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Four weekends off the bike due to moving and completely redecorating house. I stretched my neglected legs for 50 miles of sleety, blowy Essex today. First observation - what little leg strength I'd developed has gone. Admittedly the wind had its fun with me but it seemed I was rolling 4mph slower than usual and finding hills where hills have never been before. Second observation - I respond like a kitten to all alterations in territory. If I come off a downhill slope onto the flat my speed is set accordingly until another undulation, if I arrive on the flat from a climb my pace for that flat will be set to sluggish. I am a wuss. I find it impossible to impose myself on a ride.
It was great to be out though. After 18 miles and a few wheezy climbs I stopped as is my habit at the Epping tea hut. As I sat gulping sugary tea and munching ginger cake in the snow something shifted in my mood. A little euphoria not felt since my last roll at the start of February. It was my tired and neglected body giving me a little thank you for finally returning it to the lanes of SE England. Rewarding my stressed brain with a little endorphin massage. I sat on my own grinning like a bastard. Was blown home by an icy North Easterly breeze. I did use strava, I needn't have bothered - I was shocking. Usually on a solo ride I miss my mates. Not today, I'd have slowed them down badly. Good to be back.
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Second observation - I respond like a kitten to all alterations in territory. If I come off a downhill slope onto the flat my speed is set accordingly until another undulation, if I arrive on the flat from a climb my pace for that flat will be set to sluggish. I am a wuss. I find it impossible to impose myself on a ride.
It's winter riding. It's completely normal to feel like this when it's colder. Perhaps what your feeling is really telling you is that you're just riding your bike and not training? That could be the case, but relatively few people, some call them athletes, actually train. The rest of us are just riding our bikes. :)
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@ wrongcog and bigpaintbrush. Don't either of you dare lose your cycling mojo. If the bromance that is our weekend jaunts on the bike comes to an end, my life'll be greatly impoverished. Wrongcog, I couldn't care less about being slowed down - which isn't the case anyway, and BPB, I'll happily push your lardy ass any time your bike has a hissy fit.
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I think we all go through phases like this where we have two or three rides in a row where either something goes wrong with the bike or your legs and head just really suffer. You'll get through it soon enough and it will be spring, the snow and wind will have done one and riding will be ace again.
Total rear-mech failure in the middle of bloody Kent after 70 odd miles of misty, hilly goodness. Benj literally pushed me (I'm 14 stone, he is a legend) to the nearest train station, through flooded lanes and up difficult rises - ruined my average for the day though....
Rather a melancholic journey into London Victoria, pondering my recent run of bad luck on the bike, wishing I was pedalling back to the smoke, figuring out how to fix my bloody ride so that I can get home.
Time is such a precious commodity for me at the moment and allotting it to the seemingly frivolous pursuit of riding bikes up and down and around the English countryside is becoming more and more difficult to justify. These little hiccups are really pissing me off.
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Inspired by Thuekr and others I decided to get off my arse and do at least a little bit of riding on what is sadly my only day off all week.
Did a quick 12 miles off hills round North London, which is nothing really.
You know that feeling when you're climbing up a horrible, slow hill ten minutes in, you've only just got enough breath to cough so you can actually breath properly, and you get weird stitches that make you feel like you're going to poo yourself? Probably marginally better than staying in your warm house watching The Wire.
I did get my fastest time up Swains though.
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http://app.strava.com/activities/43934699
Today started out with cheats Bircher Muesli (porridge oats, milk and yoghurt left to soak overnight) along with a flat white. Last night I had been checking the weather forecast, as for once I had a Sunday off and could go out for a ride. It gave me a chance to get out on a Hounslow and District Wheelers club run, the good old guys who know all the good cake stops.
Getting out to Staines is never the most exciting ride, but for once I left with reasonable time, so did not have to resort to ploughing along with my head down, frantically trying to eat the 11 miles to the start point. This was a good thing and a rare bonus. On the approach to Staines I noticed a rider struggling with his gears, got chatting with him at some lights and discovered he was also heading to meet the club. I got him to stop, quickly reindexed his gears and we then rode on to the bridge.
At the assembly point I saw a few familiar faces, which is always a good thing, and a few new ones. My choice of bike was met with comments like "a brave choice", "you only got one brake, prefer to be able to stop my fixed wheel bike with two" and "you might struggle". So the challenge had been set.
We set off, and quickly found the bunch needed a little bit of time to warm up, (my legs were already warm). The message was passed up the bunch to Simon (our leader for the day) and myself. Trying to keep our pace down to 16mph on the flat was not natural to either of us, and we got the same message a few times. After 20 minutes or so people started to warm up and the pace gradually ramped up. I was riding next to our leader, after 45 minutes he suggested we get a little shelter from the wind, so we let another two take the lead. Very quickly I realised my decision to wear 3/4 knickers and embrocation was probably not enough. Getting the break from the wind was nice, but I got cold pretty quickly. This gave me the incentive to just stay at the front for the rest of the day (plus some of those comments from the beginning).
