A lovely day!

A chilly start but the sun soon warmed me up. Nice easy spin in on the road bike. After work I headed to a local pub with Leon for a couple of lovely pints and some peanuts while he waited for his wife to pick him up so that they could start their journey to France. Headed home in lovely evening sunshine with some great tunes from my MP3 player. Splendid.

96km|3h20m

Change of plans

Just about to set off this morning when I noticed that one of the bolts holding my rack on had sheared off. Took the bike back inside, transferred contents of pannier to my courier bag and jumped on the fixie. I was already running a bit late so rode quite hard just in case I had any mechanicals along the way. As it was I got there in plenty of time with slightly sore legs :)
Lovely sunny ride home this evening, rode pretty hard again and I think the combined time was my 2nd fastest. Just eating a big risotto to refuel me now :)

96km|3h18m

Uneventful

Nothing much to report today. Rode the fixie, overtook a few other cyclists. Chain is really slack now, keep forgetting to tension it. Must do it before I next ride it.
No work this weekend so I'm making the most of it by riding in the peaks with SteveM, Dave360 and crazy legs tomorrow followed by a garden party for Ed's 40th in Hebden Bridge with a social ride on Sunday. Should be good.

96km|3h28m

Drowned

Torrential rain and flooded roads for the ride in this morning. I was actually quite enjoying it until some twat in a merc drove really quickly through a flooded bit when overtaking me. Being hit by a 6ft wall of water whilst cycling is not pleasant.
Leon arrived at work just as wet as me but we managed to get stuff dry with the use of a portable heater (probably doubling out electricity use for the day!). Nice steady ride home in mostly dry conditions followed by a large plate of lasagne and a bottle of Badger Poacher's Choice :)

96km|3h37m

Stupidly windy

Stupidly windy ride today. Stopped me almost dead a couple of times! Super fast when I had the wind behind me though! That's the 2nd 200 mile week I've done this month and it's also a record month in terms of distance with maybe another couple of rides to come. June will see less riding as I have a week off to go to Le Mans :)

96km|3h20m

Edit : I've now spent a whole week in the saddle this year :)

Well it had to happen eventually

First run-in with an cock from Leigh on the way home this evening. Jon has been reporting run-ins with them for years so now that my commute takes me through Leigh it was only a matter of time before I encountered one. Guy in an open topped sports car pulled away from some lights at high speed nearly clipping me before getting stuck in traffic allowing me to have words. He just sat the revving his engine loudly. I wish I had some sticky energy drink in my drinks bottle so that I could have made a mess of his interior.
Anyway, apart from that I had a very nice ride.
Oh, a quick update on the fast ride I did on Tuesday - legs were perfectly fine the next morning :)

96km|3h23m

That'll probably hurt tomorrow

Rode the road bike into work today. Had to carry stuff in which slowed me down a bit but was still the fastest I'd got in before. For the return journey I left my bag at work and just carried pump, tubes, multitool, food, keys and music. Did the first few kms with Leon before we went out separate ways. Found myself riding at over 20mph without really feeling it so decided to see how hard I could push myself. I got back in 83mins! That's an average of just over 21mph. I expect my legs to be a bit sore in the morning :)

96km|3h3m

A change of plans

Having looked at the forecast last night (mainly cloudy, 10% chance of showers) I'd decided I'd ride the pompino into work today so I loaded my courier bag in preparation. Of course, forecasts aren't always accurate and I woke up to lots of rain. I could have gone back to sleep for an hour and driven in but instead I dumped the contents of my courier bag into my pannier and set off on the cross/commuter bike (still haven't got round to putting mudguards back on the pompino). Nice ride in despite the weather, steady pace.
Busy in the shop again, Steve popped in this morning and bought the Trek freak shitter that we had on display. I have no idea how many bikes he has now but it's a lot :)
Steady ride home with more showers, didn't want to ride hard as I'm hopefully riding at Delamere tomorrow with Steve.

