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

[RWright]

5 pb's out of 11 segments and I think my first average over 18 mph all in all not too bad.
The only thing to dampen my enjoyment was a moron in a white van but I am getting almost immune to them now.

That is a nice ride!
My worst nightmares when riding are Minivans with moms chauffeuring around a bunch of screaming kids that probably have their DVD players going at full blast. These mini vans have a ton of horsepower for what they are too.
I refer to them as fast movers. For some reason old small Toyota pickup trucks are a menace too. I haven't put my finger on why yet.

The young kids in their rice burner cars with the fart can muffler system can be bad too, but at least you can hear them coming. I know when I hear one I never think ok, here comes Albert Einstein, so I am sort of prepared for those.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Usual good stuff going on on here - well done to all.

Got out today - 14.54m / 14.47mph av'. Quite a hilly route for me too.

Was lovely and scenic and just glorious out there!

***
I have been fiddling with my 'fit' to try and stop an annoying pain in my right hand. Rotated my bars very slightly forwards/down/anti-clockwise or whatever you call it (?) and bingo; no pain! Wonderful!
***

Have a good evening all.

 

[Typhon]

Did a 31 miler yesterday which was shall we say challenging as they are "fixing" the roads...i.e. just randomly throwing stones all over them. Had to keep changing my route and at one point was forced to ride the wrong way down a closed road to avoid the roadworks! Was an enjoyable ride nevertheless.

Just been for a spin on the MTB, did a couple of local bridleways but unfortunately had to go on roads to get to/from them and encountered more idiots than I have in the last few weeks put together . I know it's Friday night but I don't think it's that, I seem to always get treated differently on the MTB. Cars pass closer, cut me up, pull out in front of me, overtake on blind bends etc way more when I'm not in lycra and hunched forwards.

The bridleways were great fun though. I'll have to find some good routes nearby, put the bike in the back of the car and go and tackle them sometime.

 

[boybiker]

I've ridden to work and back all week . I've not set any blistering times and felt pretty knackered on this evenings ride home but next week I'm going to try and speed things up a little .

 

[philinmerthyr]

Found out today that its cheaper to buy a new rear wheel than change the hub. I've got one on order but it won't be in until Monday so this will be a low mileage rest week.

I'll probably dig the mountain bike out of the shed but after 7 months of riding my Roubaix I'm not looking forward to it.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Beautiful image Nigel.

EDIT: Where is your 360? Looked in the photo section but couldn't see it?

Here.

The World According to Robert de Lacy Nova by nigelnaturist, on Flickr

I haven't been out much the last few days, I am finding things difficult doing both photography and cycling, the photography can be quite time consuming.
I did however mange three short trip today and got
I am quite pleased with this,
http://app.strava.com/activities/54709577#995715172
an improvement of nearly a minute from 12.20 to 11.23.
and this the first time I have ever done it in sub three minutes.
http://app.strava.com/activities/54709572#995715119
The first time I have managed double figures on the initial section of it.
http://app.strava.com/activities/54709572#995715122
and this
http://app.strava.com/activities/54709572#995715120
a slight up hill gradient 0.5% from 3.20 to 3.13 so 1.1 miles @ 19.6mph.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

More than not bad. You are faster up that hill than I am on my normal rides.

He's only a youngster Mo.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Did a 31 miler yesterday which was shall we say challenging as they are "fixing" the roads...i.e. just randomly throwing stones all over them. Had to keep changing my route and at one point was forced to ride the wrong way down a closed road to avoid the roadworks! Was an enjoyable ride nevertheless.

Just been for a spin on the MTB, did a couple of local bridleways but unfortunately had to go on roads to get to/from them and encountered more idiots than I have in the last few weeks put together . I know it's Friday night but I don't think it's that, I seem to always get treated differently on the MTB. Cars pass closer, cut me up, pull out in front of me, overtake on blind bends etc way more when I'm not in lycra and hunched forwards.

The bridleways were great fun though. I'll have to find some good routes nearby, put the bike in the back of the car and go and tackle them sometime.

