sawyl | Entries tagged with cycling

My recent obsessive bouts of cycling feel like they're really starting to pay off. Putting in some road time during a brief weather window over the weekend, I felt that my sustained pace was better than it had been and that the whole experience was far less draining than my recent training rides.

This afternoon, I cycled to Hele. The ride wasn't bad, although some of the hills were pretty tough and the weather wasn't particularly pleasant, but I rather enjoyed it. Or at least I did, right up until the last hundred metres.

Having forgotten that the road was wet, I took the last left turn rather too fast, only for the wheels to lose their grip. The bike went into a slide, I connected with the tarmac and ground to a halt. Relatively little damage was done, although my knee and elbow were pretty badly cut up, but on the whole I feel I got off pretty lightly...

ETA: Actually, my arm was bad enough to need bandaging up. Fortunately, I've got enough stuff left over from last time to do the job for now.

One of the skills I really honed at university was my ability to fix a puncture. For various reasons, including the insanely dangerous main road to the faculty buildings, I used to ride a daily route that involved a bike trail that might as well have been paved with broken glass which, when combined with the endless Welsh rain, resulted in tires with more punctures than St Sebastian.

Not having practiced my skills for a few years, I wasn't really sure how long it was going to take me to fix the flat I managed to pick up yesterday. But I discovered that I hadn't really lost the knack. I was able to get the wheel fixed pretty quickly — although not nearly as quickly as my student self would have managed it — and fixed well enough to stand up to a twenty mile test ride without any loss real loss of pressure.

Unfortunately, while out on my test ride, I suffered another misfortune. On my way back, down by the quay, I managed to dislodge my right contact lens. Fortunately, the lens was caught by the lens of the wrap around sunnies I was wearing. Unfortunately, there was so much wind that I wasn't able to get the stupid thing back in my eye. In the end, I gave the whole thing up as a bad job, my judgement coloured by the fact that the lenses were at the end of their monthly lives anyway, chucked the lens and rode the last mile or two home extremely slowly and cautiously.

Current Music: Vivaldi - La Fida Ninfa

This is week is not shaping up well. My normal workload has increased, not entirely unexpectedly, increased substantially but unfortunately this seems to have coincided with a spike in the consultancy side of things. If things get any worse, I'm going to have to start handing out numbered tickets.

Worse still, a chance check of my calendar this morning caused me to realise that I'm supposed to hand in the last couple of chapters of my thesis at the end of the week — a revelation that prompted much swearing and cursing. So after spending the early part of my evening reading up on Rawls, I did what the tough always do when the going is hard: I went cycling.

After yesterday's rest day, I was on pretty good form and pushed reasonably hard to keep up a good pace. In the end I managed a 23 mile loop over mixed Devonian terrain in around an hour and ten, which gives me an average speed of around 20 mph. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Current Music: Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 3

I had an embarrassing spill while out biking. I'd slowed right down to dodge around a kid who was pushing his bike across one of the cycle paths. The kid suddenly changed direction, I stopped completely and forgetting that I was clipped in, failed to get my feet down in time. Very little damage was done, except to my amour propre, and the whole thing was rather amusing.

ETA: I've uncovered some minor damage in the form of a spectacular bruise on my hip but my hand and elbow remain almost completely undamaged.

Warming up for my bike ride down by the quay, I happened upon the lone figure of

doctor_squale running through the crowds of tourists and dodging the dog walkers. Leaving the Good Doctor to run in peace, I cranked up the pace and headed off towards Exmouth, only to be hampered by a gusty headwind. In the end, I called it a day just shy of Exmouth, headed back through Lympston and Topsham to town.

All of which exertion, combined with a day spent running up and down stairs, going from my desk to the computer room and back several times an hour, has put an enormous hole in my reserves which I've just remedied with large quantities of peanut butter sandwiches. If I keep this up, I'll end up having to follow Matthew Sparkes' example and carry flapjacks around with me to eat on the go...

Current Music: Manuel de Falla: Seven Spanish Popular Songs.

My recent commitment to cycling seems to be paying off. Tonight, after riding my usual distance, I was all set to head for home. But instead, when I got into town, I carried on over the roundabout and added another circuit just because I'd enjoyed the last few miles so much that I didn't want to stop...

