16 mile sunny ride last night, mostly climbing, one was a cat 3 climb 7% average with some 13% plus sections and sweet views from the top where it was very quiet. Apart from a few cars ... one in particular, stuffed full, windows down everyone in it smoking and putting their arms out of the windows knocking traffic cones down where they'd closed one side of the road. Some nice fast descending as well, hitting 40+ mph, no traffic again so good lines to be had. Saw a few others out riding up the hills as well. I also decided to rejoin strava, primarily to keep track of progress, but know inevitably I'll end up trying to get higher on the leaderboards, that's why I left it last time, as it makes the mindset different thinking about segments and you stop just enjoying cycling for cycling's sake
Might go out on my bike tonight. Probably do 1/2 mile to the Co-op and buy a few cans and some crisps then back home to gorge on them. Surprisingly this bike lark has resulted in me putting on weight, so much for bloody exercise!
Hopefully. Plenty of time for that now; works decided to 100% fulfill furlough rules. I hadn't eaten either It was two journeys; 4 miles to work and a alternative longer route home. I had water at work but it was a lot warmer than I realised on way back. Wasn't flagging though do all good.
Great. The day after I join Strava decide to make everything paid for so the leaderboards feature for segments is now practically invisible, apart from the top 10 which is useless for me as I'm a way off being in any top 10 on there currently! Suppose I can still compare my times with the fast people but no idea of overall position unless you pay 4 quid a month now. Went out on one of my usual routes this evening and it took quite a bit less time than previous runs so I'm getting quicker I think and clearly going to have to start thinking about going further if I want to be out as long. Really nice ride for the most part with the temp warm at 21C ... had an incident on a stretch of dual carriageway which was dead quiet so I was putting some power down ... I get halfway along the stretch when this chav looking girl out walking the dog with her partner decides to walk out in the first lane without looking, then walks backwards and then still doesn't look as she's standing in the middle of the carriageway chatting to him. I ease off and have to swerve out into lane 2 to go around her at which point she decides to start walking backwards towards me, so I shout politely 'Careful'. I think the response was '****ing prick' or something, I may be doing her a disservice as I couldn't hear her properly as I was quite a bit up the road by then. Quite a few out on bikes though which was good to see
Did you go out then ? I use my road bike for those kind of beer and snack runs which is counter-intuitive really, but it's good training having the weight on your back I guess. I want to get a new road bike and then my current one can just be downgraded for those kinds of errands, wet rides and winter
Yeah - you'd think that not riding into walls was one of the more obvious principles of cycling, but isn't that easy - sometimes the things won't get out the bloody way.
I deleted Strava when the mrs got me the fitness watch; comes with its own free app. Don't know if you can use this without the watch (it's called Nuband NRG if you want to try). Not seen any comparisons to others though, I only use it to track distance, time and speed but keep finding myself looking at heart rate, calories burnt, claim & descent, etc too
So yesterday man from wheelchair services arrives to replace both front wheel forks (an ongoing saga that sarted in Feb along with a replacement back which is an even bigger **** up ) and the bearings the forks attach to in the main frame . Gets to door and says sorry they haven't given me the replacement bearings but i've just rang the depot so i'll pick them up and be back tomorrow morning . So at 9 am he turns up and lo & behold replaces them all .Everything fine except i had got so used to having to put in an effort to turn that i have smacked into a couple of door frames . Take dog for walk and getting near end of walk and something didn't feel right and so when i was putting in the car had a play with them to find the right front wheel was floppy as hell with about 1/4 inch of horizontal travel . Get home and luckily find it is just an allen key to tighten and on checking realise it was very close to the whole wheel assembly coming off - it was so loose i could tighten it up quite easily just by hand My biggest worry is that there is something wrong with whatever the fork attaches to inside the frame so will need to keep checking it when i'm out with dog tomorrow .
considering her wayward ways i'd probably get home quicker crawling as if little fooker Poppy is in charge we would spend at least half an hour chasing ducks and/or swans up and dpwn the river .
