Road Cycling

Associate
Joined
31 Jan 2018
Posts
540
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Had a nice 2 hour ride in the sun was planning on taking it gentle just get some miles one and somehow got the fastest I’ve ever gone on a flat run managed to hit 52km thanks tailwind.

I had to do a double take on the head unit as usually I struggle to get over 40 on a flat. The 2nd half of the ride was a headwind all the way home an it destroyed me so I’m gonna have to console myself with chocolate and cake.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Feb 2006
Posts
9,583
100k done. Winds weren't the end of the world (few strong gusts pushing us about) but most of it (there and back) was a crosswind rather then directly into the wind. The rain was a bit miserable and dangerous with the rubbish rim breaks. I did set a new 5 minute power PB up a cat 4 hill and intervals gave me a 5% auto detected ftp boost from it. Massive pub lunch consumed and now going into a coma for the rest of the day.
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Apr 2011
Posts
14,824
Location
Barnet, London
I think I'm starting to understand that ignorance is bliss
Well, we're just trying to say, you can't know anything from just one or two days of data. The data is personal to you and you won't know for a few weeks what is good and bad. **EDIT** Is it giving you a recovery score yet? That's what it's useful for. I feel like it won't until it has more data, but I can't remember now.

I'm down in Devon at the moment and it wasn't until about two-thirds of the way through this morning's ride that I remembered that Komoot lies about elevation. It turned out today I did the 4th most elevation of any ride I've done, ever... (6,600 ft in a 100km ride). Komoot had said it would be 4,800ft.

kh27b69.jpeg


It was an interesting morning's weather too. Mainly sunny, with the occasional downpour.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
20 Feb 2004
Posts
21,373
Location
Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
Currently absolutely ******* it down :(

That’s one negative to renting here. It’s a Sunday so everything is shut. It’s raining so not pleasant to sit outside and the rental isn’t as comfy as we’d normally have a home and so it’s not even enjoyable to have a lazy day on the sofa.

I’m debating getting the MTB out or going for a long hike but then feel bad on the wife!
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2005
Posts
8,654
Location
Southampton
Getting sick of this weather tbh.
Even when it’s not raining there’s so much run off the roads are still wet in a lot of places.
Yep, I actually got the road bike out for the first time since early October yesterday and some of the lanes had run off, despite no rain for ~24 hours... Shocked to find a ~10m section of road just up from the old Hunters Inn outside Swanmore under water, almost up to the chain!
 
Associate
Joined
31 Jan 2018
Posts
540
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Was having a great ride and then the puncher gods got me good. A rear puncher 12 miles from home covered my bike in sealant, even with a tubeless plug it wouldn’t stay sealed had to get the misses to rescue me.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
12,402
Location
Birmingham
After moaning about the weather I’ve managed to take full advantage of the brief gap in the rain and did two 90 minute rides in two days. Not quite 50 miles in total, but not far off. Very pleased with myself as I haven’t had by road bike out for nearly a year. Overall fitness is pretty decent at the moment and I hope I can improve over the coming months (if it stops raining again).
 
Associate
Joined
31 Jan 2018
Posts
540
Location
Bury St Edmunds
So found in my spares an old 30c tan gp5000 so got that on the back with a 28c black gp5000 on the front to tide me over got out and did 65km today didn’t set the world on fire but was nice to be out in some sunshine.

I’ve ordered some Pirelli P Zero tlr as gp5000s seem to have gone up in price a fair bit
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
8,437
Location
Hereford
Had a (mostly) good social on Saturday. Fantastic weather, although quite a bit of water around still (glad for guards and overshoes). Hit a water filled pot hold (crater) on the run back towards town, broke my saddle bag clip & buckled my wheel. Grrr! Was with a group of 4 at that point all pushing on a bit, so took me a while to get back to the hole and retrieve my bag, before I could get close enough to warn him a guy from another club chasing us behind hit it and broke his carbon wheel! :eek: :(

Hung around at the corner flagging it until rest of my lot & the rest of his group passed it and thankfully nobody else hit it. Annoying hole, looked like nothing as it was small and deep while full of water. Just big enough for a wheel to drop down into it and critical damage.

I had been looking at getting another of the saddle bags for the clip on my new bike, but had drawn a blank finding one as Specialized seem to have stopped making them (they screw into the bottom of a Specialized saddle - very neat). So back to my old (Ortleib which clips onto saddle rails). But might change as it's a bit flappy, looks like they do a new one which I may go for... What small/mini bags are people using at the moment that they like/rate?

@Roady - I'm in BS16 (Fishponds if you're familiar with the area). About 5 minutes from the Bristol - Bath cycle path.

I have someone on my road who does Audax rides for fun.
Is his name Chris? Guy I know is from north side, somewhere near Filton. Rides quite a bit with 'Audax Club Bristol'. Also runs around Bristol & Bath.

I've only done 2 100km+ rides. One with friends which one suffered quite a bit on so the pace was fairly slow. The other was on Zwift.
Zwift rides are a good way to get 100km in. I do them quite regularly with 3R on a saturday/sunday afternoon. Also an 'Easy' way to ride away 2-3 hours at a good tempo (2.0-2.5w/kg average) for some saddle time & a bit of focus - while distracted by a podcast/TV/racing stream etc!

I'm not convinced frames that aren't compatible with mechanical will be a thing.
Derailleurs are always going to need a hanger like UDH or whatever standard, and the SRAM groupset I looked at just needed a UDH hanger which is pretty common on any modern bike.
We're already there. Certainly on higher end road bikes 'Electronic only' frames are more common than standardised hangers!

