Today's Ride
- Thread starter FairfaxPat
- Start date
Wednesday. Felicity Kendal, and why not?
A bit dull and cloudy. Cool.
Rode 98 today. It's funny how making a minor adjustment to one component can make a bike feel very different. In this case changing the pitch of the seat made the bike feel too small.
Anyway...legs felt good this morning. Pace was good. Good ride in, but didn't stop for pics and no kingfisher today.
The first few miles home were fairly dull. Getting to Kilnhurst I wanted to try the path I can see from the opposite bank of the cut, as I pass by in a morning.
Was it worth the effort? In all honesty, no.
A bit dull and cloudy. Cool.
Rode 98 today. It's funny how making a minor adjustment to one component can make a bike feel very different. In this case changing the pitch of the seat made the bike feel too small.
Anyway...legs felt good this morning. Pace was good. Good ride in, but didn't stop for pics and no kingfisher today.
The first few miles home were fairly dull. Getting to Kilnhurst I wanted to try the path I can see from the opposite bank of the cut, as I pass by in a morning.
Was it worth the effort? In all honesty, no.
There was a flypast from the kingfisher this morning. In Mexborough Station car park of all places. The sign of a healthy river is whether it can support kingfishers. I remember the Don when I was a kid, this is a remarkable turnaround.
With The New York Bagel Company behind me, it's along here that I usually see them.
There was a light frost, a chilly morning. 0°c.
No hanging about. Good pace, no drama, but a lower top speed.
Home a different way again. A public right of way is an invitation. As sad as it sounds I took the local OS map to work, taking a few minutes to see my options homeward bound. Many of the local paths are only fragments.
This was interesting though: a Roman Ridge. Steep too, a real lung-buster. Cobbled almost all the way.
16°c. Climbed three hills, highest being 520ft. Had to get off and push the last bit. It hurt.
With The New York Bagel Company behind me, it's along here that I usually see them.
There was a light frost, a chilly morning. 0°c.
No hanging about. Good pace, no drama, but a lower top speed.
Home a different way again. A public right of way is an invitation. As sad as it sounds I took the local OS map to work, taking a few minutes to see my options homeward bound. Many of the local paths are only fragments.
This was interesting though: a Roman Ridge. Steep too, a real lung-buster. Cobbled almost all the way.
16°c. Climbed three hills, highest being 520ft. Had to get off and push the last bit. It hurt.
And then it was Friday.
Another frost but not as cold as the other morning. Once on the move warm soon enough. 1°c, no wind. Pretty.
Walking up the drive this morning felt that sinking feeling as I noticed the nub of a thorn sticking out of the back tire. I have mixed feelings about slime tubes but keep a couple of wheelsets with them in. Sod it, I'll risk it. The gamble paid off.
My pace is steadily improving. Surprised myself on the way in.
Coming home 17°c and balmy. Did the three hills. Didn't give up. Pulse pounding, diaphragm heaving, sense of achievement.
The view from the highest point of the ride towards Wentworth.
Today was a slightly longer ride home - just under 10 miles. My mileage is much lower than last year but the hills make it feel like I've ridden twice as far.
I might give the Ridgeback another go next week...
Another frost but not as cold as the other morning. Once on the move warm soon enough. 1°c, no wind. Pretty.
Walking up the drive this morning felt that sinking feeling as I noticed the nub of a thorn sticking out of the back tire. I have mixed feelings about slime tubes but keep a couple of wheelsets with them in. Sod it, I'll risk it. The gamble paid off.
My pace is steadily improving. Surprised myself on the way in.
Coming home 17°c and balmy. Did the three hills. Didn't give up. Pulse pounding, diaphragm heaving, sense of achievement.
The view from the highest point of the ride towards Wentworth.
Today was a slightly longer ride home - just under 10 miles. My mileage is much lower than last year but the hills make it feel like I've ridden twice as far.
I might give the Ridgeback another go next week...
CassidyAce
Senior Retro Guru
31 miles, over the Crab and Winkle Way and along the seafront to the Roman fort at Reculver. Sunny but with a cold wind of 20mph, with gusts of 29mph. I cycled seven miles along the front straight into that wind, telling myself that Marcus Aurelius would do it: 'It is absurdly wrong that, in this life where your body does not give in, your spirit should be the first to surrender.' Besides the emperor's noble thoughts, I knew it would be fun on the way back with the wind behind me. And it was. I suppose it was a bit like a wind-powered version of pedal assist on an ebike and it gave me an idea of what it would be like to be on such a bike: a whole lot of fun. I was flying. The seafront was pretty empty too. According to the Met Office, it was 9 degrees but the wind chill factor was taking it down to a 'feels like' 4 degrees. That's a good temperature for keeping the seafront clear of walkers.
The Roman fort of Regulbium was built in the early 200s AD and used for a couple of hundred years. However, from pre-history, through Roman times, the dark ages and into the medieval period the landscape was different: the Isle of Thanet really was an 'isle' because the Wantsum Channel ran from the English Channel to the Thames estuary. The Wantsum was a popular shipping route and the crafty Romans positioned their fort at what is now Reculver: the point where the Wantsum met the estuary. Most of the garrison came from Germany, which was probably just as well, because if they'd come from Tuscany, and the weather was as cold as it was today, the centurions would have got sick of the 'Hoc sugit' comments, the Latin version of 'This sucks.'
The grass in the foreground is the site where the fort was.
In the dark ages, the fort was re-purposed as a monastery and the most notable feature on the landscape is the remains of the local church:
If the Romans had had StumpJumpers, I think they would have liked them:
Most of the church is now gone, just like the Roman fortress. Marcus Aurelius would have appreciated that; he was probably the closest the world has ever come to a philosopher-emperor: 'There is a kind of river of things passing into being, and Time is a violent torrent. For no sooner is each seen, then it has been carried away, and another is being carried by, and that, too, will be carried away.' The Wantsum silted up in the medieval period and coastal erosion has taken away some of the land where the fort stood. Cake and a drink in the ruins helped preserve me for a while longer, though.
The Roman fort of Regulbium was built in the early 200s AD and used for a couple of hundred years. However, from pre-history, through Roman times, the dark ages and into the medieval period the landscape was different: the Isle of Thanet really was an 'isle' because the Wantsum Channel ran from the English Channel to the Thames estuary. The Wantsum was a popular shipping route and the crafty Romans positioned their fort at what is now Reculver: the point where the Wantsum met the estuary. Most of the garrison came from Germany, which was probably just as well, because if they'd come from Tuscany, and the weather was as cold as it was today, the centurions would have got sick of the 'Hoc sugit' comments, the Latin version of 'This sucks.'
The grass in the foreground is the site where the fort was.
In the dark ages, the fort was re-purposed as a monastery and the most notable feature on the landscape is the remains of the local church:
If the Romans had had StumpJumpers, I think they would have liked them:
Most of the church is now gone, just like the Roman fortress. Marcus Aurelius would have appreciated that; he was probably the closest the world has ever come to a philosopher-emperor: 'There is a kind of river of things passing into being, and Time is a violent torrent. For no sooner is each seen, then it has been carried away, and another is being carried by, and that, too, will be carried away.' The Wantsum silted up in the medieval period and coastal erosion has taken away some of the land where the fort stood. Cake and a drink in the ruins helped preserve me for a while longer, though.
