Tell us about your weekend ride

Needed to get back early today and with a good turnout for the club run I offered to ride back stop for the slower ride and then head straight home once they had reached the cafe stop. I was well dressed for the low temperature but not for the sedate pace of the group. By the time we reached the cafe at least 50% of my fingers and toes were completely numb. Luckily the route back pretty well started with a decent climb which got the heart rate much higher than the idle speed it had been sat at for the run out and all but one finger was back on line by the time I reached home.
30 miles of Kent's finest under the belt.

Nice little potter up to cambridge today. A bit chilly out, and mist blocked out plenty of the scenery, but great fun nonetheless.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/145656073

I picked up a cold which inconveniently lasted over the weekend, so booked today off as it was going to be sunny. Windy, yes, and cold, yes, but it was sunny.

Spybot was free too so we headed off to Hertfordshire to do the TNRC 'Hemel Fix It' route. Trains to Hemel were a bit expensive though, so we Oystered it to Watford then used my patented 'Escape Watford' route out through Cassiobury Park and headed to Hemel.

There was a cold easterly wind, and ice on puddles and rivers and some heavy frost on the verges (Garmin says the average was 1.2 degrees, a low of -1, that doesn't include wind chill of course). But the roads were generally clear and quiet and the sunshine was lovely. It's a great route, although I struggled a bit up some of the hills as I've not been riding fixed or up hills enough recently. The combination of the cold, the wind and the hills definitely made some parts of the route challenging either way.

We fancied some extra miles and saving the return fare so we rode back to London using a route I'd previously plotted on the Garmin. A bit of a mixed stretch as there are some bigger roads you can't really avoid, and we hit Barnet at school run time (nightmare), but stopping for lunch outside the 'tin tabernacle' Church of the Ascension in Bedmond, erected in 1880 at a cost of £80, was a highlight.

All in a good days riding. And we discovered that Dacorum is a Borough. Who'd have thought it.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/146406131

rode to parents' for lunch on sunday. beautiful ride out. crisp, fresh, cold, bright. country lanes. joy of cycling. hail in the (bare) face on the way back. ouch.

First proper ride out on my new bike today, beautiful scenery, very cold but not much ice around, was worried before I left though as the weather said -7.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/146998945

Also surprisingly my first ride in over 8 months when I haven't had knee pain afterwards. I put this all down to the speedplays which quite frankly I should have brought months/years ago.

I really started to feel it towards the end, whether or not this was down to the fact I'd only have porridge I don't know. My guess is my fitness has really fallen (which I'm aware of) so I'm going to be working on getting back to comfortably doing 80 miles on the weekend.

This ride was 41 miles, next weekend I'll aim for 50. Is that a reasonable target 10miles each weekend? This time of year I don't ride much during the week.

Should be quite manageable. 10% rule - don't increase longest ride by more than 10% but having gone from doing almost nothing to riding 200k I guess it depends on how much 'base' you have inflicted upon your body over the years.

I'm also taking it easy on my knee at the moment. Stretching and using roller mats most days helps too.

I have had some very long rides from not much but I want to work up a base fitness where I'm comfortable to ride up to 100 miles. Anything on top of that is then going above my base level.

Your body is clever.. you should be able to tell if anything starts hurting in a bad way as opposed to just fatigue and when to back off. Adding 10mi next week doesn't sound unreasonable since you were feeling good after this.

My enigma finally arrived in the container and I had to get it fixed up as the derailleur got out of whack throughout the journey.
This is after having a prolapsed or herniated disc between L4and L5, and I wasn't sure how it would feel to ride the bike, and whether I'd be OK for more than five minutes.
I lowered the saddle a bit and had the stem changed for a nice felt one that is rising upwards by a couple of degrees.

All I wanted to do is go around the block and test the set up and my back, but as soon as I rode round the first corner I was so happy with how the bike felt that I needed to ride on. Back got a bit uncomfortable not uphill but downhill. I managed to ride 13k, and that for me is a major break though atm:

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?saddr=228+Frome+Street,+Adelaide,+South+Australia&daddr=-34.932281,138.6239977+to:-34.93145,138.64123+to:Hallett+Rd+to:-34.93579,138.61257+to:228+Frome+Road,+Adelaide,+South+Australia&hl=en&ll=-34.934075,138.638706&spn=0.043345,0.075445&sll=-34.934004,138.638706&sspn=0.043345,0.075445&geocode=FcsF6_0diQBDCCkpCu8f0M6wajGwcbjv4YA7Sw%3BFcf56v0d_TtDCClhisFUsc6wajFwm6VJVDYDEw%3BFQb96v0dTn9DCCmlwIQz_suwajGhjQpJVDYDEw%3BFSTk6v0dDuxDCA%3BFRLs6v0dWg9DCClB6Uf1w86wajFwFXlJVDYDEw%3BFcsF6_0diQBDCCkpCu8f0M6wajGwcbjv4YA7Sw&oq=228+Frome+Street,+Adelaide,+South+Australia&gl=au&mra=ltm&via=1,2,4&t=h&z=14

Good to hear.

Your body is clever.. you should be able to tell if anything starts hurting in a bad way as opposed to just fatigue and when to back off. Adding 10mi next week doesn't sound unreasonable since you were feeling good after this.

I did start to feel crap towards the end but not sore crap, does that make sense? That's why I put it down more to fueling.

Did you eat on the ride? Or drink any 'fuel'?

Nope. Ate porridge for breakfast, just 2 bottles of water on the bike. Do I really need to think about sugar crash/ eating on a a 40 mile ride, serious question.

2.5 hours at @25kph is getting towards the point where you're running out of have run out of fuel. Especially in the cold weather when your body is probably trying hard to keep warm as well as move you forward. Have a snack on your or try some Go in your bottles.

Thanks Hippy. Good to know, are the Go like the nuun tablets or something?

Ok, also for longer rides I'll need something carb too.

Is the Go something you mix with water or is it a tablet you just drop in? Can't find it on wiggle.

^ This

Go is something like 97% carbs and some electrolytes. It's a powder you mix with water.
Nuun tables I can't remember what's in them but it's basically flavour and electrolytes. They come in a tube of soluble tablets. Both have their uses but it sounds like you need fuel so Go would be better than Nuun.

http://www.scienceinsport.com/

You could just as easily stick a Snickers in your pocket (or are you just glad to see me?) for your rides.

Actually not chocolate, too much fat. Something cakey. WTF are those bar things called?

Funny bugger.. you know the things.. we don't have them in Oz but you fuckers go bonkers for them.. argh!

Like a granola bar but softer. Sometimes yoghurt covered or with jam in the middle. FFS.. come on brain!

Fig rolls.

So does ball.

Flapjack

I'll buy some of that SIS go electrolyte stuff then for next weekend, won't need it tomorrow as It's only a short one.

On the carb front are you ok to just take a banana or something? How about long rides, just eat bananas and keep up with the electrolyte stuff or should I be thinking about something more substantial?

Edit - fig rolls and flap jacks sound good!