97.25 miles

OK, I thought I'd done 99. But checking tracklogs shows my loop (that I rode twice) was only 77km, not the 79km I thought. So, 154km, which is pretty good, but not quite as exciting as 158km. Maybe next time.

My legs hurt.

Lots.

17mph average!

Well, I was happy with it.

Killers in quite good shock

It's true - much better than I expected. What I found odd was that I've never thought the singer bloke had a particularly strong or rich voice - but live, it was way better than on the records. Is this a case of making him sound worse on the recording because the unwashed masses couldn't cope with someone who can carry a tune?

The show was hit after hit after hit - they haven't really learnt subtle yet. Good pyro at the end, you could really feel the heat from it. Oh, and Dave is funny bouncing up and down.

Can you guess what it is?

That's the support band for the killers. They're not very good. At all.

Achey legs

Did a couple of 1.5 hour rides yesterday, one before work and one after. For some reason I've got achely legs today - I made it to the gym but missed out the leg presses, and missed my scheduled ride. Instead I did a bit of bike mechanics, shortening a brake hose and then bleeding it - my first time! Seems OK, went fairly smoothly, we'll see when I actually use it.

I've also joined Twitter. I don't know why really, slightly work related I guess. Who would want to read the random thoughts of strangers? Oh, hang on...

Roadkill Saturday

One of the aspects of cycling around here is the amount of roadkill that you see. I tend to ride on quiet country roads that seem to attract wildlife, and that wildlife is sometimes a little unlucky. The odd thing that I've noticed is that there tends to be trends in the dead things. One week lots of bunnies, the next lots of deer. This week was badger week. I spotted five of the poor unfortunates on my ride (130km - did I mention that? That's 82 miles, give or take). Given that I've only ever seen two live badgers there can't be that many around so there must be some explanation. Is this the week they all come out after the winter? Are they particularly depressed because of a lack of valentine cards?

It has been almost spring-like this week - sunshine, blue skies, no rain. This did lead me to assume that sunshine meant warmth and I nearly froze my arms off by riding home sleeveless on Friday. Durrr.....

Big week

Lots of training this week, three rides to and from work, a couple of gym sessions and an interval session on the turbo. I hope to do a couple more rides this weekend... just eating in preparation for the Saturday one.

I did spot a field of llamas on the way in on Monday morning. There aren't many llamas around here.

Recovery eating?

This week has been a "recovery" week, the theory being that by spending a few weeks training hard and then doing much less for a week, the much less week will be spent getting fitter. Got that? I'm no sports scientist, but I know one and I've bought a book, so it must be true.

Now, as it's been a week recovering from all the exercise, I guess it also needs to be a week recovering from all the heathy eating. I'm not talking a total pie-fest here, getting twatted every night and breakfasting on jelly, but more of a relaxation of the monk-like diet I usually follow (assuming that the monk eats lots of fresh stuff, enjoys a nice bit o' pasta and doesn't hit the mead or buckfast too often).

Saturday involved a lot of cooking, star of which was another batch of muffins (the best ones yet) and a Chocolate Raspberry and Apple Betty. Now, this may sound like some kind of obscure East German sex fetish, but in reality it's merely something that's a bit like a crumble but with a different topping that has 85% chocolate in it. The good thing about a Betty is that there are at least six portions in it (8 for normal people) and it goes great with ice cream.

Ah, the ice cream. Bit of a defect there. It looks like Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie, it's cold like B&JsCFB, it sort of even tastes like B&JsCFB, but it isn't ice cream. It's frozen yoghurt ("I call it froghurt"). There's nothing intrinsically wrong with froghurt, but it just doesn't seem right. I think it's because I didn't choose to buy it, it was a genuine mistake. It may be lower fat and better for me, but hell, this is a recovery week!

So, be warned. There are things out there that are not as they seem, masquerading as something familiar. I give you froghurt, the ladyboy of the dessert world.

Video test

Bit of a test of uploading video from my phone. That's my hand, that is.

Transformers

Well, that's what I watched, along with an episode of BTVS and Futurama "Beast with a Billion Backs". Fours hours. Four lonely hours, staring at a laptop screen (although Darren did call to try and persuade me to join him on a ride tomorrow). Three bottles of water, three Torq bars, one Torq gel.

Since coming off the trainer I've eaten (in three hours)

- One bottle of Torq Recovery
- One hotdog
- One tin of Spongebob Squarepants pasta shapes on toast
- One hot cross bun
- Two slices of malt loaf, toasted and buttered

It's now 5pm. Snack time.

Be careful what you wish for

More snow. That's what I said. And that's what we've had. The thing is... it's not great for training rides, at least not with our kind of snowy/slushy/icy/never-know-when-the-wheels-are-going-to-let-go conditions.

In the mornings it has been great. Mud-X tyres grip great on fresh snow, and they leave pretty tracks too - I followed another set of Mud-X tracks into work this morning (is that slightly geeky, knowing a tyre by the track?), knowing exactly who they belonged to and what bike they were on. There aren't too many people who ride real mountain bikes with real mountain bike tyres into work, so it had to be Dave on his GF Rig. Yup, followed it right to the bike racks.

In the the day and evenings... less good. No problems yet, but I wouldn't want to go and ride 4-5 hours on the road. So, it's back on the turbo, lots of BTVS. Tomorrow I hope to get in at least three hours, maybe more. Not a physical challenge, a mental one. My brain needs to MTFU.

Snowbiking

We don't get much snow here, so it makes sense to try and make the best of it when it arrives. So Jon and I went out last night, although the worst of it had melted. The roads were just about clear of ice and there was a tang of salt in the air, from all the gritting that has been going on. Once we got into the woods the fun began, as there was no way of telling what lay underneath the white stuff - firm ground, frozen ruts, sloppy mud, hub-deep icy puddles. It made for a challenging ride - and all with the hushed and bright atmosphere that snow brings. Feet were often unclipped, boots submerged in water and slop, but we didn't go down. A rapid dab is not a fall!

With the underlying ground obscured by the snow it was a ride of poor line choices and sinking bikes. We can ride mountain bikes, honest. We've done this before - these conditions, this route. We stopped for photos, phone calls, food. It was not, most certainly not, a training ride. It was fun.

We were out just under two hours. Jon nearly lost it on the newly formed ice coming into my road (flashbacks to another icy road, dislocation, hospital) but held the slide - I just heard the verbal exclaimation of surprise as his back wheel stepped out. We made it though, unbruised, unbattered, uncut.

Here's to more snow.