This blog used to just be about my cycling. In January 2021 my wife, Lee Lindsley got covid19 as bad as it gets... She spent 10 weeks in hospital including 4 weeks sedated and ventilated. A year later she is still not well enough to work. So the blog became a good way to update people. Cycling has kept me sane throughout this difficult time. I cycle for fitness, fun friendship and because it's good for my soul!
Just a quick blog today to say we rode it was great and thanks to Steve for leading and Ken for tail gunning.
When I arrived at the shop today the group wasn't quite big enough for splitting. As it was very mixed ability we ended up having a social ride, which was nice. Much banter was had along the way most of which was clean until the the Princess of filth joined us at Woodford. I had to forego tea and cakes due to the Saints having a 12:30 kick off so Andy ushered me into the shop to show me the new layout. Very impressive!
Our wifi is down so I didn't bother with my virb this week. Our group picture is kindly provided by Heather W. I'm not sure what the Strava link does but I'll update as soon as Virgin have sorted us out.
The route we took was the Oundle reverse. Having been posted by Andy on the week it was hilarious to discover that despite telling us all to make sure we know the route...He didn't know his own route! Then again as he was stuck in the shop I guess we'll let him off! It is a nice route though. Typical Northants rolling hills. Great villages such as Aldwinkle and Grafton Underwood, posh old Oundle and of course the leg busting Brigstock bumps!
Ok that's as much as I can bear using my phone and 3G. The auto correct is driving me mad! Better blogs are available!
Check out my 43.4 mi Ride on Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/267880383
Just a quick blog to tell you what I got up to today. I set off on my trusty 29er (with tubeless tyres which kindly didn't puncture,) with the intention of checking out the Geddington to Brigstock trail. On the way I noticed that puddles were still apparent and therefore my chosen route would still be boggy. So it was:
A spin round prologis park,
Dodge the dog walker on two laps of Weekley Woods
Glendon to Rushton alongside the railway track
Roads to Pipewell,
Off road back to the Desborough road and the Green Lane down to the bottom of the QOM hill to Harrington
Roads back home.
It was a really nice ride. The wind was still testing and the fact that I dropped a bloke on a road bike going into Harrington probably suggests that trails were the best place to hide from that wind. For me my favourite thing on either a road bike or off road is downhill. It was pretty good for that for the routes I rode today so that's what I put together on the video.
It was a late decision for me to ride with the club this morning. I've not felt great at all this week, it could be a virus, it could just be stress or I might just be ready for some time off. Who knows but having woke at 3:30 I thought I probably needed something to get things out of my system. So I set off to C&DCycles determined to ride with the fast group (I know I probably should have thought that through...) At the shop I quickly grabbed a CO2 bulb as my last one was used up. Possibly one of my few good ideas today! Steve was leading the fast group and elected me tailgunner so I gained the dubious honour of the sartorially challenged grey reflective gillet.
Leaving Kettering
.
Grafton Underwood
Well it was a good plan to put me at the back because I really struggled to keep up. I was fine on the flat but as soon as there was a bit of a hill I was dropped. I also really struggle in strong wind and today's was nothing short of oppressive. It seems to affect me more than others and I think it's in my head a bit going back to the Silverstone circuit breaker when I tried to ride after a week off with flu!
Geddington
Then in Desborough, would you believe it I got yet another puncture. My club nickname really should be colander! In a fit of sulk I told everyone to leave me and I was going home. Thankfully I had a second thought and realised the banter bunch would probably turn up before I got my wheel back on. Well that's what happened and I got to complete the ride at a pace that suited me more.
Back with the banter bunch
Lamport
Mercedes Avenue - Where Lewis Hamilton's engine is built
The new Mr Grey
Shadow shot
Stuck in traffic at the railway bridge Northampton Road, Kettering
Actually it sort of worked out nicely because I got to ride with both groups today and that meant I caught up with good friends as well as had a good workout. I needed both those things. So thanks to everyone for a great ride. Also Andy (mention) got to listen to my bike making odd noises.
Back at the shop we had some very welcome tea and cake. Also Andy (mention) had a tinker with my ticky clicky bike and discovered a loose pedal. No such noises on my very slow dawdle home. Andy also gave my bike a clean with a new product they are stocking. I'm still unconvinced of the need for a product that cleans without the need for water but my bike smelled great! You won't believe it but it was banana and chocolate flavour! Apparently it's no good just having a clean bike, a great smelling bike goes even faster than a shiny one. Also we're all aware that us lycra loonies are incredibly attractive but now we have even more pulling power with our sweet smelling steeds. OK some of that was made up but no doubt about it, the loving rub down Andy (mention) gave my bike was a little bit fruity!
