Wanted to do about 30 after work. Sunny and warm. But rather windy
unfortunately. Set off to do a Twycrosser, without a particular version
in mind. Decided to do the Triangular Orton Detour when I got to
Twycross. Was tempted to do the full Fenn Lanes version since I was
enjoying myself fairly thoroughly, but decided I’d keep it down to 30 or
so after all and have a bit more time at home this evening. I took the
Sibson / Shenton / Bosworth route.
At the crossroads at Bosworth
which is 8 miles from home I realised I was on course to do a bit less
than 30. So I extended my ride by pushing on up through Newton Burgoland
and coming home via Swepstone. This adds 1.6 miles, which I call the
“Burgoland Benefit”. Paradoxically, the 0.58 miles that I can add by
coming home through Coleorton rather than Thringstone is known to me as
the “Coleorton Cost”. It just depends how you look at it. But it’s all
about the alliteration.
Less blowy in the second half of the
ride. But the sunny conditions disappeared over the last 10 miles, to be
replaced by overcast skies and a slight gloom. I even felt a couple of
spots of rain in Swepstone with about 3 miles to go, but it didn’t start
to rain properly.
Woke up feeling terrible this morning, apparently stricken by some low level debilitating virus. Which is good, because it explains why I felt rough after about 50 miles on Saturday.
However having done only one ride so far this month I thought I should at least do 20 miles or so, on a decent weather day. And I wanted to see how my knees would do after a 70 miler at the weekend. So I set off on a Twycrosser this afternoon, intending to do the original, 22 mile version. But as I got to Sheepy I seemed to be doing OK so I pressed on to Ratcliffe Culey and cut across to Sibson. Came back along Gibbet Lane. Extended the ride slightly by opting to come home through Burgoland and Swepstone, and ended up doing 25.96 miles which takes me to a reasonable 96 this month.
I took the Cannondale for a change. I should use it more often. Of all my bikes it’s the one that suits me the best, I think.
A cool, cloudy day and I was comfortable enough, but had to wear a couple of layers on top and cover up my legs. Back in tights already. It looks like the weather might perk up a bit for the weekend, though.
The knees did feel a bit tender over the last 7 or 8 miles. Probably needed longer to recover from the 70 miler at the weekend. I think they’ll continue to improve. But who knows?
Decent weather today. Wanted to do a Fondo, and weather conditions, with
the wind coming from the NE unusually, seemed to dictate a trip out
East. Additionally, I thought it might be nice to do Rutland and back as
a sort of sentimental Fondo homecoming, since that was the first
longish ride I did in my current cycling career, back in 2016.
I
chose a different route from that one though, consisting partly of the
newish route over to Six Hills, and partly a brand new stretch that
bypasses Melton Mowbray to the south, going through places called Great
Dalby and Little Dalby but arriving at the same point of entry into
Rutland along Whissendine Road.
Decent weather, cloudy but dry. A
bit cool. I wrapped up warm on top but wore shorts. Hoped conditions
might warm up a bit later on but they didn’t really, or not by much
anyway. Would have been better off in tights. The sun came out for a bit
once or twice. The wind was a bit annoying for the first half of the
ride.
Anyway, a thoroughly enjoyable run out overall.
Started
feeling a bit rough on the way back after about 50 miles. I didn’t feel
that great when I woke up this morning; the fallout from immoderate
vodka inhalation on holiday I’m afraid. I shall stay off the sauce for a
couple of weeks then go back to the occasional beer now and then. So
although I’d planned to stick to a pork pie and an oat bar on benches in
villages, I stopped at the pub in Burton on the Wolds again and had a
crusty ham baguette with fries. A 25 minute rest stop did me good.
The
lady in the photograph below has just emerged from the pub to ask me if
I want white or brown bread, having forgotten to do so when I ordered
it.
My
right knee, which is the troublesome one and the only one I bothered to
have scanned, held up quite well. Unfortunately the left one was quite
painful after 60 miles or so. Not the stabby, irritated pain though,
more a sort of arthritic pain. I have some way to go before I’ll be able
to do 100 milers again.
By coming back through Coleorton I thought I’d probably have extended the ride just enough to make it 70 miles but nope, 69.98.
