Ride 08/01/2023

The weather forecast was for a good day, although this wasn’t strictly true, so I decided I would go for my strava Grand Fondo badge of 100 km. I started early before the usual Sunday club ride so I could get in the extra mileage needed, about 15 miles, and headed North through Cowdenbeath and Kelty, around Cleish and along to Hill End and over Knockhill. I didn’t plan any particular route for today so this actually got me an extra 20 miles Unfortunately the weather was worse that expected, it wasn’t supposed to rain but thankfully I had my raincoat with me, it was also windy as well which meant I was into a head wind on the outbound leg of the ride. Also annoyingly no one turned up for the group ride so I soldiered on, on my own, on the normal Sunday route over Knockhill for the second time, down to Dollar and up to Coalsnaughton for the Cafe stop, again headwind all the way there I had my usual coffee and cake and carried on. Riding on my own means I can go at my pace which is faster than the normal group ride but it also means I’m burning calories like no ones business and this was starting to take it’s toll. Thankfully I had a tailwind going back home and the weather cleared up and the sun came out but I was starting to get quite tired and sore. I didn’t go home via Dalgey Bay, I had my extra mileage and didn’t think I had the legs to do it, so I went the direct way home through Dunfermline. The last 5 miles were a bit of a struggle, and although I averaged 16 mph which is the norm for the group ride, considering I went over 70 miles in distance and over 4200 feet of climbing this is pretty damn good for me so I’ll take that as a win but boy I was pretty shattered by the time I got home.

Ride 07/01/2023

Well there was a stark contrast for the weather today, it started dark, cold and wet and finished dry and sunny, although the wind had picked up a bit, but not enough to slow me down. We had a good turn out given the weather conditions at the start of the ride, 13 of us. We headed the usual route to our cafe stop for the obligatory scrambled egg rolls and orange juice for me. It rained, not hard, but enough to make all of us pretty wet by the time we got to the cafe, which meant that when we started back up again it was back into our cold wet gear, but thankfully it had stopped raining by the time we got going again. Ken peeled off early today so I just followed the rest of the group back to Dunfermline, which meant I was short on my 50 mile target by about 6 miles, so I carried on until I hit my target. So I clocked up 50 miles at an avg speed of just under 16 mph which was fine with me, I was looking forward to getting showed and dried when I got home. I don’t mind cycling in the rain so long as I don’t get too cold, but it’s always nice to know you can have a hot shower by the time you get home

Ride 01/01/2023 New Year’s Day

New year’s day and I’m out on my own for the first ride of the year. It’s an ok day, little wind and no rain but the roads are wet and it’s a little bit cold. I decided to take a flattish route, one that I would normally do my performance pace one and extend it out to 50 miles, normally it’s only 30 miles and goes over Knockhill. I went around Knockhill and along down to Kincardine, and then along the usual coastal route through Dalgety Bay and home. I was going at pace here, perhaps a little too hard given I hit a heart rate of 206 bpm, but for the most part I was averaging 150 bpm which is Tempo pace for me. I passed Ken heading into Dalgety Bay as he was heading out on his ride, but I pressed on as I was nearly finished on my ride and getting quite tired and hungry. So 50 miles clocked up today at a good speed of 18 mph

Ride 31/12/2022 New Year’s Eve

So it’s the last ride of the year, and the last club ride of the year and what a year its been. Today there were 12 of us on the bun run and it’s pretty cold this morning not really getting above freezing until I got back home. Thankfully it’s dry with little wind and the roads were ice free, although we did stick to the main roads rather than going down some of the more normal quieter roads we would normally take. We went as one group to the cafe stop, with me having some minor bike issues, like my chain coming off a couple of time and getting a puncture >:-( easy fixes but annoying given my bike was in for it’s service yesterday. Anyway I made it to the cafe stop and had no more bike issues after that. After scrambled egg rolls and drinks we split into 2 groups as we were taking different routes back home. I wanted to miss out Dunfermline on the way back as when I tried to cycle in this morning the main road in Dunfermline was shut it was under a meter of water :-0 which meant I had to make a slight detour to get to the start of the bun run this morning, so I wanted to miss that out on the way home. My group headed down to Dollar and over to Yetts o’Murkhart and down to Powmill before going over Knockhill. I then split from the group and headed for Kelty and back home through Cowdenbeath. So today I clocked up 57 miles at an avg speed of 16 mph, now I did do that distance for a reason and that was to get to the grand total for the year of 9300 miles for the year My stats for the year are as follows :-

