32km on the SS gravel bike this morning, sticking almost just to the roads, with a couple of carefully curated (and not badly trashed) gravel sections thrown in. Little hints of silvery sunlight on a couple of occasions, which properly lifted the spirits ...
Got soaked yesterday morning on the roadie, dry for the first 20 mins then a combination of rain and heavy drizzle for the last hour.
Managed some Peak bridleways with the good lady today, only rained once for 5 minutes but it was sodden under when.
Winter can **** off now please!
Up the off piste today.
The stoke was rock bottom driving across the vale of York with all the flooded fields and very high rivers.
However - stopped feeling sorry for myself, got into it and had an absolutely belting time 👍
Yes there was plenty of slop but also plenty of grip - most of the time!
Also felt really springy - very mild, birds singing, snowdrops all over the place, even the odd hint of sun now and again.
Unexpectedly ace 👌
No riding for me this weekend as I was visiting family. Itching to get out for a ride on Tuesday, though! Unsurprisingly the forecast is more rain...
Had a very muddy very slow 15 miles in east Devon today. Great to be out but conditions were awful
Wet birthday ride around Woburn this morning. Even the usually dry sandiness of the off-piste was a bit of a slopfest.
Putting the rear wheel in at the car I noticed my rear pads were wearing - erm - a little thin. Checked the spares box - six sets of new front pads, zero rear pads (Magura MT trail so different pads each end). Front brake only in the mud? Can live with that.
Despite another spannering session yesterday, the chain is began to skip again a couple of km into the ride. Guess I can live with that too...
At least until the combination of the two dropped me in the mud face first.
Gave up in a huff and headed back to the car alone (leaving the rest of the group playing) but got myself lost and had to backtrack a few km.
Got back to the car. Had only ridden about 12km so thought I'd take an easy pedal over to the Red and bimble round there. got distracted by an interesting looking trail and ended up lost again. Finally found my way to a road and managed to get back to the car again.
So yeah, today I might have considered the turbo that's sat upstairs unused for a couple of years...
Did type a long post, but it seems to have been eaten by the hamsters. To summarise...
Birthday ride at Woburn.
Mud.
No rear brake pads.
Skipping chain.
Crash.
Got lost twice.
Thought about turbo...
EDIT. Oh... It's appeared now.
My life is so muddy at the moment, considering I have an indoor job… I have a nice new mostly off-road commute via some fun steep trails, mostly on my ebike. I get to work splattered in mud. I arrive home splattered in mud. And then I go out for a muddy ride at the weekend on my singlespeed hardtail.
I’d still rather do that than ride the roads or a turbo but it would be nice if it dried out… Just had a look and I’ve ridden off-road on 31 days so far this year - I should be an awful lot better at it! 😉
Forced myself out, and glad I did. Very mild, and the mud was wet rather than sticky so easy to clean off. Mezcal on the back was hilarious.
Just going for a dip in the lake. It seems to be what everyone down here does regularly . Usually between bike rides and pub beers.
Not seen a rear mudguard in 4 weeks 👍. Bought a soft brush just to keep the dust off the bikes 😂
Sonnebuel to Gemmi... sunshine, no wind but damn cold in the shade.
Daubensee frozen as usual
Think I'm done with turbo for the year, burned out with too many (attempted) high intensity workouts as training for CX and the trend has increasingly become just lacking the motivation to finish workouts!
So was very glad for a relative break in the weather today, got out for 80km of incredibly gnadgery, muddy tracks and trails around Kinross on the CX/gravel bike (basically my CX bike with gravel tyres). Crazy slippy everywhere, and my rear Terreno Mix has obviously passed the point of no return and spun out far too easily on some relatively easy muddy climbs. My eyes had clearly been too big for my stomach when planning it though as I was glad of a slightly reprieve from the rootsy muddsy singletrack as I got closer to the end, but there could also have been so so much more.
I’m about 70/30 turbo* to outdoors so far this year. Fed up with cleaning everything, after every single ride. The mountain bikes have been out three times, the rest is gravel. I’ve got yet another load in the washer as we speak after today’s gravel ride. Manky. Sick of it…
* I say I’ve ridden the turbo, it’s actually a Peleton. Most will think it’s shouty, ****y, irritating rubbish, like I did when I bought it for the family... Truth is though, I haven’t been on Zwift once since I bought it. It’s completely silent, and some of the instructors are good. Most fit cyclists will find the HIIT rides don’t stretch you quite enough, but the PowerZone rides automatically adjust resistance like Ergo on a Kickr or similar based on your FTP, and they can be much harder. It’s £40 a month, but that covers the whole family so that’s a tenner each - decent value if there are a few of you.
I get seriously irritated every time I convince myself to get on the turbo and there’s a Zwift update, or the Bluetooth’s stopped pairing. This just works every time - I’ve been as impressed as I am surprised.
I’ll almost certainly buy a Zwift Ride next winter though, because I do miss the racing…
I say I’ve ridden the turbo, it’s actually a Peleton. Most will think it’s shouty, ****y, irritating rubbish, like I did when I bought it for the family... Truth is though, I haven’t been on Zwift once since I bought it. It’s completely silent, and some of the instructors are good.
My buddy just managed a 4hr ride the other evening, I think it's set up a lot shorter/more upright than a road bike so probably doesn't get as uncomfortable and I think he was just watching movies. I could be persuaded by something like that, I think my downfall is doing my workouts indoor on my outdoor road bike, low handlebars, thin/hard saddle etc.
I’ve not done 4 hours! I tend to stick to 45m to 1hr power zone/ergo rides. If you’re not following a class, then you can ride with stats overlaid on Netflix/Youtube/Disney, which one of my son does, but I prefer a class with auto resistance/intervals…
It’s shorter and higher than a road bike, but you can buy a third party base of the bars if you want to mimic the position. I thought I’d 100% buy one after the first couple of rides, and then haven’t thought about it since I started typing this reply.
I’m not the only one who: https://www.reddit.com/r/pelotoncycle/s/O1ckeg5ZgF
EDIT: Just looked, I’ve 21 rides on the Peleton since the 1st January. It’s easy to motivate to get on when you know it just works. I’m not sure I’ve ever managed that many rides on a turbo in a month and a bit.
Gnarly shot down the Wye Valley. 
