60 wild miles!!!!

[jonathanw]

Just had a cracking ride from home on the Black Isle to Cannich, at the head of Glen Affric, then across to Drumnadrochit and back home via Beauly. the mild winter here in the Highlands is certainly doing wonders for my mileage. Mild weather, even some sunshine would you believe. A wee bite to eat at the shop in Cannich and a sit outside on the bench in the sunshine. Very few folk or cars about.

For those of you who know the area I took the road from Beauly down the east side of Strathglass via Eskadale. I didn't see another car, bike or person for 20 miles...absolutely amazing even if it was into the wind. There is still a touch of snow on the munros in Glen Affric and Strathfarrar. The 1 mile long 15% pull out of Drum at the 40 mile mark was brutal and then back through Beauly for a coffee (no cake as I was trying to be good)

What route did you do today?

I suspect I shall be smiling all week

 

[SoloCyclist]

I did 60 miles yesterday from my home headed to the campsie's. Did a loop from Lennoxtown up round through Fintry, Kilearn, Strathblane and back to Lennoxtown then headed home. Computer says 60.25mls.

I feel I am a couple of pounds up on where I should be so set off with no food (stupid). Usually if I get hungry I stop and buy something but I forgot my money too. It was quite windy but I was making good headway. Shot up Crow Road into a headwind no problem. Felt the hunger start to kick in after about 2hrs. Put it to the back of my mind but totally bonked with just 4 miles to go. Wouldn't you know it some smoothe looking roadie coasted by me probably thinking I had all the gear but no idea. Just about managed to catch the postie on his bike doing his rounds :-).

Probably ate double what I would normally when I got in then slept for over an hour. Will I never learn?

 

[HLaB]

It was a beautiful day down here in Fife but I was marshalling at a MTT; I did manage to get a 20miler in beforehand but I probably shouldn't have bothered, strong wind plus 7 mile uphill start and having not slept the last two nights and having had a sore stomach last night, I felt sh1te. Towards the end of my ride wind assisted I felt a bit better and set one of my fastest times through the Uquart Cut. After cycling the 7 miles up to the MTT the good weather continued to last all day and I was temped to go further but I was dressed for standing around in the cold and overdressed for cycling and was on the heavy town bike so I limited my self to another 9 miles or so.

And if you are interested this is a link to the photos I took at the MTT

 

[snorri]

Fairly breezy for my 22 miler today.
The highlight (or lowlight?) was during my tea break seeing a car being driven past the wrong side of the Keep Left bollard on approach to a roundabout, just as I was considering running across to tell the driver of her error she set off again on the outside lane of the rab going round anticlockwise. After a few metres she stopped, delayed by oncoming traffic, just then a police car arrived coming the opposite way on the inside lane. The police car stopped and just as the officer was getting out to "have a word" the road in front of her cleared and the elderly lady driver drove off again, cue blue lights as police car raced round the roundabout in the right direction and away to intercept. I wouldn't have known who the driver was had the car not been bearing the personalised number plate her late husband, my old geography teacher, had acquired some 35 years ago!

 

[SoloCyclist]

Just had a cracking ride from home on the Black Isle...

Just noticed where you are from. Coincidentally I had a few Black Isle Blondes on Saturday. Very nice indeed!

 

[jonathanw]

Just noticed where you are from. Coincidentally I had a few Black Isle Blondes on Saturday. Very nice indeed!

prefer the darker ones myself, but do have the occasional blonde

 

[Globalti]

68 miles yesterday from Cape Town, down to Cape Point and back up the Atlantic side, in the company of 35,000 other riders. Light breeze and sweltering temperatures in the low thirties. In 4 hrs 14 minutes I was stationary for 16 minutes taking on water and chatting with friends along the route.

 

[GBC]

I did my first 30 miler of the year on Sunday, down to Stewarton on the A77 and back on the B769 and a cracking day it was apart from the headwind. Time was just over 2 and a half hours which I'm quite happy with considering my match fitness and that it's quite a hilly route, about 1700 ft in all.

Not without incident though, as the chain slipped when I was moving off from a junction on the outward leg and my not inconsiderable weight dislodged the saddle and handlebars (recently replaced, and probably not tightened just as much as they should have been) and I had to borrow an Allen key from a fellow traveler on the A77 to get the handlebars fixed so that I could continue.
On the way back, at the Malletsheugh, I managed to 'over-select' while changing to the big ring for the first time that day, and jammed the chain between the chain guard and the ring. Easily fixed, but it's worth saying that the first cyclist to come by a few moments later stopped to offer help, and was closely followed by a guy in a car asking if there was anything he could do. Many thanks for the wet wipes by the way, they half saved my nice new white bar tape.

A thoroughly enjoyable day, and my grateful thanks to all who helped.

 

[HLaB]

It was a lot less windy today in Fife (according to the met it was 11-7mph headwind) and I managed to get a quick 30miler in taking in the same initial climb I crawled on yesterday and it felt a lot better I timed the start wrong and got caught up in School run traffic in the town. Taking that away I averaged 18.3mph

 

[Nebulous]

It was a lot less windy today in Fife (according to the met it was 11-7mph headwind) and I managed to get a quick 30miler in taking in the same initial climb I crawled on yesterday and it felt a lot better I timed the start wrong and got caught up in School run traffic in the town. Taking that away I averaged 18.3mph

Well done. Got to love Garmin's elevation data. Were you down a mine?

 

[HLaB]

Well done. Got to love Garmin's elevation data. Were you down a mine?

Hospital Hill during the School run could be described as that; I think it was going down there I was -56ft. I've put elevation corrections on and it was actually 162ft there

 

[SoloCyclist]

Revisited last weeks ride as I wasn't happy about blowing up. I ate Bran Flakes with a good squeeze of honey and a banana. Took on some water. Set off with just one energy gel but took cash incase I still needed more. I use cyclemeter on my Iphone which gives you regular updates every 5mile and every 5mins as to how you are doing compared to a saved route which I did last week. It took about 10miles before I started pulling away from my imaginary self, but the seconds soon turned into minutes and I felt as if I was going well. Weather wise the wind was from the same direction but maybe a few knots lighter.

Anyhoos, I took on my gel (disgusting things) at the 1/2 way mark just outside Fintry. At this point I think I was about 6 or 7 miutes up on last weeks time. As I turned and the wind came more from behind me I actually lost some time on myself as I would have been more wind assisted last week, but not for long and I soon found my pace. Where I started suffering last week I was cruising this time. The minutes stretched out as did my average mph.

It took me 3hrs 24mins last week so 3hrs seemed a good target and this would give me 20mph average, but every traffic light conspired against me. When I got home my average was 19.91mph aargh! but to my surprise I had done 1 mile less than last week and my time was 2:58.18. I did take a couple of wrong turns last week but I didn't think they amounted to a whole mile.

Ride Time: 2:58:18
Distance: 59.17 miles
Average: 19.91 mph
Fastest Speed: 37.70 mph
Ahead of Best Ride: 25:48
Ascent: 1855 feet
Calories: 2591

Ride Time: 3:24:06
Distance: 60.25 miles
Average: 17.71 mph
Fastest Speed: 37.03 mph
Ascent: 2147 feet
Calories: 2656