The forecast said the same and for the first 20mins of my ride it was . For the next 25mins it transition from which wasn’t bad and the roads stayed dry. For the last 20mins of the ride it poured and it looked like it had been wetter for longer when I got back town. The roads were soaked and within minutes despite the closed vents in my shoes my feet were too My original plan was for a 45mins ride and if I had stuck to that only my feet would have been wet Sod’s Law 30mins after I’m back it was and an hour later
A dreich, minging day here in Yorkshire. Went out on the fat bike over the local hill. Got thoroughly wet and muddy but nice to be out in a masochistic sort of way. https://www.strava.com/activities/4144948840
Took my friend Evan for his first century. Got him into Zwift and he made a lot of progress last winter (he’s gonna do TR this year I think) so wanted to get him a mental boost. I got to go at Z1/2 HR and attack a few segments and he got to see a lot of new roads
Really this was one ride with a lasagne stop. We hit some local climbs, took the Venjaneset/Hatvik ferry across Bjørnafjorden, filled up on cortados and apple crumble (and the aforementioned lasagne) at a cafe on the shore, and came back the flatter way around sunset.
After yesterday’s deluge, we got somewhere around 50mm of rain, tried to find somewhere a bit drier today. Headed out with my wife on the various trails around Malham Tarn in the Yorkshire Dales. I was on the singlespeed fat bike - not as bad as I feared, even got up the steep tarmac climb near the end that I was convinced I’d have to walk.
Volga City Gravel Race. There was 2 distances, 105miles and 50 miles, didn’t have the time for the 105 mile route so did the 50.
Finished in 3:40 with ~5300’ of elevation gain for second place(35 minutes behind 1st, dude took off like a gun on an old Cannondale Left MTB) I’ll take it. The 105 had ~11,000 ft of gain!
Now that I’ve scrapped the last couple weeks of specialty, I’m just doing things for fun. Completed my first metric century of the year and also my first metric century on my new bike! Feels like I’ve finally christened the Allez Sprint.
I was worried my upper back and neck would get too tense as a lot of recent 2-hour rides have resulted in that symptom, but it’s actually not too sore. After noticing that happening, I checked my saddle height and it had gone out from the last time I had set it. Got it back on track and raised the stem 2.5mm as well (had been testing out a slammed position to see if it would work and it was too uncomfortable). I think those small adjustments made a big difference.
All said, I think I’ve got this fit nearly dialed given my discomfort was only from the effort of the day. Check out all the all-time PRs! New power trophies for 1h49m to 3h49m!
Also, below are some pics from one of my favorite quiet spots in the area. It’s actually only 10ish miles from my apartment, but I hit it around 53 miles on this ride and discovered it is now a protected prairie area! Now it’s even more of a favorite.
A weekend trip to Moab. Both of my kids continue to surprise me with how good they are. Every ride it seems like they make progress. It’s cool to experience.
Oh, and I should add, there’s also some pretty good rides for grown-ups.
The weather was hazy from all the fires. The views were still spectacular however. It’s a special place.
So I just finished the first 5 weeks of my base training on Saturday after signing up for TR last month, and have recovery rides in my plan this week. The air cleared up briefly this morning here in CA so I decided to go out for a nice easy ride. Hard time staying under my 65-75% workout recommendation cuz I enjoyed riding so much outside again.
Then as I was finishing up a 32 mile route, started turning on a corner about 2 miles from my house, and my wheel I think hit a wood chip in the road and started doing that same wobbling behavior that Dygert showed in her crash before going over the railing. I tried to straighten out and ended up eating pavement. First real crash on my bike since I was a kid.
Both knees scraped, shoulder scraped, elbow scraped, bruise on my face, scratch under my eye, bump on my head, and sore as hell hip.
My bike (my baby) is mostly okay. Looks like all of the force (that didn’t go into my body) scratched a small part of the saddle which I am planning to replace anyway, the little handle that attaches to the thru axle, and the rubber hoods. No frame damage, etc. So I guess that’s the good news.
But, what a confidence destroyer. I wasn’t cooking that hard. I’ve taken this turn over 100 times. It’s not dangerous. I wasn’t doing anything weird. Very confused on how it ended so badly.
Also wondering how bad this is going to affect my ramp test next week and future training. Especially if my hip doesn’t recover quickly.
Sucks. A lot of acorns as I ride out of town… it’s a straight road but this time of year makes me nervous because NorCal roads are full of debris. We need a really good rain to wash away all the crap.
Managed to make the most of a break in the rain in the UK and get in a training ride on the Single Speed. Got a decent bit of hill work in, tough but enjoyable.
Small group ride last night where myself and another guy were doing the majority of the pulls and pulling back any of the attackers. This was a huge ego boost for me after a couple weeks of failed workouts. Average power was solid, and the normalized really highlights how hard the pulls were when I was at the front bringing guys back. Felt so fun and good to ride in a paceline again, even if it were smaller (six of us).
I never felt out of my element and everything felt like it was within the realm of possibility to manage with my fitness, and that’s such a wonderful feeling.
Planned for a century today but my rear spoke took half the day off so cut it short. Shore towns are empty in the off season and makes holding speed much easier. Held it in Z2 and fueled light, really light: 3 bottles, 2 SiS Bars, 2 SiS gels, and a jalapeño pretzel from Wawa.
Hoping to do a big indoor ride tomorrow since nobody local has a spoke, and my MTB is also down with a bent hanger which nobody has in stock locally either
Here is said bent hanger from a ride earlier this week, AXS derailleur is stout
After my broken spoke fiasco yesterday I managed to find whole box of spokes that my friend Jim had. Quick stop at LBS and off I went at 1pm, didn’t have time for a longer ride so just made this one a bit harder
. For the next 25mins it transition from 
My original plan was for a 45mins ride and if I had stuck to that only my feet would have been wet 
but nice to be out in a masochistic sort of way. 
