See this?  I think it’s safe to agree that wheels are not supposed to look like this.  And discovering this the day before you’re supposed to be actually riding your bike?  I was starting to wonder what I’d done to the cycling gods lately, it having already been about five weeks since I’d ridden the real thing, and only ten days or so since the wattbike had once more become an option and, let’s face it, <engage understatement mode> the weather has not been conducive of late…</end>.

Luckily, Chris (aka Figgy) appears to be over-equipped with bikes and the like, like pretty much every other MAMIL I know, and was also willing to not only lend me a spare wheel, but also swop the cassette etc over.  Thank goodness for that.  Not riding is one thing.  Not being able to ride when you actually can, and when the forecast is verging on pleasant?  That would not have been a good thing.  I might have had to throw all my toys out of the cot 😉

So when it came to Sunday, and the sun was indeed shining, and the wind was not blowing, Chris had righted what was wrong, and I had a bike to ride, so I did!  I know, no-one is more surprised about this than me! 😉

We did a coffee loop, on the basis that given a goal of that nature, I might actually make it round.  Which I did.  OK, so I wasn’t on form, and I wasn’t breaking any records, but I was riding, and it was good, at least partly because it wasn’t as bad as it probably deserved to have been.  We didn’t really do hills, since that would be the equivalent of running before I can walk, and besides we managed to find enough flat roads that weren’t flooded to mean we didn’t have to, which is somewhat of a challenge around here at the moment.

Coffee was at the usual Glastonbury haunt – Heaphy’s.  Which has been revamped yet again, which is odd considering that it isn’t that long since the last time they did.  It would appear to have been to the detriment of service since just the two male owners were serving, and the, according to Chris, usually rather attractive female staff were nowhere to be seen, and man, were these two guys struggling!  Slow…..  Once finally served, we sat outside in the sun and the denizens of Fairyland walked by, totally up to standard.  Always good to have your expectations lived up to, right? ;).  And yes, I did say sat outside in the sun.  How cool is that?! :D.

Cycling time: 2:09
Distance: 28.8 miles
Avg 13.3
ODO:  17076.5 miles

As rides go, it was a pretty fabulous one.  I was actually riding the bike, and I was doing so in the sunshine.  Chris did a good job of not making me feel like a complete waste of space by mostly sitting behind me and turning his pedals just slowly enough to stop his noisy free wheel from giving him away ;).  I’m still ok at barrelling along at a reasonable speed when it’s flat, though I’ve clearly got to build up some stamina again.  Hills are going to be a problem to start with, and I did get the odd twinge on the bits of up that we did, but I think that was more to do with post-op then pre-op problems, which could mean cycling is going to be a much less painful experience.  Hard to imagine.  I’m still on the morphine patches at the moment, as weaning off them is a job in itself, but I’m medication free otherwise, which means I don’t have to concern myself with whether or not they’re going to ban tramadol or not 😉

I rode my bike, and I was holding my own.  Just.  A bit like the Long Drove between Glastonbury and Wells…  Here’s hoping it’s a sign.  And if it isn’t, this is… 😉