Football Updates

Swindon are in 4th with a game in hand - been faltering a bit recently but the revenge game v Hereford is in April....

I'm still imperiously leading the Fantasy League table although losing Kevin Doyle to injury has cost me some goals, as has refusing to sign Drogba in the belief that Henry will come good. Im still leading though. In game 2, which I am not really paying much attention to, my squad choice wasn't great, but at least I managed a positive score...

Cycle Training - Cefn Bryn

The latest cycle trip took Phil and I 30 miles around Gower and back, up to Cefn Bryn and Arthur's Stone, down the heathland through some interesting bogs and down to a forest somewhere near Reynoldstone. Some irritatingly steep gritty/muddy climbs and then a far too narrow muddy downhill track which ended, rather unpleasantly, with me riding straight into a bog (see above), which took some extrication work and leaf based cleaning. From this point on it is worth noting my brakes weren't at optimum efficiency. From this we rode out past some ruins, up another steep hill, up another horribly rocky, muddy hill (that was a real killer), and then back up onto the ridge by Cefn Bryn. From here rode along the ridge someway which was quite nice, despite the closing weather. At one point I managed to fall off on a perfectly flat piece of ground for no apparent reason. The cam a nice downhill section which I decided to hammer it down.... until I got stuck in a rut, lost my front wheel and went flying off down the hill sans bike. Fortunately I hit with my shoulder and rolled, and the ground was fairly soft so no real harm done. With me and the bike totally covered in mud we decided to call it a day and head home.

Next week: Off roading in Surrey somewhere!

Jury Duty Day 1

As I can't say anything about the duty itself these posts might be a bit pointless, but as I spent all of day 1 sat in a room reading I don't think there is anything illegal in that!

Cycling Update

Last weekend I set out for a decent length cycle - aiming for about 30 miles with some off road sections. I managed 25 in the end, although mostly due to bollocksing up my drivetrain than anything else.

After getting out to Bishopstone and beyond, I was cycling along the clifftops along to Three Cliffs Bay. Fine you may think, until somehow I managed to hit 3" deep sand. Now, I don't know how many of you have tried cycling in very dry sand, but it is not easy. After falling off several times and smacking my knees to shit, pushing my bike up a hill where the only alternative was a broken sand covered wooden boardwalk, I then had a decent downhill section through the woods (no sand). At the bottom (after managing not to fall off into braken and spend 15 mins pulling thorns out of my hands as I had earlier), I discovered two things:

1) my chain had dropped off
2) my drivetrain and front derailleur were gunked up with sand.

Balls.

So with a few quick repairs I managed to get the chain back on and shift into the middle ring, grinding away all the time, but couldn't change down easily. I decided to sut my losses and return home, with a very stiff drivetrain making the hills all the more enjoyable. Luckily I fluked a mostly downhill route home.

So now I have to take the thing to bits, clean it all, relube it and put it back together. Unfortunately the weather has turned to shit and the ground is covered in slush from the snow that basically shut the Uni down - all .5" of it!

Slackers!