Got in from work, got changed into cycle gear....put AC/DC Black Ice on the computer at moderate volume...
Extended the rollers in the doorway and spent 45 minutes cycling away going nowhere...
I held a reasonable cadence for the whole ride (Approximately 100rpm)...All I need to do now is transfer that to my road cycling!
I still feel like I have a cold about to happen, but I am ignoring it!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
13th December 2009
During the day yesterday I started to feel that I was coming down with something nasty (Started to get a runny nose and my throat was feeling like I had swallowed a bucket of gravel.)
When I woke up this morning I didn't feel any better :-( A wise person would put all of their cycling plans on hold.....I'm not wise!
I started out by searing the beef that had been soaking in red wine/carrots/garlic/leaks/onions over night in the fridge.
After it was well seared I put the beef back in the slow cooker pot (with the red wine etc....) topped it up with some stock then put the slow cooker on low for the day.
I then sorted myself and the bike out for the Cycle Club Challenge ride :-) it was quoted as...
'On Sunday the 2nd of our Challenge Rides will be setting off from the Chippenham Cemetery Gates at 9:00am and going around Slimbridge, River Severn and Cotswolds edge.'
This was unfortunately wrong as it was destined to start at the rugby club at 9:30 (The other-side of town), I decided that I would head of to the Cemetery first at just gone 9 to make sure nobody was waiting there and then head on over to the Rugby Club for the 9:30 start.
I got to the rugby club just in time, David mentioned the words shall we start then? and I was off :-)
After a mile I realised it was only David and myself nobody else was to be seen, we then trudged along slowly and were told that some more peeps had turned up and they would be with us shortly...We span along slowly...
Eventually everybody tagged on and we were off......Although we had a stunning (and unusual) tail wind up the Fosse Way yesterday, this resulted in an unfortunate headwind travelling in the opposite direction today :-(
We also dropped people off the back along the way :-( as we pulled up to wait I suggested that we split into 2 groups, a faster group and a slower one so that people didn't struggle. (We went from about 20 to 2 groups of 10)
I found myself in the faster group (I was the only one that knew where we were going - I had bunged the route into the Garmin). The pace was instantly very fast...uncomfortably fast.......very very fast....(Get the message?) I was getting dropped on almost every hill :-( But I was catching them up on the levels :-)
I am wondering if the pace was to quick for the others as well, quite a few turned of route and headed home?
We eventually settled down to 7, the second quarter of the journey was quite easy :-) very much down hill...
Three of the guys decided they wanted to stop for tea at Slimbridge, the rest of us (4) decided to plough on with the ride (It was only 11:30 and was looking good to be back home for late lunch) they decided they would wait for the second group and tag on with them.
This did unfortunately mean that I was cycling with three incredibly quick people (I did have the advantage that I was the ONLY one that knew where to go :-). The already quick pace picked up a gear, I was able to hang on to a back wheel (just).
Unfortunately EVERY time it came to an incline they dropped me :-(
Anybody would think I was BAD at hills, I am not, they are just better!
Fortunately they did not have to wait for me on any hills (Just slow down a bit) that was until the hill to Hawkesbury Upton - It was steep and slow! (I blame the cold that I am in the middle of getting) They stopped at the top for me to catch up :-)
From Hawkesbuty Upton it was more or less downhill back to Chippenham :-)
It was a really nice ride, although it was a little quick for me(During the summer it would have been fine)
I got back home, shoved the dirty clothes into the washing machine, rotated the beef in the slow cooker (Just to make sure it ALL had a chance to cook), then spent most of the afternoon cleaning the bike......It was minging again!
At least I didn't get cold on the ride, I was working to hard to get cold!
Just hope I don't suffer to much with a cold after not giving it a rest today...
The Garmin had my ride as 77.54 miles in 4 hours 46 minutes with an average speed of 16.2 mph, route here...
When I woke up this morning I didn't feel any better :-( A wise person would put all of their cycling plans on hold.....I'm not wise!
