I went for a ride with Martyn and Paul today.  On a good day they’re both as bad as each other if not worse, but luckily today they remained fairly restrained in deference to my less than on form state.  We went for a fairly flat ride around the Levels in the extremely dull and grey and boring.  With a blustery headwind that was only briefly of any use.  Sounds delightful doesn’t it?  Martyn says it was dreich, and he wasn’t wrong.

Cycling time: 1:54:47 hrs
Distance: 32.20 miles
Avs: 16.9 mph.
ODO: 985.85 miles

As would appear to be continually the case at the moment, I wasn’t feeling the love.  Which was one of the reasons I wanted to ride – to see how I was feeling on the bike, after Sunday’s less than wonderful and with the Exmoor Beast looming.  I performed, but only adequately.  Depressing really.  See, my insides have been worse than ever for a while, on several levels that I won’t bore you with.  Not only does this add extra pain and discomfort and fatigue to the equation it also means I’ve lost what little appetite I had, and I haven’t been eating anywhere near properly of late.  This is not great from a fuelling point of view.  All in all…not good :(.

To cut a long story short, I have some appointments coming up to look into things, but in the meantime, following advice from various people that I should probably pay attention to, it looks like it’s time to take it easy for a couple of weeks.

So, with heavy heart and sad face, I have decided to do what I’m told.  No Exmoor Beast for me.  No Devil’s Punch Bowl.  But hey, they’re only sportives right?  Priorities and all that?  Hopefully after a couple of weeks I’ll be back, raring to go, and back on what passes for form for me.  I expect I’ll still be out there from time to time, since being totally without my bike would probably be more kill than cure, but it’ll most definitely be just in pottering around mode.  I do feel gutted about the Beast – I’ve been looking forward to it ever since I did the preview ride, and I was looking forward to having a good ride with some good friends.  Really sorry guys :(.

At least the postman knocked, only once, and brought me some goodies to cheer me up.  I’ve complained about my currently sunglasses before – they let too many bits in to traumatise my contact lenses, and more importantly, they’re quite scratched now and some of the lenses are just not usable anymore.  So courtesy of a sale offer and special discount code I got me a pair of BBB Impulse Team Sunglasses.  OK, I chose them mostly because they match the bike, but also because the reviews elsewhere were positive and the lens coverage looked better than what I currently have.  I haven’t been able to prove that yet, but man, they look cool on *grin*.  Feel free to disagree, I shall just ignore you ;).

While I was there, and to qualify for whatever the Probikekit offer at the time was, I finally picked up a pair of winter tyres to put on the old bike and to truly make it into a winter bike.  Right now it has slicker tyres than the Cinelli does!

So it may be a little quiet around here for a while, but at least I have what I need to get back on the bike when I can.

And hey, it won’t be for long, right?

Don’t go going anywhere! 😉