The hills don't hurt as much these days

I can definitely say I'm getting fitter. I was mulling various things over in my mind on the way to work today and before I knew it, I was pulling in to the office. My legs still felt like they'd been up a few hills, but the total effort expenditure didn't cause me any discomfort at all. Nice misty view over the estuary too..

Always the wrong days

It's a glorious day today, lovely blue skies and no winds.. I had to drive to work though (complicated reasons involving suits and paperwork). Harrumph.. I just hope tomorrow is as nice.

Getting colder

It was proper chilly when I left home this morning, luckily I warmed up pretty smartish as I hit the first hill.
It got me thinking though. I have some full finger gloves for winter use, but I need to have a think about what other bits of kit I might need as the weather turns colder.. Might be time to break out the bib tights again.

New mudguards working well.

It rained a lot overnight so the road was quite wet on the way in today. I was happy to find that my new mudguards give an amazing amount of protection from spray, even if they do look a bit naff.



(Mine are black though..)

I still haven't quite got the hang of how much grip you get with slick tyres, especially on wet roads. I had a few *ahem* interesting moments going round roundabouts when the tyres started to break away..

Good ride home

Beat the number 30 bus home.. Always a pleasure.

Nice ride in this morning

Only one driver tried to kill me, I paced the number 30 for half the trip and my new mudguards work a treat.
On the down side, I really must remember not to sneeze while in heavy traffic. Having your eyes shut for 3 or 4 seconds at 25mph is a little scary...

Rainy friday

No biking in for me today, I have a big pile of stuff I needed to bring in, plus new fork/wheel and brake to take home (I get my goodies delivered to work). Quite glad really cos the weather was proper nasty this morning. I really must sort out some mudguards and similar bits and bobs, back to the shops for me..

Last night riding home I saw a dead hare*.


* may have actually been a rabbit run over by an HGV...squished=stretched

The 'Praypex'

New word for the day.. There's a few blind summits/corners on my way in to work, and I'm always a bit wary of going over/round them, as it's then a race against time to see if I can get far enough away that a car coming round the corner at 20mph above the speedlimit with a driver using a mobile phone, will still have time to see and avoid me... Hence the new term, it's an apex, with added fervent prayer..

Otherwise a good ride in, nice day for it. National travel to work like a hippy day in fact.

It got better.

The weather perked up for my ride home yesterday, not bad at all. The ride in this morning was fine too, blue skies and a nice temperature. It's still got me thinking about winter though, shopping for mudguards at the moment...

Drizzle

Soo, that was pleasant. The kind of drizzling rain that doesn't seem too bad when you first get out into it, but very quickly builds up until it's running off your helmet visor in rivers. On the plus side, it did make me seek out the fabled heated lockers at work, and they're pretty good.. I can see them getting a lot of use over the winter. There's a spin dryer too..luxury.

Had a few scary moments on the way in today though, firstly when I lost my chain and had to stop to put it back on. Being stationary leaning over a bike at the side of the road made me realise quite how fast the traffic was coming past (and how close). It was actually quite hard to force myself to get back on and start pedalling (though it felt a lot better as soon as I did..).

The second scary moment was when, not far from work, I heard a sudden kttshhhhhhh noise behind me. I glanced round to see the radiator grill of an arctic looming up less than a foot from my back wheel. The noise appeared to be the airbrakes struggling to slow it down without skidding.. Whether he'd just not noticed me early enough, or had a last minute change of heart and decided not to mow me down, I don't know. It's a scary game being a cyclist in the world of heavy goods vehicles..

Monday car driving

Rode the Gap yesterday so went for a gentle start to the week with a drive in... If the weather holds though, I should be on the bike for the next four days (plus wednesday evening off road) so a funpacked week ahead.

Great ride home on friday, the fuel protest, as unimpressive as it was, led to a massive tailback on my route home. It's always nice to sail past car drivers with a smug grin.. In fact after hitting a jam on the motorway on hte way in today, I was wishing I was on the bike.

Typical.

The headwind that blew into my face all the way to work, has just reversed itself by 180 degrees.
Quite why it does this, and why exactly at lunch time, I'll never know.

Sodding wind.

Ice cold headwind...

...all the way to work. Oh well, it certainly blew my hangover away (beers and pool in the Tut & Shive last night).
It made me think actually about how isolated from the environment you are when driving a car. With even the most feeble of modern cars you'll never notice the effect of a headwind or tailwind on your speed. Seems kind of a shame to miss out on the natural russian roulette of the elements.

