The Easter Holidays do nothing for a girl’s training schedule.  Even when you can find time/persuade hubby to come home early, life and the weather have a tendency to conspire against you.  As was the case yesterday when the heavy rain forecast was indeed wet, and the husband in question wasn’t home as early as he might have been either.  Just as well as it turns out all my kit was still in the washing machine *grin*.

Which brings us to today when I’d managed to find someone willing to play responsible adult and let my two hang out at her place for a couple of hours.  Luckily the weather played ball by remaining dry.  So I squeezed a couple of hours cycling in.  It’s a shame it was a squeeze, and it was a shame it was on my own, but hey, better than no ride at all right?

I was going to do the usual loop, but start with Shipham Hill.  However my legs were feeling distinctly and unusually leaden as I headed out, so I decided to skip the hill and just see how I went.  I wiggled my way around as ever, getting to Loxton the lumpy way, and coming home up Mudgeley Hill – so I didn’t avoid hills altogether.  It was a grey and uneventful ride.  One of those rides when you look down, sure you’re doing the usual 18mph or so, and realise you’re only doing 16…which I guess must be the tail end of the effects from Sunday’s event.   However I must have been fairly constant, or doing better up hills, as the stats turned out ok.

Cycling time: 2:03:55
Distance: 31.46 miles
Avs: 15.2 mph
ODO: 7867 miles

Other things you might like to know about.

• On Sunday’s ride my knee was strapped up as a precaution, and I didn’t have to take painkillers until 5 1/2 hours in – to hit the combo of knee/neck pain.  Which they duly did.  This is, believe it or not, progress.  🙂
• My bike, as suspected, needs a new bottom bracket.  We’re also going to get it new narrower handlebars, and some new wheels.  Andrew is putting together a bike for eldest – who will get my old handlebars – it’s recycling cycling *grin*.  Right about now I could use a lottery win.  Or a sponsor.  Feel free to volunteer 😉
• My next event is on Easter Monday.  Not a big gap…

Today’s ride was somewhat of a trial run for me.  On Sunday I’m doing the Pro VO2 Maxifuel Longest Day which is one hell of a mouthful.  It’s also quite a challenge coming in at 111 miles.  My son informs me that makes it like Bilbo’s Birthday – eleventy one miles.  I’ll endeavour to remember that, and the way it made me smile, when I’m down in the dumps two thirds of the way round 😉

The forecast for Sunday was, yesterday, not unlike the forecast for today so I figured it was a good opportunity to see what I’m going to wear.  Not that forecasts ever really mean anything or stay the same for very long.  Last I checked the BBC were predicting 15C +  light rain, but if you ask Metcheck it says 22C + sun + v light wind so I’m now totally confused!  Personally I think I’ll go with the nicer forecast.  Besides which, it’s not like I can do anything about it is it?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see.  Well, I’ll have to wait and see since this is an event I shall be doing in the singular.  Today however I had company.  GW and I did the seaside loop, taking in a stop in WSM for a glue purchasing errand.  It’s coming up for the “avoid WSM like the plague” season but I think we made it by the skin of our teeth – though you do get funny looks walking down the pedestrian shopping centre with bikes.  I’m not sure they’re familiar with people who exercise…  Maybe it’s just the lyrca.  If I’d been pushing a pushchair or smoking a fag or both I’d have blended right in.

The ride itself went well.  I wore shorts for the first time this season, and the world is still turning…  The rest was layers, isn’t it always?  It was distinctly nippy thanks to the NW wind, which was definitely motivation to keep moving, but as the sun got higher so did the temperature.  I do like sunshine 🙂  GW has been cycling the last couple of days, presumably to work and back, and was a bit tired, which is probably why with the aid of the odd downhill I actually left her behind for a change a couple of times.  Hey – I have to take my pleasures where I can *grin*.  My legs felt good.  Really good.  Even coming back over Bleadon Hill the proper way.  It’s hard to explain but the hard bits, such as they were, just felt a notch less hard which is good for the Positive Mental Attitude that I need to be having for Sunday.  The knee was unstrapped but did twinge a little so I think I’ll strap it up for the longer distance.  That should make for an interesting suntan mark *grin*.

