Ride Reports

itboffin

Rich158 wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Good point. I'm drinking plenty atm though. I just ain't tired when I go to bed.

I have that problem, especially after a race. It's bad enough with the adrenaline flowing, but top that up with caffeine loaded gels and I'm sat bolt upright at 2am watching all night poker :roll:

+1 greg66, my water input has recently gone down in favour of coffee and tea, time to get back on the old h20 I think.

That's code for porn right?

itboffin

I'm assuming that beer counts...

Roastie

JonGinge wrote:

*ambles to the water-cooler, for no reason*

You guys have water coolers! *jealous*

All we have here is a manky tap in the kitchen labelled "Drinking Water". :?

Rich158

itboffin wrote:

Rich158 wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Good point. I'm drinking plenty atm though. I just ain't tired when I go to bed.

I have that problem, especially after a race. It's bad enough with the adrenaline flowing, but top that up with caffeine loaded gels and I'm sat bolt upright at 2am watching all night poker :roll:

+1 greg66, my water input has recently gone down in favour of coffee and tea, time to get back on the old h20 I think.

That's code for porn right?

No I'm too tight to pay for it on Sky Sadly it is actually poker :oops:

Bassjunkieuk

I finally have an excuse to post on here again :-)

Went out for a "little" ride last night as a bit of a tester for my longer ride at the weeked, 3 weeks of doing the local commute has me a bit concerned about my fitness! Seems I picked a lovely evening for it as the weather was superb last night.

My originally planned route was deviated from slightly after I took a wrong turning but it didn't end up all bad as I managed to re-join the main part of the route and found a nice gentle climb from South Croydon towards Selsdon that I will no-doubt use again, maybe in reverse this time. My intention on this ride was to see how fast I was going DOWN Titsey Hill having been up it and knowing it is a reasonable hill (16%) but I have to say I was rather disappointed. The road surface doesn't seem to be quite right for speeds in excess of 15mph on 25C tyres and it gets seriously scary at 30! The vibrations made it felt like my bike had been sat atop a washing machine on a spin cycle!!

I managed to bring it to a safe stop by Clarkes Lane to check that my rear wheel was still good and didn't have anything stuck in it. All clear so I set off again, taking a deep breath as I was now going to attempt Clarkes Lane. This wasn't one of my best idea's as it climbs about the same distance that I have descended by in about 1/3 the road meaning it really did ramp up sometimes but I managed to keep pedalling but did have to drop to the lowest gear a few times...........felt good once I made it to the top knowing that I hadn't given up tho.

Turned right out of Clarkes Lane and took the next left to head back towards Croydon (ish) and had a great ride, quiet country roads with no traffic meant holding 20+ was easy. It was along here that I spotted the first of a few cyclist heading the other way and gave a nod and even got a "Eveninig chap!" off one guy - all very friendly although at one point I was slogging up Heisers Hill as they came flying down it.

Another fantastic ride keeping the speeds up and carving up corners down towards Layhams road and I then re-joined civilization and cars :-(

Picked out a route back home and then just as I'm coming down to the house some stupid b!tch in a X5 tries to kill me after deciding to pull out between 2 cars that had already moved halfway across the road, I don't know what she thought she was doing as even with her elevated position she wouldn't have been able to see up the road due to the Galaxy that was alongside her. She seemed rather confused as I yelled at her when I went past and then gave her the finger after she started yelling back at me. Was annoying as it just took the edge off what would have been a great ride I had 25 miles under the belt at that point and until then no-one had tried to kill me yet :evil:

Sportstracker is playing around so I can't post the route yet but once I get it uploaded I will as it reckons I did 82.6mph :-D

EDIT: Route here:

http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/work ... id=1183187

DomPro

I probably saw you coming down Titsey whilst I was climbing up. You went up White Lane as well? Thats is a painful little climb. :twisted:

il_principe

Rich - you sure you're not overtraining? You've been putting in serious miles + racing. Maybe you need to relax for a bit?!

I think I've drunk more beer than water this week... not good, but I left the Morpeth last night after 3 beers and was in Willesden 20 mins later having gone home and picked up stuff for today. That's 5.5 miles in 20 mins, total time, not moving time. Not bad considering traffic on Edgeware and through Kilburn. I soaked in beery sweat when I arrived, no hug from the missus

Tired today.

Rich158

Il Principe wrote:

Rich - you sure you're not overtraining? You've been putting in serious miles + racing. Maybe you need to relax for a bit?!

