Where did you ride OUTSIDE today (2021)

:scream:

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I immediately googled hedgehog paws. They are not furry. It sounds like something a cat would do.

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2 hours. Duty Now for the Future.

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I just finished riding Zwift a couple minutes ago A few minutes ago, I used Zwift throughout the winter, but then I rode outside 95 percent of the week for the last 2-3 months, averaging about 120 miles a week. My watch/kg is about 8 percent lower than that in winter, I have just done an 11-mille-zwift plus 5 random miles. I don’t know if there’s a different style indoors that I’m not familiar with right now, or if the external riding is not that hard and my fitness level is declining. I also read some travel and dirt bike air filter guide. I have seen that my riding outside has slowed a little over the last few weeks.

:exploding_head: My Garmin maxed at 100deg F (38 Deg C) but that was probably when we were stopped for refreshments, looking at the garmin chart the most we had consistently was 77deg F (25 Deg C).

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I have thoughts on this, @Jeffy2k. First, what is the environmental (mostly temperature but also wind) difference between your indoor riding (which hopefully includes TR and not just Zwift… :slight_smile: ) and outside? Second, what is the difference in terrain, including whether you have more stops/starts due to traffic (particularly traffic signals) and hills. Third, do you need, or have become accustomed to, the distraction of the screen (whether Z or TR)?

There is a different style between indoor and outdoor riding. This is particularly true if you’re using a fixed trainer (either wheel on or off), and still “true,” though less so, if you’re using rollers. But from your brief comments, I doubt that’s the issue here. I suspect you’re not pushing as hard outdoors as you do inside. This may be because of terrain, forced pauses/slowing, comfort (of riding in traffic), riding with others (more drafting), different temps, or even nutrition (it’s easier to grab a drink or food on a stable trainer than while rolling in a yard/meter wide lane with cars going to 80kph/50mph a meter or two from you).

We’re all different, but to share my personal experience, my numbers are noticeably lower on indoors (TR on rollers) than outside.

Just some thoughts to consider. Remember they are worth a bit less than twice the amount you paid me for them.

Got out for a quickie on the road bike this afternoon.

The sky was mostly clear.

And, it was warm! Ok, only around 75F / 24C, but it was enough that Garmin had this to say after the ride (hey @bbarrera!)

This morning was a 4.5mi run on the trails, same dirt & views I enjoy on the gravel bike but on foot I get to drink up a bit more.


A good way to bookend the day. And no, nothing reached out to touch me during either go.

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My heat acclimation took a hit after 9 days off the bike, and bouncing back nicely after two days of riding in the heat!

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Sitting at 3.9 w/kg at the moment - 218 avg power for this ride might leave a dent!

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Set my sights on this climb today (Red Grade road just outside Sheridan, WY).

Mostly smooth gravel, though a bit rocky in some spots. Deceptively steep, too; this section by the OHV area is 13-14% with some spots hitting 16%

Probably the wrong helmet for a slow climb on a hot day.

A good snack keeps the spirits up

Top of the climb segment. Time to turn around.

Profile of my ride.

Edit: TR stats

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Nokesville, VA, USA

A mostly Z2 ride in the beginning of horse country / farm land south west of Washington, DC while one of my boys was at soccer practice. This was a shake out ride for the Armed Forces Cycling Challenge (cyclingclassic.org) on Saturday since it looks like we’re going to get rain the next two days.

Also, I replaced the upper and lower headset bearings earlier in the day and needed a test ride to ensure everything was put back together correctly and working properly. What a difference! The front end is solid! I should have done this much sooner, but had some stuck spacers.

Oh, yeah, and it was super windy with a little heat acclimation for a bonus!

IMG-0579

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First XC race of the year, and first race in almost 2 years. I haven’t ridden this hard for an hour in a while. With my HR pegged for an hour, and the dust from the riders in front, I thoroughly deserved and enjoyed my few beers afterwards :sunglasses::beer:.

This is the easiest course in our local town XC race series - there’s a few flat parts on this course, whereas the other courses have no flats.

It was a beautiful evening, high 60s, blue sky, no humidity. Doesn’t get any better.

image

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I’m using recovery week to try to practice actually doing Z2 rides outside instead of riding every climb suprathreshold, and I did a way better job today than I usually do!

This is the flattest route in my vicinity. Not much I can do about the hill at the end (except get stronger, or stop living on hills), but I kept my heart rate down and my cadence up for most of the rest!


Benjamin was very longsuffering as I bombed the descents and crawled up the climbs.