Cycling time: 2:00:00
Distance: 28.61 miles
Avs: 14.2 mph
ODO: 7723 miles

*fingers crossed* that the sun shines on Sunday too.  It’s going to be a very long day, and it’ll be a far more pleasant one if it’s in the sun 🙂  Mind you, I shouldn’t have said that and am tempted to delete the entire paragraph in case the Fates are listening.  Hopefully they’ve got better things to do with their time…? *touch wood*.

There was a plan for Sunday, created by himself, to head out and do a loop to Bruton and back.  Now this was rather hillier and rather longer than I had had in mind when I mooted the idea of a Sunday ride, but I was prepared to MTFU (which is my new favourite phrase *grin*) and go do it in the interests of training and the like.

However GB had man flu.  Or tonsilitis.  Or something.  And far be it from me to look a gift horse in the mouth, what with it being Mothers’ Day ‘n all.  So we opted for Plan B, which was our usual fall-back plan.  Yes – time to visit Fairyland.  Darn…what a shame 😉

I was told that I was leading the way, which was somewhat of a challenge what with it being apparently intolerable to repeat any part of a route or go back on ourselves *gulp*.  I did my Level best and we ended up doing a wiggly but actually very scenic route.  I wasn’t left leading the way for long either as, as many cyclists will tell you if there isn’t a journalist around, drugs work, and GB perked right up.  In fact you’d have thought he wasn’t ill at all, as you can tell from our average speed.  Some people…

Having seen auto-conversational man the other day, which I had thought proved that I was where I thought I was, I had been informed that real proof of being in Glastonbury would be panpipes/nose flutes or someone wearing inappropriate fairy wings.  To be fair, there are few occasions when the wearing of fairy wings is appropriate.  Sadly I was to be disappointed on both, if not all three, counts.  At least I have something to look forward to later in the year now…

We sat inside the café – he was ill you know – and drank very good coffee as ever.  Apparently lemon cake has restorative properties too.  I was busy being disproportionately pleased to see, in the fridge behind the bar, a little row of chilled Orangina bottles, and the right shaped bottles at that. The L2P saw the start of a coffee & Orangina tradition, resurrected during last year’s summer holiday when cycling with Dad, and the sight of that little round shakeable bottle put a smile on my face and in my nostalgic heart.  And it tasted just as good as ever 🙂  Ah to be on French roads again…*sigh*.

Cycling time: 2:36:51
Distance: 41.93 miles
Avs: 16.0 mph
ODO: 7695 miles

Thanks to all that unplanned wiggling, our ride worked out longer and further than it might have been too, which was good.  The fact that it wasn’t planned made it feel more relaxed.  The weather was also, if not balmy, reasonably pleasant.  Basically that just means it wasn’t freezing, it barely rained, and the wind was tolerable.  I don’t ask for much – and that will do nicely.  And to top if all off, having known that we were going to go for Plan B, I had opted not to strap the knee up again and barring the odd twinge early on, it was fine.

All in all, that made for a pretty good Sunday ride in my book.  Or my blog.  Whatever.  *grin*.

I was so tired when I got up this morning that I was practically falling asleep driving the car on my way back from the school run.  Not a good start.  So the thought of a long ride with GW was not filling me with the joys of spring.  However I hate to back down from a commitment and this morning was no exception to the rule.  Man, I wish I was less responsible! 😉

She arrived on my doorstep, in the drizzle, and a great many layers.  Now I was sure that although it was proper windy and unattractive out, it wasn’t that cold.  Something to do with the fact that I was perspiring lightly just sorting the washing out.  I resisted the temptation to put on more layers to conform, stuffed my gilet arms into the saddle bag just in case, and we headed out.

This long ride being her idea, I left the route in her hands.  I’d say capable hands but she does have a habit of getting us lost so…  Not today though, or at least not that she gave away.  Essentially we went out South (Wedmore, Shapwick, Charlton Mackrell) took in a long stretch of the busy and altogether unpleasant A37 in a Northerly direction, and came back via good coffee at the usual place in Glastonbury.  She spared me Wraxall Hill for which I am truly grateful.  Slogging up a steep bendy hill as HGVs overtake me is not my idea of fun, and the A37 had supplied quite enough of the close encounter experience already!

We sat outside Heaphy’s without regretting it – proof that it was indeed quite warm out there.  See – I told you so.  I may even have seen GW sweat en route… 😉  Mr “I’m talking to myself and having a darn good conversation” was sitting outside the cafe too, probably likewise enjoying the sun and surroundings, just to show that Fairyland never changes.  At least the quality of the coffee remains the same too 🙂  There were no fairy wings or panpipes though – so that’s something to look forward to later in the year *grin*.

