A picture may well paint a thousand words, but it’s very hard to take a photo that can convey wide open landscapes and low autumn sunshine.  Well, it’s very hard for me anyway.  I was willing to give it a go, but was thwarted by an unexpected lack of batteries.  Oops.  Luckily for you my Crackberry has a camera.  Not as good as the real thing, but not bad.

I could tell you about my route, but you’ll have heard it all before, since I’ve cycled it all before, many times.  To be fair, I’ve spent so much time lately trying to not do my usual routes that it’s been a while since I’ve done it.  There is also something to be said for knowing exactly where you’re going and how long it will take, especially when you have other places to be later on and don’t need to be adding uncertainty to your day.  Besides which, it’s nice out there on the Levels :).

So.  Today we shall talk about animals.  About herons playing “you can’t see me” until they reluctantly take flight as you get too close.  Starlings in their multitudes, murmuring around the fields feeding to build up energy for their evening performance.  The buzzard in the tree above you that doesn’t bother flying away, secure in the knowledge that you can’t get up to where he is, and even if you could by the time you got there he’d be long gone.

Half way around the Levels I had an enforced break.  Enforced by cows.  As a landrover passed me going the other way, I noticed the driver was busy looking over his shoulder.  I looked ahead, and noticed a large herd of the black and white variety heading towards me.  Been here before.  Which can be messy.  And a tad disconcerting.  Cows are more dangerous than you’d think, not to mention being exceptionally stupid, and I prefer to steer well clear, so I pulled over to the next field entrance, parked the bike by the gate, and sat on it.  The gate, not the bike.  Very comical.  Cows to the left of me, cows to the right, and there I was, stuck in the middle with you.  Well, thinking of you, dear reader.  I pulled out my phone, and took photos to capture the moment so that you could admire the cows too.  Wasn’t that nice of me? 😉

cows approach - see the low sun?

cows to the right of me

cows to the left of me

gert lush cows 🙂

Come to think of it the red cows were even on the port side.  How very apt.  I was between a rock and hard place for a while, and was quite glad of my lofty position as the bull and his entourage fancied paying me rather more attention than I was comfortable with.  After some yelling, tooting, and whistling from either end of the cow convoy, they moved on.  As they passed, the farmer and I exchanged greetings, which was nice, since I’d afforded him a considerable degree of amusement by perching up there.

Break over, and I was back on my way home.  I came over Mudgeley Hill, and added the Nyland loop.  More animals.  The two little dogs running free down the road and yapping at my wheels.  The owner chasing after them apologised, and explained they were rescue dogs that she was unsuccessfully trying to train.  May I suggest a lead would work wonders?!  Then there was the mighty fine Nyland Farm turkey basking in the sun by the side of the road, whose days must surely be numbered…

I took the main road back into Cheddar which, thanks to today’s strikes closing the local schools, was as busy as a Saturday, and full of children. Who aren’t animals, though they do occasionally flock together in similar fashion.  There were hordes of them, if not herds… ;).  Time to get home as fast as I could, just for fun…

Cycling time: 2:01:19 hrs
Distance: 33.41 miles.
Avs: 16.5 mph
ODO: 11215 miles

I christened my lovely new winter jacket, which is indeed very lovely as it kept me warm yet wicked all that icky sweat away nicely so I didn’t feel overheated.  I drank Torq all the way ’round.  I kept my effort level pretty consistent, and didn’t slack off, even in the face of some rather annoying wind.  It was, all in all, a perfectly satisfactory ride.  In the sun.  Can’t be bad. 🙂

So time to ride again.  It looked a mite chilly out there first thing this morning, so what better time to try out my new jersey?  Did I not mention I had a new jersey?  Ah – time to explain then.  See, I am becoming a massive Rapha convert.  However I have yet to win the lottery so my meagre collection only extends as far as my Etape jersey, which clearly I had to have and which started me off, and a t-shirt that was a gift from the people behind sportive.com for the possible inclusion of my Etape blog on their website.  Both of them are very, very, lovely.  Which led me to thinking that maybe I’d like some more.