Listened
to my Beatles bio audiobook (handy for a long ride because the
rechargeable battery in the MP3 player goes for many hours), then 5 Live
on a DAB. Then when the battery in that conked out, for the last 20
miles or so, I listened to Level 42 and Badu on my phone. I have a 256G
card in there with all my MP3s.
I’d uploaded the route to my
eTrex yesterday because of the unfamiliar part near the Rutland end, but
when I switched it on it didn’t seem to be there. Annoying. Had to rely
on the phone for navigation for a few miles in the most distant part of
the ride to and from the destination, but that wasn’t too arduous.
So
I grabbed my Foretrex 320 for track recording and the battery on that
conked out after Great Dalby, annoyingly. But I’d already started
recording the track on my phone’s Strava App 10 minutes earlier, luckily
– so I could follow the route I’d set up on Strava. So I ended up
editing and stitching the eventual track together from the two devices.
Fancied a good old-fashioned Twycrosser today, so that’s what I did. I
took the X. The weather forecast threatened a hot day so I went early to
minimise my exposure to the worst of it. Made sure my cleat bolts were
nice and tight, and left at about 10:30.
I didn’t want to push my
luck with a longer ride, and it was too hot anyway. On top of that I
was woken last night by a bat doing laps of our bedroom ceiling at 3AM
and a bit tired. It left of its own accord (unless it’s still hiding in
there) a few minutes later but not before freaking me out slightly.
Took the detour to Orton between Twycross and Sheepy.
Rather
than listening to 5 Live on a DAB radio, I opted to test a small MP3
player I’d bought a few years ago, but hadn’t used for ages. I thought
the internal battery might be stuffed. This turned out to be a bit
inconvenient as it was very difficult to navigate to the tunes I wanted –
it doesn’t have a screen so you pretty much just have to scroll through
everything. I ended up listening to a load of Robert Plant solo stuff
I’d put on there years ago and while there are a few gems, I must admit
that overall I was getting sick of Robert’s 1950s rock’n’roll schtick
with the slapback echo on the vocals.
The MP3 player did great
though, the battery lasted the whole ride and was still going strong
when I switched it off half an hour after I got back. It weighs almost
nothing so would be useful for extending DAB life on a long ride, or as a
backup.
Baking hot by 1pm or so, and I was wearing long sleeves
to protect my already-sunburned arms. Took this pic three miles from
home at a farm near Heather.
Very happy to report that my knees did fine, despite doing ~64 miles on Friday.
Lovely summer weather and I thought I’d have a crack at a Fondo today.
Decided to head out east using the new route that bypasses the old route
via Normanton, Stanford then Burton on the Wolds, before rejoining it
at Six Hills – but this time I’d go further along to a village called
Eastwell, which has a very serviceable bench and used to be my last rest
spot before Belvoir Castle and Lincolnshire.
I’d planned to take
the S Works but when I got to the garage, I remembered that it only has
a single bottle cage. I’d brought a dummy bottle ‘pod’ with me
containing a gel, small pork pies and an oat bar. So I shrugged my
shoulders and readied the X instead. But after a minute I chastised
myself for being idle, and fitted a second bottle cage to the S Works. I
used two nylon nuts as spacers to prevent the bottle cage rubbing the
frame. Possibly being a bit precious, there.
Set off at 09:18.
Feeling a bit cool at first in lightweight clothing but not too
uncomfortable and I knew I’d be too warm later anyway. Took the lower
elevation, shorter and partially urban route to Belton for the first six
miles, through Coalville and Whitwick.
And I was having a
splendid time listening to a discussion about Brexit on Adrian Chiles’ 5
Live programme, interspersed with occasional bad news from Headingley,
when on the 25 mile mark along Six Hills Lane I noticed that my right
shoe was slopping about in the pedal slightly. So I stopped to check,
and yep – the cleat was loose. All three bolts were present and correct
but all three had worked themselves slightly loose.
Naturally, I
didn’t have an Allen key on me. I parked the bike up against a signpost,
sat on the grass verge and managed to tighten them back down with the
tip of my thumb. Well, “tighten” is not really the appropriate word
there. I screwed them in but clearly they weren’t very tight and I was
sure they’d work themselves free over a few miles. The cleat started
shifting back and forth again after another two miles. I kept going for a
bit, until I was just 5 miles from Eastwell and thumb-turned them in
again.
