And another 20 in the bank...

So another 20 miles in the bank. I've added a ticker because I'm going to try and complete 5000 miles this year. Don't know where I've got that number from, but its 500 miles a month between now and November, when it starts to get too cold to cycle.
Must remember to bank the miles when the weather is rideable, instead of having them on credit LOL. I'm really good at putting off my ride until tomorrow... and then the weather turns bad.
Bad credit!

25 miles today...

... 7 degrees centigrade and I had the day off, so I was able to get out on the bike. Not sure how far, and I stopped off for coffee at Clive's, but from the actual time I was on the bike, I think about 25 miles.
Haven't seen Clive for ages, drank his coffee, ate his biscuits and then left LOL. His house is like cyclist's cafe. So much so, one of his mates made a sign "to Clive's cafe" with a picture of a coffee cup and an arrow and put it on the nearby traffic island without telling him. It stayed there for ages before he noticed, he just kept wondering why his mates were ordering him round like a waiter... then some spoilsport at the council removed it.
Anyway, had a MacDonald's later to replace the calories... oops!

One step forward...

... and three steps back. I went shopping today with my workmate, off to the fruit shop to get some healthy stuff to snack on.. you know, to stop us snacking on chocolate.
So today, instead of my usual 2 or 3 bars of chocolate, I've had a big bunch of grapes, one banana, quite a few satsuma's, some melon, orange juice, wispa bar, twix and a malteser rabbit. How did those last three things sneak in there?? They just appeared! Oops.
Seriously though, I'm like some kind of addict. I need to attend chocaholics anonymous. I was driving to work today, talking to myself, saying "FFS Toni, it's not drugs or cigarettes, it's only chocolate... just don't have any... JUST SAY NO!".
The minute I walk in the place it's like the vending machine starts talking to me! Voices in my head... and before I knew it... I had a twix in my hand and I don't know how it got there. Disaster.

1st Commute of the year...

Well... I've decided enough is enough... time to shift the fat. So I woke up to my 6am alarm.
It took me a minute to even remember what day it was, and then I realised I was supposed to be getting my ass out of bed to ride into work. It was quite hard getting out of bed, out from under my nice warm quilt and into the cold morning air, but once I was on the road it felt quite good. But coming back was hard going... that huge hill at Coleshill. Feel sick??? Moi???

Tried and tested...

the new gloves and socks today. 20 miles and snug as a bug. First ride of the year and surprisingly, I'm not as unfit as I thought I would feel. Felt ok on the legs etc, just took a bit of getting used to the cold air getting into my lungs. Only thing is... warm body + cold air = lots of snot
(".) ugggh
It's nice to have a break and then get back to it though, I must admit. It starts to bore me a bit when I've been on it all year.
All the new potholes are carnivorous though!

Thermals

In a bid to get back on the bike I've gone out today and bought some super warm gloves and super warm socks. I will test them out tomorrow before I am too fat to get back on the bike.

Damn weather

What a disaster... weather is going to be horrible for the next 5 days if the BBC website is anything to go by. Even snow by Friday (".)
I'm so sick of it, my ass is growing, I now have 2 chins and I need to get back out on my bike... not least because I am now a "case study"!
It's so depressing (".)

Case Study!!!???

So today, I attended a TWUG meeting (a Two Wheel User Group) at our office. I am one of the reps, we have one for each site. So anyway, I'm just chatting about the shock I got from standing on the Wellbeing Centre and how I can't wait to get back into cycling and they all thought it would be a great idea to have me as a "case study" for the Wellbeing programme.
This basically consists of my "results" being posted and monitored on the company infonet (internal internet) for all to see; so that people can see what a difference it makes to my health (weight, bmi, blood pressure, heart rate etc) between now and the end of the year as I get back into my cycling after the winter break.
That's great! Now everyone is gonna know I'm a fat cow! ha ha. I've told them that they are not doing anything with the info until I'm certain the results are heading in the right direction!

Whoops...

Today I got on the "wellbeing centre" at work, which is basically a machine you stand on and it does all your weight, heart rate, bmi, fat content, blood pressure etc.
So, bearing in mind my "fit weight" is about 11st 3lb (well, I am 6 foot tall so don't gasp with horror just yet!)....
Well... today it's 11st 12lb!!!! (now you can gasp with horror because I did!)
Those darn hills are gonna hurt when I get back on that bike.

3.5k in 30 days

Just seen on the news that there is a bloke who is going to cycle across America in 30 days covering 3,500 miles. That's quite a lot isn't it? wouldn't mind doing something like that, but right now, I don't think I could cycle to work. too much cake over Christmas :)