We had an awesome gravel/mud bike session today down to Fermyn Woods and then Brigstock for a cafe. We were treated to an extra special event on the return though. Our own private airshow at Deenethorpe Airfield.
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The trails are getting friendlier, so I’ve been getting out. Easy spins outside Monday and Wednesday with TR indoor on Tuesday. I skipped TR on Thursday and Friday because life got in the way. All were easy spins at the end of the TR cycle. This Saturday and Sunday were the same – supposedly – with Perkins-2 (2hr Endurance) for Sat and Fletcher (90min Endurance) for today. With the weather nicer, rolled out after dawn (and after making the teenage son his breakfast) for a 2:02 ride (total elapsed time was 2:11).
The problem with the Saturday ride was the descent was on the wrong side of the valley. My travel to and up the main ascent was in the clear of snow and ice, or at least enough and with crunchable snow nearing the top, but over the ridge put me in a new microclimate and it hard ice-snow with some just plain ice. Tracks in the snow were tire-grabbing, not-forgiving nearly cement ditches. It made for a slow descent.
This is the east side of the small river valley headed toward the last little bump (a short 20-25%, “angry grandma” on Strava) on the elevation chart before the main climb, which is paved and at about one o’clock & ±1.5mi (as the crow flies) from this point. I drive on the road to the right daily to go to the kids’ (now kid’s) school(s), making for a nice “commute.”
This snow looks soft, but it’s hard and the tracks are old and to be avoided. This is something less than a mile past the crest of the main climb.
Back down to my side of the valley and just more than a mile from home. I don’t ride the pavement ahead, but it’s always a nice view to take in. I traverse a bit of pavement between trail behind me left-to-right or the reverse for runs or rolls back home. The buildings to the right are the clubhouse for the rifle range that’s out of sight to the right (the trail alongside is, in fact, closed when the range is in use:).
Today’s ride was, like yesterday, “easy” in that I wasn’t trying to push hard, just go and keep the throttle out. The Strava segments I have loaded on the Garmin proved that was what I was doing when short climbs of 2:13 (my PR, Strava #2), for example, had me finishing in well over 3min. Anyway…
Again, late start. Yesterday’s late start was surprisingly alone for quite some time with only the return busy with people. Today was much busier. Here’s a gap on the start. I spend a lot of time on this section, whether running or heading out on a ride. The cabin ahead is rentable (there’s also a firepit next to it and a fountain/trough). It seems that every year on a predawn morning ride or run I’ll come across a rave or similar party still going on at this place. There’s a ridge to the left to keep the noise from the houses and no residences to the right, except a couple down in the river valley but with more ridge and forests separating here from there.
This is a mile or so from the top of the main climb in yesterday’s ride, which appears as the first high pointy bit in today’s elevation chart. I went to the top and circled around to get this picture so as to not ruin my strava segment (I did claim a couple of local legends as a result). Continuing up a 100m or so from this point and it’s back onto trail. I descended back down here because I didn’t want to bother with the snow from yesterday.
My route took me back up to the elevation seen in the left behind the houses. My way here had me behind and below the forest and dropping down to the river. I climbed back up that and instead of hanging a left to get back to and descend “angry grandma” and return the exact way I came (or similar as there are options), I continued to climb (which was paved). I stayed on a paved road, which flattened (see elevation), kicked upward, and then turned into gravel with an icy-snow covering. Part of the pavement that kicks up is seen between the isolated hut in the right connecting to a clump of houses. The gravel path with icy-snow is the gray line ascending left of there from the clump of structures (a home, two barns/livestock buildings, etc).
On the other side of the climb was this view, and clear gravel. This path continues for a short bit and ends at pavement. I then reached a road that I am often riding on my road bike from right (see pavement off to the right) to left on the way home. This time, I took a right and a short bit later, hung a left on a road to the clump of structures (barns and homes) directly ahead below the slope that has a snowy centerline coming down. Hanging a left (instead of a right to a hog house), I eventually entered the forest.
