A bad week for cycling: blustery weather and rain put paid to my exercise!

The week before last was brilliant. I managed to ride 105 miles and you can read more about that in the previous post. This week has not been so good and it's entirely to do with the weather. All week it's been on and off raining, one minute it's nice and sunny, but then I turn around, the skies have darkened and it's raining. Normally this happens around 1600hrs when I'm considering stopping work for the day and getting some exercise. The end result, of course, is that I don't get out, I resign myself to no cycling and, you know, I'm kind of relieved. Why? Because at the end of the day I'm knackered. I know it sounds odd using the word 'knackered' when all I do is sit at a desk, but after a full day, starting around 0800hrs, I'm done by the close of play around 1600hrs and I want to do is sit down and watch an episode of Detectorists on iPlayer.

Every day of last week was the same and as the week drew to a close I soon realised that my mileage would be nowhere near what it was last week.

On Friday night I didn't get much in the way of sleep. I developed a kind of phantom toothache, a nagging dull ache the eventually forced me, at 0200hrs, to seek out some painkillers and deal with the problem. I dropped one around 0230hrs and went back to bed, waking around 0430hrs and somehow managing to get through to 0600hrs before getting up. A ride was out of the question. I was feeling weary and would remain that way for the rest of the day, so I found Detectorists on the iPlayer and watched a few episodes at random. I'm going to have to write an entire post about Detectorists and the genius of Mackenzie Crook. All of the characters are brilliantly portrayed by some top class actors, led by Toby Jones and Crook, it's always a hazy summer's day (apart from the Christmas Special at the end of Series 2) and I find I can lose myself in the fields. Oh to live that sort of life, with no real worries, nothing stressful going on, just endless summer days of wandering the fields, drinking tea from a flask and talking bollocks. It's a bit like Andy and I on our bikes come to think of it. Perhaps there's a comedy series waiting to get out of NoVisibleLycra, who knows?

Tea and cake in Redhill's M&S cafe on Saturday

After Detectorists and with a blanket keeping me warm, I watched Tales of the Unexpected and then did very little else until around 2pm when I drove to Redhill to look around the shops. I went to Waterstone's and realised there were lots of books I wanted to read. I sat in a virtually empty M&S cafe with a huge chunk of coffee and walnut cake, something I should have avoided if toothache was the problem, but I'm not sure it was. Tea and cake and light conversation and then another wander around the bookshop before driving around Redhill for a bit and then driving into and around Reigate. I can't remember what time I reached home, but I was still a little weary and later found myself watching the Eurovision Song Contest. I only liked Mata Hari by Azerbaijan and I hear that the British entry received nil points, it was that bad!

While in Redhill Andy texted me to check if I was okay for meeting in Westerham Sunday morning. I said I was because I thought I would be fine and, fortunately, I was fine, although, in the middle of the night I did wake up, not with toothache, more anxiety about toothache, and started to wonder if an 'abort' text was necessary. It wasn't. I eventually rose from bed around 0600hrs, made breakfast as usual and then headed for Westerham around 0800hrs, arriving just after 0900hrs. Andy was there already and it was his shout for the tea and cake (well, almond croissant). We sat there watching the arrival of many Harleys, some of them carrying Hell's Angels from Surrey, they all seemed like nice guys, but I did feel a little inadequate with my mountain bike and 'Wild Man' cross bar bag. It takes all sorts. We chatted about Andy's organised ride the previous week, on his mountain bike, and how the rain made it all a little unpleasant. When a pal pulled out because of a brake failure, Andy (quite rightly in my opinion) followed suit after covering 22 miles of a 40-mile plus ride.

It was time to head home, always a bad moment, that thought of riding up the hill towards the Botley, but as always we manage it and after riding through Woldingham we parted company at the top of Slines Oak Road. Until the next time (in a fortnight's time as Andy's heading for Ashford in Kent next week). I'll have to motivate myself next Sunday.

I reached home just in the nick of time. It's been blowing a gale and raining ever since and now as the light fades at 2115hrs, it's still the same. Here's hoping next week will be better.