July 2016 Bike Cycling Bicycling Challenge
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Got in another shorter ride with a neighbor yesterday evening (on my fixie) before joining my triathlon team's Friday AM hammerfest ride. Kept up again this week, including two long'ish pulls (for me) at 28mph (at about 260-290 watts), was able to catch onto the paceline each time (with an aggressive rider right after me), and was one of the first up each of the climbs, so my confidence is improving.
7/1 - 28 miles
7/3 - 51 miles
7/5 - 52 miles
7/6 - 35 miles
7/7 - 32 miles
7/8 - 46 miles
7/9 - 50 miles
7/10 - 13 miles
7/11 - 44 miles
7/13 - 33 miles
7/14 - 17 miles
7/15 - 30 miles
Total: 431 miles
Goal: 621 miles
Remaining: 180 miles
@abitofbliss and @ssbeadlady - Tampa area here - but splitting my month between Pittsburgh and Tampa. I committed to run another 180 miles this month as well (training for a few ironman races & the Chicago marathon), but I'd rather jump on my bike in this heat vs. deal with running in it, so I'm getting through more biking miles here before returning north to crank out the running miles.1 -
Happy Canada Day from a Canadian-Australian.
Saturday 2 July -- 1186 metres (3891.076) of climbing, in 81.8 km of cycling, completed within 5.5 hours (elapsed time) and 4:35 moving time for an average speed of 17.8 km/h (moving time).
The ride included a couple Category 4 climbs with various climbs in the 13-16% grade range.
Starting temperature 12°C with a high of 14.7°C halfway through the ride. We had a headwind on the way out and tailwind on the way back, for the most part, with some odd, very chilly gusts now and then. It was mostly cloudy and looked like it was going to rain several times, but fortunately, that didn't happen. On the way back we were sure we were going to get caught in a rain squall, but it passed behind us and we just got a small blast of it.
We started the ride about 12:30 pm so, since the sun sets at about 4:45, it was pitch black by the time we finished. A little night riding practice. For some reason climbing is so much more difficult in the dark.
And we stopped for lunch at the halfway point. I had been looking forward to that, but unfortunately they were out of many choices (busy day what with the federal election), and what we ate (paninis with lots of spinach) didn't sit well at all. I was about 1 km out of the town on the way back when I started feeling very unsettled. And then about 8 or 9 km later we started a long, long climb (one of the cat 4 climbs) and by the time I got to the top, I was not feeling at all well. Fighting to keep things down. However, I took an electrolyte tablet and a Zantac, and that eased things a bit.
The route mainly followed the coast so we had lots of beautiful views of water and green hills.
There were lots of birds around ... a large flock of black cockatoos filled a tree next to where we parked at the start of the ride and we had to dodge and weave between the pine cones they were dropping from the tree ... we were being bombed! And during the ride, I spotted herons, oyster catchers, small gulls, large Pacific gulls, a cormorant airing its wings ... and most spectacular was a massive wedge-tail eagle which took flight from a tree next to the road, and flew across, right in front of Rowan. I don't think I've ever seen them that close, but Rowan has because they come onto the property where he works. In fact, just yesterday, he rescued a young one which had flown through the net over the orchard, and then had become stuck inside.
Overall, it was a good, strenuous, training ride on a beautiful but quite hilly route.
Oh, and I wore my new winter cycling boots for the first time. They're very comfortable but I will have to do something about drafts coming in around my ankles. And ... I need to install a cleat!! I forgot all about that and so had to ride with my platform pedals the whole way!!
Elevation profile:
Machka9 wrote:Review ...
Distances include cycling + walking
March: 489.8 km (304.3 miles) = 38 hours 4 min
April: 491.94 km (305.6 miles) = 43 hours 6 min
May: 361.81 km (224.8 miles) = 35 hours 50 min
June: 569.53 km (353.9 miles) = 41 hours 53 min
July: 230.7 km (143.35 miles) = 32 hours 45 min
Aug: 211.3 km (131.3 miles) = 28 hours 8 min
Sep: 306.7 km (190.6 miles) = 35 hour 2 min
Oct: 441.82 km (274.5 miles) = 47 hours 43 min
Nov: 660.21 km (410.23 miles) = 60 hours 41 min
Dec: 499.91 km (282.8 miles) = 54 hours 56 min
Jan: 864.79 km (537.35 miles) = 65 hours 36 min
Feb: 470.53 km (292.4 miles) = 40 hours 39 min
March: 917.73 km (570.2 miles) = 66 hours 13 min
April: 417.83 km (259.6 miles) = 40 hours 23 min
May: 267.09 km (165.9 miles) = 36 hours 10 min
June 552.1 km (343 miles) = 54 hours 48 min
Well, let's see ... last July my distance and time took a nose-dive. Hopefully this year will be better than that!
