Solo Surrey Hills
I wasn’t feeling at all good this morning after the dreaded cold arrived back on Thursday. I’d been looking forward to getting out on my bike all week though. Unfortunately no one else was available to ride so I headed out on my own, which always provokes those “am I weird for going on my own“ feelings.
It’s a good job I did go on my own because even the most patient of my riding buddies would have been tearing their hair out with me and the extent of faffing I achieved. I had new rear pads to fit, new cassette, new chain, a chain device and some fiddling with my shock. That took an hour by the time I’d had the bottom bracket out. I even got the work stand out to make it a little easier. All this time meant I also had to hear some of the most excruciating loud experts on all sorts of subjects as they came and went around me.
So having set out onto the trail I realised I had totally forgotten that the front chain ring was as equally as worn as the gears I was replacing at the rear. So my chain kept on throwing itself off and sucking up as well as making an annoying noise. Once a bit of mud was covering it all it got a bit better.
Whilst I’d been feeling a bit fitter recently this cold seemed to have killed off a bit of lung capacity. However I did think I was doing ok up some of the hills though, with the first one doing a pretty good job at warming me up and sweating most of those germs out.
The trails were still pretty damp swamp like in places but there was still plenty of fun to be had. Certain sections were rolling well though. Not having anyone to ride with it was hard to judge how well or fast I was, but I soon came to enjoy this and just kept turning the pedals. It actually felt I was moving quickly, but who knows.
I didn’t bother stopping at the stores but went straight up the road to the top of Barry Knows Best. I did a quick run down which I thoroughly enjoyed and head back to the van to make a coffee and relax a bit. Whilst waiting for the kettle to boil it was pleasant to listen to the birds around. Seemed very peaceful and relaxing.
