So total stats for March –

Total distance ridden – 264.59km, most of which was in the first half of the month when I had some time off work and the weather was being uncharacteristically benign for this time of year. Unfortunately the second half of March wasn’t so productive on the riding front after a nasty cold kept me indoors for a few days and then we had a long stream of family commitments which soaked up my days off, but never mind.

Breaking that down 173.40km was on the trusty Moulton split over three glorious rides around my local lanes on the kind of fresh spring days when we get just a glimpse of the summer hopefully to come. The sunshine was weak but it was enough for most of the riders I saw out on the lanes to have exposed our pale hairy legs for the first time this year. The Moulton continues to be the bike that gets you noticed, I’m thinking of starting to keep a little notebook in my jersey pocket when I’m out on it so I can jot down some of the comments I get for prosperity. It’s certainly the only bike I’ve ever owned that gets at least one totally unsolicited comment from a total stranger almost every ride. Here’s a few of the most common ones: – ‘Whats that? did you make it yourself?’ ‘Do you have to pedal faster because the wheels are so small?’ ‘Thats really fast for a folding bike’ (usually after I’ve past another rider) ‘Whats the suspension like?’ ‘Wow I haven’t seen one of them for ages’ (usually from older gents on touring bikes wearing 3/4 length woollen bib tights). It’s definitely not a bike that blends you into the Lycra clad masses and I’m still absolutely loving riding it.

I also managed two days out off road at my usual fat tyred haunt Coed Llandegla which racked up another 53.43km in my quest to regain my MTB legs this year. I’m cautiously optimistic, my off road riding fitness is I think slowly returning (which is code for saying my back and shoulders are feeling totally destroyed at the end of every ride) and I’m ever hopeful that one day soon I’ll remember how to ride round tight right hand corners again without either falling off or bottling it and putting a foot down. I think my confidence is slowly building back up, I’m sticking firmly with the Red graded trails and not pushing the limits for the moment which means I’m also not getting as frustrated and cross with myself after every ride because I’m constantly disappointed about how crap I am these days compared with the level I used to be at (which was never that great anyway to be honest) I’m going to keep plugging away at it and maybe in another few months I’ll be back to a reasonable level of competence and fitness……

Indoor wise this was a quiet month, just two rides on Zwift totalling 37.76km. I did cram in a lot of vertical ascent though as both rides where straight up the Alpe du Zwift climb which is Zwift’s simulation of the legendary Alpe d’Huez climb which has been striking fear into the hearts of the Tour de France peloton for many years. I’ve never had the chance to ride the real climb, but I can tell you that even in the garishly pixelated world of Zwift it’s a brute of a hill. A fast time up through climb is considered to be anything around or under the hour mark and I did get close to breaking 60 minutes a couple of years ago but I’ve never been close to that sort of time since. It’s still one of my goto Zwift rides however, because despite the pain if your looking for around 60-80 minutes or so of consistent hard effort its a ride that certainly delivers that and it’s a very repeatable test of exactly where your fitness is at.

So that was March and looking ahead into April I’m hoping for more sunshine and some great days out on the bike. I think its time to exhume the Sabbath from its winter hibernation now the roads are no longer coated in so much mud and slurry around here and lets get some longer and hopefully faster rides in. Of course the planned fully rebuild of the Sabbath that was supposed to happen over the winter months never happened, its still sitting on flat tyres in the corner of my garage exactly where I left it months ago covered in dust, flecks of paint and grinding dust from working on the car. I never even got around to replacing the handlebar tape I destroyed when I crashed it last September ……. best I stop typing and get on with that then……..