Today I did a 30km ride with my 8 year old. It is the first time he has managed 30km and he was pretty pleased. We rode from Ashbourne (U.K.) 15km along the Tissington Trail before it got a bit cold and wet and we turned back. It was climbing the whole way out so a nice fast return back! Pretty proud of the little guy!
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The bacon bap looks as big as himâ:+1:
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First outside ride of 2023! Mild winds and 20*F.
lots of Hoar Frost on the trees was really pleasing to see, but phone was buried and didnât feel like stopping to dig it out.
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That beard! Reminds me of walking to school at Michigan Tech, when my hair was still a little wet and it was 0F and windy.
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Well deserved sarnie!
On the trails today, with some pavement to move from one forest to another. Overall, the ride was 15 miles with 1800â of climbing, but thatâs misleading. Over 80% of the ascent was in the first half, so much of a Z2 day.
If only I were lighter (like I used to be) and stronger (like I used to be)⌠From this point, it was mostly downhill, and fortunately, that was literal and not figurative.
Below is an exit from a trail â a short climb going that is mostly around 18% â ending at a T, the top of which Iâm on and is paved. A headlight can be seen on the trail to the left, and I was excited to see who came up on me, not that I went fast (my PR for the segment ending about at the light is 1:13, today I did 2:18). I soon saw it was an MTB⌠but then I saw it was an e-bike, which is a-ok but I was no longer interested in his effort.
I had planned to drop down from here and start the climb from the bottom of this paved road, mostly to reclaim a local legend (if you canât be Top10, get the LL, right?), but I didnât feel like spending the time as I wanted to get home. So it was up the paved road, which ultimately took me to a gravel path.
The above looked flat, but itâs not. The frame is from a video where my Garmin showed 13% as the climb had slacked a bit. A bit later, I was back on single track.
It wasnât a long ride, nor a fast ride, but it was an enjoyable ride. Early on, on the first descent (my typical route, like today, generally means I donât touch my brakes for the first 2-2.5 miles), on a rocky double-track descent, spooked deer crossed unusually close in front of me. For a brief moment, I braced for a possible unintended (or ?) body check, but fortunately, it didnât happen. Itâs not a story Iâd like to tell.
No riding or running for me tomorrow, as Iâll wander around in a forest at a 3D archery tournament shooting fake animals.
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About 12 of us turned up for the club ride today so we just decided to have one social paced ride. Given the weather 
it was a good turn out. It was forecast to stop by 9am (the start of the ride) and the sun come out in glimpses 
at 10am, and 
by 11am. The forecast was about 1.5 hours late, and it was pretty damp to the cafe and the glimpses never appeared till we were leaving and the never appeared until we were getting back.
After the ride I decided to visit a relative before cleaning the bike and when I eventually got out of their place I decided to go for a short VO2Max block and test out my thighs after Tues spill on ice (at 3-11deg 
)
Before stopping at my magic place for some pics 
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These are the yellow cliffs at the north end of Bartlett Lake in the Tonto National forest to the north and east of Phoenix. The yellow formed by Lichen. Iâm not sure how common this much Lichen is but, itâs very impressive live. It almost doesnât look real.
This was a solo ride on Friday with perfect weather for riding. Dry, partly cloudy and temps around 67F/19C. Shorts, jersey and arm warmers only.
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Well the beard bit me in the ass today.
3 hours and 50ish miles planned. Was sorta foggy out(visibility about 3 miles) so lots of humidity. Temps in the low 20âs again. Planning on another epic frost beard.
2 Hours and 30 miles in, Iâve come to the realization that last seasonâs toe warms werenât as functional as fresh ones and the medium weight socks I was wearing werenât cutting it. My little toes had gone from comfortable, to cold, to painful and was starting back towards âcomfortableâ. big red flag of impending frostbite. Luckily, the planned route was taking me through a small town that had a farm supply store. Ran in, purchased a pair of heavy weight wool socks and a fresh pair of toe warmers. Awesome, feet are feeling good again. Back out to the bike, but my beard had started melting from being in the warm store. Water droplet falls from my beard, right onto my paused Garmin Edge 1040 solar. On. The. Discard. Button! 
Next thing I know, a couple of flashes and then, boom, it goes back to the home screen and my last 2 hours has now not happened! 
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I bet you watched it happen in slow mo too as if time stood still while totally horrified knowing what the outcome was likely to be 
Stay warm. Frost bite sucks!
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Exactly, It felt like an eternity!
Thanks! Itâs why I donât do routes in the winter that put me more than 20-30 minutes away from a town/gas station.
Ive got the T Shirt. Before I did the LBL my 1000 had been problematic in the rain/sweat but I was always able to recover it. So expecting it to fail (but recoverable) I brought my 200. Lol, the 1000 died completely in the rain (non recoverable) and I have only the last 100 miles or so. I think I must have manifested in southern Belgium about 60miles south of Liege.
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I said to my self right after it happened, âShit, now I gotta go start over!â
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Too much fresh snow for riding on singletrack, so went out for 3.5 hrs of Z2 on the snow-covered gravel roads.
I ride with one ear bud in, listening to podcasts, with my Garmin Varia also alerting through my earbud. Itâs a good combination for rides like this - allows me to pick the best line in the snow covered roads, and move over when I need to.
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Heat Wave! upper 30âs for todayâs ride!
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Strava saw this:
while I saw this:
and finished in the dark:
Better than staring at the garage door. And it kept the temperature at 50 degrees so I wore knee warmers, and up top a base layer and a summer jersey.
Oh, and it was the first ride on my new Kickr V5. So I tried ZwiftPowerâs compare and the Quarq crank power was a little higher than Kickr power:
To be expected, what with drivetrain losses 
I didnât calibrate/zero offset, but I did stop pedaling a couple times, to let Wahooâs auto calibration do its thing. Not too shabby!
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Doesnât get much better!
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HardAF!
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4+ hours of z2 outside! In January! Really hope I donât pay for this great weather in February and MarchđŹ
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