It has occurred to me that I have now had my bike for (a little over) two years. Clearly I have made up for being late in celebrating the fact by buying it lots of presents *grin*. In fact I think the only bits that are still original are the frame and the gears/pedals/cranks! In those two years it has done around 8600 miles which, if you’re me, is pretty impressive. I’m me. I’m impressed! So Happy Birthday bike 🙂
Today was the first time I had the opportunity to get out for a ride since Andrew pimped my ride. Mim had to cancel on me, leaving me at a bit of a loss and somewhat stumped for routes. I exchanged texts with GB and decided on a route. Rather than make you play dot to dot as I describe it to you, here it is. Ever since last Sunday’s sportive I’ve been really, and unusually, tired. I don’t think it’s just a post-event thing – maybe I’m fighting off a bug or something. There’s been a lot of sleeping, early nights, and general zombie like behaviour. As a result I decided a flat-ish not challenging route would be the way to go, as you can see.
I tried really hard to enjoy it. Well it was relatively warm, and fairly sunny. But, and no surprise here, it was bl**dy windy again! Well, not again, still! It’s not like it’s gone away recently, now is it? I really should pay more attention to wind direction when planning my routes. Winds of a westerly persuasion are no good when your route goes east a bit, south a lot, west a lot, north a lot and then a tiny bit of east to get you home. Doh! I am assured that it’s very good training, but it’s not very good when it comes to enjoying the ride.
Being illogical in many ways, pre-ride I was actually a bit nervous about riding the bike with all its new bits. I know, I did say it didn’t make sense. I shall break it down as follows. The new narrower handlebars were more comfortable in a sort of intangible way, but my shoulder still went. Since the whole ride was feeling pretty smooth, I’m guessing the bottom bracket was an improvement. But the new wheel/tyre combo? Well from where I was sitting, it was kinda hard to tell. Given a decent road surface (and that’s not a given) they felt lovely – very smooth and quiet. Round corners they may well have been a tad grippier, but I was trying to avoid being knocked over by crosswinds so was being as cautious as ever. But hey, they sho’ did look purty…
So I rode. Bits of it were better. I didn’t puncture on the softer tyres. No more of me hurt than usual. On that basis a good, if not great, ride.
But, oh my giddy Aunt, have you seen my average speed?!!!
Cycling time: 2:21:03 hrs
Distance: 40.16 miles
Avs: 17.0 mph
ODO: 8606 miles
On a ride like that, I’d expect a 15mph average if I was lucky, what with all that fighting into the wind. But no – look! Every time I looked down to assess my degree of struggle, I was going faster than I thought I ought to be. I’m guessing the new wheels and tyres are a good thing 🙂 And did I mention they’re kinda pretty? 😉
GB is doing the Tour of Wessex this weekend and if today’s weather, and the forecast, is anything to go by, good luck to him! Rather him than me…allez allez! 🙂