Not at work today. The roads were wet from overnight precipitation as usual but it wasn’t due to rain today, so I thought I’d do 30 or 40 on the Boardman. A moderate wind was coming from the west and I wanted to do something different for a change so I headed westward, through Measham, Netherseal, Coton in the Elms. I don’t go over that way often so it was a nice change.
I hadn’t bothered to bring the eTrex so I was navigating from memory but didn’t take any wrong turns. By the time I got to Walton on Trent I was weighing up the feasibility of pressing on all the way to Stafford Bingley Hall for a sentimental pilgrimage, but I decided against that firstly because I didn’t have a debit card or cash on me so my refuelling options were limited to a mini pork pie and oat bar, secondly because I assessed that it would be considerably colder after sunset – and thirdly, because I’d have to navigate using my phone.
Conditions
were intermittently sunny and relatively mild. Had to pedal through a
few shallow rivers running across the road. The route between Coton and
Walton is quite muddy and gritty at the moment. I’ll go through
Rosliston next time.
Got as far as a roundabout south-west of
Yoxall. Went straight over it but the road there degenerated into a very
crappy little track quite quickly, so I turned around. Had a bit of a
look further up into Yoxall then came back homeward the same way.
I’d
done my best to memorise the turns on the way out and this strategy
worked quite well; no mistakes. Once back east of Measham and on
familiar territory I took a different way home through Packington and
along Alton Hill.
Very nice run out. Only 44.56 miles but it felt
like a bit of an adventure. I always feel a bit out of my comfort zone a
bit when I go out west, not sure why really. Perhaps it’s just
familiarity but I feel a lot further from home 20 miles west of where I
live than 20 miles south. Something to do with territorial psychology.
My right knee felt a bit sore after I got back but nothing overly concerning. It had done 110 miles over the previous 54 hours and I’m happy with the way it coped. The knee situation does seem to be improving, still. I wouldn’t say I’ve turned a corner but I’m on a long bend.
Anyway – that’s 301 this month and 4202 this year. Would be really nice if I could do another 184 before the end of the month because that would take me to 20,000 miles over the last five years exactly. But I doubt that family commitments and weather conditions in the rest of 2019 will allow that.
I got up early this morning, with the intention of doing a longish ride.
It had rained heavily overnight but no more rain was expected until
this evening. I knew the roads would be wet and that it would be cold,
but I’d decided to tolerate it.
When I actually looked out of the
front door though I decided that I wasn’t going to tolerate it, after
all. Just too cold and dank. I went back to bed.
By 11-ish though
conditions had brightened up a bit. I mounted the Boardman at about
11:08. The wind was blowing from the south today, meaning that I
wouldn’t face a headwind on the way back if I ventured out east. So I
did that; the usual route over to Belvoir Castle.
I thought I’d
do 50 or so; maybe even a Fondo although I knew that would mean riding
in the dark for at least the last few miles. By the time I’d got to Six
Hills I’d more or less decided to do the required 62.14 for the December
Fondo.
Just
after 23 miles, with about 8 to do before turning back for home I took a
left turn on a whim. I thought I’d do 8 along wherever that led me,
then come back. I reached a T junction after a couple of miles though.
Turned right and reached another T junction, on the A406 at a place
called Upper Broughton. This had been a pleasant detour along a
well-surfaced, not too hilly, post-apocalyptically quiet road – but I
wasn’t going to get 8 miles out of it so decided to turn back for the
main route at this point. I did the maths, continued on the main road
out east for another 5 miles or so (a bit more than I needed for a
Fondo) and turned for home near Long Clawson.
I’d been thinking
of stopping at the Greyhound at Burton on the Wolds as usual for a late
lunch and possibly a beer, but decided to press on and make the most of
the remaining 40 minutes of light. The sun set at 15:52 round these
parts today, as indeed it does tomorrow. The earliest sunsets of 2019.
Stopped
to put a head torch on about 4 miles from home, and a minute later the
rain, threatened for about 7pm, turned up early. It was coming down
quite fast. Not a lot of fun pedalling in the cold and dark with your
clothing starting to saturate and cold rain lashing off your face. But
as I always say – I choose to do these things not because they are easy.
