Another annoying rattle

Nipped out with my mate Richard and his "crew" this morning for a 35 miler with a cafe stop. Very nice it was, steady pace, not too hilly... except for the annoying rattle off my bike... which turned out, when someone sussed it 4 miles to the end, to be from my bottle cage (nuts were loose). Damn those noises are soooo annoying!

o well, 38 miles by the time I got home (adding in the miles it took me to get to the meet point).

1k

Woooo... I've done my first 1000 miles of the year. O man, the weather was gorgeous today, 17 degrees at 6.30 this morning... had to check it twice, couldn't believe my eyes! About 26 degrees when I left work.

I think I sunburnt my ear! And because of that, I've realised that when I ride to work in the morning the sun is on my right, and when I ride home in the evening, the sun is still on my right. So I'm gonna be giving Crabsticks (aptly named because he got sunburnt down one side of his legs) a run for his money ha ha. Really tho, I hope not, because I don't want crabstick legs ha ha... or a sore ear!

Glad I took these photo's of my commute last week, because the rapeseed flowers are starting to die now.

Silence is golden...

Cured the annoying cracking/creaking sound on my bike. Well, the guy in the shop has I mean. You know what it's like... you zone in on a noise on your bike and it just gets worse and worse. Anyway, was having visions of my bike falling apart underneath me... but thankfully it was just the seat post needed cleaning inside (after I told the guy it was definitely coming from the front forks ha ha).
And other 10 miles to the shop and back means I'm on track to get my first 1000k of the year in (",)

I am the Bird Saviour

I saved a life yesterday. I think. Riding along and there he was, poor little fledgling crow in the gutter... of a 50mph road. And, of course, no one obeys the 50mph limit. I don't fancy my own chances cycling down there sometimes, let alone the poor baby crow in the gutter. So once again, off I get, run back, poor little thing could hardly fly at all. So I managed to catch him and I checked nothing was broken before walking into the bushes and putting him on a low branch (just in case he fell off, but didn't wanna leave him on the floor). Anyway he was sitting quite happy when I left. I think he was hungry coz he had his mouth open a lot... but that might be fear LOL. Anyway, there was a dead crow 50 yards back up the road. Hope it wasn't his mommy. But there were lots of other crows around, so fingers crossed. I felt bad leaving him, not that I could carry him anyway, but just hope his mommy came.
And since yesterday, added another 100 to my yearly mileage. Feel a bit fooked now. Will hopefully break the 1k barrier by the end of the week.

3mph my arse!

So I thought, although chilly, it would be perfect cycling weather today. According to the weather forecast... 3mph head wind to work and 5 degrees celcius. 12 degrees celcius coming home and 9mph tail wind.
Yeah right!
More like 20mph head wind to work, wind chill factor bringing temperature down to zero. I was absolutely knackered when I got to work, and only 12.6mph average LOL... that is the pits! Was frozen stiff, couldn't feel my feet! But thankfully, had a tail wind on the way back but it was still freezing. Piping hot bath was called for.
Seriously, if this weather keeps up, I'm seriously considering riding in my thermals and overshoes next time. It's way too cold for May and my knee is playing up because of it. The only consolation is everytime I do it, I'm more skinnier :)

I'm such a lazy cow... :)

So, woke up at 6am. Hit snooze. Hit snooze at 6.10am. Hit snooze at 6.20am. Hit snooze at 6.30am. Realistically, I need to get up now to have a chance of actually getting to work on time. So put TV on. Weather said 3 degrees. Now I know that I can do 3 degrees, because I know by 8am it will be more like 7 or 8 degrees and the skies are clear so it will be sunny... BUT... my bed is sooooo warm and cozy!
So had to make it up tonight with a flat 15 miler (",) and if I'm really honest I know that it's not enough to burn off the 'all you can eat pizza' I'm gonna eat tomorrow night (".) Oops.
But I have to say, that 15 mile loop ... I remember in the early days that I used to think it was hard and hilly. It's piss easy now, and now I think it's flat, and it's really nice to just do it, relax and enjoy it.
Good job the light was failing at 8pm, because it deterred me from taking an extra 5 mile detour... and I walked in to my mum's as she was serving up beans on toast... yum! Glad I timed that right.
O well... another 15 on the clock... better than nothing.

Better get my ass in gear...

Well, my knee feels better and I've now got only 7 months left (December is bound to be too cold) to make it to my target of 5,000 miles. Going on the my current rate, I'm doing crap LOL. Here's hoping the weather is going to be good for the rest of the months (",)