Total distance – 9302.66 miles
Total ascent – 444906 feet
Avg for the year – 16.7 mph
Fastest ride of the year was my Ride London 100 with me avg over 19 mph
Longest ride of the year was my Crieff Randonee with me riding 132 miles
The Crieff ride was also the also the ride with the most elevation gain at 6614 feet

All in all it’s been a good year for cycling with me being able to ride on avg 4 days a week, getting fitter and stronger in my rides and managing to lose 10 kg in weight for the year Next year is lining up to be an even better year with be doing the UK Coast to Coast in June, thats the widest point of the UK, Lowestoft to St David’s and then doing an over seas ride in Italy in Oct, and fingers crossed I’m doing the Ride London 100 again next year as well with the intention of completing the ride this time so looking forward to all of that.

Ride 26/12/2022 Boxing Day

It’s the clubs Boxing Day ride with 7 of us on the ride to start with but 2 left before we hit Saline. It’s a cold day, made even more so by the biting wind, but at least it didn’t rain. The route was a bit of a mash up of Chain gang and the Sunday route, which meant we were riding on some of the back roads where the icy conditions made cycling a bit hazardous, this was why 2 people left near the beginning, but once we were past Saline it was ok road wise. I was leading the group riding into a headwind which thankfully wasn’t too strong but made the wind chill factor high, so I was glad to be out of it on the return leg back to Dunfermline. Once in Dunfermline we stopped at the club house for Coffee, Whisky, Mince pies and chocolate, suffice to say I skipped the Whisky and mince pies, I just don’t like them, but the coffee and chocolate did the job So 40 miles clocked up today at an avg speed of 15 mph.

Ride 25/12/2022 Xmas Day

Christmas Day ride 2022 and it’s me, myself and I. It’s been a while since I’ve done a Forth river loop so I decided to do that today. Weather wise it was ok, a little bit of rain, a little bit of sunshine and a headwind on the out bound leg, which meant I would have a tailwind on the way home The Forth loop is a bit of a flat ride so I decided I would go up to Shieldhill, just to get some elevation in and it’s been a while since I’ve been there too. I didn’t stop for anything, no point everything was closed, so it was a straight there and back again. I had a target distance of 50 miles in mind when I started but by the time I got back home I was over 55 miles, so I decided to do a little bit extra to get the 100 Km So 65 miles knocked out at an avg speed of 15 mph which incidentally give me 300 miles for the week

Ride 24/12/2022 Xmas Eve

For a Christmas Eve ride there were a lot of us today, 18 or so, and even more surprising was the weather which turned out to be a pleasant day. The reason we had so many today was because we had some of the fast guys with us today. So this resulted in a group split of the fast guys going first and then we went second. I could have gone with the fast guys but I’ve been cycling for nearly 2 weeks non stop now so I decided to have an easy day today Scrambled egg roll and orange juice were the choice of cafe stop food today before heading out again into a day that was turning into a sunny one. When I started this morning it was dark and raining, but this had stopped by the time I got to Dunfermline. As we made our way around the route the clouds cleared and the sun came out, and given the lack of wind and freezing cold temps it turned out to be a good days ride. I followed Ken down to Dalgety Bay, per usual, and then headed back up to Crossgates and home thus clocking up 50 miles and an avg speed of 15 mph.

Ride 20/12/2022

So Nick was looking to do his 100 km Grand Fondo today and invited me along with him since I was on holiday, not one to turn down some extra cycling I joined him along with Ken and Robert Nick was planning to do a loop around the Ochils (my half loop) going over Knockhill up to Glen Deveon and Glan eagles and returning via Braco and Dunblane. Weather wise it was a bit of a mixed bag day, we had some rain here and there, with some headwind and tailwind, thankfully the tailwind was on the way back home. We stopped in Dunblane for our cafe stop where I had some soup, coffee and cake which was about the half way point. It was much needed as I had being doing the headwind leg from Glen Eagles to Dunblane and it had been raining that section so it was nice to get out of the cold and wet and into somewhere warm to refuel. The leg home was fine as we had a tailwind so I followed Ken down to Dalgety Bay and back up to Crossgate to top off 77 miles at 15 mph avg speed for the day.

