From your lonely seat, in your lonely cars

I know you want to read something light, something wryly amusing and slightly sardonic. A bit quirky maybe, tip the corner of your mouth up and just smile to yourself, the smile of faint recognition or empathy. Something about what a tough or awkward or terrific time I had on my bike riding to and from work in Bristol.

I had worked out some of that stuff to write but my brain's been fogged on the journey back. The truth? The truth is, and I hate to admit it. I'm overtrained. Persistent cough on the bike, headaches, cramps, irritability (no comments at the back), and the training volume for January has been higher than all but four months of last year, too much too soon.

So, a quick precis of the ride:

Well it was freezing and icy this morning. I chose my clothing on the basis that I thought there would be a fair chance I would fall off so I balanced warmth with padding. Given the tentative ride down to the main road it was OK, and once past that there was little ice to be had. Back roads too, and it was daylight and sunny and beautiful by the time I arrived. I took a great picture of the sunrise on my phone too. Slow though, not pushing it going downhill in the dark, and this applied especially on the way home. 40-odd miles, have a look for yourself on Charlie's stats:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/66106740

Give me a few days rest and I'll be fine. At least I don't always have to do that journey in a car in a traffic jam. It certainly induces some strange behaviour. Why do some people have to overtake to get past before the traffic island? And why do some people seem surprised that the predictable consequences of their own actions always happen as predicted? It's dark when the lights go out, and it's sunny when dawn comes. Easy really, isn't it?