Sunday 17 January 2010

Happy days are here again

Ahh what joy to be out on my bike again today after a snow enforced lay-off. I was actually singing out loud at one point.

Five weeks of no-road cycling has taken its toll though. My time over my 26 mile training course was down by a full five minutes – bad! And my endurance has suffered too as I doubt I could ride 60 miles without really having to pay for it. Still, now that the snow has gone I can put in a more concentrated training effort to be ready for the 150km (93 miles) Essex Spring Lamb sportive in April.

Today’s ride was full of the usual tom foolery which comes from being invisible once you get on a bike – even wearing multi-coloured cycling tops that poke your eyes out. Like the women crossing the road with her dog who, rather than waiting for a gap in the cars decides she can run fast enough to give Frogger a run for its money. Trouble is, she doesn’t stop when she gets to the cycle lane (there is a small kerb sort of thing between the road and cycle lane) and just keeps running straight out in front. She was full of apologies, which was nice, but what people don’t realise is, we could both get seriously hurt if I run into them at 20 miles an hour.

Then there was my Tom Foolery when I was a couple of miles from home and decided to overtake group of five riders. Having overtaken, I couldn’t let them overtake me now could I? Three of them did take up the chase though but I still got home first – and the other two rode past about 30 seconds later.

And then there was my philosophical moment as I pondered the sadness of the last of the unmelted snow, eeking out its life by hiding from the sun in the wintery shadows. Then I laughed as no more snow means cycling can resume!

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