Ride Reports

kevess

Realised this morning that I need to look at my gearing, Whitedown on 52/42 and 11-23 was bloody painful!!

itboffin

KevEss wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Finished my Steel set up for this years Amstel Gold race, might change the pedals on the day for SPD's also need to replace to seat post for one without any lay back.

10.5 gentle miles with a couple of stops to check for play and tightness - all seems fine.

As for the ride well it's cold and cloudy here but otherwise dry and bright, pretty much idea winter cycling conditions yet still I could barely be arsed.

+1, That I like an awful lot!

Cheers it's an amazingly smooth ride, gotta love 531 8)

optimisticbiker

Il Principe wrote:

itboffin wrote:

Tiny rant but WTF gives with the couple of weeks of the bike and suddenly you're a couch potatoes never done a days exercise in your life :evil:

'Aint fitness a *****. Takes months to attain and seemingly days to lose. Are some visits to the Turbo cave called for?

+lots....gettng worried now as will be in Oz for 6 weeks til end of March with no serious biking (some walking tho) and then have 6 weeks commuting to get back to fitness for London Revolution....

Jay dubbleU

First ride out on the Galaxy - gentle 20 miles just to settle things in, make minor adjustments to bars, saddle etc. Had the pleasure of passing two roadies at different times one on the way out on a Giant and the second on my way back on some a Specialized Allez - I have now joined the ranks of skinny(ish) old men on tourers

rolf_f

itboffin wrote:

Cheers it's an amazingly smooth ride, gotta love 531 8)

But why did you get the bars made out of sex toys rather than using conventional ones?

itboffin

Glad you noticed the lizard skin gel tape, it was a bastard to wrap - the clue is in the original post "Amstel Gold race"

stuaff

Nice bit of kit there ITB...25mm tyres or wider?

stuaff

KevEss wrote:

Realised this morning that I need to look at my gearing, Whitedown on 52/42 and 11-23 was bloody painful!!

It's painful on a compact!! Well, at least it was for me.....

itboffin

StuAff wrote:

Nice bit of kit there ITB...25mm tyres or wider?

23c

stuaff

As it's a spring classic I was thinking of cobblestones..but there aren't any of course.

Stone Glider

Did not want to ride today :shock: Weather forecast said cold! Mrs S G said GO so I got. It just was so good. Warmed up nicely and hardly any wind, lots of cars and other bikes about, it was a treat. Rang Mrs at the cafe stop and was permitted to extend the ride. Tried to ride only on the middle ring and increase my cadence, made for an interesting and smooth ride until I started to tire on the home stretch into a Northerly which was rather chilling. I am horribly slow at the moment, combination of infections through most of the month and swaddling, it must get better.

EKE_38BPM

As part of the ongoing training for Mrs EKE, I took her for her first ride around Richmond Park.

Just under an hour for ONE lap, mainly because she stopped to look at the deer, she stopped to look at "the little baby bunny rabbits" and she stopped to look at the parakeets.

It was cold and I had to urge her on at times so that we wouldn't freeze and having a one hour train journey before and after the ride ain't the best way to start or end a ride, but she wants to go again, she wants to do two laps and she wants to go faster.

Not at all bad considering its her longest ride to date,and, she is starting to get the hang of using the gears correctly.

All in all, a good ride and rounded off with a couple of beers in the Roebuck.

itboffin

hi ho off to the turbo dungeon i go ....

cjcp

More trail riding in the Park. Only 30 miles, but the legs are feeling it.

optimisticbiker

Was late getting up so when I got to the Kenton RC rendevous point they'd already left "about 30sec ago" I was helpfully told*... 4km of hard sprinting later (HR @ 80%max) I finally got to them :eek: ... fortunately the next 50km wasn't too fast, though we hit the hills a bit today... Reckon my workouts on the x-trainer are helping, definitely feeling less strained climbing out of the saddle...





*I think I need to hold a certain person's head underwater for '30 secs' and see how they fare :evil:

welkman

52 cold miles in almost constant hail today. Not fun at all. Felt sick at points and also felt much weaker than in past weeks, I think I need to build in a proper rest day to my training! Met a nice chap near shotley who was training for the Tour of Flanders sportive in March, then headed up to the Orwell Bridge and back home.

Kieran_Burns

Another 46 mile loop and this one felt much easier than the 1st two. Tried the last loop section the other way 'round and while it was easier, the road surface was appalling and really slowed you down.

One point of note:

left home to do the ride at 6:50am. What the hell was I thinking?????

