i got up today, and did a 16k route in just over an hour. probably couldve done it sub 1 hr if i hadnt had to carry the bike through a load of felled timber on the trail 🤦‍♂️

 

anywho, it was a grand trek out on a grand morning. bit of misty fog hangin on the hills had the temps down a bit.

 

it was grand. nothing blistering but i was happy to get out. 

 

now... im taking tomorrow off, may go for a 5k run Monday instead, as the window people are coming at 8am, so i need to be here and prepped. we bug out later in the morning to the coast. so the run would be a breaker in for doing that all week while at the beach. 

 

plan

 

so.. i got up on time, despite the terrible sleep. 

and went out.

 

 

 

 

running...

 

first time since January, i got a 6.5km route knocked out in 35mins. pretty happy with that, more happy with the lack of knee pain! so at least i know i should be okay this week by the beach.

well i think i got 1hr of sleep last night.. i woke on repeat all night, too hot, uncomfortable, just not nice. 

i turned off the alarm an hour before it shouldve been going off to go jogging.

 

 

as for right now... the DOMS have struck after yesterdays adventure since 8am 🤦‍♂️ everything south of my abs are sore!

there was some swearing this morning..... a lot of swearing.

2.k into my run, and i feel a twinge in my left knee again.

2.2k and i had to walk.

2.5k i squatted on the sand and stretched/twisted  the knee in all sorts of directions. it loosened, abit. 

 

i restarted for home, but realised the pain started while on the (good hard sand) shoreline with my left leg higher up the slope to sea, so i went up onto the dunes and found a flatter trail to follow back, and moving with a shortened/softer stride was able to make it back without it being painful. 

 

utterly sickened. surrounded by this -

i didnt even have my headphones on, just trotting along to sound of dawn waves breaking, was feeling really comfortable, reckoned id make a decent go of the length of the strand, instead blown out and ****ed off by a knee that doesnt seem to like cambered ground, at least in my current trainers from christmas - it was only after i changed to them this started :( so i yhink its going be an internal trawl to find the worlds remaining supply of my previous iteration asics patriots, and see if that makes a difference....

 

dont get wrong, ive clearly enjoyed the change iver to pedal power too - new decent bike has been purchased for it, but... sometimes i want to run... (never thought id say that) but this knee thing is a constant fear. id hoped the break would let it heal and come good so i could then alternate my approach and be able to do something when on holidays, but today says otherwise :(

 

catch up posts time! 

 

so, last Friday i sneaked out of the matchbox apartment with the loudest door seals in the world again. 

changed the line of the beach jog, and got a 5.4k run done without any knee pain

but, later during the morning while loading up the car, carrying the bags out down the pretty steep decline to the parking area i could feel my left knee jangle at me... not good. 

 

the weekend was pretty busy with the post window refitting clean up etc. 

had the alarm set for Monday morning, i turned it off at 615am, and got out of the bed at 742.... 🤦‍♂️ too late, so no go...

 

catch up post no.2 

 

i got up yesterday morning at the right time, and got out of the house.

first time on the bike in over a week...

 

was a bit slower than i had been averaging up the climb to hill top, legs were already forgwtring how this pedalling thing works, but i got there, about 3mins slower than my PB time. dropped down into the woods after that, but skipped my "top loop" lap, and drop down one part of the trail to sib in a different part of the woods - around the careys castle track right by the stream. ended up the same distance and roughly the same average total time as my usual route. i d wanted to see how the castle bit would work out time and distance wise, it was fine, but less climbing involved.

 

 

my sitting down bones are bloody tender though, ridiculous how fast your body forgets how to ignore a bit of discomfort!

 

 

today, i woke with the alarm to sound of unforecasted rain, so i stayed put for extra snoozeres... and im now lookin at a lovely sunshiny day that was meant to be cloudy, thinkin... feckin weather 🤦‍♂️

got a clear spell between the weather rainfall warnings yesterday morning, standard 16.5k route. nothing spectacular time wise but it was good to be out, esp as id spent from 3-430am half asleep on the floor beside spud jr's cot after he woke up roaring 🤦‍♂️

 

 

 

bloody rain woke me this morning at 4am, and i got back asleep around 5. alarm went off and i just stopped it, lay on my back and fell asleep again.. shouldve gotten up. wish id gotten up.

aaaaand..... another night of interrupted sleep means another morning i physically couldnt get out of the bed. 

