#HSXJogle – Easter Training in the Lakes
With it being Easter, HSX as always have headed to the Great Tower in the Lake District. This year as we’re doing the JOGLE in May, teamHSX JOGLE decided to make it a training weekend and to be honest, I’m pretty glad we did as it was a tough one..
Unfortunately out of the eight of us doing the JOGLE only five could make it to the Lake District (Dave, Chris, Smudge, Craig & myself) as the others had commitments keeping them at home. We did though have an honorary member for the weekend as Footlong joined us as he’s training for a sportive and may join us for a day or two.
Thursday 28th April
Craig, Dave & myself were there early so we popped out for a short ride.. Just 20km from Great Tower to Bowness & Windermere. Craig had his brand new, never been on the road bike and he was really keen to get out.. However, four miles in to it’s first outing and Craig hit a pot hole and had a blow out, which resulted in us shivering by the side of the road whilst it was fixed.
(20km – 56min – 283m elevation – 636kcal burnt)
Friday 29th April
With everyone who was there now all together we headed out for a cheeky ride.. The weather although cold with plenty of snow on the ground was glorious, so we started cycling towards the Langdales to hit Hardknott pass.. However, this was very snowy and we didn’t fancy a repeat of Box Hill from December.. So we turned around and went on a tour of the Lakes where we hit Coniston, Windermere, 5 Chevron Hill ( a very very very steep hill), Stavely (Wilfs cafe & the largest bike shop in the UK) before heading home. By the time we got home legs were beginning to ache for some of us..
(113.6km – 5hr47min – 1,722m elevation – 3,444kcal burnt)
Saturday 30th April
What a day. All six of us covered our first 100mile bike ride. Not bad considering we were still nursing sore legs from the 70 miles the day before.. An awesome day. I finally visited Braithwaite, proclaimed myself “King Coaster” for my ability to coast very fast down hill (43mph), we had snow, forest tracks, pasties and ale of course for a great day out..
(160km (100miles) – 7hrs45mins – 2,373 elevation – 4,686kcal burnt)
Sunday 31st April
We had to help with climbing and abseiling in the morning, so we chucked our bikes in the van and left at 1400hrs from Borrowdale and headed back. Another great ride, I was pretty broken and dying slightly. However, we had a beer and took the Hawkshead ferry to make it a bit more fun.
(59.2km – 3hrs11mins – 1,122m elevation – 1,995kcal burnt)
After four great days cycling in the Lakes with fantastic weather, we’ve now all got to get our training it as we leave in less than two months… Happy training everyone..
