Show us your.......newbie progress! [4 Sep 2012 - 4 Oct 2014]

[Nigelnaturist]

The increased mileage and conditions finally caught up with me this morning. I still got in 20 miles. That's over 150 miles in the last 8 days. I'll take a day off tomorrow then plan a couple of hill climbing sessions during the week so I'll have another hard week. 12 weeks today and I'll be riding the London 100.

I passed Evans in Cardiff towards the end of my ride to called in and treated myself to a leather Brooks saddle. I now need to do the 1,000 they say it takes to break it in before the 100 mile ride.

You've got time. Well done on the distance work.

 

[SWSteve]

I have the medium and manage fine with a tube etc with the expander unzipped.

Talking of storage I just took delivery of my new frame bag today which sits on the top tube I will update with pictures when I get 5 mins. It's the one with the clear see through top section so you can use your phone when ridding which is the reason why I got it. I plan to use my phone with extended battery as a sat nav for new routes or when I get lost.

These look good, someone I was out with this weekend had one and I thought it would be good as opposed to my massive saddle post bag I use when commuting/taking more than would fit in rear pockets

 

[SWSteve]

Not sure about that, pretty tired and this starts tomorrow
Castelli's Battaglia in Montagna

This could have started a couple of days earlier so I'd have 100 miles done...but no. Bloody STRAVA

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Trying to catch you up Nigel.

You might get chance, not sure how long I will be off the road, Halfords have a gear cable kit for £4 I just have that left, and the new challenge starts tomorrow. Just hope nothing else goes wrong fro a week, need new brake blocks as well (but not this week) never ever remember changing hem so often.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

This could have started a couple of days earlier so I'd have 100 miles done...but no. Bloody STRAVA

I am not saying anything.

 

[Billy Adam]

You might get chance, not sure how long I will be off the road, Halfords have a gear cable kit for £4 I just have that left, and the new challenge starts tomorrow. Just hope nothing else goes wrong fro a week, need new brake blocks as well (but not this week) never ever remember changing hem so often.

Shouldn't be going so fast.

 

[simmi]

2 rides to report over the weekend.
I took 2 of my lads on the beginners ride yesterday.
Ben who is 18 and my oldest he is very fit from playing football 3-4 times a week but has never ridden a road bike before and Jamie 13 my youngest who has now ridden 5 times.
All in all we did 39 miles and I was very impressed with both of them, Jamie was amazing he managed the ride no trouble at all and was still quite fresh at the end.
Ben on the other hand struggled having never ridden before his bum and back ached but he stuck with it and was not going to let his little brother show him up.
39.2 miles in 3:15:21 at 12mph
http://app.strava.com/activities/53626657

My second ride was my longest to date.
A club ride to the Humber Bridge.
I have to be honest and say I didn't enjoy it too much.
I had a puncture after about 20 miles had trouble getting my tyres off the rims (very very tight)
Actually crossing the bridge was nice great view and a very impressive piece of engineering.
We were meant to stop just after the bridge but the cafe was shut which didn't go down well with my stomach.
The road we used for the first 10 miles back was duel carriageway which I hate, one guy went missing off the back after several minutes of waiting and a phone call we discovered that he had pulled into a petrol station and phoned his lass for a lift home.
At about this point the weather turned for the worst rain and hail prevailed for the rest of the ride.
2 other guys were struggling to keep up so several of us stayed with them and tried to box them in and nurse them along.
This was the right thing to do though it further reduced my enjoyment of the ride I was cold and was riding too slow so was unable to generate enough heat.
I had wanted to do my first hundred but decided it was best to get home as quick as possible as I was wet, cold and miserable.
90.1 mile in 5:23:14 at 16.7 mph with for me a very low average heart rate of 131bpm
http://app.strava.com/activities/53626657

 

[SWSteve]

Thought should spread the news of what I've done, the 100 mile ride was more 108 miles, and it was great fun. The speed wasn't high (I was told my group would average between 14 and 15, we averaged under 12) but it was great, day 1 was flat and long, day 2 was a bit shorter but had more climbs, all in all great work.It was nice doing group riding, and I may have a cycling buddy or two from my home town now which will make me less of a loner.

Day 1
http://app.strava.com/activities/53565376
http://app.strava.com/activities/53634391

Day 2
http://app.strava.com/activities/53775741

There were more miles traveled than STRAVA says as I kept forgetting to start recording on my phone.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Thought should spread the news of what I've done, the 100 mile ride was more 108 miles, and it was great fun. The speed wasn't high (I was told my group would average between 14 and 15, we averaged under 12) but it was great, day 1 was flat and long, day 2 was a bit shorter but had more climbs, all in all great work.It was nice doing group riding, and I may have a cycling buddy or two from my home town now which will make me less of a loner.

Day 1
http://app.strava.com/activities/53565376
http://app.strava.com/activities/53634391

Day 2
http://app.strava.com/activities/53775741

There were more miles traveled than STRAVA says as I kept forgetting to start recording on my phone.

The weather has not been great for speeds though Steve, I was as fast on average going up the hill yesterday from home, as I was coming downhill home. and my brief ride earlier wasn't fast, mind I couldn't change gear to well.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I think it's fixed, still need a ferrul, I dont know what happened to the other one, it's not like they can drop off, at least it's changing up and down, still needs doing right but I should be able to nip out for a quick test and clock up 600km for the May Massive.

 

[SWSteve]

The weather has not been great for speeds though Steve, I was as fast on average going up the hill yesterday from home, as I was coming downhill home. and my brief ride earlier wasn't fast, mind I couldn't change gear to well.

The speed was more the group I was in, at the end of day 2 I was pushing a couple to get at to 14-15 on the flat so we could arrive in our group. That said the headwind didn't help at times when we were really climbing open roads/hills. Very happy with distance though

 

[Nigelnaturist]

The speed was more the group I was in, at the end of day 2 I was pushing a couple to get at to 14-15 on the flat so we could arrive in our group. That said the headwind didn't help at times when we were really climbing open roads/hills. Very happy with distance though

I think what slowed my average on strava is I stopped both ways once to strip (still had shorts and top and shoes on) on the way there, and once to put some leg warmers on, on the way back as it was mainly down hill and whilst the sun was shining it was a little nippy. I haven't bothered seeing if it was much quicker back, even though it was downhill there was still 1,000+ft of climbing, which tallies with the climb up the last bit out being about 450-500ft, with a total over the 37 miles of about 2,400ft (garmin connect says 2,900)

 

[SWSteve]

I think what slowed my average on strava is I stopped both ways once to strip (still had shorts and top and shoes on) on the way there, and once to put some leg warmers on, on the way back as it was mainly down hill and whilst the sun was shining it was a little nippy. I haven't bothered seeing if it was much quicker back, even though it was downhill there was still 1,000+ft of climbing, which tallies with the climb up the last bit out being about 450-500ft, with a total over the 37 miles of about 2,400ft (garmin connect says 2,900)

I'm not too sure re: stopping time, I think strava takes all of that out

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I'm not too sure re: stopping time, I think strava takes all of that out

It does on the segments, and thats what I did to compare them, a segment out and a segment back.
Right I got to go out 13.2 miles and I will have completed 5,000 miles on strava, thats since about Aug 7th and I did another 726.2 miles between 23 of June and the 6th of Aug, (plus some missed miles using the Nokia N95 and endomondo)

 

[deadpool7]

21.3 miles in 1:26 this morning. Both my longest and fastest ride yet.