13th February 2010

Got up reasonably early, had porridge for breakfast, mixed up the doings for a Worcester Cider cake then went for a walk at West Woods with wifey and Rosie (dog)

It was a complete surprise to find a dusting of snow :-)

We saw three lots of deer, and I actually managed to take a reasonable photograph of one of them.

I used RunGPS to track the little walk :-) 2.96 miles in 1 hour 15 minutes...Route here...

When we got back home I had a bacon sarnie then got changed for cycling...

I ended up setting of at 12:30, I loaded the planned route into the Garmin started pedalling, apparently I was heading in the wrong direction ...I stopped reloaded the course then set off again....It confirmed the wrong direction so I headed off following the route...I realised that the route had me heading North...I was supposed to be heading south!

So I stopped and reloaded the route again, this time it loaded the correct route :-) once I had navigated onto the right track I was finally off....

It was potentially not a very clever plan to head south when there was a particularly strong northerly wind..

1300		3.5 °C	NNE	14 mph		40 km	1023 hPa, Falling
1400		3.2 °C	NNE	14 mph		35 km	1023 hPa, Falling
1500		3.1 °C	N	13 mph		30 km	1022 hPa, Falling
1600		3.4 °C	NNW	8 mph		30 km	1022 hPa, Falling

It was a nice and fast ride south! Unfortunately that was going to mean a tough slow ride north.

I was interested by the ICE sign...

It definitely wasn't icy, I do wonder about the logic in having a permanent sign for ice, why not have one for Sunshine.

The roads were superb....

And I finally managed to take some pictures of Snowdrops...in my mind the start of spring :-)

The roads through Longleat were superb.


After Longleat the plan was to head to Shear Water, unfortunately the road was blocked with a gate, so I headed straight to Warminster and re-joined the planned route.

The ride back home was as tough as expected :-(

The Garmin had today's ride as 63.41 miles in 4 hours 23 minutes with an average speed of 14.5 mph...route here...

I think the Garmin had a hissy fit earlier on as one of the courses I had copied to it was corrupt, I have now removed it, so hopefully it will play properly tomorrow.

12th February 2010

I was planning to get out for a real proper night ride.....but I got home late and I really cant be arsed....so instead I am watching Pitch Black....I watched my fav film Chronicles of Riddick earlier in the week :-)

I have plotted a pleasant ride to Longleat for tomorrow afternoon,

Then I have the club 75k on Sunday so it should be another good cycletastic weekend :-)

11th February 2010

Took the day off work today :-) Was busy this morning...stopped for lunch on the way home and I had a nice pint of Black Rat (Cider) and a lovely Haddock in cider batter with chips and peas at 'The Rising Sun' in Christian Malford.

When we got back home I got changed and took the bike out on the chain gang route, it was a hellish strong northerly wind...

1400		2.0 °C	NE	19 mph	31 mph	45 km	1023 hPa, Falling
1500		1.7 °C	NNE	19 mph		45 km	1023 hPa, Falling
1600		1.5 °C	NNE	18 mph		40 km	1023 hPa, Falling

I was struggling to maintain 15 mph :-( But the sky was reasonably clear and it was good to get out on the bike and blow the cobwebs away.

I did fit the ActionCam to the bike, but I really can't be bothered to edit the video and upload it, I have fitted the camera mount to the frame and it does appear to take a better more stable video.

The ONLY good thing about the strong NE wind was that I was blown UP the Fosse-Way at one point I was doing over 20 mph up the hill :-)

The Garmin had the ride as 40.7 miles in 2 hours 37 minutes with an average speed of 15.5 mph, route here...

Now I can have a night in front of the fire and TV without thinking about going on the bike :-)

10th February 2010

Worked from home today:-)

Looked at the weather outside at lunchtime and it was cold and snowing...so I obviously didn't venture out!

The bottom bracket had developed a little play in it and I wasn't happy with the light lithium based grease I had used to pack the bearings, it's great stuff for the wheel bearings but a little too light for the larger slower BB bearings. So I spent half an hour stripping the BB down cleaning the shaft, bearings and outer races up, then I re-packed the bearings with some heavier teflon based grease. It was much thicker and stickier :-)

I had also purchased a BB peg spanner for properly adjusting the end cap when re-assembling the BB, and it worked perfectly :-)

I did have full intentions of eating tea early then going out for a cycle ride, but it still looked cold out and I was feeling cold! I didn't feel like going to the cycle club...

At 7:50 I decided to have a quick go on the Turbo Trainer.....the intention was to just do 45 minutes, but I got a bit carried away and did an hour.

