your daily bicycle log

70 miles today with a hangover and minimal sleep

I did some of the dc-pittsburgh ride with friends this weekend. Wasn't meant to be back today but something cause my rear mech to get sucked into my spokes on the climb of the day (and the route really) It ripped the mech and hanger off. I made the bike a single speed and finished the day. I had to abandon and ride back down. The frame may well be trashed which sucks

Now I've got the Garmin I've signed up to Strava. Did a short (20-mile) ride today with a couple of all-out efforts on the climbs to how I'd rank on those segments. There were two versions of the first climb (depending on whether you start measuring from the start of the uphill section or the start of the steepest section) - I managed to get King of the Mountains for one version and second best time on the other version (out of 105 riders)! I also managed to get 3rd out of 71 on the final climb.
http://app.strava.com/rides/13827539#254547543
http://app.strava.com/rides/13827539#254547557
http://app.strava.com/rides/13827539#254547541
On that last climb I'm ranked between someone with a power output of 432w and someone with 375w - can I safely assume mine was somewhere in between?

After a spirited night out yesterday, I woke up too late to head to Arran walking with my mum & sister this morning, so decided that I would cycle out to Ardrossan to meet them off the ferry back, as a surprise. I got soaked on the way there and, after huddling in an abandoned cow shed in East Ayrshire for half an hour unsuccessfully waiting for the deluge to cease, I only just made it, shooting down the A-road hill to the coast as the ferry pulled in, then got lost around Irvine on the way back and ended up nudging 80 miles (solo, fixed gear) on one dextro tablet, a really dreadful cup of coffee from the cafe in Ardrossan Asda and a whole heap of water.

I loved it!

Your fixed gear exploits genuinely terrify me

Rides like that would be better with a freewheel and gears really, but hey ho!

did group ride for local fancy shop t0tal ru$h w/ my main riding pal after much badgering. weather was good and there would have been 50+ riders in the bunch. testing but manageable pace on the way down the coast, but got caught out at a stoplight and lost the main bunch, then some others in my straggler group pulled the pin a couple of kms before the main turnaround point so I turned early and rode solo back, thinking I'd catch back on when the bunch came by. ended up making it back to the regroup point as the main bunch did; the 15 'leaders' blew by about 5km before (pace was HOT).

entertaining to an extent, but a bit miffed that some guy behind me reckoned I wasn't calling out potholes - well nobody in front of me was either pal, maybe get irate at someone in shop colours rather than me when I'm sat near the back trying to stay out of trouble. also beach rd is boring. think I'll stick to lumpy rides.

bike has developed annoying creak from around BB area during out-of-saddle efforts, which is a bit annoying.

Sunshine at last (after a summer which has broken all known records for shitness). Did my club's 25-mile time trial this morning and broke my PB (1:06:09, ten seconds quicker than my previous best a couple of years ago). Now that I've got the Garmin I can actually analyze the performance and route. As I suspected, the return leg is much harder - approx 50m of climbing and 110m of descending on the way out, the opposite on the way back - which isn't helped by the fact there's almost always a strong tailwind on the way out and headwind on the way back. This was the case again today, I averaged 25mph to the turn and a whisker under 21mph on the way back. My heart rate averaged 176 - I think there's something I'm supposed to be able to calculate now I know that, but I've forgotten what.
http://app.strava.com/rides/14125177#263658077

If you have strava premium it'll estimate your power which for that effort should be your Threshold power.

Ah - so the power figures which other riders have are mostly estimates, are they? I noticed that a minority of them have an 'electricity' symbol next them, presumably these are actual measurements from power meters and the rest are just guesses?

strava power estimates are good for longer climbs. they're not so good for tts ime if you are on aero gear.

i was extreme today according to strava. not fast, just...extreeeeme.

http://app.strava.com/rides/14168117

Today I was mainly pedalling squares. I think I need to invest in a compact crank.

INTERVENTION TIME

I'd hoped to have done 2000 miles by this point this yeah, but the weather has been so awful that I've only managed 1200. It's thoroughly depressing. Still, the summer has finally arrived, and I have tomorrow booked off with the aim of doing 100 miles in a day with my bro-in-law.

