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The weather this evening was so gorgeous that I just couldn’t not go for a quick piddle around the block. I didn’t really plan on going anywhere fancy, so I didn’t bother to log my ride. I kind of wish I had now, as the ride was a really nice one… pretty fast, not too long and with some truly gorgeous scenery. I might have to adapt the ride by cutting out the first part where I was peddling along some dual carriageway (only a short bit, mind).

In the end I headed out to the Tesco roundabout, through Sandhurst, Crowthorne, Finchampstead and finally to Eversley and from there back to Yateley.

Distance: 11.78m
Average: 15.6mph (wow! Quite chuffed with this)
Max speed: 33mph (in a 30 zone)
Time: 45m

Oddly I got some light cramps in my calves by the time I got to Eversley (lucky, really, as I was mostly home). I have no idea what these were caused by… I was keeping my cadence up reasonably high, although maybe a little lower than usual towards the end (but still… 75-85rpm shouldn’t cause cramps, right?). And again, I’ve found that I’m incredibly hungry by the time I get back. In future I’m going to have to look at eating right before going on a ride.

Here’s my attempt at mapping it in Google:

View Larger Map

I headed out on Saturday to increase my distance slightly. I spent some time on Friday night plotting a route that would take me on a roughly 50km circular route from Yateley (where I live), all the way out to the M4, through Wokingham and back down to Yateley through Crowthorne and Sandhurst.

After heading into Camberley around lunchtime for some cycling shorts I set off with my D70 in the bar bag and my OS map in the map holder on top.

Did quite well to begin with, but I got tired quite quickly… partly due to the fact that I’m still not quite used to cycling any sort of distance, but I suspect more because all I’d eaten was two bowls of Coco Pops. Friday night I was unusually unhungry, so I skipped dinner, which hardly helped.

I tallied up 33 miles by the time I managed to get back… which almost didn’t happen.

Distance: 32.7m

Average speed: 13.3mph

Max speed: 31.4mph

Time: 2h27m (not including breaks)

After getting back from Iain and Zubin’s house in Kingston at about 1PM (I ended up sleeping on the sofa bed… after getting back from a nice meal out and Bourne Ultimatum (most awesome action-packed film ever!) we spent about two hours sat watching YouTube videos on the Wii) I headed into Camberley to grab a couple of rolls of film that they’d been pestering me to collect (and pay for).

As with any trip to Jessops, the inevitable browse around HMV (opposite) took place, and I came back home not only two four rolls of developed 135, a roll of developed 120, but also five new CDs…

1. Bob Marley and the Wailers—Natty Dread


2. Bjork—Greatest Hits


3. Jonie Mitchell—Ladies of the Canyon


4. New Order—Substance


5. Asobi Seksu (which Vlad/Wikipedia reliably informs me means ‘playful sex’ (I like it!))—Citrus

I’ve only listened to playful sex so far, which is surprisingly good considering it was a random unheard-of off-the-shelf pull (not the girl, the CD (bah)).  That said, I’ve already got all of Bob Marley’s stuff ever from the uber-torrent… I’ve now got three Marley CDs that I probably would not have owned, were it not for said torrent… and who says that torrenting hurts music sales?

Anyway, I would write about the other three once I’ve listened to them, but, to be honest, I can’t be bothered, so I won’t.

Right, back on topic.

I headed out for my 20 mile bikeride at about 4PM (a little late, really, but what can you do?)... I drove to Virginia Waters railway station and did the route I posted yesterday in reverse (I wanted to save the Great Park until last).

As before, please visit www.cycle-route.com/routes/Chertsey_to_Windsor_Great_Park_Loop-Cycle-Route-76.html for more info.

I paid good attention to my ‘average’ (from lots of looking at the speedo) cadence last time I was out… it was 73.  This seemed quite comfortable to me, but lots of reading suggests otherwise.  Apparently I’m burning the wrong matches, or something.  So the key aim for this ride was to get it up into the 80s, if at all possible.

I’m pretty glad to say I did this, and a bit more.  I spent most of the time pedalling (it still underlines this in red!) around at roughly 93rpm!  Of course, at some points it did drop lower, but it rarely went below 80, which would appear to be an improvement.  That said, I did find my legs getting tired… but much less than I’d expected (especially given this is now the fourth time out on a bike in about five or more years).

So, here are the stats… I thought that I was going to average at almost 16mph, but I guess not:

Time: 1h 20m 34s (not including breaks!)

Distance: 19.37m

Average speed: 14.4mph

Max speed: 32.3mph

Cadence: roughly 90-93rpm

Just got back from a very quick cycle around the block.  Despite having had my bike since last Thursday (i.e. ever so slightly over a week), I’ve only been out riding… two and a half times.

The Thursday I got my bike I obviously peddled around for a while, enjoying my new speedy racer.  In fact, I did the same on Friday, but before I even got two miles, my chain came off, so I pulled over to the side of the road to resolve the problem, only to get a gash in my tire.

As this was my first bike in over five years, I wasn’t yet kitted out with the essentials: my only option was to pick the bike up, stick it over my shoulder and walk home.

I spent this weekend in Manchester and sorted out my tire problems at Vlad’s house, only to miraculously manage to get a drawing pin lodged in the same tire later on in the day.  Again, we got this patched up, but come the following morning, my tire was flat.

This week I put a big order in with wiggle.co.uk, buying myself a set of five inner tubes (£15 for the lot), one of the awesome CO2 pumps (it’s near impossible to hit 100-120PSi with a small hand-held pump), a whole pile of patches, a proper track pump (makes it a real breeze to reach 110PSi), a large saddle bag (which I might be replacing with the medium-sized one, as it doesn’t quite fit), two Specialized Ribcage pro bottle cages, and two (yes, two!) Cateye Strada Cadence cycle computers.

At my Dad’s recommendation I opted for a speedo that does cadence, i.e. how fast you are peddling.  Wednesday evening (about three hours of it) was spent attaching the damn thing to my bike.  I’d have bought a wireless one, but wireless speedos that do cadence cost upwards of £80!

So, I finally got all of my order in today, I replaced my dead inner tube with a brand new one, loaded the saddle bag with a spare tube, CO2 canisters and adapter, puncture repair kit, phone, keys and an emergency stash of cash.  I’d brought my trusty old Specialized water bottle from home, so I filled this up and set off…

In the end I was only out for 24 minutes… as I don’t have any lights (thanks to buying two speedos by mistake!), I didn’t want to stay out any longer for risk of being run down like Vlad*.

I’m counting this as the first time I’ve really been out… my first trip involved a fair few stops while I buggered around with my bike, and when we were cycling to/from Manchester and around Heaton Park there were too many kids and stops to really get worked up.  The first ten minutes of this ride was pretty hard work… I was doing about 10mph until I got warmed up (I guess).

I’m still in the 20th century so I can’t provide a map or blow-by-blow speed readings, but my stats were:

Time: 24m

Distance: 6.37m

Average speed: 15.7mph

Max speed: 28mph

Cadence: I guess around 73rpm

So, clearly not as impressive as either Chris Gerhard or Talbot, but I’m quite happy to have an average speed of near-enough 16mph… even if my ride was a little short!

Tomorrow I plan on doing a quick trip I found on a website that goes from Windsor to Chertsey Great Park… it’s only 21 miles, but I think that’s quite ambitious for now.

See www.cycle-route.com/routes/Chertsey_to_Windsor_Great_Park_Loop-Cycle-Route-76.html for the Google Maps route.