Friday musings...

It was interesting seeing KungFooSausage's and Toby's comments yesterday about my early starts and how much time I give myself to get up and go out.

The early starts are now a habit, I can't remember when I last got up late, I consider a 0730hrs get up a lie in! But then again I go to bed fairly early between 2100hrs and 2200hrs. A 2300hrs go to bed time is really staying up late and never happens during a working week. I suppose it might seem strange to some, but I prefer mornings to evenings and if you think about it, I'm not missing any hours in the day, just living a in a different part of the day to late risers and folk who go to bed late.

The quick up and at 'em approch to mornings is I guess a product of the military. It really isn't hard to do, just takes a tiny bit of prep the day before. My bike and kit is laid out for use in the garage when I put the bike away so everything is to hand, it's important to use the same place every time. My clothes and other bits'n'pieces are laid out in the same place for ease of dressing and access downtstairs in the house before I go to bed. This is especially important in winter as I cannot turn any lights on so I don't wake the kids and wifey. So my routine goes something like this. Wake up, straight out of bed, into loo for a morning ablute tip toe downstairs, get dressed, into garage and off I go. The same kit same place bit is important for morning auto pilot mode.

The biggest thing that helps with this is to get all of the admin done straight away post ride rather than saying "sod it I'm knackered I'll do it tomorrow." That way you're not running around like a headless chicken trying to remember where you dumped stuff! It also helps to create a relaxed stress free ambience of a morning. You'll also notice I don't eat or drink at home, that waits until I get I get to work. Maybe not ideal, but it works for me. I do have water on the pedal in though.

Onto this mornings pedal, I came in on my Ridgeback after a front tyre session last night, the cause of the punctures was a tiny almost invisible slither of glass embedded in the tyre itself which I found using a magnifying glass after turning the tyre inside out. Bastard thing! Anyway, I succeeded in doing NCR5 after a quick loop round the Lickey's for 16 miles. It was fantastic, I quite literally didn't see a soul or car all the way right up until I got off the cut by work at Smethwick. I think Joby would quite like some of that action!

Stats here:
Started: 4 Jun 2010 05:09:28
Ride Time: 1:10:45
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 16.05 miles
Average: 14.89 miles/hr
Fastest Speed: 27.27 miles/hr
Climb: 305 feet
Calories: 904

Last night's pedal was a standard Harbourne, QE, Frankley Beeches. Sweaty as (insert metaphor here) when I got in, it took me half an hour to stop leaking.

Stats here:
Your Performance on the trip started on: 3 Jun 2010 15:04
Trip time: 00:44:12
Trip distance: 11.75 mi
Trip calories: 697 kcal
Average speed: 14.5 mph
Maximum speed: 34.4 mph
Climbed altitude: 584 ft