Where did you ride OUTSIDE today (2022)

I’ve been on the Big Island four or five times, but all before taking up cycling. It’s my favorite island because Maui is too much like Cali ha ha, and Kauai is awesome but a little too cozy. We promised the kids the next trip is to Kauai since it’s the only major island they haven’t been on.

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:wink:

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I migrated several comments to here, from the 2021 topic.

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Thank you!

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You bet! I should work harder to track those year/step topics down, but I still miss them. Thanks to you and the others making and watching them :smiley:

I got a call from a mate I hadn’t seen in ages to go for a short cycle in the sun albeit a :cold_face: one.
Yesterday I couldn’t bear to put my hands below my knees and even this morning was a struggle but after a short easy ride things are a little more bearable (even if its through :grimacing:) and I can bear to sit down for the first time since yesterday.

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Well, I’m back in the saddle after about 3 weeks away with an easy spin on the trails. I flew back to Switzerland yesterday from Boston (US) and I’m allegedly rested (based on my CTL from yesterday, see below) though a bit tired from looking at the posts here (Good job @Aeroiseverything and glad you’re ok @hlab).
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It’s snowed a bit here, including last night. There’s not much at our altitude, with a bit more higher up. Based on the number of people with skis on the train spotted on our ride from the airport home yesterday, there’s good skiing to be found in the hills. Yes, you can easily take a train to a lift, often you’ll need to switch to a bus to get to the lift. Often, you can use your rail pass for the lift. Anyway, I wasn’t on skis but wheels today. Nothing terribly interesting, but it was a nice, easy spin of just shy of 90min in +2 to -2ºC.
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If it looks like the trail has been cleaned, it’s because it was. The authorities roll a tractor (different sizes depending on the trail) with a blower on the front to clear debris, including leaves and small branches, from the trail. Before I left, this and other trails were covered with autumn leaves.

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Below is a selection of pics from my recovery ride today (approximately Dunfermline, Kingcardine, Clackmannan, Forestmill, Aberdona, Dollar, Lendrick Muir, Loch Leven, Kingseat, Dunfermline). If you’re interested in lots of photos of hills the full selection is in the link :pensive:











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Easy spin late in the day – two days in a row! – as prescribed before hitting the hard stuff next week. Shortly before I went out, white stuff fell. As I rolled out, it felt like hail on my face, which, as we all know, isn’t fun. A 75min ride – 12mi and 1484’ of climbing – on generally the same course as yesterday with a pic from the same place seen in yesterday’s post.

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Super short spin yesterday after driving 5+ hours to North Wales in poor weather.

Definitely needed the leg stretch.

Surprisingly productive as I decided to put the hammer down up a short hill mid ride and inadvertently picked up a couple of crowns :crown: .

This was despite my rear derailleur electing to have a mind of its own and jumping gears badly at the mid point.

The screen shot below shows the dip in power as I nearly fell on my arse! :joy:

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I rode outside in beautiful Toledo Spain. Lovely and all but about 65 miles into what was supposed to be about 120, I ran over something that shredded my tire like I’ve never seen! Brand new 5000tl down the drain but I was able to limp to the train station using a tube and a gel wrapper to hold in the tube :sob:



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In contrast to yesterday which was crisp, clear and cold today was very mild but a lot of rain had fallen and was still falling. At first it looked like we’d have no ride but a last minute decision saw us go out. We couldn’t get through to one guy though to tell him we were going out after all but would be a bit late. It was a similar route to Dollar via Kincardine Longannet as yesterday. It was a bit of a pea souper in places with mist rising from the fields. Wisely he had looked at the torrential rain too and decided to let it pass and go the straight route. The reason he hadn’t responded was his phone was dead :grinning: So it was a nice to see him arrive at the cafe 10 or so minutes after us. :+1:

After the cafe we went slightly further north than I’d been yesterday to Milnathort into Kinross and then the same route through Kelty, Kingseat and back to Dunfermline.

I got back and cleaned up the bike only to see I’ve worn out the nose of yet another right pedal. I had also worn out the left hand side of the clip but I new about that :neutral_face:

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I headed out for a 2hr spin in the snow today. We have gotten about 2 feet of wet heavy snow over the past several days, and today was cold - 0F at the start of the ride - meaning the snow was very crunchy where it had been compacted / groomed - great riding conditions!

Beautiful day other than being a bit chilly. Yesterday afternoon was similar after the morning snow stopped (gratuitous pic of a hike with my son).

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Nice snow pics!

Yesterday’s crappy phone pic, really need a better camera:

Those are the high peaks in the Desolation Wilderness, just a little Northwest of South Lake Tahoe.

Looked stunning in person. Not so stunning with my iPhone SE2.

Immediately after that pic I hammered a 10-minute pre-test effort, late into my 2 hour ride after a hard 10-min over/under effort.

Pushed it out to 11+ minutes and used all the road. Top 3 all-time power PR for 10 minutes, right up there with personal bests from March/April 2017. Eyeballing my ftp at 275-ish right now, yee haw! :tada: :partying_face:

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I did a hike there years ago to Dick’s Lake. Beautiful. Picked up what has been my favorite Christmas tree ornament since then - a huge pine cone (yeah, I know, I shouldn’t have taken the pine cone, but I was young and not as conscientious as I am now).

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The cones down in the Calveras Big Trees area off highway 4 are gigantic!

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90 minutes on a beautiful 61F / 16C sunny day:

Clouds over the Sierras and you can see the cooling towers of the decommissioned Rancho Seco power plan. These pics keep reminding me to start checking out the phones with fancy cameras.

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Tonight’s sunset pic on my way home from Tuesday’s Two (hour) Step:

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My phone can still handle the lightly cropped pics :smiley:

This was a ‘flatland climbing’ ride:

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Woo hoo, a total of 686 feet / 210 meters!

:rofl:

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Evening snow ride. Followed by watching installment 6 of a Star Wars marathon with my kids. A good evening all round!

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This is what groomed singletrack looks like. It takes multiple runs on the grooming sled to compact the trail enough where it’s solid. My neighbor did a few laps on the grooming sled last night, and it was pretty good today. Although there’s still a few spots where it’s soft. Thing is, you can’t tell by looking at the snow where the trail soft - so you have to be aware at all times, as it’s easy to wash out a front wheel, or have the front wheel sink a foot into the snow and go endo.

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