Mixed Week when…

It’s a good week when 126 miles is a poor week.  I missed Tuesday, but otherwise had a full week of riding in to work.  Karl couldn’t make Thirsty Thursday, but Ian and I did.

We planned to ride out to the Weird Fish on Saturday morning.  Just when we were expecting Karl & co to arrive, we got a phone call.  I assumed it was Karl saying he would be late, but when I came down, Jayne was in tears and Karl was outside.  Jayne’s Mum had been taken in to hospital overnight.  Jayne decided to go down to them.  I told the guys I would catch up maybe.  They set off and Jayne started packing some stuff for the weekend.  Then Ian arrived, he’d missed the others.  I told him they were up the road, so he headed off to catch up.

Its a bad week when your mother in law is in the cardiac emergency ward.

Jayne set off to visit and I got ready to catch up.  I assumed they had gone the traditional route, so I set off down the more direct route, expecting to catch them maybe on Wood Lane.  Nothing!  I eventually got to the Weird Fish to find Ian just tucking into his bacon buttie.  He had come part way down the traditional route but not run into the others.  I ordered a bacon buttie and a cappuccino, Ian started on his Chocca Mocca.  After about 10 more minutes, Karl and co arrived.  Only Alison had been before, and she didn’t really know the route, so had taken them an a massive zig-zag through the lanes.  After our coffees, Joe and Ian headed round the Trough and we headed home.

In the afternoon I went back to Hewitt’s to swap my frame pump for one that fits.

Jayne’s Mum was stable but under observation.

Sunday I did a quick spin out to the Weird Fish again, on my own.  All the way out, it looked like rain.  I only had my short sleeved shirt and gillet on.  I wolfed down my coffee and bacon buttie and headed home.  Half an hour after getting in, the sun came out and it was a beautiful day.  I worked on a very rough and ready workbench all afternoon, then went for a well earned pint at tea time. 

Some local wildlife, pictures are a bit poor.

Cheers

Tim

Miles for week – 126

Total for year to date - 1554

Two Good Weeks

I had a 4 day weekend last week and we made the most of it.  Friday we did a ride out on the tandem, out the the Weird Fish in St Michael’s.  26 miles in all.  Saturday was a longer ride, out to Chipping and back. We met up with Tony at the Cobbled Corner Cafe.  Sunday was a gentler ride, just me and Jayne, out to the Weird Fish again.  Nearly 100 tandem miles for the weekend.

In the week, Jayne did lots of miles on her own.  Yesterday I did a loop through the Trough.  We crawled out, despite a tail wind.  I really struggled to get up any climb.  We barely made 12 mph average speed.  We stopped at Dunsop Bridge for a cup of tea and a bacon and egg buttie before tackling Boundary Hill.  My speedo goes down to 3mph.  It stopped showing my speed!  Going down the other side was much slower than normal, into a fierce  head wind.  Then we inexplicably found an extra burst of speed.  For the next 10 miles we were flying, 20+MPH into wind.  We stopped at the Weird Fish again before setting off back over Wyre.

Today we decided to go out to Scorton.  We were going to go the hilly way, but were persuaded otherwise by the few short hills out to Myerscough.  We ended up with about 37 miles for the day.

Last week – 155 miles

This week – 166 miles

Total – 1428 miles

Cheers

Tim

1000 Miles!

I passed 1000 miles for the year this week.  Not as much as I’d wanted, my target was 1250 for the quarter, to give me 5000 for the year.  But given the poor weather earlier in the year, its not bad.

The first part of the week was the normal riding to work.  Karl and Ian were away so there was no Thursday night ride.  It was a very windy week though.

Friday we went walking in the Lakes.  Managed to avoid the rain.

Yesterday we did a gentle loop out to Bonds on the tandem.  25 miles.  Then last night Karl rang to say they were going out to recce the route to Heysham today.  The wind this morning was horrendous, 25-30 mph off the sea from the north west.  Head or cross winds all the way.  Ian turned up on his new Inglis, a fantastic looking bike, curly lugs, olive green with cream lugs, beautiful.  We headed out via Nateby to avoid the Cockerham marshes section and get a bit of tail wind.  By the time we got to Cafe de Lune we were knackered.  Heysham would have been another 15 miles into the wind, so we stopped for lunch and reconsider our plans.  We rode down the Millennium path as far as Lancaster, then turned round.  Back in Conder Green we were faced with a dilemma.  Do we head back the way we came and into the wind, or via Scorton, much hillier and much longer but across the wind.  We decided on the Scorton route.  It was hard!  We eventually got to Treales after a couple of hours of contouring through the hills.  Then on the last descent into Kirkham, flat tyre!  we could have changed it, but we were only a mile from home so we walked.  Ian and Karl and Alison came back to see what was up, but we told them to press on.  58 miles for the day.  Jayne’s best mileage for years.  We are paying for it now.  I’m supposed to be mountain biking tomorrow. I don’t think I’m up to it.

Miles for the week - 127

Year to date - 1107

Cheers

Tim