I can only hope that it doesn't work for cycling like it does for singing, because I've been in some truly dire dress rehearsals that led to embarrassingly poor concerts.
So yesterday. Yesterday I decided that I was going to finally have a play along the near-home map of the route I'd mapped out from Ely to home (north Cambridge). I'd even painstakingly devised a route on Strava that was Home to Ely. Looks like this:
One small problem. If you "load route" on Strava, it in no way guides you. I didn't know that, so it went wrong quite quickly. Basically this happened:
Firstly everyone and their dog were on Stourbridge Common, and the paths are not the smooth, well-maintained, recent, metalled surface of the busway. No. They are bumpy with uppity tree roots and switchback like no-one's business. And then I ended up in Barnwell. I'm still not sure how. As you can see, I went the wrong way in Fen Ditton for a while, then found my route which was, unlike as it looked on the Strava route planner, totally on-road. On-fast-car-windy-hilly road.
I have in no way practised hills. The busway doesn't really do them. I haven't lived anywhere hilly for a while. I thought I missed hills. I still do, but my hips and knees were less sure, especially when being passed by fast cars.
And then I realised that I was trying to follow the "Ely to Home" route backwards, having smacked my thumb into the wrong one on my phone (the route for which I could barely see on the screen in bright sunshine as it was, as Strava denotes the route to come using orange against shades of yellow, and where you've been in bright blue), so I pulled over (again - I'd already lost a lot of momentum to this), stopped the recording, loaded the "right" route, and started the recording again.
Whereupon this happened:
As the youth say: I don't even. I just can't.
I was very pleased with myself, having gone wrong already a couple of times (long way around Stow-cum-Quy instead of through it? Okay!), to find the right road, and be ganging on through Lode (very pretty - nice, smooth roads, too). I stopped when I figured I'd gone far enough to turn around and still get my miles - as I recalled, the "correct" way back was longer.
There was a pretty bridge with sunsetty shades all over the landscape. I stopped there:
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| Road Behind |
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| View Ahead
And then I ate, drank some water, and set off on the "proper route". By this point, I wasn't startled by going on the road with the whizzy cars, and I knew there was a hill coming up. I was warmed-up and fed, and it was all good. Right?
Turns out the other thing Strava route-planner doesn't make clear is when something is so off-route it's a dirt track, and that the only other options are private farm roads or turn back.
I stopped, swore, turned back, stopped again, and programmed in a cycling route on Google Maps, which soothing voice navigated me all the way home (via some confusion in Fen Ditton, but a lot less confusion than anything that had gone before).
So, what's the conclusion? The conclusion is that I have to make a conclusion - do I:
a) Stick to the boring-but-safe busway route, and just head on up to St. Ives (~12.5 miles away), then head home; or
b) Programme in a clever route on Google Maps and just do the crazy version anyway?
Both are tempting, for different reasons. a) is safer, and will achieve my 25 mile goal without too much stress. I will also get to see a different part of my training route that I haven't encountered yet. That's interesting, right? And I'd already said that I would do that route if the weather is rubbish on Sunday. b) is the original challenge, and a heck of a lot more interesting. There are also pubs on the way that will afford wee stops if necessary.
On the other hand, I've now done a trek that was 74.8% of my eventual goal, and didn't break myself (though I'm really feeling it today). I call that a near-win. I have also concluded that I'm not doing another big training ride on Wednesday - I'm resting these little legs (daily commute aside).
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