Nov 2019

Well Strava says I've cycled 650km this month. Mostly commuting but did get a 200km diy sudax in.

My current job is only around 25km round trip a day so not too long, 30 minutes or so each way still keeps the heart rate up (coming home anyway) so at leadt keeps me ticking over.

I use the Bacchetta most days for commuting but I do use the fixed maybe once a week as I'm able to carry my works gear in a pannier to leave in my locker st work.

The 200km audax ride at the beginning of the month took me down to Kidlington and back then over to Sandy and back.

The route worked out quite well for a midweek ride and it allowed me to come home for lunch (and let the dog out) half way around.

I will likely do this route again, possibly the other way round though so as not to be caught up in school traffic in Bedford and the rush hour around Flitwick.

This work week starts on Sunday though it's only 4 days as I have a days holiday booked to go over to Tewkesbury for s 100km ride with Dawn.

If she decides not to do it I may upgrade to the 200km ride instead, will see what happens!

Rich.

4 yrs! Blimey!

Well, I have still been cycling in this time. Mainly just commuting to work and back but still cycling.

Have been using different bikes over the last 4yrs including converting me old Univega MTB to single speed and buying an On One Pompino fixed. Just to see what it was all about.

Not done anything long distance as before still enjoying cycling.

While trying fixed I managed to get thrown off it going downhill too fast and getting a speed wobble. Ending up with a torn rotator cuff and found being painfull to ride recumbent for a while.

June 2018 saw me buying an M5 Carbon High Racer for my 50th and after trying to set it up I let it sit in the shed for far to long.

I found while finding it my knees hit the bars and to get it comfortable to ride I had to extend the bars out leaving only about 5mm of stem inside the steerer.

Obviously this was unsafe but it took me around 8 months to get around to ordering a longer stem for it.

After getting the stem I rode ot a couple more times and thought about selling it.

I even had someone come and test ride it, unfortunately they dropped it on the 1st corner and broke the derailleur hanger. 

Hanger replaced, I thought I'd take it out for a ride. I started to get used to it and the speed of it was amazing. 

Audax was starting to get back into my mind again and I entered a diy 200km.

The ride went well and I got round in under 10hrs even though I lost the ability to change the front cog after cable a breakage.

I still ended up with an average speed of over 28kph.

Still getting out

The weather is still being kind to me, most of my rides lately are extending the ride home from work.
After moving a couple of years ago we now live a grand total of 1.5km from my work!
This has meant my mileage has dropped the last 2 yrs, last year I only managed 2500km in total.
This year so far I have added almost 1000km to that.

Tuesday after the Boroughbridge camping meet I took the bike to work, planning to ride a few km home, on leaving I found my legs were still fairly tired from the weekends km's so just rode around the redways instead.


Thursday saw me heading away from work again at near on midnight for a 1hr40 zone 2 ride around the villages SW of MK.


Kids at the weekend meant we both went out for a ride on Sunday afternoon towards Leighton Buzzard with the plan of popping in to visit Dawns mum.
In the end they weren't in when we rang so we did a slightly shorter loop round instead.
Most of this ride was in zone 1 for me, but it was good to ride together and the mileages and weight loss Dawn has been getting was definitely noticable. She is climbing hills a lot quicker than she has been and her avg speed is up.


Tuesday nights midnight zone 2 ride took me south again with no plan of where I was heading.
I ended up riding through Leighton Buzzard and around via Hockcliffe, Woburn and Salford for a total of 54km


Just 2 weeks now until the Upper Thames 200km, the one thing that I'm worried about is not getting in from work until midnight and having to be out of the door by 05.30 on Sat morning to drive over for the start.

Rich

Boroughbridge ALC camping meet.

This previous weekend I had planned to attend the Association of lightweight campers on their meet at Boroughbridge.

The plan was to load the bike with camping gear and cycle the 80km over to Peterborough for a train to York and 35km to Boroughbridge.

As per usual everything was last minute packing and loading the bike in the morning.

The ride over to Peterborough was fine apart from the usual ride with gps trying to route me along sandy lanes and bridleways! I took a slightly different way across from Kimbolton but the roads were very quiet until you hit the outskirts of town.

I thought about doing the ride as a LSD ride but wasn't too fussed if I didn't stay in the zones.

On checking Strava afterwards I actually managed to stay in zone 2 for 88% (2hrs 54m) of the ride with an avg heart rate of 114.

The ride over to the campsite was a bit quicker as I rode straight out of York on the A59 so was trying to move a bit faster, 30% of this ride was in zone 3.

The rides back were very similar apart from going down to Huntingdon on the old A1 instead of the hills to Kimbolton.

For a total of 250km for the weekend.

Sun morning

Sun afternoon

More ramblings..

Another week or so since the last post.
Only managed to get out twice last week as we were away Thu/Fri for a short break in Blackpool.

Still playing with the heart rate monitor and still not managed to get the HR anywhere near my perceived max!
Will give it a few more weeks of regular riding and then see if I can do a functional threshold test to set a benchmark to work on.

Tuesday saw me do a fastish ride to work.



Then a zone 2 ride home at midnight.
Keeping the heart rate inside the zone is interesting, as soon as you stop pedaling or go downhill slightly it drops by a beat a second. You have to work fairly hard to keep it there.



A weekend away meant no cycling but we walked miles along the seafront and back a few times.
Weight went up a couple of pounds but I'll put that down to bread and drink :-D
Have joined a Strava training plan to start with which is a first as my "training" has always been just get out and ride distance.
Will see how I do on it.

Back on it this week with squats at the gym on Tuesday, the planned long ride home was put back a day to Wednesday as I'd forgot my jacket and it was pissing down!



Nothing today (Thurs) but have a planned 280km total cycling planned this weekend, 80ish km over to Peterborough for a train to York and 35ish km ride to Boroughbridge for a camping meet.
Ride on Sat and same back on Sunday.
Don't think I'll be able to keep it in zone 2 for the whole ride over but will see what happens.

Oh, I've also entered a 200km audax ride for the 1st time in 4yrs!
I think I have done this ride 6 times before, It was my 1st 200km event back in 2006 and I'm sure I rode it every year until 2011 where it was my last calendar ride.
I think it's a good place to start again, and it will be interesting to see how I do on it.

Rich