Rode our local paved trail through town with my kids in the their trailer and my wife in tow.
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That looks a bit like the Holme road south of Yaxley but your on the wrong/ right side of it 
Sometime in lockdown 2 I watched a vlog by Shoddy Dave from Cycling Tips where in France you couldn’t go more than a few km from home so he was finding a hill he liked (or maybe hated) and seeing how many times he could get up it in an hour. I gave it a spin in Dec on the gravel bike and did 17 laps.
Today I took the Bianchi out and wasn’t wearing every bit of clothing I owned and managed 19 laps.
It’s a good easy test before I start work and hopefully, once I’ve finished short power I might be able to get another lap in. My power over each lap looks pretty consistent which I’m please about, although the last two efforts really really sucked and I was coughing like I smoked 40 a day at the end on my cooldown.
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I wouldn’t post about my ride today except for the relative tragedy that caused it. On Friday, I rode by a farmhouse on a route I often ride. The farmhouse (house in front and barn in back) is isolated alone a gravel path, quite distant from a paved road (though there is one across the river), and, I learned today, without an electrical hookup. I also learned it was much older than I thought. I’ve cruised by it for the past 2+ years I’ve had my gravel bike, but I’ve only taken one picture of it, sort of. This picture is from the beginning of this past winter (the yellow diamond is simply a trail marker).
On Friday, in the afternoon about 3:15, I rode by and there was, for the first time to me, someone sitting outside on the phone. The door to the farmhouse was open and with stuff outside the door and on the table it seemed clear he was working on the place. It’s always been a hut with only the rare sign of any activity, as in every couple of months maybe hay bails appeared in the shed or something.
On Sunday, I was driving on the road across the river from the property, a road I drive twice a day driving the kids to school, to drive the daughter to friend’s (see earlier post) and saw the farmhouse had burned down. It was still smoldering. On this morning’s drive, it was still smoldering, though less. So I rode over at the end of the day.
I rolled up and it turns out the owner was there with the insurance inspector. While I was talking to the owner and relating my story about Friday and learning about the house (it was built in 1787, the oldest wine press in the country was inside, she was planning on making the front part a museum, etc), fire inspectors appeared, the fire brigade showed up with one engine soon followed by another. She had just rented it to a guy who was doing a great job refurbishing the inside (based on the owner’s account and the pictures she showed me). I shared my thought that maybe the guy working on Friday caused an electrical short, but then she said the property did not have electricity and the camera I saw at the front door was a battery powered ruse.
What a tragedy. That building has stood since the US Constitution was signed.
[edited for clarity because I neglected to proof the original post and it was terrible. Hopefully it is better and less painful to read now.]
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Nokesville, VA, USA
Beginning of Virginia farm country. Also my first attempt at an outside workout. Just a simple loop trying to hit some 50-second intervals.
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Easy pedal in the woods. I kinda suck at tight singletrack and switchbacks so really focused on those and keeping a steady moderate pace so I didn’t need to brake into corners but could just carry some speed and build confidence
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Finally back on the gravel bike. It’s just a lot of fun and a great way of variety from all the road, turbo and TT riding.
Really loving the meme. The area where I live is crazy flat, so we have markers for a 25.4m tall Col The Stelvio of my area, so to speak 
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2 hour z2 ride. It was a bit cold (+6c), but it looked sunny from the window so I dressed a bit too optimistically. Turns out the window didn’t point in the direction of my ride. That direction was filled with dark and ominous clouds with rain in the distance. Sun got behind the clouds and it started to get cold. It’s interesting to watch HR start dropping a little bit lower even though RPE and watts stay constant as your body tries to keep core temp up.
Did a small reroute and managed to stay away from rain and got a decent pic of the clouds with a slight hint of a halo around the sun. Ended the ride a little bit cold, but it was still a good ride.
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I live next to “Hill Park” at 17,1 m elevation 
and you are eligible to join @rkoswald and myself for lowest elevation gain on a 2 hour ride!
