Tell us about your weekend ride

fucking good work, Not that it's worth much but I'm impressed

Top work! Has almost inspired me to ride to Aberystwyth in a day.....were you happy with the route you took? Anything you would change if you were to do it again?

^Well to be honest it was just a mission to cycle from my house in London to my folks, and as the direct version was already quite a bit further than I'd been before I did'nt really feel I had the luxury (or a garmin) for a meandering scenic route all the way. So the first half of it was'nt very pretty, it was just head down and ticking off miles, but from when I turned off at Worcester it was great.

Where are you thinking of cycling to Aberystwyth from? Funnily enough I'm going to be cycling through Aber tomorrow, I'm super excited about a ride I'm doing taking in Lake Clywedog, Elan Valley, Devils Bridge, Aber, and finish off down the wonderfully named Happy Valley to Machynlleth (trying saying that without your teeth in). Some super scenary pics planned for you lot tomorrow so watch this space. Just do it, you'll love it, happy to advise on routes if you want any help.

Quality ride Blue fleet
some great places you covered

Very jealous. Similar to my planned London > Shrewsbury > Harlech over a couple of days.

I love all these long distance rides people are talking about. Tempted to try 100miles this weekend myself.

Then in a few weeks riding to London from Norfolk.

Would be from Richmond although I have looked at a few other options as well, from Birmingham may be easier/less urban riding. Looking forward to hear how you get on round there should be a great place to ride.

Finally got round to writing up Sunday's ride: 100 climbs in the Peak District

http://100climbsfor2012.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/what-sunshine-peak-district-riding-day.html

makes for 170 miles, 10 of the 100 climbs, and 17,000 feet of climbing for the weekend. Probably ok preparation for the Fred Whitton on Sunday - do say hello if you're also riding

Monster!

Just found a cycling app for android where I can document my rides, I shall be visiting this thread more frequently now!

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/55185232?country=gb&lang=en&measure=imperial&fb_action_ids=214309925352853&fb_action_types=endoapp%3Atrack&fb_source=other_multiline

You really don't need a mobile app or garmin to tell us about your ride. The statistics are only interesting to you anyway.

Apart from Dammit's statistics. We all live for his power data and graphs.

It just makes it better, and if I told you all about my 28mph average century and back none of you will believe me!

^^That in mind. A really enjoyable day in the saddle yesterday with Bigpaintbrush. 85 miles of unpopulated Essex roads. We headed out via Hackney - Epping, rolled a couple of hills and had a half a cake each and some tea at the green hut.

Then out via Theydon Bois to pick up the steady ascent which we had previously endured in a rainy haedwind on the Phoenix Easter Classic a few weeks back. Very different yesterday, enjoying the sun and chatting casually as we ascended from Abridge to Hainalt Forest Park. A couple of fortunate 50 50 direction choices later and we were lost in the back roads between Romford, Chipping Ongar, Brentwood and Chelmsford.

Nana and peanut butter sarnies on a bench by a little church then pushed north with the breeze in our faces. I got a bit of a bonk on into the breeze up a long, steady, shallow ascent which really took it out of me, BPP had to be pretty patient for a couple of miles. But we rounded for home, drunk our weight in sugary drinks and picked the pace up for a beautiful, wind assisted return to Hackney for a couple of pints. By the time I made it back to my house in Bethnal Green I'd gone 90 miles, which is further than I have ever personally been before.

I rode the Berkshire Bird race with a couple of mates.
This is an annual event normally done by teams in a car, who clock up about 300 miles criss crossing the county to find as many birds as possible, then come back and complain about climate change affecting bird numbers.
We started doing it by bike about 5 years ago, and have managed to improve every year, this year we started at 4 am and covered about 62 miles, and set a new record of 100 birds.
We rode for 16 hours and had to carry binoculars and telescopes, as well as food and drink. It was frosty at dawn, by mid morning we were hot, so our panniers were bulging with discarded clobber. One of our team stripped a pedal thread, so for two hours he limped along by clipping the pedal to his shoe and sticking it in the hole where the thread should be, before we got a spare bike delivered. Much of the ride is off road, round gravel pits and across farmland and heath, so it is hard work. We found some pretty scarce birds, Lesser Whitethroat, Firecrest, Arctic Tern, Tree Pipit, Dartford Warbler for example.
We were last, of course, but not by much, the next team drove for 24 hours, and found 101 species, and the best team also took 24 hours and found 112. Judged on birds per mile we were nearly 4 times as successful as the drivers!

