Two rides for me today. First off a group ride into the flat Fens.
Before the split.
Then a gravel ride also out into the flat Fens.
Strava AI knows me so well.
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Ha!
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I came down with the flu or something on Wednesday afternoon. My ave RHR increased from the norm 48-53bpm (low 40s when I’m fit) to 62 bpm and after the fever I developed a really sore throat and cold. So Ive done nothing all week and left the call on my group ride until the last minute. I seemed to lose the throat last night and returned to my usual sleeping pattern and woke up fresh congested but clear. So I went for the group ride. On review my ave RHR is back to its normal upper range (53bpm). I sat in the back of the group though so as not to strain anything but I’m glad I got out and enjoyed the banter in the cafe and pub 
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Beautiful autumn colours on the Zig Zag road today. But I didn’t take any pictures so you get over-under graphs instead. 
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Out this morning with one of local cycling groups today on their Remembrance Day Ride to the King Cliff War Memorial. The ended up mixing groups so it was a pretty slow recovery ride so at the memorial I put a second jacket on.
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Last dirt ride for the year for me in Colorado. 45F, sunny and dry. Need to break out the fatbike for the next 4-5 months.
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Z2 Ride
Prince William County, VA, USA
When it’s 60F in mind-November, just have to get outside to ride! Rained last night (first time in over a month), so the roads were still wet. Reduced traffic due to Veteran’s Day (in the US) but still more than I would have preferred getting out of town. Nice and quiet in the countryside.
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Really slow out to the meet point for our ride this morning and given that I wasn’t expecting much. Only my mate turned up and that gave me a little more motivation for a blast round the older group ride route mostly into the wind at an IF of 0.75 for 18.5mph for me. At the cafe delightfully as we were about to leave another mate turned up for a coffee and by the time that came some other mates turned up (they’d been on a training session in the morning). We sat behind them for the 2nd half and whilst it was mostly tail wind they were comfortable and we were 19.2mph for just an IF of 0.63
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This morning was the Midnight Century audax. Quite a flat course with few interruptions so it was refreshing just being able to get down on the aero bars & lay down the power for extended periods. The options were a metric century (107km over two loops) & imperial century (162km adding a third loop which was the flattest). All loops started at the same point which is where the controls were. I was the only one doing the imperial. I was already going to a market later this morning for groceries & socials so I parked the car there & instead cycle-commuted the ~30km to & from the start point, so it ended up being a double metric century for me, beginning at about 10:40pm with a double-shot espresso from a petrol station. Initially I put a couple of minutes into the rest of the group but a group of three caught me at the end of the biggest rise on the course: a gentle 3.2% drag for 1km. It had genuinely felt like a tailwind in all directions except for the final east-heading section from Mango Hill to Redcliffe so I guess we were excited, close to overrunning the control opening time. I spent a few too many joules on that first loop (I blame the espresso), & I paid for that exuberance on the third loop. Consequently on the 3rd loop I did a bit more freewheeling, now that the sun was rising I stopped twice for photos, & did some light low-cadence out-of-the-saddle to shift load from glutes to quads, all helping provide some relief. At this point I was 5h in & from a training perspective questioning what benefit comes from hours 6 & 7 that I wasn’t getting at hours 4 & 5, but I’d paid for it, & was otherwise enjoying being out there.
Missed my goal finishing time of 6am, but no big deal. Perhaps with less jibberjabbering at controls & not overcooking myself on the first loop it might’ve been achieveable. 
Temperature averaged a very comfy 23°C. Definitely the most sensible time to do anything physical. 
Initially considered cutting the return commute short by putting myself & the bike on a train (by then it was about 7am) but I was still enjoying the ride so continued it back to the market.
It happens quite a bit towards the end of these long rides where I remember where I’d been, it feels surreal, & again today I mused as I often do, did I really go there? Strava says I did. 
Naturally, letting speed fluctuate wildly in the pursuit of some sort of consistency in power output, means a bit of playing leapfrog with hill-killers.
Quite proud of only 18" at or over threshold. Most of that was in the commute to the start, thinking I was late.
The blue is the audax route itself; the red is the extra road I traversed commuting. Quite confusing to see all three loops overlayed, especially on the head unit, so a cuesheet on the stem:
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Beautiful ride
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The first chilly weekend scared off a lot of riders from my Sunday group ride, so we merged groups again and thankfully more of the faster riders turned up and it was a flat fen route so the couple of slower riders decided to give the faster group a go. It would have been freezing if we had to go their pace. Did I mention it was flat 275ft in 54 miles!
After lunch I went for a short ride on the Gravel bike. I wanted to test it out having rotated up the bars.
I think it was a partial success instead of the whole hands going numb only the tips of the fingers numbed and that might just be my peripheral neuropathy as I was barely going 60%
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Enjoy those trails while you can, hey? 
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If I’m not mistaken, they’re in the Los Angeles area, so year round.
After getting rain (and a bit of snow) for what seemed like two weeks straight it was finally dry enough to ride outside again today.
Ok, it was just a grocery store run. But hey, gotta take what you can get this time of year. About $300 of groceries packed into the front of my Urban Arrow
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Cold Turkey 6k this AM!
Very happy with my pace! I finished around 38:45.
And HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y’ALL!
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Just me and a slower mate out and despite it being 10deg C (eventually 14degC) warmer than the other day the wind was freezing and my hands numbed up big time. We eventually came across a flood and turned to find another mate just a few miles behind. At the cafe we met other folk and with it warming up a bit and being a bit faster my blood was flowing better in my hands.
I forgot to say I had the winter/commuter bike out and Im glad I had it the roads were filthy.
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