Yeah 🙂 after 3 long weeks out of the saddle due to my coccyx sore I was able to gingerly get back on the bike yesterday 🙂

I only had 45 minutes before the sunset and boy was it chilly but great to be back out on the rural roads and get to test out my newly fitted mudguards and lights. It wasn’t a fast or furious ride just a steady spin of the wheels to get the bum and legs reintroduced to cycling again.

Funny how when you can’t do something you want to get out and do it so much more. To calm my frustrations I took some time to research and plan a number of cycling Sportives for the New Year.

So far I have booked onto the following, building up the mileage nicely:

Performance cycles, Cotswold-   45 or  65miles – December 8th, January 12th & March 16th
Lionheart, Longleat –                       68 miles – March 23rd
Pembrokeshire –                                75miles – April 26th
Swindon –                                              100 miles –  18th May

Compared to the cost of running races see my previous blog “How Much ?” sportives are very very reasonable ranging from £7 to £35 depending on distance, feed stations, medals, finishers t-shirts, chip timing, sweeper vans etc.

So a few weeks out of the saddle has give me time to plan ahead and look forward to 1,000’s miles. The best thing about sportives is I get the bike miles done with company, in new areas, as not that many friends want to or have the time to ride big  mileage with me. Weekly long distance rides will be done with the cycle club ( not my ex- tri club as they don’t do any !).

The old LeMonde is winterised, now its time to pull out the long fingered gloves, Buffs, thermal tights, overshoes, get more batteries for the bike lights and get out and ride when I can. Just need to replace my brake blocks on safety grounds ! as they are a good few years old and starting to grind the rims and squeak – or maybe that was my legs yesterday getting used to the bike again ?! lol

In the two years I have been writing this blog to follow my triathlon training two posts have stood out and smashed my viewing records. The first about my coccyx saddle sore that kept me off the bike in the first place then my post about tri club issues and how it went wrong so I’ve moved on. Now both those issues are behind me I’m moving on, forwards and upwards swimming, cycling and running my way to the Big one in Bolton. ironman uk

Train hard, have fun, tri your best out there.