July 2 - 81.8 km cycling (250 min)
July 3 - 32.1 km cycling (100 min)
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Totals:
July Cycling Outside: 113.9 km (350 min)
July Cycling Inside: 0 min
July Walking: 2.5 km (30 min)
July Stairs: 30 flights (24 min)
July Time Total: 404 min = 6 hours 44 min
July Distance Total: 116.4 km = 72.3 miles
July 9 - 100 km cycling (315 minutes)
July 12 - 4 km walking (50 min) + 15 flights of stairs (12 min)+ 45 min on my bicycle on the trainer + about 5 min of core work/weightlifting
Last week, I was battling food poisoning acquired at lunch on the 81.8 km mentioned above ... and then an unrelated allergic reaction to an antibiotic. I had all sorts of plans for great workouts last week ... and barely managed to get some walking in.
Then we went up north for a 3-day weekend and were intending to do 3 days of cycling, but the weather had different plans. It's winter here and very wet, cold, and unpredictable. But we did get one good ride in! And it was a good ride ... the fastest 100 km I've done in years!
Back on the trainer this week.
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Totals:
July Cycling Outside: 213.9 km (665 min)
July Cycling Inside: 45 min
July Walking: 34.4 km (425 min)
July Stairs: 140 flights (112 min)
July Weightlifting: 20 min
July Time Total: 1267 min = 21 hours 7 min
July Distance Total: 248.3 km = 154.3 miles
July 13 - 3 km walking (35 min) + 15 flights of stairs (12 min) + 50 min on my bicycle on the trainer + about 10 min of core work/weightlifting
July 14 - 1 km walking (12 min) + 30 flights of stairs (24 min) + 54 min on my bicycle on the trainer + about 10 min of core work/weightlifting
Me on my trainer and my husband on rollers ... at least we're getting some sort of cycling in.
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Totals:
July Cycling Outside: 213.9 km (665 min)
July Cycling Inside: 194 min
July Walking: 38.4 km (472 min)
July Stairs: 185 flights (148 min)
July Weightlifting: 40 min
July Time Total: 1519 min = 25 hours 19 min
July Distance Total: 252.3 km = 156.8 miles
Saturday 16 July -- 164.9 km training ride.
We did a 200K mid-June, and wanted to do a long ride mid-July too, so we decided to ride a century today.
Plan A took us to a location that got snow earlier this week and then flooded. We decided to do a different route.
Plan B had us doing a Y-shaped route, starting at the bottom of the Y and going out the left side first, then the right, and back to the bottom of the Y. But mid-ride we changed our minds, and decided to do a section in the middle of the Y twice rather than the right segment. That worked out all right.
Our route started with a long climb up and over the hill into the city. Then the middle section of the route was relatively flat, by comparison. And the route ended with a long climb up and over the hill to our suburb.
It was about 12.5°C when we started, got to a high of 16.4°C, and then cooled down to 8.3°C by the end of the day ... with some particularly cold spots on the last climb and during that descent, after dark. But, for a change, it was sunny all day! In fact, it had something of a spring-like feel. It's still the middle of winter, but after all the cold and miserable weather we've had, it's nice to have a spring-like day. But it was windy ... 22-30 km/h with gusts as high as 48 km/h.
We started the ride about 8:30 am, after the 7:00-8:10 am recap of last night's live coverage of the TDF Time Trial. Priorities!
Moments after we started, I had trouble with my cassette shifters. Sometimes I couldn't shift ... the shifter would move freely but nothing would happen. Sometimes when I would try to shift into a smaller ring, both shifters (brake and shifter) would move, and nothing would happen. More frequently, I could do the shift, but the shifter wouldn't return. I decided I would just deal with it until we got into the city.
We climbed up and over into the city and stopped for a quick break before riding out the Cycleway. Shortly after we got going on the Cycleway, we stopped at a hardware store to get oil to see if that would help my shifters. It might have made some difference, but then Rowan turned one little screw, and it was all good!
For some reason, people like smashing bottles on the Cycleway Friday nights, so we had to dodge patches of broken glass here and there.
But on the bright side, there were a lot of cyclist on and near the Cycleway today. I don't know if I've ever seen so many cyclists out and about. I guess everyone decided to get out and enjoy our brief glimpse of spring! In fact, one cycled and chatted with Rowan for some distance.
We continued on to New Norfolk, across the bridge and along the rather flooded Derwent river for about 12 km before pulling a U-turn and returning to New Norfolk. I like that stretch of road along the Derwent ... it's scenic, and we could see snow covered mountains in the distance. We had lunch in New Norfolk - both of us had cauliflower and cheese pies (one of my favourites) and Rowan had a sort of custard pie with fruit for dessert while I had mud cake.
There had been a headwind all the way out to where we turned around, so going back was great! We flew along (and set several personal bests on Strava). Next thing we knew, we were back on the Cycleway and flying back to the start of the Cycleway.
We stopped there, again, and made up bottles of Ensure. Part of the training ride was to try out possible nutrition solutions for long stretches of longer rides with no services. The Ensure worked well ... tasted good and provided energy and electrolytes.
Back to the end of Cycleway, against the wind, and back to the start again, with a tailwind .... but a dying tailwind, so we weren't flying anymore.
