Set off on the X after an early exit from work yesterday with the same brief as Tuesday, to do 30 or 40 miles. Pleasantly warm, cloudy, bright. But a moderate to stiff breeze from the west.
Thought I’d go down the southbound route for a bit, then make it up as I went along. When I got to Kirkby Mallory I had the idea of going to Sutton Cheney from there, then pedalling home from there on a typical Twycross route, but in reverse. I did that. Nice run out. 36.29 miles. Will do another 70 miles or so tomorrow, all being well.
Wanted to do another 30 or 40 today. Left work early and set
off to do a longish Twycrosser, on the X. A cloudy day and it seemed
cool, so I wrapped up warm, which I came to regret later. It wasn’t
actually that cool once I got going despite a moderate wind from the
west. Stuffing my gloves in the back of my jersey helped quite a bit,
though.
I stopped in Cadeby to allow a peacock to cross the road,
which it did very slowly and hesitantly. Three of the villagers were
standing around on both sides of the pavement, watching it. I remarked
to one of them that this was a bit unusual. “Not round ‘ere it ain’t”,
came the reply.
A week’s holiday in Norfolk had robbed me of a week’s bike riding this month so I was happy to see that the weather was pretty much ideal yesterday to start my new hobby, sexagenarian cycling.
Warm, sunny, not much wind. I prepared by having a massively carbohydrate-potent Sunday lunch at a pub. Set off at 14:30, a little later than I’d hoped but ‘er indoors insisted on having a starter. Soup of the Day. It’s never tomato.
I’d decided on either doing
the usual route out east toward Belvoir Castle and Lincolnshire, or the
long route west south of Derby, along the water. I couldn’t decide which
so I deferred the decision and headed up Top Brand. Either is viable
from the north-most end. I decided to do the westward route.
Really
very pleasant out there, though conditions actually grew warmer as the
afternoon wore on. I’d worn a decently thick long-sleeved jersey in the
expectation that I’d need it later in the day, so that was a slight
mistake. But I wasn’t too uncomfortable.
While rolling along the A road south of Derby, I was a little disconcerted to see a pigeon lying on its back in the middle of the road, surrounded by disconnected white feathers, gleaming in the afternoon sunshine. Must have been hit by a car, couldn’t have been there long or the feathers would have dispersed.
Then as I approached it, I noticed that its claws were moving. A bit grim, but I hoped that it was already dead, regardless. Then as I passed it, it raised its head from the road surface to look down the road, over its helpless body.
I thought of stamping on its head to put it out
of its misery, but I just wasn’t going to do that. I couldn’t see a
large stick or other object to dispatch it with lying around, so I just
continued on my way. I assume it wouldn’t have lasted long; either
another car would have got it or its presumably massive internal
injuries would have finished it off in the next minute or so. Hopefully.
Anyway. I got as far as Foston to the west before running out of road after 27 miles (the route joins the A50 at this point, not something you want to contemplate on a bike) and I wanted to do the Fondo distance, 62 miles so I went exploring for a bit. I took a little path called Coplow Lane, but this was a bit of a dead end. Backtracked to the main route and found another one called Hay Lane – this was really interesting, decent surface, nice view, extremely quiet. After about three miles I came to a junction at a place called Boylestone and decided to turn back again, rather than get lost. I will have to look into sorting out a route over that way for the future. Interesting area. Seems to be pretty much in the middle of nowhere, 15 miles west of Derby.
A bit later on the way back I did a bit more exploring into a village called Eggington. This seemed promising but I came to a T junction with a dual carriageway, so once again I just turned back.
I came back the same way as far as Melbourne, at which point I failed to take the correct road out of the town to continue my route in reverse, and I took a road that’s effectively a short cut home. Unfortunate as I had calculated that I’d be back home on about 62.5 miles, and I had to do a bit of faffing around by going into Coalville to get the distance up to the required Fondo measure.
I must try to memorise a mental map of Melbourne. It always confuses me.
Home
on 62.62. That’s 15 Fondos this year. I was interested to see how my
knees would cope with the first Fondo after the 200 miler, but they were
fine. The key (I think) is to take it easy and warm them up properly.
They actually felt better after 50 miles than after 20.
Wanted to get the July campaign off to a start, my knees seemed to be
recovering nicely after Monday and I had a feeling – irrational,
possibly – that the rain threatened for late afternoon wouldn’t happen.
Left
work early and took Neil out of the garage, with the thought of doing
maybe 20 miles or so. Didn’t want to push my luck with the weather.
Nice
and warm out there, not uncomfortably so. Cloudy but dry, and I’m
pleased to say that it didn’t rain apart from a very few light spots two
miles from home. I did a “Sub-Twycrosser”, involving stopping just
short of Twycross to take a left along Bilstone Road, then home via
Congerstone, Barton in the Beans, Heather.