Intervene away.

dont do it, your chain line will never be right. it's a fad. youre plenty strong enough, hell, you hardly even need an inner. pedaling squares is cool. bike parts are never a good investment no matter what i told mrs hunt3r just the other day.

see?

ed, someday you're gonna neeeeeeed that 53x11 and don't come crying to me.

My summer break has started and I'm determined to make the most of this heatwave to make up for all the rides in the rain I've had to do recently. Today I rode up to Cambridge and got the train back (67 miles all in). Surprisingly hilly and very hot.

was gonna ask how you got back once you're all the way out there. how hot is "hot"?

Probably not that hot by your standards. We don't really do extremes around here. Officially it reached 28C (82F) in the shade yesterday and Garmin claims it reached 33C (91.5F) on my ride. To put it in perspective I had a six or seven week stretch of riding under grey skies with occasional torrential rain where the temperature rarely nudged 20C (68F) and was often a very unseasonal 14C (57F), so it feels like I've suddenly been plucked out of an eternal October and landed in the Sahara.

yeah, i expect it's humid as well. humidity adds like 10 deg of misery imo.

my ride to work was so pleasant this morning, 70 deg, the mountains looked crisp and beautiful, people weren't assholes.

Another 57 miles today. Even hotter this time - garmin says the average temperature was 29C, but the wind when I was riding had a cooling effect. Whenever I stopped in the sun the temperature shot right up, at one point (when I finally found a shop where I could buy more drink) it reached 40C (104F)! The tarmac was melting in some places. That's 125 miles in two days or about 160 miles in three days including a race. I'm knackered.

Felt much better yesterday evening. just 40km flat spin after work, would have done more but it was getting dark. Still only using the larger half of my block.

100 miles.

I fear I may die in my sleep tonight.

Well done. It's my target to do a 100-mile ride at some point in the next three weeks.

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/DSC01817a.jpg

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/DSC01820a.jpg

Good coffee shop ride this evening, I beat all bar two up the final hill so compact cranks can suck it.

Couple of things I'm noticing, and I should check the data

1) Recent change of stem to put the bars out and down a little means I can spend way more time comfortably on the drops

2) I think my comfortable cadence is higher this year than last, I should check the data

Punctured again too, I need to see what is up with the whole rear wheel/tyre business.

Good stuff everyone!

I watched the BBC documentary on Victoria Pendleton the other night and recommend it - incredible pressure, I really felt for her.

It's on iPlayer until tonight: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01l1yl4/Victoria_Pendleton_Cyclings_Golden_Girl/

This is yesterday's ride, taken from Pete's Garmin watch:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/116880511#share

We got the big hills out of the way early; we could've just done two laps of the estuary, which is about 50 miles all-round.

The last 20 miles was a real struggle. The last four miles we were just doing loops of the city centre (in rush hour) to get to 100 miles. Last ten miles was pretty psychedelic, mentally.

Feeling remarkably alright at work today.

Visited three of the 7 stanes trail centres in scotland - glentress, dalbeattie, and kirroughtree, except I didn't ride at dalbeattie. Also dalby forest in yorkshire and whinlatter in the lakes. Red routes at glentress and dalby both excellent. My opinion of kirroughtree somewhat coloured by having to ride some of the black route, above my level tbh but the mcmoab rock is bloody impressive. Whinlatter might be ok after a couple of months of dry weather but too many huge puddles for my liking.

Another 40-mile ride again today (again in brilliant sunshine). With a brief bit of Boris Biking yesterday that brings it to 202 miles since Sunday.

I now have the Pedal For Scotland 2012 Sportive looming at the start of September, which they've extended to 110 miles this year!

i dare you to use a highwheeler, which is really the only PROPER fixed gear bike. :)

woke up late, did a chill 58 miles yesterday. not a great workout but felt really nice.

