Beer Drinkers' Appreciation Society (BDAS) 2020 Version - ALWAYS OPEN (Page 43)

Nice work, Andrew.  I just kicked off my Tour de France challenge with a 30 mile ride on Zwift Saturday and then 30 miles outdoors yesterday.  Kept the effort in upper Z2 / lower Z3 for the most part though I did some standing sprint practices yesterday, nothing crazy.  Averaged 17.5 mph for those 30 miles without really pushing it so happy about that.

I was really starting to feel run down after 2+ easy weeks, probably some kind of taper madness.  Well, 21 days of cycling out of 23 should cure that.

We also dropped my daughter off at college (about 30 minutes from here).  So far, so good, but they start up their limited in-person classes and meetings this week.  The school is taking it quite seriously so hopefully things will go well, but I'm still expecting her to be home by the end of October .

Nice name Flanker - you blind side or open side? I've just started training with my local team and love it! Today was a coupe of hours in the park with my mate and her missus; passing drills and kicking/catching practice which was fun!

Am back at work now (in my house still) so need to work out how I am going to factor in riding my bike with wfh and also rugby training (I get sore easily and it lasts for a good few days - not used to any running/jogging type exercise so it is taking my legs a while to get used to not just pedalling or kicking (not that our pools are open either))

Hope we all doing ok, and @rollergirl - how cold would you go?

And good luck to your daughter Mike!

Booties are a g-dsend! I did ows when I lived in Manchester and ohhh cold feet make everything worse!

F*#&@!!! that's too cold for me.    I'd barely be OK in that temp in my sleeveless wetsuit.  You northern climate types are fierce!

Four stages of my personal virtual TdF done, a total of about 85 miles so far, all but one day on the trainer.  I've done two stages in Watopia (the fake world in Zwift), one outdoors here , and one in their virtual France world.  I guess I have that teleporting thing figured out or that's some serious airline travel. 

Now that Zwift has their "worlds" (they have like 10 now) posted for the month I can plan out a route/schedule that makes a little more sense geography-wise.  This week is going to be the Atlantic coast of the US (yes, I know it's a TdF but they race in Belgium, Germany, and Italy sometimes so I'm taking a little license with my made up tour...) - New York and Richmond in Zwift, Baltimore IRL.  First rest day will be Monday the 7th.  Legs feel pretty good so far, a little meh yesterday but more snap today.  I'm riding mostly around top of Z2 into Z3 with some attacks here and there, and I have some races planned at some point.

A gravel bike is probably what you're looking for.  It'll have a more relaxed geometry than a typical road bike and more clearance in the fork and the rear dropout for wider tires, plus most have disc brakes.  You can pick the type of tires based on what you're riding.  For crushed limestone you can probably just go with like 30mm road tires, or something with just a little more grip.  You won't need fat tires for that...they're more for sand like beach cruisers.

Blasphemy alert!!    I'm never against n +1 but you probably can just swap out your current tires unless your bike clearance is really narrow.  My old Fuji juuuuustt maybe could fit 30mms, definitely 28s.  I've been thinking about doing the same thing, but it has an aggressive geometry so it's not really conducive to gravel touring.  Maybe n + 1 is the answer, after all. 

YES!!!!!!

Managed a bit of riding yesterday; did a few loops by mine and around the outside of the rugby pitch (lovely smooth path) before rugby training; really, really helped with getting my legs more ready before the jogging and lunges etc started. Think I'll do more of this in the future. Just need to get some normal rides in too

Hope everyone doing ok?

@rollergirl, the Hampstead Heath ponds in London allow swimming all year round. I watched a gorgeous documentary called Swimming Through the Seasons, which shows crazies breaking the ice before swimming underneath it. ahhhhhh....

NOT convinced!