This is such a lovely ride, easy to get to, great big lovely venue, amazing route and always a good vibe. I hadn’t really paid much attention to the new Team Spirit class, but as soon as I saw it in action I knew I wanted to have a go next time! It is a 140km relay race for teams of 4. Two of the combinations ride 40km as a pair and then hand the imaginary baton over to the second pair, who ride 30km. It’s still a normal graded ride but with a mass start and the feel of a race as the time is still ticking until you vet. It looked like so much fun and something that could be a real showstopper event for all levels as you can be a Novice, Open or Advanced rider in the teams.
But for this year Tissy and I headed out on the 25km pleasure ride. Having got stung for going over the 12kph max speed once already this year I planned to throw in plenty of walk sections to bring out overall speed down. We ended up doing 47minutes of walk over about 7 different sections, a total of 4km, 1hr 25mins of trot over 20.9km and 3mins canter which gave me a speed of 11.3kph on my GPS but my vet sheet speed was just under 11kph.
We had a great time and some lovely company too! Tissy never ceases to bring the sass and astounded me with a HR of 39 at the end! It’s so wonderful to still be able to enjoy taking her out and about and I’m so grateful to be able to give her little adventures still. She just loves her job!
Beth Endurance 