Amazing! How much time on bikes compared to staring through scopes?

PS it was eerily quiet out there yesterday bike wise, presumably because today looked lovely weather wise so people were waiting. I reckon this thread will be really busy by 9 this evening.

Fred Whittoned. Hard route in luffly countryside. Ticked the boxes marked "Hill", "Uncomfortable", "Wind", "Nice cake", and "Dry stone walling".

Small incident with a steep bit of steep and a front wheel that raised off the ground, resulting a foot down on one of the harder climbs. This cheeses me off more than it should do.

Now for the return cycle to Windermere, and a spot more hostelling before the train home tomorrow morning.

This evening I'm going to drink Yazoo until I feel ill.

How d'you do, Brain-stew?

[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/177718321[/ame]

Woke up later than planned so a quick sprint out to my 40k cafe before the Giro today... Lovely and sunny but always riding into a headwind round here : /

I still feel spoilt every time I get on the bike in Holland-pancake flat and beautiful bike-only paths. Me likey. I do now have a numb left arm from taking a corner too fast on treadless Diamante Pro Lites-I almost lost my front wheel and had to do a rapid unclip-footdown-bounce manouvre that really jarred by arm. I've been singing their praises as despite their weight i've used them for about 2000 odd km this year and not even the smallest cut or puncture.

Also saw a dog chase and kill a rabbit, some wild horses, and a pony taking a shit.

Bright times.

Got up yesterday and thought 'Fuck it I fancy fish and chips on the beach in Brighton'...

Call me mate who desperately needs to get out the house and we set off from LMNH at about 1.
5 and a half hours and a touch of sunburn later we were stuffing fish and chips in us faces with a can of red stripe.

All in all it was a 72mile day. Mint*

*

^^^^^^@wrongcog
glad you and big paintbrush had a good and pleasant spin, and that you had your longest day in the saddle. I missed you guys whilst haring round Suffolk. (cue strava link of no interest to anyone but myself...)
http://app.strava.com/rides/8359694

It was an interesting ride. I had been planning on doing the Suffolk sunrise on Saturday. It turned out that it was actually on Sunday and that I had written it in my diary on the wrong day. It also turned out that I couldn't do it on Sunday because I had to be back in London. So, I decided to do it solo on Saturday morning.

My garmin did it's current favourite trick of losing all interest in guiding me about 45 miles in (apart from an insulting single beep to tell me I'd arrived at my destination 5 minutes after I flopped, exhausted, off my bike at my in-laws pad). Fortunately, the signage was already in place, and was the most thorough I've ever experienced, so I didn't get lost once.

Weather forecasts instructed me to prepare for lashings of sunshine and to wear summery lightweight clothing. When the lead grey skies finally opened on me 40 miles in at dunwich and soaked my already numb feet and fingers I was this close ( holds thumb and forefinger so close together that nothing is visible between them) to admitting defeat and calling in the rescue team.

However, because I am a very hardy and resourceful person, and not in anyway because the pub at dunwich was closed, I soldiered on. After a while it warmed up a bit and I felt a little cheerier. However, my ambition to average over 19mph was being thwarted by an absolute thug of a headwind. Not only that but the rain had washed the last of the oil off my chain which began to sound embarrassingly wheezy. The ride not taking me past any wd40 merchants I decided to pull into a tractor dealership somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I'm pretty certain they're 'not on here' but big love going out to them, if you ever need a tractor, they're the boys... Not satisfied with just spraying a bit of oil on my chain, they insisted on cleaning off the grunge with a rag beforehand, and offering me a cup of tea. Not only that, but they made me feel like lance Armstrong or Edmund Hillary, by being starstruck that it is possible for a human being to cycle 100 miles. An assertion that needed repeating a goodly number of times, along with pointing at the, by now quasi-defunct garmin, in order to convince them of it's truth value.

