Another early exit from work, hadn’t thought much about where to go so I
thought I’d just do the same reverse Twycross again. Much cooler today,
cloudy and a little breezy. I wrapped up warmish with leggings on and
three layers of jersey. It rained this morning and I thought there might
be the odd puddle (there wasn’t) so I took the Boardman.
Quite
enjoyable. But as I neared the turning point along Fenn Lanes, I decided
to keep on keeping on and just go round the usual, mostly circular
route. I extended it a mile or two by taking the Newton Burgoland /
Swepstone route into Heather, rather than along Newton Road.
I
forgot to bring the bike computer out of the house and was using a
phone in my pocket to record the track, so I wasn’t sure how many miles
I’d done as I arrived back at the garage. 34.79, a bit less than the 37
I’d intended but I was on a heavier bike, and in heavier clothing. So
that’ll do.
Noticed as I pedalled along Fenn Lanes that a field
on my right had about 12 light aircraft in it, including some brightly
coloured biplanes, all visible through the trees and hedgerow at the
side of the road. Google Maps tells me this is “Stoke Golding Airfield”.
I’ve certainly never seen an aircraft take off or land there. Must be
some sort of event happening there, in fact yep – just Googled it, and
it’s the “Midland Air Festival”.
My knees were a wee bit tender but they didn’t suffer on the climbs. I think 36 or 37 is my limit for now.
Also,
I hadn’t been through Newton Burgoland for a while. It’s been spruced
up with some new signage on smart wooden posts, but a pub there that I’m
fond of, the Belper Arms, looked to be closed for some reason – the car
park was empty at 7:25.
Anyway. That’s me on 193 miles this month and 89 to do before June to reach my target.
A sunny summer’s day with nary a waft of wind – so since I had an
opportunity to leave work early, I took it – with the aim of doing 37
miles or so.
I’d spent an improper proportion of the day when
I should have been working devising a 37 mile route on the Strava route
planner, though none I came up with seemed particularly desirable. I
thought of extending the 35 mile longish Twycross that goes through
Witherley, but couldn’t think of a pleasing way to do that.
Then
a light bulb went on in my head. Why not do the Twycross, but after
exactly half the distance I wanted, just stop and come back the other
way?
This had three distinct advantages.
I’d get to visit my favourite secluded wee spot twice
I could get my distance to the exact requirement in a predictable manner
I’d get to do the really flat stretch near Witherley twice
I also thought it would be fun to do, and a bit different.
So
I did that; an experimental non-circular Twycross. I dressed in light
gear, took it easy, soaked up the summer sunshine and the Leicestershire
countryside ambience, and had a marvellous time. Although I’d replaced
the front inner on the Planet X yesterday, I took the Cannondale. I
never quite trust a new inner tube (I’m the same with gear cables and
cleats) and didn’t want a lovely afternoon marred by another flat.
I
actually stopped after 18.7 miles, rather than the 18.5 I’d intended.
At the 18.5 point I was freewheeling down a gentle incline so I thought I
might as well soak up a bit more distance while it was free, albeit I’d
have to pedal a bit further on the way back.
Doing a familiar
route in reverse can be disorienting and the southern end of this one
isn’t that familiar, so I thought I’d probably have to consult a map.
But I didn’t. The challenge of remembering the way back (Until the turn
for Sheepy, easy after that) put a fun spin on my ride. I have done a
reverse Twycross before and I’d forgotten how much easier it is to go
from Twycross – Snarestone rather than the other way round. It’s all
very gently downhill.
Really had a lovely time and my knees did
really well. I’d love to be able to write one of these without
repeatedly referring to the joints between my thighs and lower legs, but
apparently I can’t.
I also had a nice view of the Moon in a blue
sky. Always cheers me up for some reason, the Moon and Sun being out at
the same time. I don’t know why.
37.65 which takes me well
over half of May’s target with half the month left, so that’s good. I
shall definitely do this one again. It’s very easy to extend as well as I
increase my distances, by pushing further along Fenn Lanes before
turning back. And the Atterton Lane bit is very quiet and pleasant.
