Sunday 27 September 2009

Big plans come to nought

I made plans to do the Spring Cycle this morning, including not riding on Friday and not drinking any beer last night. I was going to set the alarm for 0530 in order to be departing the start line in North Sydney by 0700.

The weather kiboshed all that. The cold front that dumped all that dust is still with us, and it's blowing a gale out there from time to time. I don't mind the odd bit of wind when riding to work - after all, if I don't get to the office, I don't get paid - but I am not so inclined to beat myself up on what is supposed to be a relaxing Sunday ride. It's ok for those that only ride occasionally on weekends - they can go out there and do a tough ride and feel good about it, but I'm doing 10 rides a week every week, and I'm only going to add an 11th if I know I will feel uplifted at the end of it.

Apart from the howling wind, it's bloody cold. The minimum dropped last night to 8 - it's been up around the 14 to 15 mark for the last few weeks. That would require visiting the storage containers in the garage and retrieving my winter gear, which I just put away.

I can feel a trip to the hardware store coming on, and a morning spent sorting out some rampant tomato bushes.

3 comments:

1735099 said...

Be glad you're not in the garden city - it's blowing a gale, there's dust everywhere, and it's bloody freezing. If you put a spinnaker on your bike, the combination of the downward slope and the wind would have you in Brisbane in an hour.

Wand said...

I suppose that is why I didn’t see you at the start , a rest stop or even at the finish.

Come to think of it I didn’t see you at a comfort stop either ... hang on, wrong ride.

Anyway I did the 50 km and changed from my intended ‘summer’ gear to a long sleeve jersey, long sleeve undershirt with a light weight nylon wind cheater and full length gloves. And I needed them until about 20km when it was comfortable to remove the outer layer and change to half gloves. Mind you I reckon there would have been many cold people out there. At one stage I was fascinated by the goose pimples on the shapely legs of one young female rider who I followed for a while until she seemed to tire.

Anyway it was a first for me and I had decided to ride. There was some congestion at a few locations and the wind did slow things down quite a bit so I was not surprised to take 2 hours to reach the Olympic park but it only took about 20 minutes for the last 10 km around the park.

Cheers

Boy on a bike said...

I love the bit where you get to ride over the Harbour Bridge (in a closed traffic lane, for those that have never done it). It's an interesting experience.

I saw a few hundred cyclists go past when I was stopped at a set of lights, and most looked pretty cold and uncomfortable! I'm very glad I rolled over and slept in.