Just got back from a bike ride with Greg, Niall and Tom and am feeling nice and refreshed, though I’ll probably be exhausted later on! We started from Hornsby and took the Old Pacific Highway to the turn-around at Brooklyn on the Hawkesbury River. We’d enjoyed a couple of downhill kms to the turn-around, and now it was time to work hard for a while. I thought that there was a cafe at the bottom, and that we’d have a rest, but it turned out that the cafe in question was at the top of the hill.

As is usually the case, once I got to the top the hill seemed a bit easier than I’d expected. It was a 4km climb, at roughly a 6% grade and I averaged 13.5kmh which I was pretty happy with. I stopped to lower my seat, as my lower back was a bit sore and I thought my saddle might be too high. Once at the top, Greg told me that it’s usually a sign of tight hamstrings and a bit of stretching should sort it out, so I needn’t have stopped at all.

After a pie and a coffee we got back on the bikes for the 20km back to the cars. I was feeling pretty good, so I tried to keep the pace over 30kmh (apart from the hills) for a while. I got away from the others for 10km or so, but Niall hunted me down. All in all it was good fun and a decent workout. The total distance was 46km, so I missed out on the ton for the week by 2km. I suppose I could cycle up the road a little, but that doesn’t really count.

B: 98km – R: 9km – W: 2 sessions