John's Cycling Diary

I arranged to meet up with Paul at his house at 6:45, I got in from work, got changed and set of at 6:30, arriving at exactly 6:45.

Paul faffed about a bit and we got going at 7 ish, I changed one of the data fields on the Garmin from Average Speed to Cadence and attempted to ride the whole ride in the small chain ring maxing out the cadence.

At one point going down the Fosse-way I hit 149 rpm, I found very little difficulty holding around 98 rpm on the flat – this is the norm over the winter on the rollers, I did find my cadence dropping rapidly on hills, I think I will try and focus on holding a higher cadence on hills.

The Garmin had the ride as 22.88 miles in 1 hour 23 minutes with an average speed of 16.5 mph, route here…

I ordered another bike last night!  I am hoping it will arrive tomorrow

Why another bike you may ask…well this is what I have ordered.

A VERY cheap (£147) fixie…

I have no great expectations about build quality or weight, my intention is to strip it down, lube it, rebuild it then use it over the winter months as a training bike.

As I am very anal about cleaning and maintenance I don’t think corrosion will be a problem and I can replace bits for better when and if they fail.

Had an early start and  a late finish

When I got back home I got changed and headed straight out on the bike, I did the Calne, Lyneham loop, I would have preferred the lanes but I wanted to keep the ride to as near an hour as possible.

It was great to be able to get out in shorts and short sleeve top

The Garmin seemed much better saving data to internal memory rather than SD card (Well Garmin Connect uploaded better anyway), the Garmin had the ride as 21.18 miles in 1 hour 5 minutes with an average speed of 19.5 mph, route here…

Worked from home today.

I thought it would be a nice idea to go to the track again.

At just before 5 I set off to Castle Coombe, I paid my £3 and started cycling around the track, I was feeling much stronger than I was last week, essentially I didn’t stop this week!

After nearly 40 miles I slowed down to join the club peleton, unfortunately on the headwind stretch I rode off the front I decided to keep going.

I found it rather interesting that I was on a steel bike with mudguards and I had a lightweight carbon bike slip streaming me!

The Garmin 800 worked rather well, it had the ride as 51.81 miles in 2 hours 48 minutes with an average speed of 18.4 mph, route here…

Night off, played computer games

My Garmin 800 arrived today, it has been plugged in charging all evening, I am quite looking forwards to trying it out tomorrow evening

I woke up to the most gorgeous warm and sunny morning

I changed into summer cycle gear and had breakfast in the garden.

At just before 9 I set off to the Herman Miller roundabout for the club leisure ride, I seriously intended taking it easy, but found myself with the fast group(I wonder how that happened?)

It was quite interesting, they were all on light weight summer bikes and I was on the heavy steel Surly with mudguards. On the steeper climbs gravity was most definitely against me, but on the descents I had no difficulty catching them!

It was a very quick ride to Woodborough where we sat out in the sun, I ordered my Bacon Roll, Tea and bottle of coke, and Richard ordered his, I was obviously in cloud cuckoo land, as I wandered straight out side, Richard arrived a few moments later carrying my stuff! (Ohhps and thank you Richard)

After my nosh I was ready to go, but everybody else was still chatting, I started to get cold so made a move, Dylan, Simon and Andy all followed.

I was keen to get back home for 2 pm so didn’t hang around, Simon and Andy obviously had ideas of  a different pace and slowed up.

Dylan followed me all the way back to Chippenham, it was great to be on the bike in the sun

The Garmin had the ride as 63.26 miles in 3 hours 29 minutes with an average speed of 18.1 mph, route here…

Ohhhh I have just noticed I have now done over 4,000 miles this year

Paul, Simon and myself had planned to do a 45 mile ride to Pucklechurch and back, unfortunately we hadn’t banked on JAPfest

Japfest takes place at Castle Combe Circuit, which is located 5 miles west of Chippenham on the B4039. The circuit is clearly signposted from Junctions 17 & 18 of the M4 motorway using brown tourist signs marked with a chequered flag. Castle Combe Circuit Ltd, Castle Combe, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 7EY.

Luckily Rafe had sent me a text earlier reminding me about the bicycle jumble at Hullavington, so we headed out on a pseudo chain gang to Hullavington to look at bike bits

Looking at all the used bits has given me an idea I’m going to build a fixie for the winter

Wifey returned from deepest darkest Wales and the house was tidy and the animals were still fit well and happy

Worked from home today…

I checked over the Surly at lunchtime and found the left hand crank had a bit of play in it, looked like the bottom bracket was not far from expiring

I took Poppy for a walk to the LBS to buy a new 105 Bottom Bracket.

My cold has developed into a rather annoying dry tickly cough

At 5:30 I headed over to Paul’s house on the Surly with the new Bottom Bracket fitted, the intention was to take a scenic ride to ‘The Rising Sun’ at Lacock, but we both thought it a far better idea to take a more direct route

After a nice couple of Ciders and some nosh we both headed our respective ways home.

The Garmin had the ride as 16.85 miles in 1 hour 8 minutes with an average speed of 14.8 mph, route here…

I have ordered a Garmin 800 today to replace the Garmin 605, I am looking forwards to seeing a little more of my Cadence in the real world, it will also be nice to log my rollers rides in Garmin connect.

Still feel like poo I went to work and felt miserable all day.

Now I have a tickly cough as well

I do hope I get a good nights sleep…

I am going for a cycle ride tomorrow evening regardless of how I feel!

I’ve got a cold

I hate having a cold

I feel knackered and miserable…

I’m not going cycling…

Had a massive commute to Stevenage and back (240 miles), after lunch I headed back home, I set the laptop up and did a bit of work.

As the spring/summer Tuesday night track sessions at Castle Coombe have started and I have NEVER been able to get to one I thought I would give it a go. I called Paul to find out details (where to go, times,cost etc) I got no reply! so I called David and got all the info needed, £3 at Competitors Entrance, 5:30pm start, kick of track at 8pm.

Wifey was happy for me to go and was happy for me to go to the pub afterwards

I cycled to Castle Coombe via Paul’s house in the off-chance he would be there, he wasn’t.

The track was reasonably empty when I got there, I paid my £3 and set off on a warm up lap, the second lap was my fastest of the whole evening 1.88 miles at 22.9 mph, the home straight is slightly up hill and had a rather stiff headwind

As each lap passed I could feel I was getting slower and slower, the weekends mountains started to tell on me, so I stopped in the pits for a rest.

Once I had cooled down and recovered a little I went back out for a few more laps, until again I started to feel ‘The burn’, and I stopped for another rest.

I ended up doing around 20 miles on the circuit, I finally had a chance to talk with Paul  near the end of the session, he wasn’t going to the pub so I used the last of the evenings light to high-tail it back home.

Wifey had already eaten so I prepared some nosh for myself (shame I was looking forwards to some pub grub)

Now I am knackered! I also have the feeling that I am coming down with a cold

The Garmin had the ride as 44.86 miles in 2 hours 25 minutes with an average speed of 18.5 mph, route here…

It was sort of nice to just ride quickly without traffic, but I like to explore and see the scenery, in that respect riding around the race track was a bit lacking!