Charlecote... and New Cafe Discovered!

The morning dawned decent, a chill in the air early morning but apart from that it was white cloud and bright, Met Bob & Paul at McDonalds at 10am and off we went...

As it's the 100 mile Velo Birmingham event next Sunday we decided to go down to Charlecote Garden Centre Cafe as it's a decent distance and fairly flat, on the way down I noticed a fair amount of cyclists zooming past - last bit of distance training for everyone no doubt, even a lady on horseback asked if there was an event going on as loads of cyclists had overtaken her..

Unfortunately we had very poor service at Charlecote Cafe, half of our order arrived and then we appeared to be forgotten about... after ten minutes Paul had to ask for the rest of it! My Cheese scone with jam and cream was good though.

On the way back, as we entered Stratford-upon-Avon we ended up riding in the middle of the annual Pashley Picnic ride, loads of riders dressed up in tweed, flat caps etc on old style bikes, was a lovely sight to see and having cars stopped while we all rode through the town centre was marvellous!

As we got to the end of wotsit road we noticed a new sign pointing to 'Buttercup Cafe' and decided it would be rude not to follow it, discovered it was only half a mile off our route and turned out to be a brilliant new cafe serving top notch cakes. Definately added to the ride list and loads better than the Cow Shed just up the road at Wooten Warwen.

As we got to Earlswood the heavens opened - it absolutely poured down on us, the rain was flowing into my eyes so I stopped to put my cap on to find... shock! horror! I hadn't packed it! Sheltered for 5 minutes for the rain to die down and then carried on, 2 minutes later I had to stop and seek shelter again, put my foot ankle deep into a puddle - however, it made no difference as I couldn't had gotten any wetter! 😃 

The rain stopped as we arrived back at McDonalds, we agreed we had an enjoyable and eventful day in the saddle.

63 miles covered

Today's Fuel:

Oats & Special K with golden syrup (pre ride brekkie)
Banana maltloaf (approx 1/2 of a loaf)
Cheese scone with strawberry jam & cream
Carrot, Ginger & Lemon cake (taste test = 10/10)
1 litre blackcurrant SIS Go Electrolite mix

Return to Rita's

Weather has been turbulent for the past week, appeared to abruptly turn from Summer to October weather all in the space of a week... a couple of days ago there was a storm overnight... rather disheartening. Hopefully one last gasp of some sunny t-shirt and shorts weather will return during next week or two before descending the slow downward spiral towards Winter.

It's not all bad though as I'm looking forward to the Autumn colours that lie ahead... just a shame it's not warm enough for t-shirt and shorts at the same time... damn you Mother Nature! 😒

Today was my first ride in tights in about 4 months!

A Chill in the air and had been raining overnight so also put on my lightweight windproof.

Had a nice ride down to Auntea Rita's, a little bit of drizzly rain at the beginning with the rest being quite bright with white cloud and blue sky.

Upon my arrival it was nice to see they had added an extra table with chairs outside, an improvement compared to my inaugural visit, still a little sparse though. As the sun was shining I decided to sit outside, had a very warm reception from the tea lady upon my entrance and there was a few more cakes to choose from compared to the last time. Decided upon a cherry scone with strawberry jam and butter. Sat outside and 5 minutes later my order arrived, this time the tea was hot however, they got my jam order wrong, they supplied blackcurrant instead of strawberry - wasn't that fussed anyway so let it go. All very nice and home baked 9/10.

About 5 miles in on the return leg it rained /chucked it down for about 15 minutes so I sped up to keep warm... and then it returned to being bright and ok again... aaand relaaax...

An enjoyable ride out with 49 miles covered, discovered maltloaf is an annoying fuel choice whilst cycling along at the same time, it's just too damn chewy! Will stick to fig rolls and Haribo in future 😊

Today's Fuel:
Oats & Special K with golden syrup (pre ride brekkie)
Banana maltloaf (approx 1/4 of a loaf)
Jam & butter scone
1 litre blackcurrant SIS Go Electrolite mix

Recovery Fuel
Banana SIS Rego & water mix
Egg and brown sauce toasty

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Cycles to Wedges!

Today dawns a dull and rather miserable looking day... summer has definately buggered off for another year.

Forcast showed rain and showers so stayed close to home and did a local 51 mile route.

The route included a few local hills including Rose Hill - Strava showed this would only be my 3rd ride up it in over 6 years. There is a long climb up to it from Barnt Green before turning left at the roundabout and onto the aforementioned hill... slow and steady all the way.

There was a bit of drzzly rain on and off in places but nothing overly bad.

My route also included Wedges Bakery so decided to pop in and bring some goodies home.

Inside Wedges I surveyed the cake selection carefully... 😋

51 miles later I return home to a recovery ham sarnie and a Wedges iced finger roll... which tasted delish!

Today's Fuel:
Special K, Oats & Golden Syrup (Pre ride brekie)
1 x banana
1 x SIS Go Bar
1 ltr SIS Go Electrolite mix

Recovery nosh:
1 x Ham Sarnie
1 x Wedges finger roll

(No photo's today as I discovered I had left my phone in my car when I dropped my niece to work this morning d'oh!)

