Today's Bike Ride

[Travs]

Yesterday's ride was to the south-west, the most hilly direction from here. Reached Barton-in-the-Beans, almost halfway to Travs's domain, then Swepstone, about one-third of the distance from my place to Marco's. Total distance 36 miles. Then, less than three miles from home, I avoided being wiped out when a motorist thought better of going through a red light, and came to a screeching halt.

I've done a fair bit of cycling in the past in that direction, all the way up to Burton On Trent.... but although i've cycled round Twycross, Congerstone and Market Bosworth, i'd never actually heard of Barton-In-The-Beans....!

[anthonykay]

I've done a fair bit of cycling in the past in that direction, all the way up to Burton On Trent.... but although i've cycled round Twycross, Congerstone and Market Bosworth, i'd never actually heard of Barton-In-The-Beans....!

You obviously weren't looking at the road signs in Congerstone, as I'm sure one of them would have pointed to Barton-In-The-Beans. But it is a very pleasant area for cycling; a completely rural area, in between the more industrialised and mining areas around Nuneaton and Coalville.

Barton-in-the-Beans was so named because a lot of broad beans were grown in the area. The Baptist Chapel in the village also has an interesting history, having been an important centre of the 18th-century evangelical revival.

[PeteS]

No Barton in the beans for me today but plenty of great places names visited including the delightful Bell End and Mearse Lane.

A lovely day for a trip out into Worcestershire. I have not done a great deal on the road bike this year either through lack of time or injury so I planned to do 50k, perhaps 2 to 2 1/2 hours and get a few hills in.
Out through Halesowen and the legs weren't feeling great after the first few hills so I chose to circumnavigate the Clent Hills and loop around to the North through the outskirts of Stourbridge.
Iverley and Churchill and then on to Blakedown (where it is obligatory to sing the Led Zep song Communication Blakedown of course). Chaddesley Corbett woods visited and then off to Belbroughton. Where a look down at my cycle computer informed me I had only done about 200m of climbing. My legs said otherwise.
Nothing for it but to head over to Clent and up St Kenhelms pass. A double whammy here- I shipped my chain as I dropped to the small chain ring on the first steep ramp. No way was I going to clip back in on a 12% slope. I rolled back down and headed up again. On the way up my cycle computer again informed me of my lack of ascent and on the final steep ramp, proclaimed it had a a gradient of exactly 0%. At this point, I threw the towel in and headed home most of which is uphill again with varying levels of accuracy coming from the GPS unit on my bars.
I got back in 2 hours 34 and with 61k on the clock - at least that was accurate. Having uploaded to Strava and corrected the ascent it went from 380m up to a respectable 950m.
Garmin forum reports many people seeing the same issue which apparently is a bug. It only manifests itself when you restart the device midway through recording an activity. I don't think I've done that before but had to today as I forgot to pair my rear light with the GPS before I set off. Obviously won't be doing that again and as the device is end of life, no fix will be forthcoming from Garmin.

[mr brightside]

I'm by absolutely no means an authority to speak about depression, mental stuff, or being single...

From what i know about you MrB you can easily hold a conversation, and some might say you even have "the gift of the gab"..... i know of a couple of people who have openly described you as "a real character"..... all i can say is don't be afraid to strike up a conversation with anyone, however small... its all good practice

I'd always seen myself as quite a shy guy but just striking up conversations with random people in daily life, doesn't half make you feel like you can chat to anyone.... and if you do get round to asking a woman out, if they're anyway decent people, even if they're not interested they won't take offence... i know from experience, and one of my better friends at the moment is a woman who i asked out and she said no!

I've recently been chatting to a woman in the gym who is an absolute stunner... beautiful, Italian descent, nice to talk to... i doubt i'll get round to asking her out (mainly because i don't think its heading in that direction), but if you told me 5 years ago i'd be bowling up to some gorgeous woman in the gym and just start chatting to her with no hesitation, i'd have not believed it... it really is just small steps.

I guarantee next time you're queueing in the bar at the Craven Arms and you see some woman you recognise, just say hello... you might surprise yourself!

The only women i ever meet in the real world are taken, the single ones are online, but if they don't like the look of your face they don't even credit you with a knock-back. They don't have to do anything apart from register an account and wait for the messages to flood in; you contact them, not the other way around, they act like spoilt princesses. The best thing i can do is learn to be lonely, it's the only course of action with any promise in it, so i've bought a book on enlightenment that's been on my radar for years. This is why i need running so much, it's because i literally have nothing else.

50m up to the craven arms and back on sunday. It looked like a wind free day, but it was business as usual on the moors. I went over askwith moor and greenhow, running the gauntlet of SUV driving day trippers going to swinsty and fewston. It's amazing the risks they take to get past you, sometimes it makes ilkley town centre seem safe and dignified.