746 replies to this topic

[Moving Target]

How about this challenge:

https://londonedinburghlondon.com/

 

There is still time to prepare.

 

No chance!

 

My mate did London-Paris in 24 hours and said it half killed him.  He had to ride on the support bus for an hour because his quads seized!

[Slim]

A dry day, so I devised a route to one of Leicestershire's neighbouring counties and back, and set off on the hybrid wearing my legwarmers and my spare pair of cycling shorts, the main pair being in the wash. Unfortunately the shorts rode up well over the top of the legwarmers while I pedalled, giving me the appearance of a middle-aged man wearing black hot pants with hold-up stockings. After a couple of miles though, I had the excellent idea of pulling the legwarmers up a bit and pulling them over the outside of the shorts - where I'm pleased to report the elasticated tops held them in place.

 

After about 9.5 miles I reached the "Welcome to Warwickshire" sign. That's odd, I thought to myself .. I thought I had to take a right turn here then cycle another mile or so to cross the county boundary. But with job apparently done, I turned round and headed back (aiming to come home through Measham, not the way I'd come).

 

After another two miles or so I remembered that I had intended to ride to Staffordshire, not Warwickshire. I had failed miserably. I hadn't noticed that the route I'd planned takes in Warwickshire for a mile or so before hitting Staffs.

 

Oh well, 19.4 done. Won't be going out again today I don't think, so that's a total for October of 245.54 miles. 2276 done this year so far.

 

Staffordshire is still on the to-do list.

[ralph malph]

Still waiting for you to devise a song better than Jacob's Ladder, Slim Jim. 

[Slim]

OK - I'll knock one out tomorrow. It's an easy enough task. But is there any point really? I'll say it is better, everyone else will say it isn't .. something of a foregone conclusion

[Moving Target]

Did 28 miles this morning in nasty mizzle and fog.  Autumn seems to have finally arrived a month late.  I wanted to do 40 but couldn't see out of my glasses.  Discretion was the better part of valour, even with hi-viz jackets and lights flashing.

 

982 miles for the year.

[Slim]

It's been rather a nice sunny day here, so I cycled over the Nottinghamshire border to Zouch and back to get the November campaign off to a good start:

 

 

 

Hit a patch of fog just after Belton on the way back (I came back a different way) which made for a striking photo, but it only lasted two miles:

 

 

 

The Boardman, a few metres outside Nottinghamshire:

 

 

I continued on to a pub a few hundred metres inside Notts and turned round in the car park.

 

24.84 done, 2301 miles in 2015.

[Slim]

Another one snapped while out on the bike this afternoon. From Rempstone Road, looking south-west, a few miles to the East of Belton .

 

[nickslikk2112]

Well, being as it was such as lovely day and being as I didn't want to help Mrs S in re-felting the shed roof, I went out for an hour on the bike today - well 52 minutes 26 seconds - the first time I can remember going out for a ride in November! Wish it had been an hour as I was dragged into helping out...

Did my 14.3 mile run through Sutton Scarsdale, took a couple of minutes longer than my previous best, but I'd just gone out for a pootle and still averaged 16.4 mph, so didn't feel too bad. That's 1,416 for the year, could I get to 1,500? Am I bovvered?

[Slim]

I'm sure you will.

 

I've done three of the four easy neighbouring counties now - Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire. I shall do the other one, Staffordshire, soon.

 

But I fancy an excursion to one of the three hard, distant ones -  Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire or Rutland. Lincolnshire would be a 68 mile round trip. I think it's doable - I just need to make a day of it and find a location to stop off for an hour or so. Maybe two stop-offs at Melton Mowbray.

 

I'd swap the ordinary pedals back on so I wouldn't have to walk around in cycling shoes, and take a few precautionary items in a backpack - a bike lock, spare batteries for the radio, an inner tube, a pump, rubber gloves in case I have to take a wheel off, my wallet, a small bottle of water, an emergency Mars Bar. A decent camera. I'd go on the hybrid, for comfort.

 

Usually I just have the radio strapped to my arm, the garage key in the saddle bag,  and that's it.

 

Might be a cracking adventure. Maybe a bit late in the year now.

[nickslikk2112]

I'm thinking of a trip to Lincolnshire next year, Once I get past Barlborough it's' more or less downhill for about 25 miles and just a gentle uphill on the way back

 

I think Staffordshire. Cheshire and Lancashire are all out of the question as they involve a full crossing of the Pennines. Leicestershire could be doable on  a long day trip, but it would be almost the full length of Derbyshire and uphill going back.

[Slim]

Bloody frustrated by this weather. Haven't been out on two wheels since the weekend. Time is ticking, and I want to clock up 2500 before Big Ben introduces 2016.

