Good news everyone. Firstly, for those of you who've noticed that I've missed a couple of weeks of Blogs, I am still alive, (which may or may not be good news depending on your viewpoint). The real good news though, is that whilst I haven't been here wittering on about a load of old rubbish, you haven't had to read my old rubbish either. So, like I said good news.
You can't have good news, without bad news though. So the bad news is that, as I've just mentioned, I am still alive, and because I haven't been here for a couple of weeks I've got loads to tell you all about. Which means now your going to have to read loads of my old gibberish. No I'm only joking, this is going to be short and sweet, because the reason I've got behind on the blog posts is that I've been busy, and I'm still busy, so the catching up will just have to wait. What I will do though is give you a quick update on the last couple of weeks and then hopefully I'll be back on track and we can get back to some proper updates. Looking back to my last update, I think I'd just got back from my mini adventure up to Cosford for a seminar (yawn). But, as if that 300 mile round trip wasn't enough, I'd lined up a cheeky little Audax for the Saturday too. It wasn't supposed to be anything too strenuous, just a little 100Km jaunt round the local area from Reading. But it seemed a shame to drive to Reading just to go and play bikes. What seemed like a far better idea, was cycling to the start, doing the 100K and then cycling back again. Why do 100Km when you can round it up to 115 miles instead? What didn't seem like quite such a good idea, was the fact that it was lashing it down with rain when I set off from home at Audax O'clock (stupidly early) and the forecast for the day didn't look much better, although the rain was supposed to stop around 10:00. As I sat at the start pouring the water out of my boots and wringing my socks out, my brilliant idea of extending my day didn't seem like quite such a brilliant idea after all! Luckily, the forecast turned out to be right, and whilst it was an incredibly humid day, by mid morning the rain had stopped and stayed away for the rest of the day. And if I'm honest, there's not really much else to add about that one. Apart from saying that it turned out to be a good day out, along a fairly testing and hilly route. A route that was no doubt made harder by the mud and general detritus littering the roads after the weeks of rain which we seem to have had in the preceding weeks.
As if that wasn't enough bike fun, last weekend saw some real silliness, in the form of The Moonrakers and Sunseekers 300Km. 300Km, that doesn't sound too silly I hear you all saying. And you'd be right. It isn't.
What is silly, is starting at 22:40 on a Friday night after having done a full days work and pushing straight through the night ready for breakfast at the half way point, before pushing on back to the start point ready for tea on Saturday! 22:00 is normally bed time, so heading down to the start line at that time seemed a bit weird, and I was just about ready for bed, not ready to head out into the cold and dark for some bike fun. Cold it was too. The forecast was for -1 overnight, but it was hovering around freezing as we headed out from Bristol bound for Devises and Salisbury, en-route for Poole for breakfast. Pushing through Bath as the pubs discharged their happy punters, the cars glistened with frost, and the almost full moon shone down from a clear sky. By the time I reached Devises it was certainly colder than -1, and by 02:30 as I got to Salisbury it was bitterly cold and my water bottles had started to freeze. Now, I know how -1 feels and it needs to be colder than that for water bottles to freeze in my experience, so I'm guessing that the forecast temperatures were a bit out!. 2 base layers, a winter jacket and a down jacket, Long cycling leggings plus a pair of running leggings over the top, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of gloves, a neck warmer and a hat, and despite riding hard I was just barely warm enough. The thought of having to stop was almost scary, because I didn't have any more clothes to put on, and if I had to stop, it was going to get very cold very quickly. Despite the cold, riding through the night was magical. Fast, flat roads, that you'd never be able to ride with the daytime traffic made for some fast, easy miles. The night, dark and still, the odd red light of the riders in front, glimpsed on straight bits of road. Groups of riders at the checkpoints, all wrapped up against the cold, desperate to get moving again to warm up, but needing the time off the bike to stretch tired muscles. A group of lads, obviously on their way back from a late night out, provided some amusement at the final night time control. As I arrived at about 04:00 they were deep in disbelieving conversation with another group of riders regarding where they had come from and where they were going. "Bristol, no way! And your going back there. Today?" - "Your heading to Bournemouth next, we were there earlier, it's miles away!" By the time I reached Poole and the welcome sight of the scout hut where a lovely group of volunteers provided a much needed hot breakfast it was approaching 06:00. And as I departed, with my belly full, and water bottles unfrozen for the time being, the first hints of dawn were just starting to turn the sky from jet black, and push the moon towards the horizon.