The weekly wimp out - part two

So I drove this morning too.. Not beacause of the rain, but after riding last night, I found it really hard to motivate my legs this morning.. I will be back on the bike tomorrow though, I promise.
I think in future I'll try and double up on wednesdays, riding in to work and back as well as riding in the evening, have thrursday as my rest/car day and that way I should be able to ride 4 out of the 5 work runs a week. Should still have clocked up nearly 200 miles this week though, so not too shabby.

The weekly wimp out

So, sat here in my suit having just driven to work. I have an important meeting today, plus a pub lunch some miles away and I'm riding this evening. I'd still prefer to have cycled today but it's minging weather, and I haven't quite sorted out mudguards yet.. Still, out tonight and on the bike tomorrow and friday. That'll be 150 odd miles this week (not counting the weekends..).

Filter this...

For some reason, as a car driver I find filtering motorbikes really annoying (in moving traffic, not traffic jams or queues). I don't go as far as to pull over a bit to make it harder for them to sneak through, but it does annoy me when traffic is moving at a fair pace. I don't undertake people in my car, so I don't expect to be undertaken by a motorbike... I'm suprised more of them don't cause accidents while filtering at 40 miles an hour. Anyhow, I got a little revenge while riding home last night. Two motorbikes filtering through the traffic queuing up at the roundabout, only they can't get through all the gaps. After a lung busting sprint I caught them and then 'filtered' between them. Nice to see they don't like traffic undertaking them from their blind spot either... Heh he.

Nice ride in this morning, uneventful and sunny... I'm definitely finding that (apart from last night) a more chilled approach is paying dividends in keeping me out of aggro confrontation with traffic.

Sunny Monday

Nice ride in this morning, after dubious weather over the weekend, it's all perked again now. Just ordered some new shorts specially for commuting, even thinking about getting some full mudguards for the winter season. Given that petrol prices are not likely to drop much ever, I think I'll be on the bike for the forseeable... You know what though? That really doesn't sound that bad.*


* Ask me again in the middle of a winter rain storm.

The gallon challenge..

What is so eccentric about your bottom bracket? Does it smoke a pipe?

Had a great ride yesterday.. None of that daft road riding nonsense. We did around a 40 mile loop offroad north of the city, taking in 7 pubs and 10 pints (over 12 hours). Lots of hilarity, some slight falling off action and lots of gangster style heckling...

Chilled ride in this morning

Due to having a fairly important meeting this morning and not wanting to be in too much of an aggro cycle warrior mood for it, I made a point of spinning in gently and enjoying the scenery... I got to work feeling relaxed and invigorated and only 5 minutes slower than usual. Result.

It is scary actually the extent to which a commute can affect my mood. I had a few near misses with idiotic cars a while back, after the first one I was left timid and shaken and carried that over to my conduct at work. The second time I felt righteous indignation and turned up at work ready to punch the lights out of anyone who disagreed with me... Neither ideal states of mind, but interesting nonetheless.

I'm going to have a chilled ride home now, the long way via the coast... It's usually windy, but much less stressful.

Feeble

After quite enjoying yesterday's commute and having a great ride out in the evening, I should have been raring to jump on the bike this morning. Sadly, I feel absolutely shattered...and it was raining. Excuses excuses, I know. Tomorrow I've promised the lass that she can have my car so it'll be back to two wheels.

Squirrel kamikaze

Passed 3 dead squirrels on the road this morning, poor little blighters. I wonder if Halfords has had a run on their faux-peanut valve caps again?

Fragrant..

The gentle wafting smell of drying cycling kit is filling the office. Nice.

Back with a vengeance

So, it's back to the daily rush of playing in traffic.
I've just had 5 weeks off work, a fun trip travelling round Africa with my girlfriend, but now it's back home, back to work and so back on the bike..

Before I went away I was riding to work 4 days out of five, riding off-road every Wednesday night and usually one day at the weekend. I think that probably means I was pretty fit...(past tense is important here). We went out for a short spin on the local trails last night and it hurt. It never ceases to amaze me how long it takes to build up fitness on the bike, and how quickly you can lose it. Oh well, as well as riding both ways today at 12 miles each way, I'm also off out this evening for a spin on the trails north of the city which will probably add up to around 50 miles in total for my second day back on the bike. There's nothing like dropping yourself back in at the deep end..

On the plus side, no one tried to kill me this morning. Even the number 30 bus drove round me instead of through me, I always take that as a good sign...