It’s been a crap weekend weather-wise.  I rode the trail, but very slowly and cautiously – the Captains really don’t like mud.  I did make sure that I went through the centre of every puddle though – not only does it avoid unnecessary erosion and widening of the track, but it gets you properly covered in mud, and looking like a proper mountain biker!

As I said, I rode very cautiously and slowly, and, to be honest, I was a bit rubbish.  Bizarrely though, I ended up with much shorter laptime than usual.  The weather did had its upside – the trail was very, very quiet, so I wasn’t stopping for prolonged periods in-between sections waiting for groups of people to go on ahead, or having to pull over.  In fact, I overtook a couple of groups on the trail itself. :/

It felt very slow going, but it was still a lot of fun.  When you spend an entire working week sat in front of a computer screen, you have to get outside to save your sanity (or what’s left of it).  I think it’s good to ride in different conditions, and let’s face it, if you were put off biking everytime there was a bit of rain, you’d never get any done in this country.  “Right, biking, I think there might be a two week window in June….”

Got back to the car, all ready to go back to our nice warm house.  Unfortunately, Mr Toast locked the keys in the car, so instead we stood in our sopping wet muddy clothes for over an hour waiting for the AA to rescue us.   He compounded his crime by looking at my white face, blue lips and red eyes (my circulation is really bad, I don’t cope well with cold…) and saying, “Your lips are going blue, with that buff on you look like a cancer patient”.

Not the best end to a ride!
Ride: Cannock Chase

Trail: Follow the Dog

Highlights: Er…shortest laptime?

Bad bits:  Mr Toast locking the keys in the car -_-

Post ride food snaffled: Nowt at the cafe, made a roast chicken dinner when we got back though.  Mr Toast had to peel the spuds and parsnips as punishment.

Good dogs seen: A very sweet and very wet cocker spaniel