Avoiding people as there were a lot of people on my routine route enjoying the warm-ish sunshine, which was fine and good, I jumped on several single-track sections along the ridgeline as I worked my way home the last few miles. Through the trees ahead and slightly to the right, if you can make out the blue, that’s Lake Zurich.
A good two days of riding that wasn’t strenuous and good to be on the bike outside. Today was 2:15 (2:26 elapsed time) and warmer with good sunshine at about -1ºC than yesterday’s -4ºC.
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Its not Switzerland, so no snow as I rode up to 1000 feet of elevation in the foothills. There is still a lot of snow up higher, but at this elevation it was 61F / 16C:
easy 2 hours spinning uphill, except for almost getting run over by a golf cart in the gated community along the way.
Stopped and took a pic of the daffodils on the side of the road:
then my wife picked me up and we bought a gift for my daughter’s birthday 
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Sunday saw my (failed) attempt to set a good time on the local cycling club segment of the month competition.
The KoM time is well out of reach but I’d hoped to get circa 1:45.
Scuppered somewhat, by an inattentive bus driver, plus the obvious disadvantage of being too old, too heavy and not strong enough (I’ll blame the bus of course) 
Caught it on my GoPro …
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My first EBs road ride of the year today 
Bit of a school boy error from me today. When I put my summer wheels on last night I forgot they have wider rims. So I went to wheel the bike out of the flat and it was jammed solid. I realised within seconds what the problem though but in a rush I was turning the barrel adjuster the wrong way. So I was a bit late cue a 20min threshold interval straight into a headwind to get to the meet point in a decent time.
A couple of us went of the front to do two 30 mins blocks behind my awesome mate.
The first interval I felt like my left leg was about to give way but I held on until 2 minutes from the end at which point it was only me left. It was probably just in my head but I felt like the larger 175mm cranks combined with smaller 50t chainrings on my spare crankset was slower for me (I usually ride 172.5mm with a 52t). Not having a power meter was a bit uncomfortable too but that was probably in my head too.
The 2nd interval went better and again I was the last man to hang on and this time I did to the end. After we finished and recovered I decided to repay the tow so we could get to the hotel cafe on time.
After the cafe it was a bit more relaxed as we headed for a pub. The 10miles after the pub was thankfully with the wind on the tail that I had went into this morning.
My HR tells a kinda story
Oh and did I memention it was a tad blowy.
And you might see on my Strava screen shot my home team won 
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What are EBs?
Was excited to go out and do the first club century in 2 years:
49 people signed up, and its flat, so easy to find the right group to ride with 
Carbed up the last two days, stepped on the scale at +2 pounds of additional carb/water weight. Mission accomplished.
Sunrise still too late to ride 25 miles to the start, so my wife was going to drop me off, turn around, and make it to the 8:30am kickboxing class at the gym.
Great plan we thought, and 10 minutes after leaving the house we heard thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, Not wanting to jinx things, I said “sounds like something stuck to the tire and fell off.” But that sound on my bike is the sound of a thorn or nail stuck in the tire.
Sure enough:
Well, after all, I am the
- Bermuda. Triangle. Of. Flats.
This is one time there was not going to be a another road tubeless miracle
Nice!
Thankfully a Sikh temple was across the street when the check tire light came on.
Who thought it was a good idea to put the spare tire under the car?! Had to read the manual to figure out how to release it. Theme song:
"Nail in my head… " love me some Chris Cornell vocals and Tom Morello guitar 
The bad news - we are a 1 car family and driving tomorrow to spend the day with my daughter on her birthday. So my day has now become about getting this car ready to drive over the mountains. No century for me 
The good news - its a rest week!
Have a great weekend!
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It’s our cycling group, the Early Bird’s. They are not actually that early these days but when a lot of folk had young kids they’d meet at 7.30am and some had already been out. If it was a long one we’d often meet at the crack of dawn.
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Ground conditions are better. There are still some icy spots – as in slick and hard ice surface – so that was fun, not. I did fishtail on a slight climb more than once and a bit of a lateral on a flat. I never went down though. I did turn around and end a climb because after passing two slick ice sections, the third was just not interesting, plus the thought of coming down them (alternate routes would be worse… well, except for a road route as the roads were in better condition than the trails).
