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We had a good few days off over the festive season and (brother) Dick came down for a couple of days for a bike ride, party and some general chilling out. We picked the dry day between Christmas and New Year to ride a section of the South Downs Way and across some of the Seven Sisters, but it happened to be the Windy day.
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A glance at the Garmin during the long grassy descent to the Birling Gap told me we were going at 5kph against the wind. That's 3mph in 'English'. We were pedalling too ! We were also blown over by a rogue gust on one occasion and it was very hard work.
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New Year was quiet and we went to bed early, as usual. Before we knew it we were back to work, but for only a few days because this year's skiing trip arrived very early in the form of a double birthday celebration for (other brother) Paul and his wife Sara in the Trois Vallees.
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Meribel looking south towards Val Thorens and Les Menuires.
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The conditions were excellent and the area enjoyed over a metre of snow on the day we arrived. There followed a dull Sunday with some of that lovely flat light that makes skiing a bit harder and then five days of wall-to-wall sunshine. We stayed with Robin and Lorna on the way down (who spoil us rotten) and were looked after on holiday by Jemma and Richard, who work for Ski Blanc, in Les Allues.
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Back to normal all too soon and we are getting back into some sort of routine and with a few extra Christmas pounds to shift. The longer rides continue and the excellent Garmin Edge 200 is keeping an accurate track of performance. I've done my standard 50km route three times (and the longer 56km route twice) this month in different conditions and in different states of mind and all the stats have been quite similar. I'm a bit stuck at an average speed of 22kph (13.7mph), but I suppose that's not too bad on the single-speed.
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First spin class last night and it was a shock to the system after the long and steady rides of the last two months. Time to mix it up now though. I have a long one planned for Sunday, with 30km on the road, then up onto the Downs and along to Eastbourne. It should be about 50km again, but a bit harder. The weekly road loop will be extended by another 10km or so from next week, spin class every Thursday and, if it's dry, I will fit in a two hour ride to the gym and then spin. That will work ...
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Looking forward - I haven't decided whether to race this year or not, I can't fit everything in. Adrian, Chris, Dave and myself have booked our Mountain Bike Leaders course with the excellent Cyclewise, we have a family trip to Rhayader at Easter and hope to ride in the Chain Reaction Mountain Marathon at Builth Wells. I have also just committed to the splendid FNRTTC event to Brighton in March - this lot are as mad as a box of frogs. They meet at midnight on a Friday night at the Wellington memorial (round the corner from Buckingham Palace), ride to the seaside somewhere, eat a large fried breakfast and then the hardcore ride home. Molly will join me for breakfast and I will get a lift home as my legs will be shredded trying to keep up with all those road bikes on my little off-roader.
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So, we ride off from 2011 to 2012 and there is much to look forward to already. I have my CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check booked through British Cycling and then we are good to go helping out with cycling for kids groups. I have a new logbook labelled '2012' that will contain the comprehensive documentation of my mediocre progress and we have just had confirmation that our good friends Chris and Meg will visit from the States in the summer. It will be a good year and I can't wait.
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