23 August 2011

The Things You Miss...

Feeling that being shackled to the desk isn't doing me any good, about a week or so back I started cycling again. While never even a tenth the cyclist my brother had been in his prime, I used to be fairly keen on being in the saddle, at least as a means of getting to and fro, and a couple of years back I went through a phase of cycling in the mountains (or hills, if you must) south of Dublin, covering up to a hundred miles in a day when the mood took me.

I'm not quite there yet, not least because even if I'd built up the stamina for that I'd still lack the time, but still, I'm enjoying starting back towards that. I've plans for some serious ground-covering once the current project's put to bed.

Today wasn't a huge ride by any definition -- just 32 miles -- but given that I was dying after just 19 a week or so back, this is progress. I went south, beyond Congleton, getting as far as the village of Moreton Cum Alcumlow, cataloguing  roadkill as I went*, and turning back as I reached this.


No, I had no idea what I was missing. This is because my bike can't fly. Life would be easier, and perhaps more interesting, if it could.

* In total: one fox, one cat, one rat, one mouse, one hedgehog, one squirrel, two rabbits, four birds including a pheasant, and two unidentifiable lots of dried and bloodied fur. Only the fox and the cat were offensively fragrant. There's a distinct whiff to roadkill.

3 comments:

Jeannette said...

Is this a subtle request for prayer for your safe pedaling? Poor stinky critters. Inspiring post none the less...32 miles...that's something.

Tom said...

Would be potentially disastrous if all vehicles could fly, though. How on earth would you avoid collisions...

The Thirsty Gargoyle said...

32 miles was a start. Today was more encouraging -- I did a shorter distance, covering a trip I've done five times in the last fortnight, and I've managed to reduce the time for the trip from an embarassing 90 minutes to a relaxing 64. Whether I'll be able to keep to that is a different matter!

And on midair collisions, you're quite right. I'm not too pushed about other people having flying bikes, though, not least because E.T. obsessives probably shouldn't be let behind handlebars. Just me, basically...