A gentle 2 hour ride yesterday. It was cold again with a freezing wind. I did have legs like lead (probably to do with yesterdays ride – see blog entry below- and the fact its hard to get warmed up with the weather so cold) I found some nice quiet roads at the back of Tadley / Reading and just turned the legs over for an hour and a half. The smell of an open fire at a country pub was too much of a temptation and I stopped for a full on cheeseburger with chunky chips. They had one of those huge fires going and I sat in front of it for an hour to warm up. (I have to confess the pint of Tanglefoot ale did wonders to remove any aches from my thigh muscles). Now here comes the disclaimer: getting back on the bike after a sit down like that is always doubly painful. Your legs really don’t want to work (they would rather be sitting by the fire, full of burger and chips – and you can’t blame them for that) I continued on for another hour and a half and with the temperature dropping a few more degrees as the sun started to drop, I headed back to the car.

Well I took a chance on a tweet this week and went out to see if I could hook up with Ben Swift who was out on a training ride in Esher apparently. It was pretty cold this morning and I was in two minds about dragging my sorry ass out of bed and on the bike. BUT.. its the chances to do stuff like that makes you get up. Stuck the bike on the back of the car, and drove over to Esher. It was a bit of a nightmare because there was a Triathlon expo at the race course as as well as an Evans Sportive event so the place was crawling with cyclists, bikes and runners (funny did not see anyone in speedos – maybe because it was 2 degrees) I took a punt on the fact that if I was doing a ride, I would be heading out towards the Surrey Cycle Way. I kept the pace slow to give Team Sky a chance to catch up (sarcastic tone of voice there). Well was not long before a group of about 30 pick me up with Ben Swift at the front on his Pinarello. I nodded as they came alongside and tucked into the group about halfway back. Was great to ride along with them for about an hour before a I peeled off and headed back to the car. I definitely got a work out, not so much the distance traveled but more the constant pace. I tend to take it a bit easy up the inclines so I don’t kill myself over the distance but these guys don’t even see the hills. Well a nice little ride out and due to my helmet cam being on hand I got this footage. Good Luck to Ben and Team Sky for the 2013 season.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LNPNX0PIgtI width=”320″ height=”180″]

Ben Swift of Team Sky

No ride this morning, as I had to take some stuff into work and I don’t fancy wobbling all over the road with a rucksack full of laptop / ipads / phones etc. The sun is out again and I would rather be out there cranking up some miles. I have a long ride planned this weekend, just hoping the weather is going to be kind. (over to Sian Lloyd for that one)

So my list of famous re-tweets is growing, the Fantastic Billie Myers was gracious enough to re-tweet my sponsorship page this afternoon. I had to rush over to youtube and listen to “Kiss the rain” … fantastic. can’t believe that was 1997, where does time go ?. Looking forward to her new album Tea and Sympathy (available March 18th). please check it out people.

The gorgeous and very talented – Billie Myers

Well the sun poked its head out from between the clouds this evening, so I took the opportunity to get some miles in. It’s still blinking freezing on the bike, 2 layers and a neck warmer. The worst bit is on the faster downhills (the wind through the helmet slots gives your forehead a painful headache. ). The sun makes the ride a whole lot more enjoyable even though there seems to be no heat coming from it. Anyway a nice 25 miles … 1st sportive of the year is the weekend after this one. Stay tuned.