The monthly catch-up


I've been suffering from a bit of writers block if that can pertain to me when I do not actually consider myself to be a writer anyway.  I suppose that is the thing about having a blog and like I always tell people that you should only put online what you're prepared for the world to know.

Work has been trundling along as always with good and bad days but that is nothing that we all shouldn't expect.  But don't worry, the good is outweighing the bad and for that I'll always be appreciative.

I actually managed to get out on my first ever club ride with Woking Cycle Club a couple of weekends ago on 9th September.  It was great weather for a trip to the Surrey Hills and a different ascent up Leith Hill on Anstie Lane.  We were not even halfway into our route when we had this "thing" thrown at us.  Suffice to say, coming close to the top of the climb I'm standing on my pedals, in 1st or 2nd gear, my heart rate is 172bpm, the sweat is dripping down my face and I'm doing.... 4.5mph.  But I'm pleased to say that I never got off and just about made it to the top of the climb where there were another group of WCC cyclist already up there and the first thing I thought to say was "I want a pastie".  No idea where it came from but I thought it would be funny enough to say at the time.

That's something about me, while I'm happy enough with the sort of person I am and my mannerisms.  I am now starting to think that acting the fool just to make people laugh doesn't always have the desired effect and there will be cases when they will just go out and think "what an idiot".

I've always tried to be the class clown as it were, maybe its a case of I'm trying too hard but to be honest I'm not entirely sure.  Yes I'd rather made someone laugh / smile / feel better about themselves than bring them down.  Life is hard enough sometimes and yes I get that sometimes we need to get serious about things from time to time, I do think I have a good bead on that for the most part.  Yeah it could be improved and at my tender 43 years of age I'm not resigning myself to the adage that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.

The ride from Calais is now looming and I've been set a target to complete it in under 5 hours.  Is it attainable, to be honest I don't know.  It'll be an average speed of 17.2mph that I'll need to beat and all the climbs are smack bang in the middle of it.  I have upgraded my tyres on my bike to Continental Grand Prix 4000 S II.  It wasn't done on a whim as it turned out my tyres, despite them being 3 years old as they were the original ones that came on my bike, were starting to wear and the front one had a nasty cut across it where I found a stone embedded into the tyre.  I don't know how long it had been there for but it was a puncture waiting to happen save for the puncture resistant layer in the tyre itself, but that wouldn't have held out forever.  But anyway, these are really good tyres and they were half price also which made them even more the bargain.

A friend of mine is off to her "first" weigh in today since her joining Slimming World which made me think about my extremely brief time on it.  But not from a personal aspect, more from the group leader angle.  So, I still had an email from the group leader back in January and have just sent her a quick "thank you" email along with a few photos. One from "before" and two from me at the Prudential RideLondon.  Maybe she'll remember me, maybe she wont but in this instance its a thank you thats long overdue...
Location: Kingston upon Thames, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who's your biggest competition?

Image
I read a tweet today from Jamie Nicholls  . Well, when I say a tweet, he posted an image of a post presumably done elsewhere as there was no way it was getting past the tweet character limit.  The final sentence really did sum it all up... "In other words, go big or go home and live outside of your comfort zone! ".  Now I partially agree with that sentiment because if you always stay inside your comfort zone then you'll never grow outside of it and move into new territories where you gain new experiences and abilities.  But sometimes you need your comfort zone to take stock and have a base to launch out from. I was looking for a motivational meme for this blog entry and chanced upon this which I think is really suitable.  But as much as you are your own competition, you are also your biggest cheerleader also.  That voice in your head makes you capable of great things, or just kills the belief in yourself.  So the greatest battle you can have is the one that is within y
Read more

A catch up on events

Image
Hey all! Happy Monday?  Hmmmm that felt weird to type. Sorry its been a while since I posted, I'll admit to be struggling for material to put into this entry to keep it even semi-engaging but my random brain has really come through for me the last few days Avengers : Infinity War Keegan and I finally got to see this film!  Again, being the seat snob that I now am, we sat in the recliner section right in the middle of the front row, Keegan sitting to the left of me.  To the right of me was a family and I was sitting next to their son who was the biggest fidget I've ever "met".  He eventually settled and stopped talking to the characters in the film. That being said Keegan and I both really enjoyed the film.  I'd heard that they really tried to fit a lot into this movie and they weren't kidding.  There was no letting up on things at all!  Keegan and I both had our favourite parts but I'm not going to say anything about it at all in case you're i
Read more

Onwards and sidewards (and a little bit backwards)

Image
Its strange when you think that you're making progress only to find that you've actually regressed.  Oh don't worry about me, I'm absolutely fine both physically and mentally (well the jury is still out on that one) I'd had an already interesting day by the time I got to the snow centre with Keegan on Friday evening (I'll get into that later) but by the time I got there I was quiet.  Claire picked up on that straight away and was asking me what was wrong, but I had no answer to give because, well, I didn't know.  I thought maybe it was the rushed day at trying to get things done in time? Maybe the traffic on the M25 for the Bank Holiday weekend?  Maybe the stupid disclaimer we had to sign to say that the snowcentre or Sixt wouldn't be liable for any intentional damage to the £50,000 brand new BMW X2 parked in the middle of the slope?  No, it wasn't those things although the last thing was and still is in my eyes "bloody stupid".  No,
Read more

A random mismash of stuff

Image
I was talking to a friend this morning about how therapeutic I find writing in my blog.  Its like a venting system of sorts for my brain.  While there could be nobody reading this or millions of people reading it, once its up there and posted then its all good and done.  But I will admit to periodically checking the stats on my blog as I have the luxury of being able to do that with the blogger dashboard.  So far, the "Who's your biggest competition" has been my most read entry at 166 views. In total I'm sitting on 1,051 page views.  But this post isn't about number crunching stats, although I did go off on that tangent.  No, its about writing about things I think, or see, or read.  Sometimes as you know there'll be no entries on a day (the famine days) but recently, in other words, yesterday, there's been a few things I'd like to write about. Lets start off on something positive, no, not snowboarding related although Keegan and I do have a three hou
Read more

Wooop wop de (sugar free) gummi bear style

Image
OK so a small play on words for gangnam style for this next verbal dumping into my blog.... As some of you may be aware I bought 3kgs of sugar free gummi bears for Claire F to take on a ski trip.  Well, 1kg found its way back to me and I took them into work.  They're still going although Joao and me have consumed the lions share as most are too scared (wise) to eat any.  Last Friday (18th May) I decided to have quite a few.  I didn't count exactly but it was more by the handful.  The toxic emissions started at work but had died down by the time I got home.  Next thing I feel is a rumbling in my guts.  It felt like my intestines were being inflated like a sodding balloon animal.  Being the cautious person I am, I did go to the little boys room because I didn't trust a fart at all, and for good reason.  Afterwards I went for a lay down as being horizontal made the intestinal reinflation much more comfortable. Thats when my stomach really started to complain.  It sounde
Read more