After that things looked up: the sun came out, I began to head south, so the headwind started to become a tailwind, I was steaming along the flats at 25mph, I might even make my desired average speed. Unfortunately, the gods of blacktop were not on my side that day. At about 85 miles there was a 7-8 mile stretch of road that was about half an inch deep in loose gravel, and I couldn't go faster than 15mph without feeling like I was about to wash out. This coincided with the moment my body chose to rebel against the lack of fuel I'd been giving it, and did a little spot of bonking. Still at least there was no one around to hear me screaming at my stupid legs to man the fuck up.

It is amazing how a familiar stretch of road can lift your spirits, and when I cycled into Melton and knew I was only a few miles from home, I was able to get my chakras in a line and peg it like a CEO all the way home.

The awesomeness of the day was further augmented by the most amazing BBQed fillet steak I've ever eaten and more red wine than was strictly necessary in the evening.

As we were driving back this morning there were loads of riders out on the course - plus one or two fixed/ss riders. I'll definitely do it again next year, though maybe on the correct day this time, eh...

Castle 100 next week - life's too good...

Good work Benj. Glad you got it done. I'd have hated to be around you next week if you'd had to bail on it early on. If I've told you once I've told you a thousand times, eat some food! Oh and Slow.T.F.Down!

Did 65 miles of surrey hills yesterday, two loops that I mapped out all by m'sen

Weather was stunning, found a right monster of a climb up a tiny twisty single track road completely enclosed by trees and high embankments. Was terrifying.

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=377629

May Flyer today, my first sportive (at 55). It was going great, averaging 18mph until I got to the feed station at 33 miles and pulled something slightly in the groin/thigh area when lifting my right leg over the saddle. Was still ok until we got to a steep climb, the one before Coombe Hill. Half way up I got massive cramp in the back of my thigh. Excruciating. Have never had cramp during or after a ride before. Tried to continue but got cramp again near the bottom of Coombe Hill, but this time in both thighs. Walked up the hill and very slowly cycled on the flat or downhill bits (walking on the uphill bits) until the finish. Any effort at all and the cramp was threatening to come back. A cyclist riding past me on a hill asked if I was ok and when I said I had cramp he asked if I had an isotonic drink. It then dawned on me that I had replaced my usual Nuun tablet with carb sachets mixed with water. I wasn't concerned because I'd never had a problem before, even when I cycled to Brighton. Have never had to push the bike up a hill since I started 'proper' cycling a couple of years back (although Coombe Hill is a beast and I'm not sure I could have made it without the cramp!)
Now I'm seriously concerned that it'll happen again - it's knocked my confidence big time.
Is lactic acid related to cramp? I've never even had stiff legs after a ride so maybe my training is too half-hearted.
I know I'm improving slowly, but my Richmond Park best lap is only 22.45.
What made it worse today was that I had a massive cramp in front of all the other cyclists who had finished and were enjoying a drink in the sunshine. Felt like such a rinse :(

Ah mate I feel your pain literally. I had to walk up an ascent to Biggin Hill a couple of weeks back because the cramp in my thighs was agonising. Even when I tried to fight it my legs went to jelly. I'm almost 20 years your junior and clearly not as strong / dedicated a cyclist as you. It really knocked my confidence. I've thought my way round everything from an unforgiving gear set up to a lack of recent rides, but the truth seems to be that cramp is to do with effort over the course of the ride and fluids.

I cramped on a rolly 85 miler at the weekend (seem to cramp at some point on most rides these days). The guy I was riding with showed a sudden interest in the indexing of my gears to shadily let me stretch and plied me with tons of isotonics. I went straight up the next hill absolutely fine (no world records but no horror either).

One bidon mount on my steed doesn't help, but that anecdotal tale told me I don't stock up on water enough while riding.

Perhaps we should get together for some sort of self help meeting and howl like men at the moon!

I do still ride, despite not posting much on here any more. Today was a solo epic. It was 99% awesome. Read the comments for insight into that, and the other 1%.

Glad you got you're Chakras aligned Benj.
Ade you bastard I still haven't even seen a dartford warbler in Dorset!- brilliant achievement thanks for that read.
I went over the ferry from Poole to Studland, rode the Coppi to Swanage railways and geeked out at the diesel traction gala-ha.
But yesterday rode the track training session on new wheels in the early morning sun.the tarmac and new smooth hubs on a continuous loop IS like dying and going to heaven.
BMMF - you should know better...