It’s been one of those weeks.  Which means it’s been a non-riding week.  This is not a situation that should be allowed to continue for too long…and what better a way to rectify it than to ride with others on a sunny and wind free Saturday?  OK, so it was a bit nippy…but that’s what layers are for, and I have lots of those.  However such a combination of conditions apparently also equates to foggy…which meant much pre-ride faffing trying to find a back light in working order.  I ended up nicking MaxiMe’s rear Knog light as my Topeak one has decided that functioning is no longer something it feels like doing.  Too much British weather for it, it would appear.  Something else I need to buy for the bike then; a list the currently includes brake pads, chain, rear mech, and rear wheel…and that’s just the winter bike!  Looks like I need to start saving…*gulp*.

What with the moisture in the air and everywhere, by the time I got to the Square it was hard to tell whether it was really, really, foggy, whether my glasses were covered in mist, or whether my contact lenses were just having a bad day.  A combination of all three methinks ;).  See what I mean?

There were five of us today, which meant that deciding where to go took at least twice as long as it sometimes does.  Probably more.  I didn’t really care, as I was just happy to let someone else decide and go along for the ride, as it were, though I did have an urge to stick my fingers in my ears and sing la-de-dah everytime Martyn mentioned Canada Combe.  Be proud of me – I didn’t refuse, baulk, or veto!  Although I was tempted to follow the sign and go back to bed instead ;).

Meet my fellow riders, or three of them at any rate.  Welcome back Gary, it’s been a while.  The break hasn’t slowed you down any has it?  Then there’s no longer newbie Jon, sporting very fetching matching kit.  I’ve figured out that one of the reasons (and there are many) that he’s faster than me and makes it look so easy are that with that height his legs are at least a foot longer than mine!  And then there’s Chris (aka Figgy) performing kit origami.  We all know how fast he is!  He’ll be the one waiting for me for hours at the finish of the Quebrantahuesos with a well earned cold beer with my name on it ;).  Anyway, considering that I was in blue, weren’t we a colourful bunch?  As we represented all the primary colours, Chris reckoned if we went fast enough we’d just turn into a white blur…*grin*.  That would be a serious case of powerful imagination and/or wishful thinking…

So we rode.  And yes we did go up Canada Combe, and yes I still don’t like it.  It’s steep for chrissake!  But I made it up, slow but steady, as ever.  The legs were happier about it than my lungs were!  It was good to have the big climb of the day behind me, though I might have done it better if it had come after the 45 minutes it takes me to warm up at the moment.  I do love the long straight essentially downwards bit along the top afterwards though – much fun :).  After that it was just a matter of keeping up with everyone, because as I believe I mentioned, none of these guys are slow!  And that includes you Martyn! ;).

Our coffee stop was at the NT café at Brean Down which was, luckily, open.  We sat upstairs for the first time ever, where the views are fabulous.  Why haven’t we done that before?!  Mind you it’s cold up there, and after a while I realised I could see my own breath, and I wasn’t the only one.  With all the windows I bet it greenhouses up there in the summer, hopefully we’ll get to find out at some point :).

We took a circuitous loop home via Burnham, Highbridge, Mark…  The fog came and went, the sun shone when it could break through, and the pace ceased to abate.  But let’s be honest, I kinda like flying along in a group when I can, and working that bit harder is good for me.  I do believe I even had a few zone moments today… :D.  Even better, although I had the odd painful patch towards the end, I managed to avoid taking pills until after the ride, which has to be a good thing.  And, even better, no-one in a white van tried to run me off the road, which is a trend I’d be happy to see continue *grin*.

Cycling time: 2:16:17 hrs
Distance: 36.71 miles
Avs: 16.2 mph.
ODO: 15925.43 miles

Ok, so I’ve been riding.  I need to.  Sportives don’t happen without riding.  But where is the love?  I am so fed up with wind, and rain, and cold, and mud, and the slog…  Please let it be Spring soon?

On Friday the bike was a means to an end.  Mim and I rode to Wells and back, which achieved an errand running goal.  And we caught up on what’s been going on.  The riding bit was sort of a side dish for the main event really.  Time off the bike doesn’t seem to have slowed her down any though.  Is it just me that that happens to?  So we caught up, but not with each other!

Cycling time: 2:02:19 hrs
Distance: 32.00 miles
Avs: 15.7 mph.
ODO: 15863.22 miles

And then there was today, when the ACG rode.  With a predictable weather forecast *sigh*.  I wear my waterproof once in a blue moon.  In fact I can’t remember the last time I wore it – we are talking years here – but I dug it out today.  This was not adding to my sense of joie de vivre, can you tell?  Boil.  In.  The.  Bag!