And then it was homeward bound. Through the city, and then up and up and up. The sun set while we were making our way through the city, and so partway up, we stopped so I could take a ginger tablet. I have found that climbing in the dark makes me feel a bit sea sick with the swaying light. Ginger tablets work for other "sea sick" situations, so we thought I might try one for this ... and it seemed to work. I climbed the hill in the dark, and no sea sick feeling.
Then a quick descent into our suburb, another climb as we cycled through the suburb, and another descent to home.
Distance: 164.9km
Moving Time: 8:54:36
Total time: 10:17:33
Elevation Gain: 1,767m
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ok, I'm finding this thread late. I need to get back on my bike a LOT more than I have in the past years. Been a fan of the sport since 1983. I can comit to doing at least 100 miles by the end of the month. Lame, I know. Please add me here and on garmin connect too. I need motivation. After a 10 hour day at work walking around in steel toe safety shoes and fire retardant clothing, last thing I want to do lately is hop on my bike. https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/Anger670
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ssbeadlady wrote: »I would gladly take the spring-autumn-autumn-winter cycle. This heat is really doing a number on me. I can't get on any spin bikes in the gym due to my disability so not getting on my trike is doing a number on my body too. I feel it declining. I may just have to sweat it out for the rest of the month as I know I need to get back biking.
I'm off on surgery recovery and have had issues with chronic pain for the last 4.5 years. I know how much of a challenge some days it can be to make or even find a goal to improve health. I'm stuck being in the house, very little walking, no swimming, no cycling, no running. Just endless hours of Dr Who, whom I may be falling for in my make believe shut in world
I invested in a bike trainer.*see link below (I'm on mobile and don't know how to embed the long link) Admittedly, I don't use it as often as I should. But I am glad to have it, especially now that I should be able to incorporate it in to my rehab plan. Beats making it out to the gym and all.
I count all my deliberate miles. Even if they feel like a waste of time! Don't sell yourself short!
http://www.citizenbike.com/catalog.asp?product_category_id=2&product_id=52&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_source=googlebase&cvsfa=3337&cvsfe=2&cvsfhu=35322d545241494e45522d3230&gclid=CjwKEAjwtqe8BRCs-9DdpMOilBoSJAAyqWz_IYTCXEwalGLaJ4QDJUCv0t-fB1_jZ6uI__9Wbh1BBhoCYo_w_wcB0 -
ok, I'm finding this thread late. I need to get back on my bike a LOT more than I have in the past years. Been a fan of the sport since 1983. I can comit to doing at least 100 miles by the end of the month. Lame, I know. Please add me here and on garmin connect too. I need motivation. After a 10 hour day at work walking around in steel toe safety shoes and fire retardant clothing, last thing I want to do lately is hop on my bike. https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/Anger67
Sounds like my kinda work. What do you do? I work at an oil and gas refinery. I'm on garmin, but use Strava for the social support. Same screen name, if anyone needs more followers.0 -
Fri 01 - 4.77 miles
Mon 04 - 28.88 miles
Tue 05 - 35.34 miles
Wed 06 - 20.00 miles
Thu 07 - none
Fri 08 - 33.44 miles
Mon 11 - 33.68 miles
Tue 12 - 19.99 miles
Wed 13 - 41.56 miles.
Thu 14 - none
Fri 15 - 29.04 miles
Sat 16 - 17.99 miles - was intended to be a long ride to catch up to target, was going OK until I got rear-ended by a car and had to cut it short. I'm OK and bike only appears to have sustained minor damage, but it's back in the shop to get checked over and I probably won't get it back until Tuesday, which means any changes of hitting the target are out of the window
Target for July: 500 miles - probably now going to hit about 425
MTD 264.69, YTD 961.642 -
I got in 21 miles this morning. I am beyond excited as it is my first 20 miler since being diagnosed with cancer July 2014. I'm not where I once was, but I'm getting myself back!
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CricketKate wrote: »I got in 21 miles this morning. I am beyond excited as it is my first 20 miler since being diagnosed with cancer July 2014. I'm not where I once was, but I'm getting myself back!
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Wonderful news and progress. Congratulations!
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I'm in for 250 miles again!
07/02 - 13.00 miles
07/03 - 15.00 miles
07/04 - 13.00 miles
07/07 - 12.25 miles
07/09 - 15.75 miles
07/10 - 12.00 miles...81.00 miles so far
07/12 - 15.00 miles
07/13 - 12.50 miles
07/14 - 13.75 miles
07/16 - 13.75 miles
Chris1 -
Way to go @CricketKate. Keep up the good work.1
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Work got in the way of any proper rides in the week but luckily the best weather landed on the weekend - yay!Five weekends in July so should be a big mileage month! No particular target apart from a solo century ride from Winchester. Maybe next weekend, weather permitting.
Saturday was (yet another...) changeable weather day so the planned long ride got a bit time-squeezed. Ended up getting hot, then wet & cold (cold enough to trigger my Raynauld's and lost all feeling in hands & feet for a while - in July!), then wet & hot when rain jacket turned into a sauna suit. Bit of sun, dull at times, calm then windy with wind direction constantly changing as showers rolled in.
