Have you been out today?

[T42]

Yesterday, a right flustercluck:  took the unmotorized Trek out full of hope and found that the last two years of eBrutality have sapped my legs to the point where the 6% hill out of our valley was too hard for me. I could have done it with a 20k warm-up, but this was 3k from the start so I hadn't the oomph.  Went home and switched to the eBrute, but once over the top I was too fed up to do much more than head for the nearest tea-room for some crappy coffee and a bun.  A magnificent total of 32k including 5 on the Trek, the one I did PBP on 9 years ago. Bugger.

[Arminius]

Yesterday, a right flustercluck:  took the unmotorized Trek out full of hope and found that the last two years of eBrutality have sapped my legs to the point where the 6% hill out of our valley was too hard for me. I could have done it with a 20k warm-up, but this was 3k from the start so I hadn't the oomph.  Went home and switched to the eBrute, but once over the top I was too fed up to do much more than head for the nearest tea-room for some crappy coffee and a bun.  A magnificent total of 32k including 5 on the Trek, the one I did PBP on 9 years ago. Bugger.

That sounds really frustrating. When I have days like that (all too often at the moment), I (try to) remember something that I read a while ago - doing something (anything) today to help our future selves be where we want to be is better than not doing it. Sounds like you did that.

Linked to the above, I did a mighty 26km pootling around Edinburgh last night. Took more than 1.5 hours and I was coughing and hacking all the way round, but it felt like a little progress in my recovery from the worst chest infection I've ever had.

[T42]

Sympathy for the hacking and coughing. Haven't seen Edinburgh since the 80s but I suppose the hills are still there.  When I was a student I lived down in Canonmills; it was a fair trudge over to the uni.

Anyway, I'm planning to take the Trek out once a week on the easier roads down the valley and work up again from there.  Back in 2016 I was off the bike for 10 weeks and started again that way, with a magnificent 8.7 km. Managed 100k after a month. 50 will do me now.

[Hot Flatus]

Bugger. Beautiful day. Forgot to set alarm and woke up too late to commute.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I have actually been out on my bike today for a purpose that wasn't getting somewhere I needed to be. Only along the B2B and didn't even get as far as Bath, cos my toes were freezing so turned around. I noticed that lots of people are wearing dark glasses already, either normal sized ones or the 80s style goggles. Also almost everyone on an e-bike has a scarf wrapped around their face – I guess you just don't get hot with a motor.

[Andy W]

39 miles, Letchworth to Barkway loop. Twisty narrow lanes with potholes and gravel aplenty. Almost dry road surface so took my 2004 George Longstaff Compact Audax for its first outing since having Campagnolo Chorus 12 speed fitted. Opted for 48/32 chainset with 11/34 cassette. I retained the Shimano RX 100 rim brakes as theyre really good. The bike and the weather was sublime, sunny conditions stiff easterly. One of those rides which left me feeling uplifted.

[Feanor]

40k offroad route on tracks which I've known about for a long time, but never ridden.
They turn off from a road I've ridden more times than I can remember.
Remote mountain moorland in the hinterlands of the Cairngorm national park.

Includes some bonus old packhorse bridges!
There are pics and a few words in the Strava link.

https://www.strava.com/activities/10918104583

[T42]

Not a good day: strong cold ENE wind; tired, cold, fed up, legs stiffish & a bit sore for no reason but thought riding would fix it: aimed at 150k, got fed up at 20, turned it into a shorter loop and got home with 88k done.  Don't think I'll ride on Saturdays again: folk who work all week go shopping and have little patience with cyclists; also, a fair number of the farmers work in factories etc during the week and tend the farm at the weekend, so there are lots of tractors & trailers and crud on the road: I got stuck behind one that was losing bits of manure off the back.  Curiously, it smelt like scrumpy. 

[TimC]

I have! After five days of a fairly miserable cold, I managed to get out for a brief 45 minutes at lunchtime (back in time for the Rugby) in glorious sunshine - if through less glorious floods and a distinctly bracing easterly wind. I took my old Kinesis Tk3, which reminded me that alloy is not at all eclipsed by carbon or titanium and, in this application, can make a bloody good bike.

[Tim Hall]

Trying to meet/catch up with a self imposed target of average of 25km per day, I was out this morning before breakfast. Quick (ish) 25km over roads I've been covering only in the dark lately. Through an alleged road closure without too much issue, I was amused by the sign from Surrey County Council that the reason was "Road fallen apart".

Home for croissants and The Guardian quiz.

[MattH]

Went out for about 50k of lumpy roads with MrsH for lunch at a cafe we've not used for several years (and then only went on the motorbikes). Had a flat about 15k in - a circle about the size of a 5p piece was missing from the outer tread of my rear GP 4 Seasons, leaving the woven carcass exposed.
Booted it with a Park Tools tyre boot, got about 5k further and got another flat, from just outside the booted area (but don't think it was related - an empy hole lined up with the hole in the tube suggests a thorn or bit of flint that fell out).
Did the rest of the ride quite gingerely, but had a nice fried breakfast at the cafe and a good ride home.

[Wowbagger]

A short potter to Pen's and back. A cold easterly - much too cold for riding to be a real pleasure, even though the thermometer claimed 12°C.

I'm going soft.

[T42]

Home for croissants...

Damn. That's a Word of Power and we haven't got any.

[Lightning Phil]

Yes, it was damp!

