Full service resumed

Blimmin heck a proper week, ride on sunday, commuting 4 days, a night ride and 5aside! I've not done a full week in yonks. Admittedly sunday was just a quick road ride to check my legs and lungs were still working after a week off the bike (results were "yes" and "sort of") Monday was a bit of a bugger, all sorts of toolery going on around me, cars racing to beat me to pinch points, some idiot gunning his engine to get passed me then immediatley pulled left and braked hard so he could do a U turn and park on the otherside of the road, and various other stuff. Tuesday not bad, some polite drivers for a change, at nnight Johnnie had to cancel last minute due to a mechanical pneumatical so I did the jumbles loop again, did manage all the climbs this time but the rollercoaster one took a fair bit of grunting/thrutching when I went offline and stalled halfway up. Got plastered in mud, first really muddy ride for a while, chain on SS is dying loadsa stiff links. Saw a BIG group above turton tower, dunno if it was woolybacks or boggies, a good twelve or so riders.
Yesterday was my first 5aside in... oooh a long time, took it easy didn't chase as much as usual but still got injured, somehow got a knock to my right calf got a big lump and it's sore now and Si managed to nobble my left leg too. I seem to get injured everytime I play, dunno if it's me lumbering about the pitch, bad luck or just me being a mard arse, I enjoyed it tho, even scored once. So stiff legs riding in this morning, fine for pedalling but standing up trying to absorb bumps hurts. Prob no riding this weekend so a good job I fit plenty in during the week.

Too Slow

I've decided to pimp my singlespeed this year, to me the shonky aspect has always been a big part of singlespeeding but it is so much fun I think it deserves a half decent bike - not so expensive as to put me off trudging through the mud and rain but something a little nicer/lighter than my battered old inbred. So I was well impressed this week when I saw scandal inbreds for £135, finally got round to ordering one today - out of stock. Grrr. Ah well will have to go for something pimpier. I'm thinking of something like a whippet or a cotic soul - think I'll stick with vertical dropouts, I've heard horizontal can be a pain in the arse with disc brakes (refitting wheel after fixing flats out on the trail), plus if I'm paying a wedge for a frame the option of gears would be nice too. Will have to see how many pennies I can save up.

Bored

Got a cold, not riding at the moment, bored, feel like I'm getting fat and lazy. Still...atleast it's not swine flu so dying shouldn't be an option. Still hammering fallout NV, finished it once but still have 3 more endings (atleast) to check out and once I've done that I have fallout3 ready to go.

Car society

Been reading quite a lot of stuff on road safety (or lack of it), car culture, cycling initiatives and other travesties. This one particularly got to me, hi vis jackets for all, if you get run over chances are it's your fault, stupid kids getting in the way of cars! So as requested I emailed the DfT and I urge everyone else to.
Some good sites about, even if it does get depressing being reminded how Car Is King is so ingrained you'd taken for granted all the little problems it causes, war on motorist is quite funny, crap cycling in waltham sounded a little preachy about segregation at first but he may have a point, scrap half the roads (seriously gimping the full time motorists) give over a lot more space to other forms of transport, walking, cycling (of course), trams and trains etc. Not gonna happen anytime soon tho I fear. I've been trying to come up with reasons against and so far the only one I can come up with is doing the friday big shop with kids, the big shop is the only time I regularly drive, used to do it on my bike but it was a hassle and no chance with a little one on board. But I dunno, a huge change will have to come at some point with oil/petrol running low and it would be depressing if that opportunity was wasted with a simple switch to electric cars. Changing to an entirely new transport infrastructure could bring about a big change to all aspects of our lives.

Tour de jumbles

First night ride of the year done, as Si has been hitting the gym since the new year he wasn't up to riding and Johnnie seems to be in a communication black hole so I was on my own, I didn't fancy big hills anyway so had a mooch round the resers, being an adrenaline junky mountain biker I was of course hitting the sickest lines at silly speeds....or not as it happens, just a brisk ride round the deserted, well surfaced (mostly) tracks, a few other bikers about, only passed 2 but saw a few more on the far bank of wayoh and entwistle. 23 miles very little road, quickish but not fast, around 2200ft climbing so pretty flat and I was back home before 9, fun.