Stopped at the bench there, having done 31.5 miles. I found a small stone under the bench that looked like it might give a bit more leverage in the hex sockets of the cleat bolts, and it did. I managed to get them a bit tighter then after a gel and a pork pie, turned for home.
Sadly
my caveman stone tool repair wasn’t that successful and I felt the
cleat come a bit loose again three or four miles later. But I was fairly
confident by now that the bolts wouldn’t work themselves completely
loose and I wasn’t having any difficulty pedalling, so I relaxed a bit
and got on with it. I stopped and thumb-tightened them again every seven
miles or so.
Stopped at the Greyhound at Burton on the Wolds and fuelled up with San Miguel and a Brie & red pepper Ciabatta with chips. I was slightly irritated by a bloke sitting a few feet behind me with his mate, who had what I call Fucking Tourettes. Now I don’t mind swearing, in fact I do it myself quite regularly. But it should be used for emphasis, not like punctuation. This poor bloke couldn’t get five words out without one of them being “fucking”, very few of these instances contributing anything to the meaning of what he was saying.
Knees
started to feel a bit tender after 55 miles or so, and I think I can
call that progress. The right one especially is a bit sore now. But it
will get rested tomorrow and it probably won’t do more than 30 on
Sunday.
I edited the track to remove the section where I was
walking around the pub car park before uploading to Strava and noticed a
bizarre anomaly – the Garmin watch had recorded two track points more
than 1km off the actual track, and a straight line of track points at a
perpendicular to it. Strange. I edited that out as well, but this is
from the original track:
63.7 miles. I hope to do a Fondo every month going forward from now on. 385 this month.
I had been thinking of attempting a Fondo yesterday. But two factors
conspired to deter me from doing that. Firstly, I had debilitated the
condition of my knees slightly by walking for three or four miles in
Derby on Tuesday, then attending a standing-only gig in Leicester a few
hours later. Secondly I had another gig to go to last night involving a
drive to Wolverhampton so I didn’t have that much time, and I didn’t
want to be bopping at the front of the stage with sore patellar tendons,
either.
But it was a nice day, certainly. I hadn’t been out on a
bike since Monday. So I thought I’d do the pub at Burton on the Wolds
and back, which would give me about 36 miles.
Wanted to see if I
could make it there without referring to a map, and I did. Pleased to
have got that one down as it’s a useful route for longer trips out east.
Had to ignore a “road closed” warning to get there, though. But when I
got to the roadworks at Normanton on Soar it was easy enough to bypass
them using the path at the side of the road.
I arrived at the pub at about 11:20 as things turned out which was about 40 minutes before it was due to open – as usual I hadn’t really planned or thought about it properly – so I kept on going for another six miles or so, past Six Hills. Then I turned back. A very pleasant lunch at the pub consisting of a ham & coleslaw ciabatta, chips and a half San Miguel followed. Annoyingly I couldn’t get Google Pay on my phone to work, but I’d brought a debit card as a backup. I must fix that.
Bit of a headwind on the way back. I listened to the Mark Lewisohn Beatles bio again. Home on 48.29 miles.
Despite
the previous day’s walking and gigging activities, my knees did really,
encouragingly well. I have to wonder if walking them is actually
beneficial. They held up nicely at the gig last night as well. I’ll
definitely do a Fondo before I’m back at work on Tuesday.
Annoyingly during a lapse of concentration turning left at the lights at Zouch near the Nottinghamshire border, I scuffed my front rim on the edge of the pavement slightly. Nothing I could really describe as damage happened, but the black painted braking surface now has a small scuffed silver patch. I suppose that will wear down my left brake pad a bit quicker.
Having said that though – I have yet to wear down a
brake pad. I’ve probably done at least 10,000 miles on the Boardman but
all four brake pads seem to have plenty of life in them.
The
carbon rims on the Spesh have a weirdly ridged ‘Exalith’ braking surface
which is supposed to wear normal brake pads down twice as quick, and
you’re supposed to use extra-durable brake pads with them. They also
make a conspicuous “weeeeeeeee!” noise when you apply the brakes.
321 this month which is over target, and 2532 done this year.