What
a luxury it seems to be able to go out for hours after work, and be
back while it’s still broad daylight. I must say though, the longer days
seem to have come round very fast this year. I’m reminded of Rod
Stewart’s wise words that life is a bit like a toilet roll – it runs out
really quickly when you get nearer the end.
In
other news: noticed that the stem bolts on the Boardman are showing a
bit of rust so I bought some new titanium ones. But they’re so nice
looking that I think I’ll put them on the Cannondale, and the Boardman
can get the Cannondale’s hand-me-downs.
Oh yes, and while
playing with the route planner I found a promising 18 mile stretch of
road that’s pretty flat, SW of Derby. Might be worth doing a few lengths
of that as a proof of concept for a flat Fondo in Norfolk.
Thought I’d do 15 after work to see how I’d cope with a shortish ride
without taking a day off. I intended to do the first seven of the ride I
did yesterday, then the same seven back. Nice enough weather but
unfortunately those first few miles are a bit urban in that direction,
and I had rush hour traffic to contend with. It was a bit blowy as well.
I did get knee pain from the off but nothing serious, and they coped OK.
Anyway
once I reached the 7 mile point I decided I wasn’t coming back the same
way, so I took what I thought was a detour but in fact ended up being a
slight shortcut. Certainly more pleasant though, for the couple of
miles until I was back on the same track then it was back to the dust
and traffic.
Not much fun really, and to cap it all the bike
seemed to start handling a bit funny a few hundred metres from home. I
weaved left and right a bit to test the steering and sure enough it had
gone slightly anarchic. Closer inspection revealed that I had a front
puncture. So I hoisted the bike to shoulder height and clogged home in
cleats, taking a short cut across the village green.
Could
have been worse! Gave the front wheel a few revolutions under careful
scrutiny and it’s still spinning true, so I don’t think running on a
flat for whatever distance has done it any harm. The road didn’t even
feel particularly rough, funnily enough.
Anyway – a
tragically truncated 14.52 miles. 15 miles is the arbitrary point at
which I excuse myself rowing machine duties, so that’s unfortunate.
I wanted to do 36 or so today. Lovely sunny day for it, and I set off on the Cannondale at about 12:50. Decided I’d do the first 18 miles or so of the new lower-elevation route I’ve devised to Northamptonshire, then the same 18 miles back.
Cooler than I
expected when I set off in bare legs, but I had two long sleeve layers
on on top, and soon warmed up in the May sunshine. Once again I had the
eTrex to assist with navigation. What a luxury that would have seemed 20
years ago; a handlebar-mounted electronic map that pinpoints your
position and gives you distance done and distance to go. I prefer it to
using a phone as the LCD screen is very readable in strong sunlight and
the AA batteries last for many hours.
Had to contend with
clouds of greenfly near Desford – my jersey was covered with the little
buggers by the time I’d emerged from it. And I saw some kind of small
stoat creature crossing the road rapidly about 20 metres in front of me,
near Thurlaston. It seemed to have an improbably bulbous head, but in
retrospect perhaps it was carrying something it had just killed? That
was the only wildlife of note on this trip, anyway.
The plan
was to take a small detour at the bottom end of the ride, to a village
called Stoney Stanton. I was curious to see it because it featured
briefly on a programme from 1972 that I happened to watch a couple of
weeks ago, a sort of travelogue following a car journey from London to
Manchester using an A road route.
So I took a right along a
road called Watery Gate Lane, but half a mile later was met by a rather
impassable ford. So I turned back the way I’d come and back onto the
main route. I briefly considered navigating to Stoney Stanton a
different way, but in conjunction with the pointless mile I’d just done,
this would have added 4 or 5 miles and I wasn’t comfortable doing that
many at this stage. I settled for a village called Croft instead, where I
spent a happy ten minutes lounging on a bench in the sun.
Took
a brief detour along Kirkby Lane on the way back, partly because I
needed a surreptitious and quiet spot for a wee – but also because I
wanted to add a mile or so, as at that point it looked like I’d be back
home on about 35 – and I’m doing my best to extend my distances by 2
miles a week.
