The Metric Century (100KM) A Month Challenge ChatZone

[Noodle Legs]

May done.

A nice 80 mile round trip to Caffè Velo Verde near Bingham with the club, nice and flat with very little climbing and lots of new lanes as well. Perfect recovery ride.

https://strava.app.link/HUo6CRACrW
https://www.relive.cc/view/2343966337

 

[Fiona R]

Rather than stress about my 200 this weekend, I volunteered to lead the Sunday Social and my route rounded up nicely to 100km with to/fro from home. just the normal 1000m climbing per 100km but all the climbing was in the first half up Brockley Combe and a shimmy alongside Bristol airport runway and then Burrington Combe up onto Mendip. We slunk into the famous Sweets cycle Cafe on the Somerset Levels seconds before another large group, first time ever, normally we arrive just after a big group! A very sociable day with the flat run home along very pleasant and quiet lanes, a touch of headwind, but first longer ride of the year in shorts, although others thought it was cold (I missed out on Easter weekend!) I was quite worried about leading a ride when I am one of the slowest but with help from others with route on their Garmins I held 10 of us together. Looking forward to South Glos Audax next weekend too.

 

[gbs]

Another easy 100k today; early start from SW6 and into WGP by 0815. The only climb was Callow Hill; Cosmic Bike should beware of the long tailbacks.

 

[cosmicbike]

Another easy 100k today; early start from SW6 and into WGP by 0815. The only climb was Callow Hill; Cosmic Bike should beware of the long tailbacks.

Now I quite like Callow Hill from either direction, and it makes a change to going up/down the A30 alongside Windsor Great Park, complete with it's appalling cycle lanes in the gutter.
I think I'm finding my mojo again, hopefully get the 100km in next week, route planned with some new stuff out Marlow direction

 

[13 rider]

Mays done an extend ride to the start 11 miles ,My annual 50 mile charity ride around charnwood forest ,than 5 miles home . 66 miles in total

 

[Ajax Bay]

The bike riding is infrequent but I am able to go a good few miles now. Just need to get my mind right . . . a long recovery time - just passed the eight month mark.

Not sure what I am missing

Maybe, but we know what we're missing: we've missed you - for over 2 years. Hope you're back to some fitness and getting out on the bike.

 

[Zeffer]

You are too kind! It has been a tough three years since the accident. I thought I was getting better, but the metal just kept aggravating me. My mind was all over the place and finally, just over a year ago, I gave up my job so I could fully focus on recovery.

I had the metal taken out and spent several months working with a physio and personal trainer and finally felt like me again. I now have a new job and am probably fitter than ever before.

I got back into cycling by mountain biking along canal paths and only then using the road bike again. I have signed up for the Myton 100km in August. Once I complete that, I think I will have come full circle.

 

[Sea of vapours]

18th March 2019:- Home-Chertsey-Hampton-Bushey Park-Staines-Eton-WGP-Home. 100.8km.

21st April 2019 –Home-Old Windsor-Iver Heath-Burnham-Maidenhead-Windsor-Home. 100.6km

Highly commendable adherence to a 'within 1% of target' approach to the challenge there :-)

 

[cosmicbike]

Highly commendable adherence to a 'within 1% of target' approach to the challenge there :-)

TBH I struggled to get there the last 2 months, so I'll take just scrapping in

 

[cosmicbike]

Had to give myself a talking to this morning, but pushed myself out the house about 0730. Planned route took me out to Henley, just into the Chilterns. Strava route plan said 700m and 63 miles, I got home with over 1000m climbing and 65 miles. Glad I got out though, so that's me still in the game

 

[ColinJ]

I have a mixed-terrain 80 km (50 mile) ride planned for the 31st. If the weather is okay and the offroad bits don't kill my legs then I might extend the ride to 100+ km on the roads. If I don't, it doesn't really matter for this challenge because I have the option of 'sharing' one of the 2 imperial centuries that I did earlier in the month for the Lunacy Challenge. I'd like to get a separate metric century in but I won't lose any sleep over it if I don't!

If I just miss my return train from Clitheroe then it would be as quick to cycle back as to hang about for the next train and then change at Blackburn.