We rode in a circle, as ever.  A foreshortened circle, as the weather meant none of us, apart from the tri-athletically insane, fancied doing much more than riding out, drinking coffee and riding home again.  Off to Sweets where the service was friendly, and, as we were the first there, pretty swift too.  So here we are.  You know who you are…  I wish my hair looked as good as Jeannie’s after hours on the bike though!  Sorry – I’m a girl in case you hadn’t noticed – we think about such things.  Or maybe it’s just me again? 😉


I did my best out there.  Having had a bad Saturday, I’d pre-warned Martyn that I was likely to be a little off form today, and maybe he’d primed his posse, but either way they did a really good job of making sure I wasn’t left all on my own, for which I was very grateful.  I did my bit when I could, and tried not to get too depressed when I couldn’t.  And no longer newbie Jon made sure I made it to our mid way stop – which was daft of him since that meant I could take his subs off him… 😉  But there was nowt for it…  Note to self.  If you’re about to go for a ride, and you know that if you were staying home you’d be taking the pills?  Take the feckin’ pills!

Cycling time: 1:35:16 hrs
Distance: 25.5 miles
Avs: 16.0 mph.
ODO: 15888.72 miles

So when it came to the coffee stop I gave in and took the pills.  And, as it would appear, it is possible to ride on codeine.  This is a positive discovery.  It’s not the Higgs Boson, or the New World, but it’ll do for me.  OK, so it doesn’t entirely do the job, but I’m guessing it makes it easier, without stopping me in my tracks.  Whether or not the same can be said for tramadol is my next experiment…  It’s all part of the journey, right? 😉

Talking of which, the journey home went pretty well until I was nearly home.  It was still cold wet and windy but hey, what’s new?  However on the way back into town, up the road from Cross, a white van came past me at a constant and consistent speed, with literally mere millimetres to spare.  Made me flinch and breathe in…and curse under that breath.  But as he went past I registered the number plate…and it was my nutter of a next door neighbour.  So there’s no way it was accidental.  After all, if proof were needed, he didn’t do the same to Mike who was off ahead of me.  I know, no witnesses, his word against mine, etc…  But I know.  I nearly burst into tears on the spot…and probably would have done if I wasn’t so busy being struck dumb by the concept of someone actually deliberately behaving like that.  And, before you ask, thank you twitterverse for your support, I have no camera, and there’s no point reporting him – the history there is long and convoluted and I don’t want him actually killing me which I wouldn’t put past him…although as he’s a bully and a coward he’d probably do it with his van rather than in person.  I’d still be dead though.  It kinda ruined what had been a better than I might have expected ride, left me shaking, and it took me quite a while to calm down.  I might have coped better if it wasn’t for the whole already being in pain thing but hey, it’s not like you can schedule these things is it?  Anyway…moving on…he’s not worthy of any more space!

I’m very grateful for all the company I’ve had this week, which has kept me out there when I might otherwise have seen the weather and bailed.  And thank you all for looking after/out for me.  I think I probably need to do some riding on my own too though, as all this having to keep up with other people is doing absolutely nothing for my PMA.  I’m doing ok, but I’m still crap compared to everyone else.  However, even though I felt like a sloth going up the Webbington Rise on the way home, I was faster than the last time I did it in January.  Maybe I’m getting better?  Little steps :).

You know that feeling when the train next to you at the platform pulls away, or the car next to you at the traffic lights goes before you, and you’re not really watching, it’s an out of the corner of your eye thing, and you suddenly feel like you’re going backwards?

As I rode up the Gorge, with the water flowing down and across and everywhere, making regular pretty patterns over the road, my eyes got caught by all the going down, and even though at some level I knew I was pedalling, and that the wheels were going round, I had this odd feeling that I wasn’t going anywhere at all.  Like walking up the down escalator.  Hypnotic.  Kaa would have approved…

Apparently I was in fact going forwards, because I made it up.  Up where we belong?  Like any of the ups today, I wasn’t beating any records, but I got there.  Without feeling too terrible.  Without getting off and walking.  I ignored the fact that the other three I was with had left me behind, and focused on how I was actually feeling.  To which the answer was usually ok.  PMA!  It all still works, it’s just that the results aren’t as good as they will be after I’ve been doing it more.  My legs feel stronger even if they’re not faster!  Progress is being made.  After all, it’ll still feel like hard work even when I’m better at it, it’s just that the pain won’t last as long!