Now in the absence of disposable funds, this clearly means investigating other avenues, staring with ebay.  Unsurprisingly I am not the only person to have considered this, and competition for those few Rapha items there is fierce, with the prices getting out of my reach fairly quickly.  Time for Plan B.  Having the odd contact out there, I approached the twitterverse, and a nice lady from Condor who I met at the Cyclosport party.  Amazingly it turns out she had a nearly new men’s long sleeve jersey going spare, that she very kindly offered to post to me.  I can’t tell you how excited I was, and probably shouldn’t anyway since it is without doubt sad to get that excited about new cycling kit *grin*.  To gild the lily, when it arrived it fitted me perfectly.  How fabulous is that?

my "new" rapha jersey

Having tried it on and marvelled at the fit, comfort, and so on, I was dying to get an opportunity to wear it, and the degree of perceived chill out there this morning provided the perfect excuse.  There, have I explained myself?  Now all I need is for it to get cold enough out there for me to get the new winter jacket out.  Not Rapha but also very lovely :).

Which, dear reader, sees me heading out at 9:00am ish, clad in the aforementioned jersey plus gilet, on my way to pick up George at her place again.  Deja vu?  In consideration of George’s handicap I was thinking we’d probably stick to the flat, so I threw in Notting Hill again on the way there, just to scratch my hill itch.  I was right, and we did indeed stick to the flat.  Back down the way I’d come, out via the Webbington, around Brent Knoll, to Burnham, back through Mark and, in my case, home via the Nyland loop.

For some reason I was finding it hard work today.  George is back to her usual inexorable speed on the flat, but I resisted the temptation to drop back and made myself stick alongside her and chat as usual.  But it still shouldn’t have been as hard as it was.  There was quite a bit of wind around from time to time, and never in our favour, which possibly didn’t help.  I was also much thirstier than usual, which was weird.  Excuses excuses.

Cycling time: 2:15:06 hrs
Distance: 36.28 miles.
Avs: 16.0 mph
ODO: 11150 miles

I got home, got off the bike, and instantly realised I was a complete wreck!  Totally wiped out.  Judging by my inability to use my hands properly, or my brain for that matter, I think I’d possibly become a lot colder than I realised, even in my snug and immensely comfortable jersey.  Just not enough layers?  I didn’t feel cold when I was out there, but I’ve made this mistake before.  You’re supposed to learn from your mistakes, right? 😉  Ever since then, even having had a restorative nap, I’ve been feeling a bit like a lethargic zombie.

Thursday.  I never could get the hang of Thursdays…

Regular readers may be aware of the fact that I gave up drinking to train for the Etape, and I’ve never really gone back to it.  I don’t abstain completely though, and have the occasional weekend off.  This weekend was one of them, up to and including a few glasses of white wine at the pub after Town Council last night.  I should therefore have been feeling fairly ropey this morning and I woke up fully expecting to pay the price for my over-indulgence.  But after a cup of coffee and some tentative engagement with the world, it turned out that I was fine.  Result!  My husband was not feeling quite so blessed, as his text upon arrival at work informed me.  I got to tell him how good I was feeling, he got to tell me there’s no justice in the world *grin*.

There is however a world of difference between feeling good sitting in bed drinking coffee and feeling good out there riding the bike, so I wasn’t yet counting any chickens.  Mim had proposed a 3 hour ride with the Old Bristol Road hill and a coffee stop, and considering the speed she can go at, that could have been two challenges too far.  She was late getting to my house, which is just as well as it gave me time to drink more coffee and to get some work done before we left.  Outside the weather was foggy, but warm, with hints of potential around the edges. I was getting too hot just walking around the house in my many layers, so opted to pare things down to short sleeve jersey, arms, and gilet, which worked out fine on Saturday, and as it turned out, was the right choice today too.