Another option is to catch the train back, swap my CX bike for my best bike at home and then nip back out to do the extra distance on nicer roads than the main road back from the Ribble Valley. (Some purists might try and call that 2 separate rides, but yah boo to them - it would be less like 2 rides than stopping at a cafe for an hour mid-ride! )

 

[ColinJ]

I have a mixed-terrain 80 km (50 mile) ride planned for the 31st. If the weather is okay and the offroad bits don't kill my legs then I might extend the ride to 100+ km on the roads. If I don't, it doesn't really matter for this challenge because I have the option of 'sharing' one of the 2 imperial centuries that I did earlier in the month for the Lunacy Challenge. I'd like to get a separate metric century in but I won't lose any sleep over it if I don't!

If I just miss my return train from Clitheroe then it would be as quick to cycle back as to hang about for the next train and then change at Blackburn.

Another option is to catch the train back, swap my CX bike for my best bike at home and then nip back out to do the extra distance on nicer roads than the main road back from the Ribble Valley. (Some purists might try and call that 2 separate rides, but yah boo to them - it would be less like 2 rides than stopping at a cafe for an hour mid-ride! )

Well, it turned out to be a very leisurely ride AND walk! It was a lovely road route of mine but also taking in an exploration of Salter Fell, an offroad track over the Forest of Bowland hills, on the route of a Roman road. From the north the first half of the track is a gravel surface, rideable with care. It is ok on the flat bits, but it is very easy to slide on the gravel when climbing or descending. The second half was largely unrideable (at least, for non-hardcore mountain bikers and/or those not on mountain bikes). There were lots of large, sharp pieces of loose rock littered everywhere, with water running over them, deep puddles and so on. Attempting to ride them on my CX bike would have inevitably led to a gashed tyre, wrecked wheel or me lying injured in an extremely isolated location, probably without a phone signal. So, I ended up rolling and manhandling the bike over all of that stuff until I finally got to a better surface again. I'll take a look at my GPS tracklog later to try and work out how far I walked - I should be able to tell by seeing where the speed dropped to 2-3 km/hr. I'm not sure how long it took to cover the 12 km of track, but it felt like at least 2 hours. The tracklog will show me ...

I had modified my route slightly and covered 85 km by the time I caught my train home. It had been a very strenuous route with 1,920 metres of ascent, lots of it steep stuff. That isn't a huge total by local standards but still about 10% above the 'going rate' for these parts. What really tired me was the offroad section. My upper body ended up more tired than my legs. I didn't end up getting back until 22:00, by which time I didn't feel like adding the extra 15 km needed for my metric century, so I am about to 'recycle' one of my other challenge rides for my May entry for this challenge.

 

[Sea of vapours]

Great public service there. Well, more precisely, great service to me ;-)

I've been intermittently considering doing that Roman road for a few years now. Both ends look fairly OK but I have always demurred for fear of the middle bit being less than OK. Good to know that I'd made the right call and can now stop even considering it since that doesn't sound appealing at all ! Good effort on your part

 

[ColinJ]

Great public service there. Well, more precisely, great service to me ;-)

I've been intermittently considering doing that Roman road for a few years now. Both ends look fairly OK but I have always demurred for fear of the middle bit being less than OK. Good to know that I'd made the right call and can now stop even considering it since that doesn't sound appealing at all ! Good effort on your part

The views are fantastic. At least they were for a while when the clouds lifted, before it got overcast and murky again. You definitely would NOT want to be up there in bad weather!

I could see Morecambe Bay in the distance. The surrounding Fells are very impressive from Salter Fell.

I didn't take many photos because the light was bad a lot of the time and I wanted to press on and not keep stopping to fish my phone out of my bag. Here's a couple I took on the gravelly northern section ...

Looking NW, back the way I'd come from:

Looking SE, in the direction was heading:

I stopped again after one particularly rough stretch to fire up my phone mapping software and GPS, to find out exactly where I was. (I couldn't believe that I hadn't got to the end of the track yet ...) 4 more bloody kms of it! It turned out that conditions did improve after about 2.5 kms but it must have taken close to an hour to get there.

I just checked my tracklog ... the 13 km offroad track from High Salter to Higher Wood House took me 2 hrs 37 minutes!

 

[Sea of vapours]

Sounds like a fine walk and the photos are suitably remote looking. I shall do it one day without a bike I think. It's pretty long isn't it (long enough to reach from side to side ...). Those bits you've photographed look tolerable, whereas the bits you described above sound far less so! Thanks again for reconnoitring.