The rain isn’t stopping around here but that’s no excuse not to train! I had a short break from work and cycled off to Blagdon where Natasha was helping at a cream tea event. Unfortunately I was too late for a freebie but had the opportunity to beat all the cars from the lake back up the hill to the village. Quick cup of tea at the in-laws and back on the bike along the Mendip motorway home. Not a long ride, but good to keep the legs moving:
Tag Archives: blagdon
A squealing pig, a wedding and a wet nappy…
Ok so I didnt actually PLAN to take the week off, but the ride I had planned on Thursday was scuppered by a 5 hour (very productive) meeting that ran until about 8pm!
Today, my good wife wanted to go to Blagdon to see a friends wedding, as her sister was bridesmaid, and I dont have much time this weekend so figured I would make it part of my ride. First problem was finding one of my cycling gloves. Mini crisis over and second problem was trying to make up the time by cycling fast on a full stomach. Third problem was being dressed in a fluorescent jacket watching over the churchyard wall. I probably should have thought that one through…
There was no way I was going to be able to shoot for a long ride today but on the flip side it just didn’t seem right to do just the 24 miles to Blagdon and back so I headed to the Harptrees. Slightly surreal moment where I passed a remote garden where the two owners were carrying a huge squealing pig down a path. And then it started to rain. A lot. The nappy in my Lycra leggings (i.e. the padding thing) got soaked, which is never nice.
Still, managed to make it back just fine after what was a very short ride of 35 ish miles. Oh and I just wanted to say a huge thanks to the anonymous person who made a very generous donation today. It means a lot, thanks.
Blagdon lake and back
New gloves, lycra (!) and saddle! Turns out the saddle is pretty good, although it will take a while for my behind to get used to the change! The gloves are the same – fingerless is good but they need to give a little, which they will over time. The shorts are great, although I feel like an idiot… And here was the short and fast route for today – I decided to go down to the lake this time – the hill from the lake up to Blagdon then up two trees to the top is a proper benchmark hill and it was good to be able to ride it out of the saddle for most of the way – check the elevation plot!
A quick sprint
I decided to make the most of the hour I had for training tonight and sprint to Blagdon (well, the top of two trees) and back (22 miles). Really didnt think I would able to maintain race-pace all the way there and back but I guess all this training must be paying off as I maintained an average of 19 mph (ignore dodgy EveryTrail average) and hit over 46 mph at one point. Here is the route:
A sprint to Blagdon and back
Plan your trips with EveryTrail Mobile Travel Guides
New bike and new toys
The bike is all set up and ready for some miles and today the Dahon iPhone bike mount came through the post so it was time to see if everything worked. Plus I needed to get back on the training after two weeks in the US of A eating battered chips and fried chicken…
The Dahon mount looks more exciting that it actually is. They should have used a glass filled material to make it stiffer, as the top case part doesn’t really clamp onto the silicone tray enough to make it seal. Shame. Still, it should do the trick.
The clasp needs to be stronger too – I have stuck a vecro strap around it for the time being to make sure it doesn’t pop open. One handy feature is that you can charge it up and the connector stays within the case. I plan to make an aux battery (combined with a light battery) to give around 5-6x the capacity of a normal iPhone battery. That way I can keep EveryTrail on for the entire day with no power issues.
With a short 30mile route drawn into EveryTrail I loaded it onto my iPhone. The best thing about the £2.50 non-free version is that you can opt to download the map tiles in advance. Awesome. This means you don’t need to rely on the 3G reception at all. Here is the route itself – the photos are pretty poor and the hole in the case needs to be bigger as it creates a small shadow in the top right.
Loop around Blagdon and Chew Valley Lake
Good to get the legs turning again! And EveryTrail worked flawlessly, although the iPhone battery lasted about 2 hours with the GPS on.