London to Brighton and a dumb idea

Wooh, so I just did my longest ride yet! London to Brighton (.. erm I mean Newhaven).

So when my more experienced cyclist friend asked me if I was interested in cycling to Brighton on the 4th of July, I was like "yeah, of course, that'll be great PRL training!"  and I immediately booked the day off work.  Insert head over face emoji here.

..I'd like to add that Becky was cycling to Paris the following day, and also invited me along to that, at the time the lack of annual leave prevented me from committing but later the "she's insane" prevented me from committing to it. Although I have to admit I sort of liked the idea of plodding through the scenic cycle pathways of France.  

As time, and lack of training progressed I started to panic. Especially as I knew she was booked on to a ferry at Newhaven, I was not convinced I could do it within the time frame we planned.  As my pathetic slow long cycles continued, I constantly considered pulling out. But partly loyalty to my word and partly ‘cause I liked the idea of having London to Brighton on my strava, I stuck to the plan to the plan.

The week before analyzed the routes and the gradient, eek, it looked scary. My current elevation consisted of Richmond Park (less than 200ft), now we're talking up to 600ft eek.  I also carefully analysed the stations on the route, in case I was holding her up and needed to jump on a train back to London, I figured about Carshalton!

The night before I was soooo nervous.  I was also very aware it was exactly a month before PRL, and I told myself "well a month from now you're going to be even more nervous".  I spent the evening rehearsing my " I'm sooooo sorry I'm holding you up, you go on, I'm heading back to Clapham".

Then the morning arrived, my friend arrived there was no turning back.  in my head I'd planned a few landmarks (breaking up the distance, a good long run trip).  My targets were: Lavender Fields, passing M25, Haywards Heath, Lewes.

It was a bit crazy but before I knew it we were at the Lavender Fields (this was also my first 'get out' point).  Oh my goodness we hit it at 09.00 (opening time) and I've always wanted to go to a lavender farm. I was not disappointed.  One flapjack and 600 pics later we were on our way again. I'd made it past my first checkpoint. eek. 

Just before we left the Lavender farm my friend said she was sure there was a big hill right after; she wasn't wrong.  I plodded on as much as I could before giving up and walking. I really hate hills.  

In no time at all (or so it seemed) we passed under the M25 (my target 2) I was so surprised I'd made it so far. however, pleasant progress was short-lived.

The M25 was followed not so long later by another beast of a hill.  This sort of continued, until we hit Turners Hill; now if you've read my blog you know how I feel about a street called "hill" but my friend encouraged me (she's done this route before) by saying "we're going in the opposite direction it's all downhill" .  She was wrong, it started off quite pleasant and descended into satan.  Aghhh, nasty beast.  But the on the plus side right at the top there was a pub where we stopped for lunch and a great view.  

As we had lunch, we celebrated the halfway point, I was impressed with myself for making it so far.  I had vague recollections of the map being kinder (in elevation) for the second half of the ride, phew.

After the lunch stop and back onto Turners Hill it started downhill then descended into Bastard hill. Grrr. but in fairness, I did recall it being undulating until Heywards Heath (my next target point).  After these, I'm pleased to say it all settled down beautiful scenery and pretty flat.  

I have to say there was a tear in my eye when I saw the familiar beautiful South Downs ridge in the distance as we progressed on, and my favourite thing was diverting off to Newhaven rather then facing the Ditchling Beacon climb (Oh South Downs I do love you but I ‘aint cycling up Ditchling Beacon!!).  

The bit from the divert to Lewes was beautiful, it consisted of this lovely traffic-less road, which went on for ages. So pretty.  We soon reached Lewes, which I had been obsessed with since Becky said, "I'm going to have a nice ice cream in Lewes".  As we approached the town, the satnav said straight ahead up a nasty hill but the signs said left for the town center.  So, we went left, but it took us a while to find anywhere 'central'.  In all my years of hiking to Lewes, I only know where the (best) pub and the station are, the rest is a mystery, but I was proper craving that ice cream.

Lucky we found the perfect place, where they were so kind and offered to fill up our water bottles asked us how our cycle was going. I was a bit in shock that I had reached Lewes.  I knew it was less than 15km to Newhaven, I mean how?  How had I cycled London to Lewes, I was sure I couldn't do it, but I had!  And man that ice-cream was good.

The last miles zipped by, and then we arrived; I couldn't believe that I was in Newhaven with time to spare before the ferry.  I didn't really know what to do with myself.  On arrival, we both didn't know what to do, but very soon we spotted the golden M and knew exactly what to do, it hit the spot.  

Becky was a superstar and went on to cycle to Paris the next day whilst I limped back to work.

...So "dumb idea".  Well, the London to Newhaven was a huge boost of confidence: I knew if didn’t' manage that then the 46 it would be on the day.

However, a few days have now passed and I'm back to feeling like it's a really dumb idea this PRL thing.  It’s really long, if it took me that long to do 56 miles I'm never going to reach the cut off for the Ride London.  I'm back in panic mode.  We will see on the day if I'm up to 100 or 46.  Watch this space...