Autumn is here!

 Mon 23rd Oct 

Still suffering from my dental trip last Monday ! Leaving me with ‘sensitive’ teeth with hot/ cold drinks and hard food such as nuts. So we start the search for a new Dental practice, given it’s all private now, I want someone who treats you well and you are happy that what you have paid for is worth the money! Our £320 was poor value! 

A week of poor weather and what I assume is the tail end/ repercussions of storm Babette in Scotland that seems to have reaped havoc across the north of England and Scotland. This has meant cycling was not an option either wind or rain or both! So still needing to keep fitness it was back to running between showers. I managed 3 runs this week, one off road on my Berrow church run the other two down the seafront, Saturday saw me running the furthest in over a year 5.05 miles!! I felt good that morning and though leg is still numb no issues 😂 so last week 12.2 miles, very pleased with that. 

Sunday I was able to meet up with cycling buddy Lisa after her holibobs in Spain, nice catch up, on a lovely afternoon  weather wise, no wind and sunshine, I overdressed whilst Lisa turned up in short sleeve jersey! At least she had three quarter tights, but! Fingerless mitts ! I had long sleeve vest, windproof jersey, full finger gloves and a buff ( which I soon took off) we made our way out over Burtle way and round through West Hay to stop at sweets for tea and cake, really nice change for it not to be crowded out ( 2:0 pm ) flapjack and tea consumed, I presented lisa with her Audax medal from Wales as I know she likes her bling 😂😂

Before we headed off across Tealham Moor, turning right up the hill and over to Wedmore by the lanes, annoyingly a couple on E-bikes overtook us on the hill, after we had overtaken them on the levels! They didn’t look like they needed E-bikes to me! Back through Stoughton and Blackford a bit different to last weeks weather ! Through Mark and Rooks Bridge, a great ride out 35 miles covered at 14.5 mph, happ with that having not cycled all week, trouble is now I am tempted to enter the Welsh castles Audax on the 19 th November! But shorter days and thoughts of big hills is dampening my enthusiasm😂 

On a sad note to finish, I went to visit a close friend who I used to play squash with, David is a year older than me and his wife was midwife to our first son, sadly he has dementia, David although looking fit and well, had no idea who we were, his wife was giving full time care now as David struggles with everything, good to see she gets two days respite a week to allow her to have time to herself. Life seems very cruel sometimes and we both left them, feeling very upset to see him in such a state, it dies make you reflect on your own situation, i sometimes get down with my wife’s cancer situation and all the things that go with it, colostomy bags, hernias, operations, blood pressure, but! This pails into insignificance when I look at the commitment Susan has to give to David 24 hrs a day 7 days a week! As I always keep saying, it’s not the retirement we signed up for, but we are where we are and can change little except support our partners as much as possible and live each day to its full! Even though that’s difficult to do, especially with an incompetent government who have run the health service and any other service into the ground to replace with profit making businesses 😡

Looking like a damp week ahead so maybe running week rather than cycling, Health walk lead on Thursday, but more about that next time . 

What a weather change! And an odd week🥺

 Today is Monday 16 th Oct and whilst it’s not many days since the last post I thought! It’s too cold to go out! And feel very lazy after a somewhat harrowing trip to the Dentist for our first ‘private’ check up😡 after 20  mins, the most horrendous de scale I have ever had, 2 X-rays and a whip round to ‘look’ at my teeth a nice little earner for them at £170 for each of us, that’s £340 for approx 50 mins work !!  Still in shock I am turning to my blog😊

Secondly I did a PSA test on Thursday last, as I have an enlarged prostate and like to be sure I am ok, I said previously I did it myself, struggled to get blood out ( am I tight fisted😂) I had the results on Friday which said my result had gone up from 1.5 to 5.9 some 290% !! In a year as the 5.9 was top of the scale for my age I did Ask My GP to get a second test  and a doctor phoned me back, informing me that as I had an UTI infection and taken anti biotics in the last three months it’s likely to be elevated as shown!! And to get a blood test possibly mid November, phew!! That was a relief and hoping that in a month things will calm down and I won’t be destined for the big ‘C’ 🥺

Back to biking 😊 not a bad week weather wise, more later! I managed 3 rides, the first on to test out my winter bike, which felt small,  uncomfortable and decidedly slower than my Titanium summer bike! 26 miles covered at a steady 14 mph including a head wind home! 