But because I am hard. And at least it was only 4 miles!
Back on
65.67 miles. I was slightly concerned that my Garmin watch was going to
run out of juice over the last 15 miles when it was on a single bar on
the battery indicator, but it didn’t.
I trialled some new cycling
socks on this ride. Very comfy and bigger than the ones I bought in a
sale from Halfords a few years ago. I thought I’d ordered a pack of
three pairs from Amazon, but six pairs turned up. I suppose I must have
ordered them twice accidentally.
Quite a lot of standing water
and the fields near the rivers still look waterlogged. The River Soar at
Zouch has spilled over its banks and formed a sort of lake on the
Nottinghamshire border. Had to pedal through water about an inch deep
near Cotes, and got sprayed by an oncoming car.
Didn’t want to waste a day with no rain. And with the thought expressed
in the last paragraph of my previous post foremost in my mind, I decided
I’d take the Planet X out today, and stop babying it so much. However
as I approached the garage it became evident that the roads were
actually pretty wet. So I took the hybrid instead.
Wasn’t sure
how many I wanted to do – 30 or 40. The wind was coming from the south
rather than the west today, so I headed out east. The usual route out
through Six Hills and toward Belvoir Castle and Lincs, but I didn’t
intend to go nearly that far.
I stopped for a wee along Stanford
Lane, after about 14.5 miles – then decided I’d turn for home. I
reckoned that if I took the longer route home through Long Whatton and
Diseworth, I’d end up on a bit more than 30 miles. I did that. It was
31.41, as it turned out.
The hybrid was fine; I still haven’t
fixed the gears nearly two years after I changed out the cable but it’s
very usable. I did run out of steam on the way back and had to stop for a
rest and a half oat bar. I’m sure the bike’s weight contributed to
that.
Sunny on the way out, went a bit gloomy later and started to rain a bit. Back well before dark this time.
191
this month, 4092 this year which is only a few miles off my most
recently defined target, 4100 miles. But I hope to do at least another
110 or so before 2020 kicks in.
Saw a couple of young deer
crossing the road ahead of me near Zouch. I thought they were dogs at
first but I had a clear view of them in the woods to my right as I
passed; definitely deer. Quite small, one with stubby antlers, the other
without. Also not far from Zouch I noticed a bit of a flood due to a
blocked drain. I stopped and prodded down the grate with a stick I found
lying nearby, but it didn’t help the situation much. I pushed the stick
in quite deep but it was just pushing into mud.
Over a year ago I
asked my physio what she thought my chances were of doing 100+ mile
rides again. She said that if I could do 40+ miles on consecutive days
without hurting myself, that would be a positive sign. I haven’t
actually done that but I have no doubt that I could have done another
10. So I’m encouraged.
Looked dry enough out this morning. Togged myself up in my cold weather
cycling gear, prepared a pod with an oat bar and pork pie, water bottle,
DAB radio – then I looked out of the window again and it was raining.
Decided
against it and put my shorts and t shirt back on. An hour later though
it had stopped and the weather forecast told me I had a decent chance of
acceptable weather over a few hours, so I put my cycling togs back on
and withdrew the Boardman again. The roads were a bit wet and it was
cold. It was fairly windy. But the sun was shining and the rain clouds
had given way to blue skies.
Wasn’t sure where I wanted to go so I
defaulted to a Twycross. Thought I’d do about 40 miles or so. Too cold
for anything much longer, although I had good lights on me in case I did
stay out longer than I’d intended.
Took a right turn not long
after Snarestone, to do the longer Orton extension – however I took a
wrong turn at Norton. Arrived at the A444 expecting to be at a
crossroads, but found myself at a T junction. So I followed the A444
down to Twycross. Hadn’t been on that stretch of the A444 before I don’t
think, but it was fine. Not too busy.
Did the shorter Orton detour to Sheepy from Twycross.
From
there I went to Ratcliffe hoping to do Atterton Lane via Mythe Lane,
but as I half expected, Mythe Lane was flooded. I tracked back and
carried on the old-fashioned way through Ratcliffe Culey then down to
Fenn Lanes where I picked up a nice tailwind. Would have taken a pic of
the flood but realised that my phone had a flat battery when I tried to
power it up.