96km|3h46m

A change is as good as a rest

Decided on a bike change today so rode the Pompino. Another gorgeous day (although it was a pretty chilly start) for riding and arrived at work with a smile on my face. Was pleasantly surprised to see that I'd got in faster than usual as well. I guess riding a fixie stops me from being lazy. It's ace in traffic as well. Really must remember to tighten the tension on my left pedal though as I pulled my foot out when skid stopping. Managed to avoid crashing into anything though so that was ok.
Yet another busy day (I see a theme developing there!) with little time to stop so was expecting a tough ride home. I was wrong! I had a great ride. Fuelled by a couple of jam doughnuts, a Torq gel and some sport beans I felt really good for the whole ride. Now sat here with a bottle of Fursty Ferret. Spendid :)

96km|3h26m

A riding companion, good samaritan and tired legs

An excellent ride in this morning. Great conditions and legs felt good. Rode a few miles with another cyclist who showed me a nice variation to my route. A bit further but a nice country lane rather than 2 main roads. Turns out he knew Samuri from Flickr. Small world! Ended up riding a bit faster than I wanted to and I knew I'd pay for that later, especially as I knew I hadn't brought enough breakfast in with me.
Busy day at work again, no sitting down time so was quite tired when I set off home. I knew I hadn't eaten anywhere near enough to maintain a decent speed for the whole ride so deliberately kept the speed down and vowed not to chase anyone who overtook me - I managed to stick to this vow until I was about 5 miles from home :) Just before the Warburton Toll Bridge I spotted a girl by the side of the road struggling with her bike. Stopped to see if she needed a hand. Turns out she'd hit the kerb trying to get out of the way of an ambulance and her rear wheel had come out. Anyway, fixed it in a few seconds and it meant she could ride home rather than waiting for her housemate to come and rescue her. That was my good deed for the day :)
Sat here with tired legs now, will probably have a couple of days off the bike. Quite a high mileage week last week (for me) so should probably take things easy this week.


101km|3h58m

Transformation complete

My cyclocross bike is now a full on commuter - Specialized Armadillo tyres, SKS mudguards, Topeak rack and Carradice panniers. It weighs a tonne, thankfully I haven't got any proper hills on my commute!
A misty start to today's ride, quite pleasant as it kept the temperature down a bit. Not much wind either, pretty perfect conditions really. The extra weight on the bike is definitely noticeable but I'll get used to it and it's so nice not having a bag on my back.
A very busy day so I didn't get to stop for much food or sit down at all. Anyway, still had a reasonable ride and a couple of Torq strawberry yoghurt gels (the most palatable gel I've tried so far) gave me enough energy to get home. Bolognese and red wine to end the day :)

96km|3h43m

What a lovely day for riding!

Hottest day of the year I think. The closest weather station to me measured 23.8C :)
Expected to wake up with sore legs after my 132km ride yesterday but felt fine so decided to ride in to work rather than drive as planned. Nice cruise in, armwarmers came off after a few miles and even a slight headwind couldn't spoil things.

The ride home got off to a bit of a rubbish start as 3 car drivers tried to kill me as I was heading out of Altrincham (car door opened on me, guy turning right nearly clipped my rear wheel and a silly woman then turned across me forcing me to brake quite hard). Thing soon picked up once I was out of town and the rest of the ride was most enjoyable. I even felt strong enough towards the end of the ride to chase down and pass somebody. He clearly didn't like being passed by a commuter as he sat on my wheel for the next couple of miles @ 30+mph (slightly downhill) before passing me. I was within a mile of home by then so just sat up and span the rest of the way :)

Just waiting for a pizza to cook now!