 

back to work tomorrow too, after my 2 wks off, so i really need some decent sleep tonight

so last night was an utterly beyond terrible nights sleep, but i needed to get out and clear my head this morning before the first day back in work after holidays. 

 

dont let the avg speed fool you, it wasnt a good trip. glad i did it, but just unhappy over all. not a good night or day today.

my ride today was a get out and clear the head after dealing with our numpty planner and having to explain to the boss why i was so ****ed off 

 

worked too.....my legs are aching more than usual 

okay, a slightly better couple of nights sleep, and i got up and out this morning. slightly chopped the route as i was about 20mins late leaving the house, and the tree cutting operation has expanded to now occupy a fairly sizeable chunk of the forest with "no unauthorised access" signs. so im gonna have to go somewhere else for my next ride out. i shall tackle the "long hill" climb instead a few times i think. means nor forestry fun, but a fairly tooth rattling descent from the top that havnt tried yet on the new bike.

 

todays ride was also slow... the bloody headwind was strong enough to make me need to drop back a gear on the flat section before i even started climbing! i also got blown a good foot to the right while mid air off a pretty small jump (bump in the ground) on the firs short drop between 2 hills, maybe 18inches off the ground and landed on a totally different line to where i was plannning! it overall meant i was 4mins slower than PB to the peak of the main climbing section....

 

 

anyway, tomorrow or friday is another day. probably friday, ive site meetings to go to tomorrow, so i cant be faffing around in the morning.

 

well after an evening where i found out my 3yr old niece tested positive for covid on Tuesday, 8 days after she was hacking and coughing when we met up over the BH wkend, for the first time since Spud Jr was born!!! and spud sr complaining of a scratchy throat the last 2 days.... i slept... sporadically.

but i dragged my sorry arse out of the bed and went for a pedal. tackled long hill for the first time on the Sentier. 

 

wind kept knocking it over trying have it on the rock stack for the photo.

 

i set the worlds 6th fastest time (on strava) for pedalling up there so pretty chuffed

 

its a horrible ascent though, lost traction on the steepest bit and had to push up about 100m of it to get level enough ground to get going again.

total time to get there,

 

and trip total... the west to east dogleg in the middle is the uphill rote, the straight line is the faster way back from the holy year cross.  cant pedal up that yet.

 

the long hill climb starts at about the 5km point and peakes at about 6.5km

 

its a dirty dirtyhill, because the top bit is reasonably flat, so the segment gradient appears kinda shallow at around 7.5%... but that climb is definitely more like 15+ percent

update... i just discovered i xan access my strava account on my work laptop and look at the route in much better detail. 

this the climb. .

 

any wonder i had to get off for minute...

 

edit.. another little adjustment if the cursor and its 26.3%. 

 

going up there again over the weekend, ill get a photo of it

Edited 13 August, 20214 yr by mac11irl

i am so sleep deprived... i really need to retrain myself to go to sleep earlier.

anyway, up and out just after 640, but needed to be back for 730, swmbo had to go to pick up school uniforms but also be back for a zoom training course ahead of back to work. 

so, i tackled Long Hill, but stopped at the top of the horrible climb to be back in time.

 

i also figured out on Frid how to make segments from your logged route. so i made one from the gate to the top of the long hill climb. 

that average gradient thing is annoying. part of the climb is over 25%! but its not obvious.

anyway, its nice to be able to log better sections now that i have done, and will keep doing. that top loop bit on my woodland route is a lap which id like to be able to look at oroperly, and now i can, once i pull it out later.

an hour lying on the floor of spud jrs room half asleep from 3-4am followed by trying to t myself back asleep.... no cycle was had today...

i suffered another broken night of sleep, its really getting tedious again now. but thank god it was only an hr missing... out of 6.5 available.

