I Must Be Cycling In The Wrong Places

I have to cling tightly to the handlebars this morning, to avoid getting blown off. Yep, it was a touch windy. Thing was the wind was against me on the way home as well and that never happens, the wind always seems to blow towards Nottingham. Today even the heavens were against me.

Nottingham is apparently Britain's second best city for cycling, that is according to a poll by Cycling Plus magazine. Who are, it has to be said, a respectable publication. Only Bristol is better apparently.

Now I really don’t see this. Nottingham to me is a total death trap, impossible to get from A to B on a bike; it always involves a lot of get off and walk. Nottingham may have many miles of cycle paths but I just don’t think they’re any good, generally badly designed and they largely go nowhere. In fact don’t most of the cycle paths go under the more recognisable term of ‘pavement’? Then there are the uncoloured (and therefore ignored) forward advance zones.

The criteria for the vote also included the number of biking commuters, cycling club members and the number of independent bike shops. On these I can see Nottingham would score highly. Also pollution, road quality and theft, again probably not too bad on these. For actually cycling though... nah. Clearly other people seem to disagree; perhaps I’m just cycling in the wrong places.

L’s latest fitness regime seems to be going well, powered along by her new book, ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’, on audio book naturally, it’s the only way to go.



She says it’s unputdownable. This is nothing like the one she palmed me off, which was Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ which is proving unturnonable.



Apparently her book is all sex and sadism, my certainly isn’t! Although L is at pains to stress that isn’t why it’s unputdownable. Do I believe her though? What’s that Dear? Off for another extended workout listening to it? Hmmmm.
Still it must be getting her incredibly fit.

Talking of incredibly fit... I’m not feeling it come squash this evening. A 10k race yesterday followed by biking to work today isn’t the ideal preparation but Duathlon training is more important than winning a game at squash.

So it’s incredibly surprising that I’m on the end of a very narrow, and I mean very narrow, 3-2 defeat. Yes, I win not one but TWO games. Perhaps I mistook knackered for well warmed up and well prepared... The legs had had enough by the time we got to the fifth and deciding game though.