Heading out into Surrey but not doing the classic hills today, more of a roller than a bumpy ride. A few of the group decided to peel off to take things more gently, which enabled us to get going a little faster, but we also had wind assistance for a lot of our outward journey. The pace was comfortable and lots of chatting done while riding in a fairly solid twos up formation. There is nice discipline with Hounslow, good calling of hazards and a good awareness of risk.
Eventually got to our cake stop at the Rural Life Center in Frensham. I was pleased, cake o'clock had been a long time coming, though people were a little shocked that I also ordered a bacon baguette to go with my coffee cake. The thing was I had a plan to get back to London and go to a yoga class, so had to get food in early as it's not a good idea to do Bikram yoga within two hours of eating.
It was not so pleasant getting back on the bikes, there was a palpable reluctance to leave the warm tea room, but we did eventually remount and carry on. Thankfully there was a gentle incline soon after to help warm us up, it was commented how in summer some of us overheat on hills, but in winter we prefer to climb than descend, especially as we now had the wind against us. I was glad of my plan to stick at the front, there were brief moments when someone would come up and give me shelter, and I would quickly (selfishly) offer to take over again.
Most of my winter training has been on the commuto x bike or the fixie skidder, I am quite looking forwards to having the nice bike and gears again. Having said that, today I felt I had the right bike for the ride, 48/19 was comfortable getting up and down hills, topping out 166 rpm cadence for a brief moment. The return leg was much harder work, the general consensus was the wind could kindly fuck off, but it did'nt.
I always loathe being the person to have a mechanical, and suddenly there was that moment of the back wheel feeling a little too bouncy, the pro race 3 tyres have done almost a year, so am actually quite happy with their performance to date. But when I was matching up the hole in the inner tube to the tyre I discovered tons of flint embedded, so it is time to replace them. Thankfully it did not take too long to fix and people were wonderfully patient with me.
As we continued back more and more people peeled off, (generally the group sticks together until closer to Staines). And for once I was the only person to actually return to the meeting point. The ride back to Kew was straight into a headwind and just felt like a slog. Going through Brentford I decided to pick up some electrolyte tablets, I knew the dehydration of a cold day was going to kick in plus I still had hot yoga coming up.
Got home, and realised I had 2 hours and 15 minutes until the yoga class, so had a quick snack and flat white, did some admin, a quick espresso and then rolled into town. Bikram Yoga is a hideous discipline, classes tend to leave me wondering if I am going to pass out or vomit. Being quite tired today was a bonus as it meant I did not push myself quite as hard as usual, so it felt marginally less like a bad drug experience than normal.
Had to meet up with friends in Barnes this evening, by the time I got there I had now done 96 miles, but home was only 2 miles away. So I ended up riding to Richmond, doing a quick loop of the town centre and then taking a less than direct route home. This is because I am a nobber, more concerned with getting my first century day of riding in, rather than riding decent miles. Am finally home, feeling very warm, tired and quite hungry.
It was great to spend some time on a bike, chat with people and feel that I could justify eating nearly anything I wished to. I devour cakes semi-pro, and ride a bike as recovery exercise.
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One tip from today. Do not do a Bikram Yoga class, when you have embrocation on your legs. 41 degrees temperature, pores opening up and embrocation seeping in fucking burns. When you are then instructed to touch your forehead to your knees and yet can feel the menthol and chili heat wafting into your eyes is not good.
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It keeps the wind out from exposed skin.
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3/4 knickers and embrocation, leg warmers for the softman
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3/4 knickers and embrocation, leg warmers for the softman
You're the one covering yourself with cream and then crying about it in yoga... HTFU
Pro: Embrocation should only be used when it's raining or you're otherwise likely to get waterlogged and leg warmers would be soaked and heavy as a result.
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It was mad sunny over the weekend, so I headed out on a coastal ride, that would steer clear of the local lakes. As seemed to be the best way to aviod icy roads. It was -2C so going fast had its price. But I found a crazy single carrage road which rolled up and down almost as much as it zigzaged.
Bloody phone whited out the snow covered mountians just beyond this bay. Piss.
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The white on the saddle works well actually, along with the bartape.
Yeah I like it a lot. Seems more balanced than just going with yellow. I dont want to speak too soon, as I havent been out for more than 90mins yet. But it seems to fit well too.
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Well on the first ride I forgot to think about it. So thats a pass.
Wrongcog
Oliver Schick
almac68
Benj
jim1985
tbc
dancing james
hippy
Smallfurry
Dammit
skinny
bothwell
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Tell us about your weekend ride
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Light at the end of the tunnel :D