Your ride today....

[Knightly85]

So today was my hardest but most beautiful cycle so far. I decided I would follow a route made from the cycle app I use, little did I know how hard the cycle would be! For over half of my cycle everything was pretty much uphill and boy I was struggling (many times I almost gave up) but I pushed myself through it showing an average speed of around 6.5mph. I realised how unfit I really am when a guy in his 60s (I'm guessing) easily over took me as I was putting every effort I had into it, he smiled and said 'hello' and that was it he was gone. Wow I mean come on I'm 34 years old and just been owned by this guy lol. After pushing myself I noticed about half way into my ride I had the most beautiful view and realised how high I had cycled, I had to take a few shots. I got to finally cycle down the hill, omg it was so amazing I had so much adrenaline in me. Once I finished my route I was like yeah that was hard but by far the most beautiful, enjoyable and satisfying cycle I've had so far.

 

[delb0y]

Yay! First ride of the lock-down. Only ten miles, in the rain, but that's why I was able to go. Normally I'd be walking the dog. Almost only made one mile thanks to a car driver, who despite my making eye contact and who was staring straight at me decided not to slow down or stop at a roundabout, only seeing me after I had slammed on my brakes and taken evasive action. Only then did he skid to a halt - would've been about six feet too late had I not already figured he wasn't expecting to see a cyclist and thus taken evasive action. That aside, it was lovely. I've missed it.

 

[Donger]

17 miles in the cold rain and largely around housing estates on my semi-kaput No.2 bike. The fact that I still loved every minute of it lets me know I have officially become cycling-obsessed. Every ride can be enjoyable.
Cheers, Donger.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I was out earlyish this morning to try and get a ride in before the rain arrived. I used the knockabout bike, partly for convenience (it's the easiest to get out) and partly because I don't want to ride the Raleigh until I've sorted whatever's up with the rear hub.

I was setting out into a brisk headwind which slowed things down a bit but not helped by just feeling a little lethargic today, don't know why that is. In the cool morning after a wet day yesterday there weren't many people out which made it great for the social distancing. Away from the village there were only about 10 walkers, two cyclists and two horses & riders.

The route was my current regular one out to Condover, Ryton, Longnor and Acton Burnell. I was only going to do the short version today but changed my mind to to extend it a bit to Cound Moor, the direct way into Cound then back towards Pitchford. I had a decent tailwind on the way back which made things easy but I could have been quicker.

People were starting to stir themselves by the time I got back and I saw more walkers and cyclists in the last mile than the whole of the rest of the ride.

Just over 21 miles at 13.4 mph average.

Low clouds over the Stretton Hills, as seen from Ryton.

Bluebells on the road to Pitchford.

 

[Gunk]

A mixture of work commitments and poor weather means we haven’t been out as much as I would have liked to this week. However I had to drop off a Hermes parcel so clipped the basket to the Brompton and ended up extending the journey to about 6 miles dodging the rain.

But a bike ride is a bike ride, it was still enjoyable!

 

[gavgav]

After a day and a half of monsoon rains returning to Shropshire, it brightened up nicely, mid afternoon and so I got out for an unexpected ride, after work. Chose the Hybrid, as I expected lanes to be wet and muddy, which proved the right decision.

Set out on my usual lockdown path, to Betton Abbots and then turned off towards Berrington. Didn’t get very far, as, at the crossroads, I found the lane to Berrington closed. It was originally supposed to be closed on the 20th April, sign had disappeared last week, but no, they’ve now closed it this week and with no signs to suggest how long for

Quick decision made, to drop down the hill and then climb up the other side towards Atcham. I was mulling over which way to go next and decided to hang a right and double back to Cross Houses, up a road I’ve not used for many years, certainly in that direction, at least. Lots of traffic along there, indeed for the whole ride, really and it’s been too many rides now, for it to just be co-incidence. People are definitely travelling more, around here, despite lockdown still be in force.

At Cross Houses, took a right at the Roundabout, short section on the A458 and along another lane that I’ve not used for years, to Berrington and then down towards the Boreton crossroads. That lane is a disgrace, full of massive craters, water, mud, sand and gravel. Won’t be using it again for a long while either!