As I visited the contents of my bladder onto a
clump of nettles, 5 Live reported that Brighton had gone one up on City –
which promised to make the remaining football coverage a bit more
interesting, but not for long. By the time I had mounted my bike again
City had equalised, and three or four miles further up the road, they
were in front.
My knees held up pretty well – a bit sore now
as expected but the only time I felt any trauma or pain was when pushing
up a brief but steep hill approaching Desford. Encouraging, for now
anyway. I’m assuming I’ll get MRI results in the next week or two.
36.09, 106 done this month. I still have 176 to do to meet this month’s target, but the weather looks good for a few days.
I’d been thinking of doing Sutton Bonington and back today, because it’s
a relatively low elevation route and my knee was a bit tender after
Saturday’s 35 miles. And perhaps I should have, because my knee does
feel a bit worse for wear now. But I didn’t. A few days ago I devised a
different way to do Northamptonshire and back that’s not only less
hilly than my usual way, but a bit quieter as well, not involving
skirting the southern end of Leicester. So I planned a route for today
that would try out the first 16 miles or so, then come back a different
way.
A lot of this was unknown to me, so I uploaded the route to
my Etrex for handlebar-mounted navigation. And it turned out to be a
really nice adventure, exploring territory where I hadn’t boldy gone
before. Mostly. I did remember one road junction at the southern end of
the route from a ride I did one Christmas Eve, probably at the end of
2017. Must have a look through this thread and find out what inspired me
to go down that way. I certainly didn’t take the same route anyway.
Cold
when I set off, so I wrapped up warm. But although I’d been led to
expect by the BBC forecast that the temperature wouldn’t improve much,
in fact it did later on, quite a bit when the sun came out. Fortunately I
had a backpack to stuff my gloves, balaclava and woolly hat into.
Pleased
to report that the Boardman is running nicely on its new chain and
cassette, with no sign of the judder that prompted me to replace them.
The
knees did OK mostly; they did complain a bit over the last few miles
but not too serious. Looks like the weather will enforce a few days off
anyway. 34.67 miles, which takes me to a modest 70 this month.
If
I ever do a Northamptonshire & Back again, I’d certainly go down
that way. It’s only half a mile longer but inherently nicer, and
involves less climbing.
I took the newly-lubricated X out on roads west that I’ve done a few times in the past, but usually as part of longer routes (eg to Stafford and Wales), and not in the last couple of years (I don’t think).
So after about 5.5 miles of my usual Twycross route I took a right west to Appleby Magna, rather than continuing straight down to Twycross. Really quite enjoyable initially, especially on the quiet road along to Appleby and I found myself wondering why I don’t do that route more often. The answer came later, as I crossed into Warwickshire then Staffordshire – the road between No Man’s Heath and Clifton is just too lumpy. It’s decently surfaced, not crumbly or damaged but just too momentum-sappingly uneven; you can’t just relax and settle into your rhythm.
Anyway. The plan was to do 17 then come back the same way, and that’s pretty much what I did except that when I hit the 17 mile marker I was on a pleasingly flat stretch, so I pressed on gently for another half mile or so.
Despite its flaws, quite a nice route. Nice weather – mostly sunny apart from a cloudy spell when the temperature dropped quite a bit, and not too cold mostly (I wrapped up warm anyway). I did pick up a couple of spots of rain at Heather, a couple of miles from home but the cloud from whence it had come blew over quickly. Happy memories of my trip to Wales along this route a couple of years ago. I’d love to do that one again one day, not sure if that will be possible though.
I
was well entertained by the football on 5 Live. Spurs went a bit feral
against Bournemouth and had two players sent off so I was pleased to
hear them lose to a late goal. And I was delighted that MK Dons, whom I
have a soft spot for, perhaps due to my British sense of fair play and
wanting to defend people from mean-spiritedness and spite – beat
Mansfield to gain promotion to League One. They very nearly changed
places with AFC Wimbledon, which would have been quite funny.
My Garmin GPS watch lost GPS coverage 3.4 miles from home and never regained it, so I had to synthesise a Part 2.
