56miles, rain, wind and sun

It was an early start. Up at 6, bit of breakfast and the fill the water bottles and off to meet Rob in Redbourn at 7.

We're both doing the Half Ironman in the New Forest and need to build the bike endurance, so today was 56miles which is the distance we cover in the race.

We met on time and set off towards Gaddeson Row, then it was over to Potten End, taking our first serious climb. From Potten End it's down through Ashridge and over to Bison Hill.

It's absolutely bucketing for the first 20miles but by the time we're over Bison it has stopped. We've just got the wind now.

From Bison, which I found pretty tough today, it was down to Markyate and over to Slip End. Rob was being disciplined and stopping for a refuel on every hour. I was a bit lax and took on a muesli bar and gel in 3 hours.

We made it down to Kinsbourne Green then headed back to Luton Hoo and over the top to East Hyde. I peaked at 42mph on the downhill. The next climb was up to Peters Green and now we were starting to feel it, this was mile 33 so a bit to go yet.

The route over to Breechwood Green and Preston is very up and down, so the pace was slowing and the effort was massive. From Preston we enjoyed a substantial downhill to Whitwell.

The last 13 miles were gritted teeth. I was feeling the burn on the inclines and having to dig in to keep the pace up.

Great run though and by the end the sun was out. Main lesson is on the nutrition, I need to take on more and be as disciplined as Rob. 4000 calories burnt and an average heart rate of 137.

56miles, rain, wind and sun by kdmurray65 at Garmin Connect - Details