Norwood again

Yesterday I got an offer from Gizzajob that I couldn't refuse - an evening ride in beautiful sunshine, so I decided to do that instead of riding this morning. Getting out of bed early whilst the kids are off school is very unappealling!
We did Norwood Edge again, mainly because G wanted to test the "previous course" feature of his shiny new Garmin.
Slightly slower than Monday, but we weren't really trying that hard.
No more riding before Sunday now. I've done 79 miles since Monday, so with Sunday's 116 added into that it's going to be an impressive total for this week! If I cycle to Otley for the start then I'll go over 200 for the week - now there's a thought...

Big turn out

Fantastic to see 10 riders out last night - last minute WRC preparation I guess. Fortunately the rain had just about stopped by 7:30pm (started 10:30pm Monday night), but the roads were still quite wet. The ride was a brisk 31 miles round Skyreholme, Hartlington and back via Burnsall. I worked myself pretty hard especially from Burnsall back to Beamsley. Then came the inevitable shout of "Langbar anyone". This time the call was answered, so 6 out of 10 of us set off upwards. I found the steep ramp very difficult. My legs were screaming after setting the pace on the front since Burnsall, but once that section was over and I got onto the final part of the climb I seemed to jump very quickly ahead of the final 3 (2 were already over the top).

Stats: 31 miles, ride time 2hr 00, avg 15.3mph, ascent 3700 feet

Almost a week off

Couldn't go out yesterday due to my wife being ill. A shame but you can't do anything about those kind of things.
She's feeling better today, so once the kids were ready for bed I took up Gizzajob's offer of a Monday evening ride and set off round Norwood Edge once again. Tonight felt quite a bit quicker than last Tuesday, but then I've had 6 days rest, so no surprises really. We were round easily in about 1hr 23mins, including a fast 2up along the river back into Ilkley.
Hopefully tomorrow's heavy rain will ease up before the evening so I can get out again. Then I think I'll try to ride on Thursday morning, and nothing else before the WRC on Sunday.

Nothin' doin'

Not ridden since Tuesday night. Had a day in London on Thursday and felt rough Friday and this morning. Feeling better now so will go out tomorrow for the long ride. See how it goes...

Wet, but no rain

Turned up last night at 7:30pm for the regular Earlybirds Tuesday night ride, expecting a large turn out after last weeks record breaking 12, but I was alone. It was grey but it wasn't raining, so where the hell was everybody? Anyway as I was on my own I decided against the published route and did Norwood Edge instead to get some hills in (as usual). My legs were a little stiff from the previous days epic, but they soon got going. I'm still persevering with the high cadence training, and it seems to be working. I'm pushing quite hard on the flat/rolling terrain, and using a low gear, high cadence on the ascents proper. The tops of Norwood Edge and Askwith Moor were both in the low cloud so I ended up getting a proper soaking without it actually raining - was nice and cooling. No crazy descents though as the roads were pretty greasy.
Stats: 24.5 miles, 1hr 32, so 16mph average, and 2200 feet of ascent.
I'm quite pleased with that.

Scary...

So here is the Memory-Map profile of yesterday's ride


And here is an approximation of the 2008 Etape du Tour route.
The vertical scales are equal! Wow that's some climb.

Windy Bank Holiday

Big ride today - a reprise of the 75 mile amended White Rose medium route I missed out on a week last Saturday. 5 set off - the usual 4 joined by none other than top cyclosport blogger Earthdreamer! The wind was always going to be a factor though, as it was blowing a gale - literally and from the NE too.
The early section taking in Askwith, West End and Greenhow was taken fairly steadily by all, then we were blown at high speed into Grassington. I clocked 52mph on one of the descents. That's the fastest that the current bike computer has ever seen. We then turned up Wharfedale and then off up the northern side of Littondale. The wind was gusting and swirling all around in Littondale. Whilst we headed in a constant north westerly direction the wind was behind us, a headwind and cross wind at various points on the road. Gizzajob turned at Arncliffe to head back down as he was feeling rough from a boozy weekend, so that left 4. The wind assisted climb out of Halton Gill seemed very easy, and was followed by a glorious section beneath the ever dark and gloomy Pen-y-ghent. My spirits were lifted as last time on this road I was suffering greatly.
Unfortunately this was the last of the tailwind. Once we had turned off to head back towards Malham and home we would be heading east pretty much the whole time. There was a brief stop in Malham to fill water bottles then off again.
I usually dislike the section between Malham and Wharfedale, but it didn't seem so bad today, even into that wind. The others were clearly starting to leave me behind at this point, certainly on the climbs, but I still had enough to get back with them after the summits.
Once back into Wharfedale I was starting to ache, but still going. A time check at Appletreewick revealed that it was just after 11am, so I was going to be back home by noon, and that was very pleasing. We skipped Langbar at the end, but I think we had made up for this by battling the wind for the last 30 miles.
When I got home I was greeted by a surprised "I wasn't expecting you back so soon" to which I replied "I wasn't expecting to be back so soon!".
Overall a very pleasing 75 miles in 5 hours. According to the computer, ride time was 4:52, and moving average 15.5 - excellent work.