Broadway Tower

Bank Holiday weekend and it's summer weather... 26 degrees yippee!!

Embarked on an 80 mile journey to Broadway Tower and back with Bob and Paul.

The route is fairly flat apart from the big lump in the middle up to the tower, Snowshill to be exact. In previous years I have climbed it in a 26 cassette however, as I've been replacing parts on bit by bit on Klanker the 3rd this year I now have a 30 cassette on the back. Verdict still hard work but less huffing and puffing.

The cafe at the tower itself is expensive, just as well we only visit once or twice a year. The cake was really nice though and couldn't fault the hot drinks supplied.

Have always loved the descent down to Mickleton afterward... all downhill for a fair few miles coupled with smashing views of the countryside around.

We also treated ourselves to an ice cream stop at Wellford upon Avon, Magnums all round.

Another grand tour out, 82 miles covered!

Todays' Fuel:
Special K, Oats & Honey (Pre ride brekkie)
1.5 rounds of Lemon Curd Sarnies
1 x Banana on Tour
1 x Slice of Orange Drizzle Cake
5 x Fig Rolls
2 x SIS Go Bars
1 Litre SIS Go Electrolite Blackcurrant mix

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#BananaOnTour

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#BananaOnTour

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Arley Tea Rooms... with hills!

Lovely 60 mile ride out today with Bob & Paul to Arley Tea Rooms.

I didn't visit last year so made sure it was on my to do list for this year. 

Particularly like this place as their outside dining area sits overlooking the River Seven, a lovely spot to sit in the summer.

As we got closer to Arley the hills started appearing... long and steady but nothing too steep... 

I had a slice of Orange and Poppy seed cake which was a full 10/10 yum!

The local canoe hire (Canoe UK) appeared whilst we were there.. reminded me to look into their River Seven day trip - Paddling from Bridgnorth to Arley with a pub stop at half way and a return via steam train, sounds bloomin' marvelous!

Returned via Kinver Edge, more hills please!

Lost Bob & Paul half way back, they ended up ahead of me 😃

A bit of rush hour traffic for the last half hour but it wan't too bad.

Tired legs at the end - 60 miles with  4500+ ft elevation.

Todays Fuel:
Special K, Oats 7 Honey (pre ride brekkie)
1 x Sis bar
1 x SIS gel
1 x Lemon curd sarnie on white bread
1 x slice of orange & poppy seed cake (yum!)
1 litre Sis Go Electrolite blackcurrant mix
4 x fig rolls

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Wattbike Taster Session

This evening myself and Lorraine attended a free Wattbike taster session 😀

Was kinda expecting 40 minutes of talking and 20 minutes of biking.

It wasn't the case at all and was rather fun.

Us ladies in the session outnumbered the gents 4 - 3.

The instructor asked which of the ladies was fittest, Lorraine volunteered me so I was put onto a Pro Wattbike, the difference between pro and normal is the gearing, I have no idea how much difference there is though.

Once all the bells and whistles of displays on the bikes were explained the instructor got us to keep a cadence of between 80 and 90 rpm and every minute he told us to dial up the resistance until we were working in the next zone up, we went up to zone 5 and then back down again. Zone 5 was quite hard work, after a bit of recovery we did the same again but for 2 minutes in each zone, this time we went up to zone 6 and back down again, zone 6 got me sweating quite a bit!

I also found out my left leg is doing approx 55% of the work compared to my right leg most of the time.. ah well!

My legs were a bit wobbly when the session was over, must have worked harder than I thought.

A fun, interesting and informative session, they run 6 week courses for £66 and would be helpful over winter however £11 per sesh is kind of off-putting especially as they have Wattbikes at the local gym I tested out a few days ago, a gym membership works out more value for money as I would have access to Wattbikes at all times as well as other gym equipment and unlimited classes (including spin).

Part of me is tempted as their courses would be very useful for structured training.

Hillers Seedy Flapjack Slab

Lovely Sunny day today so embarked on a solo ride out to Hillers Cafe and back.

The lady on the London 100 riding and bopping along to Rick Astley on her phone speaker a few weeks ago reminded me that I have a mini sports speaker that I haven't used for aaaages!

Found it at the bottom of the drawer amongst my many many sportive medals and charged it for 8 hours yesterday.

Didn't have it on too loud and the wind and approaching cars drowned the music out quite a bit but when it was quiet it was like having my very own outside spin class, awesome!

At Hillers I decided to bypass the cafe and head for the farm shop, it's impressively huuuge inside!!

Ended up buying a seedy flapjack slab for the pricely sun of £3.15  sat on a bench and scoffed a portion of it along the my lemon curd sarnie, tasted delish. Took the rest home with a plan to take a small portion to work every day... of course that never happened and had finished the whole lot off within 24 hrs!!!

In future I may just buy the one slice for 99p, the temptation is all too much when taking goodies home.

Sports speaker may feature on solo rides a bit more from now on.

Todays' Fuel:
Special K, Oats and Golden Syrup (pre ride)
1 x SIS Go bar
1 x Clif bar
1 x Lemon Curd sarnie on white bread

50 miles covered!

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