I think I've drunk more beer than water this week... not good, but I left the Morpeth last night after 3 beers and was in Willesden 20 mins later having gone home and picked up stuff for today. That's 5.5 miles in 20 mins, total time, not moving time. Not bad considering traffic on Edgeware and through Kilburn. I soaked in beery sweat when I arrived, no hug from the missus

Tired today.

Me, relax, never :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

Seriously though I did have a period a while ago when I was seriouly fatigued and unable to raise my heart rate above 85%. I 'm still hitting 95% on the hills, so I'm just putting it down to a change in lifestyle, massive change in diet, and trying to take things to the next level. Eventually my body will catch up with me

Anyway if I slow down I'll lose my border collie tendencies and stop running arround with bundles of directionless energy

I've even started drinking again, although I've some way top go to catch up Il principe :shock:

itboffin

Il Principe wrote:

Rich - you sure you're not overtraining? You've been putting in serious miles + racing. Maybe you need to relax for a bit?!

I think I've drunk more beer than water this week... not good, but I left the Morpeth last night after 3 beers and was in Willesden 20 mins later having gone home and picked up stuff for today. That's 5.5 miles in 20 mins, total time, not moving time. Not bad considering traffic on Edgeware and through Kilburn. I soaked in beery sweat when I arrived, no hug from the missus

Tired today.

What you need is beer, 6pm you know the place

cjcp

Roastie - how was Hog Hill?

itboffin

cjcp wrote:

Roastie - how was Hog Hill?

Out now!!! :evil:

cjcp

itboffin wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Roastie - how was Hog Hill?

Out now!!! :evil:

It is still a "ride" though.

Deadeye Duck

Looking for a bit of advice. How rough can a carbon fork/stays road bike handle. I've had it over cobbles (which I thought my arms were going to break before the bike :shock: ), but wondering about off-road tracks.

I ask concerning this route: http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=10701

It's a charity run that starts and finishes about 100 yards from my house, so I thought I'd give it a bash as a sunday route since I've never really cycled over 10 miles in one go yet. When marking it out on bikehike, I realised it goes through a road that appears not on the map untill I zoom right in and find some blue line that I decided to follow. I can only assume theres a path/track that runs along side it as it's pretty close to the map on the charity ride. If push comes to shove I can walk the bike through the rough, but I'd rather stay on it obviously.

What do you reckon? Will my bike be ok over it, and what should I avoid?

cjcp

They can take a right ol' battering - cobbles being one form - but it depends on the nature of the track because you've got to think of the wheels and tyres too. If it's a smooth-ish track, then you'll probably be ok, but if you've got rocks or big stones in the way, I'd give it a miss.

Also, if it's muddy, you may have brakes/tyres clearance issues.

Solution = buy a new bike. CX bike...

Deadeye Duck

I've only just took this up as a proper hobby and the other half isn't please with the cashflow towards my bike as it is. I'd in all likeliness I do believe she may confiscate my wallet if I come home with another bike

Yeah, I'm thinking if it's a roughish compacted gravel footpath I'll be ok, or a battered to death old tarmac path, but if it's that yellowy big chunky gravel, or just simply a muddy path through a field, the bike'll go on my shoulder. It's only for roughly half a kilometer, it won't be that far to walk the bike...

itboffin

@cjcp do you see what you've done to this thread grrrrr!

Only beer and pizza can calm my rage now :twisted:

cjcp

Deadeye Duck wrote:

I've only just took this up as a proper hobby and the other half isn't please with the cashflow towards my bike as it is. I'd in all likeliness I do believe she may confiscate my wallet if I come home with another bike

Yeah, I'm thinking if it's a roughish compacted gravel footpath I'll be ok, or a battered to death old tarmac path, but if it's that yellowy big chunky gravel, or just simply a muddy path through a field, the bike'll go on my shoulder. It's only for roughly half a kilometer, it won't be that far to walk the bike...

Carry your bike?! Outrageous! You're beginning to sound like ITB :P

Deadeye Duck

Chapaux to the second and third pics, but the first one isn't doing your argument any favours

risi

Deadeye Duck wrote:

Looking for a bit of advice. How rough can a carbon fork/stays road bike handle. I've had it over cobbles (which I thought my arms were going to break before the bike :shock: ), but wondering about off-road tracks.

I ask concerning this route: http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=10701

It's a charity run that starts and finishes about 100 yards from my house, so I thought I'd give it a bash as a sunday route since I've never really cycled over 10 miles in one go yet. When marking it out on bikehike, I realised it goes through a road that appears not on the map untill I zoom right in and find some blue line that I decided to follow. I can only assume theres a path/track that runs along side it as it's pretty close to the map on the charity ride. If push comes to shove I can walk the bike through the rough, but I'd rather stay on it obviously.