Was hoping to do a longish one today, perhaps Grimston and back. But the
forecasters had introduced a threat of rain for this afternoon, so I
scaled down my plans. Decided to do Stoney Stanton and back.
Nice
day – sunny with intermittent cloud, not too warm, a bit of a breeze.
Given the aforementioned likelihood of rain, although I hoped to be home
before it came over, I selected the Boardman as weapon of choice.
I
didn’t bother setting up the route on the eTrex. I thought I could
probably remember the way and if not, I’d just use Google Maps on the
phone. And yet – I deviated from my intention, and from the route I’ve
done in the past, because I arrived at Stoney Stanton without having
gone through Barwell. I reached exactly the same destination, a
crossroads at Stoney. But I’d arrived there along a different road.
Looking at a map now it’s clear that I took the wrong road out of Kirkby
Mallory.
Anyway I decided that actually, I preferred the way I’d
come to the classic route I’d intended, so I decided to come home the
same way. Wasn’t sure I’d remember all the turns, but I did.
I
experienced a couple of light showers on the way back up, then just
south of Bagworth, torrential rain. At least an hour before “light
showers” had been forecast, and this was proper biblical rain. It lasted
about 10-15 minutes. I gave the bike a wipe down and a good seeing to
with GT85 on my return to the garage.
I was a little concerned
about how my knees would do as the right one has been a bit sore since
Saturday’s 55 miler, but it was OK. Quite encouraging. I’d visited a
particularly brutal set of hamstring exercises on myself before setting
off. Definitely helped. I did a couple more when I stopped at Earl
Shilton as well.
35.99 (I knocked 0.01 off for walking the bike
to and from a bench). According to the Strava route planner I saved
myself 10 feet of elevation and half a mile by coming a different way,
so I’m not sure why I chose the other route last time. This one is
definitely nicer, especially by virtue of not coming through Barwell.
I
started reading Mark Lewisohn’s Beatles biography on holiday in Wales
and really enjoyed it, but the trouble is – I only ever read books on
holiday. In an environment where I have my computer, guitars, bikes and
other toys available (ie at home) I just don’t have the attention span.
So I had the idea of buying it in audiobook form, so I could listen to
it while riding. That worked really well and I got through most of a
chapter on this ride. It’s really beautifully read by Clive Mantle, who
does the scouse accents nicely.
The audiobook itself is a 43 hr,
45 min audio file, but it’s controlled by the (Android) Audible app so
you can jump to particular chapters. I used a new set of bluetooth
earphones and the controls on that (dangling from my right ear) allowed
me to jump back 30 seconds easily if I became distracted. The earphones
themselves (made by JVC) sounded really good and the charge lasted the
whole ride, though they started to beep a low battery warning over the
last few miles. I was able to take a phone call from a friend without
stopping, as well.
A
conflict of interests today. On one hand, I’m on call. On the other
hand, I wanted to do at least 50 but didn’t want to waste 50 miles of
effort on a boring orbital route round familiar roads that wouldn’t take
me too far from base.
I wanted to go somewhere reasonably
distant. And since the oncall phone has been silent all week, I decided
to take the chance. Because there was a stiff breeze coming from the
west, I decided to go westward toward King’s Bromley then come home with
a tailwind.
I took the X. I did pretty much the same route I did last time I went over that way 12 days ago – out through Measham, past Netherseal, Coton in the Elms, Walton on Trent and Barton-under-Needwood. I didn’t expect to be rained on but I was for a few minutes, after Measham. After that it was sunshine and a warm breeze all the way, bar a few short cloudy spells.
Stopped for a
snack at Barton – I’d brought a mini pork pie. Sat on the big concrete
block anchoring a wooden post with a sign on it, and noticed a large
moth on the post. It didn’t seem to be bothered by my attention, so I
took a pic.
Cute isn’t he? Or she.
I
turned left at Yoxall down toward King’s Bromley, then after 21 miles,
decided to turn back at a roundabout. I was getting slightly nervous
about the phone going off despite my earlier bravado. As soon as I
turned and the headwind disappeared, things became markedly more
tranquil and I started to warm up a bit. Once again I’d slightly
overdressed. But feeling too warm on a bike will seem like a luxury
three months from now.
