two cheeks bad, two wheels good

I came perilously close to spending all today sitting on my arse but instead spent four and a half hours sitting on my bike saddle. I really am not a happy camper right now; Sal is, of course, bearing the brunt of this and should be glad that she is in Brisbane until Tuesday. I am ignoring my phone in the most twattish of ways. I look to see who is calling - though it does not matter - and then ignore it. The calls today have all been from readers; I'll not apologise here. That really would be piss-weak. It is what it is. A bit shit though.

So what have I done today? Seperately I walked Rowlf first and then Rumpole and then sat at home being miserable and ignoring my phone. Then I managed to find a small piece of motivation, got the bike out from under the house and headed for Sydney's North Head the cliff at the northern (dur) entrance to the Harbour. My plan was to head along Warringah Road (a sodding great hill) and then get onto the Wakehurst Parkway from where I could head around the Manly Dam mountain bike track before heading along the beach and then up the hill to North Head. Then I'd head back the way I came, the only difference being I'd do the part of the Manly Dam loop I'd not done on the way out.

And that was exactly what I did. From Roseville Bridge to the Wakehurst Parkway is pretty much all up hill and had my lungs working out. Pretty dull stretch of road though, the only thing to keep you interested is working out which speeding vehicle will eventually, inevitaly clip you. Luckily there was no winner.

Last time I did the Manly Dam track I was really rather shit, but this time I did far better. There is a bastard hill I had to walk because I could not get enough enough purchase in my spinning, skidding back wheel and I really screwed the approach to the stream crossing. That was a little embarrassing. But, other than those parts I was quite pleased. Even a fairly tehnical section that involves a tight switch back with a rock drop straight after it and then a tight single-track part I managed to ride - I'd only ridden that part once before. I felt even better about it when I heard behind me the strangulated squeal of a rider who I assume did not know what to expect, and who sounded like they didn't do too well. In fact, from here to the end I put my foot down once when I picked a poor line and shit myself; if I'd had another bach I'd have ridden that bit too. Pleased with myself I headed to Manly and then to North Head.

Not a lot to say about this section, other than it was a bloody gorgeous day and the ocean and sky where having a "blue-off" that I'll declare a draw. Clear blue sky meets deep blue sea. Mid twenties, a bit of a breeze and low humidity. Lovely. The Harbour was bow-to-rudder with yachts. Just another beautiful day in the olympic city.

The ride home was a carbon copy of the ride out, though tiredness was getting the better of me when I completed the Dam circuit. I rode parts I'd screwed up last time, and only bottled a couple of sections...but I ran out of puff on a few sketchy uphills. I'll be back t the dam again soon; with fresh legs I think I'd do pretty well (note to self - you've fucked yourself there mate.)

Right, re-run of Top Gear o clock, so I'm off.