Pretty much the standard way home from there, up through Bosworth, Barton, Odstone, Heather.
I
checked my watch near Bosworth to find that I’d done about 33 miles and
would likely be home on less than 40 miles, which was a bit
disappointing. But then I remembered that I hadn’t switched “Ultratrac”
mode off since last time I used it, so had probably done a couple more
than that.
My left cleat failed to engage properly with the pedal
over the whole ride, annoyingly. It was comfortable enough but it
wouldn’t stay locked in. Will replace it tomorrow; it’s worn down.
The watch claimed 37.33 miles as I arrived home. Strava’s distance correction modified that to 40.69, but it was actually 41.59.
Listened to footy on 5 Live for most of the ride. Can’t see anyone catching Liverpool now.
So:
159 in December, happy enough with that for half-way through the month.
There’s still lots of rain in the forecast for the next week or two
though.
I
wonder if I should buy a second winter bike. The Boardman is running
fine at the moment but it’s something of a Winter Bike Single Point of
Failure, not counting the hybrid which is a bit of a last resort. It’s
also done more than twice as many miles as any of my other bikes this
year.
My knees hadn’t had their customary day off, but the sun was shining and
the weather is a bit forbidding for the rest of the week, so I took a
long lunch break and did a Twycrosser. Set off at 15:10 so about half
the ride was performed in darkness, but I enjoy an occasional run out in
the dark, especially with a bit of moonlight. Took a decent head torch.
I still haven’t bought an oncoming-motorist-retribution model yet.
A
very typical Twycross really – down to Sheepy, across to Bosworth and
up through Carlton and Barton. I’d actually only intended to do 15 or 20
but I did 23.62. And that takes me through the 4,000 mile barrier, to
4019 miles.
Because it was a relatively short ride, I lazily
didn’t bother with my overshoes and was punished for it; my feet felt
like blocks of ice over the last 7 or 8 miles. Thawing out nicely now.
As
I returned to the garage, I noticed that another mouse had met its end
in there, presumably overnight. Looked mercifully quick. 21-0.
Although it had rained overnight, the roads weren’t really that wet
today. And it wasn’t too cold. It was most definitely windy, though.
Since
I’m on call again today I didn’t want to venture too far from base. But
I wanted to do 47.46 miles, because that would take me to 4,000 miles
in 2019. I set off on the Boardman at 10:55, with the vague idea of
going south for 10 miles or so, then turning to go up to Melbourne or
Ticknall, then back home southward.
That’s not actually what I
did, though. I took an indirect route to Bosworth, then from there to
Shenton and Sutton Cheney, where I decided to go along Fenn Lanes all
the way down and across to Fenny Drayton. From there I went north to
Sibson, then Sheepy Magna and back up through Twycross – a sort of
reverse Twycross, with an eastward bulge.
I’d picked up a few spots of rain but mostly, the sun was shining. And the wind only really bothered me when going west.
Took
the following pic along Ambion Lane between Bosworth and Cheney. I
don’t believe I’ve ever been along there before. Certainly I have no
memory of passing the Battle of Bosworth visitor’s centre, as I did
today. And yet it seems the obvious route from Shenton to Bosworth, and
I’m sure I’ve been through Shenton to Bosworth before. Odd. Must have a
look through my old tracks.
I
went all the way up to Packington, thinking of making my way up to
Melbourne from there. I thought I might even end up doing a Fondo. So I
turned to pedal up through Coleorton, toward Melbourne. At that point
the rain started to come down. It hadn’t been forecast for the
afternoon. It didn’t last long to be fair but conditions had gone a bit
gloomy by this time. And since it was cold and due to get dark before
long, and since I was on call anyway, I decided to call it a day and
came home again, through Newbold and back down through Coleorton.
I
used my Garmin Instinct to track the ride in ‘Ultratrac’ mode. This is a
power-saving mode that records your position at a much lower frequency.
I believe it interpolates points using the inbuilt compass. This sort
of works – it does record a very rough version of the track, as you can
see from this Strava screenshot:
..
but predictably, it does rob you of distance. I knew it was doing this
when I reached my ‘2 miles from home’ landmark in Ibstock, and the watch
claimed 1.8.