We left at 9:30am or thereabouts and since, as it turns out, we were going to meet a couple of other cyclists on the Wells – Wedmore road, that was where we headed.  No wind, as warm as expected, with wet roads. Fairly pleasant really.  I will admit that the first 20 minutes or so weren’t all that pleasant as we warmed up, but not much worse than usual and apparently there really is no justice, as I was feeling fine in no time.  We met up with Brian and Mike as arranged, and after the usual cyclist’s “where shall we go and how?” faff, at which point the gilet came off, we headed off again.  At this time of year it’s kinda better to stick to the more major roads, as the littler ones are covered in crap – frequently literally – and aren’t a whole heap of fun.  We went straight from Wedmore to Wells, in watery sunshine, chatting away and not going too fast.  Since our proposed coffee stop was over near Chew Valley lake there was the small matter of the Mendips to get over.  Having done the Old Bristol Road on Saturday, we decided to go straight up the A39 Bristol Hill.  Brian and Mim may have dropped me, but by the top I really wasn’t far behind, and I wasn’t the last up there either.  Having suffered going up here in the past I kept expecting it to get worse, and it just never did!  In fact it was a nice slow steady climb all the way to the top.  My kind of hill :).

We then got the blissful hurtle and descent down into Chew Mendip, where Mike peeled off and we turned left towards Litton and our coffee stop.  Gotta love a good long straight descent :D.  I was totally back in my happy zone now, and really enjoying myself, even when I wasn’t going downhill.  We took a nasty mucky little detour to cut the corner to coffee, leaving me grateful not to have washed the bike before I went out, yet guaranteeing that I was going to have to wash it when I got back.  Ah well.  Coffee was lovely and just what I needed, although considering the state we were in I think we horrified some of the more civilised clientele!   There were many options discussed for getting home, from the contour detours to keep it flat, to the nastiest of hills, and I opted for the East Harptree option.  Having descended it on Saturday I quite fancied doing it the other way, even if it was hard work last time I did it, with the ACG.  OK, so it wasn’t easy but, again, I kept expecting it to be proper horrible and it just wasn’t.  Maybe, just maybe, I’m getting better at this?  *grin*.  From there, having been out a couple of hours already, we came straight home across the top and down Cheddar Gorge, which also went well.  It would appear that today was a good day at the office :).

We parted company in Cheddar, and I headed for home in the usual fashion – fast down the bypass.  According to bikely which it would appear is more accurate for such things than bikeroutetoaster, that’s c. 2380 ft of climbing.  GB did Saturday’s route on Sunday and discovered my 2800ft climbing as estimated by the latter was actually 3800ft – which doesn’t surprise me as it felt like a lot of climbing!  So that’s plenty of climbing then, and quite a bit today.  I feel the need to keep doing hills to keep proving to myself that I can do them, and today I could :).

Cycling time: 2:29:10 hrs
Distance: 39.40 miles.
Avs: 15.8 mph
ODO: 11114 miles

There was no avoiding it, my bike had to be cleaned.  Muck and dirt in many layers were fairly swiftly dealt with by Muc-off as ever, but it still took quite a while to get the bike looking presentable again, and it took nearly as long to do the same for me.  White jersey, rolled up arms, no mudguards = splatter fest *grin*.

Today’s blog is brought to you by the Four Tops.  Hang in there, it’ll all make sense in the long run.

Earlier this week GB discovered a new hill.  I kinda fancied checking it out myself, but with him.  Well, if he’s not there, we can’t name it after him, now can we?  However I could ride today, he can ride tomorrow, and these two things are not compatible.  Time to choose another route.  Since I’d already been thinking of hills, then clearly it had to be a hilly ride, right?  So I planned myself a hilly ride.  A bit like my hilliest training loop but with another hill thrown in for good measure.  I have no idea why it seemed like a good idea.  And I have no idea why I was quite so keen on doing it either, as I think it may be a little early to be training for the Maratona.  But ours is not to reason why, right?  I posted my proposed route in the usual social media kind of places, but I couldn’t persuade anyone to join me.  Still, this did have the advantage that I could please myself as to when I left and what I did and the speed I was going to do it at, so I figured it wasn’t the end of the world.

