Good turnout at today’s Hämmerfest. Overcast, warm, and humid with a breeze from the south. Made the back stretch quite fast. Lap 2, which we’re supposed to average 25 mph, hit 30 mph for most of the section across from Reagan National Airport. We settled down after that, until the last lap at which it becomes a free-for-all after the point. I didn’t position myself well at the start of that lap and ended up pulling through the point, so had nothing left for the home stretch.
Did a loop around lake Thun. Weather was pretty hot but ok along the lake. Views were great the road on the Southside is nothing special but on the way back on the north the road is beautiful going along cliffs. Then it was climbing back up managed 313w for 20 min after 1800kj and in the heat Garmin showed 38.5 -39 on the climb. Pretty happy with it was not all out but close to it.
After last nights recovery ride, tonight was a 25min threshold session (aka the club) TT. It took me a bit to settle as there was a lot of traffic tonight and I’m too cautious when I have several cars behind me. Just when I was beginning to settle I came across a horse rider on a narrow bit of road, more traffic, got stopped by the marshall at the blind corner (for my safety ). Just as I was about to give it beans to the finish I came across another horse rider, fortunately on a wide bit of road this time, so I didn’t lose too much more time. To be 10secs down on my PB is probably acceptable
Did another ride on vacation. Did 2 threshold efforts 18 und 21 minutes. The third one got interrupted because I rode into a hailstorm luckely i ground a farmhouse to wait it out. Have a lot of small bruises to show for it.
Went up the schallenbergpass really nice road. Overall the roads in the Emmental region are great pretty smooth and really flowing corners.
I’ve done the move… from somewhere very hilly, cold, & cloudy, to somewhere very flat, warm, & sunny. On Thursday night after 2250km & 2½ days on the road I arrived at my destination. Friday morning I got on the bike intending to knock off Tweed +9 on the forestry road. Kept the cadence up & so HR + breathing were elevated too. Part-way through the 4th interval my power meter died so I finished that interval out maintining RPE. I’d given the Assiomas a charge to about 50% before the drive, but it’s likely that with all the driving & shaking around on the road, the pedals had been repeatedly awoken. I didn’t mind too much. Honestly I was a bit gassed: the higher cadence also challenging VO2 max a bit, & if I’d actually got to the end it would’ve been all-out. (I’d finally bitten the bullet & allowed AIFTP to run, reducing from 302 to 296, which was probably a bit conservative… maybe should be a few more watts lower. Never mind. I can grow into it.) I canned the workout there, & tacked 15’ of endurance work on the end, doing a couple of laps around the neighborhood (not showing on the TR stats). I’ll have to give it another go next week, keeping cadence in the 90s.
Then this morning I headed out again for some endurance work, emulating Boarstone -2, quantised to 4 more easily remembered half-hour segments at 55%, 60%, 65%, 60%, than the 7×15’ segments prescribed.
The zero-time-coasting detected by TR is flattering, but not entirely true, because there was a period of two minutes halfway into the ride where I ducked inside the house to restart a washing machine. Happy with the rest of the numbers.
A bit of an Under Over session for me today, aka the Lamport (N3/10) TT. It wasn’t the best start from me. The pusher off had me feeling I was a little too much leaning right, so I ask him for a fraction left. I think he over compensated and I had too unclip. Hey ho, if I’d been at the turn roundabout 5sec earlier I would have had to wait those 5 secs. When I arrived it was just clearing so I only had to ease slightly. The net result the start didn’t really cost me I could have done with getting more power out down the hill though Coming back after the turn, uphill into the wind, suited me better. Overall net result I managed =3rd on Handicap (I think a 24s PB, 47s up on my Spindata predicted time); aka Not as slow as I’ve been in the past
It’s summer in Houston. That means lots of heat, humidity, and rain. We get pop up storms once in a while, but it tends to be more “rain for a week, dry for a week, rain for a week”. I grew up in south Florida, where we would get lots of quick, pop-up storms out of no where, and that almost never happens here. When I went to bed last night, it said almost no chance of rain this morning. When I left for my ride at 6am, it said 50% chance, but the radar didn’t show anything in the area, so I figured if I got any rain, it would be a quick sun shower.
Man was I wrong! Left at 6am in the dark. Calm and quiet. I love starting my morning rides before the sun comes up, when it’s just me and a runner or two enjoying the morning before the sunrise. I could see a little heat lightning off in the distance, but it looked like no big deal.
About 10 minutes in, the sky absolutely dropped! Huge rain, thunder and lighting, and wind pushing me around on the road. I stopped in front of a community center to hide under the awning and the mosquitos attacked! I’d rather get wet than get bit, so I did the long wet 10 minutes home watching the rain gust across the streets. Go figure, my Crux is at the shop, so I got caught out on the Tarmac. Got back to the house and the dog was freaking out from the storm, so my wife was awake and had made coffee
A fun adventure, but I think I’ll finish my workout on the trainer today!
Out in the morning for a ride with a local cycling group (the Yaxley Riders) to a cafe in Willingham we came back by the East of England Mountain Rescue team HQ (you can tell by the elevation, http://www.pidleymountainrescue.org.uk/ )
Thanks! I did the ride on Saturday anticipating the storm. It’s rained hard all day Sunday and it’s still going this morning with medium winds but overall it’s not too bad.
Got out with a longtime friend for my annual birthday ride on a route that shockingly I have never done even though I have lived in Northern California my whole life. I’ve ridden the area plenty but never set out for the simple lake loop so had to check that off the list. A little too much traffic, but cars were respectful for the most part. Beautiful day for it.
As a resident, what time of year would you recommend for a tourist to visit, that allows for a good balance between not too high temperatures and also not too busy?
Also - given the elevation would you recommend that for someone who lives at sea level they ought to consider a short period of acclimatisation before attempting the ride you did?
The first question is a very good one, there are a lot of days up there that are very quiet and minimal tourists typically during the time periods where kids are in school. I think that’s the reason it was busier than expected yesterday is that a lot of kids go back to school this week and next week, and families were making one last vacation weekend. So the best time to avoid high traffic periods would be after Labor Day weekend, during a weekday. Late August could be ok too, but Labor Day weekend would be very busy. The weather should still be good well into October, but it is high elevation so that can of course change. Springtime can also be very nice in April/May before the Memorial Day holiday, but you could also run into substantial weather impacts. You would not want to try to ride on the road the week of 4th of July, it gets VERY busy up there. Lots of MTB options in the area though if you wanted to ride trails.
For your second question, I never have the opportunity to acclimatize, it doesn’t seem to bother me too much. You definitely feel the altitude, and power output is of course lower, but unless you could spend a full 8-10 days up there before you ride, it pretty much is what it is.
Just FYI, if you’re bringing the family, that lake water is REALLY cold. As long as there aren’t fires happening, it’s such a beautiful area. I would 100% recommend.
). Just as I was about to give it beans to the finish I came across another horse rider, fortunately on a wide bit of road this time, so I didn’t lose too much more time. To be 10secs down on my PB is probably acceptable 
Never mind. I can grow into it.) I canned the workout there, & tacked 15’ of endurance work on the end, doing a couple of laps around the neighborhood (not showing on the TR stats). I’ll have to give it another go next week, keeping cadence in the 90s.
Coming back after the turn, uphill into the wind, suited me better. Overall net result I managed =3rd on Handicap (I think a 24s PB, 47s up on my Spindata predicted time); aka Not as slow as I’ve been in the past 