Mind you, saying that: it was bloody lovely watching the sun come up and cycling with a mate who basically matches your own pace

Loads of people out a bit later (when we were on our way back) - so many groups of cyclists out. I met a dozen or so right at the bit where I whinged about the cycle path in that other thread - and yep: they were all struggling through as well.

clarkey cat

59 miles today - 900m of climbing. Very cold out there and the mist made for some slippy conditions but loved it.

a mountain of steak and broccolli now.

welkman

Nice ride today through Suffolk to Lavenham and then Sudbury, meeting a mate. I managed to average about 17mph for the first 30 miles and then after meeting my mate the pace got upped to over 20mph for 15miles, I never knew I had it in me! I am going to push harder in the future

itboffin

windy that is all

jzed

Went across to Hillingdon for an afternoons intro coaching session. Slow ride in a strong headwind there. Very stop start.

Hillingdon was very different to what I expected. Narrow and can see why there are crashes all the time. The format of the session meant never really got a chance to do a flying lap. Riding in formation etc. Add a monster wind, torrential rain storm and plummeting temperatures. Think I'd have to do some serious training to be in with a chance of doing well there.

Still enjoyed it and had a nice tailwind home.

veronese68

Went for a ride with the boy today. On the return leg we were discussing getting 'big air' off speed bumps. He tried to demonstrate but got a bit crossed up and did a fine impression of Superman. I tried not to laugh and scooped him up as quick as I could.
Well we've all done something similar haven't we? I know I've done a lot stupider than that.

msmancunia

Chadderton to Littleborough and back today. Sunny, a bit breezy and fresh, and lots of smiley cyclists out. First non-commute run of the year (the shame...) but it's days like these that remind me just how much I love my bike.

Now for a fry up...

jzed

msmancunia wrote:

Chadderton to Littleborough...

Climb Blackstone Edge?

msmancunia

JZed wrote:

msmancunia wrote:

Chadderton to Littleborough...

Climb Blackstone Edge?

Erm not quite - got to the turn off then turned round and came home :oops:

First run out of the year so I thought I'd keep it short. Doing the Atlas mountains in 7 weeks though and need to find my hill legs, so I think it's got to be done before then. Have you done it? I've never been up there on a bike,

jzed

msmancunia wrote:

JZed wrote:

msmancunia wrote:

Chadderton to Littleborough...

Climb Blackstone Edge?

Erm not quite - got to the turn off then turned round and came home :oops:

First run out of the year so I thought I'd keep it short. Doing the Atlas mountains in 7 weeks though and need to find my hill legs, so I think it's got to be done before then. Have you done it? I've never been up there on a bike,

Yep lots of times. Originally from Rochdale so spent most of my late teens cycling up and down the Pennines. Are you cycling or trekking the Altas mountains?

Blackstone Edge isn't too bad a climb and you've got quite a few options at the top.

I did a couple of routes last year when training for the Alps:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/65647898
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/65807287

msmancunia

JZed wrote:

msmancunia wrote:

JZed wrote:

msmancunia wrote:

Chadderton to Littleborough...

Climb Blackstone Edge?

Erm not quite - got to the turn off then turned round and came home :oops:

First run out of the year so I thought I'd keep it short. Doing the Atlas mountains in 7 weeks though and need to find my hill legs, so I think it's got to be done before then. Have you done it? I've never been up there on a bike,

Yep lots of times. Originally from Rochdale so spent most of my late teens cycling up and down the Pennines. Are you cycling or trekking the Altas mountains?

Blackstone Edge isn't too bad a climb and you've got quite a few options at the top.

I did a couple of routes last year when training for the Alps:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/65647898
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/65807287

Cheers for the links - v useful (I think!). Am cycling in Morocco - start in Marrakesh, then through the Atlas to Essaouira on the coast, then back to Marrakesh. Going on Easter Sunday and the commute down Broadway and Oldham Rd to Salford Quays isn't really doing enough to get me fit, so I'm going to commute Tue/Wed/Thurs and do a longer hill run on the Sundays I think.

If I can lengthen my runs out and get some more hills in between now and then I will hopefully be able to WTFU, as I think most of the group are blokes and I don't really want to be always at the back of the group. Some Silly Mountain Racing might be going on and I want to be able to hold my own....

itboffin

I set out do at least 30 and after 9 miles was so bored of the wet muddy roads and grey sky I turned around and headed home, total 18 miles.

Now it's clear blue sky and sunny grrrr

il_principe

60 miles out to Windsor. Gloomy on the way, lovely on the way back. Garmin went mental and refused to accept I was moving until Sunbury so had to rely on phone. Annoying as the route was identical to last week and I wanted a like for like comparison. Still av speed was up to 19.2 despite horrible traffic in Hampton ct and Putney. All in all a good ride.

iPete

Superb day, dug out the nice gear, nice wheels even the fingerless gloves and went to RP for a nice 4 laps and home, total 48 miles @ 18.8 moving avg, not bad considering all the traffic in the park and the rugby traffic in twickers, probably should have done the same as II Principle and headed out Windsor way.