Appraisal time

I had my annual appraisal at work today. I won't go into details, just to say I'm happy with the outcome. But it set me thinking that it's getting to the tme of year to look back at all that has past and see how I did. But because I have to eat, order the shopping and get to bed in time for an early start tomorrow, it'll have to wait. I have a long car journey tomorrow, so I'll give it some thought.

It was the first cycling commute for quite a while today. After all the freezing temperatures of late, the mercury was nudging into the positive, so I thought I'd give it a go. It was the first trip I have done entirely in the hours of darkness too. And when I was about 10 miles in I realised I'd left my mobile phone at home, so after that I thought I'd better stick to the main roads. They may be busier, but at least they can find you if you crash.

There was a little bit of ice on a couple of sheltered roads this morning. But by the time I hit the outskirts of Bristol the roads were frost-free. They were, however, coated in this rather horrible amalgam of salt, mud, oil, melted ice and other generally unpleasant material. If truth be told I was also carrying a little bit of excess baggage. I'm still eating for the Tourmalet, but exercise like the Blue Peter tortoise. So the end result is a certain increase in girth.

So the commute is as much the first stage in the training for next year as it is also the end of the road in 2010. With just over 40 miles in total, at modest pace (hampered by a headwind on the way home), as well as a light failure, which precluded rapid descent of Wrington Hill, I'm now into double figures on the 5K countdown.

While we are on the subject of useless data, I have also done over 267K of expended calories of exercise, an average of over 700 for every day of the year. Now that impressed you! The ACG rides again on Sunday, I'm taking them over Brent Knoll, weather permitting. Anyway, food is calling, enjoy the sunshine.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/59293661