your daily bicycle log

NEW BIKE DAY
NEW BIKE DAY
NEW BIKE DAY
NEW BIKE DAY

did 1700 feet of vertical at 5-6% with the most hardcore bonk happening. psychedelic man. i think my eyes were closed for a lot of it, just rolling along at 3 mph, nothing to see folks.

some teeny old dude came rolling by me about half way up on a 28 pound mtn bike, pretended i didn't exist, so i did the same.

at the donation station on top of the climb i ate 10 delicious small homemade chocolate chippers, and a bottle of gatorade. then it was 2800 ft of descending, so it all ended very nicely.

45 miles in 3 hours over Devon yesterday, accompanying a couple of friends who are doing Land's End to John O Groats; the sky was grey but it was great fun, bombing down country roads checking the map at every junction. Loved it.

I was visiting my parents this weekend just gone and got in touch with a cycling club down there to find out if I could join their club run on Sunday. They were great: dozens of people turned up and they were split into five different groups depending on pace and distance. I joined the fastest group who were doing a three-hour ride with no stops. We went out to Black Down which was quite a tough climb - I managed to grind my way up first, which was pleasing. I had to ride to the start/from the finish as well, so I ended up doing just under 61 miles.

That's fab. We were staying with friends in Bucks on Saturday night so I suggested B drive while I cycled. Which turned out to be a smashing idea. It was 25 miles, slightly uphill and headwindy on the way (when I had strength and enthusiasm) and became beautiful countryside halfway there; and on the way back, with less in my legs and a mid-level hangover, I got the tailwind I needed to push me down the Uxbridge Road and home.

Did a quick 26 miles after work tonight. Have now capped 150 miles in five days on the new bike.

http://cdn3.staztic.com/logos/like-button-world-record-10.png

Did a quick two hour on Sunday ride and knocked off 500m of climbing in 42km. Getting faster and stronger everytime. My bikehandling felt better too. Need to start doing group/club rides.

later on, driving to the movie theatre got stuck behind a couple on bikes. Narrow street and they would not move from 2-up to single file, plus the girl was pedalling high cadence and weaving badly, Super poor bike handling. When I finally did pass them. She was riding $5000+ of pinarello dogma with Di2.

lady doctor

NIce metric century today. Depending on whether you believe garmin or map my ride I did 545m or 745m of ascent, mainly in the forms on long drags on crushed limestone trails which are super energy sapping. Still managed to keep a 25km/h average. conveniently ran into a little ice cream parlour for a double espresso and chocolate milkshake.

40 miles through Devon lanes yesterday morning, starting in thick fog at 6:45am and ending in glorious sunshine. 2,000+ feet of ascent, averaged 13mph (upset stomach on Friday made me take it easy). Was with brother in law. Circa 9am we agreed that there was no better place to be or thing to do. Had I not had commitments I'd have liked to have kept riding all day. Wonderful.

Am off out in a minute after a 6am start with the boy, I'll be thankful fir a couple of peaceful hours tbh. Going to swing back by the rapha sale, the polo I bought yesterday is so frikkin nice I want a couple more. Also 3/4 trousers.

85km on the new favoured training road with 1270m of climbing, most of which came between 10 and 35km. hard work!

Back from a lift-assisted mtb holiday in Les Arcs. The hardest riding I've ever done. Aside from a couple of downhill courses which were smooth and swoopy, the trails were all very technical: steep and rocky and rooty. Incredibly hard work but fantastic skills building, and 3-4k of descent per day is probably more than I get all year in my occasional jaunts around the Surrey hills. Was going great guns until Thursday, when I faceplanted right at the start of the day. Wasn't even on a trail proper - which may explain the lapse in concentration - but it was a very steep and loose rocky descent with a ditch at the end, barely 50 yards long but I picked up too much speed, panicked, and hit the anchors. Bad move. Hit the rocks face first and I wasn't wearing a full face helmet. Luckily I got off pretty lightly, just a cut near the eye, no stitches necessary, and I have a great black eye to show off. I got right back on the bike - after being very well tended to by our female trail guide and a nurse who was in our group :D - and rode the rest of the day, but my confidence took a big knock and I never got back up to the speeds I'd been going earlier on. Still, Surrey should be a walk in the park now.

another ride at Kickapoo. scrappy scrappy. need to find some peeps to ride with, cuz late evening rides on an unfamiliar trail system in a rural area seems unwise in the long run

Managed 47 miles yesterday; a breakfast ride, a late afternoon ride, and an evening ride, mostly Devon lanes again. The late afternoon ride was glorious, beautiful sunshine.

This biking stuff is good. Was at the doctor's on monday resting heart rate of 60 and bp of 120/64

Someone stole my bike wheels yesterday so no biking for me until I get my spare set fixed up. :(

>8o

It was in the garage at my work in the middle of suburbia. Security just contacted me to let me know the thief ran off without my front wheel so at least I'll get that back.