Today was about the odd hill, a few miles, and lots of smiles.  We kinda made the route up as we went, and it looked like this.  We rode, we climbed, we chatted, we enjoyed the sunshine and fought the wind, and we braved the floods.  Does that make us road warriors?

Strava may not think it was a good ride.  But I do, and I know which is more important :D.

Cycling time: 2:02:37 hrs
Distance: 29.22 miles
Avs: 14.3 mph.
ODO: 15748.26 miles

OMG, I actually rode my bike!  Not just I.  We.  We as in G, as in ACG, as in four of us, none of whom have been doing as much riding of late as we would like.  In case you were wondering, that was an example of the art of understatement.  

Four of us.  Me – obviously.  GB – suffering from proper flu, not man flu, not that it slowed him down at all.  Steve – all coiled spring, having been snowed down a bit this week.  And Jon, who probably still qualifies as a newbie for a couple more rides at least, and whom we’ve not managed to scare off yet.  Although he’s very fast and only getting faster so maybe he’ll scare me off instead?  Oh dear…

This is what we did.  OK, so it’s neither inspiring nor exciting.  But it was sunny, and not icy, and I was with friends, and more importantly still, I was on my best beloved bike.  The instant I was back on it I felt better.  Literally, the minute the wheels started turning.  Like coming home, being where I’m supposed to be, where my head is happy.  Man I love riding my bike :).  Even when it hurt, and I got dropped, and it was hard work, I enjoyed it.  I’d have got dropped less if I hadn’t done a pretty intensive gym session the night before.  And if we hadn’t overtaken two oldtimers who then felt the need to prove they weren’t oldtimers at all, and in fact they still had it, and they would use it, and look, we can drop you.  According to a man who is by his very nature presumably better qualified to comment than I am on such things; as the size of the male ego grows the size of the testicles shrink.  Which meant those two had very small balls.  However by the time GB and Steve had chased them down again, and overtaken them in the sprint to Sweets, I would like to suggest that would imply that there were therefore two pairs of spheres that were of considerably less than impressive dimensions by the time they were ordering coffee…

Talking of coffee…  I love Sweets, for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that they’re now selling jewellery ;).  But they’re SO slow!  They weren’t busy.  It’s the first sunny, not icy, weekend in ages.  You know cyclists are going to be coming your way, wanting little more than coffee and possibly cake.  How hard can it be?  It’s just bemusing.  And not a little irritating.  By the time our drinks – yes, just drinks! – finally arrived we’d all well and truly cooled down, and then some, which is not a good thing.  OK, so the coffee was good, but I’d like to enjoy it because of the flavour, not need it because of the exothermic reaction.  And that one’s for you Dad 😉 *grin*.  It took quite some time to warm up on the way home, not helped by the by then properly chilly wind, a wind that had changed direction just to make sure it was a headwind for the entire ride.  Honest ;).

Cycling time: 1:38:07 hrs
Distance: 27.91 miles
Avs: 17.2 mph.
ODO: 15719.04 miles

Whatever you may think of Strava, it does serve a purpose.  In this case to show me that I was actually doing ok out there.  The first climb over the Webbington is nothing to most of you, but it’s a gauge, and it turns out that it was my fourth fastest time up there.  Yes I was trying, but That’s cheering.  It means that some of the new wattage interval stuff I’m doing at the gym might actually be helpful.  And when it boils down to it, it means I’m not as crap as maybe I may have felt at the odd point during the ride.  So there :P.

In other news…the London Bike Show?  Very busy, but oddly boring.  I got to see the lovely guys at Nuun, and then went home and ordered a whole range of their yummy drinks so that I can safely keep hydrated.  I had a chat, and a bite to eat, with the men who immortalise you brilliantly on sportives – SportivePhoto.  But other than that?

There was nothing I wanted to buy, so none of the show offers interested me.  I’m not a bike geek, so I don’t care about the latest sprocket, gadgets, set up, or bike.  I don’t really care that so and so rode that.  I am a bear of very little brain, I just want to ride my bike.  On top of that the majority of people there presumed I was either on a stall, doing something promotional, or someone’s girlfriend.  Let’s just say there was a very heavy gender bias…I might as well have been invisible!  It got so boring I went and looked at boats.  Boats that cost more than my house.  And your house too.  Probably.  Pwerty though :).

OK, one trade show under my belt.  Giving and Living Trade Show, done.  It was a pretty good day, but a long one, and I’m hanging now.  Still, I shall endeavour to at the very least start this…but don’t be surprised if this happens…

Was it only yesterday?  Apparently it was…  Blimey.  Well, let’s boil it down to essentials then.  I’m not sure my powers of recall are up to much right now!

