Worked late :-( ...didn't get home until 7:15 it was already getting to dark out :-(
Decided against going out...so cooked instead :-)
Wifey found this blog...http://www.freestylecookery.com/ and we had a go at Crispy Soy Honey Pork Mince, It was perfect!
Must make twice the effort tomorrow!
Weather forecast is sh1te so I expect to go out for an hour at lunch time on the Peugeot, I expect I will give the TT a miss and may go out for another blast on the Peugeot instead.
The Justgiving page has now expired for JOGLE, had a few emails today...The final total raised was a whacking £3313.73 ...Thank you to everybody that donated to Joy, Jim and myself for our small little cycle jaunt-et :-)
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
31st August 2009 (Bank Holiday Monday)
I only had one mission today, do just over 51 miles to have completed 1000 miles in August :-)
Unfortunately I only had a 3 hour window to fit the ride in, guests visiting in the afternoon and the need to actually tidy the house up before they arrived!
I got up had breakfast and set of on a nice flat 52 mile route, the last time I did the route I did it in 2 hours 49 minutes, so well within the time I had available :-)
I set off from home at just before 9, the first 10 miles were great, a cracking tail wind, the next 30 miles were not great a stifling head wind!
As I was pulling back on to the home stretch I was finally accompanied by a tail wind again and managed to catch up with the Garmin virtual me.
The Garmin had the ride as 52.93 miles in 2 hours 49 minutes with an average speed of 18.8 mph.
The GPS track can be found here...
So the cycling stats for August are...
Ohhh I have now done over 6000 miles on the Merida (Hmmm wonder if wifey will let me buy a new bike again this Christmas?)
After the BBQ I spent some quality time cleaning the Merida ....again!
Later on I got bored so spent some time doing a proper cleaning job on the Peugeot, I noticed the wheel bearings felt a little rough so I stripped them down, cleaned them, re-greased and re-assembled....The wheels run very sweetly now :-)
Now looking outside and feeling depressed, 7:30pm and its starting to get dark :-( not much more evening riding left in the year....
Unfortunately I only had a 3 hour window to fit the ride in, guests visiting in the afternoon and the need to actually tidy the house up before they arrived!
I got up had breakfast and set of on a nice flat 52 mile route, the last time I did the route I did it in 2 hours 49 minutes, so well within the time I had available :-)
I set off from home at just before 9, the first 10 miles were great, a cracking tail wind, the next 30 miles were not great a stifling head wind!
As I was pulling back on to the home stretch I was finally accompanied by a tail wind again and managed to catch up with the Garmin virtual me.
The Garmin had the ride as 52.93 miles in 2 hours 49 minutes with an average speed of 18.8 mph.
The GPS track can be found here...
So the cycling stats for August are...
| Distance: | 1,002.21 Miles |
| Time: | 58:17:27 h:m:s |
| Elevation Gain: | 52,068 ft |
| Avg Speed: | 17.2 mph |
| Max Speed: | 48.5 mph |
| Calories: | 76,737 C |
Ohhh I have now done over 6000 miles on the Merida (Hmmm wonder if wifey will let me buy a new bike again this Christmas?)
After the BBQ I spent some quality time cleaning the Merida ....again!
Later on I got bored so spent some time doing a proper cleaning job on the Peugeot, I noticed the wheel bearings felt a little rough so I stripped them down, cleaned them, re-greased and re-assembled....The wheels run very sweetly now :-)
Now looking outside and feeling depressed, 7:30pm and its starting to get dark :-( not much more evening riding left in the year....
Sunday, August 30, 2009
30th August 2009 (Sunday)
Had been planning a trip to the Gower peninsula ever since I read about a nice ride there in the Cycling Plus magazine. A sensible person would have put the ride on hold when the forecast was for wet and windy weather....I am obviously not sensible!
The Gower Peninsula is a little jut of land that sticks out into the sea to the west of Swansea in South Wales.
Wifey, Rosie (Dog) and me set of from home at 9:30 ish and travelled down the M4, over the Severn Bridge and into deepest darkest Wales, arriving at Rhossili at about 11:45.
It was howling a gale and was precipitating a fair bit!
I ate my Ham Salad sandwich and a couple of breakfast bars, bid farewell to wifey and Rosie and set of into the rain swept Welsh countryside.
I had planned my route to stay in the peninsula and avoid main roads as much as possible.
There is only one road into and out of Rossili so the ride started the way it was going to continue - with me cycling up a hill!
I didn't stay on the A4118 for to long as I turned off and headed for Fairy Hill :-)
The roads were wide open to the elements!
The tops of the hills were constantly covered in low cloud, unless the cloud's were emptying themselves on me!
