Even at high tide its still bloody good fun!
20200509_132501 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20200509_135629 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

30-odd km today and I was done in. Definitely post-viral. Sleet showers interspersed with sunny spells.

Might have found a wee bivvy spot though. Wind would have to be right but views are good.

P1060509 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Up to the snow level today

P1060513 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr



sneachda earraich

Much, much lower than the snow level for me today

https://youtu.be/DaNf4BVJ0ik

Managed just over eight minutes of riding this morning, before this happened...



Fixed what looked like a simple puncture, but the tyre wouldn't hold air, so walked home. Later in the day I took the tyre off, the insert out and had a proper look at the inner tube. Looks like the initial repair was fine, but the nail had actually gone all the way through the inner tube, and the rim tape. Not quite sure how I missed that, it looked like there was only an entry hole.

I'd also noticed that the front tyre was a bit soft, so pumped it up while I was at it. Half an hour later it was flat too. So took it off and all the sealant has dried up, Endurance my arse...

Inner tube.....

Pics from the last couple of days down on the Conwy morfa for a short pedals out but most of all a bit of a de-stress. Fresh air works

IMG_20200514_170638_258 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

IMG_20200514_170638_255 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

IMG_20200515_154510_715 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

IMG_20200515_154510_719 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

IMG_20200514_170638_253 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

i had a nice ride out yesterday. my 1st hundred miler this year. i try and do one every year.

https://www.strava.com/activities/3454795308

Headed out late afternoon for a change. Gave Blood on Thursday, so the legs weren't quite responding as I'd have liked, with a few efforts curtailed, as while to the head and heart said yes, but the legs said no fucking chance. Still, it was a relatively pacey ride, compared to what I've been doing lately, so one of those feels slow, but is actually fast jobbies.

I had to stop and admire this front garden, I love aliums:


I also had to stop and admire all those wooden sculptures, I love a wooden sculpture:


Obligatory #GravelWanker shot:

Only thing I'd like say on todays (well, yesterday) ride was that on a piece of nice singletrack, some nice chap had cleaned up his (dogs, I assume) poo and kindly hung it on a nearby tree. Twas a light blue bag and I assume he'd left for the landowner to clear up...

Other than that little disturbing scene it was a nice ride and I even managed to get up a rocky section without putting foot down...

Went down the coast again yesterday. I put this film together for a facebook group (named at the start) and thought I'd post it here too:
Click on the pic to play the film (2 minutes)
YouCut_20200516_152814086 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

Well, actually yesterday's ride. Starting to feel like I can sustain a bit of effort again, which is nice. Took in a another couple of, new to me, bridleways and byways, which was also nice.

The top of this byway wasn't much fun on the gravel bike though, it turned into what can only be described as a river bed, a bit later on:


The weather was lovely, I hope my Galibier order turns up this week, as my thermal bibs are now a bit on the toasty side:

Doing my bit for the local beerienteering group.

DSC_1139 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Thought I'd better keep the old joints and fluids working (body and bike both) so went for a quick hammering round the woods. Silly really, cos a/ it's hot, and b/ I'm an old codger and should know better. Still, it strikes me that we're lucky that biking has been given favoured status throughout this bug business - I'm grateful that my lifestyle has been less affected than many. If I'd been into weird sports/exercises like "football" or "gyms" (about either of which I know precisely zero) I can see I'd be getting cheesed off by now.

Unlike Colin I don't see giant stags every day of the week unfortunately, so I was lucky to spot this one, which seemed strangely immobile.

Flipping gorgeous out this morning.



Shame I binned it, in a totally innocuous fashion along a rutted byway. No idea what happened, passed an old bloke and his dog on Barston Drove towards Reach, and ended up on the rutted side of the byway. Went to move back to the smoother side and next thing I know I'd shoulder barging the ground. No warning, no chance of a save, one second upright, the next on my face in the dirt.



Gave myself a dead right forearm and bruised shoulder and ribs, I imagine I'll be on the stiff side tomorrow. The rest of the ride was an exercise in pain management and swearing, as I didn't fancy coming back all the way on tarmac. Which meant I got to see these cygnets, which was nice...

First ride with company on Sunday night, was lovely. Planning another on Friday, easy enough to socially distance on a bike ride

But I've now ridden all the roads in my postcode, a random thing I was looking to do. Strangely satisfying and looks very pretty on veloviewer, will probably try and piece together other surrounding postcodes over time.

