Bouncing in a different saddle

Thursday means one thing...POLO. Thats right, every Thursday at work, we play polo at lunch, just like most companies I assume. Today was awesome, fastest paced game yet. Now i'm back at my desk, it all seems so long ago.

Decided against riding later as my thighs feel like jelly now. Shame, as tonight was meant to be a gentle ride, like the one was meant to be on Tuesday which declined into an all out 30 mile time trial.

Flying in the saddle, pain in my legs

What a day. Having been asked this morning if I wanted to go for a gentle ride I was excited at the prospect. However as the day progressed I began to feel worse and worse, almost to the point of telling my riding partners that I wouldn't be able to make it. Anyhow, I didn't want to loose face or let a tiredness feeling put me out so I went anyway.

So having finished work, off I set on my 1 hour drive home to meet my friends to ride. Started out feeling terrible, having repaired a puncture in a hurry at Tom's house as my tyre was flat when I got it out of the car. Riding at just 14mph to begin with was hard, and I just wanted to sleep. However, this feeling didn't last. Soon we were all flying through the peaks at an outrageous speed. A 30 mile ride, averaging 19.1mph (for me) and 18.5 for the other two was an impressive showing by all. Undoubtedly our fastest ride yet, by a long way. The adrenaline rushing around afterwards was fantastic and there was a real buzz between the three of us. So thanks very much to Tom and Pete for the ride of my life. I haven't experienced such pain and an adrenalin rush since my rowing days.

Not what I was expecting when sitting at work at 4:00. How things can change in a moment. Amazing, simply amazing.

Another one gone

Another weekend over, but very productive on the whole. You've already heard about yesterday, so I'll talk about today.

Went for my usual Sunday ride, but this week, we had a newcomer. A guy called Chris who used to ride for one of the local clubs here in sheffield. Being the competetive guy I am, I felt the need to assert myself on the situation and wouldn't be beaten by him. I succeeded, but at the cost of every muscle in my legs. I'm shattered, but feel it was good training. Was also a blazingly hot day, 26 degrees C in the peak district, which meant liquids were at a real premium when riding for 3 hours with only 2 litres.
Still managed to maintain a 16.7mph average for the day, which is what we normally average on cooler days. The others had a good ride too, not much separated us throughout the day, though I still put the biggest gaps in going up climbs (god I love them). Fantastic ride with fantastic company...as always.

Going out again on Tuesday hopefully, if I'm recovered that is.

Back to work tomorrow, and a series of client meetings next week should keep me on my toes. Other than that, business as usual...whatever that is.

I love photoshop.

Having spent many years doing commercial things on Photoshop, it's sometimes nice to just play with it. Today I have done just that. I realise I was going to go out, but other things got in my way, so I did this instead. The next Johnny Wilkinson....I think not!!

My Day Off!

Morning everyone. Well, finally the weekend is here and I have a whole day to do whatever I want. I'm thinking about going out into the peaks to do some photography. I really need to build up my portfolio if I'm going to be able to sell pieces in restaurants and cafes. I'm very excited at the prospect, but cant find the time to get it all sorted.

I realized this morning that as I'm usually on the wrong side of the camera, there aren't many recent pictures of me, so heres a self portrait I did this morning. I like it!

I'm off out road riding tomorrow, though having gone out last night, I'm feeling a little tired, especially after a hectic week. Sure I'll be fine.

Right, I'm off out to make the most of this weather with my camera. Catch ya'll soon.
Lex

A long day that simply grew.....

I would like to think I am more adept at using a computer than most, yet somehow today it all went wrong.

The day was going well up until 4:30. We'd had reporting to do in the morning and then being Thursday, it was polo lessons at lunch which was lovely in the sun. This was all topped of with a fantastic BBQ and beer before getting back to work. I was somewhat sleepy by this point to say the least, I blame the beer personally. I started doing some data analysis and re-arrangement in the morning, and continued with it once the BBQ was over. It was all going very well to be honest, I pressed shutdown at the end of the day and it asked if I wanted to save the docs, as i was typing in a file name, it obviously got impatient and shutdown anyway. So I lost everything, I had another go tonight at home, but was too tired to have any idea what was going on. Oh well, back on it in the morning!

