Mudguards and layers

Very much the order of the day, but a morning of sunshine in such a January as this cannot be ignored.

We've had a very pleasant 50km tootle round the lanes, complete with the obligatory bacon butty from the Hub Cafe at the National Forest Centre at Rosliston (close to top of the bacon butty Hall of Fame) mostly following the route of the National Forest 50 Audax I'm running in August (early plug).

First ride of the year, first time my wife has ridden through floods (3) though thankfully these were very shallow, and first time she has ridden through ice (slushy and not too much of it). It's on mornings like today that we are reminded why we have bikes, and return to questioning why we think Turbo trainers are good. The reason, by the way, we think turbo trainers are good is so that we can train in readiness to attack the small hills around our rides. I could even hear the starting pistol at the bottom and see "ATTACK!" in red in front of my eyes (Fight Club has a lot to answer for).

Just occasionally on mornings like this morning, following periods of enforced incarceration in our houses, there comes a moment of clarity when we realise just how good it is simply to be outside and breathing (heavily). It's easy to lose sight of the fact that a house is just somewhere to provide protection from the elements when they are bad, and to view it as somewhere we should be most of the time. We didn't evolve to be shut up indoors, its just our 'intelligence' that allows us to do what comes unnaturally.

I'm outside again, and loving it!