I stopped to take this pic along Barton Lane.
I
assumed, again perhaps irrationally, that the cows would respectfully
withdraw a few feet once I propped the bike up against the gate, but
nope – they wanted to investigate. Once I’d put the phone away I had to
wipe cow slobber off the left side of the saddle. For some reason I had a
couple of squares of paper towel in my jersey pocket. I’m sorry to say
that once I’d wiped the saddle down, I just chucked the paper towel in
the hedge. I just wasn’t putting it back in the pocket. But at least
it’s bio-degradable! I’ll make amends by picking up some litter at the
weekend.
Enjoyable run out and my knees definitely felt the strain less than on Monday. 18.55 miles.
I would usually have a knee recovery day before riding a bike again,
but wanted to split my remaining 45 miles for June into two chunks, so I
went out on the Tricross after work. Cold, overcast and windy, but I
wrapped up warm. I did a 20.54 mile run around Diseworth, going up
through Thringstone and Belton, across to Diseworth, back down along Top
Brand and Coleorton.
The wind was bloody annoying,
especially coming down Top Brand, where it should have been more of a
sidewind, really. But at least there was no rain.
I must say, the Tricross rolled along really pleasantly – odd that the same bike can seem sluggish on some days and frictionless on others. Maybe the conditions suited it.
My knees are
actually a bit hurty now – nothing too serious but I probably won’t ride
a bike tomorrow. So I’ve actually defeated the object of my ride.
Still – 575 miles this month, which is over the official target. But I’d like to have done 600.
My ‘official’ target for June, as decreed by my spreadsheet, is 573
miles. However I was hoping to have clocked up 600 by the time July
kicks in on Wednesday, having done only 503 as of this morning. So I
wanted to do at least 50 today.
Mild weather with a
possibility of rain in the afternoon, and a powerful wind blowing from
the west. Not the best weather for it really, but I wheeled the X out of
the garage at 11:05.
One of the as-yet unconquered
counties of England is Gloucestershire, which would require a round trip
of about 115 miles. I wasn’t going to do that today, but thought to do
the first 25 miles or so, then turn back. Most of that 25 miles is a
familiar route going south, to Stoney Stanton.
So I did that. Unfortunately though the last 5 of those 25 miles would have involved riding right into the teeth of the wind, following a right turn after Sapcote – so after less than a mile of that I took a right turn and began exploring a bit. I found my way back to Stoney Stanton, but took a different route back to Earl Shilton from there. After Kirkby Mallory I decided to come back up through Bosworth rather than Newbold and Ellistown. I pushed the mile tally up a bit by continuing up through Newton Burgoland where I rested at a bench and took the following pic, and all the way up to Ashby.
Home on 51.51 miles.
Very
changeable weather, I got rained on a couple of times but the sun came
out a few times as well. I had warm sunshine for the last 30 minutes or
so which dried the bike off nicely.
The Casio servers have deigned to pass the activity through to Strava this time. They still haven’t bothered with the last one.
Too hot for cycling really but I want to get 600 miles in before July and it seems rude to waste all those hours of daylight after work. So I left work early and set off on the X.
I’d only gone a
couple of miles before I realised I hadn’t brought a pump and although I
don’t usually, I started to feel faintly paranoid. So I decided to do a
sort of 10 mile lap round Packington and Heather, have a quick pit stop
at the garage and set off again. I did that. I gave the tyres a quick
seeing to with the track pump and picked up a mini pump, then set off
again – this time on the usual eastbound route, out toward Cotes.
Quite
tiring pedalling in the bright sunshine and stupid heat but a headwind
from the east took some of the unpleasantness out of it. I was enjoying
myself regardless. Got as far as the natural burial ground a mile or two
after Cotes, then turned back. But I came a longer way back, through
Diseworth and down Top Brand – as much as anything to avoid the tedium
of the long pedal along Ashby Road.
I saved the track from my G-Shock to the Casio Moves app, but it hasn’t made it to Strava yet. Whether that’s the Casio servers (I suspect it is) or the phone or Strava I’m not sure, but anyway I was able to get this image from the app. That’s all I’ve got to show for it, but I’m more about the spreadsheet than Strava anyway.
I’ll remember not to use the G-Shock for the Strava challenges.
A rare opportunity to use my Magnum enormo-bidon, and I’d almost drained it by the time I got back on 44.39 miles. And that’s 503 this month, 3031 this year. Nice to have done 3000 before the half-way point of the year. Not going on holidays has helped, but I won’t have that advantage for long.
Took this pic a couple of miles from home, near a pub I’m hoping to frequent again before too long.
