Your ride today.... (part 1)

[ColinJ]

"just a little spin" "2000ft of climbing"

View attachment 30206

You do get used to the hills, honest!

Here's the profile of the next ride that I am going to do, once the next few days of grotty weather are over with ...

31 miles, and about 3,500 ft of climbing.

 

[colly]

That red dot Col? It's at the top of what climb ?

You must be making sterling progress by the looks of things.

 

[ColinJ]

That red dot Col? It's at the top of what climb ?

You must be making sterling progress by the looks of things.

I do seem to be making progress. I suddenly started to develop proper cyclist's quads again! It is about 14 months since I last noticed them ...

That route will be about 25% more distance and climbing than I have done so far in my recovery, but I have the option of skipping the last climbs if I am tired, and returning home on the valley road instead.

The route is up the Heptonstall Road (avoiding the village by taking the newly reopened Lee Wood Road or 'Heptonstall bypass'), Slack, Colden, Jack Bridge, Blackshaw Head and up to the highest point on the Long Causeway which is where that dot is.

Then the long descent past the Coal Clough windfarm and taking a left down to the A646. Continue up to the traffic lights at Manchester Road, turn left there then left again and climb over Crown Point. There is a sculpture up there which makes eerie noises if the wind is blowing and I fancy checking that out ...

The road continues up to Deerplay above Bacup, which is the second summit on the profile. Descend to Bacup, then climb to summit #3 at Sharneyford.

Long descent to the A6033 near Shade. I then have the choice of the scenic route up to Lumbutts and Mankinholes, dropping back to the A646 and home, or bypass the last clmbs and ride back via Todmorden.

I'll time it so I miss most of the traffic on the main road sections.

 

[Hill Wimp]

Amazing sculpture but what eerie noises it makes . Good luck on that ride Colin. If i ever return to Yorkshire i won't be bringing my bike. Look forward to the pictures though.

 

[ColinJ]

Amazing sculpture but what eerie noises it makes . Good luck on that ride Colin. If i ever return to Yorkshire i won't be bringing my bike. Look forward to the pictures though.

The sculpture is 'over the border' in Lancashire.

We will keep working on you until you relent and become Hill Champ!

 

[Hill Wimp]

The sculpture is 'over the border' in Lancashire.

We will keep working on you until you relent and become Hill Champ!

What will i be able to avoid then ?

 

[ColinJ]

What will i be able to avoid then ?

You will be able to avoid the avoidance of magnificent hilly routes!

 

[Teuchter]

Just found this thread for the first time, somehow. I'm going to cheat and instead of "my ride today" (my ride today was a wet and windy 9 miles shortest possible route to work which I don't think really counts), I'm going to mention my ride on Sunday which was my first ever century.

Yes, I'm still chuffed about it.

Erskine to Bridge of Weir by road then NCN route 7 all the way to Ayr beach and back (with a few detours where I lost the route). Not too much climbing, nice sunshine and apart from a twinge in one knee after 80 miles, I felt fine afterwards. All credit to my well broken in Brooks saddle.

104 miles in total.

I've already put pics in the Photos section but here we go - 55 miles in at Ayr beach...

 

[HLaB]

Dont worry I'm go ing to cheat too, it was my ride last night. It was forecast to be a bit horrible today but I was wanting to watch the Celtic game and was a wee bit worn out, so I joined only did part of the training session. Cycled slowly for 3.4miles (not on the GPS I dont like tracks leading to my door) to meet some mates waited for 10mins but decided I must have missed them and speeded up to the 2nd meet point. Did some work on the front but mostly drafted for the next 5 miles then I split off and made it back to town on my own, I also took the opportunity to go into slightly lumpier land, got a good sprint up Morborne Hill (aka Morborne Bump) but a car came by on the narrow road and with fading light I had to sit down. Going by the bump also meant I had a downhill route into the headwind. Stopped the GPS and crawled into the park and came across the usual mix of really bright cyclists and ninja's Got back 2-3mins before the kick off

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Just recieved a proper soaking on the galaxy riding around to the local music / guitar shops...seems my altura night vision jacket has lost it's waterproofing, I suspect since i put it in the washing machine..cant really call it a ride, but I was moving on two wheels in a forward direction for an hour ish...the good thing about the weather was that I got to try out my new super cool brookes saddle cover bag from iceland.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I was free to get out this morning but the forecast looked pretty bad with rain expected from as early as 10am, so headed off on my short loop to Acton Burnell.

