All’s Fair In Love And Cycling

The promised freeze and potential snowfall (!) doesn’t materialise and the ride in to work is actually rather pleasant, helped by the fact that there’s not much traffic. As ever winter cycling is a constant battle between being too hot and too cold. If anything today, I’ve too much on and I’m too warm. Some people go too far the other way and I see one guy in just a t-shirt, albeit a long sleeved one. He was very lucky the weather wasn’t as cold as they promised or else he may have lost a nipple or two in the wind chill.

I often get slightly annoyed by a particular cyclist whom I see most days. He’s older than me, well I think he is because he’s got a solid head of grey hair, but he always has to overtake me and then try to disappear into the distance. It’s not too bad getting passed by youngsters but it’s a bit rich when they’re a lot older but all’s fair in love and cycling as they say. What really annoys me is that when he’s ahead of me and doesn’t know I’m there, I catch him up with ease. So it’s obviously just an act for my benefit and presumably other cyclists too. He just doesn’t like being behind someone. Doesn’t apply to me of course.

After work, L takes MD for his final check up at the vets. He’s passed fit and when I get home he's already out running with L. She’s been out with them in shifts; Doggo's already done a fifteen minute stint. MD's stint is much shorter and L returns complaining of all four paws being off the ground all the time. He's yet to get the hang of running on the lead but to be fair we haven't done that much of it with him. We have until the Boxing Day run, which both dogs will compete in, to lick him into shape.

The family is all out together tonight en mass, a rare treat, must be something festive in the air. We meet up with some friends and go for one of those all you can stuff down you face for a tenner Chinese meals and it actually isn’t too bad either.

Wielding His Spanner In The Last Chance Saloon

6am and time for the now potentially semi-regular Monday morning run. We go around the pond but it's so muddy that we come back along the road, much to Doggo's disgust. MD is also a bit peeved that I don't let him off. I'm not risking letting that skittish creature off in the dark.

Once at work, an email comes through from L bragging that she's also done 40 lengths in the pool, on top of the run, and is therefore one up on me as the day stands. She’ll be well up on me by the end of the week. I'm faced with three days in the car and no swim this week. :-(

L's been for a bit of a health check and her GP tells her she's officially 'very fit'. Which is good news. 'Bring on the crunchy nut cornflakes', she says. Ugh. Not sure that would have been my first thought. Also apparently, even her liver is 'happy'. Whatever that means. I doubt mine is but I didn't know you could get it checked so easily, I'll have to have mine done. So it's a celebratory glass of red tonight then, she's obviously keeping her units too low, unless that is, her GP means her liver is happy because she's keep it so well oiled.

L takes her work home at lunchtime, so that she can be there for when the gasman comes to 'not' fix the boiler again and because he's there to 'fix' the heating it needs to be broken (e.g. off) when he comes, so L's a touch cold because the dogs have naturally demanded that the kitchen door be wide open. When the man arrives, I hope he realises that he's wielding his spanner in the last chance saloon but of course, he fails to fix it yet again.

Later, I take both dogs to Doggo's class and then come home to watch the rest of The Deer Hunter, which we started to watch last night. It's supposed to be a classic film but, just as it did when I watched it the first time years ago, it left me rather underwhelmed.