Over the weekend of 15/16 September we took my sons to University. As they have gone to opposite ends of country the whole weekend was spent on the motorway and whilst I could have had a short ride Sunday evening I was pretty tired. I had been looking fairly confident for the 422 miles per month in September, but a weekend off makes a big difference. I decided to ride to work on Tuesday and again went through Meriden. No special times achieved on the way in though. On the way home however there was a very strong block headwind and then about 5 miles after setting off the rain came down really hard horizontally and I had to stop and put my waterproof jacket on (to stop me getting too cold), my lights back on the bike and actually switch them on and the waterproof over cover on my rucksack. It continued to rain for about 30 minutes and gradually eased up and stopped by the time I got home. I hate wearing the water proof jacket but I would have got too cold without it. With the rain and the block headwind it was the worst cycle commute I think I have done in nearly 3 years.
I have an Altura Pocket Rocket jacket like this one:
The jacket is a bit "Boil in the Bag" but I can't fault how water-proof it is. It is also VERY yellow and packs incredibly small - it fits (in a little bag provided) into the pocket of a jersey.
And my rucksack is a Deuter Cross Air EXP like this one (although I think this is a slightly newer model):
I have been really pleased with this. It's big enough for a laptop, A4 hardback notebook, lunch box and assorted small items - there is a zip to enlarge it further if required and the straps pulls the contents into the bag. Its very comfortable to wear with the "Air" design which has a mesh back to hold the bag off your back and there is a waist and chest strap that holds it firmly in place without being too tight. There is also a yellow water-proof cover that is normally zipped in the bottom of the bag - the bag itself seems reasonably water-proof but with a laptop its better to be safe than sorry.
The weather was forecast to be poor for the rest of the week so no more commuting but a good forecast for Saturday saw Noel and I go for a ride together for the first time since he was knocked off his back back in June. He has got a very nice Ridley Orion with an Shimano Ultegra drivetrain. Despite the forecast and the sunshine it was actually quite cold and windier than forecast. We had a good ride - just over 50 miles, average speed of just under 17.5mph and I got a few improvements: I got a PR on Scarfield Hill with a 20 second improvement, plus a 5 second improvement on Astwood Lane Climb into Astwood Bank.
This ride saw me get to 95 miles for the week so a I nipped out for just over an hour on the Sunday morning (22.4 miles at 17.9mph average) so all in all just about made the 100 mile total.
Commuting in the Autumn and the Lights that I Use
The problem now is that the days are shortening and it is getting less desirable to cycle to work and get the "free miles". Already there have been several cold mornings - its now the time of year for long fingered gloves in the morning and it won't be long until I need to start wearing long bibs rather than shorts. The problem is that its still to hot to wear longs on the way home and I really need to carry a set of kit to ride home in. I don't mind riding in the dark, but would never commute in full darkness - not because of my ability but because I am not confident of being seen by drivers. In addition with the low sun both in the morning and evening this is more dangerous than darkness.
I normally ride with 2 rears lights - they are Smart 5 LED 3 function units similar to these:
I have one on the bike, normally constant and the other on the light hook on my Deuter rucksack in flashing mode. They are pretty good - long battery life, high visibility and so far (> 2 years) good reliability. I run them with 2xAAA re-chargeable batteries and for the level of dark riding I do they only really need charging once. The battery life is so good that I'll often use it during the day as well when visibility is not perfect. They are also really cheap at around £4 each
I have got the same units for front lights but they are basically useless, and no longer use them - they are more green that white and are relatively invisible. I now use a LifeLine
1W LED light like this:
Its a 2 mode light - constant and flashing and made of an aluminium body. This uses 4xAAA batteries and I use re-chargeables in this as well. It's not the most powerful by any means but meets my needs perfectly - highly visible in flashing mode and again excellent battery life. The only weak point is the handlebar mount could be better.
Despite these lights (and the fact that these are 1000x better that the first lights I had I still am nervous about being seen on the dark so from early October until mid-February I am a non-commuter.
