xendistar.co.uk

I decided to updates the wife blog to Word Press 3 last night. I must admit I was surprised at how quick and easy it was. In fact so impressed and how easy it was I decided to update this site as well, 20 minutes later the blog is running of Word Press version 3. I only had one minor hic-up and that was the fact that I lost the code for the visitors from around the world by after a bit of faffing around I found the code and everything is now up and running as it was……………unless you know different??

Not much to report on the cycling front, never went for a mid week ride, never went for a Saturday ride, only did a short ride (9.8 miles) today at Wilverley Plain in the New Forest, was mainly flat but interesting with a lot of scope for extending the route if you wanted.

No doubt the lack of riding will reflect on my weigh in tomorrow night……………I am not holding my breath.

I have uploaded the route on to GPSies.com (click on the link at the bottom of this post). I have found this site quite useful for finding routes. I have also uploaded three of my routes on to the site which can be downloaded in a variety of GPS formats.

The wife wanted to ride in the New Forest on Saturday so having had a plan for a modified route around Linwood I thought it would be a good time to try it out. On the normal ride around this loop it involves a section of road riding under the A31 and then up a long drag up the other side. My idea was to cross the A31 by using the animal subways (subways for the ponies and cattle to get from the forest on one side of the A31 to the other). Well this worked out OK on the first crossing but on the return vis a different subway the New Forest Ponies were using the subway as a stable. As several of the ponies had foals with them we thought it best to find an alternative route. The next subway was about 1 mile way so we followed path that ran along side the A31. It is only when you are that close to the road that you realise how noisy and how fast the traffic is. Fortunately at this subway there were only a couple of ponies at the far end so we walked through and they did not seem to be bothered. NOTE: If you ever walk\ride through one of these subways, don’t think about what you are walking\riding on, just hold your breath and walk!!

As we headed to back towards Burley the path we were following seem to becoming less and less defined, at least the GPS was telling me we were heading in the right direction. It got to a point that I ended up following the GPS made sure we were heading in the right direction and then followed anything that looked like a path going in the right direction. We eventually found our way back to the car at 11am, thankfully beating most of the heat.

I awoke to day with less enthusiasm than normal for my Sunday morning ride, maybe it was because it was the fact I had ridden on 4 of the last 6 previous days or maybe it was I was feeling a little delicate in the crown jewels department!! Breaking in a new saddle has not helped matters either. I think the time has come to invest in some proper cycling shorts with some padding. I have held off until now as I have been trying to get down to a reasonable waist size but I think the time has come to go shopping……..

As a consequence of feeling a little delicate, I only did a short ride this morning, for the first time in months I got off the bike very carefully when I got back.

The rest of the day will be spent watching the F1 Grand Prix and hoping that anybody wins as long as it is not Vettel or Alonso. Then I will be cleaning and lubricating the Whyte later this afternoon.

Also got to empty the car at sometime today as it off for its first MOT tomorrow, 3 years old (103,000 miles). Not looking forward to the mass of answer phone messages and e-mails I will have when I start work again tomorrow although I am working from home.

Tomorrow night weigh in night so hopefully the past weeks riding will have helped, only time will tell………………

After the hills of the Purbeck’s yesterday, I am giving my legs a rest today, legs feel a bit achy and I still have the calf injury. Will be back on the bike tomorrow and Sunday.

Yesterday did not start well, all I had to do was load the map from the PC to the GPS and then go out and ride in the sun. Got up looked out the bedroom window and it was raining, got down stairs to the PC and it does not recognise the GPS is plugged in, reboot the PC and nothing just sits doing nothing. Well after an hour I managed to get the PC to boot and download the map to the GPS, it has now stopped raining and is now drizzling so after dropping the wife off at work I put the bike on the car and set off.

I found a parking space in Corfe Castle just down from where the ride starts and for the next couple of miles it is all up hills, some of this was ridden and other bits were walked. No sooner had I go to the top and I was going down the other side. No sooner had I come down the other side I was up the road looking at the next climb, again some ridden some walked. Once at the top it is a nice run down past Old Harry Rocks and down into Studland. Then after a little ride around Remstone heath and forest I was back at Corfe Castle. The section of single track across Remstone heath were nice but so many of the tracks had areas of soft energy sapping sand. The bike felt great going over the rocky single tracks, I am slowly starting to get to grips with the bike.

Old Harry Rock (he is actually hidden behind the other rocks)

The GPS was very useful yesterday, having marked out the route I thought I wanted to go and then out riding realising the track I was on went a better way so being able to check that it would link up to where I wanted to go so being able to modify the route as required is great. Otherwise I think there would be a lot of riding around in circles.

Here another picture of the bike, taken on Wednesday

Raring to go while the owner takes a break