[perpetual dan]

For the first time in a long time, i've got a being out to post. 32km ish (knocked the pause somewhere). Made the mistake of paddling round a field edge at one point, and got quite soggy. But it was fun.

[Tim Hall]

Tandem club ride today,but my Young Lady was poorly sick and bad, so I went on my solo fixed.

75km of slightly soggy riding, some hills, Food of Champions* at Balcombe tea rooms for lunch, back to the orgs house for CAIK

*Ham, egg and chips, which has been missing from my diet for too long. Small tea room with an extensive menu. I got severe food envy when I saw the chicken pie.

[Arminius]

Sympathy for the hacking and coughing. Haven't seen Edinburgh since the 80s but I suppose the hills are still there.  When I was a student I lived down in Canonmills; it was a fair trudge over to the uni.

Anyway, I'm planning to take the Trek out once a week on the easier roads down the valley and work up again from there.  Back in 2016 I was off the bike for 10 weeks and started again that way, with a magnificent 8.7 km. Managed 100k after a month. 50 will do me now.

Oof, that would have been quite a trek to the uni from there. I can confirm that the hills are still there - I didn't get out on the bike today, but had a wander round Salisbury Crags while my daughter was at a birthday party at the Commie Pool.

Best of luck with easing yourself back onto the Trek.

[T42]

Sympathy for the hacking and coughing. Haven't seen Edinburgh since the 80s but I suppose the hills are still there.  When I was a student I lived down in Canonmills; it was a fair trudge over to the uni.

Anyway, I'm planning to take the Trek out once a week on the easier roads down the valley and work up again from there.  Back in 2016 I was off the bike for 10 weeks and started again that way, with a magnificent 8.7 km. Managed 100k after a month. 50 will do me now.

Oof, that would have been quite a trek to the uni from there. I can confirm that the hills are still there - I didn't get out on the bike today, but had a wander round Salisbury Crags while my daughter was at a birthday party at the Commie Pool.

Best of luck with easing yourself back onto the Trek.

Thanks.  The flaw in my plan is that when the weather's good enough for a short ride it's good enough for a long one so I tend to take the eBrute out for six hours or so rather than the Trek for an hour.

Got stuck overnight once on Salisbury Crags. Cold.

[JellyLegs]

I had a day off today so headed out into the grey murk, heading vaguely north.  The roads were full of crud, flood and mud and the temperature didn’t get anywhere near the promised high of 10 centigrade according to the temperature sensor on the bike computer.  Fingers went numb in the lightweight gloves I had chosen.  One flooded section of road took a 10 minute obstacle course through the adjacent fields to bypass.  In hindsight, it would have been quicker, easier and more sensible to have admitted defeat and re-routed.

Lunch, at Clare, was a hurriedly eaten supermarket sandwich and a custard tart in the churchyard as I didn’t want to get any more chilled.  All the cafes seem to be shut on Mondays. A decent route with lots of traffic free Essex lanes and some rolling countryside as I crossed a number of river valleys on the approach to Suffolk.  The murk never really lifted and with greasy roads, I had one slightly sketchy moment on the way home when the rear wheel stepped out under braking but still an enjoyable day.  Slower and harder than I would have liked but hopefully that is more the heavier winter bike and marathon plus tyres rather than a total lack of fitness.  All in all 115km, 800m of ascent, 6 hours 20 mins including stops and detours.

[chrisbainbridge]

First day of sabbatical and I have a stinking cold. 15km gentle pootle round some of our lanes. Couple of new ones and a couple of closed roads with open footpaths giving lovely traffic free riding.

[JefO]

First day of sabbatical and I have a stinking cold. 15km gentle pootle round some of our lanes. Couple of new ones and a couple of closed roads with open footpaths giving lovely traffic free riding.

I do love closed roads; It is very rare that cyclists cannot get through.
I have not been on a bike more than once a week for a couple of weeks, and I really cannot face dismal conditions anymore, I seem to have contracted a bad case of Southern Softie-ism.
Tomorrow is looking good though, so fingers crossed.
Wife just tested positive for Covid, in retrospect, I now think I had it last week (from Tuesday to Thursday) and never bothered testing because it was so mild (rode Wednesday and felt better for it). Hopefully Jane will be ok in a couple of days.

[TimC]

The minor roads around mine are pretty much unusable on a bike at the moment. If they’re not actually flooded, the damage caused by flooding and field run-off means they are difficult to navigate safely, and we still have the last sugar beet harvesting going on which means you have every chance of meeting a 44-tonne artic on a single-lane road. The drivers are generally excellent, but that doesn’t make them any easier to get past or any less destructive to the roads and the verges. It’s mud city.

It’ll take a couple of weeks of dry weather to make the roads rideable again. A single non-rainy day just won’t cut it!

[Flite]

Just 14 km up the hill and back in thick fog/low cloud.
Not ideal conditions, but looked the best chance for a ride before the wind gets stronger again tomorrow, and for the rest of the week.

[cycleman]

I attempted to cycle to the local shop but the catheter tube caused a fair bit of pain so took the wheelchair. 5 minutes each  way on the tricon took 40 minutes on the chair. I hate that thing. I hope normal riding will resume after the 20th March 

[JefO]

125km today, much of the tarmac has a protective layer of water on it.

Mud is muddy. Gravel still gravelly. Dogs are bitey. Great fun in the saddle, legs really complaining, too long without a long ride. Lots of birds of prey, deer, all other details here - https://www.strava.com/activities/10951415803