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Now it is not the coldest it has been but for some reason -4 at 8:30 this morning went right through me as I rode of down the road. I had my normal riding gear on but my arms felt the cold, it was not a big problem as I soon warmed up.

It was quite nice riding along the river path this morning, the frozen grass cracking as I rode over it, just the occasional fisherman and dog walkers to be seen. Last time I rode along this path I had to ride along the top boundary of the field as the foot path was under 3 foot of water.

I came round the corner on one section and everything was white, there was a mist hovering over the river and this blended in to all the reeds that were covered in frost, bit surreal looking.

After yesterday ride this was a pretty mundane ride, half road, half off road, the only excitement during the ride was me falling through the ice, crossing a little stream (its about 10″ deep) in Hurn forest. It looked ok so I started to ride across then suddenly the back wheel goes through the ice, I put my foot down, which slipped from under me and then went through the ice. Ended up with my right foot and hand in the frozen water and my left foot and hand on the bike. Fortunately the waterproof boot and socks did there job as did the waterproof glove. Two hours and 16.4 miles later I was back home, this gave me a total of 31.2 miles for the weekend, not done over 30 miles over a weekend before and to be honest I felt as though I could of done more on both days. But I guess slowly building up the distance is the right way to do it.

The good thing with riding early in the day is that all the muddy areas are still frozen and so are easier to get through. Much of the off road section is muddy and would have been a hard slog on a warmer day.

Still having my pain in the butt problem, so I have ordered a new saddle, this has been recommended by several riders, so I will see what happens when I ride next week (assuming it get heres)

A day of two wows, the first is mine. Went out on the bike today for a proper ride and wow the bike feels like a completely difference the bike compared to the old bike. When you consider the only two (main) items that were changed was the frame and the front forks but the difference is immense. To start with the new front forks (Rock Shox Recon race single air) are a pound lighter than the old forks and they work so much better. Add that to a lighter frame it has made a great differences, peddling hard and I am lifting the front wheel (it is probably my bad technique but it certainly was not happening on the old version of the bike).

We went to the woods around Moors Valley Country Park and rode (in part) a route I found on the Internet. I downloaded the .gpx file and uploaded it into my GPS. Now this was the first real time that we had done this and I found it not as easy as I had expected. For example you reach a junction in the forest, the map you are looking at on the gps show 3 tracks and what you see in front of you is 5 tracks and trying to guess the correct one to follow, we failed on a couple and had to turn round but it was always within 50mtrs.

I also collected two punctures on the front wheel, the first I repaired checking the tyre for any offending puncture causing objects, found nothing. Fitted a new tube and cycled on for about 2 miles till I got another puncture on the front wheel, now I thought this was to much of a coincidence and took a much closer look at the tyre, I even turned the tyre inside out. I was just about to give up on checking the tyre when my finger felt something on the inside of the tyre, on closer inspection these was a very small slither of flint protruding through the inside of the tyre. Getting it out was fun and games, in the end I reverted to pushing it back through the tyre with an allen key hoping it did not break off and fortunately this worked. It was only when I pushed it back through I noticed that it had sliced one of the thread blocks as it cut into the tyre. I fitted another new tube (normally carry 4 two for each bike) and we were off, fortunately with no more punctures.

Stopped at the Welcome Centre for Moors Valley Country Park and had a tea and biscuit (it was supposed to be a chocolate muffin, purely for the energy factor, honest). Then it was a brief burst back into the woods and back to the car to end our 14.8 mile round the forest, I would of liked more distance but I am happy to have had one of my most enjoyable rides to date.

The second wow goes to Clive Chapman of Massive MTBer, have a look at his web site and decide for yourself if you think riding is doing him good?

I will leave you with a picture from todays ride, it was a glorious sunny day if a bit cold.

Yours truly fixing the first puncture

How does that work then?? While the early part of last week the diet went well, Friday night onwards thing started to drift a little off target (as they seem to do most weekends), add that to very little riding over the weekend and my expectation were not high for tonight’s weigh in. Well you could of knocked me down with a feather (albeit a big feather) when I got on the scales, a whole 3.5lbs loss, I was thinking more like a maintain, maybe half a pound off if I was lucky. I am now at my lowest body weight for along time (I can’t say with certainty how long as I never used to weigh myself, used to go by the waist size of my trousers).

Well I am not going to argue I am going to try and stay on course with the diet this week including the weekend, already have plans for next weekend ride if only to get out and try my rebuilt bike out properly.