The second ride on Saturday started well in bright 15 degree sunshine on my Titanium bike, out over Tealham Moor, via Mark, over to Wedmore then things changed, the temperature dropped, 6.8 degs the rain and hail started and had to shelter for a few minutes whilst the worst went through, I continued back through Blackford and Mark before the rain stopped, by which time I was very chilly! My New Boardman jersey and my pertex montane had kept the most at bay, oh and the mudguards, but my hands even with full gloves were very cold. By the time I reached home in Burnham on Sea it had risen to 11 degs and it hadn’t rained there!! 29 miles covered.

Determined to make the most of the better weather on Sunday I was out again, dressed as the previous day, no rain forecast and bright sunshine, chilly at only 13 degs, but!! No wind a good 29 miles again, at an average of 14.4 mph, well pleased with that and the fact it was dry and no wind 😊

Today in contrast again the temperature was only 3.5 degrees so autumn is here ! 

Before the rains! 

In the rain 

Bit of flooding

Floodwater

Another Audax and couple of runs

Spoils from the ride 

 What good weather it was last week and this weekend ! The weather has been very summer like with temperatures well up. With the 100 k Grid Iron  Audax round the New Forest at the weekend, I needed to get a ride in to top up my miles and make sure legs were working ! So a 26 mile ride round the Somerset lanes testing bike and body, pleased to say they were both working well. I also was determined to keep the running miles so a 4 mile run down the seafront and another 4 miler up to Berrow church along the footpaths were just the job.

As it’s quite a way to Lymington from Burnham I booked into the caravan club site at Bransgore, driving over on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The site was extremely busy, I was given pitch 13, was this a sign 😊 soon pitched, tea and relaxing , the site is very nice, superb facilities, but a little open, pitches have no surrounding hedge etc, apparently an old WW2 airfield. Pasta for tea, followed by fruit cake and a beautiful sunset 

After a good nights sleep in the van, gear all sorted for the next day, I was up early, and away from the site before anyone else stirred. Lymington was only a twenty minute drive over the New Forest, mist rising from the low areas, the sun breaking through the clouds, a magical day ahead. By 7:45 I was ready for the off, so van locked I was away to register, the start was 8:0 but with 1000 riders we were allowed to go early. Shorts, short sleeve jersey with arm warmers was the dress of the day, bit chilly to start but knowing I would soon warm up. Pressed go on my Garmin and was off, on my own for a few miles before being caught by a small group, who sat on my wheel for the next 15 miles, without speaking to me ! Very odd, they finally came past as I stopped to look at the text informing me Grandson George had broken his collar bone tripping over his shoelace ! I next saw them at the first control after 25 miles, a superbly run control by the local scouts, tea and cake and a stamp on my brevit card, a short 15 min stop before heading out again. It was getting hotter now 

Donkeys, horses and pigs were lazing on the roads in the sunshine, most road surfaces were really good 

 I felt really good today and was shocked to see I was averaging 14.7 mph so the miles went quickly, a couple of busy roads for very sections, otherwise lovely quiet New Forest minor roads, hills were ok, all rideable, not steep, but some were quite long. The hill upto the second control was steep, but a well earned cuppa and few biscuits helped to forget it, brevit card stamped, water bottle topped up, time to move on. The scenery was spectacular and for most of the ride I was on my own, peddling and lovely gear and slowly grinding up the hills , but I was enjoying myself, one of the best days out this summer( my cycling buddy Lisa had jetted of to Spain to avoid another day out with me 😂😂) 

I was making good time, topping up my energy reserves with jelly babies and hot x buns and soon found myself cycling back into Lymington to the finish. Card stamped 66.2 mikes in 4 hrs 41mins, 2779 ft climbed, ( it seemed more hills than that) averaging over 14 mph for the distance, well pleased with that.

Got my goody bag which was a musette, cycling cap and a wooden medal, lovely at the end.

A quick cup of tea and more biscuits it was back to the van, change and head for home. Traffic was very heavy and it took me 3 hours to get home .

After a days rest the weather was still good so another 25 miles in the sunshine on Tuesday to test out my winter bike. I had my Ultegra crank checked by the bike shop after a recall by Shimano about it delaminating and failing! I had mine 7 years and have done over 20000 miles on it. It was found to be ok😊 

So a good last week😊

End on September already

Some photos from Glorious Glamorgan 100km Audax 

Dilema ! 

A friend 

The board walk, a bit slippery ! 

