CTC Ruff Stuff 2012

Not an overly exciting week again, although i did take part in an off road MTB event today. Was really looking forward to doing this extended version of last years fun ride, which was my first cycle event.
http://www.norfolkcycling.co.uk/RuffStuff.html

It was looking like a grim weekend for the event. Hail, rain, gale force winds on the Saturday which thankfully dropped in time for the Sunday ride start. This years Ruff Stuff, CTC had hooked up for Iceni Velo to apparently make the event bigger & better. Unfortunately it  had  an adverse effect on the 'better' front.

First gripe was having to print off an application form & post it with a cheque, did i just warp back into the 80's? Last year we just rocked up and paid £5. (£10 this year, Iceni's cut?)  Job done. So, after rooting about to find my cobweb covered cheque book i sent it off. No acknowledgement if it had been received so i didn't know if i was even registered until i got there this morning. After all that, an on line entry system opened a week before the event & you could also pay on the day after all???

No GPX routes were available until someone questioned this on the facebook page at 9pm Saturday night. GPX routes were then posted for the 10 & 25 mile routes but non available for the 40 miler as it hadn't tracked properly.

So, got to the event HQ at 8am ready to start at 8.30am. Registration was straight forward & we were given a route description (no map, unlike last year). I headed to the start & was told by a marshall to follow the red signs for the 40 mile route. Sounds simple doesn't it?

Start went well & was looking good, but at 5 miles the first lack of red signs sent me off too far down Marriotts Way. Back tracked with another cyclist who had gone even further out the way, to the road we should have turned down, didn't help the road was signed with a different name to what was on the route description either.

I wont bore you with the rest of the details as it was just uneventful & annoying for the rest of the ride. There were eventually 10 of us in a group getting lost and having to backtrack every 10 minutes & take another punt on which direction to try next.

Everyone was pissed off by 25 miles due to the frustration of a crap route, the fun had vanished 10 miles ago & it then started to rain :-) So, as soon as we hit a road again we all headed straight back to Reepham on the tarmac.

Thanks to the ladies at the school who had made the sandwiches, cake & tea. This was the highlight of the day. Doubt i will do this event again now unless it reverts back to just CTC organising. Shame because there are some good off road sections, just a pity there had been such a lack of organisation & planning. Never mind, one bad event out of all Ive done this year isn't bad i suppose.

Here's the route, well part of the 40 mile route , part of the 25 mile route & lots where we just winged it.

http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/198475047

Oh, & its mucked my knee up again, grrrrr

Training (lack of)

Tues - 3.5 mile run
Thurs - 3.5 mile run
Sun - 30 mile ride

Missed Weds Swimming due to working late & skipped a weekend long run due to today's ride.

I'm stopping the cycling for a good couple of weeks now (other than 10k on Thurs), including the weekends to try and settle this knee down once & for all, i guess the harder off road work didn't do it any favours.

That is all

Happy Training

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