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Leave the Garmin at home day for me. I'm always on the clock so have gotten into the bad habit of doing tempos or cramming as many kms as I can into the short window I have while always watching the headset.
Headed out in the dark and straight into a strong wind with no major route in mind and found some new roads. Rode at a comfortable pace and enjoyed it.
Had a tailwind the whole way home so it made it very pleasant. It's a lot easier to chase two small kids around for the day when you haven't emptied the tank!
70km with 883m climbing at 28.7kph: https://www.strava.com/activities/6598057800
Got my third century of the year this morning on a club spin from Lucan > Dunboyne > Kilbride > Ratoath > Dunshaughlin > Kilcock > Lucan.
The headwind fornthe first half of the spin was worst along one of my least favourite stretches, between Kilbride and Ratoath and I had the pleasure of being at the front for most of it.
Still, it meant that the NW wind was on our back for the second half of the spin.
102km @ 26.9km/h with 539m
think i got the better half of the day, finishing up just as the light was starting to fade. 66km around NCD, a decent bit of up at 870m. quite windy but pleasant otherwise.
Headed out this morning around 7:30 and had a lovely spin. I had decided to take it easier that I normally would and take in some of the stuff I normally pass by.
Headed from Leixlip along the back of Intel where I passed a deer tucking itself in against the hedge to keep away from me. There is often deer around there - I think they tend to stay along the Rye River but occasionally wander off. There was plenty of other wildlife around with the birds most notable. The dawn chorus season has started. Also saw a few birds that can be somewhat elusive including a lovely looking male bullfunch. I had been hoping to see the barn owl that I've seen a few times near Dolly's Grove but alas, not today.
I headed through Kilcloon over to Moyglare and then to an area called Rodanstown where the ruins of an old church sit. Took a few photos of the church and then went on a bit more where there is an old Motte - again another photo taken (the links here are from wikipedia).
Moved on a bit more to a dead-end laneway which I discovered last night while browsing the OSI 25" & Google maps of the area (I was bored!). Having a laneway called "Watery Boreen" meant I had to go down it. It was a boreen alright but wasn't very watery! I'd say the occupants of the houses along it were wondering why a cyclist was there at that hour and taking a couple of photos of a laneway.
Doing a U-turn at the end of Watery Boreen and back onto the main road again, there is a holy well named after St. Brigid who presumably was the one who put in the guardrails and put the seats there. Still, I'd say it's a nice place to sit and reflect if the three dogs in the neighbouring house stop barking at you.
Headed on again northwards towards Mullagh Hill (half way between Dunboyne & Summerhill) and then made my way back to Kilcloon and then home to get the laptop powered on to make it look like I was working and not wandering around on my bike.
50kms @ 27.2km/h with a number of stops. It's nice to feel I can stop and not have to push myself the whole time.
https://www.strava.com/activities/6593434567
Went up through Ashbourne and towards the Naul, over Snowtown and around by Bellewstown. I shake my head in disgust when I see the amount of stuff dumped in ditches, I do stop and use the See It Say It app which sends a report to the council to come and clean up this stuff. However Im sure we are all paying for the cleanup via the Property Tax. Anyway it was a bad day to bring a cleanish bike round the hills as the roads were destroyed. I felt the overwhelming need to wash the bike before the rider. 57K with 650m up. Sun came out with gave me a slight sniff of spring (too soon?)
Up at the featherbeds yesterday and the ditches are full of crap which appears to have been fly tipped from a passing car. It's sickening that people do this in what is a natural beauty spot.
Back up to the Hellfire Club over lunch, glorious out there but the GK slicks are no way up to the mud!
Around the top and southern side of Boston Hill, near Newcastle Co Dublin there is the remains of a car but it's in loads of pieces. Someone took the time to cut the car up fairly cleanly and dumped it along various ditches. As I understood it, there was a decent scrap value to them these days so I'm at a loss as to why you'd dump one (unless it was some kind on bogus insurance claim for theft after the owner damaged it).
There does seem to be an increase in the amount of litter scattered along hedges these days and it's not just that it is more visible in winter.
The worst that I've seen in recent years was along the L3001 bog road between Edenderry and Rathangan. I'd say lads had been bringing van loads of crap (matresses, fridges and anything else that you can think of) there specifically to dump.
Anyway, getting back on topic, in an attempt to build up my climbing legs, yesterday I went out and did the aformentioned Boston Hill five times giving me a total of 490m. Practice makes perfect allegedly!
think i'd prefer if they burnt it rather than throwing it in the ditch. But obviously that's probably worse for the environment overall.
and a good proportion of the stuff you see dumped is recyclable for free, which is infuriating.
one thing which does seem to have dropped off is people burning rubbish in their gardens; i remember about five years ago on a 30 or 40km having to hold my breath three times because there was noxious smoke drifting out from people's gardens. that seems much rarer now.