Getting that on a fair bit of my commute, had fun the other day sliding about on the stuff, and this was on 38mm tyres, I don't think I would have been able to ride on it on the road bike

 

[Typhon]

I had a couple of hairy moments with my 23mm tyres alright, almost lost the back end at one point. The cars were going so slowly through them I got held up too! Ridiculous when you think about it, they were more worried about their paintwork than I was about having an off.

 

[Nomadski]

Great rides people, Nigel that 360 is beautiful, true work of art. Thanks for the initial link RWright.

Had an interesting day (no photos this time alas) did another early shift starting at 3.30am, got back at 2pm, made a cuppa and a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes and as I got to the study promptly dropped said ceramic bowl on my foot. Much swearing and shouting ensued, and once the sharpness dulled I had a mass cleanup job of rogue corn flakes everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE! The little buggers even managed to get on my saddle of my bike :O Fortunately I use an old towel under my bike and that captured most of the flying flakes but still...

Anyway, eventually got out, aware of my previous error in timing and direction, followed an initial route done by me and themosquitoking some weeks back which got me to Box Hill with relatively no issues of traffic. However, the zig zag road was closed at its entrance as some "filming" was taking place at the summit. Unknown what was being filmed but it left me looking for an alternative.

As I cycled around the zig zag road route I encountered two cyclists coming the other way one of whom shouted something to the extent of me not having a strong enough character to go up Box Hill - I paraphrase substantially here . Anyways, after the two gimps had passed I stopped at the next junction to get some munchies down me and plan my route, a guy passed me and went up the hilly road ahead. Some 3 minutes later I continued, half a mile later I caught sight of him again. Lost him on the next 2 corners, I assumed I'd lost him for good, but then the next hilly section I saw him at the top so I pushed on. About a mile later I caught and passed him!! VERY much unlike me to catch anyone who was on a half decent looking bike, but I didn't gloat, I didn't fist pump or shout BOOM! I said hey there, got a hey in return and went on my way.

Followed the RideLondon route back as far as Kingston hitting some heavy traffic on the Esher road, still felt reasonably fresh so did a quick detour and got in a cheeky lap of Richmond Park and then home.

Must admit my legs are feeling it, but did (Strava) 53 miles in 3hrs 49 mins, 2,201ft ascent, 13.8 mph average with an average heart rate of 146bpm (most pleasing aspect). Garmin, Endomondo and MapMyRide are identical in their stats, 53.03 miles, 3hrs 45mins, 14.1mph average speed, 2,747 ft ascended (corrected elevation) and 146bpm HR.

Really struggle to understand the weird algorithms that Strava uses, but it clearly is not accurate, at all.

http://app.strava.com/activities/54734300

 

[themosquitoking]

Great rides people, Nigel that 360 is beautiful, true work of art. Thanks for the initial link RWright.

Had an interesting day (no photos this time alas) did another early shift starting at 3.30am, got back at 2pm, made a cuppa and a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes and as I got to the study promptly dropped said ceramic bowl on my foot. Much swearing and shouting ensued, and once the sharpness dulled I had a mass cleanup job of rogue corn flakes everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE! The little buggers even managed to get on my saddle of my bike :O Fortunately I use an old towel under my bike and that captured most of the flying flakes but still...

Anyway, eventually got out, aware of my previous error in timing and direction, followed an initial route done by me and themosquitoking some weeks back which got me to Box Hill with relatively no issues of traffic. However, the zig zag road was closed at its entrance as some "filming" was taking place at the summit. Unknown what was being filmed but it left me looking for an alternative.

As I cycled around the zig zag road route I encountered two cyclists coming the other way one of whom shouted something to the extent of me not having a strong enough character to go up Box Hill - I paraphrase substantially here . Anyways, after the two gimps had passed I stopped at the next junction to get some munchies down me and plan my route, a guy passed me and went up the hilly road ahead. Some 3 minutes later I continued, half a mile later I caught sight of him again. Lost him on the next 2 corners, I assumed I'd lost him for good, but then the next hilly section I saw him at the top so I pushed on. About a mile later I caught and passed him!! VERY much unlike me to catch anyone who was on a half decent looking bike, but I didn't gloat, I didn't fist pump or shout BOOM! I said hey there, got a hey in return and went on my way.

