live-cycle

After my rant about cycle paths, it is probably time for a bit of a ramble … Anger and angst about urban cycling will always be churning through the dark recesses of my mind, so I am sure I will return to the topic, but now it is time to change tack, to take a slow ramble through the byways and backroads of my brain.

Take yesterday’s ride – a ride under icy clear blue skies.  It occurred to me that the Cape Epic starts in a mere four weeks’ time. At this stage last year I was fitter than I had been in ages, but I’m glad that I’m not riding the Epic this year, not having to train in the snowy, icy miserable conditions that we’ve endured. But as I pedalled along yesterday, on the roadside there were signs of better things to come: amid the frost and frozen puddles I came across a bank of blossoming snowdrops, a sure sign that spring is not far off. Over the years that I have run or cycled past this patch, it has always been ahead of the rest of nature, always the first place to see crocuses, daffodils and bluebells.

For me there is no Epic this year, but there will be other adventures. First up is the Tour of Flanders, well, 100 miles of it, which Paul and I ride on Easter Saturday. But during my meanderings yesterday it struck me that it is ten years since I last did some serious running, ten years since I last did the Comrades marathon. So I have decided to run a marathon this year. I don’t want to do London or a big race like that. Instead, I think I have found the ideal course: Loch Ness marathon, on October 3.

So there you have it, in writing, my aim, my pledge for the year. I will run the monster marathon. And the great thing is that all the training will be in the summer. Which only goes to show that Lance Armstrong was right: it’s not all about the bike. Or is it??

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Dennis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.