What now?

Still not decided on my aims for this year just a few maybes, the only thing I do have planned is to get quick. Wanna try a bit of tame racing, some of the brownbacks hopefully, if wors and lowey do have a go (they did hint they would) it would help my motivation :-) I'm not signing up for Keilder this time but come september if there's entrys free (highly likely) and the weathers looking good (hmm) and I'm in the mood (hmmmmm) I might give it another go.
Started the year riding wise with a very gentle intro, more of a catch up with Johnnie than a ride, first week back at work things were looking good, pushing pretty hard on my first two commutes and feeling good. Then I started with sore throat and bunged up, so I've now eased off again, still riding tho, think I was too easily put off riding last year for fear of getting properly ill. This time I'll keep going til I can't ride.

Most agreeable

Tail wind all the way home last night, very quick and a rather enjoyable commute, manky weather, 3 people tried to take me out but I still got home with a big grin on my face. Must be the wind assist, few and far between so gotta appreciate them when they do happen.

1. Car in the middle lane (of 3) stuck in traffic, passenger decided to open the door to get out as I was passing, close.
2. Leaving kearsley roundabout I take the next right so I keep to the right on the wide exit slip, car undertakes me then cuts me up cos he's going right too.
3. Approaching a pinch point (pedestrian island) lady in a car going slightly faster than me, started to overtake realised she wasn't going to pass me before the pinch so just drifted left into me. I calmly tapped on her window and made a few comments.

2010 round up

2010 was supposed to be a big mileage year so lets see how I did.
180 rides 4786 miles
XC
2462 in 91 rides
Road
2324 in 89 rides
Average was 27 offroad 26 on (better than last year), mode was unsurprisingly the 25mile commute, one century (finally! and it was xc too!), four half centuries and twenty rides 30-50miles. 1 broken bike(boo), not a whole lot of punctures (yay) no bad riding injuries but a whole heap of bugs/viruses.
How did I do with my aims?
3000 xc miles, nope too many bouts of illness but I did manage more xc than road which makes a change.
Coast to coast, erm no.
SSEC yes and very good it was too!
STW weekender, nope.
Keilder 100, well it wasn't looking too good for a while but I managed it, pity it destroyed my knees. Quite chuffed with managing the course.
Get Charlie walking, don't think I can take much credit for this but yes, done.
Snowboarding holiday, no chance and not next winter either I'd guess.

So a bit of a mixed bag, some big mileage rides and slightly longer average rides but not enough of them.

So lets get ready for 2011 then :-)

Fallout Boy

I'm a bit of an obsessive, tend to do things to death, riding bikes, drinking beer, various other pursuits also spring to mind, a huuuge time sink of mine is computer games as once the initial outlay is over with you don't run out of money (as with drinking) and as you are sat on your arse the whole time you don't run out of energy. If I get a new game you can guarantee I'll be up till midnight playing it, a good game it'll be the early hours, a great game...well I've looked up from the monitor to see daylight on a few occasions. Over christmas and new year the mrs has been ill so we've been indoors most of it, this coincided with me obtaining fallout new vegas, so anytime both her and the baby were asleep (frequently) I was on the PC. In nearly 2 weeks I think I've only made it to bed before 2am twice. Cracking game, thoroughly recommended if you have huge swathes of freetime (or don't care about sleep deprivation) First of the series I've played but will be looking into FO3 I think, maybe not bother with the earlier ones tho.

When not roaming the mojave virtually we visited family with the accompanied lots of eating and (only a little actually) drinking but after a week of that I was feeling a little off colour. I finally got off my arse on the 30th, mrs was still ill and the trails were looking icy so nipped out for a quick run jog instead of a ride. Only out for 75mins or so and no big hills but came back with my left leg/hip aching liked I'd pulled something, cold bath, food & painkillers then a nice hot bath later, I felt fantastic. Running, one of the most painful/tedious/annoying forms of excercise and it had transformed me, why don't more people excercise when it makes you feel like this? Was having trouble walking 2 days later when all my leg muscles seized up but I felt fine otherwise, no sign of any pulled muscles. Should do more runs when I'm short on time.