Jons Blog for Feb

I have man flu. Its not just the ordinary man flu, but serious, bone shaking man flu and ive had it all month!! Its had a serious impact on my training. I had to give things a rest for about a fortnight and got back on the bike a couple of days ago. It wasnt too bad to be honest, only thing was that I was walking like John Wayne for a day or two afterwards.

Matt and I have been out for only one ride this month. It wasnt a good one either. We got down to Fairburn, which is around 6 miles from my house and Matt got a puncture. As I had walked out of the house, I had looked at the puncture repair kit and bike pump and thought "Oh we wont need it!!"

We stopped in a layby and Matt took the front wheel off his bike. I rang Alison who was just on her way out and she dropped of the repair kit and pump with us on her way through to Lotherton Hall.

Matt took out the inner tube and we began to start to pump the tyre up to find out where the puncture was. At this point, we were passed by a group of cyclists who asked us if we were okay. "Fine!" we confidently replied as we tried to pretend that we actually knew what we were doing.

Only after they had disappeared around the corner did we realise that the pump did not actually fit the inner tube. Although we tried to remain as calm as possible, both Matt and my tempers started to fray slightly. It was one of those typical conversations that at the time seemed VERY serious, but something which now seems very funny. I am actually sat here smiling about what happened now. This wasnt the actual dialogue, but just to give you an idea, things went something like this:

"Whats wrong?"
"There's nothing wrong with me, whats wrong with you?"
"Nothing"
"Doesn't look like nothing!"
"Why are you losing your temper?"
"Im not, but you are!"
"No im not im perfectly calm thankyou!"
"No you're not you're annoyed aren't you!"

and so on..................................

At some point during us both pretending not to sulk, Matt somehow managed to rip the whole inner tube apart!!

The result of this was that I rode back home on my own, to bring a car back to pick Matt up. We were both disappointed at not getting further than six miles as I think we were both set for going a long way that day.

Because of my shifts at work, we haven't had the opportunity to go out since. However, I have just read Cleve's blog for Feb and it looks like we are doing a 50 mile bike ride on 1st March!! That is next weekend and is only six short days away. 50 miles right now sounds horrendous.

I have been at work today and had a conversation with someone which has made my realise just what we are about to embark on. It hadn't really hit home properly as its always seemed so far away. I thought I would share it:

"You know Jon, you seem to be eating very healthily at the moment!"
"Doing a bike ride" I said
Their reply to this was something which I think will stay with me for quite a while. It made me sit back and think "Yeah, good point actually!"

"About 20 or so miles around Leeds is it?" they said
"No, about 900 miles from one end of the country to the other!"
Open mouthed and with her jaw on the floor she replied "**** me!!"

I'm not deterred in the slightest, just a little more aware of what we are going to do as at looms ever closer. I am incredibly proud of us all and know that there will be many more tantrums from us all along the way. I cant wait!!

Jon