Worst week so far

Well, last week was awful, didn’t get out on the bike at all. Not happy about this. unfortunately kids need looking after and I have a second job during my week off in the afternoons which now goes on till it gets dark. Need to re-focus and remember why I’m doing this cycling and make more time.

On a plus side though I did loose 3 llbs, though I also hear Mcdonalds profits have taken a bit of a  dip since I started.

Looking forward to a new week now, I have a couple of days where I don’t have any work at all and the better half is not working either so she can do the child thing and I can get out and get the miles up!

2 goals 1 ride

Firstly, well done “Team 100″ on your successful 100km ride!

Been a very poor week this week for cycling, finishing work at 7am Tuesday morning after an 84 hour week leaves you feeling dreadful for a couple of days, I also have been looking for a new car and this seemed to take a huge amount of time.

So, I had a spare Sunday afternoon and being inspired (yet again) by Gary, Joby, Emma and the rest of “team 100″ on their 100km ride I thought I should get off my backside and go cycle! so cycle I did!

Last week I used part of a Sustrans route upto Abingdon, this route ten carries on up into the centre of Oxford, so I thought I would give this a try, I was very pleased I did as it was a great path, with very few peds and not may other users, the road sections were generally free of traffic too. It got busy towards Oxford centre but thats because I missed a sign and ended up cycling along one of the main streets.

I didn’t go right into the centre as it is horrid, though the buildings are pretty, though I got within a few 100 metres and turned off again back towards home. From the centre I found the cycle path that I should have been on and was amazed with the amount of countryside actually only a few metres from the very centre of the city.

It was a pretty uneventful ride, bar a BMW driver on a back road not thinking about cyclists and he nearly drove into me on a mini roundabout, got a touch if the Joby’s at this point and I hoped he could lip read!

Not a great time or speed as the wind was in my face for the entire trip home, I’m pleased I got up and did it though. Im slowly running out of goals on the mileage front, so feel free to suggest any

Trip: 42.23 Miles
Time:03.45.13  (hh.mm.ss)
Average speed: 11.2 mph
Average Cadence: 57 rpm

Total Miles: 154

Of all the beautiful buildings in the "city of dreaming spires" Ladies and Gentlemen, I present, the arse end of Oxford Ice Rink

Good end to the week

Well it has been quite a frustrating week with the weather and work getting in the way of a good cycle. Sadly I had to go back to work this week after a good few weeks annual leave, which hasn’t left a great deal of time for cycling, I work 7am – 7pm in a fairly manual job. This week I was working Tues, Wed, Thurs on days then nights (again 7pm – 7am) from Friday night through till Tuesday morning. I had to rule Monday out after last weekends adventures and Friday was blowing a gale and raining and I’m not quite ready for that just yet!

So, I knew Saturday night at work was going to be fairly quiet so I decided to commute by bike! the ride there was good, using Sustrans route 44 again, the same as I did last weekend. This was quite uneventful except for the keen head / side wind for most of the 14.49 miles, covered this in about 1hour and 10 minutes. After work this morning I was feeling good so decided to lengthen the route home and use some fairly main roads that I would not dream of using in the week. Felt really good cycling in the early morning, no traffic and just the birds and ducks on the lakes and river that I was close to for about half the trip the only problem I had was some really painful cramp in the legs around 2 miles from home, I carried on riding and it loosened up a bit, but I know I had a cramp thats for sure!

Well, the stats below are for the whole trip there and back, again I was pleased with it!

Trip: 33.50 Miles
Time:02.40.56  (hh.mm.ss)
Average speed: 12.4 mph
Average Cadence: 61 rpm

Total Miles: 154

Great mileage, sadly does not count as a goal, because although it was one trip, it had quite a long break in the middle, so doesn’t really feel valid as a goal breaker to me!

The 1st commute

Blimey, turning into a “proper” cyclist! Did the commute on the bike today! well, almost, I got a lift just over half way with the bike on the roof. It was starting to rain and blowing well, however it was behind me, so not too bad.

Carried on with my tractor driving course at work, as of tomorrow night I’ll be able to say “geerrr oouurrrrffff my land” with some authority

Then it came to the cycle home, as I left work the sun was shining although it was still blowing well as a sidewind and occasional head wind. Had a cracking time with a little off road riding for the fun of it and to avoid going up a hill, just to turn off and come straight back down it again. Got about half way home and the drizzle started. And got harder. And didn’t stop. Till I got in and closed the front door. Nevermind.

Didn’t push it, was hard to at times with the weather and the off road bits that were rather slippy, still below the stats are not too badand a good start to another weeks cycling;

Trip: 15.61 Miles
Time:01.21.05  (hh.mm.ss)
Average speed: 11.5 mph
Average Cadence: 58 rpm

Total Miles: 121

*As an additional to my last post, regarding the new pedals, if any of you were interested they are “Outland Kustom Slim Pedals” after today’s trip I can confirm they are great on the feet!

Getting more mobile

 

 

Been on my mind for a while now, about how to transport the bike, especially if I want to ride some where exotic…like Manchester! So after having a bit of a read and a bit of a thought I went for a roof mounted carrier. I opted for the Thule 591. Looks good and after trying the bike up on there seems very sturdy. I already had the roof bars on the car so it seemed to make sense.

Forgot to mention that yesterday about a mile from home I managed to wreck a pedal. Basically the inner casing had come adrift from the pastic outer and was almost unridable, another mile or so and I would have been walking. Went to the LBS and explained I needed a wider pedal etc and got sold an all metal set, with seal cassette bearing and all sorts. They feel the business on the very short test I did when I put them on. Lets hope these last more than 105 miles!!

A Sunday afternoon pootle

Well, after yesterday’s adventures, today I was going to take it easy, had a steady ride lined up with my mate Matt (alright mate!) as we have not cycled together since basically we were kids…at least until we both got our driving licences anyway.

So I was aiming for around 10 miles, just enough after yesterday and I knew Matt hadn’t been on a bike for a couple of months, unfortunatly we both felt good at the 7 mile mark, which is the push on or head for home so, of course we pushed on.

In the end we went basically the route I took yesterday, slightly slower pace as mostly we were chatting and his  MTB had some propper knobbly tyres on, not good for the road bits.

Good riding though again, strong wind which made some sections quite hard and it was a fair bit warmer today.

Here is the stats for today’s ride and shortly I will do a weekly update page as well.

Trip: 25.58 Miles
Time:02.31.18  (hh.mm.ss)
Average speed: 10.1 mph
Average Cadence: 52 rpm

Total Miles: 105

Below is a picture at the 7ish mile mark of my mate Matt.

Matt

 

Below is one of the local landmarks which basically we did a very big circle of!

1st riding goal achieved

As the title says, I have achieved my 1st cycling goal this afternoon.

I set out with the intention of only doing a rough 10 miles to see what the local sustransroute was like. However I got about 8 miles into it and thought “blow it” and carried on into Didcot. The route itself was a bit hilly, nothing major though. The surface was variable, from good tarmac to packed gravel. 50 – 60% was marked as off roads so I actually saw very few cars till Didcot.

Once I had had a brew with a friend in Didcot, I started to make my way home, unfortunatly into a head wind for most of the way back but again, it was not too bad.

A good ride all in all.

Trip: 27.72 Miles
Time:02.16.03  (hh.mm.ss)
Average speed: 12.2 mph
Average Cadence: 62 rpm

Total Miles: 80