Priceless...

Food to get me round 107 miles and up and down 9000ft - £7
Petrol to drive me to the hills - ~£5
Remembering why I love cycling - PRICELESS!

I will soon be leaving London, on the 20th July my teaching contract ends and I will be heading back to God's own country (where you don't have to drive 30 miles to find hills). This coming weekend demanded a serious bike workout on the TT which invariably requires a measurable loop on a rolling course with as few stops as possible, ergo duel carriage ways for around 5 hours.
As a way of saying "goodbye" I chose to ride the Chiltern Cyclosportive gran fondo route... and what a route! There's practically no flat in all 107 miles and some of the climbs were brutal. I clocked 6:16, only 6 minutes shy of the gold standard so not too bad. More importantly, somewhere between Bison Hill and Great Missenden (excluding I remembered why I love cycling so much. It feels like I've spent two months in the aero position on dual carriage ways trying to hit a specific wattage and it was a refreshing change to just ride.

Training continues to plod along, I know now that I cannot handle 20+ hour weeks whilst teachingn and have come pretty close to the edge during high intentisty sessions, just had to listent to my body instead of ego... difficult at times.