OK so common sense needs to prevail tomorrow. I'm absolutely knackered after today's ride so going on the Sunday ride at Steve's 'steady pace,' is not a wise move. So I'm going rest well tonight and go for a bit of solo off road action tomorrow. Hopefully the tubeless tyres on my 29er won't let me down!
Happy Pedaling
ps the moral of today's tale is:"if in doubt...ride!"
What a difference a day makes! I didn't enjoy the Saturday club ride, even though it was one of my routes. People know why and I'm not going to mention it again.
With Big Steve under the weather, Neil Hickford stepped up and planned a fantastic route for Sunday. The day did not start well though. At 7am the world fell out of my bottom and I feared a bout of montezuma's revenge. After a nervous hour I declared myself fit to ride and decided to give it a go. I'm really glad I did because it's the best ride I've had this year.
A small group of us: Ken, Andy, Stuart, Frank, Mick, Rob, me and our leader Neil set off from C&DCycles with a plan to get Rob back to Broughton by 12 and me back to Rothwell by 12:30. On the way we lost Stuart at Grafton because too long off the bike was taking its toll. Both Rob and I
made our targets.
The average doesn't really tell the tale of what was a hard ride. If you look at the segments though, 40 trophies is quite a haul. We were all pretty shattered by the time we'd completed the series of hills from Broughton to Loddington. At that point I headed back over two more lumps to home and the remainders headed to Kettering. For the first couple of hours I felt really strong but my legs started to go after the Holcot causeway. Lots of work to do before dawn to dusk!
Lads at Loddington
Our glorious leader
Bizarrely just outside Broughton I started thinking: "I bet I get cramp later..." I then got cramp almost instantly. I've never had thought induced cramp before. It's just as unpleasant as normal cramp. However several hours and a good dog walk later I haven't had a twinge.
So what's been going on since I last blogged? Well it's been a lot of turbo. The road to nowhere has been in the company of the Global Cycling Network. Very good training videos and if you need a bit longer for warming up or down their top ten series is a real treat of cycling humour. I do like the idea of slowing everyone else down by filling their tubes with water. Just one of their very good top ten ways to beat a faster rider. Also planning for the 200 mile Dawn to Dusk ride is well under way. For more details see the dedicated facebook page.
Whilst we plan our epic biggest ride ever I sit in marvel of the two men trying to break the miles cycled in a year world record which has stood, frankly for a very long time! Kurt Searvogel in Florida and Steven Abraham from near Milton Keynes. These two super humans are well worth a follow on Strava. Steven gets 1000+ kudos every ride and bizarrely Kurt struggles to get more than 100. The two men have a very different approach. Steven is a steady Eddie averaging speeds many of us could strain with a bit of effort. Kurt smashes out 200 miles in 10 hours obliterating all the segment KOMs on his ride. However the tortoise is leading the hare right now. It appears they could both take the record, I hope it's Steven who holds it for England at the end of the year. Let's face it, our weather makes his challenge much harder!
Also on the ride today it was nice to see Matthew who I think was pedalling to a coaching event at Pitsford. Alan also caught up with us on a run, he wasn't looking too clever. Bad for you that running nonsense! Then on my way back from Dad taxi duties, I got a wave of thanks from Mr Duke on the road from Rothwell to Rushton and soon after Mrs Duke appeared. Wendy I hope Steve did the right thing and waited for you later. I'm in awe of the marathon runners and even more in awe of Matthew's ironman training. I might even try a bit of my running myself.
It's two for the price of one day on the blog today. Two strava routes, because the Garmin went haywire in Oxendon tunnel and I needed to restart it (so much more reliable on my smart phone ;) ) Then I've done two videos because I wanted to record Brampton Valley Way as one video. There's bigger news than that though. My tyres were inflated when I got Franz out of the shed and they are still that way now.
This was the ride I planned to do last week and aborted due to those divorce risking tyre issues. It started with a spin to Market Harborough and took in a few icy patches but nothing too twitchy. The BVWwas heavy going today due to the muddy conditions. Pretty good training though as momentum was hard to come by, it was a bit like a 14 mile turbo trainer ride except this wasn't the road to nowhere it was the former train track to Northampton. It's a good ride but you have to be careful of dog walkers, other cyclists of varying difficulty and a variety of oblivious other users who seem shocked that someone else is going the same way! For completeness I decided to go all way to the start in Boughton crossing and then double back round the A5199 to take Merry Tom Lane through to Pitsford Reservoir,
If the BVW was busy the Ressie was even worse. As well as joggers with their range of bewildering running styles (floppy arms, t-rex impressions and a lady who looked like her arms wished she was on a bike,) there was a plethora of loved up hand holding couples and family groups making sure they occupied the full width of the path. It wasn't annoying, I was having a great laugh. I was hoping one of the many anglers would get a fish as I went round but none of them decided to co-operate.
