your daily bicycle log

Are you doing any cross training/other strengthening exercises? You may be overdeveloping one set of muscles.

strength could be nutrition, hydration, health related.

twinge could be seat height. look at online fit guides for seat height and make sure you're properly set up.

yeah, my seat is def too low, i was thinking about that this morning.

you know, it was pretty windy this morning, that's probably the main reason why it felt like i was grinding harder than usual.

wind is the mind killer, imo, just pretend that its a really long hill, gear down and try to ignore the fact that it never, ever ends

and def get your seat height adjusted. 98% of cyclists could yank their seats up a bit and put a lot more air in their tires. friend of mine here at school told me that when he was an undergrad, the campus cycling club would go on guerilla filling missions, and air up all the sagging tires on the racks at school

srsly if you ride your bike everyday and don't own a pump...

also lots of unoiled chains out there. i don't know how they put up with that loud ass squeaking n grinding

Jordan, it is probably the wind - these days I basically know that if I have a bad day, or a good day, it's 95% likely to be the wind direction.

However, if you've only just started cycling more regularly, it could just be good ol' fatigue. Take a day or two off, or make an effort to go at 3/4 pace, and see if that helps.

Yesterday, I got to be a knight in shining armour when I saw a woman pushing her punctured Trek roadie along the pavement. I stopped to offer her my spare tube, and then thought I should check if she knew how to change a wheel...

So I ended up doing it for her - poor lass had been walking two or three miles in the rain, from Hyde Park down High Street Ken and was almost at Hammersmith Broadway, and not a single person had stopped to check if she was okay.

That is very noble of you, but if I saw someone pushing a bike in the rain I would not immediately think "oh my god what a tragic situation I must offer help at once!". Perhaps I'm a bastard.

actually it's well-known cycling etiquette to ask a rider on the side of the road if they are ok or need any help. good karma too.

yeah, if i've got my stuff on me (which i usually do lol messenger bag), i ask if they need help. i've probably given out 3-4 tubes since moving here!

yeah, i stopped to tie my shoe yesterday and within 5 seconds a woman stopped to ask if needed any tools.

ok, ok, i'm a bastard.

since i usually go pretty light, if im outbound i ask "need a phone?," inbound i ask "got what u need?"

so yesterday i rode home via red rocks. not a great idea, as there was a death cab concert, and i was riding through slow moving parking lot, albeit amidst great scenery. but wow lumbering death cab fans, u look older even than me.

I'm doing the London-Cambridge charity ride next Sunday. I did it last year, but this year I've got a much faster bike and I'm much fitter. A clubmate I've ridden with a couple of times has asked me if I want to join him on a London-Cambridge-London ride. This would be more than 120 miles, which I think is borderline insane. I'm mulling it over: I've never ridden more than 80 miles and I've only ridden over 60 miles 3 times in the last year.

My mate did London-Brighton-London a few weeks ago on his own, and he was fine and is probably less fit than you!

You're easily fit enough; the issues will be making sure you eat and drink properly, and you can deal with extremity discomfort if/when it happens.

I can't see myself managing it, but the route back should never be more than about 8 miles from a station on the Cambridge-Harlow-Liverpool St. route, so I could try it, safe in the knowledge I could give up at any moment and get a train home.

wtf i must be so slow that i never see guys in deer creek anymore. its all racer chix everywhere in the canyon.

my last two days of riding in the hills have been stellar, im finally turning the pedals over. im not any faster really, but my cadence is way up and no problems with keeping my breathing.

thx guys, my biking to work/around has been going much better. i raised my seat up ~2" over the weekend and it helped immeasurably, i almost feel like i got a new bike.

20 miles in 70 minutes yesterday, still working on getting back into shape

just realized how wiped out i am today! i feel like a blob of jelly ...

Did an all day 50 miler as a shakedown for the canal trip at the end of the week. So glad we did we shook out a lot of bugs.

so i was off the bike for a long time. one thing i hate about "starting over" when building up endurance is how long my muscles take to recover midride.

for example in a mountainous area, i crest one peak... it sucks, but i did it... then descend and as soon as i hit the base of the next climb, my legs are sluggish and dead.

when i was in super good shape prior to this bike sabbatical, i remembered being able to attack multiple climbs with less fatigue after long descents. but now, i can remember this sluggish feeling.

any tips on this issue in particular? is it lactic acid? help pls!

keep going hard on the downhill, no coasting? i dunno, even when im ok fit i get that dead leg feeling at the start of climbs after descents.

haha, the beater i thought was stolen upthread? i found it parked outside my work. i have no memory of that. tires are flat but otherwise fine.

took the nu bike for a spin round melbourne, 40km or so, did it eeeeeeasy. so much lighter than the old one!

36 miles on the fixie around Essex. Not sure I've even ever been to Essex before. Was good, especially when the wind was following (not often), probably be less good somewhere with more hills, up or down.

Where in Essex, ledge? I know western Essex pretty well.

I did 74 miles today: the London-Cambridge ride plus riding home from Kings Cross. I was tempted to join my clubmate on his 120 mile odyssey, but I've been ill since Wednesday so that didn't seem like a good idea.

