Today I rode to Kinver in Staffordshire. It was a "new to me" route based on one I'd seen on Strava from a Solihull Cycling Club ride. Whilst it was a new to me ride it went through or passed by a number of places I have ridden before such as Belbroughton in Worcestershire ("gateway to St Kenelms Pass"). However it took a number of roads I have not used before at all so was a new ride but in a familiar area. It also meant of the weather turned I know I could abort at Belbroughton as I knew several routes back without needing the Garmin. The weather was not quite as warm as I'd hoped but was in general OK. A nice rolling route - 58.9 miles and 4300ft of climbing, 3 counties (again as I have mentioned - just 30 minutes from Birmingham and there is challenging cycling to be had).
I rode the Giant and managed with the 36-28 lowest gear - I was going to take the much lower geared Scott but we've planned another French Cycling Holiday this year so I thought the higher gearing would be good training - it was and I only needed the 36-28 twice. I am still torn whether to take the Scott or the Giant to France but I think the Scott's lower gearing and non-aero wheels will win the day for the long ascents. There was a particularly strong cross wind on the ascent of the Galibier that was quite a challenge on the Scott with its low profile Ultegra wheels last year.
My wife and I went for a few days away in Wales in April 2016 (when I went Mountain Biking with MudTrek) On the way back we stopped in the Wetherspoons in Monmouth. Part of the decor was bookshelves with lots of books. I suspect that these were bought by the kilo from a 2nd hand dealer. There was one book I looked at in more detail - "The Miracle of Life":
In this was a picture that reminded me of a strip from the Beano (click on the image to get a bigger view):
Here is the comparison - It's the Numbskulls. In fact this was originally featured in The Beezer comic from 1962–1990 (thanks to wikipedia):
Its a very amusing comparison. I don't know which came first as there was no date I could find in the book. It seemed to pre-date an ISBN Number.
A further search of the Internet has revealed a likely publishing date of ~1949 so it looks like the Beezer pinched the idea but simplified the number of numbskulls.
Whilst I am fairly pragmatic about the number of readers of this blog being relatively small I know that infrequent updates do not help build an avid reader base and its been quite a long time since I last posted an update. There are 3 reasons for this - 1: busy riding quite a bit; 2: been doing boring things like decorating and 3: its been busy at work and needed many early starts and by the time I get home I am far too tired to think about adding to this blog.
However all this has not been without progress in the Midland Cyclist household since the last post back in early April when I went Mountain Biking at MudTrek in Wales. The weather has improved and has been fairly consistently good (and in fact we also had a fantastic weekend at the start of May) and this has opened the opportunity to start to cycle to work more regularly. I have also been out some evenings for a short (~1 hour) ride now that the lighting up time is nearly 9pm, meaning I can be out and back safely without lights. Last year I'd have done many more commuting miles than I have done so far this year but being knocked off has still damaged my confidence to an extent. Some changes to my working week schedule has seen me needing to drive to Wolverhampton on a Thursday which was a previous standard commute day. I have also ridden a lot of miles on my Giant Propel (in fact I have not ridden my Scott for the past 5 weeks or so). I am still really pleased with the Giant- fast, comfortable and eats the miles up:
However I managed a good mileage in both April and so far in May as well and finally seem to have rediscovered the level of fitness that I was consistently at all the way up to the accident. This was on the 80 mile ride up did "North of Meriden":
80.2 miles, 3200ft of ascent and 4:45 hours riding - I felt fairly tired with about 20 miles to go but a gel and cereal bar sorted that. What's more I rode the whole ride on the big ring, and whilst there were no real climbs its an undulating route so I took that as a positive as well. In terms of the Giant - its surprisingly comfortable to ride. I have not got a particularly racy position in terms of saddle/handlebar drop, but its supple over all but the worst road surfaces. The Ui2 is excellent and has never missed a beat (apart from when I went out without checking the battery level and got left on the small ring). The brakes are superb - huge power from very minimal finger pressure only - its difficult to avoid locking the wheels at times. In terms of aero etc I have not really noticed huge benefits until you get over 25mph or so and this is difficult for me without going down hill! The deep section wheels (they are actually aluminium rims with a non-structural aero section) feel quicker (as an engineer I hate the words "feel" as its subjective). I have ridden in a reasonably windy day and they are best described as "interesting" and if you are not ready or prepared for it you can be pushed all over the road.
I popped out for a quick ride on Saturday 14 May 2016 and managed 26 miles at 17.8mph average, 142bpm average and this now reflects a much better level of performance and effort than even a month ago. Here's a (boring?) video I took of most of the route:
Today (15 May 2016) I rode with Noel and took it easy with a more social ride at Noel's pace:
The average Heart Rate of 131bpm was indicative of the lower level of effort needed.
Here's a few photos on the way and up the St Kenelms climb:
Here's a video of the approach to and ascent of St Kenelms Pass:
As I am going to France for 2 weeks cycling in June/July it looks like I am getting into good shape in time
