as usual by the promise of a lovely cup of tea!

In Bickleigh I had a few too many cups of tea and the most delicious millionaire's shortbread that I've had in a very long time! It was surprisingly warm sitting out in the sunshine and I was glad I'd thought to put suncream on before heading out. Despite being delighted to have made it and enjoying the wonderful resting spot, we were both all too aware that we still had to cycle back again...with a hill out of Bickleigh to start us off! I took it slowly along the main road and we soon found ourselves back in the lanes again. The journey home seemed a lot shorter, despite a few unsuccessful detours to find a toilet! We were soon back home and enjoying a picnic lunch down by the river. I was very encouraged that I'd been able to manage two fairly decent cycle rides two days in a row. I was also, however, shattered! We'll be continuing with some mid-week rides this week and I'm just going to ignore those pesky profile pictures for now!