I can't believe...

... this weather!
For goodness sake - It's April, it's Easter, and there are more Bank Holidays than there are Banks*

I'm sure that those who are genetically predisposed to moaning will find fault with it, but out on my ride today I saw a large number of faces held in a slightly unaccustomed smile.
Way too much milky white skin on show though ;o)

I had a window of opportunity for about a 60 mile ride between doing a whole load of important household and work things, and the imminent arrival home of my wife, who I haven't seen for what seems like an age!!

It was a brilliant day for a ride, and had time allowed I would have made it a much longer one.
I am being supported in the 10 Freds from a Fluids and Recovery perspective by Team Nutrition and today was a perfect opportunity to give the Durafuel Electrolyte Energy a go.
You haven't heard of them, right?
Well that's because they mostly provide products for professional athletes, and they haven't really broken into the market of 'ordinary' athletes like you and me.
I hope this changes at some point!
The thing that I really like about this particular product is that it has all the bits and pieces in that you need - and isn't sickly sweet like some can be.
Robin of Team Nutrition tells me that is because they don't cut costs by using certain (very cheap) ingredients. You know what - you can tell!!

Being, as it was, in the 20°C range of sunny temperature (and warmer than that in the sun) 3 and a half hours on the bike was going to need some fluid.
I took two bottles of 650mls - both with the electrolyte energy in them.
And by about 55miles they were both gone!
And they were very pleasant to use. no sticky aftertaste - didn't get bored of them. Actually I wish I'd had a little more. There are very few drinks on the market that I would say that about.

Fluid management and recovery are going to be KEY in the 10 Freds, and Robin and I have come up with a plan for optimising things. It'll be really interesting to see how it goes. In the meantime, I'm testing everything out on my training rides to make sure that they agree with me!

So far so good!!

I had a really nice surprise today.
A couple of days ago I saw a tweet from @roadcc asking for people doing the Fred Whitton (it's on the 8th May) who had an android phone and might be interested in taking part in a tracking experiment to contact them.

Now I'm not doing the 8th which is the official sportive day - but I emailed them anyway to tell them what I AM doing, and if they wanted more data, I'd be happy to help.

I got a response which started:
"i'm sorry, i thought you just said 'ten freds in ten days' :-\

that's mental..."

And asking for a bit more info! They don't normally cover charity rides - but imagine how made up I was to see this on their site this morning :o)

Thanks for that guys. If we can let more people know about my little jaunt, then hopefully we can raise a little more for Macmillan Cancer Support.

If you are new to my blog, there is a justgiving widget thingy on the right hand side, if you are able to spare a few pennies :o)

Right - need to de-salinate before the wife gets in! :)




*this MAY be an exaggeration!