@rkoswald my problem is simply getting in enough calories. I use Maurten but it’s become clear — or rather, I’m finally realizing — that I’m consuming half to a third of the calories I should and need. That’s not the fault of my fuel, it’s me not consuming enough of it. One hundred to two hundred calories per hour is what I tend to take in where more is the exception rather than the rule.
Started out with 3 others but split off after the first 20mi of getting spicy on the rolling terrain. Great day on the bike.
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Nothing like heading out for some hill reps and finding out the mountain’s on fire. That’s probably my best excuse yet 
Went for a swim this morning and the smoke messed up my lungs pretty bad, so looks like I’ll be on the trainer/treadmill for a while because it’s gotten a fair bit worse since then.
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Met a mate and headed up to Heckington, the home of the world’s only 8 blade windmill apparently.
We passed a whole lot of tractors and classic car/vans; we never got any pictures though. Just as we finished our coffee though they reappeared and proceeded to the field behind the windmill. We got plenty of pictures then
I got back in time to turn on the greatest sporting spectacle in the world. I’ve got 144km left of today’s TdF relive
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I rode the Leadville Silver Rush today. Hard, hot, dusty.
Type 2 fun.
I’m not quite sure why I signed up for this race. Maybe because it’s a good excuse for something to train for earlier in the summer?
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That’s awesome. Love it!
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That is so cool!!! I once got to drive an antique tractor that steered by braking. No steering wheel. Just big levers to the brakes. So cool. I love tractors. The windmill picture is so cool, too! What an awesome ride!
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Up to Spalding for me for the last inter club TT. I messed up having not had a break in the last week. I thought that was tonight but lol, I had my days wrong for this. I rode fairly sustainably as a result into a strong wind. I messed up there though I think I should have went harder a the wind assistance on way back would have seen me home even if I collapsed.
Lol, I hope some pictures appear tomorrow as I cut my cool down short to take circa 200 pics of others, I do get a bit snap happy at times
I’ll not post all 200 but a small selection.
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A short cruise on the gravel bike in the woods of only 16mi (and 636’ of ascent, basically flat :). The temp was about 51F / 11C but just before I rolled out, the no-rain condition that invited me out ended so I grabbed my rain jacket. I should have also grabbed my gloves because it was chilly and wet… in the middle of July. “Great Danger” rain warnings and “Great Danger” water levels starting this afternoon, each a step up from when I went out and where it’s been for a days. (“Great Danger” is the highest of three levels for rainfall warnings, but the flood warning goes one step more with “Very Great Danger.”) The local river appears to be about 5’ above normal; I’m not sure about Lake Zurich.
I’m getting tired of cleaning mud off the bike. It’s summer, I should be cleaning off dust. Then again, today was so wet the rain washed off any mud, so there’s that. And the forests are green.
Found some horse parking:
And got onto some old cobbles replaced long ago by the road to the left, on the other side of the (still used) tracks.
It wasn’t a workout as much as just a break and procrastination.
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The club’s Rimes Cup TT was supposed to be last week but road works stopped it. They were removed today but the club only had permission for 2 laps (Stanford Rd, Bainton, then Ufford). The first lap went ok’ish after a terrible clip in. On the 2nd lap things just didn’t feel right. Pumping my tyres up to 100psi on this course wasn’t a good idea. It had shook the TT pole bolt loose
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I rode in our local weekday XC race series yesterday.
Basically, a time trial on the way up, and on the way down.
I’m not so good on the way up, but managed to snag an almost-top 20 on a long descent section.
Apparently, there were 6 moose spotted at various points, but I didn’t see any as I was too busy either suffering or trying not to crash.
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Did a nice 60 mile ride, trying to hit all the hills in my area (there are few and far between).
The wind was pretty strong and came from the right direction and I had a strong lead out man, so I went after the most coveted KOM in my area and placed 3rd of over 2K, which I am pretty happy with.
Especially because the number 1 is German U23 TT Champion and number 2 is a Former World Champion rower.
Wondering what a skinsuit might have done 
.
Also had to end the activity after the segment to check strava .
New 8 minute power pb @5.6Wkg. 
A quick revision has shown that I placed even Better on a longer segment, before the German TT Champ.
I’ll tell myself it wasn’t for the fact that I had better conditions
And then there is Andrew Feather, who averaged 62 Watts more, for 35 seconds longer, while being 4kg lighter.
Geez man, I am humbled.
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an honest coffee ride recorded on Apple Watch:
^^^ nothing to see except AW recording 63 feet of ‘climbing’ which turned into:
- 62 feet on TrainingPeaks
- 27 feet on Strava
- 1,941 feet on TrainerRoad
hrTSS of 49 on TP and 46 on TR, so I’m happy to see TR’s hrTSS estimation working just fine.
11 bikes at the coffee stop: 2 families of 4, one dude, and our two bikes.
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A short ride down to Oundle again for me this morning to meet some friends for a coffee.
It was looking like a hot one 
As they headed to a beer garden, I headed to a TT just south of Sleaford (Silk Willoughby to Doddington and back, 25miles)
I got stopped at two roundabouts (actually the same one on the way out and way back) and the race was in 30deg heat, so I’m quite pleased with the provisional 1min 41s PB on the C25/22 at Silk Willoughby (1h2m27s) 4 years after I last rode the course.
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Third tractor down is a Fordson Major - I basically learnt to drive on one of those!
Yesterday headed off early to try and beat the heat for a ride in the Yorkshire Dales. Except I didn’t (beat the heat). The idea was just a steady Z2 ride but take it as easy as possible on the big climbs. Up Wharfedale and then over Fleet Moss, highest road in the area, and down to Hawes for a café stop. Up Widdale and over to Ribblehead then down to Settle for another café stop.
Got to within about 20km of home and began cramping, so there were quite a few temporary stops to let this pass. Took an age to do the last climb to get home. Was completely knackered by the time I got back. I really don’t do heat, it was 28C during the afternoon.
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