 

And yet - it's more than that. I feel the road calling to me. It stretches out to infinity in front of me, and I must go where it takes me. It goes on forever. I belong there.

[Moving Target]

I'm sure you will.

 

I've done three of the four easy neighbouring counties now - Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire. I shall do the other one, Staffordshire, soon.

 

But I fancy an excursion to one of the three hard, distant ones -  Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire or Rutland. Lincolnshire would be a 68 mile round trip. I think it's doable - I just need to make a day of it and find a location to stop off for an hour or so. Maybe two stop-offs at Melton Mowbray.

 

I'd swap the ordinary pedals back on so I wouldn't have to walk around in cycling shoes, and take a few precautionary items in a backpack - a bike lock, spare batteries for the radio, an inner tube, a pump, rubber gloves in case I have to take a wheel off, my wallet, a small bottle of water, an emergency Mars Bar. A decent camera. I'd go on the hybrid, for comfort.

 

Usually I just have the radio strapped to my arm, the garage key in the saddle bag,  and that's it.

 

Might be a cracking adventure. Maybe a bit late in the year now.

 

If you want to go on a longer ride I suggest plenty of energy bars and gels and a 750cl water bottle with hydration tablets.

 

Your blood sugar can fall without you realising and then you could make a bad decision and crash.

 

Anyway I wimped out of the 54-mile sportive in Kent because of the steady rain and 18 mph wind.  I just need 18 miles for my target anyway.

[Slim]

Thanks Rob. Probably don't need that much water or hydration tablets; I'd go through places where I could buy a can of pop or whatever. But the energy bars sound like an excellent suggestion.

 

The roads were dry enough for an excursion out at 5:45pm, so I did. I wrapped up warm, put the lights on the hybrid and off I set. Glad I did it as the weather hadn't allowed me a chance out on my bike for a whole week, but at the same time it was probably my least enjoyable ride of 2015. Not cold, not raining but very dark and very blowy. Not much fun struggling into the face of a gale in the dark, miles from home. Anyway it was Osgathorpe and back, a sort of truncated version of the Belton FO8, 10.41 miles, back up through Swannington.

 

2312 done, only 35 this month so far.

[Slim]

A mercifully dry day and mild, if cloudy and a bit blowy. Did a variation on the Belton F08 coming back the same way, so a Belton lasso if you will. I also went the other way round. Quite fortuitous really, because if I'd been coming the other way along Top Brand I'd have had to cycle through half a mile of clumpy mud deposited by a farm vehicle. Seeing very few other cyclists now.

 

14.94. 2326 done, 50 this month. Glad to have had another chance to get out there.

[Slim]

Went out and did the old faithful lunchtime route through Heather and Packington, normally 11.5 but extended to detour Heather Lane - only because there's a puddly bit in a hollow there that takes days to dry out after substantial quantities of rain. Cloudy and windy, but happy to be cranking out the miles. I took the hybrid in case it rained. It didn't. 12.83 miles.

 

In other news - I checked the speedo on the hybrid in the garage in daylight, and it turns out it did 10.86, not 10.41 on its nighttime run out on Monday.

 

All of which takes me to 2340 done; 63 this month.

[Slim]

Did 12.5 on the hybrid, a mostly urban route into and out of Coalville as I reasoned the roads would be drier (poured down with rain here in the morning). I did catch a few spots of rain, though. And the spray from a windscreen washer from a car in front, caught by the wind. Cold and blowy out there but not unpleasant. I think I may invest in thicker legwarmers.

 

76 miles done this month, 2352 overall.

[Slim]

Thought I might get away with 10 miles or so before it started raining, and I nearly did. Apart from a few spots, it only started raining in earnest on the last 500 metres or so. Still had to wipe the hybrid down and give it a few squirts of GT85 when I got back, mind.

 

I did Packington - Heather - Ibstock and back along the main road for the last couple of miles. 10.11.

 

86 done this month, 2362 this year. I should be able to get to 2500, which is what I'm aiming for informally, without going out when there's a risk of rain so I think I'll adopt that policy now. Would have loved to have been able to do my 24 mile run to Sheepy Magna and back through Market Bosworth. Ah well.

[Slim]

Dry save for a few puddles, not too cold and only moderately blowy so I took the hybrid out for a spin. On a whim I took a left turn along a narrow lane I hadn't been along before, so it was a sort of made-up route but apart from the aforementioned lane, no new parts.

 

11.21 which takes me to 97 this month, 2374 this year.

[Slim]

Oh I forgot to mention, I saw a fox trotting ahead of me on that narrow country lane. Disappeared into the hedgerow before I caught up with him though. Also, nearly ran over a kamikaze cat.

[Moving Target]

Rode eighteen chilly miles yesterday.  That's my 1000 mile goal reached.  

 

That'll do for 2015,  Next year I might just train to do three or so sportives.