Not a lot of wind off the fjord in the mornings.

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Copied over from a different forum. One or two UK specific cultural references that others may not get. This is a photo heavy account of a three day trip around the King Alfred Way (KAW) which is a relatively new cycle route around the countryside west of London. It basically connects the western ends of the South Downs Way and the Ridgeway - the latter is one of the oldest known “roads” in the UK and possibly Europe, there’s evidence of usage going back 5,000 years. The KAW also links up many of the well known prehistorical sites like Stonehenge and Avebury stone circle

The south is a foreign country, they do things differently there.

Given the choice of going up to Scotland or going abroad we decided on the latter for a change. Take a map of the UK and draw a line from the Humber to the Severn estuaries, say Hull to Gloucester and we’ve done basically SFA riding below that line. So …

That’s nice

My wife decided to get a move on.

Which eventually led to lots of this:

And this:

But also some of this:

Whilst waiting for our meal at a pub my wife decided to perfect her three colour daguerrotype technique with me as model. The cyclist in the background now has a certificate from Guiness for the longest trackstand in a racing position. (The pub took nearly two hours to get our food to us)

After a top up at another pub we bivvied for the night. The morning brought the only “bad” weather of the trip. The mist cleared within an hour or so.

A nice long descent included some sunken lanes

Some beech woods, I like beech woods, they have a nice calm light.

Irish sign writer at work!

Big hill

Looking down big hill

Ah Winchester! We went a bit wrong here and followed the SDW into town rather than the KAW

Some bloke being celebrated for showing the locals how to open a tin of spam

Country lanes

Our second bivy. The track is running along the right edge of the shot but there’s a bank between it and the tent so we couldn’t be seen by someone walking along it.

What have the Romans ever done for us?

Our steeds

Old Sarum hill fort just outside Salisbury

On Salisbury Plain working our way around the firing ranges.

On the long descent to Avebury, it’s just hidden behind the trees above the rider’s head. The Ridgeway begins on the hills in the distance

Just some of the massive standing stones surrounding the village of Avebury. The village was one of the few places where there were lots of people, most of the time we’d be on our own.

Typical Ridgeway track

A long grassy descent

Early morning on the Ridgeway

So home counties

Finished off with some wandering around Reading trying to find the underground car park where we’d left the van. It was actually only about 200m off-route.

A total of 350km of riding with about 4200m of climbing. Pretty much all rideable apart from a few very short sections of deep mud and one very short and very steep hill. Unusually for a British public holiday weekend the weather was fine, in fact for a couple of northerners it was a bit too warm being between 25 & 28C.

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This trip looks so amazing it hurts, thanks for sharing :heart_eyes:

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It was the PCC 2 up TT at Southeye Woods near Helpston. I teamed up with a young lad and we relatively flew round. I set a course PB by 7s. I ve been faster in the middle, and the last 1/4 was only 1 sec faster, but the 1st 1/4 mostly down a sharp hill was significantly faster.



On review, I also see a figure I haven’t hit for a couple of years, 202bpm (102%). Given where it happened a little over the crest of the sharp hill on the drag to the finish I don’t think it was interference :smile: So by that stupid formula I’m 18 years old and not 45 :joy:
IMG_20210603_214504_045

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That’s awesome.

A nice Friday afternoon gravel cruise. As I was riding on hero gravel, and beautiful scenery, I was thinking I might almost like to be riding Unbound this weekend.

But then I shook myself out of my daydream and realized 35 miles on a Friday after work, followed by a couple of beers is more fun.

Maybe I can psyche myself up to apply to the Unbound lottery next year. I have SBT GRVL coming up this year, but that’s not as long as Unbound.

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Just got back from another everesting training, this time with 95 degree heat. I decided to abandon an hour or two early (was going for 15k very) because I was running low on water and, despite four layers of sunblock, felt like I am borderline baking. Beautiful day though.

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Out to Kings Lynn, Norfolk for me today.

No official results are in yet but I could have a PB or be in the region of my PB but not on a drag strip (my previous PB was, on a dual carriageway, today’s was a sporting course).
I had a bit of a headache after sitting in multiple traffic jams. It meant I was too late to do a recce but fortunately I had left in time to do that. I probably could have done a recce and a very quick sign on/change but I decided a more relaxed start.
It probably told at the start when I had a nightmare clipping in and power was down overall. I kept my aero position 99% of the time which mitigated a large part of that and the ride actually cured the headache :smile:



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