You know you have upset the weather gods when you get a headwind on the same stretch of road in opposite directions!
45.6 miles @ 17.1 mph
Today (Sunday) is a far better day. Did a couple of hills (working on my weak point), climb to Newlands Corner gave a spectacular view of Surrey's North Downs (The Downs are actually ups not downs...) 1 mile steady climb at 5% average.
Pleased with a PR on Combe Lane which is just under a mile, averages 7% but gets really steep (17%) near the top.
cyclinguphill.com/100-climbs/combe-lane/
55.4 miles @ 16.4 mph
101 miles for the weekend.
Got three rides in this week:
Took Thursday off work and headed to Surrey's well known Box Hill to have a play on quiet roads up/down/round the hill. Pleased to get PRs up and down Zig Zag Road.
Beautiful weather and stunning views.
cyclinguphill.com/box-hill/
41.3 miles and 2300' of elevation.
62.8 miles on Saturday into high woodland - including seeing and hearing a guy in the middle of a clearing all by himself playing the bagpipes. Very surreal moment.
22.2 local ride just to enjoy a nice summer Sunday evening.
126.3 miles for the week.
227.3 miles for the month.
Monday - 4.8 miles local trip on my hybrid.
Wednesday - 20.5 virtual miles doing hill intervals on an eSpinning bike. 2:30 minute intervals of fast flat, seated climb, standing climb.
Saturday Part 1 - 39.4 miles into some fairly gentle hills.
Saturday Part 2 - I found myself near the office I worked at five years ago and remembered I never quite managed to hit my goal of cycling home from there in under an hour. Reset Strava and gave it some welly!
That goal's now ticked off, 16.6 miles in 56 minutes. Still improving when I "should" be getting slower. Ridiculously satisfied for something so trivial and pointless (I'm just a teensy bit self-competitive......).
Sunday - 60.2 miles. Really hot and humid - had to stop to buy an extra litre of fluids but still feel dry. Gorgeous day to be out in the countryside.
141.5 miles for the week
368.8 miles for the month1 -
@Machka9 That sounds like you had an amazing biking day! I'll have to remember the ginger, I don't deal well with swaying lights either.
@35dollars Oh no, glad you weren't hurt in the crash! And I hope your bike won't turned out to be seriously damaged.
@sijomial Congratulations on reaching that goal on Saturday! Nothing ridiculous about being satiesfied with that, ticking off a goal is always awesome.
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So, I've been telling myself for a while now that I don't need a road bike. I already have a bike, and it works just fine, so there really wasn't any reason to spend money on a second bike. After all, how much of a difference can some thin tires and a few kgs less make? And if they make a difference, that should just mean I get more of a workout out of riding my bike, so even better.
Aparently, I didn't quite manage to convinve myself of that, because I've been browsing the used bike ads for a few weeks now. And this weekend I bought a road bike!
I picked in up in the afternoon, and then spent most of the evening cleaning it and figuring out how to inflate the tires (different valve from the ones I'm used to), so I only did a few circles on the parking lot and a very short round through the neighbourhood before it got dark - don't know how far, so I can't count it towards this month goal.
I still can't believe how light the bike is! But it will take me a while to get used to it, the riding position is so completely different. And I had to stop and pull out my phone to figure out how to switch gears, the shifters are somehow integrated in the brake lever, I've never used that kind of system before. There aren't any numbers written on them either, so I always had to look down towards the chain ring and the gears to see where I was at and where I wanted to shift too. I feel like such a noob - I'll probably end up walking half of the way to work tomorrow, because I won't be able to shift in time for the hills.
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@_nikkiwolf_ Yeah! On the bike! The shifting becomes second nature quickly.
Hardest part for me was going to the clip in shoes. I'm still wobbly kicking, get out, well on my bad leg I was. I have a sprocket scar on the back of one leg because i fell a lot in the begining.
I doubt I'd be able to kick out at all now on that side!
I've yet to change a tyre either. I'm hoping it's the same as the old bike of childhood.
Lovely bike!1 -
@_nikkiwolf_
You aren't alone with the confusing gear shifters - I bought a second-hand bike a few years ago and it was obvious how to shift up but I didn't realise down shifts were by pushing the brake lever across - a good quad workout riding all the way home in top gear....
The low handlebar position of your bike would be too low for me (neck and back problems) but you can raise it up if you decide to.
I was a hybrid rider for years but having switched to a road bike I love it. It may feel twitchy for a while but you soon adjust.
It's not an easier workout, you just go further and faster (to paraphrase Greg Lemond...) - enjoy!1 -
Saturday 16 July -- 164.9 km training ride.
July 13 - 3 km walking (35 min) + 15 flights of stairs (12 min) + 50 min on my bicycle on the trainer + about 10 min of core work/weightlifting
July 9 - 100 km cycling (315 minutes)Happy Canada Day from a Canadian-Australian.
Saturday 2 July -- 1186 metres (3891.076) of climbing, in 81.8 km of cycling, completed within 5.5 hours (elapsed time) and 4:35 moving time for an average speed of 17.8 km/h (moving time).
