I am Getting Older and should Know Better.

I am getting older and should know better.
It was the only sunny Sat. in a spell of shite weather. Me, Bazza and Gordon had a ride out to Deal through the lanes, very pleasant passing through the Kent landscape chatting. This is where being on the road bikes is better, than off road. Off road there seems so many interruptions and conversations get truncated and left hanging without finishing them, you start saying something and you never make your point because you find yourself on a ‘white knuckle ride’ down some rutted flinty valley slope. Or the single track becomes so overgrown the vegetation wants to pull you off your bike and concentration levels required are way too high to do a second task like speaking as well. On the road you can indulge in pretty much uninterrupted chat, usually rubbish but that’s OK.



That was our outward ride news, views, gossip and lots of Boclolks about nothing in particular. We kept it one notch above what I call steady for most of the way. Then on the approach to Deal predictably one of us (not Barry he’s way too sensible for this old malarkey) steps it right up for a city centre finish. Just my cup of tea and it isn’t often I get the chance to muller the rider in question so I sat on his wheel and smashed it into the town centre opening a big gap in a very short space of time. Alarmingly I rounded a bend at approx 30mph into a queue of stationary traffic waiting at a set of lights, which rather slowed me down and we rolled up to the cafe.
So were are setting off home now, across the golf course and what little wind there is pretty much against us and there is a pain behind my knees already. I had not recovered from the explosive effort of the city centre finish. One of the riders kept it more than steady over every rise on the way home (not Barry he’s way too sensible for this old malarkey) and I’m beginning to resent the constant pain now because we have a long way to go.



I am starting to have to dig deeper than I want to and as we approach the time for Barry to swing off home it’s disintegrated into the usual situation where I’m on my limit and 30 yards behind. Stupidly I decided to not let this gap any bigger because I was going to wind it up one last time and show there was life in the old dog yet. This meant a couple of miles of agony to keep the target within reachable distance and I mistimed my charge to the turn off, I left it a little too late as I was completely sharthered and I needed a little more road. But it was all too late. This effort was pointless stupid and I should have known better, but I was resentful for being pushed outside of what was comfortable for so long. The result was the last leg of the ride I was in total agony. I had cramp so badly that if I had got off my bike and tried to walk it would have probably looked something like a cross between Max Wall and John Clease. I had to miss the ride the following day as I could hardly walk, I was close to incontinence for two days, actually vomited after taking the dog for a walk and had to go to work digging out sapling trees and going to grown up meetings where I was supposed to think and function coherently.



Total nightmare.
I proved to myself again, that my memory of what my body can do, and what it can actually do are not the same. I had learned that, but ignored it. What I have learned is that my body can not recover from what it can do.
So next time you will understand why I’m keeping it steady.
Tail Light.

A ride to Deal with pictures.

Thought I would show you my spanners. Needed to pull my gear cable through a bit before I left. My road bike requires such low maintenance compared to my mountain bike. I must remember to adjust my pedal as one makes my right shoe squeak. I wear the same shoes on my mountain bike with no squeak, so by process of elimination it must be my road bike pedal!



Hicks Forstall I find I ride down this road a lot it is a conduit to many rides.



This boatyard at Grove ferry is something else, it used to have a Morris Traveller under a load of stuff, but I noticed it had gone, so this junk does shift or has a turn over?




I see these sign posts and now and again I just go 'yeh, I'll see what that place looks like'. I should do it more but for some reason I regard it as time wasting??.




I always take a photo of this windmill every time I go past. In fact I go past it to take a photo of it on most road bike rides.



The Power Station: I like the to twin this with the windmill, so take a photo every ride. It pretty much dominates the east Kent landscape. I should do some drawings of it!




And I deliberately decided not to go down Hicks Forstall on the final section of the ride home, as I thought I wanted to look at the horses instead. Now, what would your mountain bike mates say if you said 'Guys I wont to go down here and pat those horses on the nose'. FECK OFF EQUIPHILE.

