Heavy cloud but no rain my ar*e.  It rained this morning when I was considering riding.  So instead I went to work, while the skies cleared and the sun shone both bright and warm.  I came home, laid my cycling kit out on the sofa and…yep…on cue, enter stage right, more rain.  *grrrr*!  I was under-amused.  I checked the forecast, but since the rain that was here wasn’t supposed to be here, I’m not sure why I thought that would help.  I considered setting the alarm and getting up and riding tomorrow morning instead but the mob are due to be collected sometime then, and since punctuality and courtesy are in short supply these days, there’s no telling quite when that might actually happen.  Besides, as I pondered and deliberated it did look like it was brightening up a bit, and it’s not like I was planning a long ride anyway, what with light being in increasingly limited supply of an evening.  So I decided to go out anyway, rather than stay in and sulk about the fact that I was in not out.  Carpe diem, or something with slightly  less enthusiasm about it.

I was initially going to do the usual hilly evening loop, but I realised that cycling up and then cautiously down the wet Mendips didn’t appeal, riding it like I stole it was out of the question, and I actually wanted to be out there enjoying it instead.  After all, I already knew it was going to be hard work, what’s the point in suffering for the h*ll of it?  As I headed west, towards the now unveiled and soon to be setting sun, the roads turned out to be pretty much dry, which pretty much made up my mind for me.  Besides, the loop I now had in mind included one of my favourite stretches of road, and it didn’t let me down.  Flat, quiet, scenic, sunny.  A stoic buzzard unperturbed by my passing, fragile moorhens furtively darting for cover, a pair of defensive swans and their prodigious brood, herons startled aloft…and shortly layers stashed away and warmth on my skin, all with my latest iPod playing my tunes in my left ear.  Time for some of the body’s natural happy drugs 🙂

My body was not entirely happy, as it turns out I should have strapped my knee up, and it hurt.  I may not have a beautiful mind, but I do have a fabulously selective memory, and I’d forgotten how much it was hurting all evening yesterday after my indoor spin bike workout.  But hey, yet another good reason I wasn’t pushing myself up those hills,right?  Momentum maintenance is one thing; I can still barrel along on the flat ok, even when the knee is off on one, but fighting gravity is quite another.  Always good to have your decisions vindicated 😉  In the meantime I was out there, not in here, riding along in the sun.  Didn’t suck 😀

Cycling time: 1:08
Distance: 20.4 miles
Avg: 17.9 mph
ODO: 6346.2 miles

So, did I find myself out there?  Nah, not really.  As if.  There was maybe the odd glimpse of what form might look like, so I might recognise it if I ever see it again.  I’d say it went pretty well all things considered, but the stats are pretty irrelevant – I’m mostly just pleased that, however it felt, I made myself get out there.  I’ll catch up with myself sooner or later if I hang in there.  And I wasn’t entirely on my own.  Look, I have a new little friend.  His eyes even light up for me! 😉 *grin*.

I wonder how many more times it will be possible to just put on a short sleeve jersey & shorts, strap on the shoes and helmet, and go ride the bike just like that.  Not as many as I’d like I reckon.  So even though I did a pretty good workout last night, and my gastroenteritis turns out to be campylobacter (so I have antibiotics now), I couldn’t not go and ride in the sun this morning.  That would be looking a gift horse in the mouth, and the weather gods are not to be spurned…

…so I went out and did a fast flat loop instead of staying in bed.  Properly fast as it turns out, even if the headwind on the return leg did drain away a little of the impressive 19.5mph average (well I’m impressed) that I managed for the first hour.  It was pretty hard work, and I was tempted to slow down and take it easier…but I was liking the figures so much I just couldn’t do it.  I’m a sucker for stats 😉  Having said that, ich bin geknackert now!  OK, so some of it is probably down to my lovely new wheels.  And some of it will have been wind-assisted.  But maybe, just maybe, a little of it was just me?  I like fast 😀

You’ll no doubt be thrilled to hear that I have a new camera.  It’s exactly the same as the old one, and the one before that, apart from it being purple that is.  Well, why not?  The new iPod shuffle is en route somewhere.  I think I ordered that in purple too.  And thanks to the seduction of the Rapha sale, I also have fabulous new gloves, which fit, ooh, let me think, like a glove? 😉  Clearly they’re not purple.  But they are very comfortable and I forgot I was even wearing new gloves.  Nice 🙂

In the meantime, after a long week, it’s finally the weekend! ‘Rah!  😀

Cycling time: 1:43
Distance: 31.8 miles
Avg: 18.4 mph
ODO: 6194.1 miles

I am getting more than a little bored of riding on my own, and since I am home alone this week and thus more on my own than usual, I took myself off to my folks for a bit, to eat, sleep, and then ride with Dad and his group.  I think they officially call themselves the “Portishead Old-Timers” and I think it’s safe to say I was the youngest there…probably by a good 20 years and in several cases, quite a bit more.  It wasn’t the longest ride ever and, due to the nature of the beast, and the cycle paths used, and the chatting to be done, it may well have been more of a case of us being the “Portishead Potterers” (hey, I do love a bit of alliteration) but, you know what?  It was really, really nice.  The sun shone, mostly.  It didn’t rain even though it threatened to.  They made me feel very welcome.  It was (sorry guys!) very good for my somewhat battered cycling ego to be reminded that I’m not quite as slow and incapable as I tend to think I am, as I found it pretty easy going, and didn’t even object to the odd hill.  Just the kind of spin my legs probably needed.  And just occasionally l hit sprint mode, and hurtled off into the distance, just for the sheer joie-de-vivre hell of it.  Just because I could.  And I can 😀