 

so i dragged myself out, half an hour late, and headed up my steep hills.

it was dirty, tired and sore, abd failed miserably to get the whole way up the long hill climb without needing to push any of it. lost traction on the peat farther down than on other attempts, but i pushed a bit cracked on again to the proper top of the hill. 

then turned around in the fog and back down. 

this being able to make segments is brilliant, i now have a segment for the tough climb up, and another for the way down, to compare speeds both ways - up for the strength development and down for the rough riding confidence improvement todays steep descent was definitely faster, and ive started catching some jumps on the way too, eather than just locking the brakes to gently get down it. 

8m38 to get up it and 1m58 back down

 

will what the morning brings, im hoping to get out early before i have to go to my actual office for 3hrs of meetings 🤦‍♂️

 

okay, so.... i nearly got a proper night sleep Thursday, so i managed to get out again friday morning. i was a little bit later than i wanted getting out, and i had to go the actual office to chair some meetings while my boss is on AL so i cut the hill route short, only going to the top of the horrible climb.

it was a nice pedal even though i was sweating buckets the whole way up in 17deg heat and humidity and rain, which made it tough.

today was a tidy pedal to the proper long hill summit.

43m 38 to get there. and then took my headphones out and just sat for a few mins. there was low cloud, so about 20yds of visibility but for tge first time ive been up there absolutely no wind. it was silent, and visibility empty.  i heard 2 sheep baaa in the middle distance, that was it. early enough and far out from town enough to have no traffic noise. it was strangely comforting and pleasant to be there in total isolation and just absorb the nothing.

 

 

i then set a new pb on the descent stage that is the all time 2nd fastest descent (on strava) 5 secs behind the KOM.

 

 

if id slept a bit better last night probably wouldve cracked that as fastest wirldwide.

13 hours ago, mac11irl said:

okay, so.... i nearly got a proper night sleep Thursday, so i managed to get out again friday morning. i was a little bit later than i wanted getting out, and i had to go the actual office to chair some meetings while my boss is on AL so i cut the hill route short, only going to the top of the horrible climb.

it was a nice pedal even though i was sweating buckets the whole way up in 17deg heat and humidity and rain, which made it tough.

 

 

 

oh edit.. i forgot that on Friday morning i ended up in a bush 🙃

wet grass, downhill... rear wheel locked up and i just ended up sliding about 30yds hoping to make the turn...i didnt quite make it and ended up in a reasonably soft bush. 

smashed it... 11seconds faster down the hill than yesterday!

 

put me in a right good mood heading to a site meeting. esp as it being a non WFH day, i have to be home earlier to get geared up and head off, so it was only up to the top of the steep bit of long hill, not the whole way across the top to the proper peak. 

 

 

nearly ended up in another bush on the way back down again too... ground is getting soft up there now, with all the recent rain and less drying out time. so traction on the steep tracks is getting harder to find, and the grass being wet on the way down.... uh-oh's are gonna be more frequent i think...

 

yesterday was meant to be my rest day but... 

i had to drop my car back to mechanic for him to fit replacemwnt wishbone bushes and replace a cv boot because of a tiny tear the nct inspector spotted. 

so, i got a 5.5k bonus flat riverside pedal in yesterday afternoon, strava logged n all.

then last night i went cycling with spud sr. convinced him we could walk over to by the river and cycle along a bit of the Blue way. ended up cycling as far as ferry house and back, aka nearly all of my 9km running route  he was fairly knackered when we got home, but had a great time. i shouldve strava logged it 🤦‍♂️ it wouldve netted me 14km bonus pedalling for the week.

sone one of these days in gonna get 8hrs sleep, be up at 6, and have a stonking hreat ride. 

ill take todays ride for now..

late outta the blocks, so only the main climb of Long Hill, but....

need to sonehow find a full minute to "make the podium" and an engine to get KOM on it. i reckon the guy with the fastest time on the section mustve got a duff gps track, its 3mins faster than me and 2mins  faster than the guy in second...

 

good blast out though all in all

 

Well done Spud Jr.. 👍

yeah, hes so proud of himself. 

he also thought it was amazing when i popped a couple of wheelies on the way back

but he knows hes not allowed tell his mammy, and im not teaching him how to do it until hes older

 

Or even Spud Sr 🙄, I'd pay good money to see Jr on a bike at the moment 😄