Gales and blue above.

Posted on 26th Jan 2019 by essiep

6°C, gales from the northern approaches. Sunny.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3352071103

That wind is just rude and annoying. Just when it thinks you aren’t looking, it grabs the handlebars and gives them a twist. Slogging into a head-crosswind, you sometimes have to lock one elbow simply to hold a line. The Moss flats offer no real shelter from the blast and the camber of the road amplifies the force. The curve is like an aerofoil which accelerates the air over the top. Staying on the crest is, therefore, more difficult. Though short, that was an intensive workout on the return leg. I saw no other cyclists.

Coffee for cyclists.

Posted on 25th Jan 2019 by essiep

8°C, dry and sunny with a brisk W.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3348057034

Though dry, black peaty mud made it from the fields to the tarmac, those surfaces were not as slippery as they appeared.

It stopped at the Twin Lakes Velo for coffee. They make beautiful espresso, such depth and richness. Each sip is a series of flavours, after the bitter initial explosion, there are distinct phases to tollow in each tiny sip. Nuts, woody sweetness and a glissade towards the time that another sip is due. It’s ironic that such a small cup needs to be drunk over such a long time.

I needed that!

Posted on 25th Jan 2019 by essiep

5°C, light cloud and no wind.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3348057034

This steel bridge is on my route to work. Today’s ride was more relaxed with enough time to stop for photos. The galvanized slats make a terrible noise as you ride over. The noise is so bad that your ears ring afterwards. I detest that bridge. Remarkable is how full the River Douglass.

Where are those overshoes, I really need them? With half of my stuff in boxes, there remain things I cannot find yet.

DofE: 1.1

Posted on 24th Jan 2019 by essiep

5°C, dry, brisk S.

This was a long drive to deliver residential training in Abingdon near Oxford. Having family half way made an excellent staging post for me though.

Some of the other instructors stayed in their cars or went home on the Saturday night; I camped about 7 miles away. I can’t tell you anything about the campsite because it was dark when I arrived and still dawn twighlight when I left.

The night dried up late then froze. I had an extra sleeping bag, one of those rectangular ones that you can open out flat. The extra layer was so warm that I didn’t need additional bedclothes. Despite a possible leak in the carry-mat, my night’s sleep was cosey. Eventually, I climbed out to a very frosty scene. Last night’s mud froze solid in the -2°C air. It was lovely to see but I had to hurry. As the photo shows, the tent was white with hard frost which made it difficult to pack away.

The job itself continues to be easy and I was glad of my experience working with eDofE and OS mapping online.

A few days later, the training provider phones to ask whether I could do it again the following weekend. I can’t. I’m booked but delighted to be asked. I must have done enough right one this weekend.

Green Machines

Posted on 15th Jan 2019 by essiep

7°C, brisk W, white cloud to start a nice day

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3332898598

A familiar route to the machines.
Decoration.
Two panels are faulty in the hall walls.

The plaster has failed because of damp. looks like rising damp which is odd because the surveyor said condensation was the cause. The walls are inside the porch so protected from the weather. The surveyor suggested it may be a eased by better ventilation in the porch. To further add to the mystery, why is the side that receives the most sunshine also the most damp?
The two walls either side of the door are slightly detached with powdery plaster under the skim. I shall probably remove the plaster down to brick. Before re-plastering, I can paint a waterproof layer directly onto the bricks. But should I? Could the moisture barrier make the problem worse?

Whistling through the spokes.

Posted on 14th Jan 2019 by essiep

10°C, strong W, gusts to 45mph.

Cycling (twice) and indoor climbing.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3329530504

Two rides today. One at dawn, the other at dusk. Both dry and very windy. No less fun though; at times, the road speed dipped so I did some sprints after the 10 miles warmup.

In-between, I took the kids climbing. They did some Grade 4 and 5s on the auto-belay. I haven’t used one before and found them less easy to trust than a person on belay. There is no speed control when abseiling back down. The device works like an inertia-reel seatbelt. The speed it releases is fixed, a little faster than my taste (and my inexperience).
I felt so rusty too, even my grip was marginal at times! Now, where is that grip exerciser thing? Also, I needed a refresher on rope handling, which came back very quickly. Next time, I will go by myself and hire shoes and consider buying a pair.

