Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting).  It was Saturday, and it was Boxing Day.  Get it?

After the excess of Christmas Day, Dad and I had a ride planned for Boxing Day morning.  Nothing official, but I emailed the ACG and said people were welcome to join us if they wanted…and at 9:30am on a sunny Saturday morning, 9 of us gathered in the Square.  Which is a better turn out than we usually get!  We split into a 2 and a 7 and headed out…

Considering how the roads have been lately, we were blessed with good weather and fairly clear roads.  A couple of the lanes on the Levels clearly haven’t seen sunshine in quite a while, and there were a couple of narrowly avoided slipping incidents, including a very elegant unintentional dismount by Dad! *grin*  We made a point of avoiding hills and very shady roads from thereon in.  However apart from walking down that stretch, and tip-pedalling through a couple of others, the roads were pretty clear.

Clear of traffic for the most part too, apart from the odd prat so desperate to get to Glastonbury to stock on up incense that they had to get past us at all costs…  Still, we got to Glastonbury in one piece for a stop at the only café open in the town, who were very friendly and did me a nice warm mug of tea.

Once more unto the breech…and SH took us on a nice route out of town down some roads I’m pretty unfamiliar with, before we rejoined the main road back to Wedmore from where we wiggled across the Levels below Mark, back through Blackford and towards home.

Which brought us to the main Wedmore road at Cocklake.  At this point I was sitting a way back with Dad and others, whilst GB, SH and GW were off in the distance (now there’s a surprise).  I nearly resisted the urge to catch up with them and hurtle down my favourite stretch of road.  I did.  Really.  But…well…it’s traditional, and Christmas is a time for traditions…so I put my foot down, and pushed and pushed and over-took them…and ok, I wasn’t out on my own for long, and I know all 3 of ’em could have kicked my butt if they’d really wanted to…but hey, it was fun *grin*.  I got quite a long way before GB went whizzing past, and to be fair, I was flagging a bit by then.  Christmas Day took its toll you know 🙂

If I’m going to have goals, then I’d like to get myself to a point where I could push down there at 30mph – it’s usually about 25mph – but I think I’m going to need to put some serious work in to achieve that!

Cycling time: 2:25:11
Distance: 35.90 miles
Avs: 14.8 mph
ODO: 2890 miles

We ended up back in the Square as ever, happy to have been out, and feeling ever so slightly virtuous for our efforts. And ready to use it as an excuse to indulge in yet more Christmas goodies with a clear conscience 😉

Talking of goals, I signed up for next year’s Dragon Ride last night.  Well, I kinda enjoyed it last year, and I have to have something to be training for to stop me slacking!  Better plan a couple more sportives in the interim then…