Another week goes by

Can somebody please slow time down for me? It really is going far too fast for my liking. But it has been another active week, which is all good.

Tuesday, I had a run from the house, a circuit which took me up the hill, along the ridge through the woods and back down. I felt like I had legs of lead, was sluggish and it all felt too much like hard work. But I did push hard up the hill and it has been a couple of weeks since I put in any kind of 'effort' on two legs, so I guess it wasn't surprising. The 7km circuit with 375m ascent took me bang on an hour. Stats and stuff on the usual site.

Wednesday was Andy's birthday and we headed out on the roadies for a flattish 60km ride to celebrate. My legs were complaining after the day before's run - my quads had not appreciated the ascent and fast descent and felt aching and empty. Still, it was lovely weather and it was good to be out. Stats for the ride are again on the usual site. A serious stretching session in the evening helped to ease my legs and was followed by a lovely chunk of steak and homemade chips and a damn fine bottle of rouge for Andy's birthday dinner! Yum!

Two days of rest (one of them enforced due to a nasty gastric episode - cause unknown) and more serious stretching saw me on form today for an outing on the mountain bikes. It was time for a rematch with the voie verte which we last tackled in November. On that ride, we covered 51.5kms at an average speed of 17 kph and I finished the ride knackered. Today, we covered 50.1 kms at an average speed of 19.8kph and I still felt strong when we arrived back at the car 2h32m later! I must be getting fitter! Stats for today's ride on the usual site.

Today's ride was only marred by two young (6-9 mth old) dogs who were able to get through the bars of the gate that was supposed to enclose them and took great joy in chasing our bikes and snapping at our heels as we passed. A deft swipe of my foot caught one of them smartly on the head on our outward leg of the ride but on the return leg, harsher treatment was dealt out as they went for us. We first threw handfuls of stones as they approached us but they remained undeterred, so Andy dismounted his bike and got more power behind his throw which met its target and saw the youngsters run away, yelping as they squeezed back through the gate. It's a crying shame that these dogs have acquired such a dangerous habit so young, but with nobody at home to stop them, there is no hope. Of course, it is highly likely that the owner couldn't give a rat's arse anyway. After all, such dog behaviour is not uncommon in the Ariege.