Wednesday 26 December 2012

A festive day three, ride two

Another early start and today I was determined to get in about 120-30km`s.
 
 
 

I was expecting pretty hard going because we have had a mini thaw. Just enough to soften up the top layer of snow but not enough warmth to thaw the ice under the snow. I encountered a myriad of challenges and conditions. I got about 80km`s of sheet ice with a thin layer of water on the top, 30km`s of 20cm deep slush, I encountered some sleet and right at the end of my ride I got rain and actually saw some black asphalt patches even though the mercury was telling me it was -3 celcius.

 
 
 
Not really the worst place to fall on my face, although trying to get hands out of Bar-Mitts can be troublesome. It`s a bit like the good ol`SPD fall, but with your hands, instead of your feet.
 
 
I love this shot! 40km`s from home and the sun is just peeking through the mist.
 

Another shot, about 20km`s from home. The blurry effect isn`t something I have added but as mentioned on the above pic, It was pretty misty.

 
The going was painfully slow today but I decided not to let the speed bother me and just get my head down and do the miles and keep my studs facing terra-firma as much as possible.
One thing that does bother me slightly, is my Garmin 800 got the holes under it, blocked by snow. This ride is normally 128km`s long with 2200m of height gain. Today Garmin gave me 571m of height gain and only 108km`s.
 
Still, chin up! over a 3rd of the challenge complete. Yay!
Strava log Here

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