Cycling - 2

[Nïckslïkk2112]

Charity ride next weekend so will be doing a 65 miler come what may.

Should have gone out for a ride, it's amazing how quickly your conditioning falls away. It was a struggle for me today, my uphill is going downhill and the old heart rate is starting to shoot up to higher levels than it did just a few weeks ago.
Still, I managed to get 71 miles in and was surprised that I'd done over 5,000 ft of climbing. Only stuck a couple of "Proper" hills in the ride, just an awful lot of general up and downing. I was surprised by how dry the roads were after the last couple of days of rain, they'd left their mark with all the grit and gravel in the roads though. It was a day of taking care, especially on the country lanes.
It was cold enough today for bib tights and long sleeved jersey, although I could have got away with either bib shorts or a short sleeved jersey. Warms you up climbing up hills.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1858914560

[Nick]

Should have gone out for a ride, it's amazing how quickly your conditioning falls away.

I think the aerobic side drops off but sometimes I feel better if my legs have had a week or so off. If I cycle too much (for me) I can feel myself getting hip pain, so I don't feel guilty for a week or so off occasionally. Just purchased some new leggings.

[Nick]

Dreadful morning followed by a sunny and dry afternoon, didn't want to miss the opportunity so put the 3/4 length bibs on and long sleeved jersey for the first time since spring, they were definitely required. Some nice resurfacing around at the moment.

[Nïckslïkk2112]

That was a nice ride on the way out. A good clutch of PBs some of which I thought I'd never surpass.
That was a stinky ride on the way back. Losing average speed on roads where I normally gain it.
Didn't think the wind was that strong.

Got me to over 5,000 miles for the year and got me over the 8,000m for September's Strava climbing challenge.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1861344485/

[Nick]

Amazing ride out tonight with an incredible setting sun, Dartmoor and Exmoor on the horizons.The temperature dropped noticeably during the ride and was quite chilly by the end.

[Slim]

Left work a little early and set off to do a decent length Twycrosser. I hadn't planned it exactly but thought that taking in Packington and the top and Sibson at the bottom would give me 28 miles or so. In fact I arrived home on 27 exactly according to my GPS watch, or 26.99 according to Strava.

Actually I think my Soleus GPS watch might be a bit dishonest. I've noticed that it exaggerates distances compared to bike computers that I've calibrated fairly carefully on more than one bike. I've just checked actually using the route planner on Strava, and that seems to agree with my bike computer, and not the watch. So apparently I'm GPS-doping my distances. I got about .4 miles for free this time.

Lovely out there in the late afternoon sun, and not too cold. Beautiful just before sunset. I saw a huge V formation of ducks, or Canada geese or whatever they were, flying toward the setting sun just south of Barton in the Beans.  They've resurfaced a really rough patch of the road just outside a farm there as well, which is nice. And they've taken away the disused phone box that was covered in algae.

Getting dim when I arrived home, and I didn't have lights. No trouble seeing the road but I probably wasn't as visible as I should have been.

More on Thursday, I hope.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1863494978

That was the longest distance I've done since 12th May, though not by much.

[döm]

Good to see your cycling getting back to normal Slim!

[Slim]

Appreciate the thought Dom but unfortunately although yesterday was a lovely day for a ride out,  I appear to have hurt my knee by overdoing it in the last week or two. I thought I'd found the balance but apparently I should have taken more time off between my two last rides, or done shorter distances. Hoping that it'll settle down again in a couple of days and I'll keep it under 20 for a bit, and take no less than two days off between rides.

Quite demoralising. It just seems to go on forever.

How's your thigh doing?

[döm]

Appreciate the thought Dom but unfortunately although yesterday was a lovely day for a ride out,  I appear to have hurt my knee by overdoing it in the last week or two. I thought I'd found the balance but apparently I should have taken more time off between my two last rides, or done shorter distances. Hoping that it'll settle down again in a couple of days and I'll keep it under 20 for a bit, and take no less than two days off between rides.

Quite demoralising. It just seems to go on forever.

How's your thigh doing?

Sorry to hear that. Will you be looking to take it relatively easy over the winter months and then pick it up next Spring with a hopefully fully recovered knee?


I think that'll be my plan with the thigh. Just over 2 weeks in the cast to go then into physio for recovery.

[Slim]

Sorry to hear that. Will you be looking to take it relatively easy over the winter months and then pick it up next Spring with a hopefully fully recovered knee?

My physio did tell me to keep pedalling so I'll keep riding over the winter. Just have to find the right balance. The knees are feeling a bit better today fortunately although not quite as robust as they were a week ago. I'll try 15 miles this afternoon and see what happens.

[Slim]

Did a cautious, taking-it-easy 22 mile version of the Twycross run. Knees seemed to take it OK. Not too much trauma but the right one in particular is a bit tender. I assume the weather will force me to take a few days off between rides soon anyway.