The ride included a couple Category 4 climbs with various climbs in the 13-16% grade range.
Starting temperature 12°C with a high of 14.7°C halfway through the ride. We had a headwind on the way out and tailwind on the way back, for the most part, with some odd, very chilly gusts now and then. It was mostly cloudy and looked like it was going to rain several times, but fortunately, that didn't happen. On the way back we were sure we were going to get caught in a rain squall, but it passed behind us and we just got a small blast of it.
We started the ride about 12:30 pm so, since the sun sets at about 4:45, it was pitch black by the time we finished. A little night riding practice. For some reason climbing is so much more difficult in the dark.
And we stopped for lunch at the halfway point. I had been looking forward to that, but unfortunately they were out of many choices (busy day what with the federal election), and what we ate (paninis with lots of spinach) didn't sit well at all. I was about 1 km out of the town on the way back when I started feeling very unsettled. And then about 8 or 9 km later we started a long, long climb (one of the cat 4 climbs) and by the time I got to the top, I was not feeling at all well. Fighting to keep things down. However, I took an electrolyte tablet and a Zantac, and that eased things a bit.
The route mainly followed the coast so we had lots of beautiful views of water and green hills.
There were lots of birds around ... a large flock of black cockatoos filled a tree next to where we parked at the start of the ride and we had to dodge and weave between the pine cones they were dropping from the tree ... we were being bombed! And during the ride, I spotted herons, oyster catchers, small gulls, large Pacific gulls, a cormorant airing its wings ... and most spectacular was a massive wedge-tail eagle which took flight from a tree next to the road, and flew across, right in front of Rowan. I don't think I've ever seen them that close, but Rowan has because they come onto the property where he works. In fact, just yesterday, he rescued a young one which had flown through the net over the orchard, and then had become stuck inside.
Overall, it was a good, strenuous, training ride on a beautiful but quite hilly route.
Oh, and I wore my new winter cycling boots for the first time. They're very comfortable but I will have to do something about drafts coming in around my ankles. And ... I need to install a cleat!! I forgot all about that and so had to ride with my platform pedals the whole way!!Elevation profile:Machka9 wrote:Review ...
Distances include cycling + walking
March: 489.8 km (304.3 miles) = 38 hours 4 min
April: 491.94 km (305.6 miles) = 43 hours 6 min
May: 361.81 km (224.8 miles) = 35 hours 50 min
June: 569.53 km (353.9 miles) = 41 hours 53 min
July: 230.7 km (143.35 miles) = 32 hours 45 min
Aug: 211.3 km (131.3 miles) = 28 hours 8 min
Sep: 306.7 km (190.6 miles) = 35 hour 2 min
Oct: 441.82 km (274.5 miles) = 47 hours 43 min
Nov: 660.21 km (410.23 miles) = 60 hours 41 min
Dec: 499.91 km (282.8 miles) = 54 hours 56 min
Jan: 864.79 km (537.35 miles) = 65 hours 36 min
Feb: 470.53 km (292.4 miles) = 40 hours 39 min
March: 917.73 km (570.2 miles) = 66 hours 13 min
April: 417.83 km (259.6 miles) = 40 hours 23 min
May: 267.09 km (165.9 miles) = 36 hours 10 min
June 552.1 km (343 miles) = 54 hours 48 min
Well, let's see ... last July my distance and time took a nose-dive. Hopefully this year will be better than that!
July 2 - 81.8 km cycling (250 min)
July 3 - 32.1 km cycling (100 min)
____________________________________________
Totals:
July Cycling Outside: 113.9 km (350 min)
July Cycling Inside: 0 min
July Walking: 2.5 km (30 min)
July Stairs: 30 flights (24 min)
July Time Total: 404 min = 6 hours 44 min
July Distance Total: 116.4 km = 72.3 miles
July 12 - 4 km walking (50 min) + 15 flights of stairs (12 min)+ 45 min on my bicycle on the trainer + about 5 min of core work/weightlifting
Last week, I was battling food poisoning acquired at lunch on the 81.8 km mentioned above ... and then an unrelated allergic reaction to an antibiotic. I had all sorts of plans for great workouts last week ... and barely managed to get some walking in.
Then we went up north for a 3-day weekend and were intending to do 3 days of cycling, but the weather had different plans. It's winter here and very wet, cold, and unpredictable. But we did get one good ride in! And it was a good ride ... the fastest 100 km I've done in years!
Back on the trainer this week.
____________________________________________
Totals:
July Cycling Outside: 213.9 km (665 min)
July Cycling Inside: 45 min
July Walking: 34.4 km (425 min)
July Stairs: 140 flights (112 min)
July Weightlifting: 20 min
July Time Total: 1267 min = 21 hours 7 min
July Distance Total: 248.3 km = 154.3 miles
July 14 - 1 km walking (12 min) + 30 flights of stairs (24 min) + 54 min on my bicycle on the trainer + about 10 min of core work/weightlifting
Me on my trainer and my husband on rollers ... at least we're getting some sort of cycling in.
