Tell us about your weekend ride

Starhill rd has got to be one of my favourite hills around. Bar box, but box is too hipster for me.
Just such a nice hill to ride, shame the surface is crap up the top.

forgot to eat sufficiently, set out in the sun with the wind on my back and was flying. Got halfway, flagged severely and had to head back into the wind. Only 44 miles today but the second half was a slog.

I get this every time I go there. A massive tailwind for half the lap which is awesome then it turns into a massive headwind and makes me hate life and resolve it will be my last lap. Then as it turns into a headwind again I decide just 1 more lap. Rinse Repeat.

it was almost impossible descending sawyers with that headwind

Nipped down there on the tixie fixie wixie this morning, on ~70". Couple of clockwise laps as the wind was still a strongish NE'erly. Roughly 40 miles, home at 9am, fresh as a and ready for family fun this weekend.

I'll probably be the only one with a bad story this weekend, then: my left knee is playing tricks on me since a few weeks ago. I'm alone at home this weekend and doing nothing would drive me nuts so decided to go out yesterday anyway, ride to Southend and see the sea. 10k in and the knee starts feeling uncomfortable, 15k in and it's a sharp pain that I think I can manage if I cycle rubbing the thighs against the top tube. After a while I'm convinced that the pain plateaued and as long as it stays like that I can carry on. In truth it was getting much worse but I just thought it was the same. I got to Langdon Hills through the old church road, but I had no way to put any power down and had to resort to a soul destroying walk up the lane. Decided to stop at the pub for lunch and then tried to carry on, thinking it'd be mostly downhill to the sea and I could coast a bit more. My average speed was so incredibly low that I didn't even think of it as training, and I was so far from having any sort of fun that it wasn't a leisurely ride in the country as well. It was just bollocks, really, and after a bit more of riding I had to stop because I was in so much pain that I was actually scared. Maybe this is normal for hard riders or something, but it was a complete revelation for me when my leg decided to not obey my brain at all. When I stopped the bike, I mentalised the action of my left foot rotating on the pedals, unclicking, and planting itself on the ground, but nothing happened. Foot stayed frozen, playing dead. I ordered again but nothing. So I kind of forced it to unclick and step down and when it did I had to let go a scream, and I realised my leg couldn't withstand me standing up. It was incredible, really. The problem is that at this stage I only had 12k left, and if I wanted to reach a train station it'd be at least 6k from there anyway. So I definitely wouldn't go back home without seeing the sea, and after a good 15min of despair, deep breathing, stretching, carefully understanding what movements I could and couldn't do, I climbed back and slowly went off to bloody Southend. I eventually got there, after having to stop once again, had a glimpse of the sea but didn't bother trying to enjoy it, went to Boots instead to buy painkillers, climbed on the train, back home. Cycling from Fenchurch St to home was somehow deleted from my memory.

Went out with Airtime 'ironman in training (aka athletic machine) Al' from the forum today, despite my brain saying that it was a little silly having ridden 50 miles yesterday.

We decided to head out to Kent and do the Hell of the Ashdown route. First half I felt great, beasting up Toys Hill and the Wall in a manner that would have brought a tear of joy from Contador and co. Shortly after the Wall, and the whole way til the end, I was desperately fighting off an imminent bonk, and generally felt like shite, which nicely coincided with riding back North into a pretty significant headwind.

Riding up Ide Hill with loads of a-holes passing us absurdly close and fast in 4x4s that have never been near a farm whilst feeling like shit was grim. Managed to make it back to Orpington in one piece, where I staggered into a waitrose feeling a bit like I was gonna black out and somehow managed to co-ordinate my brain into buying a litre of chocolate milk, which was consumed in aboout 2 minutes.

Despite the 30-odd miles of pain at the end, really enjoyed myself all in all, is a great route. Big thanks to Al for providing the cake, he just needs to improve the company provided then it would have been perfect.

Very odd weather - heavy hail showers, wind, bright sunshine, dark grey clouds. Keeps it interesting I guess!

http://app.strava.com/activities/46474736

KOM'd the Westerley Reliability long course. Take that bitches. Z1 Recovery ride in the house.

It all looked so promising this morning. But by the time we got to Chiddingstone for egg/bacon baguettes the temperature fell. The garmin battery light started blinking low at the weak bridge climb through the Weald and we bailed out at Sevenoaks, grim conditions and an evil east wind blowing. Good effort though. Bike is trashed. 'Toad in the hole' for dinner so not all bad. We'll be back when it's milder..