Sadly since only my phone was in a trusty pOcpac on Sunday, both my camera and iPod shuffle have succumbed to the ravages of Ride London, so I was unable to take any photos.  That turns out to have been one bl**dy expensive weekend!  Here’s one I prepared earlier… 😉

I hope that when I’m that age I’m still riding my bike half as well as they do 🙂

Cycling time: 3:02
Distance: 40.2 miles
Avg: 13.2 mph
ODO: 6162.3 miles

 Since I’m too busy for words, it’s now time for the picture round… 😉

Cycling time: 1:56
Distance: 31.9 miles
Avg: 16.4 mph
ODO: 6009.6 miles

Cycling time: 0:48
Distance: 13.2 miles
Avg: 16.4 mph
ODO: 6022.8 miles

As for the music round, you can have this as your starter for ten… 😉

Normal service will be resumed shortly…or thereabouts!

Yesterday’s ride was lovely.  An evening bimble in the setting sun.  I acquitted myself well enough, as we were taking it fairly easy, so there was enough in me to mean that I could really play silly b*ggers on the odd bits where I love to sprint.  And I do, when I can.  I am such a big kid *grin*.

Cycling time: 1:31
Distance: 24.5 miles
Avg: 16.1 mph
ODO: 5879.8 miles

In other news, despite considerable provocation, I didn’t crucify anyone today.  Who knew I was capable of such restraint?! 😉

I should probably have been riding up hills today.  Training ‘n all that.  But man, it was just too hot.  I couldn’t face it, not after how hard Burrington Combe was on Sunday.  So I stuck, mostly, to the flat, and actually it may be the one and only time I turn out to have been grateful for the wind.  Sure, slogging into it wasn’t much fun, but at least it cooled me down 🙂  I did throw in Winscombe Hill to round things off though, not sure why…maybe because I know it’s usually shady?  And I was as slow as ever, but I still got up it.  So there 😛

As I cycled around Nyland there were some awesome scarecrow things going on, many of which were cycling-themed…and I could have captured them all, but I think this one sums it up.  It is, isn’t it?  Which kind of sums up why I stuck to doing what I wanted to do, s*d training plans and the like.   I sweated up a storm and drank a lot.  I spent two hours hurtling around in the sunshine, topping up my tan, and soothing my soul.  Flat quiet fast roads, blue skies…    I was zenned out for hours afterwards…as well as slightly zonked.  Cycling in the heat just takes it out of you in a way you’re not used to I think.  But in a good way 🙂

Cycling time: 1:57
Distance: 33.3 miles
Avg: 17.0 mph
ODO: 5846.5 miles

Just as well I didn’t have much to do this afternoon…  See that deckchair?  Now imagine me on it, with a cold lager (or two) to drink, Cyclist magazine to read, nowhere to be and nothing to be doing.  Followed by a restorative nap.   Yep, that’s how it went *grin*.  Good day, sunshine!  By the way, in case you hadn’t noticed, I still love riding my bike 🙂

 PS: – told you my camera was fixed! 😉

Another day winds down.  The roads clear, the skies are likewise.  It’s like summer has stolen time and wrapped it up with a bow and given it to you.  You have as long as the light lasts, but already the nights are drawing in, and as ever time is fleeting, and before long all this will be just a distant memory.  This evening was such a gift, so I went out and l made sure I enjoyed it.  Even the bits that hurt, which they did.  And especially the bits that didn’t.

I followed two rabbits down the Gorge.  I didn’t want to catch them because I know I do the final wiggly bit slowly and then I’d look like a prat when they caught me again.  Besides there was a car between me and them.  So I didn’t.  But I did pretty much nail it – I think I’m getting the hang of how the wheels handle.  The car that had appeared behind me backed off and let me get on with it, and as I rounded the final corner, came out of the shade, and sprinted off, out of the saddle, past all the shops, there they were, one on either side of the road, having a drink and chatting.  I flew down the road betwixt the pair of ’em, like they were Rodin’s gate, into the setting sun, like a bat out of hell.  It was just one of those moments…  To use a word that is probably de trop already, it was epic *grin*.

Cycling time: 1:33
Distance: 23.7 miles
Avg: 15.2 mph
ODO: 5670.7 miles

Whatever you think of Strava, for me, apart from the occasional instance of insanity, it’s not about competing with y’all, it’s all about seeing how well I’m doing for me.  And it would appear that my form may not be that of previous years, but I am getting better, and I am the best I have been so far this year.  This is good.  And you never know, maybe I’ll get better still? 🙂