Bit of a windy day again so I decided to do a “similar” Sat bun run with a little bit of a difference at the begging of the ride but generally the same distance and workout. I also started by cycling into the wind on the outbound leg with a tailwind on the return leg which is a lot easier on my legs 45 miles knocked out at my usual pace.
After yesterdays tough ride I wasn’t looking to do anything out of the ordinary so I did the usual Sunday bun ride. The weather is a bit better today but I was still fighting the headwinds on the homeward leg, with a small detour up to Hill of Beath to get my 50 miles clocked up. So 50 miles done at 15 mph with a better avg heart rate of 152 bpm to yesterdays 167 and 177 watts, my normal avg power output for a ride
Tough ride today and I’m feeling it in my legs thats for sure. It’s not a long distance ride at 55 miles it’s the damn weather thats killing me especially the head winds. All the way from Auchtermuchty to Powmill, 17 miles or so I was into a headwind which meant head down and pedal. And of course at the end of that I was straight onto Knockhill. To put that into perspective my avg power for this was was just over 200 watts which doesn’t sound like much, at least until you actually try to ride like that but on a normal ride I would avg around 170 watts. The last time I did a ride like this, over 50 miles, at that power rate was 2 years ago. It might be good for the fitness but it doesn’t feel like at the time and it’s not like I had a high avg speed either I just dipped under 16 mph. anyway the end result means tomorrows ride will be short and slow
Decided I would ride to Falkirk today and see how the old flat is getting on. It’s a bit cold still and I forgot about the clocks going forward last night so I was a bit slow out the door this morning but there was a little sun around around and the winds were low so the ride wasn’t too bad The flat looks the same bar a kids swing and trampoline in the from garden which is impressive given how small my front garden was It’s a flat route so my speed was better clocking close to 16 mph. In fact by the time I got to Falkirk it was an avg of 17.5 mph but I was starting to tire and the last 10 miles are uphill
So it’s back to riding solo, I decided I would a different route than the usual one but roughly the same distance. The weather was ok, a bit on the windy side but sunny here and there so I decided to do an anti clockwise route today. Similar to a route I used to do going around Loch Leven but with some slight differences to go down roads I hadn’t been down before. Of doing this can lead to surprises on road conditions as I ending up on a farm road which isn’t wise on a road bike so I was down to 5 mph there and cycling on unfamiliar cycle paths doesn’t help either. So this route would require some tweaking to skip out the rough stuff and then I could get a decent speed, as it was for today my speed was down to 14 mph, that would have been a lot closer to 16 mph without the dodgy routes and roads.
Well it’s a lovely sunny day but still bloody cold, frost on the ground when I awoke. Again I would be on my own and probably for the foreseeable future. I wanted to do a slightly longer route than the usual Sunday bun run so I followed the road to Menstrie rather than turning off at Dollar and the followed the usual route home once I got to Sauchie. Nearly 55 miles clocked up at a casual pace of 14 mph.
Well the world’s gone to hell in a handbasket which means I’m pretty much cycling on my own now Since I can’t get into a cafe stop, since they’re all closed I took a slightly different route also because some of the roads I would normally go along were closed too due to road works! I still got my 40 mile ride at close to 16 mph but I wonder how long before I’m stopped from even doing this…
So with a fully functioning Garmin today I managed to the Sun bun run without incident. There was only 2 of us today but given how windy it was I wasn’t surprised. It was a real slog into the head wind again but we decided to take a shorter more sheltered route than the usual ride over Knockhill so this helped a lot, I’m not knackered today It was the usual cafe stop for cake and coffee and a tail wind ride home thankfully. So today I only clocked up 45 miles rather than the 50 miles but kept a good avg speed of 15 mph given the wind.
Well that was about as far as I got before my garmin went flat >:-( most annoyed! There was no reason for this as I charged it up Last Sunday but in the interim the battery decided to shit itself flat. Anyway it was the usual bun run this morning with abut 8 of us. the weather was overcast but little wind so it made for a pleasant ride. I’ve no idea what the stats were about the same as last time I suppose ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ anyway tomorrows weather is sunnier but windier, oh well
So today was the clubs first 100km ride which of course turns into a 120km ride for me by the time I get home. It was a real mixed bag of weather day with strong winds, rain and sunshine but of course we were head wind for the first 35 miles which took it’s toll on me. By the time we stopped at the cafe stopped I was knackered and I was only half way Thankfully after the cafe stop it was a head wind home but this didn’t alleviate the fact we still had Knockhill to climb on the last 10 miles. It was a real slog up Knockhill resulting in me going up quit slow compare to the normal Sat & Sun bun runs which go over it. Anyway just shy of 75 miles at 15 mph ridden today and now time to chill out for the rest of the day
Distance 44.13 mi | Time 2:51:58 | Speed 15.4 mph | Elevation 2,343 ft
Source: Garmin Connect
Another wet and windy day but thankfully not as bad as last week! There were about 8 if us today a bit more this week but thats probably due to the slightly better weather. Better ride this due to the better conditions but we skipped out Knockhill mainly because we are doing the 100 km ride tomorrow over it. Better speed and time this week hopefully we can keep it that way.
Another windy day another tough ride Although it’s a fair day with no rain and some sunshine the wind is making life cycling difficult and tiresome. There were about 10 of us today and I took the lead all the way to the cafe stop which was all headwind.Although it does mean I get a good workout, my avg speed just takes a nose dive, thankfully todays ride wasn’t as far as last Sunday so I’m not quite as knackered. And again tomorrows weather is shite with 50 winds so that puts the kibosh on tomorrows ride. The clubs first 100 km ride is in 2 weeks with the first 100 mile ride a couple of weeks after that which makes me worry about getting enough training for these but there’s not much I can do about the weather