Sunday morning...60 odd km out from Finglas up to Ashbourne, on up to Garristown, Clonalvy and back home to Dublin.
The amount of litter and rubbish in the ditches would make you sick, it's so bad in places it's hard to understand. Summer foliage will cover it up eventually but it's a depressing sight this time of year.
These were older cars. Same again cycling home last night, I even turned my light up to 800 lumens and pointed it at the car and they didn't turn them off. Fog lights on too of course. Some older BMW.
I've noticed that the new cars with auto dipping often (or never?) recognise cyclists.
Beyond these drivers to dip for themselves apparently
Something annoying that I've noticed from commuting home at 1am the last 3 nights, motorists just don't turn off their high beams for a cyclist. I've had to 'flash' them by waving my light at them and one didn't even turn them off...
On the plus side, it's been dry, wind is calm and temperatures have been mild so can't complain too much.
so it seems the cycle lane is there for about 700m, not 'a few hundred' as i'd said. but it's one of those cycle lanes out in the middle of nowhere that doesn't actually connect to other cycle lanes.
there's an interesting design a bit further on (i was heading towards clonee), and a car did actually get stuck behind me - because of a median in the middle of the bridge over the M3. no cycle path on the bridge though. i'd be unsure of what the median is for, i assume to explicitly prevent overtakes, but it's a very uncommon design:
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.4133211,-6.4437346,3a,75y,244.33h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sIHSGPfe7LZt_FosrER5S7A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
Safe to assume that was a disgruntled motorist that happened to be outside their car for once.
60k with a mate then 50k solo. Was okay the first half and got cold for second half and couldn’t warm up at all. Was working a bit but felt cold to my core the whole time. Every after I got home I was goi g for some supplies and wrapped up so much that SWMbO commented that’s it’s unlike me. 27k with 900m. I’m sure it did me some good
107km at 27kph and 1088m gain
50k and 600m yesterday.
Over past Mosney. Then Stamullen and a bit of a wandering route to Naul, Ballyboghal, Balrothery, Ardgillan and Skerries.
Gonna do a very handy run to Skerries again now this afternoon.
Completely uneventful cycle today except at one point I was cycling past the Facebook data centre at the back of clonee, where they've built a completely tokenistic cycle path for a few hundred metres. A pedestrian on the footpath stared very directly at me and quite theatrically pointed at the cycle path I wasn't using. I just had to wonder why even the f****** pedestrians are at it too. There were no cars around.
Planned 100k today, doing a route I know anticlockwise, but somehow got myself confused and it ended up at 89k.
Started out early so first 45 minutes in darkness. Before I'd left the city, I suffered the worst close pass I've ever experienced on a bike.
Traffic island ahead with just enough room for a car and a lad in a white van overtook me at about 80kp while I passed through it. Frightening experience. Knew he was going to keep coming for me so braced myself and gritted the teeth but he flew past with inches to spare.
Outside of that, a lovely dry ride in mild enough conditions. Did 89k with just short of 1000m climbing at 30.3kph. Didn't feel like January.
Did my first 100k of the year today with 1330m up. I was 2km short so a few laps of the estate get me over the mark. Sun splitting the sky down at sea level but up military road you could hardly see 100m with the cloud.
First 100k of the year for me today taking in various bits of Kildare and South Wicklow, including Saggart, Kilcullen and Blessington. Bit of a slog and I really struggled to find any kind of pace. I'd also managed to add a couple of what I though were l-roads to my Garmin route which ended up being locked gates to private roads so had a bit unintended random exploring and head scratching. Garmin also died at one point though seems to have continued to record, I really need to either get new specs or something with a bigger screen as couldn't suss what it was saying. 101k with 1k of up at 19kph and way tireder than I should be for such a modest effort.
68km this evening at 29.3kph. 433m gain.
Should have got another 20km in, but somebody called over just as I was cycling out the driveway
Or schools!
Wonder if there was enough complaints about iligally parked cars around.....let's say churches for example....would they issue FCPNs?
keeping all that in mind cause initial report is a list of parts damaged and labour is going to be expensive so will see
all that given, don't forget even a good bike is loose change for an insurance company. often in the 'new bumper on an old micra' territory (i say this cos my sister was the rear ender in a situation like this where a garage quoted 1.5k if it was a private repair or 4k if the insurance company was paying).
Don't want what I don't need Don't want to write my bike off as love it and its only my winter/bad weather bike, will see what their insurance say, at present bike shop giving it the once over, but if bike ruined yes I will
alu frame carbon fork, shoulder and arm is sore seen my doctor today
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