Longest Ride of the Year so far

For Sunday 19 May Noel suggested that we ride to Evesham. Its quite a long round trip for us ~65 miles or so so almost 4 hours on a slow day. I asked that we start at 8.30 so I was not too late home - my wife is still recuperating and disappearing all morning is not something I want to be doing too often at the moment.

Come 8.30 Sunday the weather was bright sunshine with almost no wind. It was not quite warm enough that early for short sleeves so I wore my arm warmers with the aim of not needing them for too long. They came off at Great Alne.

Our route to Evesham from Solihull is Earlswood, Tanworth In Arden, Ullenhall, Little Alne, Great Alne, Alcester, Arrow, Bidford on Avon, Cleeve Prior and then Evesham. The return leg is Harvington, Dunnington, Cookhill, Astwood Bank and then Tardebigge, Alvechurch and Wythall.

The route is here:


Evesham is at 35 miles and is down hill all the way:

Unfortunately what goes down must go up and the drag back is tiring - especially as an imperceptible tailwind became a noticeable headwind back.

Noel's "plod" down was at a much higher pace than I had expected and we had 18.4mph by the time we got to Evesham. As Noel set the pace down I had had quite a sheltered ride so took my turn at the front for the return run. The first small climb out of Evesham was far tougher than I had expected and I knew then that we were in for a tough ride. Evesham to Astwood Bank is a long drag almost always with an incline and is very tiring. The other problem is that from Astwood Bank there is no easy way back without a noticeable climb somewhere. I managed to keep an adequate pace back at ~16-17mph to Astwood Bank but we both dropped the pace off to Scarfield Hill, and I spent several miles in the little (wimp) front ring to take the load off my legs around Ham Green and Elcocks Brook and save some energy for Weatheroak Hill. Weatheroak Hill proved to be as hard as ever after ~60 miles, but knowing that that this was the last climb once we crested the top we got some pace in back home.

This was the longest ride this year - I had not done more than 50 miles so far and I really felt it for the last 10-15 miles and for a few hours afterwards. At 133.3 miles for the week it is also (just) the highest mileage for a week this year as well, so a reasonable achievement.

This year has proven to nothing like the previous 3 years mileage - I am about 500 miles down compared to these years, but given the weather and my wife's illness I have not done badly. I think that 5000 miles this year will be a very hard challenge unless we have an excellent summer and mild and dry autumn and winter. We'll have to see.

Squeezed in 100 miles

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

Update 17-June-2012

I went out for a ride this morning expecting sunny weather but was disappointed. It was a case for the first hour or so for "Rule 9". I went off towards Rose Hill, then Alvechurch, Tardebigge, Astwood Bank and then Redditch to have another go at some of the segments there. I was feeling OK and (for me) pressing on OK. I felt reasonably strong at Rose Hill (actually the Fiery Hill/Twatling Rd Climb) and also up Scarfield Hill and carried on up to Astwood Bank.

At Astwood Bank instead of going straight on I turned left and headed to Redditch. I have ridden this way before about 18 months ago (actually on 2 Jan 2011). I knew that I'd get near the Icknield Street turn but if I carried on I'd get to the "Paper Mill Rip" segment and from there I was hoping to find the way onto the road that would take me along to Easemore Road and into Redditch town centre to have a go at the Unicorn Hill and Prospect Hill segments again. In addition on Easemore Road there are 2 segments - 1 up and 1 down so plenty of options there.

I almost got round to the Paper Mill Rip section without error - just a couple of mistakes. I also spotted the way up to Easemore Road from Paper Mill Road (well hidden and getting a bit agricultural) so was able to approach from the right place. Easemore Road was a bit of a drag after the miles already under my belt and I knew it wasn't a great time. I rode down Unicorn Hill to where I felt the longer segment started (BUOTC Unicorn Hill) and returned and rode the segment (2 for the price of 1!). I felt reasonably strong and knew the time would be better than previously. I stopped for a quick bit of food before descending Prospect Hill, rode down to the Volvo Garage (the start), U-turned and within ~15 seconds had almost blown. The rest of the ascent was a painful slog back to the top. I pushed for the Easemore Road descent but knew that basically from then on it would be a gentle ride back home. I rode back over a few more segments but there was almost nothing left in my legs. The only positive was I managed to drive the average speed up from 16.7mph in Redditch up to 16.9mph by the time I got home.

