Today on Lake Baikal

I found this satellite image of what Lake Baikal looks like today. A little cloud and snow accumulation in the far south and North of Olhon Island.....I'm hoping I can find the ice roads amongst it all!

Planning..what's that?!?

When I go out riding, I never plan where I'm going to go.

Basically my rides comprise of two phases. The outbound journey, which is fun and free as I turn left and right without a care in the world and no end goal in mind until my legs get tired and I'm hungry. My inbound journey then involves trying to figure out where I am and then how I'm going to get back. As you can imagine the outbound is far more fun and the inbound never fails to be painful....for me, it's a perfect way to train as I'm training my mind and body.

I'm now in the Lake District and not knowing the areas too well, I had over 5hrs of exploring today. After about an hour it began to rain and still hasn't stopped.

The bike is going very well but with only a front break on, some of the descents were interesting as the break began to scream!

I'm hoping for some snow tomorrow so I get get some snow biking in!

It's all about the feet

My boots have arrive and they are huge!

I had some very strange looks today as I cycled up and down the lanes testing them out. They actually worked surprisingly well and within 10 minutes my feet were boiling. I tried to savour that thought for my cold days and nights in Siberia.

First hurdle cleared!

I managed to stay upright today at Cardiff Ice Rink! Chris, the manager, very kindly allowed me to cycle my bike around the rink before the afternoon session began. The ice tyres worked wonders and I was even able to break without skidding (too much) in a reasonable amount of time. It felt totally wrong but once I'd rounded the rink a few times I then cycled in figures of eight and zig zags with a reasonable amount of confidence. Once I've got all my gear together I plan to go back for one more session.

I actually only just made it to the ice rink in time as my 3hr ride this morning turned into more of a 4hr ride with a time trail sprint at the end as I'd miss judged how far I'd gone....I love it when the kilometres just fly by.

Some of the things I thought of today when I was cycling were:

(1) New inventions....I've come up with a great one today and it's cycle related!
(2) Whether or not I'd like to live in the villages that I cycled through
(3) Going to Ikea for lunch....I missed lunch all-together today due to my mis-judged time
(4) Whether the muscles in my thighs will ever snap through over use
(5) What the lake is really going to be like. If there is loads of snow then I won't be able to ride and hence I should run more in training and work out some method for pulling my bike

Tomorrow I'm actually going to go climbing for a change, that's after I've cycled to the climbing wall!

Going Nowhere!

It's been a turbo day today...3hrs on a turbo is far worse than 3hrs on the real thing but it's great for mental training.  I wanted to leave the Qoroz Mountain Bike in the freezer for a good 24hrs so tomorrow morning I'II see how it fairs.

I'II be out on the road all morning and then heading over to Cardiff Ice Rink at lunchtime for a quick spin around the rink in between hockey matches. I'II be sure to capture it on action......all I want is to be able to stay upright at this point.