Sun Tan and Frost Bite!

Hello blog lovers!

My first twenty miles for a long time! But I thoroughly enjoyed it! After waking up this morning and feeling almost normal (the cough is still hanging around some what) and the sun shining, I felt like it was going to be a good day.

The sun tan bit, well that was this morning! What a lovely day it was this morning. The after a quick check up at the docs I was back home and looking after my little grandson. I had ordered a new toy for all the kids to play in, its a garden pop up tent, and what a day to try it out on. The little dude loved it! I was outside watching him play in the new 'mansion' with Woody and Buzz!

Now, the frost bite bit. We had decided on a 20 miler today, up to Biggin hill, cut across and through Halsted and back home! No problem, a nice gentle pace, build myself up again, get myself back on track for the London to Brighton ride.

I changed my clothers, put on my padded cycling gloves and was all set to get going! I was looking forward to it, but also a bit worried about this whole coughing thing, I don't want to have a coughing fit rolling on down the road. And I was worried how my old chest was going to hold out.

Let me tell you, there was a lot of coughing and spluttering!! Not nice! and certainly not very lady like! But I can only think that its doing me good! Get it all out, cough it up and sweat it out! Ok thats enough nasties for, you, I hope you weren't eating your breakkie/lunch/dinner while reading this!

That long hill up to Biggin hill was a tough slog for me. I really felt like I wanted to give up and just go home, and play the 'I'm still not over my cold' card, but I kept going. The sunset was absolutely gorgeous as we rode on towards Biggin Hill, so I was glad I didn't give up!

The airport was soon in view, and the sounds of jet engines landing and taking off, I was wondering who it would be, is it a celebrity arriving? Apparently Tom Hanks used this airport when he was filming one of his films!

The Old Boy was letting me know that this is not his usual pace by saying 'Are we there yet........Are we there yet..............are we there yet?" A tad annoying but I thought I would play the game and just answering him, you know, the way you do to all children when they ask questions.

But the when he asked again "Are we there yet?" I said "YES" I was just so pleased to get to the spinning wheel! It really noticed in my eager happy answer. From here its more or less a quite ride back home, just a couple of little lumps to climb up and also the promise of a pint of lager at the 'The Cock Inn'

By the time we had finished our pint however, the chilled air really started to get to me. "All the way home now" I said to the OB "Yes, thats right, via Starts Hill" he said though. Another hill that used to be one of my nemesis!

As we are riding down the A21 my hands really started to freeze. Having the sunshine earlier in the day has thrown me into a false sense of 'summer' I really did need to wrap up a little bit more warmer than I did!. My hands started to go numb, and then they started to hurt! Then they were numb and so on and so forth. Half way down I needed to pull on the brakes and my fingers refused to work! Thats when I knew I had to stop and warm my hands up, and when I say warm my hands up, I mean give the OB some doe eyes and get his lovely warm thick thermal gloves off his hands and onto mine!

As soon as I felt the blood flowing a little then we carried on. Starts Hill was coming up quickly, and I knew that I really had to put a little bit more of an effort in. But then the OB was saying that I was actually on target to get a 10 mph average (moving time) so I really did put in a little bit more effort. Up and down the last of the little humps in the road, the Old boy giving me a running commentary on me being 'running at average' or 'not running on average' I was just thinking, its not that far to go now, I can keep this up till I get home! Get home to a nice warm house, fish supper and a nice cuppa! Oh and some chocs that I didn't eat yesterday for mothers day!

So, Todays blog! and I am quite pleased with my efforts, these are my geeky stats, my Garmin, being as that its a running watch, don't do the whole auto stop thing, like the Old Boys Garmin does, (his is a cycling Garmin) while I am at traffic lights, taking a phone call, putting on gloves, and putting on headlamps (which we did when we got to the spinning wheel)