Battling Home

The journey this morning was a fairly uneventful affair, just a simple journey, nothing too stressful.

Tonight's cycle home was a completely different experience. The rain started about 5 mins after I started cycling and just seemed to get heavier and heavier. Before I knew what had happened my shorts and jacket were soaked and all I could do was blink away the rain and pedal like fury as cars splashed past me. Add that to the experience of bombing down Great Western Road in the dark and you might understand why I had a big crazy grin on my face the whole way home.

Brilliant fun (although its going to take a while for my stuff to dry out again).

Weekly Total: 21.20 miles

Introducing Baby Lilly...

A very good friend of mine became a Dad again this morning.

Congratulations to Iain and Lyndsey and to Grace for their new family member. Grace is apparently particularly pleased with the arrival of her new sister, Baby Lilly (working title), because she gets to paint her room pink.

Brilliant news and one very proud Dad.

Changeable Weather

Cycle in this morning was lovely and fresh. Morning sunshine made everything look beautiful and serene. Cycle home on the other hand was dark and miserable with a few rain showers thrown in to remind me that I live in Glasgow.

Weekly Total: 42.28 miles
Overall Total: 2154.9 miles

Achilles Agony

I was back on the bike again... finally. The ride in to work was refreshing, the ride home was magically thanks to the lovely warm temperatures and night time lights but despite all that, the day has been a bit of a downer.

I was playing squash today with two colleagues from work. One of these guys hadn't done any sport in over 7 years but had been a keen basketball and squash player prior to this. Unfortunately, midway through his 3rd game of squash, Dave ruptured his Achilles tendon.

It's bad enough that Dave has hurt himself and now faces possible surgery and 6 - 8 weeks in a plaster cast, but the situation is made even worse by the fact that Dave and his wife were supposed to be leaving for New Zealand this Saturday afternoon for a 3 week trip to visit friends and family. Its not likely that Dave will be able to travel with this injury and I doubt I can get close to understanding the disappointment and frustration he must be feeling just now.

Get well soon Dave.

Apathy and Frustration

I never got round to fixing that flat tyre last night and really couldn't be arsed doing it this morning when I woke up. Now I'm annoyed with myself because its turned out to be a lovely day and I should be cycling home tonight and not enduring another dull train journey.

6.30am start at work tomorrow means I probably won't get back onto the bike untill Thursday. Bugger

Funny Story

OK, picture the scene...

Man wakes up out of bed, scratches hinself (as all men do) and then begins a very slow and arduous process of determining whether he will brave the elements and cycle into his work this morning. Having made initial investigations (ie looked out of the window and seen the heavy rain, then verified exactly what he had seen by checking Metcheck online), he proceeds to dress in the appropriate cycling atire and then help the rest of the family get themselves ready for their early departure. Throughout this process, internal discussions are taking place within this man's head, the classic 'will I, won't I' type of discussions that generally only server to frustrate people.

With the family safely sent on their way, these internal discussion are soon externalised with self-directed mutterings and curses. Eventually a decision is reached, the pannier bag is packed and a calm descends upon the man as he slowly accepts quite how wet it is outside and therefore accepts quite how wet he may get on the journey.

The final layer of waterproof clothing is pulled on. The winter gloves, the bike lights and the odometer are all picked up from the kitchen counter. Confidence and anticipation is at an all time high, the man is actually looking forward to making this journey now. The pannier bag is picked up, house keys are searched for and located and the man strides out into the dark rain and locks the house behind him.
A short stride finds him opening the shed door and carefully pulling out his beloved steed, the street lights offering just enough light to complete the manouver.

The bike lights are slotted into place, the pannier bag clipped onto the frame, the man lifts his leg over the steel frame and then....

....well then he looks down and starts swearing at the top of his voice. The back tyre is as flat as a pancake and its too late to change it! The man has to throw the bike back into the shed, stomp angrily back up to the house and get changed in the kitchen before dashing out to catch the train.

moral: Always, always, always check your bike the night before you intend to use it.

Post Holiday Blues?

A shit week for cycling.

I got back from Amsterdam on Monday - just a long weekend but what an amazingly diverse city. Beautiful, exciting, inspiring, sexy and seedy all kind of jumbled up together in a package of stunning buildings, beautiful waterways and the odd coffee shop or two. Recommended.

