Where did you ride OUTSIDE today (2021)

Love that temp range. Last week I wore my bib tights and winter jacket. The jacket - Assos Mille GT Winter - is right up there in best outdoor clothing purchases ever made.

Some VO2 max efforts outside. Two hills ridden both ways, with the ride there and back. Go as hard as possible up the hills. Effectively 4 x 4-7 min VO2 max / threshold effort with the down hills being the recoveries. Hit 94%,91%,91%,94% of max HR on the hills. Back about 20 mins ahead of heavy rain. So good result all round. Bluebells in woods on first hill are at their best right now as well. But didn’t stop to appreciate them this time. All done in quiet lanes, no need to worry about motorised traffic.

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Got most of the way around the local trail after work yesterday before the rear hub decided it had enough with a bang. 50 min very cold walk home.

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I’m not riding my roadbike outside when it’s that cold. Trailriding is fine. Or skiing/skating… :slightly_smiling_face:

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Yeah it was a hard nope from my husband too. But that club seems to ride rain or shine and I wanted IN ON IT

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It was bibs and Jersey three - four weeks ago in the UK (booked a Tuesday afternoon off to ride 3 hrs, got stuck in school traffic… doh!). We are back to rain jackets: snow hail and heavy rain today… 6 degrees at midday. Lol. Oh forgot the wind that blows you in to the opposite lane.

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A bit late but the only good day of the Bank Holiday / May Day was Sunday so rode to the edge of the beautiful Cotswolds and back.

Dark green streak mid bottom qtr is the Malvern Hills.

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It was snow or soft hail stone a little to your north east :hushed:

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An interstate trip for a long weekend in Victoria, Aus for some gravel and singletrack. After breaking my shoulder two months ago, Im about all ramped back up, albeit not gradually but in a series of volume weekends.

When your overall volume is low, it doesn’t take much to create a big overload, but not doing it would mean missing out on weekends in great places with good people. Not much of a choice to make!

Third day on, intervals.icu concurred that grinding up an old school hill for 20 mins was a breakthrough effort, and awarded me 20 bonus credits

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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:
Screenshot_20210508-171545_Gallery

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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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