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

[g0kmt]

I thought about going out today, it was raining earlier and the humidity was high 93%. So I decided to do a circuit of the town. I have two planed, one that just goes round town and another that meanders a little to make it 10 miles. I chose the latter in order to increase my distance. I forgot to take some fluids with me, but there are plenty of cafes around so that wasn't a problem, other than on the outer prom..

I had a senior moment whilst crossing a busy main road, tried to pull up against a railing and missed, I wasn't ready for this and fell flat on my face, into the busy main road. A caravan towing driver just drove past without slowing down, a nice woman did slow down to see if I was all right as I was picking myself up but I waved her on.

The plan had been to stop once to pick up lunch. but after 7 miles I needed a drink so I stopped at a café and had a lovely chat with a young woman and her gran. Its nice how cycling gives you the chance to meet folks :-)

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Coming down a steep twisty hill and my brake pads aren't brilliant so was using both together but must have used slightly too much back brake and it gave a little skid. Nothing major.

Really must upgrade the brake pads at some point but never seem to have any spare cash these days.

Mo':

I can send you these FOC if you want them:

4 x TRP road pad cartridge holders. These are black with black hardware.

2 x Koolstop Dura 2 Salmon Pads to fit above. Used 150 metres! These are the brand new latest model without the daft plough tip.

4 x TRP Black Pads. New (maybe 10 miles on them tops). I can send you 4 in case you don't like 2 Salmon on the front and 2 black on the rear! lol.

If you don't want black cartridge holders cos your brakes are silver I'll just send you the 6 pads.

Just let me know yay or nay and I'll pm you my personal email address so you can give me a mailing address.

 

[Mo1959]

@SpokeyDokey My goodness. That's extremely kind At least let me cover your postage or make a small payment if you want. I would certainly be interested as I have never felt the Forme brakes have had a great deal of stopping power.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

@SpokeyDokey My goodness. That's extremely kind At least let me cover your postage or make a small payment if you want. I would certainly be interested as I have never felt the Forme brakes have had a great deal of stopping power.

Nope - no payment required. My good deed for the day and happy to help a lady.

I have sent my email address on one of those conversation things in your profile - not really sure how to use it tbh so if I have fouled it up can you let me know please.

As soon as I have your mailing address I will whizz them in the post for you.

 

[Mo1959]

Nope - no payment required. My good deed for the day and happy to help a lady.

I have sent my email address on one of those conversation things in your profile - not really sure how to use it tbh so if I have fouled it up can you let me know please.

As soon as I have your mailing address I will whizz them in the post for you.

Done.......and that certainly covers your good deed for the day. Amazing. Giving up work early due to stress and surviving on a pretty tiny pension has it's drawbacks at times. Not been a good month as I needed dog food, cat food and cat litter and it doesn't leave much spare. I would rather live on beans and toast and see the animals well looked after!

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Well everyone's done more than me .
@SpokeyDokey nice one.
Regarding braking, I use what I deem correct at the time, to keep the bike balanced (not to say I am very good a it), but when I was learning to drive I was told keep the car balanced by braking into bends and to accelerate out of them, when you get it even a little wrong you can feel its wrong and correct accordingly, but generally not by excessive amounts as this would then throw your line and balance out and usually end up out of control, this is usually what happens to people in the snow.
Speaking of which, since I have been in bed most of the last 48 hrs, I was watch a program about life in the 13th century, it seems England and I presume Europe went through a mini ice age, a little like the 17th century, and from what I read we are heading into another one at the moment. So it looks like there may be a 400 year cycle with the Sun on top of the 11 year cycle that is commonly known about.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Done.......and that certainly covers your good deed for the day. Amazing. Giving up work early due to stress and surviving on a pretty tiny pension has it's drawbacks at times. Not been a good month as I needed dog food, cat food and cat litter and it doesn't leave much spare. I would rather live on beans and toast and see the animals well looked after!

Ah yes animals - wish my boy in my avatar was still here! Mind you he could eat for England. 1.2 Kg meat, 10 slices toast, a dozen small Bonios all the table scraps and whatever else his sad eyes could scrounge went past his big teeth every day. He wasn't a fattie either - he was a big muscly lad who was super fit - unlike his dad!