Never
had that happen before. I’ve had a watch run out of juice or reboot
itself, but never lose satellite coverage so that’s a bit of a mystery. I
may end up buying a new one after all, there’s a new range of
Forerunners out soon. One of them supposedly has a feature that allows
specified contacts to track you in real time but I would assume that it
needs to pair with a phone for that, so you might as well just use a
phone app. However, the battery life looks very impressive even on the
cheaper ones. They double as bluetooth music players as well (again
though, I wouldn’t use a watch for that).
I was hoping to do a route today that is generally north-south in orientation, but it will have to wait for another day as a rather strong northerly is doing its thing today. Wouldn’t be so bad if I’d intended to head north and come back south, but it was the other way round.
I shall head west, come back east. Bit cold out there unfortunately.
I
wanted to do about 34, dutifully extending my default distance by a
couple of miles per physio instructions. But I had a slight headache
induced by drinking about a half bottle of Merlot last night, and it was
worsened during the day by stress induced by having to do a critical
and scary job while being interrupted. Most of my days aren’t like that,
fortunately.
Anyway, predictably I didn’t plan it. I just
set off on a long Twycross and hoped I’d be able to extend it a bit. At
least the weather was nice – sunny, not too windy and almost warm.
Beautiful. I did the same Twycross variation as of late that goes
through Witherley, but with the important difference that I took
Atterton Lane across to Fenn Lanes, instead of taking my life in my
hands on the A5 for a mile.
Not sure if I’d ever been along
Atterton Lane before but it was lovely – a well-surfaced and quiet
single track lane, relatively untroubled by mud.
At
Sheepy, I was surprised to see a 1970s style NYPD patrol car, complete
with all the appropriate paint and stickers. It can’t be legal to drive
around in a car with POLICE emblazoned on the bonnet, can it? A couple
of miles further up, I was equally surprised to see a black & white
US sheriff’s car, with SHERIFF in a large yellow font. Again, in really
good nick and very authentic looking with lights on the roof and
everything. Couldn’t help wondering if rural Leicestershire was doubling
for upstate New York in a budget film production. Or maybe there’s a
local club for owners of replica law enforcement vehicles.
Saw
a few vintage sports cars as well, including a lovely GT40 in sky blue.
I’ve never been a fan of cars really but I’d always recognise one of
those; I had a Scalextric one as a kid. I suppose the GT40 might have
been a replica as well, a kit maybe. All of them stank of petrol fumes
as they burbled past.
So nice to be able to do routes that
take in my favourite benches at Sutton Cheney again. I stopped at the
second one. A couple of years ago when it was brand new it was a glowing
woody brown colour, but it’s weathered light grey now, like Rory
Gallagher’s Strat. By this time I was starting to feel a bit cream
crackered, and I resorted to the gel that I’d brought with me as an
emergency measure. An orange one. It wasn’t that bad actually, despite
being three months past its use by date. This and a bit of a rest perked
me up for a bit but only for seven or eight miles. By this time I was
determined to simply come home by the easiest route, and that’s pretty
much what I did, so I finished up on 32.43 miles.
That
takes me to a pleasing 325 miles this month. A bit surprised actually
to have done only 26 more than last month, but I suppose I did have a
weekend away. Anyway it’s 56 over target all the same, and the highest
monthly total for 12 months.
Lots of cute lambs hopping
around in the fields including a couple of mainly black ones with white
patches that looked like miniature Fresian cows. I also saw a couple of
rabbits.
In other news – had my MRI scan today at
Loughborough’s National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine – on the
campus at the Uni, and a really impressive and modern facility. It just
involved lying still while looking at my reflection in the ceiling.
There are worse ways to spend 20 minutes.
I had thought,
naively, that I’d be sticking my leg into a small scanner the size of a
washing machine, but nope – I was inserted chest deep into a big scanner
on a tray, a bit like Virgil Tracy heading down to Thunderbird 2. Or a
coffin rolling into a furnace, if you want to be morbid.
Results in a few weeks I hope.
I’m
not sure I can be arsed to do 30+ after work regularly, even though it
seems a real luxury to have nice weather and the sun up until 8:30pm.