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154 feet / 47 m of climbing tonight:
90F / 32C as we rolled out of the parking lot. First warm ride so everybody slow rolled until we got near the middle of pic above. Things ‘heated up’ 
and I was 3rd or 4th wheel and turns out I was doing a ‘hot’ 3-min vo2max effort that had us rolling up to 29mph / 47km/hr. At that point I could feel the end would come soon, and we were about to hit the worst section of road. Dropped off the back but I was in a fighting mood so did 7 minutes at threshold up to the left turn and then it was over for me. Caught a couple of groups behind me before life returned and rolled back with a couple peeps.
Good times. Post ride beer and pizza party.
First day in warm temps, and a hard effort on Sunday. I was happy with effort.
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At least I am not the only one
This was the first day of a 3 day bike packing trip I did with friends last year. It was from my home town along the North Sea shore.
160cm of elevation gain per kilometer is truly amazing. It felt like La Marmotte.
The strong headwinds however still made it a challenging ride.
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I did the Marmotte in 2013, I also did Flanders which was flat for 80 odd miles and then uber hilly. That year I also did this:
For the metric individuals 497m in 245km
I had cycled 100+ miles (circa 200km) the day before and at the pub stop a couple of guys who had officially entered talked me into accompanying them.
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My watt per kg isn’t high enough for where I live. I think I’d do better as a flat lander!
Here’s a profile from a typical XC MTB race in our local series. It’s less an XC race, more of an uphill time trial followed by descend as fast as you dare.
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Lol, I had a bit of a mare on the PCC TT. It was nearly half the temperature of last week and a bit damp and breezy; and I made the mistake of letting my chemo damaged feet go numb. It made clipping in a nightmare and when a small wind took my front wheel, not being able to feel below my shins, I over corrected and indulged in a bit of cyclocross. The net result I was 1min and 21secs slower than last week. Think I actually went up a place though as the weather frightened last weeks 4th place off.
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Yesterday was Mt Hale (4x9’ 105%). I know my TR FTP is off but I haven’t retested yet as prescribed, so ignore the .96 IF. (The mfg replaced my rollers but I haven’t gotten on them yet and retested… maybe Monday…) Intervals 1 is clear, which is followed by a short break (the prescribed 3’ rest) I jumped into interval 2. Due to the terrain, I skipped the rest and rolled into #3. Interval 4 isn’t as consistent but is visible on the next uphill.
This ride went pretty well. Even with the rest, I took a minute off the segment that is the entirety of the main hill climb plus a bit of drop beyond the peak for a total distance of a 5.3mi (and 285m or 937’ of ascent), putting me in #3 spot. I need to cut only 19s to move up one more but taking the KOM will require dropping 5:02. Not likely. (Looking at the KOM guy… we’ve both done 76 rides YTD, but he’s done 2k miles compared to my 1300, 144hrs to my 112, and a 143k’ of climbing to my 97k’ … add in the 35-44 age group, so 9-18yrs younger than me.) Now that Strava has enabled Local Legends here, I’m the LL on loads of the local segments, with one more added yesterday.
And with the shifting seasons come the reminders to watch out for hedgehogs on the road. (And yes, there’s a website in the bottom corner of the poster for more info and an emergency number to call: https://pro-igel.ch)
Today was an intentionally easy day. Unlikely yesterday’s nice weather (bib shorts, short sleeves, plus vest in 14C), today returns to the crummy rainy / threatening rain overcast day. I was a bit optimistic rolling out today, unfortunately. I did wear a merino long sleeve and a merino short sleeve base, but only a vest on top (plus light gloves and a light hat to cover the ears). I should’ve worn a jacket, a thought that stayed in my mind constantly, especially when my spine got chilled (the vest has mesh to vent the middle of the back, a nice feature I did not need today) and the wind cut through my merino long sleeves. Oh, it was 6C so maybe I’ll claim mine was a newbie mistake…
I didn’t mean to do more climbing than yesterday, but I did. I did focus on going slow and keeping it easy. The vest might have been a decent choice if I was cranking and creating heat while burning the calories, but that’s not what I was doing today. Still, it was a good time on the bike and in the forest.
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