Call It A Draw...

I hadn't ridden a bike in just over a week as a grabby back and crabby mood conspired against me, but with my back at least easing up, I thought I'd get my knees in the breeze and have a restorative ride. Sometimes though, it just doesn't work like that and today proved to be a case in point.

Many is the time I've felt my mood lifting within minutes of cocking a leg over a bike and pottering forth. The familiar and comforting fizz of the knobbly tyres on tarmac changes tone as speed increases, my lungs start filling with fresh air and I look forward to whatever I'm about to experience. Cycling strikes a convincing victory on these occasions over the depressive moods that battle for supremacy.

But those cycling successes are also tempered occasionally by failure. I did manage to complete a short circular route this morning, (in the past I've turned for home very quickly when things really weren't going well), but I don't really feel better for it. I just wasn't receptive to all the things I usually enjoy and soak up so readily.

Times like this are frustrating from all points of view, but from a cycling angle they do cause a few worries and doubts. I feel like momentum built through the year has been lost, along with a degree of hard won fitness, and worry that a bubble has been burst somewhere and I won't enjoy a bike ride again.

Not surprisingly I struggled for photographic inspiration too, and while belonging to a photo a ride Flickr group can be motivational, it can also frustrate and add a self imposed pressure when not really in the mood. They wouldn't know if I nipped out for a sneaky few miles and didn't post a photo, I wouldn't get red carded, and the world would still keep turning, but in the end photo failure and guilt were avoided, and I set up the tripod for a ride past shot. A mundane photo, but at least I didn't come home empty handed.

I've had these lifeless rides in the past though, and things have got better and I've soon been itching to get out on a ride and get some photos, so fingers crossed that will be the case once more.

So it's back to working on this blog.

This is my first attempt at a blog as it happens, and grappling with it all reminds me that you only learn how to really swear when doing something new involving a computer. So my apologies if things look a bit unruly round here, I'll hopefully get things sorted when I get the hang of it all.