But occasionally I was rewarded by some stunning views! even in the miserable weather...
The roads were ALL in excellent condition, unfortunately because the roads were so wet and my add water to dissolve brake blocks were fitted, the downhill stretches were NOT as fast as they could be.
I did become a little worried at the next sign! (I wasn't sure if I had planned my ride to go down a low tide causeway or something similar)
However I need not have worried the road was PERFECT, the smoothest fastest road I have possibly ever ridden down, and it looked completely unused!
To my left was a wide open marsh land with wild horses grazing leading to the sea.
After tracing the north east coast I turned in land and south heading over the Welsh Moor, It started raining again!
It was wide open and NO shelter from either the strong wind OR the driving rain!
Once I descended down the moor I turned back on myself and headed back over it again on the B4271, it was much faster ascent and descent but still wide open!
On the down hill, just before Killay I turned of the main road and on to a forest cycleway, I wouldn't normally chance an off-road cycle way with the road bike, but as this part of the route had been published in the magazine I gave it a go, again it was a perfect roadie surface :-)
Although me and the bike were now completely minging!
At the end of the forest track I emerged back out at the A4057 and a Toucan crossing, once over the crossing it was on to possibly the best cycleway I have ever been on!
And the best named place on the planet :-)
The Cycleway followed the coastline, away from the road and had a clear unobstructed view of the sea :-)
The only issue I had was as I drew near to (so called) civilisation the people walking insisted on being in the cycle half of the path and NOT the walking half (I guess they couldn't understand what the picture of a bicycle meant)
Once of the cycle way I was back on to the roads, I had plotted a route that hugged the coast as close as possible, this fortunately meant massive descents and unfortunately massive climbs!
It was on one of the descents that I encountered my favourite set of traffic lights, I don't think I would ever get irritated waiting for them to change....
Who could get irritated stopped looking at the sea?
After a load more plodding up and down hills in the rain I eventually made it back to Rossili
The clouds were still full of water and hanging over the hills!
The Cycle computer had the ride as 59.1 miles in 4 hours 5 minutes (4 hours 19 minutes if you include photo stops and junctions) with an average speed of 14.4 mph and 4779 feet of climb.
The GPS track can be found here...
I really enjoyed today's ride, even in the bad weather! I will definitely do this ride again in the sun!
The Gower Peninsula is a little jut of land that sticks out into the sea to the west of Swansea in South Wales.
Wifey, Rosie (Dog) and me set of from home at 9:30 ish and travelled down the M4, over the Severn Bridge and into deepest darkest Wales, arriving at Rhossili at about 11:45.
It was howling a gale and was precipitating a fair bit!
I ate my Ham Salad sandwich and a couple of breakfast bars, bid farewell to wifey and Rosie and set of into the rain swept Welsh countryside.
I had planned my route to stay in the peninsula and avoid main roads as much as possible.
There is only one road into and out of Rossili so the ride started the way it was going to continue - with me cycling up a hill!
I didn't stay on the A4118 for to long as I turned off and headed for Fairy Hill :-)
The roads were wide open to the elements!
The tops of the hills were constantly covered in low cloud, unless the cloud's were emptying themselves on me!
But occasionally I was rewarded by some stunning views! even in the miserable weather...
The roads were ALL in excellent condition, unfortunately because the roads were so wet and my add water to dissolve brake blocks were fitted, the downhill stretches were NOT as fast as they could be.
I did become a little worried at the next sign! (I wasn't sure if I had planned my ride to go down a low tide causeway or something similar)
However I need not have worried the road was PERFECT, the smoothest fastest road I have possibly ever ridden down, and it looked completely unused!
To my left was a wide open marsh land with wild horses grazing leading to the sea.
After tracing the north east coast I turned in land and south heading over the Welsh Moor, It started raining again!
It was wide open and NO shelter from either the strong wind OR the driving rain!
Once I descended down the moor I turned back on myself and headed back over it again on the B4271, it was much faster ascent and descent but still wide open!
On the down hill, just before Killay I turned of the main road and on to a forest cycleway, I wouldn't normally chance an off-road cycle way with the road bike, but as this part of the route had been published in the magazine I gave it a go, again it was a perfect roadie surface :-)
Although me and the bike were now completely minging!
At the end of the forest track I emerged back out at the A4057 and a Toucan crossing, once over the crossing it was on to possibly the best cycleway I have ever been on!
And the best named place on the planet :-)
The Cycleway followed the coastline, away from the road and had a clear unobstructed view of the sea :-)
The only issue I had was as I drew near to (so called) civilisation the people walking insisted on being in the cycle half of the path and NOT the walking half (I guess they couldn't understand what the picture of a bicycle meant)
Once of the cycle way I was back on to the roads, I had plotted a route that hugged the coast as close as possible, this fortunately meant massive descents and unfortunately massive climbs!