Initially after I uploaded the track, Strava
alleged that I’d done 36.93. The Strava distance correction facility
modified that to 41.35. In fact though the route planner tells me that I
did 42.61 at a minimum, so that’s the figure that’s gone in the
spreadsheet.
Ultratrac mode is not that useful to me, really. I
might use it in an emergency or maybe to record a long car journey, just
to work out the route I’d taken after the fact. But for a really long
bike ride, if I ever do one again, I’d use my Foretrex which can be
replenished with energy in the form of AAA batteries without
interrupting a track.
Still a few miles short of 4000 then. 94
this month, 3995 this year. Would be nice to think there’ll be a dry,
mild day for the December Fondo, but I won’t be too bothered if I don’t
do that.
Amusingly,
Strava claims that my average speed for this ride was 18.8mph, and my
maximum 43.8mph. I assume the Ultratrac recording method has messed with
it somewhat.
I may go out again tomorrow on a long lunch break, the forecast says sunshine and 8 degrees C in the afternoon.
Took a long lunch break and did a Twycross. 25.05 miles; that’s 51 this month.
I
wouldn’t say it was mild exactly, but it was on the mild side of cold.
It was certainly sunny. The roads were mostly wet though; I assume from
thawed frost as I don’t think it’s rained this last day or two. Quite an
enjoyable run out.
As you can see from my shadow, I take a 64 inch inside leg. So hard finding jeans to fit.
Back
well before sunset. No interesting wildlife of note save a crow (or
some sort of corvid anyway) pulling long stringy bits out of a roadkill
pheasant. Yuck.
I relubed the Boardman, then after leaving work early, took it on one of the many possible variations of the route I call the Twycrosser. Continued on to Sheepy Magna and Ratcliffe. Came back along Gibbet Lane.
My knees, the right one especially, haven’t completely recovered from doing 64 on Saturday, but I thought 25 or 30 wouldn’t hurt. And they didn’t. Much. I won’t be doing a long one for a while anyway.
Dark not long after 4pm, but I had a powerful torch affixed to my handlebars. So atmospheric in the open in the moonlight.
A few oncoming cars dazzled me with full beam. Once or twice I retaliated by swivelling the torch up a bit, and that did have the desired effect of getting them to dip their lights. I decided that I’d look on Amazon this evening for the most brutal, focused beam, retina-melting head torch I can find. I don’t care if it costs £200, I just want to be able to blind inconsiderate oncoming drivers with a casual, carefully aimed tilt of my head. Maybe a laser pointer strapped to a helmet is the answer.
Saw a young deer running along the side of the road, just in the trees next to the road while it was still light, a mile or so north of Twycross. I thought it was a dog at first but it was propelling itself forward with big springy leaps and bounds.
The roads were a bit wet. A bit misty later on. It was a bit cold. I did 26.34. So that’s December off to a decent start.
Only 173 to go for my 2019 target of 4100, but I want to do 300 this month.
I wanted to do about 40 miles today, though as I observed in my previous post, I wasn’t sure the weather would permit it.
Cold and foggy when I withdrew the Boardman from the garage at about 0930, but I hoped the fog would lift. I headed out East again, following the Belvoir Castle / Lincolnshire route. Pretty much my default route for a longer trip these days. It has the advantage of being pleasant and decently surfaced, and I’ve memorised the route. It has a cracking pub stop 18 miles from home, as well.
This time I went out through Coleorton rather than through Coalville.
After about 10 miles, with a film of frosty mist forming on my glasses, gloves and clothing, I decided I’d turn back for home after about 15, to clock up 30 miles. But by the time I’d reached the 15 mile point the sun came out, and the temperature climbed a degree or two. The fog was still persisting but I hoped the sun would burn it off. It did seem to thin out slightly and a few miles later I did emerge into bright sunshine. I decided to press on and do at least 50 miles. A few miles later I’d decided to keep going until Eastwell, and rack up another Fondo.
Unfortunately a few miles from Eastwell I ran into more fog. I could actually see it in the distance a few miles ahead, smothering the landscape like a ground level cloud, which I suppose is exactly what it was. I kept on anyway and turned back in the middle of the village.