In the meantime though - lovely out there. Bright sunshine, a gentle breeze. I took the Planet X.

I was alarmed to see a rather large bird coming straight at me, wings outstretched at chest height near Shackerstone. For a moment I thought it was an aggressive hawk of some sort. I jammed the brakes on and was considering how hard I'd need to punch it in the head to kill it when it did a sort of aerial handbrake turn and veered off sideways into the hedge on my left. It was a grouse. I think it had been startled by a vehicle up ahead.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1873156790

169 this month and that'll be a wrap for September.

[Nïckslïkk2112]

Managed to do this weekend's cycling in Summer kit Although I did resort to my Merino base layer today as there was definitely a bit more of a chill about. However, I was upset to find that the Carpet Beetle larvae which had destroyed my prized woollen jumper collection had started to make inroads into a tasty bit of Merino. Bastards.

Yesterday was a bit of a curtailed Saturday ride, being as I was off out to see Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, so it was a quick, or rather not so quick, 42 miles. The forecast gentle breeze was nothing of the sort as my climbs up through Cutthorpe markedly showed. But at least the sun was pleasant.

Today was a longer than usual Sunday ride to make up for not doing so much yesterday, but not as much as hoped as I did a bit too much of being a Vegetable Man watching the World Championship road race. However, I did set off like a house on fire, probably due to not doing so much yesterday. The first 25 miles were smooth and easy, even into the forecasted moderate breeze - a tad stronger than moderate I'd say - then the internal working of my legs unravelled and the next 25 miles were the usual Sunday slogathon. Reality, great.

That's September now done and dusted, 538 miles with 34,500 feet of climbing at an average speed of 17.13 mph. It'll do.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1876140511

https://www.strava.com/activities/1873254528

[Slim]

For no rational reason I can identify my right knee started to hurt quite a bit yesterday. Despite this, or perhaps because of it - I wanted to see how it would handle a bike ride. Set off on the X with the intention of doing a 22 mile-ish Twycross, but I turned off at Little Twycross instead, to shorten the distance a bit. I was worried it would be a bit too dark by the time I got back and I didn't have a rear light. And it was, actually. Could see the road clearly enough at 19:05 but I should have had a rear light on.

Quite mild out there. Sunny for a while. Very nice.

Knees did OK-ish, hurting a bit now. I think I've gone as far as I can with my physio, maybe time to see a GP.

Noticed that the mousetrap in the garage had been sprung! It was on its side, but no victim to be seen.

16.83 miles.

[Nïckslïkk2112]

Well, the weather turned out a bit better than they were forecasting, so I got a ride in. I even took out the good bike. Wish I hadn't because the dry afternoon they were forecasting before I set off turned out to contain a 20 minute torrential shower. It didn't feel too far off being sleet either. Glad I put the old neoprene overshoes on.
This all means that the October campaign is underway with a 53 miler. Was hoping to get a Fondo in, but it'll do. Spent most of the ride feeling as if I'd not been on the bike for weeks, then a bit of life returned for the last three miles. Probably because I knew I'd soon be back home and getting dried off.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1888091944/

[Slim]

The knees have been feeling rubbish in recent days, for no reason I can readily discern. I haven't stepped up the distance or the frequency of my rides - if anything the opposite - so I can only wonder if insufficient exercise is making them feel worse? The left one feels like someone's kicked it with a steel toecap and the right one feels like it's been knifed.

Anyway I thought I'd see how 18 miles or so felt. Took the X, as standing water from yesterday's rain was minimal and I still haven't lubed the first Boardman. Did a short version of the Twycross, as usual. Perhaps I'll do the old Belton Figure Of Eight next time.

Felt alright. Certainly riding a bike didn't make them feel any better, but they didn't seem to get much worse. I'll be interested to see how they are tomorrow.

Not too cold. Sunny. Stopped at the Gibbet Post bench for a few minutes.



Shortly after this photo was taken I set about the task of removing some of the moss you can see on the bench - it peeled off in big, dry scabby clumps. Quite therapeutic.

I took one of my Garmin watches in addition to the Soleus watch, with the intention of running them in tandem to compare recorded distances - to confirm my suspicion that the Soleus exaggerates. But when I tried to switch the Garmin on, I realised its battery was flat. So I used Strava on my phone instead. Results as follows:

Phone  : 18.09 miles
Soleus : 18.46 miles

So assuming the phone is right, which I suspect it is,  my Soleus watch has confected .37 miles out of nowhere - quite a lot over 18 miles or so. Comparing the two tracks, the phone track is slightly smoother - probably because the recording frequency is higher - and a comparison of file sizes between the two exported GPX files bears this out (592k (phone) vs 384k (Soleus watch)).

Anyway for now I will keep doing 15-20 miles every 2 or 3 days, or an equivalent effort on the trainer. And I'll just have to hope that things improve, and I can do long rides again next year.