Join me & Calum for a cold, sunny 33 miler in the morning? (Hebden Bridge)

I know it is very short notice, but if any of you happen to be free and fancy a sunny 33 mile ride tomorrow (Thursday, 2nd February, 2012!), be at Hebden Bridge railway station at 11:35 in time to meet Calum off the Leeds train, arriving 11:40. I'll be there!

I'm assuming that there could be ice on lots of my favourite local lanes so I've chosen a route that takes that into account:

Hebden Bridge station, Cragg Vale climb to Blackstone Edge, Littleborough, Todmorden, Cliviger Gorge, Holme Chapel, Mereclough, Long Causeway, Blackshaw Head, Colden, Slack, Heptonstall (cafe stop there at the 32 mile point), then a quick descent back into Hebden Bridge and see Calum off at the station.

NB Tomorrow is a market day in Hebden Bridge and the Market Place car park where we usually meet is called that for a reason so it won't be free! There is a more expensive car park behind it, but that might be full on market day. If you want to drive over, I'd suggest parking on the A646 towards Mytholmroyd, or perhaps at Mytholmroyd Community Centre (make a donation in the honesty box if you park there).

Anybody free and fancy it ...?

I fancy it..................but I'm not free.

Love to ... if you can find someone to do my 11am and 12pm classes?

Having just ridden home in -1C, I can tell you it's bloomin' cold out there
Have fun.

I've just checked the latest forecast - a high of 0°C here tomorrow! - indeed!

I went to fix the puncture from Sunday's ride and discovered that my back tyre is completely worn out! I could have had a very long walk home or an expensive taxi trip ... I really must check my bikes more frequently. I only spotted my cracked crank last year by chance.

Oh, and you know that rubbing noise from my Crud Roadracers? The noise that I can't really hear because I'm half deaf, but which annoys you lot ... Well, the rear Crud is worn through on one side too! I don't think that the tyre and guard wore each other out because the wear is in different positions.

I've put a 3/4 worn old tyre on for now but I must buy 2 new tyres ASAP, one for the rear and one as a spare. Oh, and new brake blocks. And a new chain ...

Ha - incoming text from Calum ... he missed his train by 1 minute so I get to spend another 20 minutes in the warm before venturing out to meet him!

So did you manage your full circuit then? Or did you stop at mile 32???

Hmm ...

I put my rear wheel back in (having left it out last night for some strange reason!) and I found that I couldn't stop the rear mudguard rubbing. I know that it is possible to adjust those Cruds to get rid of the noise, so I fiddled, and fiddled, and fiddled ... Time was getting on. Now I was going to be late. Suddenly - D'oh! - it came to me ... the temporary replacement tyre was a size 25C. The old 23C only had about 1 mm of clearance, so now I had, er, -1 mm, i.e. the rear guard had to come off! More time wasted ...

I eventually got to the station and met Calum. We did a slow climb up to Blackstone Edge, chatting about meaningful life stuff and also more trivial matters. The sky had clouded over so by then it was getting pretty cold.

We began our descent towards Littleborough but the windchill was so bad that I braked all the way down to keep my speed to below 25 mph, rather than the 50 mph that I usually get up to going down there. Good job, because I became increasingly aware that I was feeling bumps through the rear wheel that I wouldn't expect to feel. I stopped to investigate and sure enough, my back tyre pressure was about 50 PSI and falling.

We sheltered from the Siberian wind behind a building at the start of the Blackstone Edge Old Road while I sorted the problem out but I still got pretty cold while replacing the tube. (A post mortem later revealed a tiny split in the seam of the tube, next to a perfectly affixed patch. I reckon having to expand the tube a bit more than usual to fill the bigger tyre didn't help. The patch wasn't so flexible, so the tube was bulging either side of it.)

With all the delays and the increasingly colder conditions, we decided to shorten the ride. Instead of heading up the A646 then coming back to Heptonstall via the Long Causeway, we decided to bypass Todmorden by riding up through the hamlets of Lumbutts and Mankinholes, descend to the A646 to return to Hebden Bridge and then go to Heptonstall the hard way - straight up the steep hill! (There are plenty of cafes in Hebden Bridge, but I felt guilty cutting miles off the planned route, so I thought I deserved to suffer the climb.)