I set off just before 9 and went out into hazy sunshine and unexpected warmth. I'd put my fleece in the rack bag but in honesty I was feeling too warm in shorts and a T-shirt.

With the sun low in the sky I thought using my new phaart tail light on the strobe setting would be a sensible move and it did have the desired effect of getting me room from all the passing cars which made a nice change from the last few rides.

Approaching the Acton Burnell area it was very misty and looked threatening for rain so I was hoping I could make it back before it got wet.

I'd tweeked the saddle a bit higher on the last ride as an experiment but found that it made it hard to get comfy and was actually slowing me down a bit, so there was a bit of a pause at Acton Burnell to set it back to where it had been. (The height difference was about 3mm. The comfort difference was massive.)

On the way back I decided to take the scenic route and went over Lyth Hill. The weather seems to be moving in slower than forecast so I was able to complete the ride and walk the dog in the dry afterwards as well.

I covered 18.3 miles today at 15.1mph average (not bad I thought, with the climb over the hill included).

Near Acton Burnell - I was expecting the rain to start at any moment.

Climbing over Lyth Hill on the way back. Usually this view would include The Lawley, Caer Caradoc and The Long Mynd.

 

[burndust]

a total of 20 miles today between 4hr pt sesh at gym....damn it was wet in stirling this morning lots of standing water...creeping round roundabouts on the gators...much to the annoyance of the cars behind me

 

[Rustybucket]

Not really my ride yet, however Im moving house soon so my commute changes, what do you think of this route?, are there any better roads to take? I want to try and stay off dual carrigeways - I dont mind them in central london where there are bus lanes thou...
Aiming to keep the route to around 20 miles
Thanks for any recommendations

http://connect.garmin.com/course/4909309

 

[Saluki]

You do get used to the hills, honest!

Here's the profile of the next ride that I am going to do, once the next few days of grotty weather are over with ...

View attachment 30218


31 miles, and about 3,500 ft of climbing.

Why Colin?
You seem like a nice man but hills? Ye gods

 

[Saluki]

Round my regular 11 and a bit mile ride. I like this ride, less than 100 feet of climbing and its a fun route (Note to @ColinJ, flat routes can be nice to)
Going past Lotus is the fun bit, especially at going home time. Just because they are in a Lotus does not mean that they can have ALL the road, whatever they may think. Some numpty in an Elsie decided that the road was his!

Apart from that, it was uneventful unless you count the deer bounding out of the woody bit to the right, stopping dead in front of me and glaring at me and then bounding off to the left again. Maybe he wasn't actually glaring as deer are not known for their steely gaze, but it looked like it a bit when my lights caught the bloomin' thing full in the face.

Today I tried out my new Aldi Leg Warmers. I got a S/M size as, although I am overweight, my legs are not too massive. They were a touch big but that was fine as I have been having knee pain when I wear my long cycle pants for anything over about 10 miles. It only happens when I am in my longs and I am pain free after wearing my leg warmers. They are very comfy indeed I might nip back tomorrow and see if they have any more. I wore my new Aldi seriously yellow & reflective top too. A man in a car complemented me on my lights and bright clothes, he said he could see me from over 300 yards away. That was nice of him I thought.

11.08 miles, 97 whole feet of climing (plus another 4 inches but who's counting) in 46:23 most of it in the dark, which is a bit spooky going past the woods.