[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/290898757[/ame]

I got snowed on. I wasn't even near Snowdon.

Only a few light flurries in the north downs.. No idea why my dinner is upside down..

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You're in Australia?

London to Oxford on Friday, stayed in a damp youth hostel with a load of French teenagers, then Oxford to Bath on Saturday. Beautiful weather, good pace and cracking countryside. Even a couple of wee hills and it's only Saturday! Need to sort out cleat placement but apart from that, a rad couple of days.

Awake with a big hangover. A really big hangover.

Really really wish I wasn't - heck of a morning. Get yourselves out there non-headachey types

I won a new frame on Ebay last week, and it was in Maidstone. I decided to ride down to pick it up, starting with roads I knew from previous rides, and then mapping out what looked like a good route for the rest using RidewithGPS - which is a really excellent tool.

Set off at 7:30am this morning, which meant my body thought it was actually 6:30am. As I had tired myself out riding round in circles yesterday, I got to bed before 11pm yesterday, so I was actually quite well prepared. The weather in London, and the first bit of Kent was glorious - amazing clear skies and crisp air.

The route was great, some really tiny single-lane roads with a line of mud in the middle, some nice, wide straight bits, and Swanton Lane, which is probably my new favourite stretch of road - nice smooth tarmac through a birch forest, with a rollercoaster drop as a payoff at the end.

It got less crisp and more cold feeling the deeper I headed in to Kent, and by the time I reached Maidstone, there was a full-on but very brief blizzard. Summer time is here!

When I got to the place to pick up my frame, the seller and his wife were really great. Friendly, interested, interesting, and best of all, they gave me a cup of tea and some toast and marmalade.

Nice train ride home, and I'm back already, with a full afternoon of doing absolutely fuck all to look forward to. Happy Easter!

http://app.strava.com/activities/46618311

Lovely stuff

.........the seller and his wife were really great. Friendly, interested, interesting, and best of all, they gave me a cup of tea and some toast and marmalade.

Oh yeah...

wink, wink....nudge, nudge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noTjI3CloYk

Eurgh, I've ruined my lunch now by trying to work out what kind of filthy act 'toast and marmalade' would be. I'm glad I didn't say that they offered me a hot lunch.

Gentleman's Relish?

It's been a weekend of riding out in the countryside twice in three days, I think this is a record for me as I have been so lazy not wanting to step foot out the front door. There are some great rides round Preston & I am really enjoying myself, & surprising myself with keeping up with the intermediate group. Today there were several ups & downs where I kept saying how much I hate hills then powering up the short steep hills, & keeping going up the long slow ones - they now think I'm a closet hill climber!

I do think my garmin is fibbing to me at times, Fridays ride I burnt 66,000 calories & today I hit 63mph...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/291190221

Here is the group with Pendle hill in the background, but no witches to be seen.

Starhill rd has got to be one of my favourite hills around. Bar box, but box is too hipster for me.
Just such a nice hill to ride, shame the surface is crap up the top.

Agree, Starhill's great I was up there yesterday just before the sleet hit.

It felt like hard work, I haven't been out riding much (!)
Last autumn I was doing Toys, Ide and Star hills in that order.
I'd have struggled yesterday.

For those that watched NO SPOILERS eat the final few km of the Ronde Van Vlaanderen today...

The final run-in of my ride today was the exact opposite in every way.

Would head out on my bike but low tide is at 3 its warm enough to get play in water...

Besides, i nearly got run down by an angry motorist who didn't take kindly to me wiping the front of his newly washed truck with my sweaty hand.

i swiped his headlights and grill passing him as he was exiting on a one way street. I kept on keeping on until i heard him again crossing on a street. Didn't think anything more of it until i start turning down a dead end which lead to the bike path then BAMMM he tries to squeeze me into a fence with his truck... After missing me he then tries to hit my back wheel. I turn on the Jets and cross the metal barriers that keep motor vehicles off the bike path...

I hear him screaming out death threats as i Laugh" HA HA 1st you Gotta Catch Me"

Fuk this im going Skimmboarding

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About 80k this morning, then back to watch Tour of Flanders. Sun was shinning but really cold. Snow capped Malverns made for a Alps-esque back drop

i swiped his headlights and grill passing him as he was exiting on a one way street.

Why?

'cause he rides like a cunt.