Which would probably explain why I was on the road and on my way by 8:30am this morning.  Well I didn’t sleep well, so it was kind of a relief to get up and get going.  Besides, I was quite excited about my hills :).  I know, I know, what little is left of my sanity is clearly deserting me!  I was dressed for chilly and hilly – short sleeve jersey, arms (which you can roll up and down) and gilet.  Perfect, as it turns out.  See, layers is always the answer ;).

So.  Let’s start with Shipham Hill.  I deliberately didn’t push it as I knew I had a lot of climbing ahead of me, and I lost time in the Square trying to stop my longs sticking to my strapped up knee, so no records were broken today.  I plodded my way up to the top, glad I’d decided to set out feeling a tad cold because I certainly wasn’t by the top.  One up done, time for one lovely down, to Langford, before turning right and heading back to the Mendips.  As I cycled along into the sun I was painfully aware of the fact that if I was being blinded by the sun, so were any drivers coming up behind me, which was a tad worrying – so there was lots of precautionary checking over my right shoulder.

Duly warmed up it was time for the second climb of the day – Burrington Combe – still shrouded in darkness.  Which, once my eyes had adjusted, was a blessing really, as I felt a lot less vulnerable.  It was time for another quiet, slow, happy plod.  As it was still fairly early it was relatively traffic free, which was good as it can be a bit of a nightmare going up there as all the lorries try and cut over the top to Wells.  Only one of those today, and he passed at a relatively respectful distance, which was nice.  The same cannot be said for all the cars but hey ho, no news there.

Burrington Combe

As I neared the top the light from the sun was doing much the same, leaving me to do a sort of spiritual cyclist heading into the light kind of thing :).  I also discovered I can take photos while riding the bike – as long as I’m going uphill or on the flat that is.  Downhill I most definitely still need both hands.  It was all very scenic, but Autumn is definitely on its way out.  Most of the leaves are gone now, apart from the odd desultory orange leaf clinging on here and there (now there’s a good word!).

The aerial...without all the domes. Weird.

Having been warned to be careful of descending into Compton Martin, and, to be truthful, not entirely paying attention to where I was going, I ended up tweaking my route and dropping down into East Harptree instead, which was actually a much nicer descent, and totally cut out the A368 which is never a bad thing.  As I descended the sun went behind clouds, the temperature dropped a good three degrees, and my fingers were icy by the time I got to the bottom *brrr*.  Time to roll those arms back down again then!  I then got to spend some time on the relative flat, going a bit faster to warm up, making my way past Litton to Chewton Mendip.

It's another sign...

Chewton Mendip church with sun rising behind it. Oh, and sheep.

Right, must be time for another climb – this time all the way up the main road to the hill above Wells.  It’s the A39, or the New Bristol Road I guess.  Busy as ever, full of people desperate to get to Wells as quickly as possible.  There were several sharp intakes of breath, and quite a lot of internal tutting went on…but I managed not to actually swear at anyone, which I’ll have you know was quite an achievement.  Instead I pootled my way along, admiring the scenery, maintaining my sangfroid.  Well there are some nice trees up there, it was a bit warmer again, and I was on my bike.  Can’t be bad, right?

Cedar trees are my favourite.

I took a breather up near the top, ostensibly to take yet another photo, but also to make sure I was keeping hydrated and eating.  You don’t get up all those hills on oxygen alone you know.  I’m still trialling various bars and drinks, with no firm conclusions reached yet.

Trees. Mostly. Spot the odd one out?

Now for the bit I was really looking forward to.  Yes, the same descent the ACG did last week, through West Horrington.  And it was just as much fun as last weekend.  Well maybe a little less as I wasn’t trying to catch/beat anyone *grin*.  Since I arrived in Wells with a smile on my face, I thought I’d change my route and take in the Cathedral.  Clearly the Cathedral wasn’t expecting this, as if it had been, it would have been wearing scaffolding.  Well, it usually is!  Having caught it off guard, it was denuded of its usual metal work.  See – I can prove it!