Had a long weekend down in Dorset (where the in-laws live, so I ride there fairly regularly). Did 3 rides based on my usual routes and hammered it up three particular shortish climbs that I often use on the off-chance that these were strava segments (as I'm rapidly becoming addicted to this). Now that I'm back home I've had the chance to analyse the routes: the first climb already existed as a segment (here), I managed 2:19 the first time, which was good enough for 11th out of 46; the next time I tried big-ringing it as an experiment, but this was slower; today I managed 2:00 and claimed 2nd spot. The other two climbs weren't listed so I made segments for them - I got 1st out of 24 for one of them and 2nd out of 22 for the other (beaten by Dan Lloyd, pro-rider, ex-Garmin now Raleigh) (or is has he now retired?) (or was that Dan Fleeming?) (or am I getting mixed up with Dan Martin?) (anyway he was/is a pro of some kind).

he's ex garmin, i bought him a beer once in boulder. weird seeing him on tv, he's veeeeeeery low key. very nice tho.

I think he's on Eurosport as the co-commentating pundit when neither Sean Kelly nor the Scottish guy (Brian something) are available.

yeah, i watched eurosport's online coverage

i finally did a ride i always wanted to try- mt evans (14110 ft) from morrison (5764 ft), 95 miles. Garmin's altimeter undercounts altitude extremes like that- it shows the summit as 13,400 ft. pretty sure i got between 10k and 11k ft of climbing. never went hard, but the last mile of evans is pretty devastating every time i do it. it feels like any hard effort is impossible. you can see the final 7 or 8 switchbacks and they are loooooong, with cars moving to and fro, looming over you.

then, the descent is so slow, and cold, and the pavement is completely abysmal, and there are cars slowing you down as well.

http://app.strava.com/activities/16344715#

Brilliant. Are you rides into the mountains always out and back on the same roads?

Not always but looping stuff can add a quite a bit of distance around here. There are only so many canyons and so many canyon roads.

Was scheduled to do a 10-mile time trial this afternoon on a fast course so I was looking for a PB. I hate riding on the fast courses as it seems really dangerous mixing it with cars and lorries doing >70mph on dual carriageways, but I'm prepared to do it once or twice a season to try to get a good time. While I was driving up the M11 there was suddenly an insane downpour of rain - wipers on top speed, lights on full beam, speed right down, visibility appalling. I started to have second thoughts about doing the race. Then after about 20 minutes I was out of the rain and back into the dry. But when I started driving along the course I noticed there were no riders or marshalls so it was pretty clear something was wrong. I'd heard of races being abandoned because someone had been killed so I had a bad feeling, but when I got to the HQ it turned out they'd cancelled the whole race because the weather had been so bad it was considered too dangerous. While that was sensible, it was a bit annoying as it was completely dry by the time I got there (although very windy). So I had a 110-mile round trip for nothing. I went for a little ride up there before I came home, just so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

I got up early for the first time in forever yesterday to get in a morning ride before a photography job in the afternoon. One friend broke his seatpost bolt just a mile into the ride and had to bail out, unfortunately, but myself & P pushed on for a beautiful morning dash - we were absolutely flying out to Stewarton! It was good to be out & about so much earlier than my normal too.

perfect winter morning for a pedal - slightly foreshortened due to di2 FLAT BATTERY, haha.

This is why I'll be cable shifting for life.

Is this an accurate representation of Melbourne Cycling clubs?

https://sites.google.com/site/greatoceanroadcycling/cycling-clubs-2

My friend got his seatpost sorted, so we had a second attempt at our inaugural ride together and everything went swimmingly, with it turning out to be another absolutely glorious morning - blazing sunshine! Really pleased to have a new cycling buddy.

A fellow Glasgow fixed-gear cyclist just posted this terrifying photo to our forums. He did this today merely by doing a hill start apparently! It's a cheap one-piece single-speed crankset, but quite shocking and scary nonetheless. Thankfully he get away with it unscathed, so he reports.

http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/i352/jamesreilly/12bfe590.jpg

Surely that just adds to the challenge?

I did a 45-mile ride this afternoon in blustery greyness. Psyching myself up for THE BIG ONE - I'm going to try to ride 100 miles on either Thursday or Friday.