Somehow we managed to suffer from the strong South Westerly wind pretty much the entire time.  More of the West less of the South too.  We got it either as a side wind or a head wind, and most of the return loop was just a slog.  GW bemoaned that her legs were getting tired which was odd because we hadn’t been up any hills [sic].  That would be any hills that she’d noticed that is!  I noticed ’em – you know those things that you go up and realise that I’m no longer even trying to get behind you?  Yes – those would be the hills.  1460 feet of them.  OK OK, not a lot, but plenty, if you see what I mean *grin*.

Cycling time: 3:30:26
Distance: 52.10 miles
Avs: 14.8 mph
ODO: 7695 miles

So with what I call hills and plenty of unceasing wind, I think we did pretty well.  OK I did pretty well.  GW had a walk in the park.  As usual a large portion of the cycling “with” GW was more watching her disappear into the distance but hey, I’m used to that, and on the quiet back roads we got to catch up a bit.  I was also allowed to take the lead for most of the run home too, which is good for the ego.  It was nice to do some less familiar roads – and the stretch along Reynaud’s Way, although hilly, was very pretty.  I may have to head out that way again.  On my own.  Slowly.  🙂

I was tired before…and am certainly not less so now.  However I feel pretty good for it, and it was time for a longer ride.  More miles is good.  It’s all training right? 🙂

Mondays are my rest day.  So, it being post-event ‘n all, I rested.  However I felt way worse on Tuesday when I had no intention of resting but my body gave me no choice in the matter as I spent most of the day doing a very good impression of a member of the walking dead!  Maybe next time I’ll bear that in mind…  Worse still was that on both Monday and Tuesday nights I didn’t sleep well – restless mind, fidgety legs, high heart rate, which meant that I was even more tired than I should rightly have been.

Yesterday, with a massive sigh of relief, I made it back to the gym.  Ok, so my knee hurt instantly on the bike, but actually it settled down once it had loosened up.  I did my normal session, including all my physio’s stretching and strengthening bits, and felt good.  What’s more I slept properly from the get go too.  See, I knew this resting lark was rubbish! 😉

I guess, if it had occurred to me, I could have ridden yesterday, but I don’t think I felt ready to, and I’m getting better at listening to my body.  So the glorious sunshine passed me by.  Not today though, oh no.  Today it was time to get back on the bike and to get back out there.  And it was very very luverly.  Really just gorgeous.  As I told GB which, from his office desk, I’m not sure he truly appreciated 😉

For starters I was about half a stone lighter, as I didn’t have to wear base layers or over-shoes or a winter jacket.  I stuck to longs though – I’m not sure the world was quite ready for my legs as yet…  But it was so nice to feel lighter, and less encumbered.  And all my clothes felt looser too – always good 🙂  Well there may just be a tad less of me than there used to be…

I spent an extremely enjoyable couple of hours cycling in the sunshine, me and my tunes, grinning away happily.  Tempting as it was to go up a big hill I decided not to push it too soon as the knee was twingeing from the get go.  Mind you once again, once warmed up, it settled down.  But it was about enjoying the ride not training, not today.  That can wait until next week 🙂

Cycling time: 1:58:38
Distance: 31.21 miles
Avs: 15.7 mph
ODO: 7602 miles

Did you know that, as of today, since I started this blog in October 2008, I have cycled over 10,000 miles?  Seems to me that that’s quite a long way 🙂  Even though it is over 30 months – that’s an average of 333 a month.  Yep – still loving my figures and stats *grin*.

And in an attempt to move with the times, you can now follow thecyclingmayor on twitter.  Just click on the button and Robert is your father’s brother.  Go on, you know you want to… 😉

That would be cool wouldn’t it?  Some sort of two way phase modulator thingy (yes, I’ve been reading science fiction).  When the wind is being annoying, you’d flick a switch, align all your molecules, and the wind would just blow through you.  And if there was any chance, however unlikely it seems to be these days, that the wind was actually going to be in your favour, or if for some bizarre reason you fancied a session slogging into it, you’d flip the switch back again, and let the wind do its thing.

Because recently there has been far too much wind.  I’ve found myself wishing for the ability to tack.  Actually, doing a search for the definition of tacking to enlighten the uninitiated, I see there’s a Deep Space Nine episode entitled “Tacking into the Wind“.  Which seems appropriate given the science fiction theme.  Anyway, back to tacking, which sadly I can’t do on a bike.  Neither can I hoist a sail when the wind is behind me.  In fact all I can do when it all gets too much is batten down the hatches and head for port. ( I think I may have overworked my nautical metaphor – shame on me 😉 ).

So far I’ve managed two paragraphs on the wind, sailing, and science fiction, without even mentioning today’s ride.  Which, as you will have gathered, was a little windier than I would have liked, as I would have liked it not to be windy at all.  Especially not when the wind is from the NE, a direction not noted for it’s balmy overtones…

I didn’t have a plan today.  I was thinking a couple of hours on the flat, in tapering fashion.  But for some reason the little voice in my head had other ideas, which it sprung on me as we went along.  It started by suggesting that going up Shipham Hill would be a good idea, as then I would have done a hill and could relax for the rest of the ride.  Good idea, no?  So I did, in 16:25, my second best time this year.  Get in! 😀

From there I made it up as I went along – see here for details – with the flat bits being incidental rather than intentional.  I’m particularly impressed by the fact that I had no idea I was going to go up Brent Knoll until I got there.  Well why would you, when there’s a perfectly good road round it?  I seem to be quite good at springing hills on myself.  At least that way I don’t have time to dread them first, and they seem to go quite well that way.  OK, so it wasn’t the hilliest ride ever, but it was a darn sight hillier than planned 🙂  (Hillier is a word that is looking sillier and sillier each time I write it).

Cycling time: 2:20:22
Distance: 34.78 miles
Avs: 14.5 mph
ODO: 7473 miles

So the hills went well.  Both up and down, which is nice.  My knee was strapped up and ok.  My shoulders/neck/back were neither, but then I haven’t taken any painkillers for a couple of days precisely to see how those bits are feeling.  Painful apparently.  Pink pills here I come.  And on Sunday’s Endura Lionheart I think I need to make a point of stopping and stretching regularly (sorry GB).  There are three feed stops so that should be about right, and should break up the 96 miles nicely.  Now all I need is sun and a tail wind, “…such stuff as dreams are made on…”.

This morning I resorted to coffee.  Well, the thought of going for a ride with GW will do that to a girl.  Anything that might help…but that was all I had.  That and porridge.  Fuel and rocket fuel 😉

I had to meet GW at her place which is about 20 minutes away these days.  Depending on the weather this can be a lovely hurtle down the A38, or a slog.  Guess which it was today?  Well, if I mention the SW 20 mph gusty wind would that give you a clue?

So I slogged my way down to the new pad, and after a brief tour and faff, we were on our way to Clevedon.  As was inevitable, the wind turned out to have a whole heap more W in it that it should have had and it managed to be against us for an large proportion of the time.  I hate wind.  It’s just so sapping…  So loud.  It’s a constant fight – especially with strong cross winds – to keep your bike where you want it to be on the road.  Just drains the life right out of you…

We went up the A38, around the Webbington, over to Congresbury, managed to get lost around Yatton/Claverham as usual, and ended up going up the main road to the bottom of Brockley Coombe to get to Clevedon by which time I was not a happy bunny.  Both shoulders hurt, the wind was annoying, GW was constantly 50ft ahead (probably as well since that way she couldn’t hear me whingeing), I’d had enough, and just wanted to get to where we were going.

It took us 32 miles and over 2 hours to get to Clevedon…which last time I checked was a lot nearer than that.  We sat inside No 5 the Beach on the seafront, and drank good coffee, which perked me up a bit and delayed the inevitable for a while…  BTW, they have very lovely toilets – one of the criteria in our search for the best local café 😉

We came back as close to as the crow flies as possible.  We managed to get the wind behind us occasionally but mostly it stuck to stealthy attacks from the side again.  Restful…not!  I must have been doing something right since GW spent most of the way home sitting behind me though.  After an hour of that my knee started twingeing but luckily we were nearly home.  The downhill from Winscombe was a joyous thing…but probably even more wonderful for GW who got to keep going down…as I swung a left down the bypass, grabbed a tail wind, and flew home 🙂

Cycling time: 3:06:49
Distance: 47.08 miles
Avs: 15.0 mph
ODO: 7398 miles

Man that was hard work!  But when the wind wasn’t killing me, my legs actually felt pretty strong, and the uphills weren’t bothering me particularly either.  Which is all good 🙂

GB is still on holiday.  I still need to ride.  2 + 2 = 4.  Or 1 + 1 = 2 I guess.  So we rode.  In order to try and beat the very cold NE wind, we decided to repeat Monday’s route but in reverse.  Thus we started by going up Shipham Hill, which took about 17:00 if you knock off a bit for faffing around in the Square etc.  Well, it was Very cold.  And I wasn’t pushing it as it’s supposed to be a tapering week.  The first 1/2 hour of any ride is fairly hideous, and it’s not helped by going up hill, but at least I was nearly warm by the time I got to the top.

We took the nasty little steep bit towards Charterhouse, which I still don’t like, and found the wind for real.  Oddly enough on the top of the Mendips is quite exposed…who’d a thought it?  My descent down Burrington Coombe went quite well but if I was cold to start with I was freezing by the time I got to the bottom!  It really was bitterly cold…  So coffee at the now open Walled Garden, and a warm scone, went down a treat.  Having said that, it was £5 for coffee and a scone, whether or not you have cream and jam (which I didn’t) and that’s just a rip off.  Especially when at Brean Down it’s £2.35.  £3 for a scone?  You can buy an entire cream tea for that in some places! So lovely as it is there, I don’t think I’ll be going there often…  Plus it wasn’t very warm inside.  Did I mention I don’t like the cold?  I was born in the wrong country – I so should have been Mediterranean…

From there we headed for home, retracing Monday’s route, which was going all very well, with the sun coming up, and the temperature rising…until Winscombe where I hit a pothole and punctured the back wheel.  GB was ahead, but came back to help which is just as well as neither of my inner tubes worked, and by the time it came to putting the third inner tube in I’d pretty much lost the will to live.  Besides which he’s much better at it than I am, though if I’d been on my own I’m sure I’d have managed.  Well actually I wouldn’t have as the third inner tube was his, so on my own, I’d have been walking home!  Actually come to think of it I could have called my breakdown insurance but knowing my luck they don’t cover you for tyre problems.  (Yep, just checked, thought so).  So it would indeed have been Shanks’ Pony.

After all that palaver, although it was sunny and warmer by then, I just wanted to go home, even if that did involve going up Winscombe Hill.  It did, so I did, which went ok, and just left me to fly downhill home.  And left GB outside his front door which must make a nice change for him.

Not a ride that went according to plan.  Again.  The only good bit was the hills really.  Both up and down.  Other than that it was slogging against the wind.  Again.  Ah well…that would explain the average speed then!  Plenty of good conversation though, on those occasions when we could actually hear each other speak, and who knew how many minefields there were out there?

Cycling time: 1:53:27
Distance: 24.93 miles
Avs: 13.1 mph
ODO: 7278 miles

Now, where did I put my spare inner tubes?

Today was Monday.  Which is normally my day off exercising.  My rest day, if you will.  However GB is on holiday, and I do like cycling in company and I can always rest another day, right?  Ok, so I won’t, but that’s not the point.  Was there a point?  There might have been.  I appear to have misplaced it.

Anyway we were only planning to go to Glastonbury for coffee and convivial trivial conversation, so that practically counts as rest.  For us.  I can appreciate that cycling to Glastonbury and back may not count as rest for normal folk, but I have heard that normal is over-rated. 😛

However as ever, plans are made to be broken.  The very chilly wind appeared to be coming from somewhere North-ish, and as returning into a headwind didn’t appeal, we decided to head for the Walled Garden instead.  Straight there and back, right?

Well, first off we decided to wiggle our way there via the Webbington, and round to Winscombe that way.  Which added a hill, even if not the biggest hill going.  Still more hill than originally suggested though I’ll have you know.  From there it was Sandford, Churchill, and back lane meanderings to get to the coffee stop.  There’s a junction in Wrington where you go up Chapel Lane to the junction of Roper’s Lane and Bullhouse Lane.  Which makes GB sing “Going to the Chapel” (chapels have that affect on him) and me wonder if a Mr Roper kept bulls there were housed up there.    I do love strange road names. 🙂

The Walled Garden was, as ever,  just up the road but, shock horror, it turned out to be closed.  Definitely not a day for things going according to plan.  Was it too early?  Is Monday a bad day?  Enlightenment eluded us, and the door remained resolutely closed in our faces.  (Having checked, it would appear that it being Monday would appear to be the problem.  Monday is often a problem, in so many ways…).   Much deliberation followed, before we decided to check out Wrinton and Langford for such things, and failing that, the Burrington Inn at the bottom of Burrington Coombe.  Which, it being one of those days, is inevitably where we ended up.