The park weir

Rough tracks 

Glamorous assistant with tea 

Glamorous assistant again with our friends 

 Monday October 2nd 

What a busy week starting off with two days of dog sitting for my son, Bramble, Scrumpy and Little Bracken were very excited to see us and greeted us with lots of energy 

But we’re wonderfully well behaved over the two days. Helped by a field session, with Bracken doing six mad laps of the field, Scrumpy helping himself to pears and apples, and old Bramble wondering round at a slow pace. A lovely two days 😊

Boiler serviced, that I forgot about, good job he phoned before he came ! 

Thursday a phone call from the dentist telling us our 8.45 appointment was cancelled as dentist of sick! This is the third cancelled appointment, then they have the cheek to send an email telling us we need to join their membership scheme! At a monthly premium 😡 at least the rest of the day went well with a lovely visit to Watchet to Somerset Art week, meeting up with friends for lunch ( which is another whole new story!! ) it gave us chance to give the van a run out, the weather was lovely, some of the art on show was not quite to my taste, preferring landscape watercolours. 

I managed 2 runs this week 3.79 miles at 10:57 min mile down my sea front run and a nice off road path run to Berrow church and back 3:08 miles at 11:15 min mile. I felt ok on both, leg still numb but apart from a slight irritation it was ok, I made sure that I stretched at the end 😊 

My final acupuncture appointment for Friday was cancelled, telling me she has covid! So rebooked but! Not till November.

Saturday was the highlight of the week, a 100km Audax cycle ride over in Glamorgan with my cycling 🚴‍♀️ buddy LisaBH. An 8 am start in Cardiff meant an early start from Burnham 6:15. Bikes were put in the van rather than the rack, as it was easier on the dark Saturday morning. 

The M5 was quite busy but the sat nav guided us easily to the middle of Cardiff and! Easy parking,with half an hour to spare to sort ourselves out and  picked our Brevit cards, a very brief, briefing from the organiser E.g. “ok see you all later” 

Getting out of the complex of shops etc and onto the path proved to be a challenge, particularly as we opted to follow a couple of cyclists, who we thought knew where they were going!! We were wrong so lost after the first 1/2 km 😊 I should have known better! We finally picked up the taff trail along the river and through a Park, before joining the back streets of Cardiff and getting lost when our sat navs kept telling us to do a Uturn, which we did several times, and after resetting the sat nav route getting the same, so it was paper instructions time, which showed we were in fact on the right route, and we finally exited Cardiff at St Fagan Museum and out into the rolling hills of Glamorgan, hills not steep but quite frequent and upwards of 1-2 km long ! After the heavy traffic of the city the quiet narrow lanes were a pleasure with views over the Bristol Channel towards Home and Exmoor, even though it was a little misty. It had been a chilly start and it was very dull and overcast, which seemed to be set in for  the day. 

After ups lead by Lisa and the downs lead by me, overtaking a large well organised cycle club group we finally made it after about 30 km to the Velo cafe at Llanwit Major, a pretty Welsh village , the cafe at the centre next to a bakery! So it was two teas from the cafe and a lovely large hot  cheese and onion pasty for me and corned beef pasty for Lisa from the bakery next door. Timed it just right as a very large group of cyclist arrived just as we were tucking into our snacks and tea. I couldn’t eat all my pasty as it was large and very hot , but very nice, so wrapped it up and put in my pocked for later

Back to the hills and narrow lanes before we hit the roads around Bridgend and Pencoed, which were very busy ! And the route took us a few km on main roads through a very run down industrial area, before exiting on to a narrow rough lane and a very deep Ford which Lisa was about to ride through before I pointed out stepping stones and the fact that the depth was more than half her wheel! After a very dodgy stepping stone crossing with road cleats we were able continue, be it up a very steep rough surface hill. 

More rough lanes past dodgy looking parked up BMW and Lisa swearing and cursing the muddy, dangling brambles and leaf covered track, we were pleased to get back on the road.

Another pretty part of the ride to Parc slip wildlife cafe at 70 km with reminders of the mining industry and the disaster in the past where a number of miners were killed nice cycling along the track before back to the roads and the return to Cardiff, a few more stiff hills, one caught me out because of my gears jumping, meant I had my first hill walk of the ride. We were soon back negotiating the Cardiff traffic and a by now very busy park full of rugby, football, dog walkers and half the population of Cardiff 😊 at last arrivee and brevit card stamped 64 miles and 4131ft climbed, not the best cycling route, info controls were missed as we couldn’t find them, errors in the GPS instructions , busy traffic and a dull overcast day, but the company on the day made up for it, lisa was a great cycling buddy, glad she was able to put up with me for the day. 

Sunday was a nice relaxing day with some lawn mowing of very long grass lawns, on a very muggy warm day.