I started out by searing the beef that had been soaking in red wine/carrots/garlic/leaks/onions over night in the fridge.
After it was well seared I put the beef back in the slow cooker pot (with the red wine etc....) topped it up with some stock then put the slow cooker on low for the day.
I then sorted myself and the bike out for the Cycle Club Challenge ride :-) it was quoted as...
'On Sunday the 2nd of our Challenge Rides will be setting off from the Chippenham Cemetery Gates at 9:00am and going around Slimbridge, River Severn and Cotswolds edge.'
This was unfortunately wrong as it was destined to start at the rugby club at 9:30 (The other-side of town), I decided that I would head of to the Cemetery first at just gone 9 to make sure nobody was waiting there and then head on over to the Rugby Club for the 9:30 start.
I got to the rugby club just in time, David mentioned the words shall we start then? and I was off :-)
After a mile I realised it was only David and myself nobody else was to be seen, we then trudged along slowly and were told that some more peeps had turned up and they would be with us shortly...We span along slowly...
Eventually everybody tagged on and we were off......Although we had a stunning (and unusual) tail wind up the Fosse Way yesterday, this resulted in an unfortunate headwind travelling in the opposite direction today :-(
We also dropped people off the back along the way :-( as we pulled up to wait I suggested that we split into 2 groups, a faster group and a slower one so that people didn't struggle. (We went from about 20 to 2 groups of 10)
I found myself in the faster group (I was the only one that knew where we were going - I had bunged the route into the Garmin). The pace was instantly very fast...uncomfortably fast.......very very fast....(Get the message?) I was getting dropped on almost every hill :-( But I was catching them up on the levels :-)
I am wondering if the pace was to quick for the others as well, quite a few turned of route and headed home?
We eventually settled down to 7, the second quarter of the journey was quite easy :-) very much down hill...
Three of the guys decided they wanted to stop for tea at Slimbridge, the rest of us (4) decided to plough on with the ride (It was only 11:30 and was looking good to be back home for late lunch) they decided they would wait for the second group and tag on with them.
This did unfortunately mean that I was cycling with three incredibly quick people (I did have the advantage that I was the ONLY one that knew where to go :-). The already quick pace picked up a gear, I was able to hang on to a back wheel (just).
Unfortunately EVERY time it came to an incline they dropped me :-(
Anybody would think I was BAD at hills, I am not, they are just better!
Fortunately they did not have to wait for me on any hills (Just slow down a bit) that was until the hill to Hawkesbury Upton - It was steep and slow! (I blame the cold that I am in the middle of getting) They stopped at the top for me to catch up :-)
From Hawkesbuty Upton it was more or less downhill back to Chippenham :-)
It was a really nice ride, although it was a little quick for me(During the summer it would have been fine)
I got back home, shoved the dirty clothes into the washing machine, rotated the beef in the slow cooker (Just to make sure it ALL had a chance to cook), then spent most of the afternoon cleaning the bike......It was minging again!
At least I didn't get cold on the ride, I was working to hard to get cold!
Just hope I don't suffer to much with a cold after not giving it a rest today...
The Garmin had my ride as 77.54 miles in 4 hours 46 minutes with an average speed of 16.2 mph, route here...
Saturday, December 12, 2009
12th December 2009
Got up, put lots of layers on (It was VERY cold!)
I made some porridge for wifey 'n' me for breaky, then headed of to the Chippenham Cemetery for the CDW Chaingang start at 9:30.
It was a fair paced ride, with a miraculous tail wind up the fosse way (only the second time this year)
The Garmin had the ride as 40.84 miles in 2 hours 13 minutes with an average speed of 18.3 mph.
I really do feel that the rollers helped my riding, I felt a lot smoother and I did appear to have a higher cadence.
I made some porridge for wifey 'n' me for breaky, then headed of to the Chippenham Cemetery for the CDW Chaingang start at 9:30.
It was a fair paced ride, with a miraculous tail wind up the fosse way (only the second time this year)
The Garmin had the ride as 40.84 miles in 2 hours 13 minutes with an average speed of 18.3 mph.