Katie gets back from her riding trip in Ireland tomorrow, it's been good to get some space to myself over the last week and a half. She seems to have had a good time though which is good.

Time To Work

Due to certain people harrasing me about why I dont bother posting on my blog I thought I now would.

I'm now gainfully employed at a media firm, dealing with online marketing and advertising. It's great fun at the moment, but so much to learn, including how to play polo!!

As for everything else, the road biking is going very well, and I am hoping to go to the Alpes with my riding parteners next summer (and I'm already over excited!!).

There seem to be many other things cluttering up my small under developed head, but I can't put my finger on them, so I ont try to elaborate!!

I'll try and post more often for those of you who want to know how much more exciting your lives are than mine.

Money isn't everything........

.......unless you don't have any!!
Well as I approach the impending doom of my graduation I find myself slipping deeper into poverty, I know I'll get out of it soon enough, but it's rather intimidating at the moment.

On another note, I'm enjoying the new modules and getting into them with some good old group coursework, joy!!

I've lost my way

I'm not sure how, but I only ever feel the need to share when things are going badly, so here I am again. With the passing of every day, I feel less sure what i want to do, but more sure that I want to do something in the business world. I was looking at PR or advertising, but I somehow feel that everyone else out ther is a better candidate than me. During my sporting years I always believed that I could beat everyone else no matter, even when it was far from the truth. These days though, I somehow feel that I'm at the bottom of the stack, waiting to see what's left. When I compare myself to others I know, I feel as though I have lost all the proffesional ambition I once had, not through desire, but through ability.

I don't know where to go from here! I have a flat for next year in sheffield, and a job at the climbing wall hopefully, but it's hardly the £50k job i saw myself in a few years ago.

When I left school, I missed that, now my uni life is drawing to a close I feel as though I have wasted the opportunities. Ive reached a definitive junction in my life, but the signposts are blank. Where there used to be prospects, I now feel as though I have to somehow settle for less.

I don't seem to be able to see beyond the next big choice, but I can't see what that big choice is!

I can afford to live if i stay at the wall, but it seems like such a waste of my £10,000 degree debt that I've racked up. I often used to do things because it was what others expected, however now my worries are personal, and internal. I need to satisfy a need which I can't identify.

I've always been bad at sharing my feelings, I probably always will be, but I'm finding it somehow harder to deal with this time. People ask me to exlplain how i feel to them but I simply don't want to. This leaves me on my own, through my own choices! When people used to ask me to explain what it was like to have to stop rowing I simply couldn't describe it to them, there was no way I could, only someone who had been through it would understand, so why bother trying? I feel much the same now, whilst I could try to explain everything, they wouldn't truly understand what's going on in my head....not even I know that!!

As always though, don't worry, I'll be fine......I think......!!

End & begining

Well exams are over but was back in for the first day of lectures today. Everything is going well so far, though only one day has gone. Now the torment of waiting for results to come out begins, oh the joy.

Soon 'twill all be over

Well in a weeks time i'll have finished my exams. Project management for 2 hours, what a hoot, oh well!! At least after the exam there is fun to be had. I'll be driving to wales with my bike and my friends for a weekend of biking. Most likely hung-over biking in knee deep mud but still fun all the same. Can't wait. Unfortunately I'm concentrating more on the going away than the exam just before!! Oooops.

When will the weather get better

I wanted to get out on my bike to get fit over this period, but the weather is simply shocking, between revising and working, i dont seem able to catch any of the dry spells. Never mind!

Finally my ride is done.....volume 2

So here it is, another one of my fabulous creations of metal. The picture is from boxing day, when i went out onto the ridgeway in oxfordshire for the day, more clay than you could shake a stick at, infact i found this to be true when i had to lever large chunks out from the bike with a stick!!!
Went and did the Marin trail again too, felt so much more comfortable on this compared to my old hardtail. Just waiting for friends to get back into sheffield so I can get out into the peak.
Time to try saving now me thinks, though i have just found a really good deal on a freeride frame............