Monthly Archives: Jan 2015

One puncture for me..

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5°C, moderate W, dry and clear.
Commute 18 miles.
Ordinary ride home marred by a puncture. A forced stop in the dark is never welcome but fortune smiled. There was a pub nearby with blazing bright carpark lights. So I carefully fixed it, really don’t want it to go down in some inky black lane.
After another 5 miles, there was another guy fixing his puncture, so I stopped for a chat. Nice bloke.
No sign of comet Q2 near Orion, a veil of cloud in just the wrong place.
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Expensive whisky in the supermarket. Decimal places are important Co-op.

Back to work.

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5°C, light SW, grey.
New term. Straight into the darkest mornings of the year. Sunrise has only improved by 2 minutes since mid-winter. Whereas street has improved by 16 minutes. Rapid change is coming though. It only takes two weeks for the light at the end of the tunnel to get switched back on.

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Half an hour before sunrise, this view was worth pulling over in the car. This is a narrow sunken lane with muddy passing spaces. I got out and took the picture and slowly slid sideways in the mud.

After the rain.

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Cold with big puddles everywhere. 4°C, light N.
Rode 8-speed, MapMyRide+! Distance: 34.4mi, time: 02:25:54, pace: 4:14min/mi, speed: 14.2mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/831949269
Rain all day seemed endless. But end it did. 2.30pm the sun broke through so off I went.

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Came home in the dark which descended later than at solstice.
It may be too icy to ride tomorrow, so this is am insurance ride.

First 25.

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strong wind SSW, showers but mild: 12°C.

I rode fixed with MapMyRide+! Distance: 24.8mi, time: 01:43:50, pace: 4:11min/mi, speed: 14.32mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/830046503
Strong winds make careful route planning more important. On a single-speed bike the best approach is to include long cross-wind sections. On New year’s Day traffic is light, on a wet day, there are few boy-racers so this was a good outing.
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Birkdale Cemetery, a magnet for Dr Who fans. I had to take these pictures without blinking, honestly!