Having been without sunglasses since Thursday 8th, I was fed up of not cycling (get something in both eyes and being unable to see isn’t good when moving quickly and over longer distances is pretty likely to happy without eye protection – spending evenings at a computer isn’t that great when you’ve already spent the whole day working at one) and ordered a replacement pair (dhb triple lens, exactly the same as the previous pair which broke due to poor design – it was either those or Tifosi Optics Dolomite, which cost twice as much and weren’t in stock so would mean waiting – but look to be a better design) on Thursday evening. They arrived yesterday morning – though my family are here for the weekend so the first opportunity I’ve had to get out on my bike since was by getting up early this morning. Annoyingly, MyTracks has done its trick of failing to record the first part of the route. Fortunately, I can use the fact that I left at 6:58 and finished at 8:29 to deduce the total time was 1h31m (that bit is consistent with MyTracks). The moving time of 1h30m according to MyTracks is incorrect because I always stop at Cottenham for 5 minutes. Add two minutes for traffic lights as I went out on Madingley Road – they were all against me – so moving time was 1h26m. Using the known distance of this route – 38km – I then calculate my average moving speed to be 26.51km/h. Not surprising considering a) I haven’t done much real cycling for 12 days b) it was pretty early and I hadn’t eaten and c) there was a nasty headwind coming back along Clayhithe/Horningsea Road/Ditton Lane.
Route:
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Here is the Google Doc with all the stats:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?
key=0At0EKwdiLZmYdFg4Mk9fdHltdWlGeWpQTHMzM3RjU3c&hl=en_GB
More than anything else this was an experiment in how suitable cycling for utility is over greater distances than is typical in Cambridge. I’m home for the weekend, having got the train to Stoke (On-Trent) on Friday afternoon (I’m only typing this now as I’ve been pretty busy). In need of some new trainers (the old pair had split, presumably from too much pressure on the front from cycling), I cycled straight from the station to Newcastle (Under-Lyme) and bought a new pair (which will hopefully last longer than six months). That bit in itself was surprisingly quick, though given how short it was I didn’t bother recording the route/any stats. The bit of interest here is that I then cycled from Newcastle to home in Wetley Rocks, a journey which (when I was at school in Newcastle) took 40-50 minutes by bus and 30 minutes by car – so I was very keen to see how quickly it can be done by bike.
Surprisingly, I did it in a total time of 39m37s (moving for 35m24s), despite the hill climb that is Ash Bank; just look at the elevation gain of 233m – greater than that of the Cambridge Semi Oribal route, which is about three times the distance – to see that it’s reasonably hilly. This is a good result for cycling and really makes me wonder why it isn’t more popular just for utility – I’ll certainly be cycling to the railway station this afternoon.
Route:
View Newcastle to Wetley Rocks in a larger map
Here is the Google Doc with all the stats:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?
key=0At0EKwdiLZmYdFg4Mk9fdHltdWlGeWpQTHMzM3RjU3c&hl=en_GB
I was about to go cycling on the Cambridge Semi Orbital route earlier and was changing the lenses on my sunglasses when I managed to completely snap the frame (it was already fractured). So instead of cycling (it was pretty bright for cycling without sunglasses!) I somehow found myself attempting to run – bear in mind the only running I’ve done was years ago at school and only because I had to. I didn’t intend to go very far and was succesful in meeting that intention – total distance 1.4km, moving time 8m30s. The fact my trainers are splitting in half due to the pressure on the front from cycling didn’t help matters.
Amazingly exciting route along Huntingdon Road:
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Here is the Google Doc with all the stats:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0At0EKwdiLZmYdGVaYmZRdWxsMG9URHZNU3NGaEw0MkE&hl=en_GB
An interesting thing happened after the Cambridge to Oxford and Oxford to London trip. I lost sensation in my ring and little fingers, on both hands (more specifically just the outer half of the ring fingers) and the outer half of my palms. These symptoms point to ulnar nerve entrapment, and given that I’d previously done a greater distance in one day than we did going to Oxford (the longer of the two days) I don’t think the distance was the issue – maybe the fact I was going below my optimum speed changed my weight distribution somehow. Anyway the point is I decided that continuing to cycle certainly wouldn’t help the situation. Supposedly I should have regained sensation within a week. That week has passed (nearly two now). My little fingers and palms have returned to normal, but the outer halves of my ring fingers remain numb.
This evening I decided to go ahead and cycle despite the above – my normal routes never caused the problem so at worst can delay the return of sensation – the other option being to not cycle at all and then end up having lost speed when I was able to return to it. Given how long it’s been since I did any distance worth noting (I’ve continued utility cycling e.g. to and from railway stations a fair amount, but I don’t log that of course) I was expecting to be fairly slow, so I’m pleasantly surprised with an average moving speed of 27.45km/h – one of my better times for this route. If you look carefully at the route you’ll see the start/finish is further North East along Huntingdon Road – this is due to the “Summer Move” mentioned in the title – on Saturday I moved house from 94 to 138 Huntingdon Road – college like to have everyone who’s staying over the summer in one place (the move took a while carrying, everything on foot – a good 10 hours just for moving it, let alone packing and unpacking!). The move also means that the distance for this route has increased by about 0.5km.
Route:
View Cambridge Semi Orbital 20 in a larger map
Here is the Google Doc with all the stats:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?
key=0At0EKwdiLZmYdFg4Mk9fdHltdWlGeWpQTHMzM3RjU3c&hl=en_GB