I know how he feels!
With just over six weeks to go until the epic 90-mile Bealach Mor cycling sportive – and with some leg strength created by my recent trip to the Pyrenees – I have been keen to get in some cycling training. But on-off torrential rain storms, wind and way more than my fair share of punctures have been getting in the way.
Going back over the last 10 days reads like this:
Saturday: Cycled 50 miles in the rain and wind.
Sunday: Cycled 12 miles to and from a shift at a city-based newspaper and almost got blown off my bike several times.
Wednesday: It rained so hard I gave up on the idea of going out and did a disgustingly painful turbo trainer session. (Yes, thanks Coach G-Force for your unpleasant, but effective, 50-minute turbo session from hell).
Friday: Cycled to Loch Lomond for a filming (!) session with Bagging Scotland. I swear there wasn’t more than five miles on the entire round trip that did not feature a head wind. Oh, and it rained, too. And I got a puncture when cycling over a horrendous pot-hole.
Saturday: Thought about cycling but really couldn’t face the head wind. Nor the rain.
Sunday: Cycled 55 miles to collect Little Miss from her cousin’s at Livingston. Great tailwind for most of the way and some sunshine for once but I suffered two more punctures. I was forced to cycle the last 10 miles on a flat tyre/getting off to pump it up every 10 minutes. Nightmare. (I will save the return leg of the journey by train for another blog. More than a nightmare.)
Yesterday: Took the chance to enjoy what appeared to be a calm and sunny evening. 1.5 hours of hard cycling during which I bumped into the G-Force (going the other way) but who then ended up with a puncture. Before I made it back home I’d been hit by the rain!
Today: It’s raining hard again and I plan to stay in to do some yoga. Jo-Yo will be pleased with me.
Do you think there is someone, or something, trying to put me off the epic cycle sportive?! Maybe I should give up now?