nind andhera

the black sleep

it's been a while since I visited the blog or in fact had anything interesting to say within it, so I'll keep it as brief as I can. it's not been a brilliant year for my riding, bad health post CX and a combination of family, work and an enthusiasm misfiring have left me staring at the wrong end of summer with little to show by way of 'riding' so I set about sorting that out (slightly by default but it has helped)
now I am not saying I have had no riding, the riding I have done, I have for the most enjoyed but there certainly has been a lack of spark whenever I turn the cranks these days, time, energy, sleep all seem to have been in short supply this year. but the year doesn't wait for one to catch up and so as the days start falling off the calendar like the autumn leaves, cross season is on the horizon!
with this on my mind I first set on a five day adventure with some work mates, five days riding road bikes over to Islay, a lot of ferries and a reasonable amount of miles, it was good, I wasn't fast but I didn't feel bad a more detailed account can be had over here.
this trip should have given me a semblance of fitness for this weekend past at SITS, Sleepless has become a bit of an institution, it arrives at the end of the season and has traditionally for me marked the time where riding changes from longer heady summer rides to shorter more intense and chillier rides and that still may be the case but first Sleepless.
I was racing in a works team of four all reasonable fitness and pretty mellow, not too serious and just wanting to get some laps in with hopefully no fuss. the previous years race had been marred by some atrocious weather and conditions that claimed bikes and riders at an alarming rate, the weather prior to this years event could quite easily have left the battered and bruised veterans of last year at home but fortunately they turned out in their numbers and raced hard.
I'm not going to bore you all with the tales of suffering and hurt, so I will keep it simple, our team 'strategy' fell apart at around 2:00am, and we never clawed it back, that said, I managed 7 laps, certainly not the fastest but I tried to maintain a raffish canter. by the end of the days worth of riding I was both tired and invigorated, my body knew it had been worked, my head was mush. a great weekend.
and so to cross, my little foray into the competitive arena tells me there is much work to be done, certainly last year I was in better shape, this year however I am a misshape.
above a pub door today I read, "One beer is a terrible thing"