Introducing Brad......

After 20 miles on Saturday, 15 miles on Monday, I had assumed that a day off was on the cards. Huh! Never assume anything with an Ironman, unless he has left the bikes firmly at home!! Still, I could see the sense in a ‘recovery’ ride (actually, I must get John to define exactly what he means by that! ). Also it would be mad to come out here in such ideal conditions and not make the absolute most of it. Plus, we are going to visit Alex-across-the-road and Deidre in their apartment down on the Spanish coast on Thurs so there will be a definite lack of cycling then. Or is John planning to take the bikes there too? Has he told Alex-across-the-road to pack his new bike to bring to Spain? Am I getting a tad paranoid???
Anyways, whatever, I found myself (with John) just moseying along the bottom of the valley/plain what have you. Nice, no hills or undulations. Just miles of road and a decent cadence. Again for the uninitiated I would like to explain the term ‘cadence’. Only I am not entirely sure what it is. The instructor used to go on about it in spin classes at the gym. I think it’s the rhythm and speed that your legs spin when cycling. I kind of know when it’s going well but couldn’t tell you how I got there!
We encountered some really rough road surface, big holes and lots of gravel. Whilst worrying that my bike would be damaged I thought ‘what a star’ it is because it came out pretty much unscathed. This got me to thinking that I should christen it – well, we all love to humanise things, don’t we? Ok, I love to humanise things! So I decided on Brad. Because my bike is VERY good-looking and an absolute star! Plus it’s probably (who am I kidding....definitely) the only time in my life that I will be able to tell people, truthfully, that I have been out and about with Brad.
Funny what you think about when you are cycling. Although I suspect I should be thinking about road conditions, looming terrain and cadence.
Update: apparently cadence is the pedals revolutions per minute. Now aren’t you glad you know that...? Ideally I should be averaging between 85-95 rpm. How would I know?