This wind is making me nervous for my first group ride tomorrow (100km). :o
Hope it went well! Was glorious riding weather on saturday here, bright but cool winds, then sunday freezing cold with mixture of heavy showers & strong winds. Then monday was glorious again with a few scattered showers - was quite miffed I didn't get out!

Hmm, how have you interpreted it like that? For one thing, I don't believe you can take a one-day HRV rating to suggest how fit you are, it doesn't really work like that. You wear it for time and build some history, giving you a baseline. Then you know when it's higher than normal and lower than normal. You can't tell that without knowing what your normal is. My average last month was 70, but the last few days I've been above 80, so I should be ready for these lumpy Devon rides I'm about to try!
Andy is pretty much spot on here - more info before you start! HRV as a measure is quite interesting (I tracked it for a while pre-Whoop), but it is quite variable. Whoop is actually clever about when it measures it - think it's something like your 'last period of sleep' and then rates your 'Recovery score' from it at the start of the day. But I don't find it that accurate, I'm feeling good today (actually got a bit more sleep than normal) then checking my Whoop it's given me a red recovery of 32% with a HRV of 49 (my current average being 68 in the past month). It says I've 'overreached' yesterday and I had 'heavy exercise' (I didn't, my strain of 13.2 for the day is fairly typical for me - DIY house jobs & garage work!)

@AndyCr15 - ah, I’ll see what it’s like in a few weeks. It’s only day 2 but I quite like it already.

Though last night my HRV was 46 lol. I expect waking up at nighttime isn’t doing me any favours. I had <2 hours of REM and Deep sleep combined. Oh dear.
Yeah the interruptions to sleep do impact - did it pick them up? I find the sleep zones and the data on the sleep screen really interesting!

Even with my nearly 6.5 hours of sleep last night (massive for me) my SWS was 10% lower and my REM 27% lower than 'normal'. So the extra time in bed gave me a massive 30% more than normal block of light sleep, I didn't gain and of the deeper stuff.

I find this quite regularly after busy days without riding. Any days I ride my SWS+REM are much bigger.

Getting sick of this weather tbh.
Even when it’s not raining there’s so much run off the roads are still wet in a lot of places.
Yup, there's been so much rain here, the roads are actually pretty well 'washed' and not that filthy, but the amount of gravel out on them and the surfaces are getting rougher and more broken for it.

So found in my spares an old 30c tan gp5000 so got that on the back with a 28c black gp5000 on the front to tide me over got out and did 65km today didn’t set the world on fire but was nice to be out in some sunshine.

I’ve ordered some Pirelli P Zero tlr as gp5000s seem to have gone up in price a fair bit
I've got a set of the P-Zero. Didn't rate them as got a couple of punctures which wouldn't seal, the GP5000 STR I replaced them with have been much better.

Paid £62 for the PZ back in '22 (which was a mega deal on Sigma at the time), paid £116 for 2 of the GP5000 STR from Mantel in June, they took a while to come & paid for delivery, but would use them again - still a fantastic price on there with various in stock - https://www.mantel.com/uk/continental-grand-prix-5000-s-tr-road-bike-tyre?autocomplete=1

Actually tempted by some more now for that price... As I'm back on my alloy Zipp wheels and threw a pair of Hutchingson Fusion TL on there but knowing they had a hole put tubes in them and one was squishy this morning. With my carbon Zipps (& the GP5000) staying on the new steed (still not ridden it!) I want something less 'hard' and uninspiringly heavy than the Rubino's I'm running...!
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
24 Jan 2008
Posts
4,015
Location
Londinuim
@Roady shame on the damage...

had a great short - 40miles - social ride with mate of mine in Kent.
go so lucky with the weather !!

got few PB's on climbs which made me very happy easter bunny ;)
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
11 Jun 2015
Posts
11,201
Location
Bristol
@Roady - Negative! This guy is called Farooq but it wouldn't shock me if they knew each other as Filton is literally around the corner.

The 100km Zwift ride wasn't even intended. I Just wanted to do some Z2 riding and joined in with some laps around the volcano. Never again, most boring ride of all time but once I noticed I had done 10 laps. I realised I never wanted to do it again so I may as well just go for the 25 laps achievement. Stupidly because I wasn't intending to do that much riding I had only had 2 slices of toast! But at least I never have to do it again and I have the cool jersey. Just need the 100mile one now! But i believe there are group rides on Tempus Fugit that do that so when I join zwift again I'll give it a stab.

My HRV has been slowly increasing. It was 55 last night. Not sure why though as I was up a few times! Not putting too much stock into it just yet. I'm still on the fence with whoop. I quite like the data it has been showing and it's something new to obsess over but I'm not sure if it's wasted on me. My friends comment when he say it yesterday was "well, yeah, but you're not an athlete" and I suppose he isn't wrong. I'm just a recreational rider with a few fitness goals. Will whoop help me reach them faster along with TrainerRoad? I'm not sure either way yet. :confused:

Last nights sleep was 5:14. with REM accounting for 25% and SWS just 14%. I am building up a nice chunk of sleep debt though. 2:05. Lovely!

I'm definitely starting to feel a bit fitter though. Did a flat Z2 ride outdoors yesterday (probably looked mental as I sang to myself to ensure I couldn't push) and somehow got a my 2nd best time on a segment I've done multiple times before. Though I expect if I actively tried to beat it, I'd gas out :cry:


Another +1 for Mantel. Got my current tyres from them. Tempted by the GP5000s at that price as I miss having tan walls but my tyres have plenty of life left. Would be a vanity move, which wouldn't be the first time for me :p
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom