Where did you workout (bike, run, etc.,) OUTSIDE today? (2026)

Meditative run with great view to the local mountain.

5 Likes

Down to the Conington Airfield Loop again for today’s Z1/2 workout (Aurora). Wasn’t half windy (it seemed all of a south, east and west wind) but it wasn’t half warm too and there isn’t a cloud in the sky :sun_with_face: For the 2.75 miles down Holme Rd, I averaged just 15.4mph for 148w. In the other direction (up Holme Rd) the almost identical 150w got me 22.2mph. My Garmin says it was 18deg C too :+1:

3 Likes

I assume you are local legend by far on Conington airfield :joy:

2 Likes

Probably not as I disabled that annoying feature :wink:

1 Like

Had no motivation for a 90min SS workout, so put 400km on the clock instead?

:sweat_smile:
:raising_hands:

Oh, and. Rim brakes.

How did Antelope -3 feel today? :face_with_monocle:

1 Like

:rofl::rofl::rofl:
Rim brakes are working well! But, I have worn the brake tracks down a fair bit. I bought a new rear wheel last week.

I swapped Wednesday & Friday this week because of time constraints on Wednesday, so I did VO2 instead. It was Very Hard.

Edit to add: Thursday morning was raining so instead of the bike workout I went to the gym on the way to work for weights, then got home & didn’t feel like a bike workout. Stayed up too late (was probably on here :person_facepalming:), too tired Friday morning, brain-fried from work on Friday afternoon. Tsk tsk. So skipping on Friday was my own fault.

2 Likes

I got out for a gravel ride around Waverly, AL (home of the Standard Deluxe), with my dad last weekend. The weather was perfect. :raising_hands: There is a 13.7 mile loop. My plan was to do it one direction, then do it in reverse. After the first lap, my dad said he was still feeling good, so he did the second loop with me! He’s 70 with general fitness of a lifetime of cycling, dirt biking, and now lots of walking and pickleball. It was cool to get to ride that long with him! I was on my gravel bike and he was on his ~2021 Kona Process 134 with beefy tires. :sweat_smile:

Wild Flour Bakery for coffee and carbs before heading home :face_savoring_food:

4 Likes

Tried my newly GravelKing SS. I am amazed how they stick to everything. Perform better than expected in ponds and mud. Will consider going tubeless.

3 Likes

65 miles and nearly 8500’ of ascent here in Washington this morning.

I’d never lost a bottle until the last month, and I’ve lost two between two rides. I use Silca cages. I can bend them in a bit. I wonder if the elite fly bottles are too thin which may not be helping. On today’s ride I lost one on a big descent that had 500 calories in it and had to turn around and find it. Some of the descents are pretty chunky and we do hit them at 35-40 mph, but still shouldn’t be losing bottles.

5 Likes

I use lyzene power bottle cage (LEZYNE POWER CAGE | BIKE WATER BOTTLE CAGE). Its has great grip. What a beautiful scenery…. i admit that i am jealous of US gravel routes, they seem good maintained opposing to my country.

1 Like

Tempo Run
Washington, DC, USA

Tempo run on the National Mall … Washington Monument and Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Couple of stops for traffic. Beautiful morning with temps in the mid 40s (F), clear, and low humidity.

4 Likes

Exploring new gravel routes….its is hard to find routes that I can follow a workout on.

3 Likes

You bring memories, visited this place 2013 with couple of friends. We had a small road trip 8000 kilometres away from our home in Europe.

Its that time of the year again (clocks have sprung forward) that the Tuesday night paceline will be replacing Tuesday night workouts when the weather is fine. I had originally thought that’d I’d stick to my plan for an endurance week last night but it suddenly got bright and warm (4-5deg C warmer than today, around 15-16deg C last evening) so I ended up doing the paceline. I kept it fairly steady not to break the group, it meant keeping my nose in the wind a bit longer than optimal, as the rider in front sped ahead often instead of dropping into the slower line.