This section was mostly slush or ice willing to be broken, but it’s loosely representative of the hard ice sections I encountered well before this (which was on my return and on a trail in heavily forested hill in the middle of the first pic).
A couple of miles beyond and I think, “But I just cleaned this bike this morning.” It could be worse, indeed it would be slightly worse as I had a several miles to go.
Some single track near home. This had been slushy with some spots of ice just a couple of mornings ago. Now, it’s just muddy. It’s nice it warmed up to 6ºC.
Goal today was spin for a few hours. 
A late start (11a-ish) because my son asked to be dropped off for a school project. This meant more snow melt and less ice but it also meant a lot more people on the trails. It wasn’t bad on the outbound and when it was busy on the return, well, I just wanted to spin easy plus I took a couple of single track options to avoid the walkers. All in all, it was a good day in the saddle.
A zoom of the picture at top for fun. It’s fun to see this knowing I ride over thar’ yonder (including to the hilltop clump of buildings, a nineteenth century convent, with a slope to the right with a white line… Christmas trees are grown on either side of the road which looks like a white line and goats are often living among the trees in better weather) when the trails and roads are clear.
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Probably the slowest I’ve ever took to get to 1000 miles on a bike but it was fun 
Everyone called off my morning ride due to the threat of ice that never materialised. So I went out in the sun. I headed towards Fineshade and on the way I got a text from a mate. I guessed I could meet him on the way back from his Crown Lakes gravel. I was just about right but I couldn’t remember how to get into crown lakes. Lol, just as I was giving up he appeared and led me along a relatively fast route.
It had turned out really nice at that point so I decided to head to the cafe I was going to go to in the morning. I quite like it as it’s so small that when at the counter I am literally 3ft away from my bike. It nice and remote too, although today it was really busy. Lol, it was nice and warm in the sun until a rather round couple got out of their 4x4 and proceeded to stand in front of my table. There was an instant solar eclipse
Refuelled I then decided to do a little bit more off roading to make up for me missing most of Crown Estates and headed for my initial destination Fineshades.
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Not today, but yesterday I blended a long endurance ride, dropping off an air conditioning unit that a friend loaned us this past summer (yes, I was late getting it back to him), and taking two kids out of the house so my wife could have relative peace and quiet with the other two into what I call ultimate cargo bike multitasking!! 45 miles to drop off an 80-pound A/C along with two kids isn’t recommended…
My cyclist neighbor was so desperate for non-solo mileage, he rode with me (10 mph on the way out!) and documented the expedition. Before, after, and during photos provided in no particular order.
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epic!
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Awesome 
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Happy February 1st!
So last month my goal was to do 10,000 feet of ‘climbing’ in flatland, without getting in my car and driving over to the foothills of the Sierras.
10,919 feet in January:
Mission accomplished
Today it was very windy, at lunch it was 30mph gusting to 40mph. Calmed down a bit, to 20-24mph with 30mph gusts. Started out on my usual route but it was too gusty with cars and trucks at 60+mph.
Detoured to a neighborhood of houses on large lots and did about an hour of endurance paced laps:
Kept thinking of this Aretha Franklin song as I battled the wind bouncing off houses and other objects.
Rock steady baby!
That’s what I feel now
Let’s call this song exactly what it isStep n’ move your hips
With a feelin’ from side to side
Sit yourself down in your car
And take a ride
Round and around and around 6+ times, and then with a bit of a tail/cross-wind I listened to Aretha and decided to “take a (KOM) ride”:
No biggie, its a notly contested segment and I was battling some crosswinds. Just a nice rock steady increase in power and speed.
Theme song:
Rock steady baby
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10k’ in flatland isn’t easy. Well done. Your post made me curious about my own stats. I didn’t ride much outside last month so I didn’t think I’d match your 10k’ feat. It turns out, my 15 rides in January “covered” 187mi (the 15, and their mileage, includes a bunch of TR workouts on rollers) included 15,800’ of ascent. All of the outdoor rides were on the gravel bike and on trails. You should pop over here for a bit.
