Tell us about your weekend ride

2 very pleasant days of riding. First one with my mate Chris who is a great laugh but incredibly slow. As he put it, he likes to ride his bike like it was the last day of the Tour de France, slowly while sipping champagne. The grumbling started on the first climb and didn't let up for the next 3 hours, as he gradually got slower throughout. This lead to a rather unfortunate encounter with a right mardy cow taking her cycling rather two seriously. After stopping at the top of a stabby climb to wait for Chris, I pulled away from the verge after he got there and got his breath back right into the path of this women just cresting the top. I apologised profusely while she just glared away at me saying 'it's ok, I got brakes' to which I replied 'you got brakes AND jokes'. Not sure that improved her mood but come on, let it go. I seriously got the vibe 'I'm a serious cyclist (full kit) and you're just a weekend bummer who can barely ride it'. I set off down the hill at full speed cheeks burning only to have to pull up and wait for Chris while she went past me again.

Bit of road porn. After that we went dog racing:

Next day I went out on my own, a lumpy loop into the Cotswold valleys. I was literally herding pheasant at several points, large numbers of them running then flying away as I approached them. IMO they may live longer if they didn't make such an awful racket when they take off.

Randomly I did cycle past this:

Not the cow, you understand, but the stone circle in the field behind.

Not sure I can visit it but plan to go back after trying to find out more history. Got quite excited by it as I used to study them.

Headed down to mid-Wales with a mate to ride this route that we'd seen in the Guardian a few months ago, from Dave Barter's Great British Bike Rides book.

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/may/09/uk-bike-rides-elan-valley-wales

Drove up Friday night, stayed in b&b in Rhayader, then hit it early doors Saturday. Absolutely blessed with the weather, and the roads were virtually deserted. Came out as 170km on my computer, but feels much longer as some of the climbs are vicious.

A great ride if you can stomach the drive from London and back again.

Cheers

Here https://maps.google.dk/?ll=55.587592,12.55644&spn=0.004469,0.010321&t=h&z=17

70K's with Donnie&KingKong today - what a grin

Headed down to mid-Wales with a mate to ride this route that we'd seen in the Guardian a few months ago, from Dave Barter's Great British Bike Rides book.

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/may/09/uk-bike-rides-elan-valley-wales

Drove up Friday night, stayed in b&b in Rhayader, then hit it early doors Saturday. Absolutely blessed with the weather, and the roads were virtually deserted. Came out as 170km on my computer, but feels much longer as some of the climbs are vicious.

A great ride if you can stomach the drive from London and back again.

Chapeau, it's lovely around Rhayader.

Im currently out in italy working ang thankfully took my bike, went round lake maggiore and over the swiss border and back, amazing sights,

Im currently out in italy working ang thankfully took my bike, went round lake maggiore and over the swiss border and back, amazing sights,

If you get the chance, Mottarone is a good climb.

Very short one this Sunday, second in my club's HC competition by one bloody second

http://app.strava.com/activities/88753486#1846277410

Did the Wessex ctc Gridiron today 100k in the new forest
Absolutely chucked it down most of the morning didn't do too bad in the conditions
https://www.strava.com/activities/88761769

^^great pic! Hope you were at least first fixed wheel up.

First (and only) fixed in my club, sadly got pipped to the overall fixed prize by some local upstart riding far too fast for a 17 yr old. I think my legs weigh about as much as he does.

You should start making tacit accusations that he is doping.

Equal second overall with Tommy Z in the West Drayton hill climb yesterday so I kind of retained the club hc trophy. Surprisingly similar time to previous years even though it was very wet and I've done no training for it save for putting on about 6 kilos since the 24hr.

^^^ That's how I felt with all the Kenyan youth. They weighed like 50-55kg and were averaging 20mph+ on 100-130km races. I would practically lose sight of them on any hill.

Lovely - is that Corndean Lane by any chance?

I rode past Corndean this evening (I came down Sudley/Castle Hill).

/csb

Took a special guest on quite the ride today:

http://app.strava.com/activities/89748417

Out again tomorrow! Ouch...

(Will update with photos shortly)

Suspect you may need to adjust your heart rate zones, as 1:30 minutes of anaerobic activity doesn't sound plausible.

I had my HRM take my estimated VO2 max and resting HR, and these are the zones it gave me back. I'd have thought they'd be fairly accurate? Then again, there seem to be a million and one different ways of figuring them out, so who knows. It's been a couple of months so I should probably recalibrate anyway.

I am very far from being an expert, but by definition isn't anaerobic exercise unsustainable for that period of time? I think your lactate threshold heart rate is probably higher than your current zone settings suggest.

Still a fairly epic ride though!

I feel like it's probably around 179-180. If I consciously try to hold at or below that level, I can go almost indefinitely. Once I hit the 180s I tend to blow up much faster.

A few photos from today - thanks to our 'visitor' for these!

great photos jadias

Yeah. Very nice.