Followed the RideLondon route back as far as Kingston hitting some heavy traffic on the Esher road, still felt reasonably fresh so did a quick detour and got in a cheeky lap of Richmond Park and then home.

Must admit my legs are feeling it, but did (Strava) 53 miles in 3hrs 49 mins, 2,201ft ascent, 13.8 mph average with an average heart rate of 146bpm (most pleasing aspect). Garmin, Endomondo and MapMyRide are identical in their stats, 53.03 miles, 3hrs 45mins, 14.1mph average speed, 2,747 ft ascended (corrected elevation) and 146bpm HR.

Really struggle to understand the weird algorithms that Strava uses, but it clearly is not accurate, at all.

http://app.strava.com/activities/54734300

Lol to the cereal incident, excellently graphic description. I hope your granny would have blushed at the words you used. They do a lot of filming up box hill, i believe the new simon pegg/nick frost zombie movie was partially filmed there last winter.

 

[Typhon]

Well done on the ride. I don't think I'd have the energy for that kind of ride after starting a long early morning shift like that!

Strava always robs me of about 0.2 - 0.5 mph compared to my Garmin. It's very annoying indeed.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Great rides people, Nigel that 360 is beautiful, true work of art. Thanks for the initial link RWright.

Had an interesting day (no photos this time alas) did another early shift starting at 3.30am, got back at 2pm, made a cuppa and a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes and as I got to the study promptly dropped said ceramic bowl on my foot. Much swearing and shouting ensued, and once the sharpness dulled I had a mass cleanup job of rogue corn flakes everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE! The little buggers even managed to get on my saddle of my bike :O Fortunately I use an old towel under my bike and that captured most of the flying flakes but still...

Anyway, eventually got out, aware of my previous error in timing and direction, followed an initial route done by me and themosquitoking some weeks back which got me to Box Hill with relatively no issues of traffic. However, the zig zag road was closed at its entrance as some "filming" was taking place at the summit. Unknown what was being filmed but it left me looking for an alternative.

As I cycled around the zig zag road route I encountered two cyclists coming the other way one of whom shouted something to the extent of me not having a strong enough character to go up Box Hill - I paraphrase substantially here . Anyways, after the two gimps had passed I stopped at the next junction to get some munchies down me and plan my route, a guy passed me and went up the hilly road ahead. Some 3 minutes later I continued, half a mile later I caught sight of him again. Lost him on the next 2 corners, I assumed I'd lost him for good, but then the next hilly section I saw him at the top so I pushed on. About a mile later I caught and passed him!! VERY much unlike me to catch anyone who was on a half decent looking bike, but I didn't gloat, I didn't fist pump or shout BOOM! I said hey there, got a hey in return and went on my way.

Followed the RideLondon route back as far as Kingston hitting some heavy traffic on the Esher road, still felt reasonably fresh so did a quick detour and got in a cheeky lap of Richmond Park and then home.

Must admit my legs are feeling it, but did (Strava) 53 miles in 3hrs 49 mins, 2,201ft ascent, 13.8 mph average with an average heart rate of 146bpm (most pleasing aspect). Garmin, Endomondo and MapMyRide are identical in their stats, 53.03 miles, 3hrs 45mins, 14.1mph average speed, 2,747 ft ascended (corrected elevation) and 146bpm HR.

Really struggle to understand the weird algorithms that Strava uses, but it clearly is not accurate, at all.

http://app.strava.com/activities/54734300

Must be something in the cerals, I had my weetabix, and fair flew up the ones I had today, mind not as taxing as yours but still p.b's on a lot of them.
This was the other thing I was doing today.

Fender Stratacaster by nigelnaturist, on Flickr

 

[JoeyB]

Attempting my first 300km tomorrow...can't say I'm looking forward to it! Only did my first 200km a few weeks ago... hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew (again)

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Attempting my first 300km tomorrow...can't say I'm looking forward to it! Only did my first 200km a few weeks ago... hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew (again)

Just as well your young, I could never dream of those distances. Good luck.