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Thanks, out my door it isn’t easy hitting 10,000 feet/month. Found myself ALWAYS riding to the northeast for some rollers, because the other direction is completely flat.
those ~400+ foot rides really added up. More importantly it reminded me of the value of doing low cadence work in fully aerobic zones (endurance and low tempo).
This month I’ll drive over to Folsom and start from there, some good short 3+ hour rides with 3000-5000 feet of climbing. I’ll take you up on the Switzerland offer when it gets warm over there!
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My usual Saturday ride today a spurious route to Oundle. I put some effort in to get to the meet point but after that part I was sat behind my mate who was doing 10x6 minutes intervals at circa 305w (his tempo 
) all the way to Oundle. We met some other mates at the cafe stop. One of which had his first ride after c thing and I enjoyed a gentle ride after that. I stepped it up in the last wind driven solo 7 miles. Lol, just after I had finished and was trundling through the park some bloke on a mtb was trying to goad me into a race, his face when he realised I wasn’t chasing him
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A generally easy spin this morning with some climbs that I pushed on for some vo2-ish intervals. Sought out some flatland, which was mostly paved bike paths, in the middle. Sunny and clear day but with the temp ranging from 1ºC-6ºC (33-43F). Still, even with the bike paths, mostly trail with some rocky/rooty/lumpy single track sections near the end. Overall, it was a good morning on the bike with the goal of time in the saddle. No KOMs for me, but I did collect another LL.
Rolling along the hillside and entering a cloud…
Down the hill and near the river’s side in the river valley just after exiting a forest…
At the top of the highest point of today’s ride.
Down on the flats cruising a bike path along and near a stream flowing toward Lake Zug.
Lake Zug with some rowers being coached with Mt Rigi in the background.
I don’t remember who this caricature is, but he’s hanging out behind the townhall of Baar, a 1200yr old town.
That’s it, that’s my story for today, or part of it. No time to rest after, picked up the son from archery practice at the indoor winter-time range (a school gym) with the club we both belong to (I picked up archery to do something with my son), drove into Zurich to pick up some stuff, then went to the year-round outdoor range for around 75min & about 110 arrows at about 20m in 4ºC. I’m tired now…
[Edit: I’m told the target was more like 30m and in hindsight it was more like 90min…]
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End of the week roll was Antelope-5 Sweetspot as directed by TR. Actually, that was my revision as my indoor workout was to be 90min, but I overrules and selected a “stretch” alternative of 1hr. The task was 4x10min so I picked a route that was slightly more 30min of climbing. Keeping it at sweetspot made it much easier than regular climbs, which was nice. The rest bits – 3min? – found me generally at a complete stop because things to do (answering a text from my son: “where are you?” after he finished a Khan academy SAT prep test; then another to take a pic) and because I’d run out of climbing (there’s a downhill section before the final climb to the end of the Strava segment I was using for this go). There was a ±17min gap between the third and fourth interval to descend one hill and get to the base of the last climb home.
I did pause during the fourth interval as a call came in from a I / my phone didn’t recognize. Fearing the worse, I stopped to answer but it was a wrong number. 
Shouldn’t just waited to see if they called back. The long gap – conveniently after my fourth of four intervals! – was due to a puncture my Stan’s sealant couldn’t handle. After some non-rushed & not-stressed time fighting the tire and tool to plug the hole, I cruised the mile or so home.
Going up the main climb…
Done with the first three intervals, time to get down and cross the river…
Crossing the river from the far side of the small river valley to the near side (relative to where I live)… I love this spot as it always makes me feel like I’m in a model train set.
There are worse places to fix a flat… a few runners, several people walking (almost all with dogs, and a couple of horse riders passed while fixed the flat (way too slowly).
This caps off a week of 6 rides on five of the last seven days, 3 TR sessions on the rollers & the road bike (Mon AM, Mon PM, Wed AM) and 3 on the gravel bike (Fri, Sat, Sun). Hoping to get fit. My first event (March) was canceled due to COVID issues, so it seems (unless I’m forgetting something, which I probably did) I have another 126 days until my first event, a Gran Fondo on the Stelvio.
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