By putting in almost 3 hours on the bike yesterday, riding hard as much as possible to make up for the lack of distance I’ve been getting in the last week.
From home to East Dulwich in South East London, in the morning – mappy.co.uk says around 18km, I say further as it always goes for the shortest/quickest way to get anywhere. Actually I joined together a couple of routes that I know well enough to simplify the amounth of concentrating on directions I would need to do. So the first part followed my old route from Hammersmith to Westminister, as far a Vauxhall Bridge via Barons Court, Northend Road, Fulham Broadway, battersea Bridge Road and then flat out down Cheyne Walk. The second part followed the 185 bus route all the way to East Dulwich via Oval, Camberwell (I think) and Denmark Hill. All in about 45 minutes with a bit of a bump up the rise round Denmark Hill.
Then in the evening from East Dulwich to Spitalfields/Brick Lane via Elephant and Castle, Tower Bridge and Hackney/Whitechapel. Having consulted my A to Z before setting off I had a rough plan but once I had missed a turning in Peckham High Street somewhere it became a bit of a case of following my nose and looking out for signs to point me in the direction of landmarks, like Tower Bridge, and using a bit of common sense.
Finally, blasted home on late night streets – which were relatively quiet – down Old Street, Clerkenwell Road, Kingsway, Strand, Mall, Hyde Park, back up Kensington Church Street for some uphill, then down Holland Park Avenue, stop for bagels in Shepherds Bush and finally down Goldhawk Road and home.
One slight problem – it was very cold and quite damp yesterday which means I have developed a bit of a cold on my chest from all that hard breathing. hopefully it will shift soon enough. I have decided that I’m going to try and train three times a week and aim for a day on/day off routine so that i can fit things more easily around my other commitments.