My little postcode has taken three rides because
- I'm slow and have been riding for fun
- I'm using my MTB rather than a road bike
- I'm only heading out for a couple of hours max in the evening

I've been tagging on extra little bits in other postcodes, but somehow I've managed 45 miles. And I'm really not far from my house

RIP wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 11:57 am

I saw that carving a few months ago as I rode past the new-build mansion gates...and a few years ago when it was a huge tree...and wondered if the nature-lover who commissioned it appreciated its irony...

Went out to enjoy the sun, I was mainly picking up my mum's shopping list as I'm doing her shopping at the moment. Despite her living less than a mile away it somehow ended up an 18 mile round trip I passed this on the way



Not much chance of trains coming by as it's a preserved line and currently shut down. It did remind me of a previous trip the this level crossing....

A few years back one Christmas the Havenstreet Steam Railway advertised they were running the Santa Special. Always looking for a good theme for a ride I convinced a friend it would be good to ride out there and see the train go by, I assured him it would be amazing as it's the 'Santa Special' which in my mind was going to look like the Mallard* only decorated for Christmas.

We met at my lock-up where I kept my bike at the time which meant riding across the Island to get there. Obviously we were late leaving so a social pace Christmas ride became a threshold effort to arrive in time, which we did, just. The crossing is just under a mile from the station so it wouldn't take the train long to get to us. I'd looked up the times in the paper to make sure we'd see it roaring past us. I heard the short whistle in the distance which signaled the passengers needed to board and shortly after the long whistle for it to depart and I even think I heard it pull away. So we waited, and waited, and waited...

After about 10 minutes a dog walker crossed the track and asked what we were up to? We said we were waiting to see the train. He said that you can tell when the train has been running as the track gets shiny. We looked at the rusty track but dismissed his advice, perhaps it had just rusted up overnight after yesterdays running?

After about an hour of standing in the cold we decided that something must have gone wrong so continued on our ride somewhat dejected. Perhaps it wasn't running? Maybe we'd imagined the whistles as it is a mile away? We passed the station car-park which seemed very busy?

It turns out I'd neglected to check one minor detail. The line runs from Wooton > Havenstreet > Ashey > Smallbrook Junction. The main station is at Havenstreet which is where they keep the engines and the museum is, the others are just platforms. We were at a level crossing between Havenstreet and Wooton. The Santa Special runs from Havenstreet to Smallbrook Junction and back. The train had been running, just along the track in the opposite direction to us

* I rode out to a bridge the following year to see what I'd missed. It turns out the Santa Special is just a small shunter engine and it was going backwards, no decorations in sight and it goes at about 10 mph. This is to allow the fat bloke in a santa costume enough time to say Ho Ho Ho to all the passengers as he wanders down the train.

Yesterday I went for a gentle pootle with my son. First time in three weeks I've actually managed to persuade him to come out on his bike.



There's been loads of low flying Apache's the last couple of days, the house got buzzed at 23:30 the other night, which wasn't appreciated.



This morning, I loaded up with co-codamol and headed out without any real plan of where I wanted to go:



Plenty of flowers out and about, a field of poppies here, buttercups there. Most just lots and lots of green:



Not sure if it was just nothing in the legs, or I was taking it easy after binning it on Wednesday, but it was a slow ride. I missed one call at work and was very late for a second. I'd much rather be outside on my bike, than in my shed on a video call, so I'm not complaining...

We still cannot ride outside our municipi (parish) so today we did a bit of exploring along the northern edge of it. Our valley is dominated by a (usually) dry river bed, in January storm Gloria caused a flash flood following 4 days of heavy rain. The barranc became a raging torrent and washed away a gravel road running along the bottom of the photo. We were able to get through, just, but it was an impressive sign of the power of nature.

Tenth ride in a row today which I almost didn't manage to fit in. It comes after losing motivation to ride for a while and also becoming bikeless (read that as less bikes as opposed to no bikes) as I self inflicted myself with an N-1 rule (pat pending). Significance of it is that it was probably my tiniest as I needed to fit the ride in between finishing fasting and finishing the little mans bookshelf.

Managed a full 0.79 miles and am planning to try and ride every day until I've finished transcribing the chapter of The Story of Yusuf from The Quran. Thats my motivation right there you could say as I was running out of titles for my rides anyway. Verse 10 managed today and the significance of it is that during the (Holy for me) Month of Ramadhan we'd often hear the Story of Yusuf (Surah Yusuf) being commentaried at the local masjid. Verse10 it was today and probably the end of the tougher rides as eid tomorrow and after that I won't need to go out fully fasted...


The hardest of the rides came the other day with 30 miles managed whilst I went out to attempt a 42 mile route I'd called 'Don't be Stupid'. Adapted from 'Don't be Soft' which is what I made to (try and) train for the 2019 BB200. On that 30 miler - didn't manage the 42 as I was conscious to not ruin my fasting and cut it short - I did a little controlled test...

