Morning Mode

Daughter has stopped in Derby overnight so L has to do her paper round which means I get the pleasure of exercising the boys. Both the dogs automatically turn left out of the drive. Odd that, they usually turn right when I take them out as that’s the way to the park but they're obviously in 'morning mode' and that's the way L takes them in the mornings. They are such creatures of habit. I turn them around, which is a bit like turning a couple of super tankers and we head off in our usual direction, to the right. Perhaps I should have thrown in a ‘left’ or ‘right’ command as I do in their agility. The commands are a bit different for leaving the house though, ‘Plough’ for left, ‘Victoria’ for right. They know what they mean.

There are some shockingly evil photos of me on the BBC website, looking well knackered after yesterday’s race. I suppose it shows I put my all in to it. L says I should have jogged round looking at the shops, like she did me. Shops? What shops?

The old legs may be tired but I force them on to the bike all the same. With the Hellathon on Saturday I have decided to front load the training into the early part of this week and then take the end of it off.

The ride was going well until a chap on one of those folding bikes passed me. Talk about embarrassing. Thankfully he was a psycho I'm on nodding terms with; I don’t know where his usual bike was. He didn’t look embarrassed to be on it but then it’s hard to tell what he thinks as he always wears these really dark shades no matter what the weather. I wonder if he’s going to detour to Long Eaton or somewhere to get the train but he doesn’t, he cycles all the way to Derby as usual. I wonder if he’s perhaps he’s entered the Ashbourne Hellathon and that he’s developed some hellish training regime to strengthen his legs for it. I do manage to follow him quite easily as the small wheeled bike doesn’t go up hill very easily, although he seems to get some serious pace going on the flat. I have no wish to enter into a contest with him, not in my weary state, so I keep my distance.

By contrast the ride home is pretty uneventful. Then I take the boys out again, turning right out of the drive and both dogs guess correctly this time.