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The strong winds are still here but the rain stayed away and the sun even came out to play
Legs felt stronger than last week. A couple of commutes during the week probably helped. Feeling battered now though, we didn’t exactly hang around.

Very wet & windy clubrun

Overshoes in August

The club evening TT season ended last night. I missed out on racing in some of the fastest conditions of the year due to being full of cold. I still went along though and took a few snaps (using a borrowed Nikon dSLR that I didn’t have a bloody clue how to use!)

The rest or the pics can be seen HERE and the results are HERE

I didn’t have too bad a season, ending up with a best 8.75 of 22:59 with a 26:38 in the Championship ’10′
Gives me something to aim for next year. I may even try a 25!

I’ve been rather lazy lately and haven’t ridden my bike anywhere near as much as I should of done. Sure, work has been pretty mental leaving me knackered but that’s no excuse. Lying in bed this morning waiting for The Goon Show to start I read a blog post from Jenn and an email from Amy that made me get up and onto the bike rather than having an extra hour in bed listening to the radio then driving to work.

I began to regret my decision within minutes of setting off when the heavens opened but the heavy rain was thankfully short lived and the rest of the ride was fairly pleasant with a bit of sun and a few light showers. Despite feeling tired I managed to average a not to shabby 28.5kph.

This afternoon I was again thinking it had been a bad idea to ride in when the world turned black, the roads turned to raging torrents and bright forks of lightning streaked across the sky. Even up to 1830, just 30 mins before I was due to set off the rain was hammering down outside the shop. I wasn’t looking forward to the ride home!

And then a miracle occurred. The rain stopped, the wind died down, the skies started to clear and the sun started to beat down. Joy! A rather pleasant ride home followed although I was all to aware that I was riding into a headwind with dark, black clouds looking menacing in the distance. Thankfully, it stayed dry and I got home in good time with 90km in the legs and then filled myself with pasta and a couple of cool beers while watching The Untouchables.

I need to do this more often. Will have to keep reminding friends to write inspirational blog posts

Can you please end the hosepipe ban? It’s pissed with rain pretty much every f*cking day since you introduced it. Am really starting to get fed up now. We appear to have had more rain in July than in the previous 6 months. I got home from my ride back from work wetter than if I’d just got out of a bath

Pizza and 750ml bottle of Innis & Gunn Original well & truly earned.

New saddle, bartape and cables. I need to find a pink saddle. Anyone got any ideas?

Took advantage of the glorious hot, sunny weather to ride rather a long way today. Out to Altrincham, club run to near Tattenhall & back then the return trip home. 202km/125miles – my longest ever ride. Average moving speed was over 27kph – very happy with that, especially as I took the ride to Altrincham very steadily.

I was riding a Sabbath Mondays Child that I’ve borrowed for a few days. It really is a rather nice bicycle and I didn’t feel beaten up at the end of the ride. I am rather tired now though.

I set myself a target for this year of getting below 23 mins for the Seamons CC 8.75 mile time trial using a standard road bike. I did a couple last year with my best being a 23:26 on a borrowed £6000 superbike. This evening I recorded a 22:59 on my Tarmac. Yay! I’ve also managed to improve my time every time out this year.

Results HERE

It’s really nice to be able to wander into the garden and pick my own fresh veg