Despite putting the kibosh on both running and swimming, my current problems with my shoulder have yet to effect my cycling. Consequently I've been able to spend far more time than normal out on the road, really settling in with my new bike. And it's a good time of year to be out riding: the weather is fine, but not too hot; the evenings are light enough to stay out late; and there are scores of leisurely bikers out on the paths and roads for me to overtake...

Current Music: Bruckner - Symphony No. 9

Taking advantage of the much improved weather, I went for an early evening ride down to Dawlish — a round trip of about 30 miles. I really enjoyed myself, although I found the journey back tougher than I'd expected after a nasty headwind picked up. But I still managed to get back without too much suffering — not that I'd have minded, I have a masochistic enthusiasm for hill climbing, which is probably just as well living in Devon.

I'm actually pretty pleased with how well my cycling is going at the moment. Everytime I go out and work a bit harder, I get a better feel for the limits of my stamina and how hard I can push myself before I run out of steam. I'm also starting to get a much better feel my bike — which, despite its understated paint job, attracts quite a few appreciative comments! — and how it handles. Rather pathetically, though, I've been forgoing my cycling shoes in favour of trainers so that I can get a feel for the way the pedals orient themselves without having to worry about align the cleats at the same time. Then, once I'm happy with everything else, I'm going to switch back to using my proper shoes.

I feel like I'm gradually starting to get my cycling groove back...

Every day this week, I've failed to start cycling to work. I've got a whole range of convenient excuses. The weather is too bad. I'm too tired. I've done too much running to make it up the big hill. I'm late.

But I have high hopes for tomorrow...

ETA: I seem to have failed again. Today's excuse is that I had to spent a couple of hours working over night and, consequently, I'm more interested in slurping down coffee than cycling...

Current Music: Bruckner - Symphony No. 3

I don't normally bike in the afternoon — I normally go first thing, when I don't have to dodge the traffic — but I've just been out for an enjoyable spin, dodging the dog walkers and kids, and ruthlessly overtaking the Saturday slowcoaches. I was also pleased to discover that, despite my running/cycling routine having been disrupted by the recent appalling weather, my fitness levels don't seem to have dipped too badly.

Current Music: Peter Dickinson - Blue Rose Variations

Finally my months of mooning and sighing and boring all my friends rigid about bikes are over: I'm now the proud owner of a Giant SCR C4. It's sitting in the corner of my living room right now, propped up against the bookshelves. Since I don't have a camera, here's a stock shot (you'll have to imagine my shelves, books and the little posable Spider Jerusalem stood in one corner):

Although I haven't been out for a serious ride yet — the humidity is still horrible — I really enjoyed my meandering ride back from the bike shop, especially after all the Brompton rides I've done recently.

Don't get me wrong, the Brompton's a great little bike and I like it a lot. It's good for commuting and, surprisingly, with it's little wheels and funny gears, it's actually been a excellent little trainer. But it just doesn't come close to touching a decent road bike. Unlike the Brompton, the Giant accelerates like a dream, floats up hills and corners like it's on rails (the folder's small wheels and short trail, give the steering a slightly edgy feel). But then, you couldn't fold up the Giant and take on the train with you, even if it is lighter than the Brompton.

I'm hopeful that, if the weather looks better first thing tomorrow, I might be able to go for a couple of preliminary spins to start bedding things in and to get more used to the bike. I'm particularly keen to get some experience with clipless pedals — I suspect that they're probably easier to use than toe clips, because you no longer have to bend down and tighen and loosen the straps — but I'm still a little bit apprehensive about being more directly attached to the pedals. Although, given the large number of stupid and dangerous things I've clipped myself on to — does anybody else remember the monoski from it's brief period of popularity back in the 80s? — I don't know what I've got to be nervous about...

I've had my application for the salary sacrifice bike scheme approved and signed all the paper work, so no all I have to do is wait for my beloved employer to put the invoice through the system — something that should take a week or so to complete.

Current Music: Haydn - Te Deum in C

Via BoingBoing, a wonderfully clever system of LED spokes that display images on bike wheels:

A definite improvement on the Spokey Dokes that were big in my day.

I've spent part of the weekend test riding bikes, trying to find something that fits my strange body shape. For the record, I've tried out:

a Specialized Allez Elite. Nice but the height wasn't quite right and they didn't have another model in my size.
a Trek 1.7. An enjoyable ride but the geometry wasn't quite right for me — to get the right length, I needed something that was really too large for me
a Merida Road Race 903-18. Good but too long in the body.
a Giant SCR C4. The goldilocks bike with a nice fit and ride and marked down enough to put it in my price range.