____________________________________________
Totals:
July Cycling Outside: 213.9 km (665 min)
July Cycling Inside: 194 min
July Walking: 38.4 km (472 min)
July Stairs: 185 flights (148 min)
July Weightlifting: 40 min
July Time Total: 1519 min = 25 hours 19 min
July Distance Total: 252.3 km = 156.8 miles
We did a 200K mid-June, and wanted to do a long ride mid-July too, so we decided to ride a century today.
Plan A took us to a location that got snow earlier this week and then flooded. We decided to do a different route.
Plan B had us doing a Y-shaped route, starting at the bottom of the Y and going out the left side first, then the right, and back to the bottom of the Y. But mid-ride we changed our minds, and decided to do a section in the middle of the Y twice rather than the right segment. That worked out all right.
Our route started with a long climb up and over the hill into the city. Then the middle section of the route was relatively flat, by comparison. And the route ended with a long climb up and over the hill to our suburb.
It was about 12.5°C when we started, got to a high of 16.4°C, and then cooled down to 8.3°C by the end of the day ... with some particularly cold spots on the last climb and during that descent, after dark. But, for a change, it was sunny all day! In fact, it had something of a spring-like feel. It's still the middle of winter, but after all the cold and miserable weather we've had, it's nice to have a spring-like day. But it was windy ... 22-30 km/h with gusts as high as 48 km/h.
We started the ride about 8:30 am, after the 7:00-8:10 am recap of last night's live coverage of the TDF Time Trial. Priorities!
Moments after we started, I had trouble with my cassette shifters. Sometimes I couldn't shift ... the shifter would move freely but nothing would happen. Sometimes when I would try to shift into a smaller ring, both shifters (brake and shifter) would move, and nothing would happen. More frequently, I could do the shift, but the shifter wouldn't return. I decided I would just deal with it until we got into the city.
We climbed up and over into the city and stopped for a quick break before riding out the Cycleway. Shortly after we got going on the Cycleway, we stopped at a hardware store to get oil to see if that would help my shifters. It might have made some difference, but then Rowan turned one little screw, and it was all good!
For some reason, people like smashing bottles on the Cycleway Friday nights, so we had to dodge patches of broken glass here and there. But on the bright side, there were a lot of cyclist on and near the Cycleway today. I don't know if I've ever seen so many cyclists out and about. I guess everyone decided to get out and enjoy our brief glimpse of spring! In fact, one cycled and chatted with Rowan for some distance.
We continued on to New Norfolk, across the bridge and along the rather flooded Derwent river for about 12 km before pulling a U-turn and returning to New Norfolk. I like that stretch of road along the Derwent ... it's scenic, and we could see snow covered mountains in the distance. We had lunch in New Norfolk - both of us had cauliflower and cheese pies (one of my favourites) and Rowan had a sort of custard pie with fruit for dessert while I had mud cake.
There had been a headwind all the way out to where we turned around, so going back was great! We flew along (and set several personal bests on Strava). Next thing we knew, we were back on the Cycleway and flying back to the start of the Cycleway.
We stopped there, again, and made up bottles of Ensure. Part of the training ride was to try out possible nutrition solutions for long stretches of longer rides with no services. The Ensure worked well ... tasted good and provided energy and electrolytes.
Back to the end of Cycleway, against the wind, and back to the start again, with a tailwind .... but a dying tailwind, so we weren't flying anymore.
And then it was homeward bound. Through the city, and then up and up and up. The sun set while we were making our way through the city, and so partway up, we stopped so I could take a ginger tablet. I have found that climbing in the dark makes me feel a bit sea sick with the swaying light. Ginger tablets work for other "sea sick" situations, so we thought I might try one for this ... and it seemed to work. I climbed the hill in the dark, and no sea sick feeling.
Then a quick descent into our suburb, another climb as we cycled through the suburb, and another descent to home.
Distance: 164.9km
Moving Time: 8:54:36
Total time: 10:17:33
Elevation Gain: 1,767m
July 15 - 3.1 km walking (35 min) + 30 flights of stairs (24 min)
July 16 - 164.9 km cycling (520 min) (see above)
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Machka9/view/164-9-km-training-ride-883674
July 17 - 3.5 km walking (40 min)
____________________________________________
Totals:
July Cycling Outside: 378.8 km (1185 min)
July Cycling Inside: 194 min
July Walking: 45 km (547 min)
July Stairs: 215 flights (172 min)
July Weightlifting: 40 min
July Time Total: 2138 min = 35 hours 38 min
July Distance Total: 423.8 km = 263.3 miles
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_nikkiwolf_ wrote: »@Machka9 That sounds like you had an amazing biking day! I'll have to remember the ginger, I don't deal well with swaying lights either.
@35dollars Oh no, glad you weren't hurt in the crash! And I hope your bike won't turned out to be seriously damaged.
@sijomial Congratulations on reaching that goal on Saturday! Nothing ridiculous about being satiesfied with that, ticking off a goal is always awesome.
