Another nice day yesterday. Left work at 16:45, with a mission to do at
least 45 miles, to get my monthly total up to 300. Decided to go up
through Melbourne and over Swarkestone Bridge, then a nice long run west
along the river south of Derby, which would give me a bit of a headwind
on the way back.
I took a longer route on the outward leg, up Top Brand and through Isley Walton. Intermittently cloudy and sunny, but really lovely when the sun was out. Having done the necessary mental arithmetic, I turned back at Hatton. Came back the usual way after Swarkestone Bridge, this time.
I
listened to the footy on 5 Live. Nice to hear that Liverpool were
giving it a go against Chelsea – I suppose they didn’t want to receive
the trophy immediately following a defeat – but the real highlight was
the final night of the Championship, with various clubs slipping in and
out of the promotion and relegation places on the “as it stands” table
every few minutes. Unbelievably, Nottingham Forest were beaten to a
place in the playoffs by a goal difference of 1 by Swansea, having been 5
goals in front on that basis at the beginning of their games.
Kind
of hard to keep up with it all while listening to the radio on a bike.
If I’d been at home I’d probably have been nerding out at my computer,
keeping abreast of it with several browsers open on two screens.
Back about 15 mins before sunset, by which time it was beautifully quiet out there.
46.15 miles, 301 done this month – 158 to go. The weather looks immoderately windy but otherwise OK on Sunday.
Couldn’t leave work until 5pm, but it was straight on the Boardman for
30-odd as soon as I downed tools. I changed the front tyre yesterday,
and wanted to be sure all was well.
I took care to ensure that I
was fitting the tyre in the correct rotational orientation. But I still
managed to put it on the wrong way round. I’d thought the bike computer
magnet was on the left side, but it’s on the right. It would be easy
enough of course just to take the wheel off, flip it and relocate the
magnet. I won’t bother.
Wasn’t particularly in the mood for a Twycrosser, so with a light to moderate wind coming from the west, I took the southbound route – down through Kirkby Mallory and Earl Shilton. I stopped north of Stoney Stanton on a bridge over the M69, where I took this pic:
.. then I turned back for home, having done about 17 miles.
The
Boardman felt a bit heavy and lumbering after recent outings on the X
and S Works, but it rolled along pleasantly enough. I didn’t feel its
mis-oriented tyres trying to roll backwards.
Only intermittently
sunny early on, but the sun shone steadily for the last hour or so.
Really lovely out there in the open in the evening sunshine.
254
done this month, not too bad given I was away for the first week but I
still doubt I’ll hit my target of 458. There’s some rain in the forecast
for the weekend.
Despite being on call I was determined to do at least 60 miles today,
to give myself an outside chance of hitting my 458 mile target this
month. Realistically that meant at least 62.14, as I also have an
informal target to do 24 Fondos in 2020.
A moderate
breeze from the west and cloudy, but not cold. I employed my
time-honoured on call strategy of going north, then south so I was never
more than 15 or so road miles from home (and mostly substantially fewer
than that). I started by going north-east to Long Whatton, then turned
west through Donington and Melbourne and north over Swarkestone Bridge. I
was going to do the usual A5132 thing along the water south of Derby,
but on a whim I decided to go exploring and took a left just before
leaving the causeway.
This was a road running to a
place called Ingleby and proved to be a poor choice. The road surface
was awful. From Ingleby though I took a road signposted to Ticknall, and
that one was fine. I hadn’t been along there before and I quite enjoyed
it, but I’m not sure I can incorporate it into future routes. From
Ingleby I can take a road going to Milton and if that’s as bad as road
between Swarkestone Bridge and Ingleby, I won’t bother. Perhaps I’ll
check it out on the Tricross some time.
Anyway – from
Ticknall I came back down the usual way down through Smisby and Ashby.
The big disadvantage of this route is the need to negotiate a steep
climb known to me as Bastard Hill. Weirdly, I was so engrossed in my
thoughts about how to transfer some of my on call responsibilities to
other teams at work, that I didn’t even notice it. I started mentally
gearing myself up to grit my teeth and suffer, and realised that it was
already behind me. Sheer resentment about being on call one week in two
since my team was decimated must have propelled me up the hill.
After
Ashby, having done about 31 miles I turned right to Packington, to tack
on a Twycrosser. Conditions grew somewhat crepuscular not long
afterward on the way down to Twycross and I felt a couple of spots of
rain, but no more. Through Sheepy and Ratcliffe as usual then I took the
turn to Sibson, then down the A444 for a bit and along Fenn Lanes. I
took the turn for Shenton and stopped at the bench with a plaque
dedicated to Judith Birch.
I
was annoyed to notice that my rear tyre has a shallow lateral cut,
about 15mm long. It is a Mavic Yksion Pro with similar Mavic branding to
the carbon rims, but fortunately they aren’t particularly expensive.
Looking at reviews online it seems that they are particularly prone to
picking up holes and cuts, and don’t last that long.
I took an unusual detour home, through Barlestone to add a bit of distance. Conditions warmed up nicely for the last couple of hours, but I got rained on coming through Ellistown a few miles from home. Fortunately it had stopped by the time I was rolling through Hugglescote and the warm breeze had nearly dried off the bike (and rider) by the time I reached the garage. But I gave it a good seeing-to with GT85 anyway since it was due a lube. I’ll do that tomorrow.
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.