I’m going to have to just do the longer ones at the weekend and days
off.
I feel knackered now. Going to bed. Hope I’m not coming down with something.
Wanted to do 30+ today. The roads looked a bit moist when I got up and
waiting a few hours for them to dry up wasn’t an option, as I had other
plans for this afternoon. The Boardman is presently missing a chain and
cassette, so – although I did briefly consider taking the X, I finally
decided to give the hybrid its first run out since December 2017. In all
that time I haven’t got round to sorting the gears out since I changed
the rear gear cable, but although you can’t get all the gears it does
still have a usable range, and the changes are fine – slick and
positive.
I gave the chain a good dose of GT-85 and pumped up
the tyres good and hard to squeeze as much rolling resistance out of
them as poss. And actually although it felt bloody heavy, it did roll
along quite pleasantly on the level, and it didn’t struggle too badly up
the climbs.
It’s actually only 4kg heavier than the X and
I’ve lost more body weight than that since Christmas. However there’s
more to it than just the weight. It just feels like a great big
lumbering carthorse of a thing compared to the road bikes.
Anyway
I decided that a regular Twycross of 23 miles or so would be more than
enough and that’s what I did, 22.54 miles to be precise.
Cool, cloudy morning but I wrapped up warm. Hadn’t thought I’d be back in winter gear again so soon. Still – nice ride out.
A
young girl attempted to sell me some lemonade from a stand she’d set up
with her friend as I pedalled through Sibson, but since I didn’t have
any cash I declined. Would be nice to think she’d had a few customers
but in weather like that in a quiet little village, I would be
surprised. Quite an optimistic venture, I thought.
Since my
Forerunner 10’s battery gave up the ghost I’ve been thinking of treating
myself to a new GPS watch. The ones I have tend to be fiddly or
cumbersome to use, or need Windows to transfer data, which amounts to
the same thing. But I’ve found an Android app for my Garmin 310XT that
allows me to grab the data and upload it to Strava from my phone
reliably and quickly, so it has a new lease of life. Cost about £4 but
well worth it. The last app I was using for that was really slow and
flaky and typically took three or four retries to work properly.
Anyway – 292 done this month and hopefully more on Tuesday. The weather looks ideal, about 18C and not much wind.
Took a combined late lunch and early exit from work at about 15:35, and
removed the X from the garage with the intention of doing a Twycross of
roughly 30 miles’ distance. In fact although I didn’t intend to, I did
exactly the same route as last time, through Witherley and Fenny
Drayton. By the time I’d got to Sheepy I thought it might be fun to see
if I could remember the route. And I did.
This was quite a
different experience from Saturday, though. Cloudy and cooler, though
still warm enough for shorts. But I had to contend with a bastard
headwind the whole length of Fenn Lanes. I thought (or hoped) it would
dissipate once I took the left turn into Cadeby, but nope. It was
tolerable after Bosworth though, coming a more direct north. But I got
it in the face again when I turned east toward Ibstock at Odstone.
Despite
the headwind I consciously went a bit quicker than on Sunday, and got
round 12 minutes quicker (by “moving time”). For some reason I recorded a
slightly shorter distance though, 31.82 miles.
That sees me past my April target by 1 mile though, so I’m happy about that.
For
reasons that are not known to me, there’s a fibreglass cow peeking
through the hedgerow on one side of Fenn Lanes. It’s been there for
years but recently it’s been sporting a cycle helmet, so I stopped for a
selfie.
I noticed that it’s also adorned with Christmas tree lights.
Presumably
due to a combination of increased speed and the headwind compared to
Sunday, my right knee did start feeling a bit sore after Sutton Cheney.
But nothing troubling.
I am supposed, per my physio’s advice,
to increase my distances by 2 miles per week. I’m notionally on 30
miles at the moment (I allowed myself another couple on this route
because it has long flattish stretches). But I’m not always going to
find the time to do 32+ miles three or more times a week, so I guess my
strategy will be to increase the elevation instead. Perhaps I can come
up with a rough formula as a guide. I’ll think about that.