Your ride today.... (part 1)

[graham56]

Just a pootle round the back roads today and noticed how much fruit to be had at arms length. Pears, plums, oranges, lemon, limes, apples, grapes, figs and pomegranates, although the last two were still unripe.
You could eat your way around the island.

 

[laurence]

the stats - distance: 69.4km, 43.1 miles
time: 3:15:49
Avg Speed: 21.3km/h, 13.23mph
Max Speed: 47.9km/h, 27.76mph.

richmond park through twickenham, bushy park and onto Hampton Court. out to walton, weybridge and Cobham. brief stop to sit by the river then south... i figured i'd end up near leatherhead and i did... where it all went wrong. i was feeling ok, but was lost in the one way system. i knew where i wanted to go, but could't work out how to get there. saw a sign for Dorking and followed it. big mistake. ended up heading for box hill on the leatherhead bypass!

it was a drag up and cars were screaming past me, so i bottled it and turned around. then ended up on a dual carriageway next to the M25, which was very scary. survived that and saw the sign for Esher. regained (a bit) of my composure and then found the road through Oxshott was closed, but tried it anyway. had to get off and walk, but then there was a lovely cafe - Merci Marcie - so i stopped for an espresso and had my bidon filled for free. then down to Esher and hit big traffic. went down the outside of it, which was fun, but nervy and the stop-starting was doing my legs in. pushed from the Scilly isles roundabout to Thames Ditton to try and get my legs working, but the pain increased. grovelled home.

the roadworks in Surrey and subsequent traffic were a bit too much, i could never get into the flow. they will be gone by next week, and it will be nice to tackle the roads when they are closed to traffic. there were signs everywhere warning of the race and several decorated bicycles on the route. hopefully i will be in a fit state to appreciate them.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

The morning domestic commute/ride was and I got closer to my destination it got er and er.... times were well down from yesterday (10 mins slower going out) and I was seriously regretting not putting on my full waterproofs or at least my autumn leggings on.

I spent pretty much all of the day cooking for my parents' party tomorrow (6 years since they married and my mother's 66th birthday).

Coming home was more interesting once the 'torture' had been completed. Wet leggings (yuck), wet sports bra (double yuck), wet socks (triple yuck), wet shoes (OK), wet gloves (horrible) and the final torture completed was the wet cycle helmet ().... It was dry at my parents' home, so I set out towards dark clouds on the horizon in only my s/s top & 3/4 length leggings. It started to drizzle after an hour and then got marginally heavier. Then there came a series of other commuters who were all looking at me as though I was mad. It took me a while to work it out, once I got to a hill.... there was this nice wide totally clean and clear road edge that is normally littered with debris. It had vanished without trace and there is this nice 2 inch high clean line of silt down the side of the road... I did get the opportunity to 'talk' with one of them "I take it it rained here?" was met with stoney silence. My landlady tells me it has rained all day without stopping and rather recently has been very torrential. I missed it all and got home drier than this morning without wearing my waterproof top and this morning I had my waterproof top on! I beat the 1hr 30 min alarm home again which is nice to know! It is now again quite heavily.
http://www.strava.com/activities/173980062 69.2km 43ish miles.

 

[cosmicbike]

the stats - distance: 69.4km, 43.1 miles
time: 3:15:49
Avg Speed: 21.3km/h, 13.23mph
Max Speed: 47.9km/h, 27.76mph.

richmond park through twickenham, bushy park and onto Hampton Court. out to walton, weybridge and Cobham. brief stop to sit by the river then south... i figured i'd end up near leatherhead and i did... where it all went wrong. i was feeling ok, but was lost in the one way system. i knew where i wanted to go, but could't work out how to get there. saw a sign for Dorking and followed it. big mistake. ended up heading for box hill on the leatherhead bypass!

it was a drag up and cars were screaming past me, so i bottled it and turned around. then ended up on a dual carriageway next to the M25, which was very scary. survived that and saw the sign for Esher. regained (a bit) of my composure and then found the road through Oxshott was closed, but tried it anyway. had to get off and walk, but then there was a lovely cafe - Merci Marcie - so i stopped for an espresso and had my bidon filled for free. then down to Esher and hit big traffic. went down the outside of it, which was fun, but nervy and the stop-starting was doing my legs in. pushed from the Scilly isles roundabout to Thames Ditton to try and get my legs working, but the pain increased. grovelled home.

the roadworks in Surrey and subsequent traffic were a bit too much, i could never get into the flow. they will be gone by next week, and it will be nice to tackle the roads when they are closed to traffic. there were signs everywhere warning of the race and several decorated bicycles on the route. hopefully i will be in a fit state to appreciate them.

Nice to know someone else on here sometimes comes over my way.

 

[laurence]

Nice to know someone else on here sometimes comes over my way.

when i was younger and much fitter it was my regular stomping ground around there. i love(d) the surrey hills area.