Back along to Betton Abbots and then along Wenlock Rd, through the estate, where I had to wait for a good 10 people to cross at the Zebra crossing, where the old railway path intersects. That firmed up my decision not to use that cycle path, since lockdown started, as I was pretty sure it would be very busy with people.......yep!

Back home with 11.2 miles on the clock and 12.9mph avg. Also, after the events of the last ride, glad to say all traffic was well behaved.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Just a quick evening run out after being a surrogate teacher for the day again, and before the trudge of having to start my "day" job this evening at 8. Roll on the schools reopening!
A gentle few miles off road to blow the cobwebs away, two towns over, and then back the more direct road way in cool, setting sun.

 

[Donger]

I haven't reported all my rides on this thread this month as, and I guess you might have noticed, I've been out really rather a lot. I've been sticking to the lock down rules and advice, and have adapted my rides accordingly. Up until lock down started, I was averaging about 37 miles per ride, in a mixture of local rides, 30-40 mile club rides and monthly qualifying rides for the Metric Century-a-Month Challenge. Since lock down, I've been almost exclusively going out for between 1 hour and 1 hour 30 and doing rides of 13-22 miles.

All of that should mean that my mileage will take a big hit this year .... except somehow the exact opposite appears to apply. In recent years, since all of my eldercare responsibilities came to an end, I've been aiming for around 3,000 miles per year. I have been achieving that by putting in a steady effort at the beginning of each year, trying to put in just a little more than the requisite 250 miles per month. After a summer splurge, the mileage then generally tends to tail off towards the end of the year, bringing me in just about on target. This April (my 136th month of cycling), although entirely locked down, has actually been my biggest month ever, with a new PB of 368.2 miles. To avoid going stir crazy, I've been going out most days ....23 times this month. It seems that little and much more often accrues the miles much better than doing longer rides less often with rests in between.

I always log my rides, recording mileage and any big hills climbed. I then also add my monthly totals to this spreadsheet. Whilst I may be in danger of forgetting what a hill is during these unusual times, the extra rides are doing wonders for my overall mileage :

It would be nice to think that people everywhere are getting out more than ever for exercise as one of the only silver linings of this current situation.
Donger

 

[wafter]

Day three today of no riding / being stuck in the house on my own, which was not doing me any favours.

After messing around with the gears on the Genesis the rain looked to be holding off, I wanted to test the setup and it was a good excuse to get out. I only planned on a 10-15 mile pootle (my legs still ache a bit from last weeks efforts), but as the ride progressed I got stuck into a fair pace as it felt good to expend some energy.

I went across town to Greater Leys and wondered down a bridleway that had previously caught my attention. This started off well-surfaced but once past all the families, dog-walkers and questionably-socially-distanced scallies first turned to mud, then tapered down to overgrown singletrack, then finally started to climb; at which point I got off as the claggy mud had destroyed any traction my mildly-knobbly tyres might have once had.

Eventually I popped out in Toot Baldon; briefly exploring a few more ill-fated paths before getting back on the road and working up some speed to centrifuge the mud off the tyres; flinging it in all directions I continued to Chiselhampton then east-ish through Clifton Hampden, past Culham and on to Abingdon.

I gave it some stick between Clifton Hampden and Abingdon, getting as low as was comfortable with my hands on the tops of the hoods, elbows bent and my forearms rested on the tops of the bars; which is tolerable on this bike thanks to its generous stack while the longish reach still stretches you out a bit.

I set a good few Strava PRs along this bit; not that they've set the leader board on fire. Interesting since I'm on a heavier, more upright bike with knobbly-ish tyres; although less surprising considering the effort put in on this occasion and fact that I can't / couldn't get as low on my road bike as I can on this one...

I carried on around the outskirts of Abingdon, on to Radley; encountering some fresh actual gravel (and thankfully fewer other people) on the cycle path past Kennington, then down the tow path to Iffley and back through town; attacking my new favourite Strava segment on the way and scoring another PR.. my uncharacteristically elevated position up the leaderboard no doubt due to the reduced traffic in the area; with both the KOM and QOM times being set in the past couple of weeks.

Excluding the initial sedate 3-4 miles I had to bin when I realised my heart rate monitor hadn't paired with the head unit, the ride came to 29 miles at 15.0mph and a mean heart rate of 141bpm; a shade higher than I usually average on the road bike and a lot more than I've done on the Genesis since I got it. Managed 33 new Strava PRs too, which I reckon has to be a record for me

At this level of exertion I'd have expected maybe 1.5mph more on the mean speed on the road bike, but that's not entirely fair on the Genesis since a small amount of the ride was spent sliding around in the mud.

