Windy Day!

I want a recumbent bike right now . . . a really low one with full fairing.

You know how I’ve just got to do 125 miles by Sunday, or I’ll be behind on my 3,000 miles in 2007 almost before I’ve started? Well I had to visit a firm most of the way into Newcastle this morning, which was good.

So to clock up today’s 25 miles, all I needed to do was come home via making the short trip the rest of the way into the Toon, and I’d have those 25 miles while doing something useful. Except it’s just a little bit windy here today.

In fact, I had to stick in first gear most of the time while on the flat, and managed to average only 8 mh for the first 13 miles. Several times I found myself having to stand on the pedals (adding even more wind resistance) just to keep moving - at 4 mph, in 1st gear, with a cadence of less than 50.

El Zappoman’s comment about my bike miles chart was dead right - summer miles are just so much shorter than winter ones . . .

Of course, there was an upside to all this wind. The return journey was pretty darned quick. The biggest problem here was that it was too easy to go faster - because my sturdy commuting bike has only one chain ring, I was doing over 30 on the flat, with a cadence of almost 110. Not particularly sustainable, but great fun!

Filed under: Cycling, Fitness, Newcastle