Cycle Course Practice

Rather than our usual leisurely Sunday morning cycle ride, we decided to try out the triathlon cycle route - it is from Hartlepool Marina down the promenade to Seaton Carew and back - three times.  Should be about 20k of easy flat riding.

I was not planning on it being a difficult ride, so we only brought a few jelly snakes for sustenance - quite a mistake!

The Hase Pino tandem is a bit ungainly at low speed and tight turns, so we had a few little problems - the main one is when we leave the road to join the cycle path on the sea front where there is only one dropped kerb so we had to squeeze between cars to get onto the path.  Then there is a bit of a chicane to get through the sea wall.

Benjamin on his Hase Pino tandem.

The main thing though is that normal North East England summer weather has returned, and there was
quite a stiff northerly wind so we blew nicely to Seaton Carew, doing about 30 km/hr, but once we turned to head back we slowed a lot.  The first return leg we did about 20 km/hr, but by the time we got to the last one, the jelly snakes had worn off and my legs were not doing well, and we only did about 15 km/hr.   Overall average was just over 19 km/hr, so we are on course to do the cycle in about 1 hour, which is what I had expected.

Benjamin was very pleased with travelling so fast and shouted encouragement and waved a lot.   No sign of helping with the pedalling though, even when I was struggling on the last return leg!

I definitely need to come up with a plan for what to eat though - jelly snakes, mars bars, or something high tech?   I'll have a go at calculating how much energy I will need, then I will know how much to eat - a future post once I have done some sums.