More muddy adventures.

The weather has been pretty abysmal here in Cornwall over the last few weeks but by Friday it culminated in torrential rain and storm-force winds. Yeah yeah, I know that the weather has been miserable everywhere, but I demand my money back. When we moved to Cornwall we were under the impression that we would have lovely weather all year long. Pfft! How wrong could one girl who is always right be? Living so close to the ocean we get the harshest winds and the wettest rain too - I kid you not - we have wet rain! ;-) Within minutes of a downpour you are soaked right through to your knickers! Anyway, that's enough of my weather woes, for more on the South West's weather see our local BBC weather reporter - creepy David.

As you can imagine the recent weather has left everywhere very soggy and there is plenty of mud and lots of localised flooding. Hehehe... Yay! All this makes for a good ride on the local singletrack. So, yesterday, I decided to don my wet weather gear and take myself off on my Cindercone and ride through as much mud as I could find. It was great fun but exhausting, so after just a few miles I opted for the easier option and took to the marginally dryer farm-tracks and country lanes. I had a jolly nice time and saw tonnes of wildlife including the ubiquitous bunnies, a cliche Robin on a spade handle and a spectacularly huge Buzzard, sat only 1ometres away from me on a low fence post. Irritatingly, I do not have any photos of it, as by the time I'd got my phone out it had decided enough was enough and had taken off over my head. I then found myself a temporary trail hound when a local dog decided to follow me for 200 metres. After a while I decided I best send it back, but as I motioned for it to go home it took great offence and started barking at me, like a scorned teenager .

Anyway, I managed to get in a fair few miles without breaking a sweat but headed home before the night drew in. Also my gears started to play silly beggars by ghost shifting, which was quite annoying.

This morning, after a quick fettle and a new gear cable I was ready for the off, as I'd promised to ride off-road with Mikey. Unfortunately I'd forgotten to tell my legs that they too needed to be ready. They were empty and despite trying to ignore them by frolicking through loads of puddles and mud I struggled. Despite the pain I was enjoying myself but then the first climb broke me completely and I hit a mental block. I was angry with my lungs! I was angry with my legs! I was angry with the nasty head wind that was taunting me. All I wanted to do was go home... but there were more evil hills between me and my sofa. Argh! We slowed the pace and somehow I mustered up the energy to get through the last bit of singletrack and up the chattery rock-strewn hills. Phewph! I made it. Mmm... and how I celebrated with a nice piece of cake and a hot cuppa.

Don't get me wrong, overall I did enjoy the ride; there's nothing I love more than splashing through puddles and sloshing through mud... but today I was spent! I just wish I'd had the legs for it as it coulda been great!