Where did you ride OUTSIDE today (2021)

Did a short TR vo2 workout on the rollers last night (Apple Orchard+2) and dashed out this morning for a quick ride before my first Moderna shot.

Didn’t get a picture of the Fox that dashed onto the trail, took a hard look at me, and then disappeared.

I did however see a different rig with sled dogs. This one is a three-wheeler and was driven by a different guy I spotted in the autumn darkness driving a four wheeler.

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It was the PCC Smith Cup TT tonight. It was colder and windier than I was expecting though. In hindsight I should have swapped out the 62.8mm front for the 35mm on my road bike and wore the Bambino rather than a long tail. I spent too much time in HR and Power zones 3 it showed, nearly a minute and half down on my PB. It didn’t help that half the course (Bainton to the King St cross roads) had surface dressing a few weeks back but I can’t blame that for being 30w down on my 2017 pb and not getting confidently aero :thinking:

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Chaingang, got caught in the rain. Wasn’t a great one - we were held up by traffic lights and at a train crossing. I never seem to get high numbers on these rides, I guess it’s the time spent in the wheels. It definitely felt harder than 0.88 though. An elite turned up and I was on his wheel - no idea of his numbers, but he’s fairly small, very fast and took big turns - not great for me trying to stay in the draft!

Felt sketchy in the rain as I didn’t know the route/roads that side of town.

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Banked a hard one today with a buddy. He flatted 15 min in so that kind of sucked, then it was full gas. I did a nasty VO2 session yesterday so this one properly hurt. BUT, a good test with 3 weeks to go before my first gravel race of the season. Pretty stoked about 90min @ 300NP (92%) on some tired legs after having not done any sweet spot work for over a month.

Now for a couple of days of rest and recovery.

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Did this outdoor workout today. Weather was alternating between sun and rain every few minutes. When the sun finally came through, it was pretty nice!

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@Aeroiseverything, nice ride. Which wheelset are those? I’m seriously considering the Bontrager Aerolus Pro 5 TLR (rim brakes) and am looking for some first hand experiences. My other choice is Light Bike R55. How long have you had them? How have the hubs held up? Any issues or concerns? Would you recommend them? TIA!

The wheels are these: https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/equipment/cycling-components/bike-wheels/road-bike-wheels/bontrager-aeolus-rsl-37-tlr-disc-road-wheel/p/31548/?colorCode=black
I think I have like 2000k on them now and the have held up perfectly fine. The hubs have DT 240 internals (2021) with Ratchet EXP 36 freehub, which is basically bomb proof and well proven.

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Thought I’d share this nature pic from the end of my ride this arvo. I was trucking along nicely with about 100m left to go when an early finish line appeared. :grimacing:
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Yesterday was a great day weather-wise here. After a mostly grim days in low temps and frequent rain, it was sunny and cool. (That today, Mother’s Day, is an even more awesome, warm, sunny day is irrelevant as today must not be a cycling day.) I was tired and listless in the morning. I wanted to ride but had zero motivation to actually do anything, which was fine as I intended to take Fri-Sun off after my first Moderna shot on Thursday which was preceded by a very hard bunch of days. But by noon I couldn’t stay inside. The wife and daughter were out shopping and the son was on his computer so I plotted a route to explore some gravel I’d seen on my road rides. I considered getting on the road bike, but I didn’t want to work hard and felt it would be easier to “hide” and slack off on the trails. In the end, that’s not how this ride went.

So I plotted a loop on the computer, uploaded it, and hit the trail-road-trail-road-trail…. There was a lot more planned road on this than normal but it was good. My late, 12:30p, start meant there were a lot of hikers, picnickers, cyclists out there, which was fine since I was sightseeing.

In the end, my loop was mostly an out and back because of snow: I ascending to the snow level and it didn’t look good to continue through. My late start and dinner plans meant I didn’t have much flexibility, plus my route took me into a dead-end at the end of a valley overseen by two peaks, Bigger Mythen and Small Mythen. Garmin says it was an “unproductive” ride and I think in terms of the body, I agree, but for the mind, it was nice.