Over the whole route I managed to get 16 Achievements (some new of course) but some others were outright improvements.

Rides stats:
Distance =59.9 miles,
Average speed = 16.9mph, 
Maximum speed = 36.2mph, 
Height gain = 2924ft.

I have used my Excel tool to extract the segment data for this ride and present in this table (with a little bit of additional work). There is some more work to do to get the position in the segment rankings, this is the next job to do. I can read all a riders Ride Data (the rides they have ridden) with the overall stats (average speed etc) and the details of each of the segments ridden during that ride and the times etc. for the segment.

Segment ID	Effort Moving Time (s)	Effort Distance (mile)	Effort Average Speed (mph)	Effort Name	Climb Category	Average Grade (%)	Elevation Difference (meters)
824883	371	1.24	12.1	Scarfield Hill, Alvechurch	Cat 4	4.16	82.6
876084	552	2.35	15.3	Icknield St Climb	No Catorised	1.52	68.6
882563	83	0.23	9.9	Prospect Hill	No Catorised	5.25	20
891731	407	2.45	21.7	B4101 Hockey Heath	No Catorised	-0.56	26.4
891753	337	1.78	19.0	Poolhead Lane	No Catorised	-0.32	19.8
937392	164	0.52	11.3	Astwood Lane Climb into Astwood Bank	No Catorised	5.34	44.4
982643	82	0.32	14.2	Vicarage Hill Cheswick Green	No Catorised	2.02	10.6
1007821	79	0.47	21.4	Dyers Drag	No Catorised	-1.11	8.609
1068596	190	0.67	12.7	Easmore Rd Climb	No Catorised	3.73	40.6
1069174	502	1.85	13.3	Fiery Hill / Twatling Rd Climb	Cat 4	3.67	108.935
1080918	43	0.20	16.7	BUOTC Unicorn Hill	No Catorised	3.37	14
1265825	81	0.64	28.3	Easmore Downhill	No Catorised	-3.50	36.4
1328072	182	1.08	21.3	Paper Mill Rip	No Catorised	-1.34	23.4
1328098	63	0.29	16.8	Ravens Bank Rise	No Catorised	1.54	7.4
1403219	289	1.12	13.9	Brookhouse Road Climb	No Catorised	3.59	64.878
1409586	102	0.57	20.3	Clayfields	No Catorised	-2.08	23.2999
1417426	117	0.76	23.3	fiery hill descent	No Catorised	-3.64	44.8
1456696	292	1.48	18.3	Sheltwood Decent	No Catorised	-1.19	38.4
1458872	116	0.56	17.5	Croft Lane	No Catorised	0.47	5.586
1458941	22	0.10	16.7	Unicorn Hill	No Catorised	5.90	9.8
1472706	106	0.39	13.4	Cruise Hill Climb	No Catorised	2.73	17.827
1483394	189	1.14	21.7	Umberslade Road to Cut Throat Lane	No Catorised	-0.52	23.287
1516358	46	0.39	30.7	Rough Hill Drive Decent	No Catorised	-5.61	35.2
1516367	394	2.38	21.8	Island Challenge	No Catorised	-2.41	72.8

The other thing that is really easy now is to generate a graphic showing e.g. performance vs. date. He is my improvement over Scarfield Hill in Alvechurch:

Certainly an improvement this year!

And the roads were wet and dirty:

See where my overshoes were!

Also when I got home (and later in the day I got two of the "Uh Oh.." you've lost your KOM emails from Strava. The first was Hampton Hill (Solihull) taken by Steve Large by 3 secs and the second was Dyers Drag taken by another 7 secs by Dave Brown, so I am now 8 secs behind on this segment (although still 2nd overall). Steve is quick and does pretty long rides whereas Dave is nothing by a segment whore!

Here are these emails: