You know how I said I wouldn’t go out and do 17 miles just to make sure I’d done more miles this January than last January?  Well…….. ;).  In my defence, that’s partially because I’d forgotten that there are 31 days in January and because I knew I wasn’t riding yesterday, so I just didn’t think it was doable.  But what do you know?  There are indeed 31 days in January, and there I was, with an extra day, and a little niggling shortfall in mileage to make up.

But even there were no certainties.  As you may have noticed, it’s brass monkeys out there, with freezing temperatures, and bitter winds.  -3C when I got up this morning, but with winter sun and blue skies, and no obvious frost.  But just because you can’t see the ice doesn’t mean it isn’t there right?  Besides, not being able to see it is half the problem!  So should I ride?  I umed, and I ahed, and I deliberated and…since the roads looked dry, I decided I’d leave it until later in the day than usual and give it a go.  Being a paranoid android I followed GB‘s example, and checked out the SCC salting network to make myself a route with calcium chloride on my side in the fight for continued verticality.  The downside to the network is that SCC salts main roads and not much else – unsurprisingly.  Actually it’s a miracle they still do that considering how they seem to be stopping doing pretty much everything else…but I’d better not get started on that 😉  Back to the main roads.  These are roads that do not make for the most enthralling cycling but I guess it’s a trade-off – safety vs excitement.  And even though the website warns that even salted roads cannot be guaranteed to be ice-free, I figure they stand a better chance of being so than non-salted roads do!

Cycling is sometimes easier when you have a goal.  And, daft though it may have been (and it SO was), today’s main goal was to do over 16 miles.  It being as cold as it is, I didn’t really want to be out much longer than that was going to take me anyway, so I got me out there, in every layer going, and I did it.  A very easy dot-to-dot puzzle: Wedmore, Mark, Highbridge, and then the A38 all the way home; saying a little prayer to any deity that happened to be listening every time a lorry thundered past me.

For the most part it was, not to put too fine a point on it, pretty boring.  If I hadn’t had a goal…  Long essentially straight roads.  Head down and push hard stuff, trying to keep the average speed up and to keep warm.  It was fairly flat, very cold, with enough wind to be irritating from time to time, but there was no ice and it was uneventful – which was the point…

Cycling time: 1:16:12 hrs
Distance: 22.53 miles.
AVS: 17.6 mph.
ODO: 11841 miles

…actually who am I kidding?  The point was to beat last January’s mileage total and, by six miles, I did.  Ridiculous, non-sensical, self-imposed, shallow goal achieved *grin*.  I wasn’t feeling particularly on form, though every time I felt like I was finding it hard work I’d look down and see an average speed that was fast enough to explain that!  Sadly I’m still not better, and MiniMe has very generously passed on his cold to me, so I was kinda lacking in mojo.

No photos today because that would have meant stopping, and there was no way I was doing that.  And before anyone points it out, I know I’ve broken my two hour rule…but I’ll do an hour at the nice warm gym later to make up the difference, so there :P.