Monthly Archives: Aug 2014

26 mile refresher

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Sat. 17C, grey, WNW4, dry.
Warm-up ride for tomorrow, an hour & a half ride through routes not used by me for years.
Looked at Specialized and Giant bikes. They both do cross machines that are commute-adaptable. The Giant does not look great, perhaps unnecessarily heavy too. The Specialized may be a difficult fit for a rack.
Both makes used a mountain bike wheel-set, 29er wheels are The same size as road bikes.
So they’re standard sizes, that opens the possibility to buying a second set of wheels, one for summer…

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Rainday.

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16C, rain most of the day. NW3,
Rain all day again. Summer rain isn’t so bad, though nice days are forecast for next week when we’re back in work.
Gardening- moved a bay tree and planted magnolia in its place. A satisfying, mucky job.

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Twice, in one day.

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Thu. 19°C, SW4, sunny. Nice day.
Why, on a nice day do some blokes lose their temper while driving?
My journey started with one and ended with another.
Near home, I pulled out onto a road where visibility was blocked by endless parked cars. Suddenly, a car appeared as I turned right. I cleared it by 2 car lengths and it stopped. He looked wild inside that car, stopped opposite and was shouting and gesturing inside. I don’t know what he said, both his and my windows were closed. Then, I saw in the mirror that he was reversing after me!
You can only drive so fast in reverse, he realised this and gave up.
90 miles later…

Near the end of my journey, a BMW zoomed up behind and cut in front, only a car length away. I blasted the horn in response to this threat. I was doing 40mph (the limit). Then BMW stopped in the road forcing me to an emergency stop. One brake light was out.
After too long, he sped off, well over the limit.
His advantage vanished at the next set of lights as I rolled up behind. In a futile repeat, he stopped again as the traffic rolled on through the green light. Again, another emergency stop for me. No, because he did it one last time before racing off towards Ormskirk. I turned, glad he’d gone the other way.
This and normal are distant cousins. Was it cocaine, or some mental illness? If he was in such a mad rush, why stop three times unnecessarily?

Almost there, there was a BMW with a brake light out parking near a church. Perhaps the road rager; was he a vicar?

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Washout.

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12C, rain.
Rain did not stop for a minute during daylight hours. I shopped and finished the shelves. Traffic was light, did most stay in their houses?

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Followed by a little voice.

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Sunday, 16°C, SW2, half sun.
I rode with MapMyRide! Distance: 74.43mi, time: 04:46:02, pace: 3:51min/mi, speed: 15.61mi/h. It didn’t fail this time.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/703244445
Surprising how often the GPS drops the signal. Each time it does, the voice says “workout paused”. It happens even riding under a tunnel of large trees. Unfortunately, it also gives confirmation of Workout Resumed when moving forward in the queue of a shop. I really needed that flapjack, but it’s embarrassing. Cyclists look gorkey enough as it is.
I cut the ride after 70 miles as I had 30+miles in my legs yesterday.

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Bib shorts.

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Sat. NW3, showers unforecasted. 16°C.Racelite, tracked with MapMyRide Distance: 33.24mi, time: 02:06:19, pace: 3:48min/mi, speed: 15.79mi/h.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/702136043

After all these years, I have a pair of bib-shorts. For non-cyclists, they are cycling shorts with shoulder straps. I have not bought a pair before because it has been difficult to get long enough straps. I am quite tall.

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Amazingly comfortable. They are a close enough fit to prevent the luggage moving about.

Voice feedback– if you reinstall an app, it’s too easy to forget your own usual settings. Today, I forgot to switch off voice feedback. The thought of that is almost embarrassing. What happens is an electronic voice which sounds like a distant platform announcement, comes from near your bum.

Actually, I can see a use use for it. It spoke out after each mile distance, average speed (for that mile), and stuff like that. If a little voice tells you that the last mile’s speed is too low, that can urge you on to raise the pace. I should have used it when I hired that bike in Portugal. The bike had no speedo, but the voice could have told me the running distance.

It is useful to know your half-way point, say you decide to ride for 50 miles, if you know when you reached 25 miles, then you can turn home.

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GPS failmyride.

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Weds. Sunny, 15°C, NW3.
I rode the fixed gear with MapMyRide! Distance: 61.27mi, time: 03:35:36, pace: 3:31min/mi, speed: 17.05mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/698192099
Mapmyride has new bugs since the last update. Firstly, this good ride not completed the whole course of the ride. It only recorded half.
Their website can be used to update, or add new rides (or hikes). The app cannot synchronise from the site though.
Still enjoying the new sprightly wheels. This last few rides are considerably faster, over 17mph. This ride takes the year’s milage over 1,021 miles. That means it’s time to check the chain for year.
Best of all, it’s fun.
Look that this cloud-
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Reminds me of Suilven.

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CXP22

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Tues. 16C, sunny NE3, few clouds.
Tracked with MapMyRide! Distance: 32.33mi, time: 01:52:37, pace: 3:29min/mi, speed: 17.22mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/696675245
New wheels,buying these could become addictive. The new wheels that I blogged about a few weeks ago have been out for the first time. The first impression is of lightness. Holding a old and new wheel in each hand does not show much difference, but riding them does. Even kicking the crank into the starting position was considerably easier. There is far less flywheel effect. Acceleration and hill climbing are newly liberated. Riding out of the saddle is far more natural.

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I like the colours better too.

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14*12

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Sun. Sunny with a drying wind, NW 2.
14 stone 12 lbs. I lost a few pounds on that trip, but not as much as I expected. One year, I lost 8lbs! It’s nice to loose that feeling of softness around the middle. When I weigh less than 14*8, cycling is a lot more fun.
Tendonitus did flare up a few times. My approach to this is to do the physio exercises when it’s less stiff. My left leg remains noticeably weaker and needs building up. My walking pace is a little lowered because of this.
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According to Maymyhike, I have burnt 22,000 Kcal in the week. That’s about twice the average weekly for me.
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