--
So, I've been telling myself for a while now that I don't need a road bike. I already have a bike, and it works just fine, so there really wasn't any reason to spend money on a second bike. After all, how much of a difference can some thin tires and a few kgs less make? And if they make a difference, that should just mean I get more of a workout out of riding my bike, so even better.
Aparently, I didn't quite manage to convinve myself of that, because I've been browsing the used bike ads for a few weeks now. And this weekend I bought a road bike!
I picked in up in the afternoon, and then spent most of the evening cleaning it and figuring out how to inflate the tires (different valve from the ones I'm used to), so I only did a few circles on the parking lot and a very short round through the neighbourhood before it got dark - don't know how far, so I can't count it towards this month goal.
I still can't believe how light the bike is! But it will take me a while to get used to it, the riding position is so completely different. And I had to stop and pull out my phone to figure out how to switch gears, the shifters are somehow integrated in the brake lever, I've never used that kind of system before. There aren't any numbers written on them either, so I always had to look down towards the chain ring and the gears to see where I was at and where I wanted to shift too. I feel like such a noob - I'll probably end up walking half of the way to work tomorrow, because I won't be able to shift in time for the hills.
Congratulations on the new bicycle!
2 -
[quote="Elise4270;37127218
I've yet to change a tyre either. I'm hoping it's the same as the old bike of childhood.
Lovely bike! [/quote]
I used to change my own tyres all the time, but now that my husband and I are on the same continent and ride together, he usually does it for me.
So ... I practice at home about once a year. I want to be able to do it, just in case he's not around to help me.
1 -
7/5 - 21 miles.
7/6 - 23 miles
7/11 - 28 miles
7/12 - 27 miles
7/13 - 23 miles
7/14 - 10 miles
7/15 - 23 miles
7/18 - 28 miles - a bit less than a month to my tri and I really really need to buckle down on the run. This is how much I loathe running - I planned my long slow run Saturday morning, and ended up cleaning my house rather than running. Did get in 3 miles yesterday and I'm hoping for another 3 miles after my ride home today.
Month to date: 183 miles
Year to date: 2222 miles1 -
@_nikkiwolf_ that new bike looks great to me - very stylish - I really must try one out one of these days, I ride a rather heavy MTB with chunky wheels because our old Berkshire country lanes are hilly and full of potholes, and always am wondering how it feels to ride a skinny bike ( like the ones that whizz past me at high speed.) How's it going?
4/7 13.4 AWE Burghfield
5/7 13.7 Aldermaston
7/7 11 outdoor Burghfield village
8/7 7.8 Amphitheatre , red lion hill
9/7 15.1 Newbury via canal
12/7 7.8 indoor
13/7 13.8 Burghfield church
16/7 8.7 St Mary Sulhamstead
17/7 10.2 Indoor
101.5 so far...
tomorrow a personal first, I'm going to take the bike shopping and come back with a trunk pack full of groceries. Let's see how that goes.2 -
@Elise4270 The clip in shoes are going to be the next adventure! The bike has the pedals for that, but I don't own the matching shoes and cleats yet. Hopefully I'll have time for a shopping trip after work today, to see if I can find them around here. And maybe some bike pants (and maybe a different saddle...).
@sijomial I actually did raise the handle bar last night, I put all the spacers from the top to the bottom. It's still quite a bit lower than the saddle, but this is as far up as it will go, so I'll see how it feels after a few rides.
@tristramtrent Right now I would say it feels speedy, but not very comfortable. I still have to get used to the seat position, and during the careful half-hour ride I did yesterday evening I took breaks from pedalling all the time (in the beginning to think about how to shift gears, later mostly to stand up to get away from the saddle, because ouch!). Still I ended up doing the route a little faster than the last time I rode it on my old bike, when I had actually been trying hard to go fast during the entire ride.
18/07/2016 13.8 km
---
July: 113.9 km (of 150km goal) done2 -
The padded bike shorts will make a world of difference to your comfort - just be aware that sizing for cycle clothes appears to be based on the body shapes of elite pro stick figures, so you may have to go up a size from your normal clothing size.
[debates whether to include next bit, and decides oh what the hell...] Just in case you didn't know - cycle shorts are worn "commando" - otherwise you will get chafing in places where you don't want to be chafed. Sorry if that's TMI.
Being clipped in on the shoes makes (another) world of difference in being able to transfer power into the pedals, and ultimately if you can achieve nirvana souplesse, so you're efficiently and automatically using the full circle of the pedalling motion, ie pulling on the upstroke not just pushing down on the pedal. I'm nowhere near that yet, but when I concentrate on the pulling motion.... whooosh. The downside is that you should expect to fall over a few times - not when you're going fast, unless you're really unlucky, but when you stop and bodge the unclipping motion, or get suddenly baulked by traffic so you come to an expected stop - natural learnt reaction from years of cycling is to stick your leg out on the side you're falling towards... but that motion doesn't unclip your foot. It does get much better though - you anticipate and get used to unclipping in preparation for stops. And when you zoom away from stopped, clipping in without looking and powering away... that feeling is just wonderful. 1 -
re: clipping in. It definitely teaches you humility - nothing like picking yourself up off the ground in front of dozens of motorists after you topple over for no apparent reason.
