I had a couple of glasses of wine too many on Saturday night and a whole bar of Green and Black’s chocolate. I still managed to get up on Sunday morning and go for a ride (the straight up Holcombe Hill Repeatedly ride) but I felt ill. I had to stop at one point because I thought I was going to puke at the side of the road. I remember a time when I could sink 8 pints and still function the day after, no problem. Not that I miss being almost 15 stone though.

Later on, I had to get the car roofbox out of the cellar. In order to do this, I had to move a few bikes out of the way and just kind of leant them against each other. The CX bike fell over and the top tube got twatted by another bike’s pedal. So there’s a dent in the top tube now and I’m still annoyed about it. Brant’s confirmed that there’s nothing to worry about, but it still looks crap. A constant reminder of my own stupidity in a way.

I’ve ordered a sticker.

Deb’s away with the kids this week so I’m spending it either working or riding. Last week’s 200 miles didn’t quite happen but it should be achievable this week no problem. Is riding hard every day for a week good prep for Sleepless at the weekend? Probably not eh! I’m in a team of 5 though so I guess I can afford to be a bit blasé about it.

So. The plan is, go to work. Get home. Get changed. Eat (quickly). Ride for a few hours. Get home, clean bike, kit and self. Put that bike away. Get another one out. Refill bottles/Camelbak. Lube chain and quickly fettle bike. Go to bed. Get up. Work. Get home…etc.

Can I keep this up all week? Stay tooned.

Fast and sweaty ride on the road bike last night, Darwen and back to see Simon and Cath for a Best Cuppa In Lancashire. They’ve got chickens and they wander around the garden, letting you pet them. I always thought chickens ran away when people got too close to them. In fact, I thought the only way you could get close to a chicken was to drive a vintage car through a barn. Anyway, the ride was pretty good, the best bit was the twisty descent between Affetside and Walshaw. I’m looking good for a 200 mile week this week for the first time in yonks, on top of a couple of runs and a bit of gym.

Early training ride yesterday morning. Up the road, 14 ish miles uphill to Holcombe Village then run straight up the front of Holcombe Hill to the tower, bike on shoulder. I’ve found a really tough, almost vertical footpath that fits the bill nicely. It’s much nicer than the weed-infested grassy slope I’ve been training on near my house anyway. I adjusted the position of the bike on my shoulder slightly this morning and that was much more comfortable. In the next few weeks I’ll be working on bringing down the time of the whole loop to less than this morning’s 1:44, although that was into a headwind and I had a minor mechanical….

The picture below shows the ever-so-complex and twisty route I took to the top 😉

Before I started my return journey I noticed that my headset was loose. On closer inspection, the top cap bolt has stripped somehow so I had to just press down on the stem and tighten it to the steerer, then take it easy on the descent down the hill. Tonight I think I’ll bin the Hope Head Doctor and fit a good old SFN.

Here’s my mate Simon’s lad’s video of the race. It’s really rather good and captures the vibe nicely.

The embedded video thing doesn’t seem to be working though – so click here instead of getting mad with it.

Deb and I had some bad news over the weekend. I’m not going to go into detail on here but let’s just say that last night’s ride did me good in more ways than normal. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden a CX bike so fast off-road. In fact I wrung it’s bleedin’ neck good and proper.

I’m loving this bike more and more. Everyone should own one.