What do you reckon? Will my bike be ok over it, and what should I avoid?

Have you zoomed in on the satellite view (not that it's a satellite picture but from an plane, but I digress)? I think you're going to be walking... (not to mention going right through a building site!).

itboffin

MTFU it's just mud



Double hard b'ard

cjcp

itboffin wrote:

MTFU it's just mud



Double hard b'ard

:shock: I'm not sure Sir Ranulph wore that much en route to the Pole! Where were you? Kent, was it?

Heh heh.

Roastie

cjcp wrote:

Roastie - how was Hog Hill?

It was mostly great! Awesome circuit.

The Hill is not as hard as Palace. Really interesting track, with technical bits, scary bits and a big great hill (that hurts!). When you arrive and see the hill, you do suddenly feel a great deal of fear - but it isn't that bad.

As for my race (I'll post the long version on my blog tonight) I was running very well until about 4 laps to go. Until then I was running 3rd to 5th wheel most of time, and at one point got into a 5-ish man breakaway. Then I got bad cramps in my right calf. I did about 2 laps in this state but despite trying to massage and spin it out, it just got worse so I pulled out. Great pity, because I think I was in with a chance of a placing.

After I'd noticed that with all the excitement I had neglected to drink, which I think did me in. Or at least that is my excuse...

Deadeye Duck

risi wrote:

Have you zoomed in on the satellite view (not that it's a satellite picture but from an plane, but I digress)? I think you're going to be walking... (not to mention going right through a building site!).

You have a habit of finding faults in my routes :x

I think I'm just going to extend it around a different bit so that it's all road. I can't be bothered to get lost in amongst all those fields trying to work out where that path is :roll:

risi

I know where you live

Not really. I just like playing with maps/am a bit of a geek/have nothing better to do (not true)

Rich158

Roastie wrote:

cjcp wrote:

Roastie - how was Hog Hill?

It was mostly great! Awesome circuit.

The Hill is not as hard as Palace. Really interesting track, with technical bits, scary bits and a big great hill (that hurts!). When you arrive and see the hill, you do suddenly feel a great deal of fear - but it isn't that bad.

As for my race (I'll post the long version on my blog tonight) I was running very well until about 4 laps to go. Until then I was running 3rd to 5th wheel most of time, and at one point got into a 5-ish man breakaway. Then I got bad cramps in my right calf. I did about 2 laps in this state but despite trying to massage and spin it out, it just got worse so I pulled out. Great pity, because I think I was in with a chance of a placing.

After I'd noticed that with all the excitement I had neglected to drink, which I think did me in. Or at least that is my excuse...

At the risk of irritating ITB, it sounds great Roastie, I know what I'll be doing on Thursday's from now on

Deadeye Duck

Yeah, well, I carry pepper spray, so you better watch it Mr!

Roastie

Rich158 wrote:

At the risk of irritating ITB, it sounds great Roastie, I know what I'll be doing on Thursday's from now on

You'll love it - it is a great circuit. I'll admit, still not as "special" as Palace, but a great racing circuit.

I prob won't be racing there next week as I'm preparing for the Thruxton race on the 5th, but will be there the following week. Might still do Palace on Tues.

roger_merriman

Deadeye Duck wrote:

I've only just took this up as a proper hobby and the other half isn't please with the cashflow towards my bike as it is. I'd in all likeliness I do believe she may confiscate my wallet if I come home with another bike

Yeah, I'm thinking if it's a roughish compacted gravel footpath I'll be ok, or a battered to death old tarmac path, but if it's that yellowy big chunky gravel, or just simply a muddy path through a field, the bike'll go on my shoulder. It's only for roughly half a kilometer, it won't be that far to walk the bike...

i've not had a problem with using my bike on paths be they gravelly or not. mud would just be slippery as long as it's not on a slope should be fine.

risi

Deadeye Duck wrote:

Yeah, well, I carry pepper spray, so you better watch it Mr!

All that's done is make me think of this and now I'm really hungry

Bassjunkieuk

DomPro wrote:

I probably saw you coming down Titsey whilst I was climbing up. You went up White Lane as well? Thats is a painful little climb. :twisted:

I don't remember seeing anyone coming up TItsey Hill but to be honest I was more concerned about the horrendous shaking and then I got that awful "backwheel wandering" feeling I get sometimes whilst I was braking so I was kinda bricking it both ways - especially as I knew I had cars behind me :shock:

I did realize after I got the route up on ST that it was Whites Lane that joins Titsey Hill to Clarkes Lane and yes it was a painful little climb :oops: I'd be interested in the gradients on it as I was in the bottom gear at some points!