Snow riding within the M25

We have been suffering from cold weather and snow for the last few days in the Southest of England. That means no road cycling for us - the risk of slipping and sustaining an injury is far too high and not worth it.

Unfortunately I had to cancel my audax plans for this weekend also, meaning just one last chance to fit in a 200 km this January next Saturday. However, snow and cold weather has its benefits: it is great for mountain biking and areas that are normally too wet/muddy become ridable again.

Along the Lee Valley canal, -2C

Dan and I set off from our doorsteps, and rode all the way to Epping Forest along the canal path, making it a pretty much traffic-free day. The way to the Forest was bitterly cold, and soon started to snow, first lightly, then quite moderately. We felt fine and relatively warm, but our fingers were getting uncomfortably cold. So much that we decided to warm up in a café until the temperatures rose to balmy -1C.

Rolling into the Forest

Snack stop

The Forest was quieter than usual, being a Sunday. The snow remained soft throughout the day, and it was nice to ride on it while on the broad paths. However, our attempts to take on the singletrack weren't successful. Firstly, they were pretty much invisible, and secondly, they had a thick layer of wet mud underneath the crust of snow that made them a pain to ride on.

Soft snow has a good grip, if you have knobbly tyres

Obligatory picture before heading back home

We rode for about 15 km in the Forest, mostly on broad paths, and it did feel like a good work out with all attempts to take the narrower singletrack. When on the broad paths, it was fairly easy rolling and the grip was pretty good - certainly a nice experience if you happened across soft snow - surely not so good when it ices up!

By 11:30 am we decided to turn back home, and by then, we had endured more than 3 hours of continuous snow. The canal path was completely covered by snow, as was the water itself, but that made for a nice ride back. Not many cyclists had been on it yet, but as the snow was still soft and fluffy, we had no trouble averaging more than 20 km/h on the return leg.

Heading back. On the right, the frozen and snow-covered canal

When I got home, we'd clocked up more than 60 km, which, for a ride like today's, was certainly a good work out and better than originally anticipated.

My kit held up ok, although both toes and fingers suffered a bit from the cold. In such conditions it is normal for people to use bike mittens or even ski gloves. I just took liners and winter gloves, but that did not do the trick. They got wet far too early, and with the wind, my fingers felt painful for a good while. I learnt my lesson for the next time.

My toes, however, seemed all right - I had thick wool socks and theoretically water-proof sealskinz socks. I wore my only mtb shoes, which are meant to be summery ones, with plenty of ventilation. As I was showering, I could feel the tingle on my toes, and they seemed far too red. Perhaps I could do with overshoes on the next cold ride?

The bike. A good cleanup will be needed...

The rider. It was cold and snowing

We couldn't convince Lucy that five hours of snow biking was a fun way to spend a day, but she earned some machaca points too when she went out for a run later in the afternoon, as the snow continued to fall.

A weekday solo mtb ride

On a very sunny and crisp morning I decided to change my routine. I would go for a ride in the morning, and work in the afternoon and into the evening on my thesis. One of the (very) few advantages of grad school I guess...

Having been to Epping Forest a few days earlier, I knew the conditions would be similar: mud. But very soon I realized that they may actually be a little different. The canals that head North from East London had completely frozen. Not a usual sight in London, but there we go...

-1 degrees C

After 50 min of riding along the canal, I found myself in a very frosty Epping Forest. The puddles and mud were completely frozen. Although quite pleasant initially, it became much worse towards the northern part of the park. Massive furrows had formed in the mud and some had started to melt. That meant at least two falls while trying to ride on that. After less than 1h of riding I was completely exhausted. And I was not even half way through the loop I had planned.

Man it was cold...!

Trying to follow that innocent black path proved nearly impossible due to mud

Eventually I made it up to the top of the park, where you can see, well, hear, the M25. The way back down was a lot of fun. It was already 2 pm and did not want to ride at night on the canal. But there was still plenty of singletrack that I wanted to explore! One of the advantages of cycling by yourself is that you are free to make decisions. So I stuck to the plan and continued on the narrow paths despite risking getting back to London on the late side. Following the gps was difficult however, and many times I was confronted with (the lack of) paths like this one.

Trying to decide which way to go

Not a bad place for a weekday morning...

Right before leaving the park I found an interesting sight...Difficult to imagine how bad the wind was the day this tree collapsed...

I guess it was the wind!?

Past 3 pm I was already riding back along the canal. But before reaching home, I had to do the English thing and stopped for tea (coffee) and cake. It really tasted great! Overall, I was on the bike for 4 h, rode about 64 km from door to door (of which 30 km were on gravel and ~20 km on muddy singletrack). The average speed was 15.7 km/h (substantially lower than that of any normal road ride). Somewhere on that day I hit 42 km/h. This park is really quite nice, but not very suitable for winter riding especially those singletracky sections. And all within the M25! At 5 pm I was back typing on my laptop. The route was as shown below:

Mud, Sweat, and Gears

On Sunday we took the mountain bikes out for their first ride of 2012. We know we'll have to put in a lot of kilometers on them when we do the Camino, so we figured we'd better get started training!

We're experiencing somewhat of a cold snap right now (or maybe it's just an 'average' snap rather than the above average temperatures we've had so far this winter), so I was definitely apprehensive about the weather.  Hearing Alberto's stories of his frozen water bottle and painful hands from the day before did not help! We layered up our jerseys, Buffs, even our gloves and filled our Camelbaks. I reminisced about last year at this time, when I told Alberto that I was unwilling to ride in anything lower than 10 degrees C (50 F) -- hah! Here I am heading out on a day with a forecasted high of 6 degrees (42 F)!