Anyway, got back on Monday and cycled in to work on Tuesday. No problems there - I enjoyed being back on the bike and was looking forward to cycling the rest of the week. I didn't cycle back home because I went through to Edinburgh to see Paulieman. Then I caught a dose of man flu and have spent the rest of the week shaking it off.

Team Flea was supposed to be in a cycling competition this weekend too - another sponsored cycle ride called the Braveheart Cycle Ride. Unfortunately it took the members of Team Flea far too much time to finally get their finger out and agree to do it and we missed out on registration (much to the delight of Desmond who berated us all for being 'lycra-clad, curvy handlebar,slip-streaming, banana in the back pocket road racing' freaks). We might be able to salvage the weekend, however, with a trip to Ae to see the Hippo - that would be good.

Weekly Total: 15.65 miles
Overall Total: 2112.6 miles

Completed Stats

OK its been a long time coming but here are some stats for my 2000+ mile journey. The numbers in the brackets are my stats for the 2nd half:

Main

Total no. of days cycling:93 days (45)
Total miles cycled: 2009.9 miles (1007.4)
Av. miles per day: 21.62 miles (22.39)

Repairs

No. of punctures: 16 (6)
Total cost of repairs and servicing: £175.94

Other Stats

No. of rainy days: 16 (12)
Snow/Sleet days: 2
Furthest distance in a single day: 54.92 miles
Fastest Time: 37mins53secs
Most number of people on a bike at one time: 3

Finally

Time take to complete target: 249 days (113)
True av. miles per day: 8.07 miles (8.92)

Half Way Stats: Half Way There!!

Day and Night

Cold morning sunshine swept across the cityscape this morning which made a happy change from the last few days of constant rain. I had planned on timing my journey but after about 40 minutes of frantic pedalling, I realised that I'd forgotten to start my timer.. just as well really, I'd been slowed right down by a few traffic lights at the start of the journey and didn't think I'd been able to make up the time.

The journey home was a completely different affair. I had to work late, so I didn't start the journey home until after 7pm. I had the added pleasure of having another puncture to repair before I set off - I had picked up a slow puncture at the very end of my morning journey and hadn't bothered to fix it when I noticed (yes, I still haven't used the kevlar lining that Cris bought me). Repairing the tube with yet another leech has given me another mini-challenge: I want to see how many punctures I can collect on a sigle inner tube. Just now there are 3 repairs and I certainly anticipate more.

Anyway, puncture fixed I headed off home. I bought a new rear light yesterday so was pleased to see how much brighter it was than my previous effort. My front light was pretty weak, but that was because it hadn't been charged for ages. It lasted the journey though and so did I, despite a muck-clogged chain and sqeuaky brakes. The bike is getting cleaned tomorrow.

No more cycling this week, I'm off work tomorrow and off to Amsterdam from Saturday.

Weekly Total: 42.54 miles
Overall Total: 2097.0 miles

Monday Morning

Back in the saddle and feeling good. A little bit windy and a bit damp at the start but that soon became easy to ignore and the journey just seemed to be over in minutes.

The darker mornings and nights are almost here now, the clock change looms ever closer and with it will come and almost permanent dependancy on bike lights and bat-like sensory perception.

Weekly Total: 10.72 miles

Chilly Buzz

BOOM! What a cycle in this morning!

A real buzz and sense of enjoyment coursed through my body as I hammered along the canal path desperately trying to ignore the cold lashing my bare legs and arms while trying to absorb every note and beat that was squeezing out of my iPod.

Early morning starts, albeit rather cold, are gorgeously exhilarating.

The cycle home, on the other hand, was relatively dull. It was warmer, wetter and generally more traffic on the road. I'm looking forward to those cold, dark mornings now.

Weekly Total: 44.56 miles
Overall Total: 2054.4 miles

Punctured Again

Felt good on the bike today - right up until I got another bloody puncture (yes, I know, I should have put in that Kevlar strip that you kindly gave me for my birthday, Cris - but I didn't and I regret that now). Got the puncture fixed fast enough and still got into work at a decent time, so no real issues there.

Cycle home was uneventful but still enjoyable.

Weekly Total: 21.21 miles

Fergus Sings the Blues

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