Came back the same way and stopped for a
break near Netherseal. At this point the batteries in my eTrex died but
it had done its job; I was back on familiar turf and no longer in need
of technology-assisted navigation. I wasn’t using it to record the
track. It really had made life a lot easier than last time I rode out
that way.
Rather than continuing on to Measham, I turned down the
A444. I wasn’t sure how far down Twycross was, but bolting a
part-Twycrosser onto my ride would extend it nicely. However when I came
to a large roundabout I realised I was near Appleby Magna so I went
across to Snarestone from there, and continued down to Twycross via the
usual method, down Ashby Road.
Again though on a whim I executed a
slight change of plan just before Twycross and took a left to Bilstone
and Congerstone along Bilstone Road. Up through Shakerstone and
Swepstone, but I took the long way home from there, looping left round
Packington and coming back along Ashby Rd over Alton Hill (not the same
Ashby Rd – there are at least five of them on my usual cycle routes).
After
about 50 miles on Gallows Lane I started to feel a bit knackered –
mostly because I was too warm I think – but half an oat bar and seven
minutes’ rest later, I was fine.
I’d done 55.30 by the time I got
back which is pretty much what I was aiming for. Not bad considering
the conspicuous random element of this one.
Knees are feeling a touch tender know but they did OK. I have this next week off and will try for a Fondo over the next few days. The weather has settled a bit though it’s still a bit blowy. I really want to go out east though, so I’ll just have to put up with a headwind on the way back.
The weather forecast for tomorrow looks dismal and since I may not be
able to ride on Thursday due to commitments in London, I decided I’d go
out and enjoy the sunshine for 15 miles or so, foregoing my usual day’s
break between rides but not wanting to overdo it.
My knees felt a
bit more tender than they would have done tomorrow, but they were OK. I
went out through Ibstock, Ellistown and Bagworth since it’s mostly
flat. A bit urban, but endearingly level.
At the end of
Barlestone Road I turned right rather than left, which would have been
the usual option for Kirkby Mallory, Earl Shilton Potters Marston et al.
I guessed I’d probably find myself over by Odstone and the road north
of Bosworth, which would have been lovely for a sunny evening. But I
didn’t, in fact a few miles later I realised I’d turned back on myself
and was returning home the way I came through Ellistown.
A
bizarre occurrence in Ellistown on the way down. The road through
Ellistown itself is as wide as anything and I was certainly adequately
close to the side of the road, but a middle-aged bloke in a Micra
insisted on crawling behind me, as if I was holding him up. He had
plenty of room to overtake. When he finally did he offered a robust two
finger gesture as he passed! Dickhead.
Anyway – 15.07 miles, 182 this month. Looking at the forecast, I might not get a chance to go cycling again until Sunday.
I’d intended to break my four day cycling drought with a Twycross, but
shortly after setting off, changed my mind and steered the X up through
Coleorton and Melbourne.
I’d really wanted to do a trip out east but conditions were breezy, and I’d have had an irritating headwind to cope with on the return leg. So I pretty much did the same as last time, up over Swarkestone Bridge then left along past Stenson, through Willington and along to Hilton. The headwind going west wasn’t actually nearly as bad as I expected.
I stopped on the bridge to take a
pic. Possibly a bit of an error as I had a long wait for an acceptable
gap in the flowing river of motor traffic, so I could continue my
journey northward.
Went
a bit further west this time and turned back on the outskirts of
Hilton. I was quite amused to pass a Chinese restaurant called the
Mandarin Hilton.
Decided to come back a slightly different way
after coming back over the bridge, to avoid the brutal southward climb
south of Melbourne, and to hang on to the tailwind for a bit. Instead I
headed eastward to Donington, turning south after Isley Walton to join
what used to be the route home from the office.
Nice weather, mostly warm and sunny. I didn’t mind the breeze.
I’ve
been so impressed by the new mirror on the Boardman that I bought one
for the X as well. About 8g heavier than the combined weight of the
mirror and bar end plug that it replaced, but – it’s not a lot, is it? I
found that I readjusted the old one quite frequently, this one I can
just leave alone once it’s set up right. Most people wouldn’t have that
problem, though. I’m a bit susceptible to OCD.
