Running out of things to say?

Not so much, more running out of daylight in which to ride, I have managed to get in one 100km commute in the merry month of December, and thanks to so fantastically unseasonable weather I have no snow pictures to share with either, see it’s been super warm (not quite as warm as the picture indicates), so much so that I have been in shorts and t-shirt for most of my commuting this month.

I shall explain, as the cryptic title indicates I have in fact exchanged my riding for running, this isn’t something I have done lightly or willingly.  I absolutely loathe running, it is a hard, hard discipline and I have huge respect for those people that can derive pleasure for such an abhorrent sport.  There comes a time in the annual cycle when the days are too short and the rain to persistent and heavy to carry on with the 100km commute, what happens then is that I need to find another combination of activities to get me through the dark days.  Last year it was a brief ride to and from the train station on my bike, and quite a bit of circuit training in the gym.  This year I have swapped this rather cosy affair for something much more brutal 8 mile round trip run to and from the station.

The first and major adjustment I had to make was the fact that an 8 mile ride is barely worth the effort of getting changed into the gear, but an 8 mile run, well that’s an altogether different proposition.  Secondly, I also discovered early on I don’t need to layer up like you do on a bike, as I get so hot so quickly it’s untrue, conversely I also get cold really quickly standing waiting for the train.  I have also discovered over many weeks that it is possible to go from a plod to something approaching a decent pace, but only really slowly and really painfully, I really hadn’t appreciated the amount of suffering you can fit into 1 hour 20 minutes.

So this is me for the next 12 weeks at least, running along in the dark dreaming of riding my bike!!

 

Happy Riding

2015 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 220 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Fancy Seeing You here

Soooo, its been a very long time since I last posted.  The heady day’s of the summer have gone and we’re way past the clocks going back, bonfire night and its started to rain.

So what’s been happening?, well plenty more riding that’s for sure, current forecast for the 12 months is looking like 4,500 miles. More on that in another post.

I have developed an intense and slightly unnerving delight in hill reps, you see most of the 100km commute is pan flat, there is a brief 5% climb and that’s pretty much it, so a hill is something no longer to be endured, its something to be savored and relished.

Most every opportunity I have I find myself drawn to ‘No Man’s Lane’ its not as grim as it sounds, in fact it is a near perfect steep bottomed climb with great views and good surface, its a favorite of all the local cycling clubs and cyclists (on Strava at least) which is where I found it when scoping the area about 18 months ago.

We have become well acquainted over the summer, and certainly autumn as the available sunlight to ride in has diminished I have looked for something ‘time efficient’ ie that hurts a bit in the limited daylight on offer, and hill reps seem to be where its at, at least on the bike.

Happy Riding

That Road Again

Here’s 3000 More Words

Its been a week of high’s (only) which is perfect for me as the hotter the better when on the bike, makes up for the grim riding through winter when everything is wet and numb (or at least that’s how I recall it).

The high’s in particular are that on Tuesday the temperate for the afternoon leg of the 100km commute reached 29 degrees, and on Wednesday a handsome 37 degrees, not that I was riding on Wednesday. he rest of the week has been a balmy 25 degree’s which is right in the middle of my goldilocks zone and I am glad.

Here’s some pictures from the week:

Hot Fuzz

So its here, finally, all that toil and misery and we’ve now had 2 consecutive days where the temperature has hit 30, the winds have been light and the riding has been awesome.  They say a picture paints a thousand words, so here’s two thousand words….

Making the Most of the Misery

So its been a while, sorry about that….

The rather lovely thing is that after all of the pain and discomfort of slogging through the wind, rain and cold the sun has finally made an appearance, albeit briefly.  More importantly the temperatures have started to rise and the available hours of sunlight have virtually reached their zenith.  Legs are going well and the average speed has started to touch my autumnal maximal already.  So in short the effort of riding between January and May have begun to reap their rewards.

When you’re sat riding into a block headwind for what seems like forever or getting chilled right down early morning its easy to forget that its going to be worth it, as it will warm up and you will go faster!

I think the knee injury put the dampener on my pre-summer riding preparation, but it seems to have resolved and is holding steady now, so the 100KM commute has become a twice weekly feature of my commuting week.  Interestingly over the last 2 weeks the mileage has continued to climb past the 150 to approaching 180.  I’ve no idea if this is good or bad, what I do know is that there have been a few days when I’d happily ride all day in the warm hazy sunshine.

Coupled with my willingness to ride longer distances has come opportunity to scout out the local area to our house, and what a revelation that has been, I have found all sorts of undulations, valleys and beautiful vistas.  Whilst the commuting is largely flat the riding ‘out the back’ of our house is anything but and its an absolute blast, accumulating lots of flat miles doesn’t quite translate into a climbing legend, but its enough so that it doesn’t hurt as much as it could!