Leigh on sea to Shoeburyness, then oop into the country and along to Battlesbridge.

Ah, don't know that part of the world at all. Southern and Eastern Essex be full of dragons.

So Thursday through sunday I was riding DC to Cumberland. Thursday almost turned into a disaster, I got two flats in the car park where we unloaded the van and I discovered my rim tape had ricked up. I rode on a rapidly deflating rear wheel to a local bike shop that fixed stuff for me and we set off into an absolute deluge. I lost the canal trail in the rain (I ended up crossing over and heading up hill), when I discovered my error I tried to press on and work out how to get back. Ended up riding on wet roads and headed down a likely downhill. I lost my rear wheel on the wet tarmac and ended up sliding across the road with a chunk missing from my helmet.

Almost gave up then and there but a nice guy in a club jersey and a subaru pointed me in the right direction. Glad I did, its a lovely ride although somewhat punishing as it is rough track most of the way, some bits are pretty well maintained some bits are all tree roots and potholes. good trip though although this is the last time I tour with shopping baskets rather than panniers.

are you biking the appalachian trail or is it something different?

The C&O canal, the rest were going on all the way to pittsburgh via the great allegheny passage, I had to come back for a meeting.

very cloudy>drizzle>deluge on the way home, 53 degrees. nothing like 45 minutes in the rain to awaken the senses, then brutally snuff them out. and wow, fall came on fast.

I gotta learn to take it easy cycling in London. I charge off at top speed and then get angry at every red light. That adds up to a lot of anger.

I'm surprised you don't just sail through them, Tom ;)

But of all the things to get angry with, I'm surprised you blame red lights. What about road surfaces, taxis, van drivers, other cyclists, pedestrians, weather, roadworks, headwinds, slippy metalwork and painted lines, lorries, hills, punctures, clicky drivetrains, sweating, bonking, sidewinds, motorbikes etc. etc? They all come higher up my list!

road surfaces

suck it up!

taxis

yeah i hate them

van drivers

generally not a prob i find

other cyclists

eat my dust

pedestrians

no mercy

weather

suck it up!

roadworks

eh

headwinds

oh yeah they make me angry. shout at the wind!

slippy metalwork and painted lines

i corner like a girl anyway

lorries

respectful fear, not anger

hills

/pain /gain

punctures

can't remember the last time i had one!

clicky drivetrains

yeah mine is pretty noisy tbh, need to try changing the cog

sweating

mmm nice

bonking

hardly an issue for short rides across town

sidewinds

fun!

motorbikes

get outta my box!

yeah it really is the endless stopping and starting caused by traffic lights that winds me up the most. cruising is fun. having to slam on the brakes and then struggle away from the line every minute is not.

other cyclists

eat my dust

pedestrians

no mercy

weather

suck it up!

putting this on a sticker on my stem somehow

Get it embroidered on the lid of your bag.

yeah, i can call back the helpful person at carradice and get it on my next set, custom. although, my bike bureau show no signs of wearing out despite the fact that it has had some serious use.

so how are your (now not quite so) new wheels holding up to the punishment? i suppose well as no negative reports? riding over tree roots with baskets sounds brave.

Really really good in the end, I thought after all that I'd need to get them trued but they seem to be as straight as anything, front and back. I can highly recommend prowheelbuilder.com, they seem to have done a bang up job on them.

I will never tour with baskets again.

Got a bit out of practice in the latter half of July, so 35 miles today beat me into shape pretty quick (with an emphasis on beat. Much of this was done on paved bike paths through dark woods w/ a new headlight I bought today. Spooky but exhilarating!

..time 4 beer.

immensely satisfying burn up royal parade last night in peak-hour - rounded up every bike in front of me and only got passed once! (and that dude was flyin'.)

chain locked up on a pretty standard gear change this morning though, dunno what that was about o_O

cycled to cinema. watched 'moon'. left cinema. found out some fucktard had locked their bike to mine.

I hope you cycled both off together.

I cycled nowhere, I had to bus home and am still waiting for the asshat to ring me.

took a short 15-miler yesterday, including st. paul's infamous ramsey hill (down) (scary!). the long loop around on the river, mostly uphill, had me wishing i had gears, a little.

needed to stretch the legs after dinner and movie, so did backstreet run out to scenic road a few kms from the city proper and did short hillclimb three times. spooky - only one car, no roadside lighting, but great view of burbs at the top of the hill.

kefalonia was tough. only managed one day riding then gave up. steep climb -> steep descent. repeat. not at all used to climbing like that. had to get off a couple of times. still, a good learning experience. hydration was the main challenge, it hit 40 degrees a few times while i was there. too hot to move, let alone cycle anywhere.

started middle left where that stripe is (the airport). went from there to where the cloud on the left hand side is. can't just ride along the coast, there's like one main road that goes round the island via every little village.

http://www.wkistler.de/more3/739-33a65_Kefalonia.jpg

after a couple of weeks eating badly, boozing and smoking i went out for a 20 miler yesterday and it was a lot harder than usual. time for a detox.