This morning’s outing included a severe buffeting by wind which at times whistled through the spokes. Deep section rims are a problem in strong cross-winds, there is a lot of correction to random steering shifts. On the Mustang bike, the rims are even deeper than the ones the fixed gear bike has.

My hopes for cycling this year are to develop stamina as good as 10 years ago. Coverall, a satisfying day.

Virtual reality; a demo.

Posted on 13th Jan 2019 by essiep

With time to kill and shopping to do, I needed a break after an hour. Remember how much I detest clothes shopping? Since it was early, the staff in PC World were happy to give a demo of virtual reality gaming.

Using a Sony PS4, and a sci-fi racing game and the headset (pictured) we went ahead. I know there is always a process of setting up and customising kit as there were problems to overcome. Here is a list with starting with the least significant:

Sound: harsh and loud,
The game, frantic and stressful,
Blurring, and chromatic aberration,
Vertigo, felt as dizziness.

I think the game was called Wipeout. What a ridiculous cartoon game for children. I had to stop before the round was over with my head spinning and stressed. The fault may lie with the game, a flight simulator usually has a clear horizon line. In Wipeout, the banked track as the bit that made me dizzy.

I’d better not be too dismissive until I’ve tried a proper flight simulator. From what the staff said, it sounds like the focus on this console is arcade games. That’s not encouraging for me.

More interesting would be a similar setup that enables players to explore virtual worlds. Surely, it must be possible with current technology to generate a procedural planet and populate it with user content. Better still, one that we players can create scenes, buildings, vehicles and objects.
There would be a way to get back into 3DS Max and build a world, maybe with the Unity engine. What fun to make a familiar building but with hidden secrets.

The fizz is back

Posted on 12th Jan 2019 by essiep

8°C, light grey with minimal breeze NW. Dry too.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3327217420

Okay, not very fast but the important point is – it felt right.

It’s funny how you can actually feel warmth at 8°C after days near to freezing. Some of this is the benefit of acclimatisation, some is not running the heating at home too high. I’m sure that people who live in hot houses feel cold more when outside.

Sunset was just, just perceptibly later today.

Oops, I did it again.

Posted on 10th Jan 2019 by essiep

7°C, fog.

Following that experience in the early week, I have yet to return to cycling. I rode a meer 25 miles and felt dreadful by the end. The last few days, I cracked on with the decorating. The hall is half done and you can see where it’s going.

Once more, stripping off wallpaper revealed loose plaster; this time, right next to the front door.

The underlying bricks have a fault, there in a crack in the mortar which now needs attention from outside. I wonder whether this fault it caused by slamming the front door. The door is a tight fit in the frame this winter. Perhaps it does this every winter when it’s damp.

Another item for the to-do list; plane the door down to give clearance.

Later, I’ll ride. The legs are fizzing again.

It can only get better

Posted on 6th Jan 2019 by essiep

8°C, light W, dull and dry.

https://www.mapmyride.com/workout/3317449414

January is possibly the most miserable month of the year, but things can only get better. January is in competition with December, mainly because December contains the detestable Christmas stress fest.

Anyway, today I dragged out the fixie, dragged it over to the coast by dragging round the cranks. That wasn’t an easy ride despite the distance.

For all these decades of cycling, I’ve had a rule of thumb for warm-ups. It usually takes me 8 miles or half an hour to warm-up, whichever comes first.
After that stage, everything loosens up and I can ride all day. In previous years, when I rode long rides more often, there seemed to be another threshold too. Two hours in is usually a good time to take a break, maybe have a snack or even a cafe stop. The next stage could be really long, taking up to 70 or even as much as 90 miles. It was this phase that average speed was highest. Today was not a day like that.

Today, that threshold didn’t really pass. I decided after 10 miles, to ride home.

Micycle

Mike thinks b/hikes

Monthly Archives: Jan 2019