After loading up on caffeine in my favourite cafe, I did a local route from home that i’ve not done in months. 25 miles into a headwind was a slog and my hr average was 167 😯 Its an out and back route so the 25miles home was super fast, hitting 30mph for a lot of it, wooooosh 😀 Hoping that’ll help me with my first audax next weekend. Bring on tomorrow’s hill reps 8)

Finished with scrambled eggs on toast and about to do an hour of yoga. Only downside has been an on-going issue with a friend which is clouding my happiness somewhat, and a spat with a woman in a BMW who screamed blue murder at us for not being single file 🙄

Still coughing up the residue of manflu so no riding till next weekend.

absoutely nothing today, lazy day, my excuse is erm i’ve a puncture to fix! will probably head out tomorrow morning somewhere mind, before heading to the pub to watch the h….erm rangers game.

No riding for me this weekend.
Went to The Range this morning looking for some stuff for the house and have been traumatised/recovering ever since. There’s definitely a reason I try not to go shopping on the weekends.

4hrs round Swinley/Porridge/Tunnel/Frith. Really nice and warm and dry, can’t believe it’s February.

GB

Missed a club ride due to sheer laziness, zipped around town to buy a landranger map in an effort to ensure that tomorrow, I WILL get motivated enough to make it out solo!

Fettled with bikes this morning, and then decided to have a spin on the roadie, 40 miles and all of it onto what felt like a permanent headwind!! back showered refreshed and now enjoying the rugby with a small beer, whilst a slow roast pork belly, with homemade spicy rub, cooks gently in the oven along side some sweet potato, to be enjoyed after I have walked the dog, between the two games, with a quickly knocked together apple ‘slaw and maybe another beer. Long life lazy Saturday afternoons..

a spat with a woman in a BMW who screamed blue murder at us for not being single file

reminds me of an interesting conversation with a motorists who flew up behind three of us in single file, on a country road, full on the horn, and when i offered a friendly wave he slammed on the brakes got out of the car and proceeded to eff and blind at us, we all just smiled at him, and i asked him what he hoped to achieve with his actions, he got back in his car and as we rode along side him we gently muttered through his open window not to be such a c0ck.

n riding today wind is biblical up here so spent all morninng in the loft sorting it out to build the brownie points for an afternoon of rugby.

Need to service my bikes as the are carrying a few niggles from winter use 🙁

tell me about it valleydaddy, legs like lead now!!! wasn’t pleasant, got blown all over the place and not in a good way!!

A healthy mixture of nowhere, nothing and F all.

Just getting over a chest infection I’ve had for a few weeks, so just did a very hard and hilly 40 something miles with the uni team.

Cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough.

Tried out an area of riding that always looked promising, apart from one little descent it was actually a bit “meh”. My single-speed setup was a bit off for the climbing and conditions and my legs felt dead from the off. Crap day really.

1st saturday this year i haven’t been for a ride, i did walk from the river severn to the river avon though and fettled gears on the bike when i got home

Just in from a fairly joyless ride in the pentlands, more like riding in a pond than on a trail even when avoiding the usual mudbaths. But still good to get out.

Also, I’ve been a fan of waterproof shorts for a while but this ride on standard ones made me realise how much I’ve been taking them for granted. Waterproof shorts for the first-round first-punch knockout win.

Admired new trainers through haze of hangover.

Put gears on 3/4 fat bike and show boated it to shops.

Enquired about getting peroxide hair do.

Took bike out for spin in muddy Pentlands, did not see Northwind or any other riders.

Now in bath contemplating dinner and DVD later.

A “steady” 60 mile road ride with the club, which ended up with eight fully grown men spread over miles of English countryside; each in various sized hurt lockers. Fortunately 3 of us managed to find the keys and escape. In what was probably the slowest through and off imaginable!

Bacon and egg time now 😀

cynic-al, northwind-do you reckon its worth trying the pentlands tomorrow or do you reckon its still going to be washed out?

About 10 road miles against constant head winds, not fun but good exercise I suppose! I’m now working on some promotional materials for a trade exhibition, yay.