Funny place.  It feels a bit like a cross between a cafeteria and a pub, with a rather funereal air.  And a tendency to make you feel as if you should be whispering.  Mind you, the rest of the clientele did have one foot in the grave, so maybe that explains it…  Ah well.  The coffee was passable, the chocolate cake less so, or so I’m led to believe.  It also wasn’t warm.  The Inn that is, not the coffee or the cake which were both, at least on the temperature front, exactly as they should be.  Anyway, interesting as this discussion of thermodynamics is, the point is that whilst the unimpressive interior ambient temperature has the advantage of making outside not that much colder, it does mean you’re proper cold when you head out into the already pretty chilly again.  It is clear I meant the interior of the Inn right?  Not of myself or my comestibles?  😉

So what’s the best way to warm up?  (Please cast your mind back to our heros’ current location when answering this question).  Yep.  Go up hill.  Or in fact up Coombe.  And that, O Best Beloved, is just what we did.

Now, I hesitate to say this, for fear of being quoted back at myself at some point (it’s very weird when that happens!).  But…ah well, in for a penny in for a pound…I actually enjoyed it.  It was scenic, the road was not only not as busy as usual, it was also dry, and I may have plodded up it with the odd gear to spare.  Apart from the last stretch at the end which is the steepest bit of course.  It didn’t feel like massively hard work.  Just work.  GB sat on my wheel all the way up, either because I was actually doing ok, or because he didn’t want me to feel like I wasn’t by hurtling off into the distance.  Regardless of his motivation in this scene, I felt really quite pleased with how I did, which bodes well.

(I like things to bode.  It’s a good word.  I also think things ought to “oom”, which would be to loom ominously.  Apparently I’m not allowed to invent words though.  But how else do you describe what heavy black approaching clouds do?  Honestly, sometimes life just isn’t fair.  But then life isn’t fair.  If it was it would be spelled “F-A-I-R” not “L-I-F-E”, and it isn’t, so it isn’t. 😉  And I don’t know if it’s “spelled” or “spelt” so I thought I’d use both to cover all the bases.  However that’s an Americanism so maybe I should be covering every eventuality instead?  Last week I used that one on eldest, for whom life is frequently not fair, and it went down a storm…  Well I enjoyed it anyway *grin*.)

From the top of the Coombe we went via Charterhouse and Tynings Farm.  Now is that “Tine”ings.  or “Tin”ings?  Answers on the back of a…actually, come to think of it, you could just leave a comment…radical concept I know.  The descent from there down to the Lillypool Cafe was a blast.  Not only that, the cafe was closed, thus showing what a wise choice we’d made by not heading for there instead of Burrington.  We’re very clever…

That just left the last steep bit up to the top of Shipham Hill to do, which is sometimes a struggle but apparently isn’t when you’re debating capital punishment, and it was then just gloriously all the way down…  Well, it should have been, but about 3/4 of the way down we hit traffic which was very inconsiderately using our road, meaning we had to curtail our downhill antics.  Yah boo sucks! 🙁

Cycling time: 2:03:52
Distance: 28.9 miles
Avs: 14.0 mph
ODO: 7253 miles

I feel very positive about the ride.  We did hills by accident, and they went surprisingly well.  Maybe that’s the way to do them?  Only I think I can probably only catch myself by surprise once.  It’s a bit like not being able to tickle yourself.  I’d probably see myself coming and tell myself to stick to the flat! *grin*

PS: if you’re still reading this, give yourself a pat on the back, I doff my cap to your perseverance and tolerance 😉  As the court jester said, “Pardon me for, on bended knees, I must confess I seek to please”…

Life generally does not go according to plan, and today was no exception.   The plan was to do 50 miles with SH and GB whilst my sainted hubby and eldest took youngest to trampolining squad training in Bath, thus giving me a 5 hour leave pass…

…however she was up at 5am with earache…which means we’ve all pretty much been up since then, and bouncing was out of the question.   So my (still) sainted hubby was therefore due to be home alone with one sick child, one bored child, and a world of DIY to do.   I’d say there’s no rest for the wicked but that would contradict the saintly bit *grin*.