Obviously, I plumped for the Giant, not that it was a difficult decision. The bike was perfect for my shape, divinely light — it's carbon fibre — and, my God, a real joy to ride. So, subject to my getting the whole thing signed off by work — something that should be a formality — I'll soon be in possession of a shiny new bike.

Amusingly, when I took the Giant out for a spin, one of the guys from the shop came with on me on the Trek because he fanced trying out a road bike — from what he said, I gathered he was probably a mountain bike person. Going up Fore Street, he struggled to find the right gear, so I had the pleasure of leaving him in my dust. A bit unfair, I'd already done a couple of circuits so I was warmed up and used to the bikes, but still rather satisfying. Once the guy caught up, he announced that he'd been converted and now wanted a road bike...

The most recent bike shop on my list of places to scour had a second hand Specialised Roubaix for a whisker under a thousand pounds and, my God, was it a bike or what. Light as anything and seriously classy. It's just a shame it was little on the small side for me — for all that I've got short legs, I'm actually quite long in the body, so it wouldn't have done my back any good at all.

So, writing off a Roubaix as a serious proposition, I'm currently thinking along the lines of something like an Allez or possibly a Trek 1.7. I think maybe I'll spend part of tomorrow, or maybe Monday if any of the bike shops are open on the Bank Holiday, doing some test riding to see what grabs me.

A reasonably productive day rounded off with a pleasant bout of wandering around bike shops drooling at some of the merchandise. Having been pretty sure I was going to go for a road bike, I found myself surprisingly tempted by some of the hybrids — probably the most practical option — but I still think my heart lies elsewhere. I think the only way I'm going to be able to to settle it is to set aside a day or two when the weather is good and test ride a whole load of different makes and models to see how they grab me.

Current Music: Rachmaninov - Sonata No. 2

Early morning cycle down to Exmouth, following more or less the same route that I took to Lympstone a couple of weeks ago but with a few extra miles tacked on at the end.

I enjoyed myself far more than last time; knowing the route, I was able to pace myself better on the hills — although I still found the short, steep hill up to Ebford tough going — and I was far more confident that I had enough strength in reserve to make it back to town without any trouble.

Current Music: Mendelssohn - Octet

Under duress, I've hacked together and submitted the opening chapter of my thesis. It's a horrible botch, but since it's a draft and I plan to ditch most of it in later edits, I'm not too concerned.

Motivated, no doubt, by my complex do-by-not-doing method of philosophy, I've had a pretty good week, all things considered. I managed to get through a whole load of work, both my own and a whole load of disaster recovery stuff with my colleagues, although I somehow managed to forget that I'd agreed to write something to glue CVS to IBM's CSM. But even that wasn't a total loss. I was able to prototype my initial ideas this morning, giving me the weekend to work on some of the conceptual flaws in my initial model. With any luck, I'll find some time, between the bits and pieces of next week's course, to actually code the thing up.

Things have been pretty good on the non-work side too. Although I'm still no nearer to actually buying myself the fancy bike I've been obsessing about for months, I've at least managed to track down some details on the tax-relief programme. I've also managed to fit in a couple of short spins on the Brompton — the weather wasn't good enough for much more than that — as well as fitting in some reasonably serious running and swimming.

This morning's ride: a 25 mile round trip to Lympstone. My original intention had been to go to Exmouth, three or so miles further, but I was discouraged by the wind and rain. The village was very pretty, if slightly chocolate boxy, and the ride was nice, although I'll admit to feeling a couple of twinges on some of the hills on way back. Clearly I'm out of practice.

Current Music: Henri Mulet - Carillon-Sortie

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sawyl

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Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Entries tagged with cycling

Gains for my pains

Kissing the tarmac once again

Fixing flats and myopic misfortunes

It's cruch time

An embarrasing mishap

A lone runner, a bike ride and lots of sandwiches

Cycling masochism

A week of much cycling

Cycling to Dawlish

Failing to cycle to work

Saturday cycling

A Giant improvement

Bike update: signing the forms

Bespoke LED wheels

Test riding road bikes

More bicycle letchery

Initial bike thoughts

Exmouth

A week of frantic activity

Lympston