Wells Cathedral

So that was three hills done.  One more to go, and it’s always a doozy.  Yep, time to go up Old Bristol Hill again.  Definitely the steepest of today’s climbs, and pretty hard work, but I just kept the pedals turning, the wheels on the bike went round and round, and slowly but surely I made my way to the top.  As I turned left towards Priddy, past the distinctive aroma of wood smoke from the Hunters Lodge, I became a bird.  A small flock of starlings took flight and joined me and for a little while we flew along together, in tesselated formations so tight that Escher would be jealous.  Oddly uplifting.  The sort of thing that makes you laugh out loud just at the joy of it all.  Just as well there was no-one around to hear me.  🙂  They left me, and I carried on my merry way to the last descent of the day down Cheddar Gorge.  It was even one of my better days for doing that – probably helped by the fact that I was on my own, there were no cars behind me, and I could just get on with doing it rather than worrying about being seen to do it wrong!  I passed various other cyclists going up, and a little bit of me did observe that clearly they were slackers as I’d already climbed the Mendips four times and was going home as they were just starting out *grin*.  Me – smug? Never ;).

From Cheddar to home was no distance at all, especially when it’s effectively flat, so I hurtled home feeling very pleased with myself.  I set myself a goal, and I achieved it.  Yes, ok, it wasn’t that impressive, but it was 2,800 feet of climbing in 40 miles, which isn’t small change.  Four climbs.  Four tops.  Well, ok, Four climbs, to essentially the same top, but you get the point right? *grin*.

Cycling time: 2:49:08 hrs
Distance: 41.17 miles.
Avs: 14.5mph
ODO: 11075 miles

I was not in a good mood this morning.  Hey, if you could see the state of my daughter’s bedroom, neither would you be!  OK, it wasn’t just that, but we’re definitely talking straws and the broken backs of camels.  So it’s a darn good thing I had a ride planned, as there is no better way of clearing the cobwebs away, and of getting some head space and perspective.  Of course the fact that the sun was shining was an added incentive, and I was feeling better within about two minutes of leaving the house.  I picked up George from her place as arranged, stripped off a couple of already superfluous items (buff and gilet arms) and we headed south for the winter.

It was gorgeous out there as you will see for yourself.  Practically no wind, blue skies, sunshine…absolutely beautiful.  George is still recovering from her knee op so we were taking it fairly easy.  I got to go up some hills – Notting Hill, Woolavington Causeway, Priory Road, Pedwell Hill, Mudgeley Hill, and Lascot Hill.  Which makes it sound really hilly, but it was only 1160 feet of climbing.  But I enjoyed it.  Look at me – deliberately making a route to include hills as opposed to avoiding them.  Haven’t I come a long way? *grin*

Water near Woolavington - see how much wind there wasn't?

Water at Westhay - no starlings though

Top of Mudgley Hill

It's a sign...

Now I lay me down to sleep...

Rug Hill - it's pretty much all downhill from here 🙂

So you can see how lovely it was out there, right?  I was out longer than I’d expected but didn’t notice as I was having such a nice time just being on the bike.   I keep not going for a ride because of the weather, the timing, the lack of light, the moon being in aquarius, whatever…  Maybe I need to make more of an effort to just get out there.  It’s all training, and it’s definitely good for the head.  I feel much better now :).

Cycling time: 2:31:00 hrs
Distance: 38.03 miles.
Avs: 15.0 mph
ODO: 11033 miles

PS: for the observant of you, that’s another 1000 miles on the odometer, and under the belt :).

