I was to get to Simon's for sometime before 10am, and I nearly succeeded. A combination of getting slightly lost and the stop-start nature of being dumped on by massive rain clouds resulted in a slightly inaccurate journey time estimation. They were the sort of rain showers that were that heavy I had to stop and put my jacket on to avoid getting completely soaked-and then stop and take it off again about 5 minutes later once the rain stopped and I started to get slightly hot (read: boil in the bag symptoms). I arrived to find Nic and John of Biketreks RT fame already enjoying Simon's hospitality. I plonked my slightly damp, not so lost self down on a couch and thought: 'how bizarre. They've not got cycling kit on'. A slightly irrational thought given the circumstances-they had driven down and can't be expected to live in lycra! It's funny really, I get to know people on the bike and it's almost like my brain says 'I decree that these people are not allowed to be 'normal'. They must always be holding a bicycle and be wearing lycra and a helmet' Ignore me, I've just done a ramp test. Lactic acid does funny things to one's brain.
Anyway, so we went for a ride. It was wet. It was windy. Seems to be a recurring theme, I should probably rename this blog 'I ride in wet and windy conditions and then tell everyone about how wet and windy it was whilst pretending I enjoyed it'. Or not. No, it was seriously windy yesterday. And we decided to go out on Tarleton Moss for a few miles. That was fun. Not so much echelons, more each person's bike at an angle sufficient so that if we had wanted to we could have 'stacked' up whilst riding along. If that doesn't make sense, just trust me when I say it was windy :D
It was still an enjoyable outing though, we introduced the Biketreks Duo to Ashurst Beacon, Moss winds, Wigan drivers and all that good stuff. Well I enjoyed it anyway! Even if my jacket weighed about double what it normally does by the end of it thanks to the rain. The best bit was when we got back we not only had the intense satisfaction of returning to a warm house-but we had food! Simon had done a homemade Quorn (yours truly appreciated that!) Chilli. It was, as I am sure Nic and John will attest, awesome. Not sure a critic would describe food as 'awesome'-but this was. So food, some more breeze shooting, putting the world to rights, discussing how the 1988 Giro stage over the Gavia Pass had nothing on today (yesterday)'s weather:
So to summarise, great to see Nic and John again and sorry it wasn't much of a way to experience the roads round here!
I had my camera with me yesterday and filmed the first few miles of the ride...until it started to rain properly. Then I managed to get it out of it's bracket and into my pocket without stopping or, more importantly, dropping it! Considering the diminutive size of the thing, and the fact that I was wearing gloves, I'd say that was an achievement personally:
In other news, did a ramp test today. While I won't disclose the actual value achieved (that's secret ;D) it was about 10% higher than the last one I did in May last year. And the Watts/Kg value was more than a little surprising! In a good way.
Oh and I stumbled across this earlier, some rather useful (if old UI wise) programs: http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/index.html worth a look!
Follow the cast of today's post:
And with that I bid you a good rest of 2011!
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