Here are some of the lights I have used in the past:
What's wrong with these? Poor battery life, bulb failure, minimal range and visibility, heavy, etc
After last weeks catch up post I thought that I'd post a bit sooner this week especially as I had a good week Strava wise. However good intentions went out the window and this has sat in the Drafts folder for another week
I only rode 3 times the prior week. The first ride was late morning on the Wednesday. I had taken the day off to get my broadband updated to BT Infinity and fortunately I was the first visit of the day, so it was done and dusted by about 10.30am so I took the opportunity to go out for a ride afterwards. It was a lot windier that I expected. I had gone out looking for about 20 miles or so at a reasonable pace but the strong head winds at the start made me change my mind slightly as to what I wanted to do. I had decided to have another go at Camp Lane so took a relatively steady ride down through Tanworth in Arden down to Camp Hill and then pushed reasonably hard. From here the wind was slightly more favourable so I decided to have a go at both Dyers Drag and Vicarge Hill Downhill as I was sure that there would be a tailwind on both these segments. Fortunately there was, and on Dyers Drag I absolutely made a 100% effort - I got up to and was keeping at 30mph. I tried to up shift for a bit more speed but did not have the power and had to shift down again almost straight away - this can be seen quite clearly in the segment performance plot. Getting home and uploading the data gave a much better result than I had hoped or expected - KOM on Dyers Drag, KOM on Vicarge Hill Downhill, 2nd overall on station run, 3rd on Camp Lane and 4th on Camp Lane and Irelands Lane.
The other rides this week were a commute to work and back on the Friday. Firstly, after the weekend run the previous weekend I decided to cycle in through Meriden - its a mile further and there is the challenge of 4-5 new segments. The total climbing is about the same but it tends to be more on the Meriden Hill climb rather then a gradual climb up Back Lane. On the Friday the wind was very favourable into work and I saved myself a little for the 2 Spencer Avenue segments - success and took both of them back with a time about 3 seconds faster than the previous KOM times. In addition the average speed for the commute was a creditable 19.0mph. I'll admit that the wind was very helpful but I'll take whatever is on offer. Obviously on the way home the wind that was so helpful on the way in was painful and the average was down at a relatively slow 16.2mph - no extended return commute this Friday either as needed to get back in a reasonably timely manner.
Updated 9 September 2012
I looked at these pages and realised that actually I haven't added anything since the I rode the Great Shakespeare Ride back on 12th August - I am still enjoying the satisfaction of the high finishing position and average pace. In reality it might also be that I don't have a great deal to write about, but that's not particularly true either.
Since then I have been able to keep the mileage up (trying to get some banker miles in to make sure I meet my 5000 miles target for the year) and I have also been trying to focus slightly less on individual Strava segments but on increasing the average speed over the whole ride. For the latter I still have yet to do a ride at an average of 20mph - this is not a target as such but something I'd like to do before the short days arrive and my distance per week has to be reduced. I have made some progress for this so I'll briefly and boringly summarise the last 4 weeks since the Great Shakespeare Ride
13th-20th August - 115.5 miles total
No commuting miles this week. I went on a short evening ride with one of my sons who has bought himself a new road bike. We got a Boardman Road Race from Halfords. He'd originally proposed spending nearly £1000 but we suggested that a cheaper introduction my be a better bet. We looked at various bikes locally and at the sort of price we suggested you get an all alloy bike with 8 speed 2300 series running gear. The Boardman has a Carbon Fibre fork and 9 speed Sora kit although is a little more expensive. However since Noel got knocked off his bike earlier in the summer I have joined British Cycling, and one of the benefits is 10% discount at Halfords, so taking this into account this brought the price down to a pretty good competitive level. Another reason for selecting a Boardman is that the prices seem to hold well second hand so if he loses interest we should be able to easily sell it - looking on eBay I have seen a lot of Boardman bikes going for almost the new price which is bonkers really! Anyway back to the ride - 15 miles at 15.7mph - very relaxed and made a change from the normal ride where there is the intention to improve on 1 Strava segment or another. I think from my sons point of view - too relaxed and I should have gone faster
I also rode 35 miles on Saturday - 18.1mph average, 2 PR and a 5th place. On Sunday I rode 61.4 miles - 18.2mph average, a 2nd, a 4th and 3PR. The 4th was a descent of Weatheroak Hill. Average 31.mph on the descent and a peak of 43.8mph - I won't be too bothered if I don't improve as getting to 4th was scary. Quite how Dave Brown did it 5 seconds quicker I daren't think.
21st-28th August - 143.0 miles total
Commuted twice on the Tuesday and Thursday and got the 2 KOM on Spencer Avenue in Coventry on Tuesday. On the Thursday I got a 9th on the way in and strengthened the KOM on the Newcomb Road climb segment.
