I’ve been quiet on here lately because of sorting through things in preparation to move to another part of the country, whilst also pet-sitting for a friend 50km from the flat I’m packing up. In one way the travel back & forth is inconvenient, but it is good that I have somewhere else to sleep whilst doing this. Trying to get it down to one carload hasn’t afforded me a lot of time to train. But I managed to knock off a 6½k run this morning [with a pause for an untied shoelace]. Hoping to have time between two appointments tomorrow to do some hill repeats on a bike.
I did threshold training in Tilst, Denmark. Found a hill near my house that matched the session perfectly. My FTP is only 234 watts but I am really happy I could do it.
I should have guessed thing would go wrong tonight. My stomach never liked my tea and it was a bit sore and gaseous. I don’t know if I was distracted by that but I let the bike fall over in my vestibule, so now I’ve some dents in my nice new internal wall. It was forecast to be dry and had been all day until the moment I stepped out with the bike. It turned out quite miserable ‘dreich’ as we’d say in Scotland ! Then I get to the 2nd lap and hit a bump which was enough to throw the chain, looking at the time with no power that cost me around 45secs at least. And when I got to the final lap the Garmin decided to randomly reboot. Lol, whatever that done caused the Garmin to display a 20min power pb of 485w, everything else (TR, GC, Strava and TP) has read the file right though and there was no record and if I remember the results sheet right I was 9s down on my 2017pb. Lol, the 4th time up the 7% Ufford Hill registered as flat it was so dreich
And I have thought it was going to be hot here . The sun feels at least 10F hotter at attitude though. And I am doing a 100 mile gravel ride Saturday. By 11am I’ll be baking. Planning on carrying extra water bottles just to spray on myself.
Bright and sunny up north for a change but it been quite a bit down here (East England) its OK today but that rain belt has brought a right chill its only 12 deg C now at 7am, usually its nearer 18 or 19deg C. At least its comfortable for overnight sleeping!
Yes, water boils at a lower temperature at altitude; may need to adjust by a few °F.
Meanwhile it was 13°C here in the middle of the day. I had two appointments a few hours apart & had wanted to continue my tempo/SS progression to 7×11' at 88%, but I realised I was going to run out of time, so it was Ol Faithful Warlow on the switchbacks. Last week I felt cooked on the 4th interval, but I finished the 5th today not feeling worked but not cooked. But also I am pretty fresh today. Hill repeats when it's double figures on the celcius scale definitely means summer kit.
Moving in a few weeks. I’ve been spoilt, living on this hill. Hope I can find a hill with at least 160m of consistent altitude gain, or an uninterrupted 6km or longer stretch of road, so I can continue this sort of work outside. Or play with diving weights. Proper sandbagging.
We’ve spent the last several days living out of a hotel in Gonzales, Texas. It’s about a 2 hour drive from our house, which is in the suburbs of Houston. We lost power with the hurricane and it just came on last night, so we’re all very much looking forward to going home and sleeping in our own beds! Gonzales is a neat little town though, and the people have been amazing. We made the most of our time here.
History: Gonzales is where “Come and Take It” originated. “The Gonzales “come and take it” cannon was a Spanish-made, bronze artillery piece of six-pound caliber. The gun was the object of contention in late September and early October 1835 between a Mexican military detachment from Bexar and Anglo-Celtic colonists. The disagreement produced the battle of Gonzales, considered to be the first battle of the Texas Revolution.”
It’s funny how much this town revolves around that simple phrase. Last night we passed “Come and Take It Dance Classes”
I went for a couple runs and used the hotel “gym” a few times, but I didn’t have my phone to take pics, so here’s a couple local photos.
Had some bad sleep so only went out on Friday afternoon again. Went out on the gravel to test the new thunder butter tires I put on because I had a bad puncture on my 45mm g-one bite and needed to replace one of them anyway. Really like the thunderbirds they are 51mm on my rims and feel great over everything and worked well enough on the really wet conditions of the day. No pictures because phone was kept on the plastic Ziploc bag.
Rode the JAM Fund Grand Fundo yesterday. It’s an event to raise money for young bike racers so definitely worth the reg fee
I set out to do the “Adventure” route of 75 miles/8k climbing route but cut it short, ending up with 55 miles/5.5k ft. Legs felt fine but there were some sections that were just too risky for me. There was one super loose climb where I was pegged at 3 mph and fell over after someone in front suddenly stopped and a super fast descent on 2" gravel chunks that was a white knuckle experience for me I’m sure these sections would have been more fun for people with MTB backgrounds and/or who are a bit less risk averse.
Overall it was a great ride though. Lots of beautiful scenery, friendly people, and weather was hot but not humid. I much prefer riding gravel sections like in the pics here vs the rocky/root filled parts that end up in alot of New England gravel rides.
. The sun feels at least 10F hotter at attitude though. And I am doing a 100 mile gravel ride Saturday. By 11am I’ll be baking. Planning on carrying extra water bottles just to spray on myself.
Typically it’s around 25degC and sun at this time of year in the evening 
but that rain belt has brought a right chill its only 12 deg C now at 7am, usually its nearer 18 or 19deg C. At least its comfortable for overnight sleeping!
Humbled and grateful for my good health.
