Some quality road miles...bout time.

I took Thursday and Friday as rest days due to work commitments and tiredness. I have been stuffing my face to keep the energy levels up. I was going to take Saturday as a rest day too as I was going to swim and cycle with tri club on Sunday but I may have found THE car I have been after for ages after so much disappointment which is going to replace the not so convenient 3 door one I have at the mo so a deposit could be going down subject to my mechanics inspection. This is the reason I will be unable to do anything on Sunday, the rest of next week I wont be doing anything either as my work load is way too high and my sleep is more important to maintain concentration.

After persuading the wife that I needed a bike ride to assess my current form I kitted up and left the building. I had adjusted the seat post height about 2 inches lower than previously which is a huge amount. I found that I can actually sit on the saddle comfortably where I am supposed to but the height is really low and doesn't look aero which kind of annoys me but thought I'd go out anyway. My legs are short. Weather was foggy, very very humid and cold which I did not feel one little bit all the ride.

I went up Edenfield road into Rawtenstall and Bacup then up Tod rd and down Bacup road into Walsden then LIttleborough and back home. I went hard for about 2hrs 10 mins especially up the hills. Infact I must have stood up for most of the entire trip to get as much power to the pedals as poss. I seem to have trouble getting the power down on flats and downhills which is probably why my timetrialling isnt too hot. When I try to put any extra power down I seem to hit a brick wall of air or my legs just don't feel like they are in the right position. My hill climbing more than makes up for it and seems to be improving now that I am able to increase cadence. On a hill my standing cadence is now faster than if I was sitting down in the same gear, therefore increased speed. Talking about speed the Blackburn computer failed on me again. It recorded for 25mins and then the last 40 mins but the cadence sensor was fine. Im loving that feature.

I couldn't get an accurate reading for average speed so my simple mathematics will have to suffice. Distance 40miles time just over 2 hrs 10 mins from leaving the house at 13.20 +/- a couple of minutes to returning at 15.31 including traffic light stops and a quick stop to try and get speedo working . Average must be around 18mph with climbing of... well map my ride says 1634ft and bike hike 2400 ft oh yeah my altimeter says I climbed 1640ft. I wonder if average would have been higher if the computer was working due to stops. The computer registered 1hr 17mins, 26.5miles with an average of 20.2mph (thats the first 27 mins and last 50 mins), average cadence 85, max 120. and missed a lot out. I had given it my all today, the return leg was a bad head wind and I was totally exhausted when I got home. I was nearly sick in the hallway, my throat was dry and was coughing for while afterwards. It was a great session and I did treat it as a race from start to finish.

Lots of other cyclists about but I only seemed to overtake tandems and mtb'ers. On one hill about 10 cyclists went down as I was going up and I couldn't see any near me going up. New project is nearly up and running so hopefully times will be even quicker. I rode on Jamis today with all the heavy equipment :) Shame I wont be able to get more quality miles in this month, there's always February but I will still cycle to work.