To quote a certain tortoise, “There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the “present”.  If that be the case, then I gave today to me :).

I’m supposed to be riding with George tomorrow but (sorry George!), she is not known for her reliability, being a very busy working mother of three.  So although consecutive days of riding is not usually my thing, preferring as I do to alternate gym sessions and riding, when the weather forecast for this morning included funny bits of yellow, it was a case of one bird in the hand being worth two in the bush.  Better to get two rides in than none, right?  Besides, Andrew put a new bottom bracket in the Cube yesterday and I wanted to make sure it was all working ok (it was!).  Excuses to ride, rather than not ride, for a change!  As Wednesdays are my day off there was no need to be away first thing, allowing me to get some chores done, drink the ever essential coffee, eat breakfast for a change, to let the grey clouds move away and the promised blue skies materialise.

And then there it was.  Sunshine.  Honest to … well … deity of some sort, if deities are your thing.  If mood can be measured on a scale, and I’m sure somewhere out there some analyst or therapist has produced one, then sunshine is always enough to lift mine by a good few points.  I don’t suffer from SAD but it can definitely make me happy :D.  How can you not ride when the weather is like that?  Especially with the current dire warnings of -15C and possible snow in the near future.  Carpe Diem!  Etc.  I could have searched for company, but I felt like I needed a ride for me.  A ride where the only person I was keeping up with me, where I could go where I wanted, and more importantly, let my head wonder as it wandered, out under the sky.  Head space is beyond important to me and, with the Christmas period and all that that entailed, it’s been sadly lacking of late.

So this ride was for me.  And very lovely it was too.  I did the seaside loop.  Me, the sunshine, my bike, and my music.  My recent time out has removed some of the contempt associated with my more familiar routes, so there’s a sense of revisiting old haunts rather than just going over old ground.  It was even a little less flat than usual.  I’m not sure I feel up to hills yet, but the only way I’ll be up to hills is to ride up some of them.  I know George has hills in mind for tomorrow so it was a good opportunity to see how much that is likely to hurt.  OK, so it was only Bleadon Hill, but I had to start somewhere, right? :).

The weather was perfect, the roads were quiet, and I felt pretty good the whole way ’round.  Weston was doing that early season attractive traditional seaside town thing, all bright colours against clear blue skies, as yet untarnished by the presence of grockles.  The old pier was marooned but sitting pretty, accompanied by the sound of waves colliding gently with what passes for beach around it.  If I hadn’t been out there to ride the bike not play spectator, I could have sat there for ages…I do love to be beside the seaside :).

Sometimes riding makes me feel like being all poetical.  However I’ve just finished a book about the lives of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and it would appear that the best poetry is only written when you’re in the middle of a hopeless love affair with the unsuitable or unattainable, or, failing that, highlighting social injustice.  Not when riding a bike.  B*gger.  I could wax lyrical, but I think Queen pretty much have that one covered.  And if that one doesn’t do it, there’s this one, or this one, or this one!  So no verse from me.  I shall quit while I’m behind.  No singing either.  Which is probably a blessing.

But I do love my music.  Not just for riding, but all the time.  (For riding safety purposes I don’t listen to it very loud, and it’s only in the left ear, so I can still hear what’s going on around me or, more importantly, coming up behind me).  I love the way music can make you smile, laugh, or cry.  Lift your mood or drop it.  (Back to that scale, right?).  It can work you up or calm you down.  The right chord progression can reach inside and pull your heart strings.  A tune you haven’t heard for ages comes with long lost memories, and the right song can give you goosebumps.  Music can even help you up hills!  I like music when it’s turned up so loud that the bass line makes your insides vibrate, like a revving Ducati.  I love driving in the sun singing along to music so loud that neither you nor I can hear me,  Another blessing?  I very rarely sing when riding, again with the whole needing to breathe thing, but it has been known.  Not in company though ;).

So today I rode my bike.  Being out made me smile.  The sun made me smile.  My music made me smile, and if it didn’t I just hit “next track”!  Smiley faces all around 🙂 🙂 :).

Cycling time: 1:51:54 hrs
Distance: 28.39 miles
Avs: 15.2 mph.
ODO: 15629.28 miles

To continue my today being for me theme, once I’d made myself presentable for re-integration into the non-cycling community, I went into Cheddar in the afternoon, browsed the charity shops, and had coffee and gluten free lemon cake at the Community Café.  Because I’m worth it ;).