Local loop ride

On Sunday afternoon, I went out and rode my usual local loop. It's just a loop around some local bridleways, but it has the odd nice trail and gets out into the countryside (despite crossing the A1(M) and running alongside the East Coast Mainline).



Along the way, I startled a couple of bunnies and surprised a heron. I'd been to a harvest festival service that morning, so it was nice to ride along the edge of fields that were part way through the ploughing and good-seed-scattering process.

Apart from the odd longer ride, most of my recent riding has been on the road; on my 6 mile-a-day commute. Since adding an extra 8 mile trip in on Tuesday afternoons for the last couple of weeks, my legs have been feeling pretty tired by the end of the week, so I wasn't sure how well I was going to go yesterday. Turns out, pretty well! I think I probably did one of my faster times around the loop (helped by not taking coffee, because Sarah nicked off with my rucksack so I was travelling light) and was climbing most things a sprocket or two higher than normal. I was even taking some smooth off-road climbs in the big chainring, which is not like me at all; I'm more of a spinner than a grinder.

I think it's down to my commute; two 3 mile sprints against the traffic every day, on a 32:15 singlespeed, makes you work hard to accelerate, and there are a few climbs each way too. My four mile each way trip on a Tuesday afternoon is done at a really high cadence (almost all above 100rpm, I reckon) which forces me to spin the pedals in smooth circles, rather than just pushing up-and-down.

Whatever it is, I hope it all combines to give me a better result than last year (last) in next Sunday's annual cyclo cross race.