Each to their own right?  Today is my birthday.  I saw it coming, as you do, and I couldn’t think of any better way to enjoy my day than to go ride my bike.  I realise this wouldn’t float everyone’s boat, but it does mine.  Especially when the sun is shining and it turns out to be 20C out there.  What’s not to love?  So I took to the usual social media channels, told the world what I was planning to do, if not why, and garnered myself some company.  As if my birthday wasn’t good excuse enough, one of my birthday presents is, as I have a new toy, and you can’t get a new toy and not play with it, right? ;).

Such gorgeous weather :D.  Sun, blue skies…  My birthday is often blessed with beau temps, which is nice.  Layers, what layers?  Just the one all over, thank you.  A singularity of lycra?  I arrived in the Square at 10:00am and met up with the Tor 2000 race snake that is Mike, and some of the Mendip Cycling Club – namely Keith, Nick and Paul.  As you probably know by now, I get a bit nervous about riding with new people, but I needn’t have worried as they turned out to be a really nice bunch.  *phew*!

Where does one go when it’s sunny?  The seaside of course.  In fact exactly the same route I did two weeks ago because I enjoyed it then and I was too lazy to come up with anything new ;).  But there’s bound to be another reason right?  Oh yes, shallow, predictable, competitive me…there’s Strava.  Hills to beat myself up over, in both senses of the phrase *grin*.  I didn’t break any of my Shipham records, but it did feel easier, which was a tad irritating, so I shall put it down to not trying very hard and to being in new company, and…oh who cares, right? *grin*.

They’ve cut back all the trees at the top of Shipham.  Which may make it less dark and foreboding up there, but I’m not sure that’s sufficient justification.  There’s been a lot of arboreal destruction going on around here, which makes me sad.  I like trees.  Trees take a long time to get to being big enough to be “annoying”, and then just like that they’re gone.  Bet they don’t get replaced either.  If only there were Ents..they’d never let it happen!  Right.  Mini-rant over.

Time to go and be beside the seaside, via the continuing excitement that is the new bridge, and endless lovely flat country roads, enjoying riding my bike in the sunshine.  There are far worse ways to spend a Tuesday morning :).

After showing the new guys the wonders of North Somerset, including the rarity of the tide being in at Sand Bay, I was hoping for coffee at the New Castle Inn and was quite irritated to discover that it was closed.  The website, which I checked last night, implied that it would be open.  I foresee a grumpy email going their way…  The next café along, the name of which temporarily escapes me, is being totally redone, so that was out too.  I was starting to feel guilty for dragging all these people along from stop to stop with no refreshment – oops!  However one thing Weston has is cafés, although arguably this is a question of quantity over quality ;).  We ended up sitting outside the Victorian Café on the sea front, in the sun.  Which definitely wasn’t the end of the world, and had the advantage of meaning we didn’t have to be more than a few feet away from our precious steeds which, as we all know, is very important.

I think that even the bikes could have been accused of sunbathing…

I’m going to be uncharitable now…so please bear with me.  But I think the following picture kinda sums up Weston.  It has the traditional seaside (donkeys), the revamped and refurbished and regenerated (the pier), and then large chunks of ugliness still lurking around in between (the lorry).  There you are, a ride that comes with a photo that is a metaphor for the state of Weston.  Get me ;).

Mike, though off work, was still working.  I know how that goes.  But still, today has to qualify as a pretty good day at the office right? *grin*.

From Easter onwards Weston becomes a place to treat with even greater caution, to only ride through at quiet times, keeping an extra eye out for motorists not paying attention to anything other than where to park the car.  We’re not quite there yet, but with the sun out, we’re not far off, and the hordes were descending…!  SMIDSY could be designed for the stretch of sea front road along to Uphill…

So.  Time to put the grockles behind us and to go cycle up some more hills right?  Bleadon Hill first.  Remember this strange tree?  Well it looks a lot better in the sunshine let me tell you :).

I was having such fun.  The hills weren’t hurting, the downs were great, the sun was shining…just fabulous.  Very, very, happy birthday girl :).

The views from Loxton were lovely, and I bet I was happier out there on my bike than all those people in little tin boxes flying along the motorway too.  Happier, and by the sounds of it, a little smug too ;).

Just a couple more hills to go then, an announcement which elicited the odd groan out of my merry band.  Not from Mike though, who still eats such things for breakfast.  So it was up the hill to Banwell Castle, and down the fast main road, just so as to get me to the bottom of Winscombe Hill in the right place to try and get to the top in a better time than before.  And I did – I beat my previous QOM title.  ‘Rah!  I believe I’ve mentioned that small things please small minds right? 😉  Well I was pleased *grin*.  In fact Strava says I did pretty well all ’round today :).  I certainly enjoyed my final sprint down the bypass – made all that climbing well worth it – *flies in teeth*.

But that’s Strava.  Which is all very well.  But the Strava phone lives in the back pocket, or the saddle bag.  My fabulous new toy is there in front of me, telling me everything I want to know.  Ok, so I haven’t got the hang of it yet, and there’s some beeping going on to do with laps that I need to figure out, and so on…but it rocks 🙂  Can’t accuse me of over-recording now, not with all that lovely GPS data.  I wonder if I should give it a name?  See here for all my lovely shiny stats, downloaded like a dream, which I can no doubt over analyse until the cows come home :).

It was a truly great ride.  Thanks to everyone for coming out and keeping me company – it was good to finally meet you, and equally good to catch up with Mike who I’ve not ridden with in an age.  Mostly because he’s too fast!  After a couple of days that almost passed for rest days I guess my legs were raring to go.  Maybe they would have been anyway, as I’m so easily motivated by sunshine.  It really does make all the difference.  Besides it’s a lovely route, with flat and hills and scenery, and I got to ride it in company and drink coffee.  Miles and miles of smiles :D.  And probably burgeoning tan lines too – bonus!  It was almost a shame to come home, and it was certainly tempting not to…but too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, right?  Does that count for gadgets too? 😉  It’s a wonder there’s room for anything else in my pockets/saddle bag!

Cycling time: 2:08:59 hrs
Distance: 33.94 miles
AVS: 15.8 mph.
ODO: 12786 miles

Back to my birthday.  Well, it is a day that’s all about me, right? :P.  I was right about riding, it was a mighty fine way to celebrate.  And you can’t half tell I’m a cyclist if you look at my lovely gifts:  I have a digital weather station – so that I know what temperature it is out there, what the forecast is, and how many layers to put on.  There’s the gorgeous Garmin of course, which even colour co-ordinates with my bike.  Cycling books: Put me back on my bike, and The Tour is Won on the Alpe (thanks GB!) to read and to motivate me.  Donations towards my awesome new cycling shoes – bought to go with the new bike that I don’t yet have.  And some new music to listen to whilst on the bike.  OK, so there are a couple of exceptions to the cycling rule but…well, you get the general idea.  Happy Birthday to me :).

(PS: If you fancy listening to this entry’s eponymous song, it’s here, and it’s lovely).