I really do feel that the rollers helped my riding, I felt a lot smoother and I did appear to have a higher cadence.
Friday, December 11, 2009
11th December 2009
Got in late'ish from work :-( Got changed and had another 30 minute go at the rollers :-)
I am getting a lot more confident on them :-)
I worked on maintaining a high cadence, at one point I was holding over 120 rpm for several minutes, I really think a cadence computer would help.
I am interested to see what impact the roller sessions have on my cycling this weekend.
I am getting a lot more confident on them :-)
I worked on maintaining a high cadence, at one point I was holding over 120 rpm for several minutes, I really think a cadence computer would help.
I am interested to see what impact the roller sessions have on my cycling this weekend.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
10th December 2009
Got home from work at a reasonable time for a change :-)
Got changed into summer gear and popped onto the rollers, I was given a stop time of 7:30 by wifey....
I started spinning away at 6:52 and stopped at 7:32....A really.....REALLY tough 40 minutes, I was very tired and soaked in sweat at the end.
It was an awful lot smoother than Monday and I felt a lot more comfortable on the rollers, it will still be a while before I move out of the doorway!.
I was doing some work on a presentation at work today and I think I have under-calculated my cycling miles this year by nearly 200 miles - I will leave it as it is because I cant be arsed to go back through the whole year to check where the error has arisen, I also calculated my total driving mileage (Just to and from work for the year) as over 23,000 miles, when you factor in walking and cycling miles it hits over 33,000 miles! (I must be mad)
Got changed into summer gear and popped onto the rollers, I was given a stop time of 7:30 by wifey....
I started spinning away at 6:52 and stopped at 7:32....A really.....REALLY tough 40 minutes, I was very tired and soaked in sweat at the end.
It was an awful lot smoother than Monday and I felt a lot more comfortable on the rollers, it will still be a while before I move out of the doorway!.
I was doing some work on a presentation at work today and I think I have under-calculated my cycling miles this year by nearly 200 miles - I will leave it as it is because I cant be arsed to go back through the whole year to check where the error has arisen, I also calculated my total driving mileage (Just to and from work for the year) as over 23,000 miles, when you factor in walking and cycling miles it hits over 33,000 miles! (I must be mad)
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
9th December 2009
Worked from home today...
Managed to get out for a very pleasant 20 at lunchtime...It was almost as if summer was back!
Double figure temperature...
The Garmin had the ride as 21.67 miles with an average speed of 17.2 mph in 1 hour 15 minutes, route here...
At 6pm I went out for my second ride of the day, as the weather was so warm I thought I would go for a pre-cycle club ride,
I headed of out on the 'Normal 20' route but as I got to Dauntsey it was clear that I was going to be to early! so I headed of on to the 10 mile TT route, that added the extra time required to get to the meeting a few minutes late.
The total distance including the ride home from the club was 28.81 miles with an average speed of 16.7 mph in 1 hour 43 minutes, route here...
Managed to get out for a very pleasant 20 at lunchtime...It was almost as if summer was back!
| 1200 |  | 11.2 °C | SW | 8 mph | 15 km | 1018 hPa, Rising |
The Garmin had the ride as 21.67 miles with an average speed of 17.2 mph in 1 hour 15 minutes, route here...
At 6pm I went out for my second ride of the day, as the weather was so warm I thought I would go for a pre-cycle club ride,
| 1800 |  | 8.5 °C | S | 5 mph | 8 km | 1019 hPa, Rising | |
| 1900 | | 8.7 °C | SSW | 6 mph | 12 km | 1020 hPa, Rising |
The total distance including the ride home from the club was 28.81 miles with an average speed of 16.7 mph in 1 hour 43 minutes, route here...
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
8th December 2009
Night off, played computer games...
Left4Dead 2 again :-)....Managed to get the 'Gardin Gnome' and the 'Confederation of Crunchers' awards :-)
Left4Dead 2 again :-)....Managed to get the 'Gardin Gnome' and the 'Confederation of Crunchers' awards :-)
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