In bed for nearly 24 hours now

and to be honest I'm quite bored...

Cold and miserable

Last weekend I missed out on what looks to have been a proper good hoot, the magazines xmas party followed by then Dr's housewarming, interspersed with riding my favourite trails :(

My works xmas do was good fun but then I came down with the cold/chest infection that has been lurking in my body for weeks now, perfect timing for xmas :(

So, a weekend with no bikes, no partying and mostly bloody miserable, only highlight was spending time practiscing photographing birds in flight, managed to get a few decent shots of the swans..

This forthcoming week looks like yet another bikeingless week unless I get a miracle cure, this mornings commute was a chore and an exercise in not being sick or wobbling into the path of the juggernauts !

bah humbug :(((

Cold blue skies

my favourite..

todays early morning breakfast ride didnt happen as I had to get into work early, however tomorrow is a different story, these ace weather conditions are predicted to continue so will try to make the most of it.

So far this week has just been out and back affairs, 2 colleagues from work fell on the ice this morning, both hurt themselves, the boss damaged his helmet, be careful out there kids :-)

Its Monday and already

I can see this being a fairly bikeless week, despite my promises to ride a cross race and ride next weekend I'd forgotten that I'm on call all week :-(

so, the best I can really hope for is a few night rides later this week then 2 river runs at the weekend, bugger !

tomorrow I have to take the car to work, I'm in a meeting 15 miles away, would have been perfect to commute to and from but I have taxi duties to perform early in the evening for the girls, bugger !, hopefully I'll get back in reasonable time and if this fantastic weather (bloody weather) continues I'll try and get out tomorrow night

but when I think back I cant actually remember the last time I drove to work, so thats a good thing really, shame its not being reflected in my sore slow legs

tonights beer choice is varied, Brakespears Organic IPA, Innis and Gunn traditional (still not found the rum barreled version) Kronenburg 1664 white and a Brakespear special 7.6%...

headache expected tomorrow morning :-)

Uphill hurts

Needless to say that the planned weekend of riding didnt happen, Saturday was a filthy day, horizontal rain and as windy as curry morning, spent the day at Martin Mere practicsing focussing on moving birds.

Sunday dawned a lot better, and thanks to the prompting of friends (and reading an interview with Sean Yates in Rouluer magazine that Biff does the fantastic design on)I made my way over to the valley to Matts, happily to be greeted with tea and toast and smiley people, the usual start up Jack bridge had me reeling with light headedness, I have a real love hate affair with this climb, sometimes I can fly up it, today it was a painful reminder of my last two weeks inactivity, at one point I had to stop and concentrate on keeping my breakfast down, I walked for a few minutes before feeling well enough to continue :-(

By the time we topped out I was feeling better, my legs were now inclined to go in smooth circles, we picked up Ed and continued on for an (in my case) up slowly and down slowly day, I was taking things very easily on both ways.

3 hours of this and we then headed back to Matts for fantastic soup with crusty bread, then off to Mooch for coffee, home early and a power nap whilst watching Star Wars, sleepy again now,

Happy to be a bikie again this week :-)

Fixie inc

Nothing of note today, straight there and back on the TinRat.

However, Bill had his Bob Jackson track bike convert in work today, cant believe he's had it all these years and its the first time I'd seen it, probably because it was on velodrome duty exclusively before, anyway he;s put a carbon fork and a front brake on it and its blooming lovely, campag cranks and those of so exquisite large flange campag track hubs that make you go weak at the knees...

next week will be fixie week....

must resist looking at Indy Fab track bikes :-)

December again already

No riding last weekend still have a chest lurgy lingering, bloody thing just will not come out though, as a result of feeling generally under the weather and tired all over I couldn't summon up any energy to ride a bike, combined with truly appalling weather and I didnt even try to convince myself otherwise.

Last week totaled about 60 miles, this week looks to be even lower, today was a straight out and back affair, 9 miles in the wind and rain, at least I still rode, it would have been so easy to take the car....

Anyway, on a brighter note this forthcoming weekend has a plan, Saturday I'm going to explore at Delamere regardless of the weather, intention is to do a big day there and ride every trail I know, there's a good solid 4 hours there if you know where to go.

Sunday is unclear as yet, it'll probably be over in the valley with Dave, Sharon, Dave, Simon, Piers, Matt and Tanya, of course they dont yet know this :-)

It'll get posted on Cheeky, we'll see who takes up the mantle !