Joined a gym and did some shopping early afternoon and now watching Arsenal v Newcastle.

I’ve been s**tting through the eye of a needle for the last 3 days after catching gastroentiritis from my 3 month old son.

Four or so hours including great trails over to Swinley and back.

Still get lost in Swinley!

Was too hungover to go ride today, so I watched some films then ground the unecessary brakemounts off this.

jeezuas my eyes!

ive been at work; kid with control issues this morning, kid with a water phobia tonight.

heechee – Member

“cynic-al, northwind-do you reckon its worth trying the pentlands tomorrow or do you reckon its still going to be washed out?”

There’s a lot of standing water… Not so much deep mud, as everything splashing everywhere. But if you stick to surfaced stuff that’ll all be fine, still puddly but not orrible. I’d say most of the nice singletrack stuff should be avoided though, considering how wet the bits i was on were but then, I avoided it all so I don’t know for sure 😉

Retrodirect – WTF is that???

I was just about able to start holding my food down.

Thanks Northwind, much appreciated. May rethink tomorrows ride.

Spent time with family at the museum, checked my bike didn’t need cleaning before riding tomorrow, now looking forward to the rugger.

Hoping that’ll help me with my first audax next weekend. Bring on tomorrow’s hill reps

tour of EL? Should do.. you’re in for a world of pain if there’s a significant headwind on the slog back from Dunbar to Musselburgh. Great route tho – has my favoutrite local road climb and fastest descent (nr Whitadder)

’tis for the clunker classic …

Still needs paint and it’s getting a rather special gearing system

those are 18″ wheels … the bike is tiiiny

Retrodirect – loving it! 😆 Cynic-al built it tho didn’t he?

Poached egg on toast with coffee then set off to meet the Rochechouart club for the Saturday afternoon training ride. Arrived a few mins too late, they’d already gone. But I knew where they were going so gave chase. Picked up three others doing the same thing. We worked together.

Caught the “fast group” just at the bottom of the 5km climb up to Vayres. It hurt! Spent the afternoon riding around the blissfully quiet roads in various amounts of pain. The weather was lovely.

There were sprints for village signs. Surges on the climbs. It was tough, but in true club style there were various regroupngs, and the last 5 km back into town is always ridden together – for the moral of the group.

Just about to open a nice bottle of wine.

SB

Rode a couple of miles on singletrack to see our daughter. 3 flat tyres when we got there. 😥

Punctures all repaired and the spare tubes too. Bikes jet washed and oiled. Might go for another ride tomorrow.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?

Been out exploring the trails up at the Mast in Inverness. Feel ashamed that I haven’t spent more time exploring them until now, but excited at the quality and quantity of trails just 5 minutes cycle from my door.

It was also my first exercise in a few weeks as I’ve been getting over cellulitis in my foot 🙁

Bike jumble. Got a brand new XTR front derailleur for a tenner, whoop!

20 miles of Surrey Hills goodness, dry trails 😯

Heechee it’s pretty wet, i wouldnt say don’t ride but expect to get wet and muddy as NW says. Can Mao certain trails interesting.

GW loving the stalking 😎

Stanage Edge – great ride albeit extremely wet.

Thanks cynic-al, hanky, think i might just see what I can do on the coast and save my landranger for better days.

Was out for a 2hr blast in Pentlands – first one of the year!

heechee – just to back up cynic-al/Northwind – stick to pathed areas which have some surface water. I got bored and thought I’d do a loop round Black Hill/Bell’s Hill on the singletrack, but jesus it was boggy. Ended up soggy-footed as it was more pedal, pedal pedal, whirrrrrr…then stomp stomp stomp, squelch and repeat.

Highlight was just after The Howe – there is a wee stream that is usually a “yahoo” moment for me as I fly through it, but today with run-off water, the thing was waaay deep for me. So cue hitching bike on shoulder and jumping a mighty two feet across the banks with my bike – was solo so no-one there to capture camera moment.

Needed to know that? Not really, but needed to share.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend guys,

🙂