I'm not afraid to admit that the leg through the dawn and up to Yeovil was brutally hard. The temperature was still well below freezing and the dawn is always the hardest part to stay awake. As the sun rose so the desire to sleep became more and more pronounced, until at some point around 07:00 I awoke with a jolt as my brain realised I'd stopped pedalling and was in danger of falling off the bike if I continued to sleep.
It was too cold to stop, but that microsecond of sleep seemed to do the trick, and, when minutes later another rider caught me from behind and pulled alongside to chat, I knew that the sleep issue was behind me. The brutality continued though, as we made out way through the long steep hills and deep valleys of Dorset. Pretty little villages nestled in the frost covered valleys, smoke rising lazily from their chimneys as the inhabitants awoke to another day, whilst we toiled silently up long climbs and rolled down steep, ice riddled, country roads. Tiredness, the steep climbs and icy roads all combined to bring my average speed down towards 10 MPH and the morning dragged intolerably onwards as I slowly but steadily made my way towards the next checkpoint at Podimore services. Arriving just before 11:00, a bacon roll, chocolate muffin and hot brew worked their magic, and it was with renewed vigour, if not increased pace, that I set off again, for the final couple of legs to take me back to Bristol. It remained brutally cold all day. My water bottles finally defrosted about 12:00 and although the sun shone for most of the day, there was no warmth to it, and no reviving of tired bodies through it's magical powers. A packet of biscuits powered me on towards the days final checkpoint, where another brew helped revive my freezing fingers, and the final few miles back into Bristol were made easier by the company of another rider who sort of knew the way (I say sort of because it was a bit of a joint effort and we still managed to go wrong a couple of times. Tired brains really don't like dealing with afternoon city traffic and complicated directions). Just under 17 hours after setting off, and just before it got dark again I was back at the start. The overnight adventure finally done. But what an adventure it had been. Brutally hard at times, viciously cold, but magical none the less. At times I wanted nothing more than to get off the bike and give up (interestingly all of the hard times were during the day and not over night as you might expect) and by mid day I was cursing my stupidity for signing up for such a silly ride. But by the time I'd got back to the start, sat down for a few minutes and had a brew, I was more than ready to go again. A stupid idea? Of course not. A magical adventure and more memories tucked away ready for my old age? Too right. Now where do I sign up for next year? (Hopefully I'll find time to write this one up properly over the next few weeks, because it really was a brilliant adventure!)
Before you all say it, and I can already hear you all thinking it. "Two little rides and we've not heard from him for weeks, that's not busy, what's the lazy so and so playing at?"
And you'd be right. It's not the cycling fun that's been keeping me busy recently, it's this.
For the non mechanically minded amongst us, that's the inside of a car gearbox. Or more precisely, that's the inside of "The Boy's" car gearbox.
A few weeks back, he mentioned that he was looking at new cars because he didn't think that his little run around would pass the MOT and the gearbox was on it's last legs. Now, we've all got things that were good at and things that were not so good at. Being an attentive father, standing on the touchline watching "The Boy" kick a bag of air around or going to children's parties, isn't my strong point. Helping "The Boy" out by swapping his car for my newly acquired MX5 whilst I get his through the MOT and have a look at the gearbox problem, now that's more within my skillset. So to that end, a week or so ago "The Boy" bought his "Old Man Mobile" (Honda Civic), (What self respecting 25 year old drives around in a Honda Civic? A sensible one that's who) up and took his life, and hearing, into his own hands by driving the MX5 all the way back to Cardiff (he's a braver man than I am, that's for sure). I put "The Old man Mobile" in for it's MOT and it passed with no real problems (slight corrosion to a brake pipe, and misting to the headlights. Both of which are easy fix's, and to be expected for a 18 year old car). Which just left the slight issue of the gearbox sounding like someone had filled it full of old spanners. Which is what's been keeping me busy. In between the cycling I've been laying on the cold, damp, floor, taking the gearbox out of his car, in the hope that I can fix it. And to that end, I'm going to have to go, because whilst the gearbox is out, sitting here tapping away at the keyboard isn't going to get it fitted back in again is it!
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Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
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