your daily bicycle log

15 miles this morning in beautiful chill glasgow sun, 1hr4mins, 14mph avg - this is my best avg ;_; but I do feel like my legs are getting stronger

smoked some dude mashing like a fanny on an MTB too :D

I'm exhausted (but not from cycling). I had to get up at 5.45am to go and be a marshall for a time trial. I was on the sofa last night (to avoid waking everyone up when I got up), but got little sleep due to noisy neighbours waking me up at 2am. Drove up the M11 at the crack of dawn, rode 12 miles to a roundabout, stood there shivering and directing riders for an hour and a half, then rode another 12 miles back to the HQ.

Last weekend was the last hurrah of the English summer. Today was tights and long-sleeved top temperatures, but at least it was sunny.

^ maybe a few too many 'up's in that first paragraph

I'm taking it relatively easy at the moment now the racing season's over. No work on Wednesday morning, so I did a 20-mile ride. For a change I went into London (instead of heading out to the countryside). Most of the ride was on main roads with bus lanes, which was alright on the way in and the way back (the A10 from Tottenham down into the City, and Camden Road / Seven Sisters Road on the way back from Regents Park), but riding around The City and The West End was crap (endless jams and traffic lights).

Today I did 23 miles, mostly quite gentle except for a practice for the Hill Climb race I'm going to do in November. I managed that in 2.39, knocking 12 seconds off my previous best. I tried following some advice from a coach, so I used higher gears than I normally would and rode the last tough bit on the drops instead of the brake hoods. That time would have got me second place last year (but only nine people did it!).

did 37 miles today (furthest I've rode)

feeling a bit disheartened today w/gains from new regime but enjoying being on the bike

need a new bike, stat.

n+1

That's the rule!

n+1?

ended up doing 42 miles yesterday cos I rode to and from the train station just after I'd posted

what a sad infuriating thing, this guy

http://www.sacbee.com/500/story/2229294.html

yeah i figured he relapsed again, his results stopped in july

n+1 is always the amount of bikes you should have, where n is the number you currently have! A wee joke.

oh ha, sorry, was being dumb

in other news, I did fkn squats on thursday and the muscles just above my knees on the front are still fkn killing me today

i haven't fully recovered from my thursday gym work either...

Hey cozwn, what kind of average speed do you ride at? Just wondering if maybe we could organise a Glasgow ILX FABR (Fancy A Bike Ride)...

I'm probably around 15mph, ball park, depending on the distance. Seen you've been riding some of my usual routes you see.

my arms/neck are still sore from slackline ragdoll maneuvers on thursday, and swimming pretty much all week

swimming rules, btw

I ride about 14mph average but I'm blaming the bike and its non-narrow tires : (

maybe rain check till I get my new bike? we can def fabr then

No problem. I'm nowhere near intimidatingly fast - I'm always on fixed and lugging a great big bag and don't don lycra, so not too scary, hopefully. Give me a shout whenever you want. I'm usually free on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the day.

no worries, will do. I'm stupidly competitive so I'm sure tht instinct wd keep me honest on the current bike but I'm done riding tht thing now for more than an hour unless I can't help it

had good ride on saturday - beach rd to black rock and back again, then past casino to docklands, then footscray, then williamstown, then retrace to footscray and head to flemington, then home. the beach rd run was fairly intense, but much of the rest was just brisk cruising along on bike paths. also two coffee stops and lunch!

altho on the absolute last climb of the day (up the incline to the apartment) the bike spat the chain off during a gear change and ran rough all the way to work this morning. twisted link, sez the chap at the bike shop!

I did an century today, tried to take it easy in Heart Rate Zone 3 (130-158bpm), even harder when you throw a massive moutain in the mix:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3532/4003316045_4fe497d167_o.png

Felt really good but I overhydrated at one pointwhich meant having to take a nature break every 20-30 minutes for miles 60-80 (up the mountain, where I was averaging ~10 min/mile).

err ~10mph

(krakow, did you see that decathlon are opening a bike in glasgow next month?)

No, I didn't. Up at the Fort I see now though. What are Decathlon shops like?

they are a lot of fun to hang out in and try out sports equipment you will never use

i spent an afternoon in the sheffield one, mostly practicing my forward defensive stroke with 300 quid bats

(wow guys vdb is dead at 34. man did his star burn bright for like 2 seconds.)

im now like the people magazine of pro racing.

vanderbroucke is dead?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vandenbroucke-dies

yup.

thurs night - coming home from pub, had flower bomb thrown at me by high school students on 'muck-up day'! arseholes. i saw a bunch of private schoolers got suspended from final exams for that sort of shit though, hahahaha.

today - went and watched herald sun tour final stage - crit near where i work. b. wiggins never in doubt. should've checked twitter tho, rapha condor team getting rid of full dura ace-d condors for $3k and a bit :0

i should've taken the camera, there was hott bikes everywhere - had a good look at one of those specialized TT bikes, some of the nice local brands like baum and teschner, good selection of bianchis, etc etc. also: sram make good muffins!

At least it wasn't a flour bomb.

Up early today and joined a couple of clubmates for a 60-mile ride - home by midday. It's getting a bit cold out there - might even be time for proper gloves and overshoes.

oh god, it WAS a flour bomb. man alive, my spelling lately!

lol yeah i was wondering what a flower bomb could be

it sounds delightful.

unless the flowerpot was included, that'd hurt.

supposed to be torrential rains here so i did my first 3 hour indoor roller session of the off-season

...and it didn't even rain

fuck this imo

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2680/4020612524_e59b9df41e.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2736/4019855475_786008c9c5.jpg

oh snap

rode through clouds today :D

FUCK THE FINTRY HILL THO

did the crow road loop in reverse; the views and descent from the top of the fintry hill were worth ALL of the pain of getting up there
http://img.skitch.com/20091018-rf5qp5udsgb1x8e1rpu247ahd9.jpg

(clouds not actually pictured)

Impressive.

I fell off on the way back from the pub, now I have bruises.

big snow in the forecast for this evening's ride home.

tried out my potential new commute today did it in under an hr, 17mph ave., broke my old top speed too

had to jump a train back tho cs it ws morbidly cold and wet and I'd foolishly forgot gloves :/

does the speedo calculate only rolling average, or inclusive of stops for lights, etc? 17mph in town inclusive of stops is pretty fast.

ive never put a speedo on my commuter, maybe i'll try. i try to avoid the bar clutter because i already have a bell and then need to affix lights.

it's only a couple of miles to get out of town but nope the speedo stops when I stop.

Had epic w/end in Wales. Rode The Raven at Brechfa, Penhydd and The Wall at Afan, and White's Level at Glyncorrwg ponds. Took a while to find my downhill form but my new Trek is amazing at climbing, it just floats uphill. Had a few tumbles including two spectacular over-the-bars jobs. No major injuries. Videos to come.