It was on one of the descents that I encountered my favourite set of traffic lights, I don't think I would ever get irritated waiting for them to change....
Who could get irritated stopped looking at the sea?
After a load more plodding up and down hills in the rain I eventually made it back to Rossili
The clouds were still full of water and hanging over the hills!
The Cycle computer had the ride as 59.1 miles in 4 hours 5 minutes (4 hours 19 minutes if you include photo stops and junctions) with an average speed of 14.4 mph and 4779 feet of climb.
The GPS track can be found here...
I really enjoyed today's ride, even in the bad weather! I will definitely do this ride again in the sun!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
29th August 2009 (Saturday)
Got up early'ish, went for a walk with the Rosie (dog) (bought some white spirit on my way home)
Cycled to the Chippenham Cemetery gates to meet up with the cycle club chain gang at 9:30.
This week I did not race on ahead at all, I was quite nice and sensible and attempted to ride at everybody else's pace :-)
When we got to Corsham however I put my head down and sprinted to Lacock and climber over Naish Hill before returning home.
The Cycle computer had the ride as 45.7 miles in 2 hours 26 minutes with an average speed of 18.7 mph. The GPS track can be found here...
When I got back home I cooked and ate lunch (Bacon Sandwich).
After Lunch I thought it would be a good idea to go for a cycle/walk with Rosie (Dog) so I put Rosie in the 'Outward Hound' backpack and headed of down the Chippenham/Calne cycle way.
Once we were clear of the roads I let Rosie run free.
It was sloooooooow, but nice in the sun :-)
Along the way I thought it would be a good idea to continue on up Bencroft Hill and stop at the Dumb Post for a pint of cider :-)
What I hadn't really given much thought to was the extra weight of Rosie on my back and that I am no longer used to the more upright position of the Hybrid bike.
I made it to the top, not as fast as I had hoped but no real drama, I had my pint of Cider then cycled back the way I came.
I did stop and take a picture of the Dawes at the point where I stopped and put Rosie back in her carry back pack.
When I got back home and walking back up to the house there was a rather cool shadow cast by Rosie and myself :-)
The Rosie ride was 8.23 miles in 1 hour 5 minutes with an average speed of 7.5 mph, The GPS track can be found here...
After I got back home I set about cleaning the Merida road bike (It got very wet on Wednesday)
I thought I would give the chain in the bottle of white spirit method a go, I also wanted to dismantle the cassette and give it a good clean - up to this point I have cleaned both cassette and chain on bike using branded chain cleaners, but I am starting to think it is better to keep the de-greasers away from wheel bearings and bottom brackets!
So I dismantled the cassette and but it in an old ice cream tub with some white spirit
I also but the chain in an old Gatorade bottle added a drop or two of White Spirit and gave it a good shake.
I cleaned all of the cassette components, dried them, gave them a spray of WD40 and wiped them off.
I fished the chain out of the bottle, wiped it dry and hung it up in the sun to complete the drying.
I then re-assembled the cassette on the wheel.
I had already cleaned the wheel with the cassette off, I also changed the back tyre as it was very heavily worn - The tyre is now on the spare wheel!
The bike was thoroughly cleaned,reassembled,chain oiled (Then wiped down) and the gears checked for correct indexing.
A bit more of a faff, taking it all to pieces to clean, but definitely worth it! in the end it didn't actually take that much longer. About 5 minutes in total to remove, clean, oil and re-assemble the cassette and about the same for the chain. But with the certainty that no degreaser went anywhere near the BB, Freewheel or Bearings
Cycled to the Chippenham Cemetery gates to meet up with the cycle club chain gang at 9:30.
This week I did not race on ahead at all, I was quite nice and sensible and attempted to ride at everybody else's pace :-)
When we got to Corsham however I put my head down and sprinted to Lacock and climber over Naish Hill before returning home.
The Cycle computer had the ride as 45.7 miles in 2 hours 26 minutes with an average speed of 18.7 mph. The GPS track can be found here...
When I got back home I cooked and ate lunch (Bacon Sandwich).
After Lunch I thought it would be a good idea to go for a cycle/walk with Rosie (Dog) so I put Rosie in the 'Outward Hound' backpack and headed of down the Chippenham/Calne cycle way.
Once we were clear of the roads I let Rosie run free.
It was sloooooooow, but nice in the sun :-)
Along the way I thought it would be a good idea to continue on up Bencroft Hill and stop at the Dumb Post for a pint of cider :-)
What I hadn't really given much thought to was the extra weight of Rosie on my back and that I am no longer used to the more upright position of the Hybrid bike.
