Wednesday 30 May 2012

Day Seven - (30th May)

Our quest to reach the goal that Land's End continues.

Todays leg of the journey saw team Upside Down travel the 110 miles from Shrewsbury to Bristol via places such as Hereford and Monmouth - and that also meant a brief foray into our third country of the journey - Wales. Since traversing Shap earlier in the ride we have been enjoying relatively flat terrain and thus have (a) made good progress, and (b) been worried about what Devon and Cornwall may have in store for us. In doing so we had overlooked what sort of terrain (and by that I mean the size/severity of the hills) on today's route. From Shrewsbury to Hereford all was pleasant - a little too breezy in the wrong direction if I'm being picky.

Lunch was obtained from Greg's and then taken in the grounds of Hereford Cathedral. We were still hungry - more of which later. Things took a turn for the worse immediately after lunch when the A49 headed skyward. This was to be a pre-cursor for a very undulating ride through Herefordshire, with one particularly nasty climb that required digging deep into the reserves of energy and motivation.

And it is that - energy and motivation - that I feel is the reason why today's ride felt so difficult. Why motivation? Well for the last 6 days we've been heading 'home' ie south from John O'Groats. Now we're heading away from home again - ie south of Shrewsbury.

But moreover today was a story of poor nutrition - and the poor utilisation of said nutrition. Essentially took few carbs taken too late in the ride. A schoolboy error if ever I saw I one - and a mistake we won't be making again any time soon!

Stats the way to do it.....!

Miles done today: 110
Miles done so far: 680
Climb today: 1807 meters (5928 feet)
Confidence score: 9.9!!

 PS - we now have a new 'least favorite road to cycle in the whole world' road - which runs from the Severn Bridge to Avonmouth....

2 comments:

  1. I remember having lunch in Hereford. You are sooooo old fashioned. You couldn't have ordered the groceries using paper tonight worry about Cornwell they are all just niggly hills and only a problem if you hit them on day 1. I remember heading away from family and I really struggled that day. Oh, and it was the stretch up to paisley.

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  2. No idea where that middle bit about groceries came from

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