Ride 18/12/2022

Well after yesterdays fiasco I wasn’t expecting much today, but things didn’t turn out as bad as I thought they would. With the weather doing the freeze at night and thaw during the day the roads were getting pretty bad, especially if they don’t get treated like yesterdays piss take. Today I was expecting to be on my own, but by chance Colin turned up today, so in the end there were 2 of us on the Sunday bun run We decided to take a sensible route to the cafe stop today and avoided the roads I took yesterday, which were impassible, unless on foot. So we used the Oakley road to get to Kennet and then onto Clackmannan before swinging around to Alloa, Fishcross and Coalsnaughton and the cafe stop, basically doing the reverse of the normal Sunday route. This actually made us 30 min earlier that usual to the cafe stop so along with my coffee and cake I had a scrambled egg roll to boot We then continued the reverse route down to Dollar and heading for Powmill, but I wasn’t planning to go over Knockhill. I had no idea what the road would be like and I wanted to avoid the hills just in case. So we went the opposite way and headed for Crook of Devon and onto Kinross, using the main roads since these had been treated and well used by cars. It was then a straight shot South back towards Cowdenbeath and home thus clocking up 50 miles at an avg speed of 15 mph, so a far better day then I was expecting and a lot better than yesterday attempt.

Ride 17/12/2022

Well today was a very dicey day. It snowed yesterday so I was expecting to not to be able to ride, but the snow was mostly cleared by the morning so I was able to get out. Given the conditions I wasn’t expecting much of a turn out, but 6 did eventually turn up. Unfortunately it did freeze through the night so the minor roads were a bit icy, and someone forgot to tell the gritters this, because when we got to Culross the roads were treacherous with black ice, they have been clear these past few days with the far worse frosty freezing cold days. This meant we had to walk from here onwards and at that point we decided to abandon the ride and head for home. We couldn’t go back the way we came, it was too dangerous to ride and we didn’t want to have to walk home, so we opted to ride the main carriageway back to Carineyhill, which I wouldn’t do in normal circumstances, it’s to far a busy road to ride, and a fast one too. But we didn’t really have any other choice and thankfully made it back without incident. I headed back home via Rosyth but decided to miss out Dalgety Bay and the road up Hillend as I didn’t think the cycle path would have been clear of ice. So I took the main road back up to Crossgates and home thus clocking up 31 miles at an avg speed of 14 mph, which was fast enough when your cycling over ice!

Ride 11/12/2022

Another very cold day but at least this time without the sleet and snow, actually it was quite a bright clear day, but of course this made the roads treacherous. Again very few turned up for the ride, only 3 of us today, so we kept to the main roads again. Even these were icy in parts and as such we took it easy going today, especially over knock hill, where sometimes the road can get quite dangerous if not gritted. It was sub zero temperatures when I started the ride this morning and it didn’t get much warmer than 1 degree by the time I got back home again. Coffee and cake as per usual at the cafe stop today, I was glad for the warm up in the cafe, even with 4 layers on my hands and feet were quite cold. Since Ken wasn’t around today I didn’t bother going home via Dalgety Bay and headed straight for Dunfermline and home. So I only clocked up 50 miles today at an avg speed of 14 mph but given the weather conditions I’ll stick with that.

Ride 10/12/2022

Very cold with sleet and snowy day, thankfully not windy, I can do without the wind chill factor, but of course with this weather very few people turned up, ultimately there were only 5 of us. Given the weather conditions, my street was full of snow but the main roads were a bit clearer, we kept of the normal roads we would take and stuck to the main roads as these would be gritted and clear, rather than the normal quieter roads that would not be gritted. It was snowing on my way to the start of the ride and even before we got to the cafe stop we had to deal with some sleet but by the time we got to the cafe it had brightened up and stopped snowing. After the cafe stop we decided to go a different way to Knockhill by sticking to the main roads rather than going via the farm tracks we would normally use. It also started to rain a little bit on our way there but thankfully didn’t come to much, I didn’t have my rain coat with me. By the time we got back to Dunfermline the sun had come out but it was still sub zero temperatures so I headed straight for home and didn’t do anything extra. So I eventually clocked up 50 miles at 15 mph avg speed and tomorrow looks about the same weather wise.