I went out weighing 83.1 at about 12 noon. Just 2 hours after being motivated to attempt it by watching Sean and his Shirt on YouTube on the WRT, I had planned on riding my own chequered shirt but ended up with a bright yellow jersey. Came back without bonking (all praise to Allah) thankfully and weighing 81.0. Not sure how much of that was lost water and how much fat/food etc etc

Anyway, thats my little micro (and macro) ride of current days and hopefully I'll get Frieda built up if I have any hope of completing the 'ride everyday until the chapter concludes' challenge. Back to work on Tuesday you see so its gonna have to be the road bike that gets me through that...

Random pictures of Frieda and Stan to complete the report and in case it was too boring/monotone





Must say, that I don't look forward to riding non-fasted as it is quite liberating not having to worry about food and water preride...

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Sat May 23, 2020 10:54 pmMust say, that I don't look forward to riding non-fasted as it is quite liberating not having to worry about food and water preride...

I have never eaten while on short rides of less than three hours as I don't see the need for it (either fun rides from home or commuting for an hour to work, but I will eat instantly on getting back though), but no water?

Good job on ten consecutive rides, I am furloughed and also struggling with motivation to ride even twice a week.

Dean wrote: ↑Sat May 23, 2020 11:12 pm

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Sat May 23, 2020 10:54 pmMust say, that I don't look forward to riding non-fasted as it is quite liberating not having to worry about food and water preride...

I have never eaten while on short rides of less than three hours as I don't see the need for it (either fun rides from home or commuting for an hour to work, but I will eat instantly on getting back though), but no water?

Good job on ten consecutive rides, I am furloughed and also struggling with motivation to ride even twice a week.

Yeah... no water was the bit I was trying to takw it easy with. I actually had quite a neat syrategy on the 42 (becime 32) miler which was to keep HR below 135ish. But first little uphill section and it hit 162 so had to rethink it. Settled on 155ish... Ride lasted about 7 hours but riding time was 4 of them with a prayer stop in between as well as stopping for a rest whenever I felt I was getting close to a limit...

This doesn't quite apply to the above ride, but I read in an AK mag years ago about some famous alpine climber. He'd drink 2L of water before departing which would ensure he was able to stay out longer before needing hydration... Works well (though in mt particular case this time, the last drink was about 10 hours previous)...

Some non-social drinking on a ride today, joining in the local #beerienteering


DSC_1145 by Colin Cadden - Flickr2BBcode

Just a couple of hours around town. As sufferers will know, I don't really do normal scenery pics I'm afraid - doesn't do much for me - so probably best to move along looking a bit baffled instead to be honest.....

NCN Route 6 runs past my door, so followed that round behind the supermarket, negotiating the usual ridiculous barrier. It's been a bone of contention for years, put in by the supermarket to stop poor bikers popping out onto the deliveries access road. This is despite the fact that a biker will be doing 1mph because of the adjacent corner and any lorry would be doing 2mph because the main gate is 5 yards away. Elf N Safety Gorn Maaaaadddd. It's on a slope and the barriers are only about 2 feet apart so it's actually quite a complex "trail feature" to overcome. In fact impossible by 99% of leisure/family cyclists, so they get put off using the route - the main NCN6. A non-dabbing clean run always impresses bystanders



Along the river cycle track, and up the main drag to a big school, to which loads of kids ride. One of my pal Steve's ongoing projects is to widen one path into a proper shared-use way. Don't know about you but I've seen loads more cyclists out during lockdown, including lots of families. Hope it continues but it'll need a bit more than the "extra" £2bn to help it along.



On the way out into the countryside I'm going past a rarely-used bridleway which exits onto the 60mph road when a pony totters out in front of me closely followed by its mate. Not good, so I somehow chase them back in and stop and mention it to the nice Irish lady who's doing her outdoor ironing - and why not eh? - in the mobile park next door. She rather flirtatiously asks if I'd like to help her round them up but unfortunately I've got a sand quarry to go and look at....






Continuing round past the country park and fishing lake and back towards home, by some bizarre coincidence I bump into the aforementioned Steve who's just off on a ride as well. After some chit-chat he asks if I can save his bacon. Doesn't quite match my dietary proclivities, although it turns out it's Mrs Steve's birthday tomorrow but he's got to finish a Council report he's doing. Can I urgently take some photos for him? Go on then. He needs loads of pictures of "pavement parking" and RoW overhanging vegetation, so that's my thrilling "Tomorrow's Ride" fixed up. It's a funny old world.