Apart from Andy whose road bike is still where he left in bits in his garage, there are no guys who step off and just look at stuff. Which reminds me, no one over-took me on the ride, which was hard on the way back as the wind was against me.

The Waters of Woe

How hard can these things be? I got to clam down because this new GPS gizmo is brain damage. Adventurer 2800. The bewilderment and frustration is ...........well boclkols I am going to talk about my successes instead. My brakes, I thought I'd fixed em a couple of days ago, but I had to revisit them tonight and I have repositioned them and they working really well, better than they ever have.



I rode with Andy to check out what looked like standing stones, turns out its a ruined medieval thing called Wells Chapel? A stream runs close by known locally as 'the Waters of Woe'. This 'waters of woe' thing is lingering in my head, its a great title, a bit of a downer as I imagine a well not of healing spa waters but waters of bad luck and a whole cursed negative Tutankhaman vibe. There used to be a hamlet called 'Well' nearby and I've got this vision of the people struggling to farm the land, droughts, bad weather and poorly children. Circumstances forcing the people to move away from their small doomed community. All because they drank from this water source.





Andy's so bloody happy he's talking about early spring, magnolia buds, innovative ideas and he is dancing on those pedals. His woes are gone and he's happy. I'm working on a couple of projects which require more effort than I was willing to give, but I have stepped up a gear or two and I am turning the corner on them now. I need to win another job to fill my time for max earning capacity and Arsenal lost 3-1to Stoke. Shocker.

A wet Weekend.

Part A

The Paris Roubaix

I was out on my road bike Sat. in the rain, it was bad...and I saw the peleton coming towards me. Fella on the front out of the sadle with a river of grit running off his nose and chin. I turn round and chase onto the back of the group I look round quickly to see if I towed the straglers up as well and saw a ring of standing stones in a field? This breakaway group is hacking it and I settle down into a rythym and all I can do is watch the muddy water casscade off everyones bottom brackets onto the road. I realise a podium finish is slipping away as I know I cant help myself peeling off to the left at the T junction ahead. They go to Canturbury and I went left utterly mashed. I had to stop and turn round at this church. Patrixbourne or somewhere?





It was a couple of miles maximum back to where I saw the standing stones? Less than two, shocking....I dont know what they are? But not standing stones I think I would have seen them marked on a map. I will come back on my mountain bike and have a look at them another time.


Part B

The Mud Bath.

I met Andy and the group, we had a great ride in the mud. Andy's off in a large puddle already, then 20 minutes later were approaching another monster, he says 'How deep can it be'? What he should have said is, 'dont go through it because there is a hidden silver birch tree submerged in there'. We're both off and through the ice floating on the top.



We had 2-3 punctures and I rode over half the ride with no stopping power whatsoever, as the mud finally finished my brake pads off. I'll have to sort it. Great ride lots of chat and a lot of mud.

The two rides I've been on recently.

The ride I went on today with the group.





The ride I went on last Monday by myself.




This included Andy, who is fine and well and watched Gavin and Stacey. He also wants to ride as far as he can during the hours of daylight on the two solstices. This is a left field idea which I think should be encouraged. The North Downs Way was mentioned, something I will be thinking about very seriously as there will be a commissioned artwork at Dover marking the end of the north downs way.

Quite a bit of snow today and I have left my bike out in it?

I wrote a short play about an incident on my ride to deal.

I have writen a very short play when I tried unsuccessfully to take photos of two bi-planes which had taken off seconds before.
I had got off and tried to photograph them.

Cast
rider 1 (me)
rider 2 ( someone I have riden with before in a larger group)
Plus riders 3 and 4 accompanying rider no 2.


Rider No1
putting my camera back in my back pocket and just about to remount and carry on home.
'oh hi'
as I recognise a guy in black on a black bike.

rider no.2
'Hi rob'
slows down at the junction, then rolls across it.

I hear rider rider no.3 say...'do you want to stop'.

As rider no.2 rolls across the junction I hear him say..'No'

and all 3 riders carry on towards Hoath.