Not a lot to report as rides have been pretty short and lacklustre recently.
Monday went to view a complete shed of a car on the CdF and extended the ride afterwards to about 33 miles; descending into a stroppy antisocial thrash along the tow path which yielded many Strava PRs and disapproving looks
Tuesday afternoon I rode about 5 miles out of town and back on the CdF to meet a mate for a 2.5hr-ish walk, then in the evening met some other mates in a park on the other side of town which was probably about an 8 mile round trip on the ofo. Utterly exhausted by the time I got home.
Yesterday felt pretty deflated from the previous day's exercise and lack of sleep (plus the heat was a killer as I found when the 40min walk to the shop and back felt like it nearly killed me), but it was such a nice evening it would have been a crime to stay in so I went out for a casual waft around town on the ofo; clocking up probably about 10-12 miles (I must try and fit my old-skool wired bike computer).
Yesterday's highlights included being startled by a rat or vole (not sure which as it was traveling so fast!) shooting across the tow path and managing to thread itself seamlessly unscathed between my front and rear wheels before I'd even had time to react
Also highly entertaining was being passed by a guy on a road bike on Magdalen bridge at a reasonable speed; just for a laugh I hunkered down over the bars and gave it a big effort; slowly reeling him in and eventually passing him on the high st
Had planned a largish ride today but need to be fresh tomorrow and both the wind and heat look to be against me so think I'll postpone. might go out on an egg run before it gets too hot though, since I only have 5 days supply left, the next few days are not really convenient and I think they tend to go quickly on a Monday morning..
UPDATE (I): Egg-run completed on the increasingly-usual loop; coming in at a little under 25 miles and 300-odd feet at 13.0mph and about 111bpm for 800kcal burned. It's absolutely sweltering out there; consumed a whole bottle of water in about half the normal time and even though the journey had been sedate sweat was dripping off my nose as I decanted the eggs...
Otherwise it was quite a pleasant ride; lots of happy cyclists around, a few knobhead close-passes but also lots of respectful wide-berths and self control. Saw some absolute muppet woman turn the wrong way down the bus lane outside the Head of the River on the Abingdon Rd; could potentially had been nasty had I arrived a few seconds earlier and been in the space she ended up occupying
Since I didn't eat before going out I felt properly, physically hungry / empty on the way back; something I've not felt for a while and an indictment of how my diet's slid somewhat. Back home and I had the usual for brunch; no pics of the ride so here's a terrible one of my reward instead:
Arse is a bit sore again now but I'll shortly be pressing the ofo into action for a waft to port meadow to meet a mate for a bit of a swim
Update (II): Rode to port meadow via Wytham, bobbed about in the river for a bit, got a takeaway burger and some beer and had to dissuade some Irish-sounding kid that he had no right to take my ofo to ride home on
I was very pleased that my council-coolbag (water bottles wrapped in open-cell foam inside my rucksack, shoes on top to provide more of an air gap and reflective towel placed on top which I was "swimming") did a superb job of keeping my chilled water comfortably cold for the hours I was out.
Cycled home the very long way through town which was very quiet; grabbed a pic outside the Sheldonan:
Arse is more sore now thanks to cycling in mesh-lined swimming shorts
EDIT having had a bit of a read:
Monday went to view a complete shed of a car on the CdF and extended the ride afterwards to about 33 miles; descending into a stroppy antisocial thrash along the tow path which yielded many Strava PRs and disapproving looks
Tuesday afternoon I rode about 5 miles out of town and back on the CdF to meet a mate for a 2.5hr-ish walk, then in the evening met some other mates in a park on the other side of town which was probably about an 8 mile round trip on the ofo. Utterly exhausted by the time I got home.
Yesterday felt pretty deflated from the previous day's exercise and lack of sleep (plus the heat was a killer as I found when the 40min walk to the shop and back felt like it nearly killed me), but it was such a nice evening it would have been a crime to stay in so I went out for a casual waft around town on the ofo; clocking up probably about 10-12 miles (I must try and fit my old-skool wired bike computer).
Yesterday's highlights included being startled by a rat or vole (not sure which as it was traveling so fast!) shooting across the tow path and managing to thread itself seamlessly unscathed between my front and rear wheels before I'd even had time to react
Also highly entertaining was being passed by a guy on a road bike on Magdalen bridge at a reasonable speed; just for a laugh I hunkered down over the bars and gave it a big effort; slowly reeling him in and eventually passing him on the high st
Had planned a largish ride today but need to be fresh tomorrow and both the wind and heat look to be against me so think I'll postpone. might go out on an egg run before it gets too hot though, since I only have 5 days supply left, the next few days are not really convenient and I think they tend to go quickly on a Monday morning..
UPDATE (I): Egg-run completed on the increasingly-usual loop; coming in at a little under 25 miles and 300-odd feet at 13.0mph and about 111bpm for 800kcal burned. It's absolutely sweltering out there; consumed a whole bottle of water in about half the normal time and even though the journey had been sedate sweat was dripping off my nose as I decanted the eggs...
Otherwise it was quite a pleasant ride; lots of happy cyclists around, a few knobhead close-passes but also lots of respectful wide-berths and self control. Saw some absolute muppet woman turn the wrong way down the bus lane outside the Head of the River on the Abingdon Rd; could potentially had been nasty had I arrived a few seconds earlier and been in the space she ended up occupying
Since I didn't eat before going out I felt properly, physically hungry / empty on the way back; something I've not felt for a while and an indictment of how my diet's slid somewhat. Back home and I had the usual for brunch; no pics of the ride so here's a terrible one of my reward instead:
Arse is a bit sore again now but I'll shortly be pressing the ofo into action for a waft to port meadow to meet a mate for a bit of a swim
Update (II): Rode to port meadow via Wytham, bobbed about in the river for a bit, got a takeaway burger and some beer and had to dissuade some Irish-sounding kid that he had no right to take my ofo to ride home on
I was very pleased that my council-coolbag (water bottles wrapped in open-cell foam inside my rucksack, shoes on top to provide more of an air gap and reflective towel placed on top which I was "swimming") did a superb job of keeping my chilled water comfortably cold for the hours I was out.
Cycled home the very long way through town which was very quiet; grabbed a pic outside the Sheldonan:
Arse is more sore now thanks to cycling in mesh-lined swimming shorts
EDIT having had a bit of a read:
Wow - cracking effort at the best of times; let alone in yesterday's heatVery warm & humid this morning, but with a slight easterly breeze off the North Sea, so I thought I'd do the known Woodbridge, Hollesley, Tunstall & Rendlesham route as that's mostly by the river or close enough to the sea to get the benefit of the cooling breeze.
Once on the bike I must have had some form of brain fart as I completely forgot about the planned route and went in completely the opposite diection inland to Ipswich and decided to make up the route as I went along. Round the top of town then out to Westerfield and east to the turn off for Little Bealings and back west to Great Bealings and a single track cut through lane to the crossroads with the Grundisburgh road. For the first time I took the lane opposite instead of the main road not knowing exactly where it led to - thankfully it came out a couple of miles later on the Boulge road which in turn led back to Hasketon and then the road into Woodbridge.
By now it was getting a bit too warm, so I headed back on the reverse of the earlier planned outward leg through Marltesham & Waldringfield where I diverted for a quick stop by the river. Resisting a takeaway meal & pint from the Maybush pub and making do with an energy bar & some of the orange squash & SiS Go Hydro mix from my bottle instead I finished off into Newbourne twice (from differnt directions), down to Kirton and home for a much needed shower.
With tomorrow predicted to be even warmer, there's no way I'm going out for any distance late morning or early afternoon.
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