"Shut up legs"

 Well it's been a (very) long time since I last wrote on this blog however that is about to change. This year I am planning a cycling holiday at the end of May so I need to start getting fit. For the trip which will be mainly off road I will be using my MTB rather than the Pink Panther, my trusty Condor tourer. This is going to make things interesting as the longest trip I had done on it was about 15 miles about half the distance I will need to do in May with luggage.

To get into training I have been going out on the bike a couple of lunchtimes each week and for longer rides at weekends,  It was initially quite tough to get going hence the title of this post a quote from the great cyclist Jens Voight. I have also been on a diet as I need to loose about 8kg and this means some days I am burning far more calories than I am eating.

Last weekend I rode out into the Fens to explore some old Drove roads. These farm roads were original constructed as routes to drive livestock to market and are now used as farm access. 

 The Fens themselves are a strange place until you get used to them, totally flat and at this time of year barren and in places waterlogged.

 The only breaks in the fields are where drainage dykes cut across them, these ditches are the only places you see any trees, normally Willows.

The roads themselves are in mixed condition, they are made up from concrete slabs which have been badly broken in places by tractors. They are also very muddy and at this time of year flood. This meant a lot of porterage in places as it was unsafe to ride through as there was no way of tell what lay under the water.

I worked my way across the Fens to Haddenham where I had  a coffee and some cake at the art gallery before retracing my route back to Earith, where the Ouse had broken it's banks and flooded the fields alongside it.

 

  

To add A few miles to the ride I came the long route back to the village which has a couple of nasty short climbs, after 4 hours riding they really hurt, but it did boost the totally distance for the day to 29 miles so it was worth it.