Not that all the above stopped me riding – do be serious! – but…when it came to the coffee stop and we were debating routes home, straight home to rescue hubby seemed like a good, and diplomatic, idea.   Let’s be honest, it never does any harm to bank a few brownie points either…

This is not to say that this turned out to be an easy ride though.   Oh no.   Definitely not.   Not when SH is route planner.   Mind you, I’m not objecting as I need the training.  These days when you suggest hills I’m less likely to groan and try and get out of doing them, I’ll just get on with doing them.  PMA.   I can do hills.   I just have to do them my way not yours.   Something I read somewhere this week – which of course I can’t find now – said something about how it helps to have little mantras you say to yourself to help you focus.   Well if I just focus on my pedalling being “strong and smooth” it seems to help – as well as keeping me focused on pushing evenly on both feet and not doing my knee in.  I must have done a better job of strapping it up today since, with all those hills, there’s no way it wouldn’t have been hurting otherwise, and it wasn’t.

So where did we go?  Up the Gorge of course.   I don’t know if GB had a word with SH but after the steepest bit was done, the two of them headed off up the road at their pace, leaving me to mine, which is great.   SH does have a tendency to keep me company and we all know how I feel about that…leave me to dribble in peace! 😉  Actually the Gorge was fine.  Like all the hills today, it was a little bit easier than last time I went up it.  SH swears they only had to wait 15 seconds for me at the top…which if it’s true mean they must really have been pootling and putting the world to rights as they went! As we crested the top of the hill a strange yellow globe made an appearance in the sky, and we ignored it in case drawing attention to it frightened it away.  However it was nice to see it, even if just briefly, as it added a nice triumphal touch to my ascent 🙂

The best bit of the ride for me came not long after, on the descent down Burrington Coombe, which was only my 2nd time down it.   Last time by the time I got to the bottom I was not a happy bunny, having bottled it half way down and generally not done myself proud.   I did way better today, possibly due to familiarity, and helped by the much drier road.   I even got a bit of a buzz going on.  Mind you, I wasn’t half glad of my winter jacket by the time I reached the bottom though – talk about wind chill factor!

From there it was across to Wrington and up Wrington Hill.   The nasty way.  Which is long and steep and a slog but I just plodded up it.  Slow and steady.  I was pleasantly surprised with how it went really, and even the descent down Ebbor Gorge wasn’t too bad.  I remember having suffered big time going up there in the past, and I think there may even have been some stopping to “enjoy the view”…   Maybe there’s something to be said for all this sobriety and training?   Surely not… 😉

That just left a nice fairly flat and fast run across to coffee at Kingston Seymour.  Good coffee, and very friendly staff, but no carrot cake or scones.   Outrageous!  So I had two coffees instead, and everyone donated their biscuits to my cause whilst they ate cake.  Which worked well 🙂

It was distinctly chilly when we set off again so we had to push it a bit to warm up.   Mostly I got the clothing right again today though – only a little bit too warm on the ups and a little bit too cold on the downs so, on average, just right.   We came straight back through Yatton, Churchill, Sandford and – because GB hates to retrace his route, and also because he’s always the one to come to Axbridge to start and finish – we went back up Winscombe Hill to drop him off on the way home.  Yep, had to finish with a hill.  Apparently.  Still, it did make for a lovely long downhill run to home, so maybe it was worth it.  Ok, it was definitely worth it. 😀

Cycling time: 2:28:25
Distance: 36.38 miles
Avs: 14.6 mph
ODO: 7186 miles

I think that’s a pretty respectable speed given all the hills.  And I feel like it went well, like I’ve achieved something, if only that it seemed to demonstrate that I’m making progress.  I know I was outclassed by the company I was keeping, but I did my best to do my share when I could, and I really enjoyed the ride.  I remember GB, at the end of last season and all his epic events, promising me that this time this year, after a slothful off season, he’d be back to being my peer.  Something appear to have gone hideously wrong…  As for SH, well, when isn’t he a whippet?!  But since neither of ’em rub my face in it, it’s all good 🙂

It’s only two weeks to the season opener that is the Mad March Hare.  Am I ready?  We’ll see…