It was was the Bank Holiday weekend and we were going to my parents for a couple of days. I went for a quick ride on the Saturday morning - 22.7 miles at an average of 18.9mph, plus a 2nd and a 4th. I was very pleased with the 18.9 average.
I took my bike down and on the Sunday went out for a ride - partly over a route I have done a few times before but I extended it at the end to head into the outskirts of London to Shooters Hill. The ride is here. Out to Gravesend the wind was helpful and the average was up to 19mph and this was with the climb of Gorse Hill. Up to here I improved everywhere over previous rides picking up 5 PR, a 5th, 8th, 9th and 10th and these are on segments with over a 100 riders. I was again really pleased. When I got to Gravesend it was about 14 miles of "rolling" roads into a headwind to get to Shooters Hill. The average dropped off to about 18mph. I climbed Shooters Hill which was pretty tough after all the miles and returned to my parents. Looking on Strava I could not believe the number of segments for 1 bit of road - there are about 6 or so over less than a mile of road. I picked up 2 more PR on the way back as well. Overall average was 18mph over 46.1 miles, so I was again pleased with my pace.
29th August -2nd September - 117.7 miles total
Commute in on the Friday which was cold and had a problem with my Garmin 800 on the way home which was irritating as I felt there was some chance of a small improvement in a few places. What it was I think was that I turned it on in the office where it gets no signal and I when it says "No signal, keep trying?" I think I must have knocked "No" by mistake. The end result was no data for the return trip home
I rode on Saturday morning a short (23.8 mile) trip and got an average of 18.5mph with 2 PR and a 4th.
I rode again on Saturday for a longer trip (51.5 miles) but my legs were tired and the average was only 17.5 mph although I did manage a PR and a 2nd. I think that 3 days cycling in a row is probably a day too far and I need to have a break on the 3rd day if I want to do some distance next time I ride
3 September -10th September - 148.1 miles total
This is the time of year when the opportunities for rides start to drop away with the darker evening and autumn weather. The fact the the week started so well weather wise encouraged me to leave work slightly earlier and get out for a ~20 mile ride on Tuesday evening. I did a 18.5 mile loop at a fastest ever average of 19.8mph. I picked up to 4th places and a 7th. These were just seconds faster than previous bests but the segments are so congested that 1 or 2 seconds can move you up many places these days. I'd not gone out for the segments but was trying for a high average, so I was to say the least ecstatic with 19.8mph. I was so close to the magic 20 that is some ways I was disappointed but in reality the speed was (for me) awesome
The weather was still good so I commuted on Thursday and Friday and whilst not trying did pick up an 8th on Friday morning. However the Tuesday sprint and 2 days of commuting in a row meant that when I left work on Friday afternoon I could tell in the first mile that I was pretty much running on empty. I had a heavy rucksack with my laptop in, it was a glorious hot day and I just plodded home. I did do an extended ride and did manage 17mph average but I did not really enjoy it.
As I commented above for the previous week 3 days in a row was going to be too much as I wanted to ride on Sunday, so I dropped out of a ride with Noel (I have not yet seen his new bike) on the Saturday to make Sunday more of a pleasant experience I hoped.
Sunday arrived and the weather looked OK, and although it was sunny it took a few hours to warm up. I wore a SS jersey but also my new arm warmers. I'd put of getting any for a long time but got fed up of wearing a LS Jersey as it was cool at the start of a ride but then being too hot later on. They are quite a good compromise it turns out and I wished I had a pair a few years ago now. I did a bit of a new route as I saw an interesting ride on the Saturday from Mike Harrison which included going through Meriden, so I included that at the start. The main aim again was in the overall average rather than and segments and I did a 49 mile loop. The average was a very pleasing 18.5mph, with a 6th, 10th and 4 PR. I think this vindicated the no ride plan of the day before.
Finally Noel obviously cycled to work and had a go on the way home:
Summary
Whilst this has been a long a boring(?) post what I am really please about is that the average speed has really made an strong upturn over the past month. Consistent mid- 18+mph speeds are something that at the start of the year I did not think possible and after over 2 weeks in the US seemed even further away just a few months ago. Whether I can keep it up remains to be seen!
I have also come across this really useful Strava add-on site - information about your rides than you can shake a stick at:www.veloviewer.com
It allows you to generate this signature graphic which has the advantage of a quick glance at the number of KOMs etc.:
