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This weekend I was up in Glasgow and decided to make the most of the freakishly warm weather by hiring a bike and riding out to Falkirk. I had a lovely relaxing ride (25 miles-ish) along the canal with beautiful scenery on one side and the very nice canal on the other, with tons of ducklings and swans swimming along beside me. It’s all really well sign posted and requires absolutely no thought whatsoever, although perhaps I should have given more thought to how I applied sunblock as I now have one sunburnt foot/ankle.
The highlight of the ride was seeing the Falkirk Wheel! What an amazing piece of engineering (nerd alert). Happy days.
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Rode down to Seaford in Sussex for a bit of beach time. I was lazy and didn't leave until gone half ten, which meant I was stuck in a massive traffic jam coming out of London. And that it was hot all the way of course. Also every single traffic light was against me heading out on CS7 all the way out of south London, which was annoying.
Once I'd got out into the countryside though it was great. Went via the Ashdown Forest, a lovely route. I hadn't ridden around there before: it's beautiful and has some lovely ups and downs. After the forest a squirrel then a baby rabbit both tried to commit suicide under my front wheel within the space of five minutes, but fortunately both times I managed to brake enough not to him them.
Ran out of water just after I got to the beach so had to buy water from the machine at Lewes station, which I hate doing. In front of me in the queue was a small boy buying water to put in his water pistol. It was a bit like seeing a Banksy drawing, but in real life. Quite depressing.
The sea was warmer than I thought it would be though :)
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I didn't get on a bike once at the weekend. Instead I went to parties and 'socialised' and things (you know like normal people). Lots of drink was drunk.
I now seem to have lost all my legs & lungs, and have forgotten how to bicycle. I just got a total kicking at the club chain gang and had to drop off. Is this what happens in your 30s?
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Yes.
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Not strictly a weekend ride, but as yesterday was the last day of the academic year for the course that I teach on, it is at least a holiday ride...
http://app.strava.com/rides/9701797
I went out on my usual route into Kent with the idea of doing a few loops of the exedown climb between Wrotham and Kemsing. The combination of feeling quite good, the sun being out, and having a slight tail wind meant that I was hell-bent on chasing a few KOMs on the way out (I really should know better...).
When I came over the rise as you come into Swanley from Sidcup I could see a rider about half a mile away, climbing the rise at the end of a long straight section and I determined to catch him. I eventually caught up at the top of Wested hill and we rode together on into Eynsford. Initially, he was going to take the main road to Otford but then said that he would accompany me up Bowers lane - which for those of you that don't know it is a climb that starts off very, very steeply for about a third of a mile and then softens off but continues upwards for another couple of miles.
I had wanted to give it the beans but was glad to have some company and thought that it would mean that I could save some energy for Exedown. How wrong can you be?! NEVER, ever make assumptions about cyclists on the basis of age - the dude was an absolute boss on the bike. He is 58 years old and I can't think of that many cyclists in their thirties that are better climbers - he is beautiful on his bike - really controlled and efficient. He had a few yards on me at the top of the steep section, but then I dug deep and pushed hard over the long gentle upper section. I turned around three miles from the bottom of the climb expecting him to be out of sight and he was just 10 metres or so behind me!
If I'm half the rider he is when I'm his age I'll be seriously pleased with myself - he was a lovely chap too - pretty certain he won't be on here though - but even so... Chapeau Monsieur, chapeau!
Anyway we cracked along the Pilgrim's Way for a few miles and went our separate ways just before Wrotham. I stopped to eat a bit of a flapjack before tackling Exedown. This is a climb that has always had a bit of voodoo over me for some reason, but recently I felt like I had cracked it, but today I was absolutely slain and crawled up granny style. Realising that I had yet again failed to eat enough to keep me going (wrongcog dude, I need one of your marzipan boxes - actually I just need to listen to your advise about food - one does kind of need it!) I started to head for home.
It was a fairly uneventful ride home; the cursed traffic lights were against me and my assault on the Sidcup hill segment was thwarted by a f**king stupid driver squeezing past on a pinch point 3/4s of the way up the hill and then immediately turning left on me, I was doing 21mph and nearly went over the bars trying to avoid her car - ratfink!
The beautiful weather I was cycling in has clouded over as I type this and I think it might rain in a minute. Very glad I got out this morning...
I've just emptied my pockets and found that I have lost the £20 that I stashed in case of need - so if anyone finds it, well, it's mine innit...
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I didn't get on a bike once at the weekend. Instead I went to parties and 'socialised' and things (you know like normal people). Lots of drink was drunk.
I now seem to have lost all my legs & lungs, and have forgotten how to bicycle. I just got a total kicking at the club chain gang and had to drop off. Is this what happens in your 30s?No. HTFU.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by miro_o
I didn't get on a bike once at the weekend. Instead I went to parties and 'socialised' and things (you know like normal people). Lots of drink was drunk.
I now seem to have lost all my legs & lungs, and have forgotten how to bicycle. I just got a total kicking at the club chain gang and had to drop off. Is this what happens in your 30s?No. HTFU.
Damn right - no substitute for that advise - go and talk to my 58 year old cycling guru about how weak and over-the-hill 30 year olds are!
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No. HTFU.
x
Damn right - no substitute for that advise - go and talk to my 58 year old cycling guru about how weak and over-the-hill 30 year olds are!
They don't share their secrets. And if they do they're things like "train yourself not to drink", "eat margarine" and probably "HTFU".
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Take that 58-year-old off his bike for 2 weeks, and he'll atrophy catastrophically. The only reason he's going well, is that he hasn't missed a week of riding since the late 80s. Any break, and he'll need 2000 basemiles to regain some semblance of form.
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How old are you? The 30s are a spectrum.
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No, that's your 80s.
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My dawn laps of Regents Park last Saturday were capped by the police shutting down SE corner of the park due to "an incident" which I found out about an hour ago was a girl being raped in the park.
http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/teenage_woman_raped_in_regent_s_park_1_1393798
The kicker being I saw that fucker leaving the park and can place it very specifically due to having a Garmin and precise times. Have spoken to police and am going to give a statement tomorrow.
Wrongcog
hats
rhb
Fox
hippy
miro_o
BringMeMyFix
Benj
Dammit
skive
dubtap-
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Tell us about your weekend ride
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tricitybendix... wow, indeed unlucky with the punctures! Glad you made it it in the end. Parts of the ride sound really nice (mainly the wildlife). Thinking about how warm it must have been doesn't sound nice at all...