It was cold.  But oh so pretty.  The kind of day where cyclists wrap up in many layers underneath warm jackets in primary colours, which look particularly attractive in the winter sun under clear blue skies.  When toe warmers under overshoes and over winter socks does not seem like overkill.  Where anything you own with the name “winter” in the title comes out.  Winter hat, winter collar, winter socks, winter gloves…

There were 11 of us. Not quite a record – that stands at 13 – but an altogether unprecedented turnout for this time of year, especially with ice being a distinct possibility.  Martyn had brought along four of his friends from the Burnham end of the world – including Paul and Trevor, with the addition of Jeannie and Mark (apologies if the names are wrong!).  We had a newbie – Jon.  Then me, Grant, Stephen, and Chris.  The 11th came later, meeting us at Sweets, because he’d failed to read my oh so informative email and check the start time ;).  You know who you are…Steve!

As I believe I’ve mentioned before, Martyn isn’t slow, and he doesn’t have slow friends.  Some of them are <start whisper>tri-athletes<end whisper>!  To be fair, we don’t dislike them because they’re triathletes.  We dislike them because they’re better than us! 😉 *grin*.  Jon turned out to be just as fast, and it is not news that Chris, aka Figgy, is a whippet.  Which left me, Grant, and Stephen doing our best to keep up with varying degrees of success at different times.  Let’s just say it’s a good thing it wasn’t a hilly ride.  I can, mostly, keep up on the flat.  Until you get to consistently doing above 23mph or so, or hit anything even vaguely resembling a gradient.  Then I’ve had it…!  I’ll be the one falling off the back waving you all goodbye.

We took a long loop of a route, down the more major, more likely to be gritted roads, to get to Sweets.  It was hard work.  But, like a slinky, though we stretched out and pinged back together, the G continued to stand for Group.  And even though it was hard work, and it was cold, it was impossible not to enjoy being out there like that.  Me, my bike, sunshine, friends, and an elegant sufficiency of wheels to suck, provided I could get on the back of one ;).  The new bottom bracket does make the Cube feel smoother to ride, though the baggy chain means that changing gear is a slightly delayed affair, and its tendency to change gear as and when it likes adds a certain frisson to the act of riding.  But it was all working, and thanks to my choice of layers, I remained in touch with my extremities, down to and including my toes, up to and including my ears.  All good really :).

And here we are, at the important part, the coffee stop.  The photo opportunity, what with it being pretty much impossible to take photos on the move with winter gloves on, let alone get the camera out of a pocket in the first place!  So here we are…

A still life, with teapot and Trevor…

Steve, having finally joined us, with Trevor…

Chris eating, as ever…  Jon, the newbie, will he be back?…  And Grant, who was hoping the camera was pointed over his head…

And then all of us.  The motley crew…  Well, nearly all of us ;).

It was, since the wood burner wasn’t lit until we were getting ready to leave (typical!), a little nippy sitting out there in the new “conservatory”, so we didn’t hang around too long.  Long enough for buckets and spoons and coffee and cake and bacon rolls….but no longer ;).  It was, oddly enough, warmer standing outside in the sun, which is just as well as we overlapped with the arriving Leisure Group and hung around for a bit of a chat before being on our way.  It was very nice to see them, and I really need to organise a ride that gets both groups together soon.

Time to go, said Zebedee.  The fast posse went home directly, as did we.  Only their direction was West and fast, and ours was North and blessedly somewhat slower.  Just as well, since I’ve rarely been up Mudgeley slower :(.  I blame the cold.  Heading back into the wind only revealed how sheltered Sweets had been as ice-cream head cut in with a vengeance before the toils of slugging uphill raised my body temperature up enough to override it.  *brrrr….*.  After that we headed for home at a reasonable lick, though we did split up on the last Wedmore road section which was, if not a sprint, certainly faster than sometimes.  Again – hard work but fun :).

Cycling time: 2:08:05 hrs
Distance: 35.35 miles
Avs: 16.6 mph.
ODO: 15691.13 miles

Clearly what I need now that I’ve made it back on to the bike is to stop just being happy/relieved to be on it, and to get some miles and hills in.  Proper training in other words.  Well, my variety of such anyway.  Sportive season looms, and I don’t want to limp around them all, I want to be on form, I want to do my best, want want want, me me me *grin*.

And here we are, dear reader, back where we started, not unlike our routes.  Back to trade shows, and in this case, the London Bike Show, where I’ll be on Saturday.  Anyone want to meet up?  Buy me a coffee?  Or something a little stronger? 😉

Ah…I knew this was coming….*yawn*….Zonk….thud….. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………