I set the turbo to mid load, started up 'The Sufferfest - Downward Spiral', put the chain on the big chain ring (50) , and shifted the chain up and down the rear cassette as necessary, my aim was to hold a high cadence between 90 and 100 rpm.

The cycle computer had the session as 1 hour covering 23.63 miles with an average speed of 23.6 mph and an amazing maximum speed of 50.6 mph.

The route sheet arrived today for the Gospel Pass Audax on the 27th Feb. It's going to be a tough ride! I hope the weather is good, any sign of ice or snow and I'm going to give it a miss, sliding down a 2000ft mountain on a bike isn't my idea of fun!

9th February 2010

Went out for my normal lunchtime walk, this time I remembered to start RunGPS.

I thought I would go for a slightly longer walk and see if I could do 3 miles...I was surprised to find that I was still nearly half a mile short...http://www.gps-sport.net/trainings/walking_228506

I ended up working late...and got home very late...now to tired to play computer games!

I'm now sat in front of the fire watching 'The Spirit' on TV

8th February 2010

Considering I was so knackered this morning when I got up at stupid o'clock for work, I ended up getting home full of energy.

I thought it would be a good idea to make up some home made healthy'ish burgers for tea, I made some up and put them in the fridge to 'set', then I got changed - put 'The sufferfest' fight club on and had a VERY tough 45 minutes on the Turbo....

Yes I got the Turbo trainer out, put the spare wheel with training tyre on the bike, jacked the front wheel up with a healthy weight DB2 manual and cranked the resistance up to the 'Pepsi Max'....

I was doing nicely on the TT stretches of the video, when it came to the 'Hills' and I dropped onto the 50/12 I was actually working very hard to maintain 75 rpm.....I was completely fecked after 45 minutes!

The computer had the session as 16.88 miles in 45 minutes with an average speed of 22.5 mph and a max speed of 45.2 mph.

I have been contemplating my lack of hill climbing ability of late and I have realised I dont have a problem :-)...I have been riding a heavy bike with a severe lack of gear range, when I first started using the Peugeot I couldn't make it up a 1:6 hill, now I have no difficulty, I think when I swap back to the summer bike I may well be lethal to the competition :-) ...I hope anyway.

I have a mountain ride planned for the end of the month...(Gospel Pass 150k) I will be taking the Merida so it will be interesting to see how the extra gears help.

7th February 2010

Today was the day of the Cycle Club open Audax....the Flapjack 100K.
It was a reasonably early start, I got up at 7:30 sorted myself and the bike out and set of at 8:25 to the Bath Road car park for the 9am kick-off.


(Thank's Paul W for the Photo, from left to right me, Simon W, Richard-'what hill' Buckley, Andy 'im doing fixed' and Dylan S)

We set off at 9, I of course had to be in front! There was a method in my madness, the first climb of the day was the steepest (1:6 Wick Hill) if I got there first I could climb it at my pace and the rest of the Wheelers leading pack would catch up and we could ride on together :-) It worked well :-)

The pace was stonking we were averaging about 19mph, unfortunately we were going too quickly, the first checkpoint at Brinkworth wasn't supposed to open until 10:10, we got there at about 10...

(The Flapjack was great :-)

We were forced to stop, I had my first slice of flapjack of the day and a nice cup of tea :-)

I set off from Brinkworth as part of the lead group but was quickly dropped on the climbs, I almost caught back up at Minety but had to stop at a junction to give way.

It was a very pleasant ride, some of the single track lanes were in fantastic condition, I arrived at the Kemble control a few minutes behind the lead group, and had a fantastic plate of baked beans on toast.

I set of from Kemble with the rest of the guys, and plodded along at my own pace, it appeared that I was the only one that knew the route :-) so I was setting the pace :-)

Some of the roads were absolutely atrocious, dirty and pot holed, but they were nice and quiet :-)
When we got to Sherston we had to stop and find the control!!! I had yet another slice of Flapjack :-)

I set of from Sherston with the lead group and navigated them to Castle Coombe, by which point they knew where they were going, so I let them race on ahead whilst I climbed the hill out of Castle Combe at my own happy pace :-)

I saw the flash of there white tops to the left as I followed the route and they deviated via Giddeahall :-) I ended up getting to the final control a few moments behind them.

At the last control I had my last slice of Flapjack and a cup of tea:-)

It was a fantastic ride, the weather was perfect...some of the roads were 'interesting' - but in many ways that made the ride even more memorable. I think it may be the first ride I have done where I have consumed more calories than I have used!

The Garmin had the ride as 66.27 miles in 4 hours 4 minutes with an average speed of 16.3 mph, route here...

Again Thanks to Paul W for the photies :-)