I went for a recovery ride with Mim today.  Just a couple of hours of essentially flat.  It was a cold, grey, drab day, and it wasn’t the most exciting ride in the world ever by quite some way.  Let’s face it, there is not a lot of new and exciting to be had around here ride-wise these days.  But at least I was on my bike.  Surprisingly my legs were feeling pretty good too, unless I attempted to sprint or the up was a steep one.  As ever I am impressed by how much the human body can do, and keep doing, on very little.  Yes, for the first few miles my quads were aching and, as I said, there wasn’t a lot in them today, but my legs were still there.  They were still going around at, considering the amount of talking going on, a fairly respectable speed.  For a couple of hours I was out of the house, riding my bike.  And that’s a good thing :).

Cycling time: 1:51:29 hrs
Distance: 29.08 miles.
Avs: 15.6 mph
ODO: 10950 miles

When the alarm goes off at 4:10am on a Sunday morning, it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s a sportive day, and today was no exception.  In fact today’s Wiggle Devil’s Punch Bowl Sportive was probably the last of this year’s season too (*sob*).  Having pretty much gotten the hang of getting myself ready and out of the door by now, I was on the road a bit before 5:00am.  2 1/2 hours, one sunrise, two owls, one fox, several bats and one badger later, with a quick stop in West Meon to eat my muesli, and I was at the Hollycombe Working Steam Museum, from whence the event started.  Amusingly entrance was being intermittently blocked by randomly wandering peacocks, which is hard to beat for sheer novelty – you don’t get a lot of peacocks at sportives!

The steady stream of arriving cars parked up on the grass, discharging cyclists from nice warm cars into very cold early morning air.  Air that was being moved around quite a bit by a very wintry wind.  Nice.  However after registering and hiding in the back of my car a bit I acclimatised a bit.  Besides, I had one set of kit options and one only and I was wearing them.  Well, it saves on faffing right?

Look - there really were peacocks!

Traction engine marks the start of the car park

After a quick briefing, including a warning about leaves on the line (sorry, road), we were away a little after 8:00am.  And man, was it ever nippy for the first few miles until we’d warmed up!  Even after that it was never precisely balmy.  Did I forget to mention we were a we?  My L2P friend Kevin, living considerably nearer to the venue than I, came along for the ride ;).  Anyway my kit choice turned out to have been correct – all bar the lack of overshoes, which is hardly my fault since I’ve ordered some but they’re not here yet.  I can’t wear what I don’t have, now can I?  Sadly this did mean my feet and I parted company at some point and weren’t happily reunited until quite some time after the end of the ride.  However I don’t need to be able to feel my toes to pedal, so it’s not as bad as it sounds.  It may have been chilly but it was dry, and fairly bright, which considering that it’s now November, is pretty darned good I’ll have you know, and way more than you can count on, so I don’t want to sound ungrateful :).

It was an uneventful ride.  Lots of rolling up and down.  Not massive amounts of climbing but plenty enough for my third day in a row of riding, and there were some very lovely descents too – albeit approached carefully as advised and warned by the ample “caution” signs.  There were plenty of autumnal colours going on.  Pretty property.  Pretty impressive property.  BMW owners very keen to reinforce all the stereotypical views of BMW drivers (job done!).  The closest encounters of a dangerous kind were with a flash burgundy Porsche (now there’s a surprise), and a cream Smart Car.  However the Smart Car’s turbulence made all the yellow leaves on the road dance and swirl around in a most attractive fashion so I’m half inclined to let him off ;).

Isn't it pretty? Spot the rider in the distance?

I bet this place calls itself a cottage...

Holiday cottage? 😉

Several things made me smile today.  Want to see?

Pumpkins. Obviously 🙂

Bet he has a BMW...

Yes. But...

…at least what goes up must come down, right? *grin*.  And it was the North, and South, Downs.  And ups ;).

