First Road Ride

This was my first Sunday morning ride on the road bike in a long time - I cant remember the last time I went out on it. So I spent the night before checking the bike over, making sure it still worked. Given my blow up on thursday, I was a litle nervous. This was the route I was supposed to be doing, but fortunately managed to get lost. And my lowest gear was 39x23, which was not as low as I would have liked.

Distance: 51.6km
Time: 2hrs 16mins

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In total the ride was just over 51km and I went a bit wrong in Dinas Powys. Fortunately the barrage was just being lowered as I arrived so there was no hanging about there like last time I went over it.

The route was relatively flat, only one climb that I was worried about - up from Peterstone super Ely to the A48. In days gone by this was an infamous 'col': one time I was dropped when out training but then managed to crawl back on and then drop the rest. But that wasnt going to happen today. For a start, I was on my own.

I took all the hills slowly, just in case. But I had a bottle and a banana, but no money which Id forgotten. The highlight was the section between Sully and Penarth. Id really suffered along here on Thursday. I found out why: it was actually a false flat, so I was able to hammer along here in the big ring. The descent down into Wenvoe and the ride across to Dinas Powys was also quite good.

Saturday Afternoon Ride with Evan

Evan often comes out with me on the back of my cross bike. This is the first time that we had both been on the new cross bike together. We did our usual ride going up to Caerphilly on the Taff Trail and back with a slight diversion along the higher trail. There we came across a tree blocking the path, so he had to jump over that. The ride took just over an hour.

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Ride Home From Work

I wont always put my rides to and from work up here, but they will go in the training log - it all counts you know! If I do this back and forth everyday, then thats 60km a week!

This is my usual route into work, down to the Taff Trail and then through the path. During the winter I may go a different way on the way home depending on how dark it is - sometimes the park is closed before I leave to go home.

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Blowing up

Well this was a bit of a disaster. My first road ride since Floyd Landis was done for drugs, my riding had been suspended ever since. But today I was going out after work on my trusty work bike, riding home the long way. I was planning on going over the barrage and then all the way round the lanes to the A48 and back down through Peterstone super Ely. Thankfully I never made it that far - I took a wrong turning on the lanes between Sully and Dinas Powis, but by then Id had it anyway. Id really suffered on the road between Penarth and Sully - I wasnt helped by a headwind and also the gears on my bike failing to work properly - I only use one gear on the way to work and back so that hadnt mattered before. I came out by Llandough and decided that rather than go back down to Dinas Powis, Id ride past the hospital and down the hill into Leckwith. The descent was great, but the computer didnt pick up how fast I was going. The rest of the journey wasnt too bad, but the railway bridge in Llandaff North was hard! I got in and ate loads to recover. Not a good start for my comeback.

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