On pavement to get to where I want to explore with a view of Lake Zurich…

Grosser Mythen (Bigger Mythen) that I was supposed to ride to the left of, but that was blocked. I then tried a route to the right, past Kleiner Mythen, but that too was blocked by snow.


Some anti-tank barriers (Dragon’s Teeth)

A common sight on the trails: honor system treats and refreshments. Tea, cake, sweet drinks with the price list and money box. This one even has a table to sit down and enjoy.

That’s Grosser Mythen in the distance, where I’m riding to. Just on the edge of the shot on the right are ski jumps.


The Benedictine Einsiedeln Abbey, established in the 10th Century but this structure is from the early 1700s. During normal times, they have a terrific Christmas Market here.

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Finally got my slice of Switzerland on the CA Central Coast:

It’s been a little windy here:

Not too bad except along the ridges:

Did a hard uphill effort in Prefumo Canyon and then views of Morro rock:

some gravel and a little traffic jam:

Then down See Canyon and back up a 9.8% average grade as a 20-min field test:

A lot of wildlife in lower See heading towards Avila and Pismo Beach communities:

Then some single track because one bike to rule them all:

And ran into a flowering plant like the ones we saw in Palm Springs two months ago:

Love coming down to the central coast!

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Beautiful scenery!

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Took the gravel bike to my local trails to get at least some climbing in. Very impressed how it got up 20+% grades with mud on them while not losing traction.

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I had a Open TT in the morning. I don’t think I got enough power out I am just not confident in my chemo damaged fingers. The nerves will grow back but it’s slow :neutral_face: Perhaps that’s a good reason to go Di2 :thinking:
I also made the mistake of getting to the start too early and letting the power meter go to sleep. I thought the Garmin would pick it up but it needed a reset :exploding_head:

If anyone is interested it was on the A52 just east of Grantham, UK.

Although I didn’t have it displayed, I recorded HR. I think it tells the story, I never got out of Zone 2 in the first half.

Given that I never felt that I worked and there was still plenty of the day left I went out and did some tempo blocks on the road bike. I feel much more comfortable on it as I can use my whole hand to shift/brake. I didn’t go anywhere in particular just selected roads to let me do the workout. Lol, I thought I’d lost my pump at one point and spent 10minutes looking for it. My jersey had just slipped round to one side :joy:

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Steepest part of the climb at 10%

Tied for 2nd best ever power on a field test, and best since Spring 2017. Didn’t even hit lactate threshold HR. My coach is doing something right, and it’s not slamming intervals.

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Trondheim stubbornly refuses to start Spring and I keep living in denial. This was supposed to be about 60km, mostly on gravel.


The mud was super hard and uneven and I almost fell a couple times but DID NOT.


Sometimes when you make up a gravel ride from Strava heatmaps you end up riding straight through a field and caking your bike in fertilizer!


There was about a mile of this, uphill. I was not expecting it and it was not rideable, so we trudged. It took so long and I was so disappointed in my route-planning that I skipped the whole rest of the route and came the short way home. Might try it again in July or something. Surely it’ll be warm by then right?

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A glorious summer is coming!

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Sure. Sure it is.

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last weekend race after 6week HV POL 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 Polarized Training Plans Are Here! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 - #365 by Jus7m3

Prince William County, VA, USA

Nothing spectacular, but super nice to be outside. First ride with a Varia radar. Love it. Can’t believe I didn’t get it sooner.

image

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I can’t make it to our Tuesday night chaingang, which is one of my intensity days, so I put in a solo session on my lunch break. The closest equivalent I could think of was a Tim Cusick special: TAN tempo. @jarsson has advised the objective is to get NP=FTP for an hour and then throw in a little threshold. I just did the first part and extended it for an extra 10 mins to get me round my loop.

I Had a nightmare with traffic for the first 5-10 mins, but it got better. I obviously didn’t surge quite enough, as I was only at 0.97 IF - not bad for a first attempt though, and it was a lot of fun! Pretty happy with 21 mins spent at 105%+ probably should do a warm up next time!

Screenshot_20210511-144804_TrainerRoad

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