System Restore.

November and December are always tricky months for me now, and it's not just the grotty weather that gives me the glums. So far this winter has been rather less than good on many counts, and one casualty has been my bike riding. I'm not one for technology like Strava, heart rate monitors and cadence thingamies (my cadence is usually about five rotations of the cranks and coast...) but all my bikes do have their own basic computers on them, and I do make note of the miles I do and where I go. So with November having recently passed into history, I thought I'd tally up my mileage for the month. Well it didn't take long, and the calculator went unbothered in the drawer, let's put it that way – just 25 point something or other miles for the whole month. Oh now that is embarrassing. Mind you, a couple of winters ago, being still a bit new to being back on a bike, I didn't ride at all from the end of October until the middle of March the following year, but still... 25 miles...

So, there was nothing else for it, I needed some country lane therapy, and fast. So yesterday I was up bright and early, well... I was up early... well... I was up, and despite a slightly aching back, I mounted the crappy Carrera and set sail for a much needed dose of fresh air (plenty of that rushing about), rolling wheels and peace and quiet.

I'm not into Pumpkin soup, otherwise I'd have had this particular piece of roadside booty away in a flash, well, a pannier, but I'm a Chicken Noodle man through and through.

The village here has been a tad chaotic of late as contractors have been tarmacing the roads. “About time” I thought as all the trucks, compressors, portable buildings and Hi-Viz tribe assembled ready for action a week or so ago. Well the results are mixed, being partly 'woo this is so smooooth' and partly 'waddachuff... why haven't they done this bit?' They've done sections of the roads, but not all of it. The new bits are a pedaler's pleasure, and my knobblies were positively humming on the smooth as a baby's backside surface. Then it'd be ba-ack to ju-dd-eri-ing and cr-ash-ing about on the gravelly, rippled and torn up sections of road that for some reason have been left as they were. God they say, moves in mysterious ways, but has nothing on the local council for truly befuddling schemes.

But never mind all that, it was rejuvenation I was after and it wasn't long before I was away from civilisation and enjoying the feeling of free movement and fresh air. I no longer have any motorised transport, and my crap back restricts me in many ways when on foot, so getting back on a bike again after a bit of time out of the saddle immediately gave me a big boost. I even found myself whizzing down a hill standing on the pedals and jinking from side to side like a little kid as I relished the free movement I can get on the bike. Yes my back was a bit stiff before I left and riding might make it worse, but to hell with it, I'd pay the price later, for now, I just needed to enjoy myself.

This is what it's all about for me when riding on roads - bimbling along the country lanes, away from traffic, pain in the arse people, and all the other hassles of life. 

It's not all pleasure of course, not living round here at any rate, and the route I picked meant going up a pretty ugly hill that feels like riding up the wall of a dam, only a bit steeper, but I got in the granny gears early and just took my time and made it to the top without bailing out. There is something strangely satisfying about determining that you will ride up a certain hill, hunkering down and watching the front tyre turning slowly but relentlessly as you reel the top in. 

Having crested the summit I was then exposed head on to the wind as the lane runs along the top of the hill I'd just climbed and away from the protection of trees. So the legs got another good workout but again, being in bimble mode means that even a strong headwind did little to lower my spirits. I had no schedule, nowhere to go but back home which wasn't far away, no King of the Mountain on Strava to chase, so again, I just sat back and let the ride take as long it would take, and enjoyed feeling the nature of the day physically, and embraced it, rather than cursing it or hiding from it behind bricks or glass. Every day feels the same unless you get outside and feel it warming on your back or blowing in your face. I'm guilty of looking out at the howling wind and strafing rain, and wimping out in favour of staying in with a hot coffee, but sometimes, feeling and hearing the weather around me is invigorating and reminds me I'm alive.

Ernest Hemingway said “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” Well you can add truly experiencing the changing seasons to that, as dashing from centrally heated house to air conditioned car hardly qualifies as living with the weather, yet we are all obsessed with it, checking multiple forecasts then mostly avoiding it anyway whatever is going on outside unless it is searingly hot. Other ways of getting windblown/wet/sun burned are available, but riding a bike works pretty well for 'feeling the day' I find. 

Another well used quote is ''There is no such things as the wrong weather, only the wrong clothes." Well I'm going to suggest changing that to the wrong mindset. Accept it, give in to it, embrace it!

I have a bit of a thing for rivers and streams, I nearly always stop on bridges and just lurk for a while, enjoying the sound of the running water and the wind in the trees. That running water usually makes me want to pee too, but we'll gloss over that...

So the ride was a success and my mood lifted in a way no amount of tablets or touchy feely, nodding sympathetically in a 'I'm listening' kind of way therapists, can.