Today I went for a ride with an alien.
No, not that one (although it is kinda cool)…this one! Well he’s less of an alien, more of a grockle around here ;).
As an honorary Somerset cyclist for the day, it was therefore necessary to take him to the infamous Sweets Tea Rooms, which is practically a place of pilgrimage for those pedalling around here. Not to mention being a rather nice piece of alliteration ;).
We did my standard type of training loop, with the odd lump just to see if lumps were doable, and also with a whole heap of flat to balance out the hills of Exmoor that he usually rides up. Life’s all about balance. As is riding a bike ;). I think it’s safe to see that my current drug cocktail, though essential, is far from performance enhancing, and there were also two nights of grinding wattbike interval training in my legs, so I wasn’t going anywhere fast. Man my legs were heavy… Gaz kicked my ass! In fact I didn’t get going until after our stop and the usual large americano with extra shot. After that I went up Mudgeley hill a little better than sometimes and not in very bottom gear for a change. It may be a little early to tell if the training is working, but maybe that should give me a glimmer of hope? I wonder how I’d do if I was a little better rested?
It wasn’t what you’d call lovely out there, it was grey and chilly and still and sort of flat. Nonetheless it was better to be out, and having good company to ride with saved me from my urge to just roll over and go back to sleep this morning – I have a tendency towards zombie status at the moment! This is also only the third month this year where I’ve done more mileage than the equivalent month last year, and it was nice to claw a little more back. However I’m currently 893 miles behind and there’s no way I’m going to make that up between now and 2014!
Cycling time: 1:49 hrs.
Distance: 29.6 miles.
Avs: 16.2 mph.
ODO: 16929 miles
Time to show off a bit. Here’s my bike with its shiny new handbuilt wheels, before they got cruddy on the roads, and therefore the shiniest they will probably ever be. I’m no expert on wheels, but they went round and round like they were supposed to, so they seem alright to me! The bike also has two new bottle holders, one of which is Howie‘s. It was a freebie at the Mario Cippolini Gran Fondo and he didn’t need it so he gave it to me so that I’d have two matching ones. I kinda like that it’s on my bike now – I’m sentimental like that. Mind you, took long enough to get around to putting them there! I also touched up all the black scratched paintwork on my poor battered frame last night, so my steed was briefly looking quite smart :).
