Looked for the updated 2026 thread and couldn’t find one.
I’ll start this one off:
44 miles and 5300’ elevation gain on today’s gravel ride in SW Washington. Relocated from Houston in October and the change of riding has been an absolute dream, even though we’ve been in the rainy season.
I stopped in a restroom at one of the trailheads, to find some massive not-happy roosters standing guard.
I had thought I’d stick my power pedals on the winter bike and do my endurance workout but its pedals were seized solid, so I done it on RPE/HR, and to make it easy I just did one flat intensity period, rather than the marginally varied intensity session planned. Nothing spectacular just a loop round Conington Airfield.
The skies cleared last night so it had plummeted from. +11deg C yesterday to -1deg C first thing. I was going out at lunchtime so that didn’t worry me; it was fresh though in a stiff wind. Its funny how a 7-8mph wind down in here is really noticeable and stiff but the same wind speed at my parent’s place up north is barely noticeable. Going south I was 14-16mph mainly to stay in Zone, but going north I was at 20mph for slightly less and a more stable HR.
We are having a very rare dry spell here in Washington. Did a 40 mile MTB ride yesterday with 5800’ of elevation gain. Probably 70% single track, 20% gravel, 10% paved. The single track is phenomenal. I need to get a GoPro for some real footage as the stopping in easy areas for a pic/food don’t do it justice. Constantly transitioning from the ridge on the side of a mountain into beautiful dense rainforest and well groomed trails.
I swapped the bars and stem and they were a big improvement on my Epic 8. I think I need to cut the bars a bit shorter still. My upper body was pretty wrecked by the end of the day. My upper body is in good shape (I can do 20 pull-ups & bench press my bod weight 10+ times) but it may also just be due to being a newer MTB rider as well. Probably need to relax more.