A very welcome highish-intensity ride in a snatched bit of decent weather, that's levelled me right out


EDIT - Just to add I really appreciate everyone's pics from their rides - would like to contribute more myself but rarely think to take the camera and if I did, 50% of the time I'd probably not be arsed to stop!

@Donger - nice work on the mileage! I've found similar; typically I'd reckon on 1000-1500 miles per year but have done around 450 this month alone. The Polar software reckons this is about 18000kcal or around 10 days ideal calorific intake - no wonder my weight's been trending down since I've been riding more and tbh this is the first time I've ever really noticed exercise making a difference to my weight

 

[Glow worm]

One last warm and partly sunny day before the weather looks like it goes back to normal tomorrow, so out with the Bootzipper and another go at how far I can go on a compact route without crossing my own tracks.

This started off with the track that heads down to the back of Felixstowe Dock, then up again and over the A14 and onto the road to the seafront. Taking the road all the way up to Felixstowe Ferry and then off road again alongside the River Deben on the bank before heading back inland on a track to Falkenham past Kings Fleet which used to be part of the river - these are classified as public footpaths so legally shouldn't be ridden, but they are quite wide and not that busy so it's easy to give walkers plenty of space. (The pictures are from yesterday's walk on the same paths, but in sunnier conditions)

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Heading out of Falkenham I took a new (to me) bridleway which apparently is called Drunkard's Lane which comes out at the top of Kirton so I headed back down and took the back lanes back towards Trimley where I picked up regularly used tracks & roads back into Felixstowe one side of the A14, then out again to Trimley the other side of the A14, over the rail line and the series of tracks & paths that eventually brought me out less than a mile from home with 29.5 miles on the Garmin. Therefore it was necessary to do a bit of a loop round the estrate behind Trimley school to get in the necessary distance for a 50k ride. With a bit more planning I could probably do the whole 50k without this loop and therefore no crossing of my track.

In the end the whole ride was done within a 3.25 mile radius of home which is some going!
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looks like a distant view of the Ramsholt Arms in that 2nd pic on the opposite bank of the Deben - great pub!

 

[Jenkins]

looks like a distant view of the Ramsholt Arms in that 2nd pic on the opposite bank of the Deben - great pub!

Very likely is the Ramsholt Arms judging by where I took the photo. It's got some great reviews, but the problem for me is the return 15-20 mile ride after a couple of drinks

 

[Glow worm]

Very likely is the Ramsholt Arms judging by where I took the photo. It's got some great reviews, but the problem for me is the return 15-20 mile ride after a couple of drinks

True- shame the ferry doesn’t run all year- would be a nice ride from Bawdsey.

 

[Jenkins]

True- shame the ferry doesn’t run all year- would be a nice ride from Bawdsey.

It is. A few years ago my Sunday shifts used to finish at 1pm so the summer commute home was occasionally from Felixstowe Dock to Felixstowe Ferry, take the foot ferry to Bawdsey and ride home to Trimley via Woodbridge - something like 25 miles for a 4 mile journey.

 

[13 rider]

A couple of days off work should have been up in Yorkshire watching the tour of Yorkshire with @Supersuperleeds but plans were abandoned but decided to have the time off work anyway .Trying to do my job while social distancing and working round covid rules was begining to get to me so a ride was called for . An hour it was to be decided to not do my normal hilly route . Anstey ,Groby ,Ratby then saw a sign saying the level crossing was closed just before Desford normally a quick word with the workman and I have in the past walked through . Not today the road was fully blocked by a builders fence so turn round mental replan turn for Botcheston into Bagworth Thornton ,Markfield ,Newtown Linford and home 17.45 miles in 1hr 4mins with 1000ft of upness got home just as it started to rain so good timing

This made me smile a thank you to key workers

 

[itboffin]

four days of solid wind & rain with a splattering of hail, i've not been further than the garage its also not been warmer than 9C this week. I have all the kit in the world for bad weather riding from my commuting days but no desire to get freezing cold and wet then spend an hour cleaning my bike.

Fairplay to those of you that go out whatever the weather

Edit: ignore the sig tag