Calum went on ahead while I grovelled my way up to the village. The last bit to the cafe is cobbled and almost finished me off. Calum was leaning against a wall and checking his phone when I pulled up abruptly in front of the cafe. I slumped forward over my handlebars for about 20 seconds and when I looked up I saw that the staff and customers in the cafe were staring out of the window and laughing at me. It was pretty obvious how knackered I was. I slowly shook my head and smiled back ...

We stayed about 30 minutes in the cafe and then whizzed back down the hill and round to the station for Calum to catch his train back to Leeds.

I checked my GPS when I got home and it registered 23 miles for today's ride.

We might be doing another ride on Tuesday, subject to the weather and Calum not working an extra shift.

Well done Colin thats another 37K clocked up not bad for a lunchtime ride

Gee no rear mudguard! So you end up with a wet backside, feeling cold in general from stopping to fix issues and shelter from Siberian wind to then get back (having done 23 miles) and be made laughing stock of.

Oh dear....sorry I know I shouldn't

Hopefully Tuesday will be better eh!

It was a lunchtime ride that seemed to take longer and longer, the shorter it got!

As Calum pointed out on the ride - my problem (apart from drinking too much beer ***) is that I do nothing on the bike for weeks at a time, and then I go out and try and do longish hilly rides with fitter people and wonder why I struggle! We both agreed that if I got out 3 or 4 times during the week and did even 10 miles each time, that would make a big difference, and that could be topped up with a harder ride each weekend. I could warm up on my gym bike, ride to the summit of the Keighley Road, turn round and ride back down. That would be a useful 9 miles with about 1,100 ft of ascent. Once the weather gets better and I'm feeling fitter, I could start doing my longer mid-week rides again.

*** No beer tonight!

Fortunately, the roads were dry so at least I didn't get the wet backside!

One of the people who were laughing came out of the cafe before we went in and we had a quick chat with him. Apparently, he used to cycle up to the village but hasn't done it for years and he doubted that he could manage it now.

You know the answer to getting fit again Colin, limit the beer to just the one on Saturdays only and aim to ride every other day, you have an audax in just over 2 weeks and I reckon if you stick with a plan it will make the world of difference. Being as a lot of us are checking up on you, don't see as you have a get out clause!

I'm on the same boat, I don't do much riding then try to do big rides when I'm far too unfit.

It is perhaps to cold in Hebden for rain so a plus point for keeping a dry backside.

I agree with Totally Fixed - less beer and more action is the answer!

I find going to spinning class once a week helps enormously you know with fitness, endurance, cadence etc... It has worked for me no end.

I've decided that a very obvious strategy beer-wise is to not drink 2 nights in a row. If I also reduce the amount per night when I do have a drink, then that would immediately take my consumption down to (say) 1/3 of what it has been recently.

One beer is never going to do it for me I'm afraid! I'd rather keep a completely clear head and not have any, or if it is a beer night, just relax and have a few. If I cut down to twice a week and fewer beers on those evenings, then I'd be at about 1/5 of my previous intake and I think I could be content with that, so that is what I'll try and do.

If I make one of those beer nights a few hours after a longish ride, I'd probably be too tired to drink much anyway. One night mid-week as well probably wouldn't hurt.

Once I am cycling more, I'll feel more relaxed in the evenings anyway and won't need beer to calm me down. I just find it hard to motivate myself to go out alone in the winter. Still, no excuses - I have that gym bike, so I can always give myself a good thrashing on that!

Anyway - I just had a couple of fruit juices last night and feel better for having had a night off. I'm resting my legs today because they are stiff from the climbs yesterday. I'll try and get a ride in at the weekend and, hopefully, another with Calum on Tuesday.

Good for you - a couple of weeks of light(er) riding and less beer will make the world of difference!