Parcel at the Post Office as I passed it to go and get some ice cream!

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Just a few of the obscure graphs that sporttracks will give you this is the amount of riding according to time of day (not sure if it differentiates between seasons)

This one speed zones by distance

and by time

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Well everyone's done more than me .
@SpokeyDokey nice one.
Regarding braking, I use what I deem correct at the time, to keep the bike balanced (not to say I am very good a it), but when I was learning to drive I was told keep the car balanced by braking into bends and to accelerate out of them, when you get it even a little wrong you can feel its wrong and correct accordingly, but generally not by excessive amounts as this would then throw your line and balance out and usually end up out of control, this is usually what happens to people in the snow.
Speaking of which, since I have been in bed most of the last 48 hrs, I was watch a program about life in the 13th century, it seems England and I presume Europe went through a mini ice age, a little like the 17th century, and from what I read we are heading into another one at the moment. So it looks like there may be a 400 year cycle with the Sun on top of the 11 year cycle that is commonly known about.

I think I have just lost my nerve Nigel since my loose gravel incident. I am paranoid about the stuff. They do that loose chipping thing up here ie tar with a layer of small chippings on top and the cars press it down. They never seem to come and sweep the excess off though.

It is very hard to avoid on the narrow twisty lanes here. There are usually two nice smooth 'rails' to use - trouble is if I get in one and go round a bend there'll be a car in them, I'll then go off line and end up in the gravel!

Not easy this biking malarky!

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I thought about going out today, it was raining earlier and the humidity was high 93%. So I decided to do a circuit of the town. I have two planed, one that just goes round town and another that meanders a little to make it 10 miles. I chose the latter in order to increase my distance. I forgot to take some fluids with me, but there are plenty of cafes around so that wasn't a problem, other than on the outer prom..

I had a senior moment whilst crossing a busy main road, tried to pull up against a railing and missed, I wasn't ready for this and fell flat on my face, into the busy main road. A caravan towing driver just drove past without slowing down, a nice woman did slow down to see if I was all right as I was picking myself up but I waved her on.

The plan had been to stop once to pick up lunch. but after 7 miles I needed a drink so I stopped at a café and had a lovely chat with a young woman and her gran. Its nice how cycling gives you the chance to meet folks :-)

Hope you and your steed are ok.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I think I have just lost my nerve Nigel since my loose gravel incident. I am paranoid about the stuff. They do that loose chipping thing up here ie tar with a layer of small chippings on top and the cars press it down. They never seem to come and sweep the excess off though.

It is very hard to avoid on the narrow twisty lanes here. There are usually two nice smooth 'rails' to use - trouble is if I get in one and go round a bend there'll be a car in them, I'll then go off line and end up in the gravel!

Not easy this biking malarky!

We have the same here, usually takes a month or so, thing is sometimes they do it on perfectly good roads, so instead of using the money to repair the very bad ones properly they cover minor pot holes that start showing again after a few days or the surface starts to brake up make the surface just as bad as it was prior to the resurfacing.

 

[stevey]

Were they both very sweaty? Could have been us if they were.

Couldn't tell went past quickly.... Lol

 

[themosquitoking]

Couldn't tell went past quickly.... Lol

I'm pretty sure that wasn't us then.

 

[g0kmt]

@SpokeyDokey Yes thanks, I am fine, so is the bike.

I must admit I am enjoying this week off, with all this cycling :-) I am hoping to do another ride tomorrow, maybe try for 15 miles this time.

 

[MaxInc]

Third week of structured training and beginning to see some results. I centralised all data into Golden Cheetah and I was able to extract some meaningful statistics. Basically since I'm training in specific HR zones on pretty much the same route I can judge the progress by the average speed. Base fitness on the Endurance rides in Zone 2 was 22.1Km/h first week, 23.1Km/h second week and today 24.2Km/h which is a nice trend to notice. Obviously I need more data but the results are good enough to keep me motivated and press on. I'm beginning to discover the science of sport and it gets me pretty excited TBH. I'm starting to wish for a power meter