Saturday 31 December 2011

2012 - 2nd Half Analysis

For me, and I’m sure many other riders, Rd 4 of the BMBS at Margam marked a premature end to the season. The long wait until Rd 5 and the temptations of summertime drinks in the intervening months would prove hard to resist. Coupled with Sarah’s return from travelling, a couple of weddings, a riotous trip to Russia and a damaged ankle, my decision was more or less made to end the season at this convenient juncture.


Some success followed at a couple of smaller events (STWeekender and Brighton BigDog) thanks to a bit of residual fitness but the last few months have largely been a chance to let the inner fatboy enjoy his freedom.

Unfortunately the other side effect of a lavish diet has been the emergence of an inexplicable allergic reaction (kindly diagnosed by my GP via Google!). Six months down the line and after a number of failed attempts at finding the cause of the problem we are slowly ticking off all the potential causes. The latest theory is that it may be tomatoes, although this doesn’t explain the swollen face after eating a blueberry! In the meantime I shall continue popping antihistamines.


The end of October bought the unexpected announcement that most of the Soil Mechanics staff were to be made redundant. Never a pleasant experience but unbelievably jammy timing considering Sarah and I had committed to a winter season in Meribel from the beginning of Decmeber. November was therefore  spent riding my Ragley singlespeed, sending my Ghost into winter hibernation, regretfully selling my Spicy after 18months dormancy, and honing a menu plan for our new jobs as smiley happy chalet hosts. We return late April so until then it’s a winter of XC (skiing:)