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………………

With the UK obsession with the weather you would of thought that the met office & co would be able to forecast the weather with some degree of accuracy. There certainly no need to to discuss their failing concerning our BBQ summer and mild winter…………NOT!

Friday’s forecast for us was rain, what we got, cloud, blue sky’s and sunshine. Today’s forecast, heavy rain shower in the morning clearing into the afternoon to give sunshine with occasional shower and light winds. Actual, damp grey cloudy morning leading to occasional sunshine, light rain shower (about 5 minutes) and winds between 18mph to 24mph.

They spend millions on satellites and we are no closer to forecasting it correctly than the guy with a rock and pampas grass in his garden. He looks out of his bedroom window first thing in the morning and concludes if the rock is wet, it is raining, if the pampas grass is swaying it is windy, if there is a shadow of the rock or pampas grass it is sunny………..you get the picture.

My interest in the weather today was based on the fact that it was supposed to be a good day today and a lousy day tomorrow. We almost did not ride today because the weather looked so miserable when we got up. But as we were being told that Sunday was likely to be a day of heavy rain and strong winds then I wanted to make the most of riding Saturday. Thankfully for us (the wife and thee) the forecasted rain this morning never turned up, the wind put in an un-welcome appearance and boy was it warm (when out of the wind). The only rain we saw was at 14:15 this afternoon as we were about to drive off from the New Forest.

The ride its self was not to bad a lot of standing water, must remember to keep my mouth shut when going down hill at speed, track water does not taste nice. We decided to do a shorten Linwood Loop in the New Forest. We started at the bottom of the South Oakley Inclosure (east of Burley), ride up to the Canadian War Memorial, then out towards the A31 going under the dual carriageway and then turning off towards Broomy Lodge and the Broomy Inclosure, then on to Linwood and the Red Shoot pub. We stopped at the pub for a nice sandwich and a drink, no it was coke in fact…….. and very nice it was to.
It was here that we had a problem, the battery in the GPS expired and the map of the route was in the car. I had only done this route once but fortunately remembered the directions to get us up onto Bratley Plain than back to the road under the A31 and back toward the War Memorial. Normally from here we would carry on past the War Memorial down toward the deer sanctuary and back to the car park where we started. But the short loop mean we go back down the track we came up on through the South Oakley Inclosure to the car park for a little under 17 miles with a few large hills (well they are to us).

Thankfully there was no problems with either bike this ride. If there is a chance I will ride tomorrow if not I will spend the day giving the bike a good clean.