A particularly long bike ride

On Wednesday 23rd September I did something pretty cool. Well, I think it was pretty cool anyway.

With my Dad for company/navigation, I set off at 8.30am for the longest bike ride I've attempted for some time (or ever). We rode out from Teddington with the aim of reaching the coast.

We started out by cycling through Esher and Oxshott to reach the other side of the M25. We continued using a variety of cycle paths, roads and bridleways. We'd planned in three stops to break the journey up. The first was for a much needed coffee in Fetcham. Once we'd had coffee, we continued for another twenty miles or so before stopping for lunch in a place called Rusper. For future reference, a large lunch right before getting on a bike for 40 more mies is not a great move. No matter how hungry you feel. It was made even less sensible by the fact that the hills after Rusper seemed to increase in frequency. The climbs were challenging but I made it up each one and enjoyed the ride backd own.

Using an old railway line that has been turned into a cycle path we headed towards a gap in the South Downs. In parts, the cycle way was really well surfaced but sadly in many others, it wasn't. Making the climbs and descents more of a challenge at times. After completing another twenty miles or so, we took another coffee break. Much needed as by then, my energy levels were starting to dip. We'd done 45 miles but still had twelve to go in order to reach our destination of Shoreham.

The final twelve miles was a push for my endurance. My previous longest ride had been about 44 miles and I'd probably (definitely) not done enough training for this. Finding my inner sports mentality (which is generally under used), I pushed on. It was all made worth it when we reached the beach at Shoreham shortly after 5pm - yay!

 

Awkward bike pose on Shoreham beach

Mileage at the beach

After 57 miles of cycling, we chose to get the train back to Teddington so cycled up to Shoreham station to catch a train to Clapham. From Clapham, we then caught another train to Twickenham before cycling the final few miles back to Teddington. By the end of the day we'd covered 60 miles of cycling and I was shattered. It was definitely worth it, I'm still really pleased I did it four days later. Onto the next challenge!