Didn't get to achieve 40 miles today either. But I did get to wear my new Cycling glasses, I've treated myself to a pair of Oakley photochromic ones to replace the £2.50 pair Mrs S bought me from Wilkos, the rubber nose piece keeps coming off and they slip down my nose. I would bin them, but you need a reserve pair.

So I was a bit late out waiting for the Oakleys to come, but got to 32 miles for the day. Gets me over 500 miles for April thankfully. Be nice to get to 600 but the weather may not play ball and I don't play out in wet weather.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11253160918

I don't want to moan about the weather - too much - but this year has seemed like it's been stuck in early March since day one. Mainly cool, wet and windy.

I had thought today was going to be a dry day, but there was a lot of drizzle early on. It had stopped when I set out with the intention of doing 40 miles, but after about 12 miles it picked up again and I thought it might only be 20. But after turning off it stopped and climbing up a bit I could see where it was coming from and managed to zig-zag around it.

So I got back on 31 miles, which will do. Wish I'd put my long fingered gloves on though, but glad I'd put on my winter merino socks. Of course once I'd got home the clouds parted and the sun came out. Such is life.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11245393705

I couldn't wait to retire. I spent all my working life thinking about it. As a social retard the whole process of going into work and being with people filled me with dread and I couldn't wait to be free of it.

After my second redundancy, because I was getting on a bit the employment I did get wasn't as remunerative as before so I got used to living on less. I had paid 20 years into a final salary pension with my first job which will pay a reasonable amount at 65 so I've got that.

My state pension age is 67, but I'd estimated that with savings and company pension starting two years earlier that I could finish work at 62, but an inheritance enabled me to bring it forward to 59

My day is now my own and I can make the most of sunny days and get out on the bike. Two years on though I still have work related nightmares...

Well I was up for just a gentle 25 miler today and that's just what I did. Got me over 170 miles for the week for the first time this year, which will do. I had thought about just doing 20 laps round Calow, but Calow's not the sort of place you want to draw attention to yourself and I don't want to end up as a pie filling in Wigan, so I bailed out after three.

Certainly felt warmer than 11C though, could have gotten away with shorts, but hey-ho.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11233604656

Quote from: Thenop on April 21, 2024, 04:12:48 PMPogi yes, but MvdP might even be a more impressive achievement. I think he weighs well over 10kg more than any of them. Climbers are featherweights while he's approaching heavy weight fighting realms.

oh MvdP will never win a Grand Tour, but in the Ardennes classics the climbs are shorter and punchier so his power can get him over.

Pogi, Pogi, Pogi! Oi! Oi! Oi!

He's good 

Can't believe MvdP made the podium and plucky Brit Tom Pidock made 10th. MvdP and Pidders must have used up a lot after being caught uo in a crash and a mechanical respectively.

At long last, I've managed to get a 50 mile road ride in this year I was beginning to think I hadn't got it in me - and now I'm back I'm not sure that I have...

Didn't want it to be too taxing so I only took in one serious climb, then spent the rest of it up on the Moors. I thought I'd taken in some roads I'd not done before, but no and yes, some of them I had done before back in 2018, I noticed that Xandro Meurisse had one of the best segment times on the road, he was completing in the Fleche Wallone on Wednesday. Dylan van Baarle's name was up there too. from the tour of Britain back in 2015. Xandro turns up on quite a few local segments, presumably because he used to race for the An Post team.

Got to see - and hear - my first Curlew of the year up on Beeley Moor. I was beginning to think they hadn't returned this year, but I think the local farmers are doing different things in their fields this year.

I moved the saddle back on the gravel bike and it was much more comfortable, but I ended up with intense pain in my right foot when I got home. I'll bring it forward a couple of mm, but it could be that when I re-tightened my cleat bolts the cleat moved out of position. Another thing to check *sigh* still I;m over 2,000 miles for the year now

https://www.strava.com/activities/11225626574/

Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition
Boston - Don't Look Back

Quote from: David L on April 19, 2024, 04:10:19 PM

Quote from: Nickslikk2112 on April 19, 2024, 02:47:33 PMGot train tickets to Newcastle through Trainsplit to replace the ones I've returned to Cross Country trains at a much cheaper price 

Trainsplit? Was that set up by Mussolini?

Unfortunately not. You get your ticket in several bits and still the trains don't run on time

Got train tickets to Newcastle through Trainsplit to replace the ones I've returned to Cross Country trains at a much cheaper price 

Quote from: Slim on April 19, 2024, 12:45:33 PMYes, and Mussolini made the trains run on time.

I think I could put up with Fascism if that happened 

Where's the modern Mussolini?

Booked train tickets to Newcastle a couple of days ago at a good price. Got an email today saying the train would not now stop at Chesterfield 

Should be getting a refund, hopefully for the whole lot but as they were advanced singles might not get the return journey refunded.

Fortunately I only have neighbours on one side. Couldn't say what they look like as I've seen them about twice in the ten years they've lived there. They probably don't think much of us as the 20 feet of garden from our house to the boundary fence is overgrown - but it's a wildlife garden innit...

Previous neighbour was a funny so and so, a widow woman, one minute she'd be nice ang chatty and giving you a bottle of beer, next minute she'd be flying round on a broomstick emptying cauldrons of boiling Lizard Lungs onto the house.

She only really fell out with Mrs S though, which is funny as Mrs S is the nice one and I'm the ignorant curmudgeon 

Still pondering and still on the gravel bike. Quite like the gravel bike, it's a bit more of relaxed geometry which is now nice at my age. Probably needs a new saddle, gets a bit hard feeling after 20 miles or so, might just shift it back a bit though, might help.

Strava tells me that I've ridden today's ride five times, all have been on the gravel bike, it goes up one bit of road which is probably best ridden on a gravel bike. I have been up on a road bike, but the state it's in now is atrocious. What I did like was the fact that today was the fastest I've ridden it, gives the old morale a bit of a boost.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11209190681

Paid my (our) mortgage off after the first time I got made redundant, got a decent pay off so it made sense once I found gainful employment again. Saved me jumping through hoops to claim on the Mortgage repayment insurance second time I got made redundant. Also made it easier when the next lot of gainful employment I found wasn't as well paid.