By the time I made it back to the road I was knackered. My flagging legs were lifted by the tangle of tandems that kept me company through Scaldwell, Old and up Mill Lane. I've never seen four tandems in a group before so that was quite a treat. Apparently they meet once a month
By the time I got home I was a bit filthy. Franz got a hose down and all my kit including shoes went straight in the machine. I was so relieved to do 40+ miles without any tyre issues and I'm going to celebrate that fact by converting the back wheel to tubeless. Well I have my own compressor now, so it would be rude not mess about with things that are currently working completely fine.
I don't feel like a long blog today. Bikes are annoying me! To overcome the issue that the tubeless conversion only worked on the front tyre, I put a tube with 'no flats' in it, back in the rear tyre. Well the tubeless tyre did great and the tyre with the tube went flat twice! It's still up now so I guess the 'no flats,' has decided to show up and do it's job. This all put me in a bad mood and as a consequence the 'queen of cakes,' asked Facebook if my MTB wheels were a grounds for divorce. So there's some pictures and a video have a look. Happy pedaling.
Having announced my plan on Facebook to head to Market Harborough and then take the Brampton Valley Way to Pitsford, round the ressie and home, this will come as a surprise. It started bad, I made a poor decision and it got worse! Then I turned things round and well, it was a good day to be on a bike...as long as you avoided that shiny cold stuff!
The Sunday C&DCycles club ride was cancelled for safety reasons. It seems not all clubs called it the same way and I understand there's some bruised bodies around the county as a result. No criticism, you make your call and take your chances we all know the risks. A bad day on a bike will always beat a good day at work!
As a result I decided on some off road after midday on the theory that tracks are more grippy, off road tyres are more grippy and once the sun had been out it would get more grippy! Gripping stuff eh! I went to get Franz out of the shed and the depressing sight of that flat front tyre greeted me. I didn't get it, the thing is full of 'no flats' sealant and it stays up for weeks at a time. Anyway I went through the blow it up and spin it routine and after a couple of goes it felt OK again. Big mistake!
The first part of my route was a bit of exploration around Green Lane in Desborough. What a find! This is a great little track. Half way round Green Lane my front went flat again. No matter I know the score, the sealant just needs to take hold and hey I've got CO2 so this will be a doddle. I went from flaccid to hard faster than Pele can cash in on a blue pill advert and was underway again. As I finished Green Lane on the road between Arthingworth Road and Harrington the tyre was flat again. More Gas, it went back down. Pump, pump, pump. Flat! Blistered finger...flat! So I walked home!
Looks lovely doesn't it
Entrance to Green Lane
Nice little track
Ice on the road to Thorpe Underwood
Flat tyre
Grumpy Richard
Nasty pump gave me a booboo
Stunning day for a walk!
I guess the flytippers are unconcerned about the neighborhood watch
Walking shadow shot
Yeah, yeah Rowell church looks lovely today too...
Oooh I think I can see the problem here
The walk back wasn't too bad really. I had a nice chat with a bloke on a touring bike and got to see the Police make polite inquiries with the travelers. When I got back I got the pesky tube out and discovered that there are in fact five holes so no wonder the no flat sealant is failing. I replaced the tube (why didn't I just do that in the first place?) and set off for a few more miles after a quick cup of coffee. On other days I may have just quit but look at the pics it was glorious, if a little deadly, out and about. With time now at a premium I headed to the off road tracks of Prologis Park, Weekly Woods and the Glendon to Rushton track (Rich McNab take note these are MTB options around Kettering!)
Oh goody Bunker Hill
Prologis Park
Start of Weekly Woods
Told you, beautiful out!
Just lovely
Glendon to Rushton track
Quintessential English Village scene
Sun setting over the cricket pitch with the church in view
If this was scratch and sniff right now you would smell Sunday Lunch wafting from the Thornhill Arms
This was the worlds longest photo caption
Heading home
The second ride was much nicer. Even a tumble in Prologis Park due to an icy corner was OK. I serenely slid to the floor and just ended up in a quite relaxed pose to the bemusement of the dog walkers. I like my 29er much better without soft tyres. So you see Andy...I did get a floppy today!
Today's video contains copyright free music. When you hear it you'll understand why it's copyright free. Id apologise but I've had Taylor Swift in my head all day so I have no sympathy. Haters gonna hate...hate-hate-hate-hate...
