Monthly Archives: Nov 2017

Beach to beach.

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2°C, brisk N wind, dry and sunny. Significant wind-chill.
I rode The Jake with MapMyRide+! Distance: 45.80km, time: 02:41:30, pace: 3:32min/km, speed: 17.01km/h.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/2599320025​

Today, I reversed the beach route for variety. A strong wind ran along the coast from kid north so I wasn’t deflected as much. The sand does turn to impossible soft patches without much warning. Sometimes easy sometimes you get bogged mown. Some was hidden under a moving veil of drifting sand. Wider tyres would help greatly but for now, lower pressure would too. I fell once and rolled out on the soft sand.
Actually, that’s the first time I’ve fallen in quite a few years. Good that it happened onto sand. Riding along with the drifting sand is a good sensation.
There are interesting structures standing on this beach. Amidst the shifting sand banks are darker shelves of more solid, peaty sand. It’s starting to consolidate into rock. Some of these strata lay in the beach, others were cut from dunes and showed clearly in the banks. Are these evidence of beach raising? Were they darkened by vegetation during interglacial periods when sea-level was lower?

Cycling to recover from injury.

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14°C, grey, dry but very strong wind W then SSW.
I rode Arrow with MapMyRide+! Distance: 44.17km, time: 02:06:22, pace: 2:52min/km, speed: 20.97km/h.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/2587362901

Rather slow but there’s a reason for that. Yesterday, I developed a horrible, painful back injury. My lower back went into spasm and locked me into a corkscrew. I’ve had these, from time to time, all my life. I knew what to do.
I went for a bike ride. It was hard at first but I rode on slowly taking care at those times I needed to put a foot down. I headed out with a good tailwind to a cafe for some toast for lunch. During the return stretch, the wind had swung round to the south; again, in my favour. For the rest of the day and evening, the stiffness has gone and normality feels close.
Getting into bed will be slightly tricky, that’s a crucial time if it’s not to flare up again.

Ride on the beach.

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9°C, brisk W but dry at least.
Rode The Jake with MapMyRide+! Distance: 43.42km, time: 02:35:16, pace: 3:35min/km, speed: 16.78km/h.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/2580371377

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The beach at Formby shelves off at a very shallow angle to the west. It’s firm in parts and very soft in others. A few times I ground to a stop and at other times I struggled with the ripples. These were quite firm but steered the bike along the dominant line of the ripples. I found myself riding in arcs.​

This screen shot of Google Maps shows the track crossing blue sea. I hate to disappoint you, but the blue edge marks the average tide line. In other words, I didn’t really ride in the sea. Sorry.

Creaking Arrow.

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9°C, sunny with a light NW breeze.

I rode Arrow with MapMyRide+! Distance: 93.52km, time: 04:09:46, pace: 2:40min/km, speed: 22.47km/h.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/2560931983​

This one felt hard. Perhaps the last couple of slack weeks have hit back. Also, heading home meant going West which  means harsh sun in my eyes and a headwind. Too often, I needed to shield my eyes so I could see the road. A parked car could be hidden in that blaze of light.
That bottom bracket creaked enough to be an embarrassment, I avoided riding along with others for that reason. As the day wore on however, the noise abated. I don’t know why it did that.

More of the day casts long shadows in this season. To look away from the dazzling sun is to see vivid colours and sharp contrasts. I expect I’ll be craving that quality in a few month’s time. The photo above looks like mild HDR but it isn’t I did adjust for Curves and crop but that’s all. The sky really was a deep colour.