You'll be cheating yourself if you wear trousers. I did a full year riding to work in all conditions (even snow!). Was it fun? No! Was it rewarding to have done the full year in shorts? No! But I did it.

Nothing cycling related to report apart form this thing in my mouth not going away, feeling rough and as it's dark all the time I'm consistently a few minutes slower than before.

Today I left my office for four minutes to get changed (I happened to look at the clock when I left I don't time myself). When I got back apparently someone had been held up for five minutes and I was reprimanded for leaving my post unattended.

I looked at the clock again to establish the time. I left at 06:40 and it was now 06:46 and had spent a minute performing a task and the conversation with this supervisor took a minute as well. So from now on I'm going to get changed in the office.

Hyundai Accent 1.5 Coupe' (three door hatch). Hmmmmmm


Crap!

Slower than my Panda but drier than cycling I guess. I'm also restless because I haven't burned anywhere near enough calories to justify myself.

11'C this morning. Shorts again and the batteries in my front light decided to go flat half way in this morning. Should be fun tonight.

Breakfast was served, consumed and forgotten.

Some nice views home last night as usual...





..and as usual for a Saturday some seriously ropy driving. The highlight of these was a complete pair of idiots (rant alert) in a Hyundai Coupe. The driver decided to to open his door on my side of the road driving towards me. Closing the door at the last second because instead of moving out of the way I extended my leg to kick the door shut if we made contact. The same car overtook me a short while later and slowed so the passenger could throw a beer bottle at me.

The same car was on a driveway later with both driver and passenger looking very sheepish when I passed them. I reported all of this to the Police car, reg, driver description, passenger description, locations, address, etc and they said "they'd look into it" so hopefully they won't kill anyone in the mean time.

This morning was the usual pillocks who don't know how to dip their headlights and one who at a traffic calming junction decided he had right of way instead of me. That was another close call. Didn't get his plate as he had his fog lights on and no rear number plate lights.

I made a bit of a realisation last night. By the time I've done my twelve day and three night shifts I will have cycled more miles (3,410) than I have driven this year.

Just hope that when dad gets up in a few hours he remembers I've borrowed the car.

Zoned

I don't know if "Zoned" is the correct technical term for this but I've started to notice something. When I'm riding normally I set five or ten minute check points and aim to be at these points roughly in time-ish. When in a hurry (usually because I'm running late) the next corner is my check point. I see the next corner, work out how far it is and how much time it should take and try to beat it.

When drag racing I'm sure I can see the element in the green light phase up and once off the line I only see the bridge at the end of the quarter mile. When driving a handling course I can see the grain in the rubber footing of every single cone. Every blade of grass on the apex when rally driving. An artist can sit at a blank canvas for few hours and there's a picture in front of them they don't remember painting. Martial artists call it Chi. As I said I don't know if it's called being "Zoned" when cycling but that's what I call it.

So why bring this up?

A couple of weeks ago whilst running late I was Zoned, failed to recognise someone when our paths crossed, didn't notice her waving at me, didn't hear her shouting at me and because I kicked between two corners so she thought I was in a hurry to get away from her. I mistakenly made light of this and noted it on this thread. That entry has been deleted and this is not only a retraction and explanation but an apology as well.

Sorry.

Sorry for the rant, but because my shift starts at half six I get the Zombies drivers just after I set off, I'm late so the highway code doesn't apply to me lot a while later and the I've just done a night shift crew when I hit the outskirts of town.

As the nights are drawing in they are becoming more feckless every day. :soap:

Wow, funny mood today.