All layered up

We waited until about 10:30 to get on the road, by which time most of the frost was gone from central London, and headed up to Epping Forest, our favorite mountain biking destination within easy reach of London. It takes about an hour by bike to get there, but it's a pleasant ride, mainly along canal towpaths.

Once in Epping, we mainly stayed on the larger trails, which had the advantage of allowing us to go faster, thus using some aerobic energy and keeping us warm, but had the disadvantage of being popular with walkers (with associated dogs and children) and horse riders. Oh well, we better get used to it for the Camino!

Epping Forest is famous for its muddy conditions in the winter, so we were not surprised to encounter mud--on the single track sections but also on the bigger paths. Some of it was frozen over, but other parts were definitely not! Alberto said my tires are better for muddy conditions, because they allow the mud to escape rather than getting trapped in the treads, but it seemed to me that the mud was just 'escaping' all over me! By the time we were done with the ride my entire body was covered in mud splatter -- but I guess that's what real mountain biking is all about.

This is why mudguards were invented

There are a lot of great hills in Epping Forest, which was good because we both need to get back in shape! The hills were tough and by the end of the day we were both really feeling it in our legs. But it was so great to be back on the bikes again, and a great way to enjoy a rare sunny winter's day.

2011's Magic Moments on a Bike

2011 was a great year for me in relation to cycling. It was only my second year of cycling and there were so many new and wonderful experiences. I thought it would be nice to pick out my five favorite moments of cycling this year. Here they are, in chronological order...

#1: Big hills in the Peak District
We went to the Peak District for four days over 'Royal Wedding Weekend' in April and had a fantastic time. We had sunny skies, well-paved roads, and beautiful views. On our first day (only a half-day of cycling) we cycled from Derby to Matlock over some massive hills. And I made it up all of them! I was still getting used to the new road bike, which was so much lighter than my hybrid. I have walked up a fair few hills since then, but making the whole ride without walking was a big rush.

#2: Dawn on the way to Dunwich
The entire Dunwich Dynamo (in July) was magic, but during the second half of the ride, dawn began to break at around 4:00am as we cycled eastwards towards the sea. The ride had spread out after the halfway stop, so we were on our own, cycling through deserted roads. It wasn't quite light yet, but we could start to get a better sense of our surroundings with the sunlight coming over the horizon. It really felt special.

#3: Watching the deer in Richmond Park
In August, we went to Richmond Park to watch the London-Surrey Cycle Classic. Afterwards we cycled around the park and stopped to read in the grass in a quiet area. Soon after, an entire herd of deer came walking right past us, crossed the road, and disappeared into the woods on the other side. It was a really special moment, as the deer emerged one by one out of the woods, looked both ways before crossing the road (I swear!), and then walked on. We would never have seen that if we hadn't cycled.

#4: The last 500 meters up the hill to Newlands Corner Carpark
I had my highs and lows on our 200km audax in October, but one moment I will never forget is the last 500 meters before the finish. We were cycling up a hill so the meters were passing slowly, and Alberto was watching the route on his GPS. He kept shouting out how long we had left to encourage me to keep pedaling. We rolled into the carpark with 30 minutes to spare, and became randonneurs!

#5: That one minute in Epping Forest...
...where I actually felt like I knew what I was doing on my mountain bike! I've only had a few chances to take the mountain bike out so far, and have spent most of the time either terrified, walking my bike over tough sections, or falling off. But there was one moment at the end of our first time out to Epping Forest in October when I, just for a second, got it. I was cycling along the path smoothly, "letting the bike do the work," and I glimpsed what all the fuss is about with mountain biking.

Well, there you have my top five cycling moments of 2011. Roll on 2012!

The Expert on the Trails

Last weekend I finally got the chance to try out my new mountain bike, the Corratec Expert XVert. Having never ridden an actual mountain bike I was a little apprehensive... but it turned out great!

We headed out a bit late (as always) and rode some canal towpaths out to Epping Forest in northeast London. We picked up the Regent's Canal about a mile from our place, and then connected to the Lee Navigation and followed it up to Epping. It's a lovely scenic ride although it always takes longer than you would hope as you have to dodge walkers, joggers, children, pets, etc. 

When we got to Epping Forest, the entrance we arrived at was what Alberto later referred to as a 'technical uphill'. Of course I didn't know this as I charged ahead up the hill, loving the existence of my triple chainring, until my front wheel lost traction with the ground and I had barely enough time to catch myself before I fell over! That's how I learned that when going uphill on the MTB, you need to lean forward and try to put weight on the front wheel. 

After that incident just to enter the forest, I was starting to feel a bit nervous for what my first MTB session had in store for me. As we went along through the beautiful scenery, I found it hard to just relax and enjoy myself. I spend all my time on the road bike watching out for hazards and trying to avoid cycling over them. Now, the entire surface that I was cycling on was made of hazards, and that was the point!

We had a 27km route through the forest planned, but it soon became apparent that with all my paranoia, we were going too slowly to have any hope of accomplishing that! Instead we just focused on trying to get more confident on the trails, with Alberto giving me tips as we went along. Mainly he just said "relax and let the bike do all the work," which I had no idea what he was talking about! He said that there was an error on my bike where it says 'Expert' along the crossbar.

I did start to relax a bit towards the end of the ride though. I started to see what the fun could be about and also started to feel more confident on different types of hazards, although I was still dismounting a fair bit when something seemed too tricky to navigate. 

I escaped the day with only one proper fall, which left me with some impressive bruises on one leg, but other than that unscathed!

We had to head back on the early side, but we stopped for a snack at a canalside cafe where we also discovered that our GPS unit can do navigation (like a car GPS), which we never knew! We found a quicker way home through the backstreets of north London. It was a short adventure in Epping, though we did manage to put in 60km, but I definitely look forward to my next trip out on the trails!