My discipline went out the window up Church Street. We’d caught the fastest group at the level crossing gates on Holme Road and they pulled us up the 3 miles Holme Road at 50% for me. So I had a blast up the short Church Street hill. Lol, nobody went with me, they should have I was spun out by the time I got to the immediate follow on climb to Dovecote Lane and they could have had a good time :joy:

The segment which excludes Church Street and the bit after the level crossing says PR but its only the 2nd time I have done that route and we were stopped for a mechanical, the other time was leading a beginners group ride.

I think this pic by a mate was took at the mechanical stop.

My blast up Church Street

Which quickly faded at the turn to Dovecote Lane when I realised nobody was following me and my legs didn’t have it.

If I start TT’ing again on Thursday nights or answer the Thursday night ride request. My use of indoor TR workouts could be limited over the summer and there’s me just got notice that my new trainer is dispatched :joy:

2 Likes

Treat your ten-milers as replacements for your VO2s?

1 Like

If I do them right, they’ll likely be a sort of a threshold ride pushing into VO2max. It looks a pretty flat course they are moving to this season (1.7% at its steepest) for a short length. I miss the old course which had a 4.1% in it and a 2.2% drag to the finish, both perfect for VO2max. I’ll do it on my road bike for now and take my TT bike into the shop to get a service and hopefully a repair. The mech screw is a bit worn and the area round it from 9 years in the trainer. The lbs might condemn it though then it’ll be retired to more trainer sessions, and it’ll be the road bike all season. Its got alloy wheel in it and I could do with swapping them out for my carbon rims before next Thursday.

New for this season

Old (almost two laps)

The original course was strangely fun :joy:

1 Like

2nd race of the year. 15 of us this time, hopefully snuck into 9th/15. First road points of the year for my club and my 1st points in UK Cat 3

Was dead by the end and could only manage 560w in a seated “sprint”

2 Likes

Tried to do structured workout while discovering new gravel route….it was mistake. On the 3d map looked like big hill followed by flat ridge, wrong! It was flat with rolling mini surges of 15% gradient. It was a lovely ride. My predicted AIftp was lowered few watts due to unstructured ride…don’t care. I am looking for new routes to do my intervals. I want to ride mostly gravel. It takes some guesswork and exploration, but it’s doable. Found good 15, 20m 30+ min gravel hills. Now I get all the talk about right tire pressure. My fitness is getting better and better I will not need lower teeth front chainring.

3 Likes

Followed Roger Hodgson’s advice & took the long way home on my commute this afternoon. Just over 60km, about 2½h.

Of course this was against advice from TR’s fatigue management (yellow day) & expecting a day off the bike tomorrow I made it a tempo workout, loading up Eyre +1.
I think the prevailing winds of 22kph from the NW worked against me. (Plus I had a backpack so I had the aerodynamics of a parachute.) I think what you want for the nice strava stats is to push against the headwind where it’s more sheltered (west of the river) & then have the tailwind where it’s more exposed (east of the hills), not the opposite as I did. But that’s alright, following power, so it doesn’t get harder, you just go slower. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses: Country roads with some lumpy sections but with minimal intersections & then a low-speed-limit arterial road, all largely uninterrupted making the route good for sustained power up to… let’s say 1h45’. Managed to make it work to the end of the workout on the most northerly part of the cycleway which crosses some quieter roads. Not quite back to the city centre when it was done so I added some Z2 as best I could on the cycleway as the road crossings got busier.

Can sorta make out the workout:

2 Likes

First Road Bike TT for me in a bit and you can tell I was way out of practice and worn out from too many miles in the last few weeks (30th of March was my last proper rest day and I’d done 411.5 miles before tonight). It took me 3-4miles to get warmed up on a chilly and windy night (fortunately the heavy rain only lasted minutes) but after easing off for a tight ‘S bend’ it was suddenly easy. Part of me says ‘moderate’ but given the hard start I’ve rated it as hard. As I said you could tell I was worn out sub 85% Max HR was hard but >85% MHR was easy and I barely pushed to 90%, when I’m fit I’m sitting at 92-93% MHR and pushing over 95% MHR. I barely even feel that I’ve had a work out after that, I could do with a hillier course.

3 Likes