Today there were three of us.  Which is often not the greatest number, what with riding three abreast being not being practical, sensible, or even feasible most of the time.  Today however, even though I was dreading that a little in advance, it pretty much worked.  George, Mim, and I went for a ride in the sun.  This morning’s heavy frost nearly headed us off at the pass, but after a flurry of early morning texts, we decided to stick with the plan.  With skies like this, how can you not?  Ok, so on that basis it was going to be chilly out there, but it’s still sun.  Not something we’ve seen all that much of recently, right?  Gifthorse.  Mouth.  Etc.

We all have our reasons for wanting to ride.  As well as getting some sunshine, catching up with friends, today’s ride probably counted verbal therapy and expression amongst them for some.  Not so much for me though.  I wasn’t in the mood for talking. I’m bored of talking.  Some things talking does not fix.  I just wanted to ride my bike.  So I did.  Don’t get me wrong, I did join in the conversation from time to time, although probably only when directly engaged.   I’m not that anti-social.  Well, ok, sometimes I am ;).  But today I was more than happy to ride, sit on the front, and listen.  Let it all wash over me.  Push the legs that bit harder.  See if I could get up the odd hill we did a little better than sometimes.  Not get too comprehensively dropped.  Ok, so you can’t run away…but you can ride away…for a bit anyway :).

Which worked.  On several levels.  Ask Strava if you don’t believe me.  OK, it may not look that impressive, but I did good.  I’m sure Brent Knoll used to be harder.  And I tried hard back past the Webbington, and got my third best time up there.  I think the gym wattage interval training stuff is possibly showing signs of paying off, which is quite motivating.  Will try harder!  Anything that helps me go up hill better has to be a good thing :).

As we parted company, Mim commented that you could tell I was having a good day – which was presumably a compliment on my performance.  Which was nice.  Odd how sometimes you do well when exactly the opposite is true, no?

Cycling time: 1:45:56 hrs
Distance: 27.3 miles
Avs: 15.5 mph.
ODO: 15974.09 miles