I don't know my blood pressure but the other day I took my resting heart rate (after sleeping, so pretty damn resting) and it was 48 - it's never been so low.

On the other side of the coin, I reached 189 bpm on the cross trainer with an horrific hangover on the weekend. I like to take it to the extreme both ends (as it were).

going above 180bpm feels a bit sketchy, although feeling better and better.

shoulder checked a tree

14 miles in 49 minutes before breakfast, to make up for only doing 6 of a planned 26 last night, after a sizeable dog ran into me at pace and bent my deraileur out of alignment. (Local bike shop is open till 8pm on a Thursday, so they sorted me out; gears better than before now!)

26 miles yesterday morning, 42 miles this morning, all through back lanes and rolling Devon hills. Delicious.

Quick two hours with 689m of climbing yesterday was trying to knock off 1000m but its hard to do round here in a short period of time.

Having to send back my new raphia jersey, I am no longer an XXL in their eyes.

You are addicted, Nick!

Haha - several of us use www.endomondo.com to track our mileage via GPS, and it gets quite competitive. My main competitors are my brother in law, who's trainign for a marathon so not doing much cycling, and my boss, who's just done Land's End to John O'Groats, who I'm now 1,000 miles behind for the year. I'm trashing everyone this month bar him - I'm on 150, closest to me is on 80, but he's on 270 cos he finished LEJOG last Wednesday...

did a real nice 5:30 am ride up to top of shadow mtn loop (9000ft), about 5100 ft of climbing and 64 miles. after weeks of 90-100 deg sweltering, it was weird to be shivering cold at 50 deg before the sun really rose. probably my last real ride before deer creek challenge in two weeks, ~100mi, 12700 ft climbing.

a quick 20 before work. love riding across the bridge in the morning when it's completely fogged out.

19.8 miles in an hour and 14 minutes after work tonight, did my fastest ever single mile too, timed at 2:16.

http://sickmouthy.com/2011/08/08/608/

25 miles yesterday afternoon, to take me up to 200 for August so far. About 8 miles from home, on back lanes where I'd never been before, I got a quick flat. No idea how, didn't feel like I hit anything, the front tyre just went fssssssssst all of a sudden. At that moment. Realised that, though I had a spare tube and a multi tool on me, my pump was on the other bike. Literally the middle of nowhere, north of Exeter, on lanes I didn't know. Shit! So I walked, and round a bend about 150 yards away from where I'd stopped, there was a garage, and a guy who was just picking up is car who I'd seen earlier out on his bike with his son! They had a track pump, proper tyre levers, and sorted me out right there. I consider myself lucky!

I've bought a second pump (third if you include the track pump) to keep with this bike.

That is incredibly lucky.

Isn't it just!

Passed such a cute girl bunny hopping speedbumbs on a bmx today in London, I think I'm in love.

Fifty miles this afternoon, the sky thick with clouds and the air thick with flies.

28 miles this morning. Set a 20mph speed camera off.

Think I'm going to head over and check out the Olympic road race trial tomorrow, need to fix up my brakes first though. Was supposed to do it tonight but fell asleep while I was reading aidan's bedtime story :/

So went up to norfolk with my folks. Bought bikes there from LBS from a shop that sells fancy titanium bikes and sit up and beg town bikes, bought two of the latter and rode one of them home across the Ringstead downs

However, this weekend has has been mainly about travelling by Alvis:

http://images.instagram.com/media/2011/08/13/62fe575aad2b4281a608590bb67a8b34_7.jpg

Porkpie - you know you can't get onto Box Hill? They've completely fucked up the route for the Olympic road race by choosing to repeatedly go up a hill which is owned by the National Trust who will only let a handful of spectators onto a very limited part of the slopes (to avoid trashing orchids or something).

^this does seem to be a significant oversight, it'll look good on the telly, which is what is important.

yep, it's a SSSI isn't it? Should have done Ranmore common or any of the other 6 or 7 ass kickers round there if that was going to be a problem, but...... BH is the flagship.....

BBC is showing highlights next week I think, it'll be interesting to see.

Think I'll head over to Richmond Park though, if I can get up in time #whoamikidding

Dartmouth park hill on the ToB a few years back was good and I think could have been better.

A few short miles around Holmbury Hill. Discovered one new trail, hope we can find it again. My friend's crank arm fell off towards the end of the ride, apparently this was expected, only the tools to fix it were in the camelbak that he'd left at home by mistake. So he tried to force it back into place with sheer physical strength, then hitting it with a stick, then another stick, then a rock, then standing on it, then a bit more stick/rock action... amazingly this worked enough to get him down the last trail (Barry Knows Best, Surrey Hills fans), it fell off again right on the final berm.

documentary evidence:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6150/6041259074_35d04e8892.jpg

49 miles this morning around east Devon, over Woodbury and Stoke Hill.

didn't even fix brakes never mind get out on bike, stupid exhaustion.