I made it to the top, not as fast as I had hoped but no real drama, I had my pint of Cider then cycled back the way I came.
I did stop and take a picture of the Dawes at the point where I stopped and put Rosie back in her carry back pack.
When I got back home and walking back up to the house there was a rather cool shadow cast by Rosie and myself :-)
The Rosie ride was 8.23 miles in 1 hour 5 minutes with an average speed of 7.5 mph, The GPS track can be found here...
After I got back home I set about cleaning the Merida road bike (It got very wet on Wednesday)
I thought I would give the chain in the bottle of white spirit method a go, I also wanted to dismantle the cassette and give it a good clean - up to this point I have cleaned both cassette and chain on bike using branded chain cleaners, but I am starting to think it is better to keep the de-greasers away from wheel bearings and bottom brackets!
So I dismantled the cassette and but it in an old ice cream tub with some white spirit
I also but the chain in an old Gatorade bottle added a drop or two of White Spirit and gave it a good shake.
I cleaned all of the cassette components, dried them, gave them a spray of WD40 and wiped them off.
I fished the chain out of the bottle, wiped it dry and hung it up in the sun to complete the drying.
I then re-assembled the cassette on the wheel.
I had already cleaned the wheel with the cassette off, I also changed the back tyre as it was very heavily worn - The tyre is now on the spare wheel!
The bike was thoroughly cleaned,reassembled,chain oiled (Then wiped down) and the gears checked for correct indexing.
A bit more of a faff, taking it all to pieces to clean, but definitely worth it! in the end it didn't actually take that much longer. About 5 minutes in total to remove, clean, oil and re-assemble the cassette and about the same for the chain. But with the certainty that no degreaser went anywhere near the BB, Freewheel or Bearings
Friday, August 28, 2009
28th August 2009
Got home, got changed started to take the bike out and it started to rain, came back in and put on rain jacket.
Got half way down the path and the heavens opened, I opted to turn around and cook tea.
No cycling tonight!
Got half way down the path and the heavens opened, I opted to turn around and cook tea.
No cycling tonight!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
27th August 2009
Night off, played computer games :-)
Counter Strike Source still rocks :-)
In the meantime take a look at this totally mad video...
Counter Strike Source still rocks :-)
In the meantime take a look at this totally mad video...
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
26th August 2009
Worked from home today :-)
Didn't move out of my office ALL day! I felt so lethargic when it was time to get changed for the TT.
It takes a very strange sort of person to drag themselves out of a warm dry house into a cold,wet,windy and getting dark evening in shorts and cycle top.
I made a slow amble to the meeting point in an attempt to warm my self up slowly and not damage the slow and lethargic me.
I signed in and was awarded with number 8, due to the poor light I kept my high-viz jacket on and had the incredibly bright back light blinking away.
I set of very well and kept pushing myself hard, the rain was annoying and the 360 degree headwind was a constant pain. There were less riders tonight (probably because the weather was grim) , the couple that started 1 and 2 minutes ahead of me were on proper TT bikes with solid back wheels, as were the couple starting after me, so there was NO chance of me overtaking but a very strong possibility that I was going to be passed.
It was with no shock then that I didn't overtake anybody, but it was toataly amazing that I was not overtaken!
I was very happy with my official time 25 minutes 35 seconds for the 10 miles, only 10 seconds slower than last week and the conditions tonight were so grim...and I kept my flappy jacket on to!
The GPS track can be found here...
Didn't move out of my office ALL day! I felt so lethargic when it was time to get changed for the TT.
It takes a very strange sort of person to drag themselves out of a warm dry house into a cold,wet,windy and getting dark evening in shorts and cycle top.
I made a slow amble to the meeting point in an attempt to warm my self up slowly and not damage the slow and lethargic me.
I signed in and was awarded with number 8, due to the poor light I kept my high-viz jacket on and had the incredibly bright back light blinking away.
I set of very well and kept pushing myself hard, the rain was annoying and the 360 degree headwind was a constant pain. There were less riders tonight (probably because the weather was grim) , the couple that started 1 and 2 minutes ahead of me were on proper TT bikes with solid back wheels, as were the couple starting after me, so there was NO chance of me overtaking but a very strong possibility that I was going to be passed.
It was with no shock then that I didn't overtake anybody, but it was toataly amazing that I was not overtaken!
I was very happy with my official time 25 minutes 35 seconds for the 10 miles, only 10 seconds slower than last week and the conditions tonight were so grim...and I kept my flappy jacket on to!
The GPS track can be found here...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
