Last minute milestone

Bike: Il Pompino
Distance: Just over an hour
Playlist: Rawk – iPod went Motörhead

There’s something satisfying about hitting a milestone at the last minute, especially when you only realised just before an arbitrary deadline that the milestone was within your grasp.

Yesterday was a birthday blowout evening meal which included beer. And boy could I tell that I had had beer as I mucked out the horses this morning. It felt like it was sweating out of every pore. So I wasn’t looking forward to getting out for the last few miles needed to hit the 1,000 miles. I even looked at the route profile from yesterday to try and work out which way round to do it to ease aching legs. The conclusion was to get the climbing and suffering over in the first three miles and enjoy the gradual descent of the remaining miles.

Wanker socks. Incongruous shoes**

I also set the endomondo app to beat yesterdays target so that if I was slow I’d have something to chase. Bit of a bummer hitting the traffic lights across the M1 then. Up the hill, thighs not feeling quite so bad as yesterday. On every descent I nail it out of the saddle to try and make up speed and time. It worked. By the time I reach the bestest roundabout in the world ever* I was over three minutes ahead, and just one climb to go.

Got the camera out at about where I figured 1,000 miles would be, then hammered home.

Gives me inspiration to try and do better next year. I’m making no resolutions though***.

* It’s a perfect radius and surface for scraping the inside pedal. Half an hour on a sportsbike there could be some knee-down fun.

** But you do get lots more nods from roadies when wearing white shoes.

*** Geek joke. My resolution for next year? 1920 x 1280.

Bike: Il Pompino
Distance: Just over an hour
Playlist: Rawk – iPod went Stoner

Having realised yesterday that I was close to 1,000 miles for the year I had to get a ride in today. Kirsty went to do the horses and after a lie in I went out on the bike. I wore incongruous shoes – white whippet slippers on an Il Pompino, and I swear that for the first few minutes I was faster. Then the road went up, and the effects of yesterday and 44:16 gear kicked in.

Il Pompino

I was knackered heading West, but once I reached the halfway point the wind was behind me, the iPod had kicked into SOAD and I flew home.

Just a dozen miles tomorrow, rain or shine, to do.

Tour of Witts End

Bike: Il Pompino
Distance: Just shy of two hours
Playlist: Rawk – iPod got a classic 80s metal theme into it’s mind

Just as Monster needs to let off steam I can’t sit at home during the Christmas break lamenting the size of my gut as I feed myself with the contents of the traditional box of Quality Streets*. We had planned a group hack this morning, four horses in Polite jackets riding through the village causing the local youth to stare at their feet and kick the tyres of their hot hatches**. Inclement weather of the wet and windy variety put paid to that. Did I want to risk more punctures and mud to go out? Did I heck.

Cross-processed suicide panda

So pump up the tyres on the Pompino to 110 psi and spend two hours exploring local lanes between all the local villages. Most of which have names ending in, er, End. Including the Witts End of the title. The weather held fair. The riding was uneventful, except for the serious camber on the stretch of road I chose for the obligatory ride photo. Hence the look of fear in my eyes above.

Update: I need to fit in another 29 miles before the end of the year to make a round thousand miles for the year. That’s a pathetic total. Twenty years ago I used to make that distance in five weeks of commuting. I was a stone lighter and eating 5,000 calories a day, mind.

* Other over-large tins of low cocoa content, high fat, chocolate confectionary are available.

** Yes, really. It’s quite funny to see.