Best of all I’ve ridden past an Italian coffee shop and a local dairy that makes its own ice cream, so the next ride out is going to be peppered with refreshment stops I think!

Happy riding.

Modest Monday

The title relates to today.

Haven’t posted for a while, mostly as I’ve been to hammered to write about it – !

Last week was a truly momentous week, there was lots and lots of wind, rain, some hills and lots of pain.

The pinnacle of the misery was Wednesday, this was 100km commute day, it was also the worst weather day of the week.  The ride was done, at an agonizingly slow speed, into a brutal head/cross wind all day.  Most of my friends and co-workers suggested to me that I am an idiot for attempting such a thing, they are probably right.  However, I console myself with the fact that there are always people madder than you out riding.  So even on a foul weather day like last Wednesday I encountered 9 other people, and the best was saved until last.

Imagine my delight when I see a cyclist up the road inside the last 5 miles, its very open and the wind was defiantly head.  The guy is flying along and I’m struggling to catch him, in fact I’m not catching him at all. That is until I round a corner and I see him dragging himself and his bike out of hedge on the other side of the road.  Him nonchalantly climbs back on and begins tapping out a strong tempo into the wind.  I try for his wheel and manage to hold it long enough to figure out the guy is riding a fixie, with deep section carbon rims (which explains the visit to the hedgerow).

I get dropped again, and figure he must be on a short ride home from work, whereas I’ve been at it for the best part of 55 miles by this point.  Finally the road turns and we get a full on tail wind for about a mile, now the benefit of gearing pays off and I catch him up, and we have a chat about … yeah, the weather, the wind, riding and life.  Turns out he’s not on a quick commute home he’s already 70 miles into a big day out.  CHAPEAU! – I tell him as much as we push off from the junction to our separate ways.

Later I check him out on strava via the wonder of their new beta function called ‘flybys’ (http://labs.strava.com/flyby/)  turns out he’s called Scenic Route – don’t know what his real name is, but it was good to share the road with him either way.

Cracking Week of Riding

Three days in and 150 miles up.

Its been bitterly cold in the mornings, but mostly its been warm(ish), sunny and very still – in short Perfect!

Book ended the Weekend

With 100km on friday in the company of friends, which means a number of things:

a. I’m not the slowest on the road

b. it doesn’t hurt quite as much

c. I get to wheel suck for a bit,which I love

d. A great opportunity for some banter, which I also love

e. We stand out as a group on the road so there really is safety in numbers

f. we go a different way, which invariably means a bit more climbing, which whilst I don’t like it, is probably good for me.

This morning was full of promise, no rain, little wind, but boy was it cold at 0630hrs.  It didn’t really warm up all the way in.  Infact I stood in the work shower for a good 10 minutes before I could feel my feet again!  What that does mean is that the ride home will be wall to wall blue sky.

Happy Days

The Quiet Life

This weekend saw temperature’s finally begin to climb, and rather maddeningly the wind speed, so that by Sunday afternoon the sun was well and truly out and there were people struggling to keep their bikes upright such was the ferocity of the gusts.  I only mention this as I was observing this for the comfort and safety of the passenger side of a nice warm dry car, as we drove out to meet family for lunch.

Yesterday was even better, as the first number was a 2 on the temperature gauge in the car, and for most of the afternoon the second number was a 2!.

The astute amongst you will have now noticed that I have mentioned car usage in both of the paragraphs, the reason for this is enforced lay off the bike due to a tedious spring cold.  Yesterday had me foaming at the mouth in silent rage that the warmest day of the year so far and I had to be in the car, as there is only so much mucous you can deal with on a bike before you start to drown.  So I vowed this morning that come what may I was riding, I have refused to acknowledge my spring cold or give it any attention whatsoever, this did mean that I managed to ride into work, it wasn’t however the crowning glory of a sunny ride that I was hoping for!!.

So my celebration is twofold today, one that the sun is out again, its warming up and I was on the bike. Secondly that I have found a delightful, and largely traffic free route to work, thanks to last weeks exploration of the locality.  I can do almost 15 of the 17 miles into work without touching an A road, and certainly no more dual carriageway.  This means a whole bunch of things, I am out of the car driver craziness and fumes, the ambient volume has dropped by a significant number of decibels and the air quality improved proportionately.  Mostly all I could hear on the way on was birdsong, mostly all I could see was fields and posh villages, and it was mostly flat, so I’ve not even had to trade in excessive altitude for the quiet life.

The limitations of this route aren’t going to burden me for at least 6 months, as the increase in day light hours continues unabated, So all in all in I’m pretty happy with today!