Bike Diary

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.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2370562012

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.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2364612603

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.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2362439111

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.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2346555727

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.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2341444014

https://www.strava.com/activities/2341615162

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).

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/garmin-forerunner-range/

Anyhoo – that’s May started (May the 4th be with you) and I’m into four figures for the year. 1022 done in 2019.

Looks like rain on Monday later on so if the forecast stays like that, I’ll have to go out a bit earlier. Might have the red Boardman working by then.

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.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2331312716

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.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2325065215

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.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2313260881

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.

No cycling today but I did erect the maintenance stand in the garden, attach the red Boardman to it, remove the wheels, the chain and the cassette. I thought the cassette wasn’t going to budge at first but happily it did give way.

Took me a while to find the cassette tool for my spanner. I hate myself sometimes for leaving my garage so untidy. But I found it after about 10 minutes so I went back to liking myself too much.

With the wheels off it while it was on the stand it would have been rude not to give it a bit of a clean, so I did. The Boardman especially has really awkward-to-get-to nooks and crannies and some of the dirt is never going to come out of them. But it’s in a lot better state than it was. Unbelievable the amount of grime that collects in the front forks and round the brakes. I couldn’t find my Muc-Off spray so I used Tesco glass cleaner and Ariel stain remover spray (I reasoned that the latter would be especially effective since it contains solvent). Seemed to work OK.

I haven’t put the new cassette and chain on yet.

Should be out of work by 16:30 tomorrow and the weather forecast looks nice, albeit a bit more breezy than of late. Sun up until 20:16! Good times.