Mondays are, in so far as I have one, usually my “rest” day.  However I spent yesterday having a hen spa session with the bride to be and a couple of other birds.  I tried, I did.  I tried really hard.  But I think it’s safe to say that spas are not my thing.  Pools are for swimming up and down in.  Jacuzzis bemuse me completely – if I wanted a bath I’d have one.  The pedicure did at least mean I had no choice but to sit in one place for an hour.  Enforced rest, with some form of constructive outcome – glittery matching toenails all ready for the big day on Friday.  Matching with the bride that is, because I’m her Matron of Honour.  Apart from the fact that that makes me sound as old as Methuselah, this is a very awesome thing and I’m very excited!  Imagine, a whole day that doesn’t involve wearing lycra! 😉

So Sunday was, as it used to be, a day of rest.  Which means there was no way today was going to be!  Especially since the temperature was above zero, the wind speed was in single figures, and days like that are few and far between at the moment.  Sadly it was just me though.  I could have used some company from a motivational point of view, but since no-one was around my options were limited.  Make that non-existant.  I didn’t plan anything other than the usual kind of loop, and I didn’t have any great expectations of that since these days I’m never quite sure how I’m going to feel on the bike.  This is not ideal, but actually riding the bike sometimes helps.  It distracts, and then there’s the endorphins…gotta love natural drugs :).

This is going to be a swan themed paragraph.  I think cyclists are quite like swans.  All serene and essentially motionless above the waterline/crossbar, but with legs frantically paddling/pedalling below.  So I swanned around the Levels for a couple of hours, pleasing no-one but myself :).

Three swans a-swimming

we are family

As you can see, I wasn’t the only one.  They were everywhere.  In fact I think maybe someone is farming them – there were fields of them! 😉

Swans. Not sheep. Swans.

OK, so you can’t farm swans.  Can you?  Is that like juggling jelly?  Maybe only the Queen can farm swans?  While I’m here – who did it best, Tchaikovsky or Saint Saens?  I appear to have gone off track but then it was one of those rides – your legs already know where they’re going, so your mind can swan around aimlessly *grin*.

Cycling time: 2:09:27 hrs
Distance: 33.67 miles.
AVS: 15.5 mph.
ODO: 11902 miles

My legs were actually feeling pretty good and they did fine with the odd (little) hill I threw at them – Mudgeley for example – but I think maybe I was taking it a little too easy.  I wasn’t pushing it for sure, and I was being careful as there were still patches of slush and the odd icy puddle around.  Either that or there just wasn’t as much in the tank as sometimes, because that’s really not the greatest speed for a flattish ride by myself.  But it was a ride.  A ride that was far more pleasant than I expected, as the fog cleared, the clouds thinned a little, and there was even a hint of blue up there.  Apart from a tendency for my left foot to go walkabout, the rest of me remained warm enough but not too warm, and all in all it went pretty well :).  And hey, it was a Monday.  Mondays are never great ;).  Must stop all this cycling around on the flat though – it’s time to start getting in some hills *gulp*.  Well the Dolomites aren’t flat you know!