Monday

Terribly late start this morning - didn't get rolling until 0800. Junior was laid out with something nasty over the weekend, and I woke up feeling dodgy. I didn't want to get on the bike and find out halfway into town that I was in fact too sick to be going to work. I hung around for an hour, doing this and that with Monkey, until I was sure all I had was Monday-itis, and not the flu.

I should have gone early, when it was 7 degrees. All that it took to cure me was 15 seconds in the freezing morning air. It was like going to the snow, and emerging from a nice warm house first thing in the morning - that fresh burst of coldness blows the cobwebs away.

I have parked my heavy jacket and am currently riding triple layered - a short sleeved microfibre T-shirt made from some amazing material, a short sleeved jersey and a vest. That leaves my arms bare, and the cold last week was hard to take on my naked forearms. I seem to have adapted - I hardly notice it now. I'm also back in fingerless gloves, and my fingertips are no longer complaining about the cold each morning. However, the skin on my fingers has turned rough as guts, and I'm getting splits in the skin next to my nails. I started applying hand lotion last night to reduce the sand paper feel.

The ride in and back was good. After a weekend layoff, my legs were in great form. There was not a single ache or complaint from any muscle group, and everything lit up and went when I asked for a bit of power. This was a nice change from Friday. After a week of bashing the legs twice a day, by Friday night, I was unable to squat down in front of the fridge to get a beer from the back of the bottom shelf. I thought I was getting old and crippled - it turns out it was just the result of watching the tarmac slide by for 150km.

I have started on a new route, which adds a few kilometres each way. That's been enough to raise the weekly total to 150km, and I know I can add a few more by taking an additional deviation if I feel like it. I've said for a long time that I want to crank through the old ton per week - 160km. I feel that is a reasonable effort, and one that will pay dividends. Well, I'm not far off it, so I just have to wangle things to ensure that I have the time to do a few more deviations each week.