Friday 8 February 2013

Live from Derby, it's Friday Night!

**WARNING** 
The following contains a lot of words with minimal visual entertainment.
Spelling/grammer errors will occur.

I'm not sure how to put this but looking back at the last 2 weeks I would have to say starting the Season at a 5-Star training camp in Mallorca may not be the best way to build mental strength for the coming months. Yes, it's true. I'm just now coming out of my Spanish paradise withdrawal...at least I Hope I am! What an amazing way to start off a season and then only to return to reality ( I use that term loosely) and that winter in the UK is in fact far from over. To those of you in Regina or actually anywhere east of Vancouver,  Yes, I am soft now. Very soft!


It's not like we've returned to a nuclear wasteland or anything though! The weather in all honesty could be WAY worse. I've only been caught out in 1 blizzard so far and some how managed to dodge the majority of the rain! Which is good because even with a Garmin + iphone/google maps I still managed to take wrong turns and end up hopelessly roaming endless lanes to Narnia! That being said, there is no shortage of amazing, quite, small lanes with some stunning scenes. It's like continuously riding through a set of the movie Robin Hood...Castles, stone walls, Huge Churches, if my camera wasn't buried 5 layers deep and in a water(sweat) proof bag I would snap some shots but stopping to take in the moment would surely lead to hypothermia.




The only "safe zone" we've found so far is a little home away from home, the objective of Mondays "coffee recon" PeliDeli. This place lived up to the hype and I am very confident/concerned that there will be many hours spent there this year! Good vibes, great coffee and delicious treats for those low carb situations. Oh and did I mention it's warm, dry aaand the owner loves cycling AND Strava. Very cool.

A quick rundown of what's gone on this week some what non bike related. I received my new Yoga mat, TRX imitation straps and pour over Kettle...fenders should arrive tomorrow! Thank you Amazon for turning me into an online shopping junkie. Oh and of course, another delicious order of beans was waiting for me when I arrived home form my ride tuesday. Hasbean you are to good! Yesterday the Aussies (Mark'O and Sam) Tom and I went into town for a shop 'til you drop day. Well at least Mark'O did, I've never seen a man try on so many pairs of shoes in my life, at first i was a little taken back but after a little while I was kind of mesmerized. I think we were at the mall for 6 hrs, Sammy exchanged some shoes form a previous trip that week and picked up a few food items, Tom bought some slacks and a Kg of Organic dates, Mark'O bought...everything..and I got a new toque...Exciting times had by all. Also I want to give a shout out to the guys a Kona Blue coffee in downtown Derby. Found this little cafe when I was about to hit rock bottom and they brought me right back to where I needed to be! Thanks fellas! I'm sure we'll see you soon.
Man I live an exciting life!

A few big days planned for this weekend so we'll see how that all works out, depending on where you look it's either wet and cold or wet and colder, may be back on the rollers if the fenders don't show up in time. Never thought I'd be excited to put fenders on a bike..how times have changed.

Alrighty, if you managed to make it this far I'll leave you with these 2 videos. They have nothing in common. Enjoy.

Been listening to these guys a lot lately. For anyone who know's this is a BIG difference to the usual play list. Have a listen, you might like it.

And then theres this one, if you ride a bike you've seen it a dozen times if you don't you won't get it. YouTube suggested I watch it, who am I to argue. Brings back some memories from when this whole adventure started....thanks Lance.



Big Raleigh photo shoot Monday so check back for an update on that.
I'll do what I can to UP the visual content for the next post.

Stay tuned
RB

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