Opt In

I opt in to a wet bike ride, I daren’t miss another one but I do end up soaked. It wasn’t raining as I was getting ready but it started lobbing it down the moment I got out the door. Was fun though.

Mo Farah has entered the World Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff. Looks like we have competition but he’s probably just after the t-shirt.

L says this is her. 

Only you can't see if the lass is sat on a gym ball or not, trying to stay awake, as L is. I suggest that perhaps she should just give into it. Sleep at work, then she’ll be wide away for book reading and other stuff at home.

She does complain that she’s simply not cracking on with her books. What she needs is a good long winded dog show to start catching up. Oh look. I have two of those coming up in quick succession.

(Friday 22^nd January)

Ramathon To Return

I take the bus and somehow avoid the worst of the rain. Not so L who got soaked and claims to have her clothes draped all round the office drying. Sounds interesting.

The Derby Ramathon is to return. Well the half marathon version is and the full might be added in the future. Do I enter... that’s the question? There are only a thousand places in the first one. It would be nice to get the first t-shirt.

It’ll start and finish from Elvaston Castle but hopefully won’t simply consist of multiple laps around it. It’s the 8th June, a week after my half ironman. So I’ll either be very fit by then or very fed up.

(Wednesday 20^th November)

Steam Yourself Dry

L went on her bike to work today and got absolutely soaked the brave soul. I’m so proud of her.

I went to work on the bus and also got absolutely soaked. It was also late, which didn’t help. At least the weather is still hot enough to steam yourself dry quite quickly.

Then it pretty much thunders all day, waiting for us to make the return journeys.

Only I outfox it and stay in Derby for some drinks with old school friends, four us tonight. Drinks in the Brunswick and then food in the Babington.

Back home L discovers Doggo has leapt the dog gate and got himself stuck the wrong side again. More stuck that ever this time because I had stacked the eleven boxes of dog show trophies on that side of the gate. Deliberately so that they wouldn’t topple over and flatten one of the dogs.

(Tuesday 23^rd July)

Totally In The Dark

Well it wasn’t raining when I set off on the bike this morning but it certainly was by the time I arrived at work. Soaked. Still, I managed to keep the bike right way up on those slippery corners and avoided all the potholes, for a change.

I’m not so lucky on the way home. Another flat! I’m not sure whether I actually hit a hole or a nail or something or whether I just managed to get something 'sharp n deadly' between the tyre and the tube last time I changed it. It happens.

I guess perhaps I’ve been kind of lucky where I’ve had flat before... either in daylight or in well lit streets, but not tonight. Tonight I’m totally in the dark, midway between Borrowash and Risley. No street lights and not even a pavement on my side of the road.

I’ve not long crossed over to the other side and I’m sat doing the deed by the light of my own bike light when a nice young lady stops in her car and turns her headlights on me so that I can see what I'm doing. What a star. Unlike the half dozen or so fellow cyclists who don't stop to even commiserate. By the way, I do always stop to offer help. It's always declined thankfully but it's the thought that counts.

We chat a bit, as I struggle with a new tube that refuses to inflate. Then when I'm nearly done she makes her excuses and leaves. Either my small talk is boring her, she's fed up of standing in the cold or perhaps she only pulled over to check me out and has now decided, nah, not interested. Anyhow, off she goes. Still a star though.

The tube is still refusing to inflate, so I try and get a bus. Two turn me down. The first is too full, the second says it's company policy not to take bikes. Hmmm. Even though I’ve done it countless times before. Clearly he thinks I’m going to stab someone with my bike pump. The third driver I stop has an empty bus and probably feels he has to take me. Another star.

Unfortunately all this means that I’m too late to make squash, so I have to ring and cancel.

I also can’t get hold of L, who’s forgotten her mobile today. She will get a bit of a shock when she gets home and finds the car still there, when it should be at the squash courts.

I spend the evening repairing the tyre and testing all the tubes that have been failing me. They don’t appear to be puncturing; it’s more a case of the valves seem to be failing. Time for a new make of tubes I think.

(Tuesday 22nd November)