Wine free Friday? Surely not.

So, in an attempt to thin the layer of cheese on my bones, I decided against wine on Friday night, That might not sound like much of a challenge, but it was. I had no wine!!
My back was still really painful so we had a very lazy day on Saturday so I didn't mess things up for Sundays bike ride out with friends. At this point I was in so much pain that I was worried I might not even make it out on Sunday and I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. So I had some wine. :-( Still, I only had half a bottle of very low alcohol rose.
Sunday morning came around - cold and windy, for a change - and my back was still painful but I figured what doesn't kill you, and all that...

Everyone turned up and we set off on a route around Ringinglow, Redmires and Stanage. We had riders of varying fitness - Sallie the triathlete at one end, and FKCB (me!) at the other - but it was a fairly relaxed ride that came in at just 19km with 430m of ascent. The recent snow seems to have tamed Stanage Causeway and apart from the bigger drops near the top (which I might tackle one day, but not just yet) I rode most of it and really enjoyed it. And all the hills - well, I got up all of them without stopping and I wasn't at the back, but that was down to some lucky mechanical issues (ie: other peoples bikes misbehaving)
Sallie hadn't ridden this route before and worried that she was slow on the downhills (she wasn't!) but more than made up for it on the hills. For someone used to the flatlands of Lincolnshire she does a bloody fine job on the climbs.
Here she is just after Stanedge Pole - I think she is enjoying herself. Or maybe someone just mentioned the coffee van to her?:

The ride on to Houndkirk crossroads was the hardest bit of the ride for me - it seemed to get really cold all of a sudden and my crappy asthma seemed to kick in. Still, I really enjoyed the descent to the crossroads and rode it faster than I have managed before, I think:

Best of all though, my back held out and all the juddering and jostling did seem to loosen it up.
Until I sat down again, then it was as bad as ever. Booo.

Here is a pic of J and Rich, just because...

Speaking of what doesn't kill you - getting clean after a muddy bike ride is interesting when you have no hot water and heating and a house that's actually colder than it is outside... I am sure people must've heard me howling at the end of the street as I tried to rinse my hair with 'triple point' water (there is no other explaination - it was liquid ice!)
In other news, Clumsy T made a comeback and as I put the bikes away after washing the, I managed to knock the hedge trimmer off the top of a cupboard. Not such a dumb thing, but then I tried to catch it with my leg - you know like you do when you see something falling out of the corner of your eye and you just try to stop it hitting the floor... That smarted a bit. Luckily nothing broke (on me or the trimmer, just a big lump and a disappointing lack of bruising...)

Then it was Monday and back to work. Yippee.
No exercise but J made some cracking curries for tea, so that ended the day on a high.

Today? Work and a bit of coach Troy. Oh, I've missed you, you cheesy American dude with shorts pulled up to your armpits, oh I've missed you...