Enjoying Myself

Here's a question for you. What have Axl Rose, Marco Pantani and me all got in common, and which is the odd one out?

There was a moment this morning as I cycled to work when I realised yet again how fortunate I am to be able to do this. We may not have had a great summer, and I don't get to ride whenever I want to. But the weather today was just perfect. A very slight chill to the air, but hardly a breath of breeze. Sun peeking up over the horizon, and down below me, spread out in an easterly direction, panoramically framing the city of Bristol, were dozens of balloons-all rising from the Fiesta at Ashton Court. I got to experience that.

Now that we have moved into our new building at work, we have even better facilities for cyclists, state of the art changing rooms and lockers, racks etc. So the whole process of commuting has been made even easier, and even in the winter it will be great. Just colder, darker and wetter probably. Please remind me of this if I complain come December.

On the way in I elected to go up Wrington Hill, over past Felton, then down through Barrow Gurney and past the fiesta at Long Ashton. It's slightly shorter in miles, but seemed OK in terms of time, so I may stick to it until September. I was getting pretty tired of my usual route.

So hills were the order of the day. I have decided I can't get enough of them in the next two or three weeks, and the old adage of "they don't get easier, you just get faster" is in part true. I say part, because I was dawdling a lot today, it was such a lovely morning that I wanted it to go on forever. Even coming home, with a lovely tailwind and a few specks of drizzle, it was still good.

It was a slightly odd experience on the way home as I had to visit a podiatrist to be measured for some new orthotic insoles. My feet are wrecked, I have no arches to speak of, and am starting to get numb areas in my toes. So I took the plunge and let a slightly eccentric, but very nice, lady wrap plaster of paris round my feet in a clinic in Knowle. All on a promise of better skeletal balance or some such, and less pain.

What that did mean was that I got a bit lost coming home, trying to get out of Knowle West before someone stole my bike, and I was moving pretty fast then too. Eventually I found the base of Dundry Hill and it would have been rude not to climb it. Down to Winsford, up to its Manor and then after Wrington Hill again (down) I headed up past Rowberrow and Shipham, skirted Cheddar and back home up the Axbridge by-pass.

I have taken possession of a bright and shiny and supposedly cooler (temperature-wise) buff, extending my collection to four. Like Marco, I favour the pirate look, unlike Axl who tied his in a bandanna style. Unlike both of them I have not consumed vast quantities of drugs of one form or another. Still, I can't hold a high note or storm up Alpe d'Huez (yet), but who knows, there's still time.....

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/44372548