You can also take fun photos of your many bruises.
If you're new to a road bike though, I would put off clippless pedals for awhile. Get used to the new bike geometry first!
2 -
I'm in for 250 miles again!
07/02 - 13.00 miles
07/03 - 15.00 miles
07/04 - 13.00 miles
07/07 - 12.25 miles
07/09 - 15.75 miles
07/10 - 12.00 miles...81.00 miles so far
07/12 - 15.00 miles
07/13 - 12.50 miles
07/14 - 13.75 miles
07/16 - 13.75 miles...136.00 miles so far
07/19 - 14.00 miles
Chris1 -
@UmmSqueaky glad I'm not alone!
Stop. Fall over. Bust your knee. "Nope, I'm fine. Thanks! That's the way this bike works". Brush off you bloody elbow. "No really, I'm fine". Get back on and ride out the pain and embarrassment. Check out your cool scars at home, alone. Next time I won't fall... repeat.1 -
In preparation for my return north, got in a nice long ride to/from the Rays vs. Orioles game Sunday, then returned up north for more commuting and expresso bike rides the past 2 days. Replaced my bottom bracket today, but still am hearing a slight click noise with each revolution. Suspect my pedal bearing is the culprit, but at least my shifting is now back to perfect up front.
7/1 - 28 miles
7/3 - 51 miles
7/5 - 52 miles
7/6 - 35 miles
7/7 - 32 miles
7/8 - 46 miles
7/9 - 50 miles
7/10 - 13 miles
7/11 - 44 miles
7/13 - 33 miles
7/14 - 17 miles
7/15 - 30 miles
7/17 - 50 miles
7/18 - 7 miles
7/19 - 39 miles
Total: 527 miles
Goal: 621 miles
Remaining: 84 miles
3 -
7/5 - 21 miles.
7/6 - 23 miles
7/11 - 28 miles
7/12 - 27 miles
7/13 - 23 miles
7/14 - 10 miles
7/15 - 23 miles
7/18 - 28 miles
7/19 - 27 miles - flipping the commute routes - doing the 15 miles in the morning when it's cooler and the shorter route at night when it's hot. No rain tonight (although it was lurking in the forecast) so I biked to the lake after work to swim. Wore my tri kit for the first time swimming and it worked out well in the water. Unfortunately I feel horribly lumpy and fat in it out of the water, which will be something to mentally contend with before the race. Might end up throwing on a different shirt after the swim. I definitely got quite a bit of sun today, hoping I'm not burned tomorrow.
Month to date: 210 miles
Year to date: 2249 miles2 -
@UmmSqueaky glad I'm not alone!
Stop. Fall over. Bust your knee. "Nope, I'm fine. Thanks! That's the way this bike works". Brush off you bloody elbow. "No really, I'm fine". Get back on and ride out the pain and embarrassment. Check out your cool scars at home, alone. Next time I won't fall... repeat.
Heh yes that just about sums it up. There's a bit of a flight syndrome underlying it all - gotta get up and get moving to get out of danger.2 -
07/09 - 15.27
07/10 - 15.10
07/11 - 11.04
07/12 - 18.24
07/14 - 07.26
07/15 - 18.13
07/17 - 14.81
07/18 - 14.99
07/19 - 14.69
July total: 129.53
Goal for month: 300
Year to date: 2,058.95
Jan - 175.9
Feb - 343.3
Mar - 353.8
Apr - 363.4
May - 319.1
June - 316.20 -
I'm in for 250 miles again!
07/02 - 13.00 miles
07/03 - 15.00 miles
07/04 - 13.00 miles
07/07 - 12.25 miles
07/09 - 15.75 miles
07/10 - 12.00 miles...81.00 miles so far
07/12 - 15.00 miles
07/13 - 12.50 miles
07/14 - 13.75 miles
07/16 - 13.75 miles...136.00 miles so far
07/19 - 14.00 miles
07/20 - 15.00 miles
Chris0 -
@35dollars Don't worry about the TMI, I know that concept from the tighs/shorts I wear for long runs, so I had time to get used to the fact that the anti-chafing magic of special sports pants only works commando-style. Unless my mother ever stumbles accross this, in which case I have to say I'd never consider such a shocking behaviour!
@Elise4270 and @UmmSqueaky wow, sounds like I have something to look forward to with the clip-in pedals! Not that my legs aren't covered in scratches and bruises half of the time anyway, but usually not quite as spectacular as in UmmSqueaky's pic! But that adventure will have to wait a little longer; the local sports store I visited yesterday didn't have any bike shoes for women.
But I did buy some chamois pants, and in combination with moving the handlebar upeards by an inch, todays ride was a lot more comfortable. And fast! I wasn't even trying, still too focused on how to shift and avoiding potholes, but I still beat my 18:52 PB to work by almost 90s. Same for the ride home. That was fun
20.07.16 12.8km work and back
2
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