We get to carry each other

I'm not one for promoting the use of performance-enhancing drugs, but today I'll make an exception. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "Sainsbury's Paracetamol plus" without which today's ride would not have been possible.

I awoke to find that my tonsils had re-invented themselves in the night, and were now determined to be squidgy golf balls, dangling in my reddish throat. Now I understand yesterday's fatigue. The sensible course of action may have been to hole up in bed, with hot lemon and a good book, but that would underestimate the power of paracetamol combined with a dose of caffeine.

Skip didn't take much persuading to go to Glastonbury rather than to Bruton via Shipham gorge, and after the first 10 miles or so I started to feel slightly less than terrible. (This of course is man-wussiness of the highest order, but then I am allowed to moan on my own blog). I thought I might be following her wheel all morning, so it was good to actually start to feel better as the ride went on, especially after some more caffeine, courtesy of Heaphy's in Glasto, and some lovely lemon cake. For the most part we rode round side by side, chatting and just enjoying ourselves, which is what it should be about isn't it?

It turned into a lovely ride, as after coffee we wheeled round through Shapwick and Edington, Burtle and Mark, and back past Badgworth Arena and down Notting Hill. This is a lovely descent as it is generally enclosed by trees so has little wind, and is fairly straight with a nice run-out at the bottom. I decided to push the bike a bit and was suitably adrenalised when my back wheel jumped a bit. Still I topped over 42mph, not the fastest of the season but OK.

The weather was OK too, the wind dropped, the sun came out fleetingly but there was no rain, and for one last time I have decided against washing the bike. I promise to do it after the ACG ride next Sunday!

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/342011