Lovely sunny, warm late afternoon, yesterday. I set off at about 4:45pm
without a definite plan, but within a couple of minutes had decided to
make my way up to Melbourne then across Swarkestone Bridge, to ride
along the long, quiet A road that runs westward under Derby. I took the
Cannondale, to give the new tyres a maiden voyage. They seem to roll
along very pleasantly.
Within the first mile of setting off, as I
was leaving the village, I saw a big, long brown rat scurrying across
the road at top speed. A moment later a large bird of prey came swooping
down behind it – a buzzard I think – but the rat was into the hedge on
the right before it could pounce, and the buzzard had to pull up and
over the hedge. Perhaps it had better luck in the field on the other
side of the fence, or perhaps the rat had the sense to stay put in the
hedge.
I was able to wear my skimpiest camo cycling jersey, but
wasn’t too cool later on. Really glorious out there. I got as far as
Willington where I decided to turn back, having done about 20 miles –
but on a whim I thought I’d take a left turn under the bridge there, and
explore for a bit. I didn’t explore far; I just went into a housing
estate where I got lost briefly, but managed to find my way out a few
minutes later and back onto the main road.
Annoying my Garmin
Edge 25 bike computer started displaying 6 digit numbers, apparently
randomly – but it turned out that it was attempting to pair with my
phone, which I’d switched on a few minutes earlier in Willington to
consult Google Maps. It’s never worked properly with Bluetooth, and I
wasn’t particularly bothered because it’s easy enough to get tracks off
it by hooking it up directly to a computer. But I’ve just put a new
battery in the phone and that seems to have improved its Bluetooth
performance no end.
I took a longer route back, through Weston, Aston, Shardlow (where I took the following pic) then Donington. Stopped at a bench at Weston for a cheese pasty, which had half-cooked itself in my back pocked. Back on 45.55 miles.
I scanned the roadside carefully for discarded underwear, so I could title this piece New Boots and Panties, but alas – I didn’t see any.
Although
I claimed I wouldn’t worry about my knees again after the 200 mile
ride, I must admit I was slightly troubled after the first couple of
rides following that, because I seemed to have reverted my knees to the
condition they were in about a year ago. However they do seem to be
recovering properly now. Both my physios told me to keep pedalling
through the pain and I’m convinced doing 40 or 50 milers helps more than
shorter distances. Got to keep them busy. Worth buggering them a bit to
do 200 miles anyway, but I’m glad I don’t seem to have done any lasting
harm.
Decent weather forecast today, although a bit blowy. I wanted to do
at least 40. I really wanted to try out the new tyres on the Cannondale,
but as I left the house at about 1pm a few spots of rain turned up. I
went back in the house and emerged again 30 minutes later, having
decided to take the Boardman.
Because I’m on call I
didn’t want to stray too far from base so I decided on the usual
strategy of going north to Melbourne, then back down via Ticknall within
a few miles of home, then across to Packington to stitch on a
Twycrosser to the south.
Quite pleasant weather to
start, although I hit a couple of very light, brief showers on the way
up. But on the way down to Ticknall, a massive dark cloud started to
appear from the west. A few minutes later I was being lashed with rain. I
was soaked through. The rain continued, with a few brief respites, for
the next hour or so. Misery. I decided to come home a quicker way than
intended along Gibbet Lane – although happily the rain stopped not long
after that and the warm sunshine came back, so I extended the ride a bit
by coming back through Ibstock.
I’ve noticed a few furry black
caterpillars crossing the road – odd that they always seem to be taking
the most direct route straight across, almost as though they’re
intelligent.
When I stopped briefly near Twycross I
took the trouble to examine the rear tyre for correct rotational
orientation, and yep – it’s on the wrong way round. I think I fitted
that one not long after a puncture on the Wales trip of May 2017. I
pondered whether it was throwing more rain water up my bum than was
strictly necessary, as I navigated the wet roads north of Bosworth.
Annoyingly
I did get a call from work 30 minutes before I made it home but I
didn’t hear the phone go off, and only noticed when I fired up the Casio
app to sync the track.
Took the Tricross out after work, on a Twycrosser. Didn’t have as much
time as I’d have wished but I got in a 26.85 mile version.
A few puddles around and a gushing water main near Barton in the Beans but nothing troubling.
A
game of two halves, this one. First half cloudy and a bit too cool with
a headwind, but the sun came out for the second half and the wind
mostly helped to blow me home.
Really lovely to come up through
the villages north of Bosworth in the late afternoon sunshine, and the
Tricross seemed to roll along very pleasantly despite the industrial
tyres. Took a nice pic of it leaning against a gate near Bosworth Marina
in the bright sunlight, but it was lamentably out of focus.
Listened to the footy on 5 Live, but I just can’t get any enthusiasm for it in those conditions.