Towards the end of the ride the sun came out, and we picked up a couple of hangers on, after overtaking one of them at speed downhill.  Apparently this isn’t good for the fragile male ego so they felt the need catch up, overtake, and then drop back and tailgate us.  Which is all very well if you’re going to take your turn at the front but if you’re not…shame on you!  *tut tut*.  On one of my turns at the front we hit a stretch of up at speed, which made my knees ache and my quads burn, which I’m guessing is a lactic acid thing.  That’s the second time that’s happened lately – and it’s new to me.  The novelty is wearing off very quickly!  Towards the end of the route there were a couple of final kicker hills and I slipped back since I didn’t see why we should dragging our parasites all the way to the end.  After those, the last climb up the drive to the end demonstrated that there was absolutely nothing left in my legs.  Zero, zilch, zip.  Nada.  Just as well I didn’t need them anymore really *grin*.  Kevin had crossed the line a little ahead of me, and we grabbed our goodie bags and sat in the sun on a bench until I’d recovered my equilibrium sufficiently to go back to the car and get back into civvies.  Final ride of the season – done!  Never say never though ;).

Cycling time: 4:24:53 hrs
Distance: 71.18 miles.
Avs: 16.3 mph
ODO: 10920 miles

Gold standard was 4:35.  Will we have made it?  Well we didn’t stop at the food stops, but we did stop and take photos, and we obeyed traffic lights like the good little cyclists we are.  I pushed for some, but not all, of the time.  You know how it is, enjoy the bits you can to make up for the bits you can’t!  So I guess we’ll see when the results are published tomorrow…ooh, the suspense!  *grin*.  It was a really well run event, and we had a lovely morning’s ride.  What more can you ask for? 🙂

UPDATE: b*gger – missed Gold by 3:46!!!  How close is that?! That’ll teach me to take so many photos! *grin*.  Ah well, Silver will have to do :).  Official time: 4:38:46.

A few more photos for good measure :

Full traction engine

Bike under pedal power, engine under steam.

The Wiggle tent in the sunshine

Sometime you just have to put one in the bank.  Yes I rode yesterday.  Yes I have a sportive tomorrow.  But I was offered the chance of a ride today, and, as I put it when asked: coffee is good, company is good, forecast is good, gym is boring…  I might have ridden better today if I hadn’t ridden yesterday.  I might ride better tomorrow if I hadn’t ridden today.  But then I wouldn’t have had the fun I had today.  Yes.  Sometime you just have to put one in the bank :).

Cycling time: 1:49:18 hrs
Distance: 32.40 miles.
Avs: 17.7 mph
ODO: 10848 miles

In case you were wondering, GB and I went to Fairyland, which lived up to its reputation as ever.  Today’s highlights are brought to you by the witch who was 5 days too late, the lady rocking a great deal of voluminous pink to go with her dreads, and the guy on a vintage Kona fixie with a fabulous “Suck my cog” sticker on it, who engaged us in conversation for rather longer than was entirely comfortable.  The coffee was as good as ever, and just as well since it was cold when we got going again and I needed the kick to sprint for a bit to warm up!  Having cycled over there rather faster than either of us had realised, we attempted to take it a little easier on the way back.  GB did his best to rein me in in consideration of tomorrow’s event, and, in a once in a blue moon, please take note, it does happen occasionally, deviation from the norm, I actually did what I was told, and sat on his back wheel for most of the way home.  Which was not quite as much fun as sitting on the wheels of the apple laden tractor that overtook us on the way out of Wedmore.  Now that was wheel sucking big stylee *grin*.  Given that it’s usually a trade off between aroma and advantage, the apples made a nice change :).  Sadly it couldn’t last, he turned right, and left us to not sprint down the usual straight and home.  Very restrained of us.  Practically unprecedented *grin*.

There you go.  That’s what riding is about.  Or should be.  It’s about enjoying it, about the company, the craic, the being out there.  And this was all of those things :).  This isn’t to say that it isn’t sometimes hard work.  But it isn’t work.  Other than in the sense that today was a good day at the office *grin*.

Since then I’ve been a good girl and drunk my recovery and eaten a rather lovely chocolate orange recovery bar.  Eldest has washed the bike again – man he’s useful! – so I just need to clean and oil the chain and check over a few things in preparation.  Oh, and faff around a lot getting my kit clean and dry, deciding what to wear, what to take, blah blah blah…which should take up the rest of the day nicely *grin*.