New distance pb :)

140 km today! In two parts; one, looping around some of the mountains and back for 125 km (plus a bit at the start to get onto my plotted course), and then 15 to get home from Munich itself. Town was, eh, busy, shall we say.

So, got out the door around 10ish, aiming to do this route. Took a train south for about 1.5 hours, trying to get as close as possible to the mountains. Rolling out, everything was going well, nice pace, hammering away well. Not noticing any inclines I was on til I couldn't turn the pedals any more and had to drop down to the small ring :D

The first 45 km passed well. The countryside around Munich is gorgeous, very quiet, lots of rolling terrain. Cows with cowbells. Very few cars for the most part, which is also nice. There was nothing particularly challenging about the cycle, mostly just a long steady drag up. Apart from a few sharper sections.

The last climb I did was pretty short, but also fairly steep. I've always wanted to do a hairpinned climb, they just look so cool and there's so much up crammed into a really short space. I was so wrong. It's so tough, rounding corners and seeing another three rows of up... Nah, who am I kidding. It was fantastic. The sense of satisfaction when you see that crest, knowing there's a 5% down gradient on the other side. Feeling the burn in your legs as they want to cramp up and leave, telling them to shut up. Must get to some longer climbs, once the legs forgive me for today.

The descents were fantastic, hairpins galore. Drivers were normally pretty courteous on these, allowing me to use the full lane to get around. If I had been stuck to the side of the road, things would have been a lot more difficult.

All was going well for the first 90 km. I covered these, which was most of the climbing, in under 3.5 hours. Then, I met the man with the hammer. He has a big hammer, and is not afraid to use it. Repeatedly. The legs let me know they had enough and were calling it day. Still 35 more km to go until the train station to get home... Oh well, more shut up legs, stick it into the small ring, and crawl. Took me almost two hours to cover that last 35 km. I dunno how many times I stopped. Twice to stretch out cramps, once to get some anti-bonk juice, also known as cola-orange mix and some jelly babies. The sugar really pulled me through the last few km.

Once I got to the train station, I hopped on a train back to Munich. Slept for a while, then off in the city center. Maybe not the best idea for the day that was in it :D The place was packed, so I decided to cycle the 15 km back home. The atmosphere in town was amazing, Germany really celebrates when they win! Crowds for miles. Weaving through them on the bike was fun :D

Miraculously, the rest on the train seemed to do the trick, the 15 km home passed without incident. Also, I have discovered the greatest recovery food; steak sandwich, chips and milk. Nom. Now, to find the best place to break this record...

I take it back

I take it all back. The Planet-X is fabulous. Accelerating, rolling, stopping, all fantastic. What also strikes me is that the frame fits quite well. The seat tube is a little on the short side (there's a LOT of seatpost showing) but the top tube is spot on, which is what counts.

I've started to get used to gears again. There have been a few times that I feel the chain skip off the cassette when I'm spinning too slowly in too low a gear, but I should get the swing of it soon enough. Being able to control how much effort you expend is very cool. I will confess to abusing the freewheel a little bit, but I'll stop that from now on since there's no reason for it, other than novelty factor.

I've taken it for two proper spins at this point. One yesterday to just give it a normal go and see what happened, and a recovery spin today. Both spins were really nice. It rolls so smoothly, despite nastyish cycle paths and roads in spots. Acceleration is nice, thanks to having gears. The brakes, though weight-weenie brakes actually have a pretty good stopping power. Certainly much better than the Tektro brake/lever combination on my fixie.

It rocks. Totally. End of :D

Now that I have that finally sorted, it's time to get back into shooting again. It's been too long, and I'm starting to miss it now. For some reason, I've never doubted my ability to come back. Probably cos I've had about 3 of them so far, certainly in air rifle :P I had 3 months (minimum!) off last year for my exams, so 6 shouldn't be too much hastle. The skills are all still there, they'll just be a little rusty. Certainly my general and core fitness, stability, strength and flexibility have all increased due to cycling and running. May need some balance work, though, those particular skills haven't been used in some time... Will inform when I make contact :)

And so, it ends...

Nothing serious, like, I'm just talking about the lengthy saga of actually getting a road bike!

I decided to get one about a year ago, but, due to financial constraints and there never being any bikes in my size in any shop in Dublin, I held off. Finally, I placed my order about two months ago or so. However, when it arrived last week, there was a small issue;

However, this was easily solved by the addition of this to the equation.

Finally, we have a wheel sitting nicely in its dropout and a new mech hanger to attach :)

Giving us something that looks like this.

And a little more aero-barred up.

I have little intention of using the aero-bars that much for the next while, I just wanted to try them out. I got them for longer distance stuff so I'd have some more hand positions and something to collapse onto when I get particularly tired :D They'l also come in useful if I do any time trials or triathlons, both of which I intend to do at some point. Cos, you know, I can't get enough punishment from doing 3p...

On the road it's... strange. Very strange, in fact. I've gotten very used to my fixed gear with 175 mm cranks. Now, I have about 15 usable gears, and 172.5 mm cranks. And yes, those 2.5 mm actually make a lot of difference. It just feels like I'm not putting out the same torque with each turn, which is correct. And changing gears doesn't quite compensate either. It'll certainly take some getting used to. Forgetting the initial shock of having a freewheel and not actually having to compensate for this when starting off, it's a damn nice bike. It rolls really well, and I can really tell the weight difference between that and the fixie (it's about 2.5 kg lighter, with pedals, cages and computer). The first time I took it out, I didn't feel like I was going that fast, but with the same feeling the second time, I was doing my usual 30+ kmph speed, into a horrible headwind, in driving rain.

On that second time I did one of my usual 20 km loops slightly slower than the fixie, but the fixie ride was done pushing for a time, in good conditions. Given the same incentive, I reckon I should be well able to blow it out of the water. I'm looking into finding a nice 16 km stretch of road that I can use for some prolonged higher intensity stuff (16 km being 10 miles, which is a standard time trial distance).

More pics of both bikes and of the room they now have (well, for a week) can be found here. 

Didn't get out for a long spin on it this week, due to being knackered and fed up of getting soaked, but should get out a fair bit during this week. There's a large conference on that most people form work are gone to, so it'll be a nice quiet week for a change!

Interim Update

OK, so the bike arrived, but with some in transit damage :( Nothing that a file and a new part that Planet X are very nicely supplying won't fix, but it's keeping me off the road for the moment.

Also, I received my first heart rate monitor today! It cost 20 euro or so, which is pretty decent. I'm gonna be testing it out tomorrow evening, hopefully, after my talk (eep!) so I'll see what I can start to do with a HRM then :) More next week, probably once I get the new bike up and rolling.

News

Official word has been received; the new bike is on it's way :) It should be here next week, barring any unusual delays. A nice treat for when I get my talk over and done with. Time for some bling-tastic browsing :P