 

[Stonechat]

the stats - distance: 69.4km, 43.1 miles
time: 3:15:49
Avg Speed: 21.3km/h, 13.23mph
Max Speed: 47.9km/h, 27.76mph.

richmond park through twickenham, bushy park and onto Hampton Court. out to walton, weybridge and Cobham. brief stop to sit by the river then south... i figured i'd end up near leatherhead and i did... where it all went wrong. i was feeling ok, but was lost in the one way system. i knew where i wanted to go, but could't work out how to get there. saw a sign for Dorking and followed it. big mistake. ended up heading for box hill on the leatherhead bypass!

it was a drag up and cars were screaming past me, so i bottled it and turned around. then ended up on a dual carriageway next to the M25, which was very scary. survived that and saw the sign for Esher. regained (a bit) of my composure and then found the road through Oxshott was closed, but tried it anyway. had to get off and walk, but then there was a lovely cafe - Merci Marcie - so i stopped for an espresso and had my bidon filled for free. then down to Esher and hit big traffic. went down the outside of it, which was fun, but nervy and the stop-starting was doing my legs in. pushed from the Scilly isles roundabout to Thames Ditton to try and get my legs working, but the pain increased. grovelled home.

the roadworks in Surrey and subsequent traffic were a bit too much, i could never get into the flow. they will be gone by next week, and it will be nice to tackle the roads when they are closed to traffic. there were signs everywhere warning of the race and several decorated bicycles on the route. hopefully i will be in a fit state to appreciate them.

Nice to know someone else on here sometimes comes over my way.

Yes these are all local to me
Have shoied away fro a return to Richmond Park for some reason though, will be back

 

[RoyPSB]

Day off with the family today. I was planning a ride for this afternoon, just a couple of hours. Went down the park with my son this morning for a kick about. After about an hour, I caught the football and threw it out to him. I obviously twisted at the hip more than usual and felt a really bad shooting pain. Must have pulled a muscle or something as I can barely walk. So looks like cycling may not be on the agenda after all this weekend. Gutted. I go a bit mental if I don't get a few hours riding in every weekend! Hopefully it will be ok in the morning.

 

[Garry A]

Just got my good bike back. Freehub was done after 6 weeks with replacement "out of stock" so shop gave me a complete new set of better wheels. Not been doing much on the old bike so trying to get the miles up again. Around 19 miles this evening, it's a start.

http://www.strava.com/activities/174023065/

 

[Dark46]

Have been out again and down 25.2 miles in the wind and rain. I was hoping I was top if the list in the club, with 87 miles so far this week. Only for someone in the club to do 160 miles in one ride

 

[Donger]

Have been out again and down 25.2 miles in the wind and rain. I was hoping I was top if the list in the club, with 87 miles so far this week. Only for someone in the club to do 160 miles in one ride

Never mind. We are all on our own separate journeys.See you Sunday for another relaxed club ride.

 

[Garry A]

160 miles in one ride. I'm sure I'd wear body parts out doing that.

 

[EltonFrog]

38 Miles at stoopid o-clock this morning with two blokes I know socially. One I never knew had a bike until last week and the other is a very keen very fit cyclist. We are about the same age, but the keen one is a fit as a butchers dog so he kept shooting off, then he'd wait for me and the other one to catch up. So the ave speed was high (for me) @ 16.5mph, probably would have been a bit higher but the two miles each way before I met them for the ride would have been slower thus bringing the average down.

Nothing special about the ride on a grey, dull but warm morning other than for three things;

It was great fun.

We stopped and had a nice coffee and bacon sandwich.

It turns out that me and the other one, Roland, share that same favourite film; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the fit one, Peter, is/was a musical theatre actor/dancer/singer who played the lead, Caracatus Potts in the stage version of Chitty for six months at the London Palladium. We found this nugget of information out in the last 5 miles of the ride. So 3 men in Lycra in our mid fifties are riding three-a-breast down a single track country road singing a muddley of songs from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I wish I had had my Go Pro with me today.

 

[jnrmczip]

First ride of any distance today 20 miles in the pouring rain and wind. Enjoyed it none the less. Will try get some pictures next week while out and about hopefully it's a bit nicer.

 

[EltonFrog]

Nice to know someone else on here sometimes comes over my way.

When you're back on the bike I'll come over and meet you, it would nice for me to cycle round my old manor again.

 

[Deleted member 23692]

Today's ride was the first time out with road slicks on the replacement MTB and the first 'proper' ride since my old one got nicked 3 weeks ago.

Despite having 2 fewer teeth on the big ring compared with the old bike and not being able to get on the wee cog on the cassette, I covered the 14 miles in pretty much the same time as the last I did this ride on the old bike

Old bike 1:00:06
New bike 1:00.17

And I got home just before the rain started

Best get the gears sorted out