96km|3h33m

Another great commute

More sunny skies and a lovely ride into work. Took a couple of detours and a few photos. Got to overtake loads of stationary traffic on the East Lancs courtesy of an overturned lorry. Arrived a bit early and sat outside in the sun eating some breakfast and chatting to Leon who also got in a bit early. He'd ridden in on his Trek Madone 5.2, lovely bike.
Afternoon rain looked like making the ride home a bit miserable but it had cleared by the time I set off and I had another splendid ride home :)

A few piccies

98km|3h43m

Edit: I was tempted to make a last minute trip up to Scotland tomorrow for SSUK but I don't think I'll bother. I don't think I can face the drive and the weather forecast isn't looking that great. Will probably do some local riding instead.

Lovely ride in this morning helped by some gorgeous weather. Just cruised in and had a couple of photos stops. Had another puncture (my conti gatorskins were fit for the bin quite a long time ago!), so I fitted some new tyres before the return trip. Unfortunately they are slightly bigger than the gatorskins and fouled my mudguards. Not having an 8mm spanner to hand so that I could adjust them I had to take them off. This was a PITA as it meant removing my disc calipers. Eventually I managed to set off on my way home. The predicted heavy rain didn't materialise which was good and I had a nice ride home.

There are a few pictures HERE

95km|3h40m

Speedy!

Just 3h19m pedalling time for today's round trip. Had a puncture about 30 mins into the ride in this morning so decided to put the power down after I fixed it just in case I had another as I hadn't managed to find the cause of the flat. Quite pleased that I could hold 20+mph for a fair while into a stiffish headwind :)
Expected the return leg to be hard. I hadn't really eaten/drunk much during the day and had been pretty busy. For some reason I managed to fly home. A bit of a tailwind helped and my legs felt strong for the whole ride. Ace!
So, that's one week done. Pretty good so far. I'll probably ride in on Tuesday and Thursday next week, depending on how I feel and the weather.

95km|3h19m

Oops!

So much for only riding in once a week to start with! Despite the rain I decided to see how knackered I'd be riding 2 days on the trot. Nice ride in despite the weather. Met boss man Neil as I was getting close to Altrincham and he showed me a new route. I think that's at least 5 different ones I have for the final few km now!
Coming home was nice. The sun had come out and it was lovely and warm. Hadn't eaten enough during the day so I ended up eating 2 bananas, an apple a cereal bar and some tangfastics on the way back! That just about kept me going until the huge amounts of Chinese that I've just devoured :)
Bought a couple of pairs of Nike bib 3/4s and some new Specialized gloves for not very much money (working in the bike trade has some advantages!) as well today. The 3/4s are super comfy, was like sitting on a sofa coming home. I'd forgotten quite how nice it is wearing new shorts as I haven't had any for over 2 years.
Anyway, legs are tired now but day off tomorrow so they'll get a chance to recover.

95km|3h33m

And so it begins

First commute done and dusted. A few random thoughts...

- I probably rode too quickly but the gorgeous weather made me do it
- I need a rack/pannier on the bike to take weight off my back
- Bananas and homemade raisin & chocolate flapjacks are good ride food
- I need some new shorts
- I need some new gloves
- I could probably do with a slightly longer stem
- There was a lovely sunrise this morning
- Riding bikes rocks

The weather tomorrow isn't looking that great so I'll probably drive in.

95km|3h30m

Dry run

Tried out my new commuting route today. Looking at the map I took a couple of unnecessary detours which added a few km, without these I think the round trip is around 95km with 500m of climbing. I can take a little bit off that by going through the middle of Leigh but it's easier sticking to the main roads that go around it I think. Paced the ride pretty well, just under 2 hours in, just over 2 hours back. The wind was hell so I'm pretty pleased with the time. The rear mudguard, which has been cracked for a while decided to split in 2, I should really have duck taped it before it got this far. I'll have a go at mending it later :) I also found out that bikes are exempt from the toll bridge at Warburton. That will save 12p each way. Yay!

The big question is, how often am I going to be able to do the commute by bike? I think I'll start with once a week. I feel fine after today's ride but that didn't have 8 hours of work in the middle!

102km|4 hours|Dry, cloudy, cool, very windy