Must admit I didn’t feel particularly safe cycling in those conditions and I didn’t think my rear light was making a lot of difference. I was disconcerted to see a cyclist emerge from the fog about 35 feet in front of me, coming the other way. I’d had no idea he was there at all until then. Didn’t really fancy materialising in similar circumstances in front of an overtaking car.
Sadly, the patches of bright sunshine and clear conditions that I was looking forward to reacquainting myself with on the way back had somehow vanished, but it wasn’t consistent thick fog all the way. Conditions varied from pea-souper to vaguely misty. At times it was literally like riding into and out of a cloud.
Stopped to take the following pic a few miles after turning back and as I did so, an old bird on a bike pedalled past with the words “it’s right thick up ‘ere, in’t it?” I do use the term “old bird” with a degree of humility as she could well have been my own age. She wasn’t wrong. As I set off I thought of overtaking her and riding a few metres in front, so that she’d absorb the impact from a vehicle coming up behind us. But she was going a bit too slow for that.
I stopped at my favourite pit stop 18 miles from home, the Greyhound pub at Burton on the Wolds, and ate inside this time. As I ordered my customary ciabatta at the bar, I found that my powers of speech had been degraded. My voice didn’t seem to be obeying my brain and my speech came out slurred and slow, as if I had a mild case of cerebral palsy. I was more than slightly concerned by this but I seemed to be able at least to think straight.
I was fine a few minutes later when I exchanged a few friendly words with one of the bar staff. When I got home I mentioned this to ‘er indoors and she laughed, saying that she’d had the same experience a few times when her face had been exposed to low temperatures for a prolonged period. I’d never experienced it before myself. Or heard of it.
Another thing I’d never heard of – a “fog bow”, near Six Hills. A sort of thick rainbow, but fuzzy white, and appearing much closer – the end of it appeared to be in the field I was cycling past. Wikipedia confirmed for me that these are a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_bow
It occurred to me as I entered the Greyhound that I’d done 46 miles without a snack of any kind; not even a bite out of an oat bar. Not sure I’ve ever done that. I’d only had a couple of slices of toast and coffee for breakfast, as well. Didn’t even feel particularly hungry. Odd.
The temperature seemed to drop a bit after I left there and I was a bit uncomfortable from that point, but still in good spirits. Quite happy to have got in another Fondo. Probably haven’t had a triple-Fondo November before. I was actually pleased when the daylight dimmed a bit from 3:30pm or so, because that made my rear light a bit more conspicuous and I felt safer.
Because my glasses got covered in moisture from the fog fairly quickly I had to ride most of the way without them on but apart from not being able to see my watch, that was OK. I could make out the distance on the bike computer.
Home a few minutes after sunset.
The roads were a bit wet here and there but no road-wide puddles or running water, apart from the section near Cotes that always seems to be like that. I assaulted the bike with GT85 again on my return. Bit annoying as I only lubed it yesterday. Was quite pleased with how well my knees did; they’re still slightly ruined but they coped fine with 64.65 miles. My sense is that they’d do 85 or 90 at the moment without too much bother, but I can’t imagine I’ll be testing that theory in the next month or two.
Well – I’d been intending to do at least 40 miles tomorrow, although I
don’t know if the rather cold conditions will permit that. But I can’t
resist a sunny afternoon so I thought I’d go out and do 15 or so today,
as well.
The roads are a bit wet and muddy, partly from thawed
frost I think. It’s cold out there but at least it’s not windy. I used
my Garmin watch but annoyingly it took a long time to locate itself from
the satellite signals, so much so that my patience ran out and I set
off before it was ready. I think that GPS devices use previously cached
data to pick up their position more quickly, so it’s probably normal for
a new one. I must have a read about how that works.
Anyway it locked onto the satellites after about .15 miles. I’ve added that to the spreadsheet.
I
took the hybrid again since I intended a short ride. Apart from that
I’d just cleaned out and lubed the chain on the Boardman and didn’t want
it getting wet and muddy immediately afterwards. I did a sort of
truncated Twycross. Really nice out there apart from the temperature.
17.91
miles. I will go out tomorrow as well, hopefully the roads will be a
bit less wet and mucky. Perhaps a pub stop to warm up a bit is in order.
