Normal service has been resumed

Do not adjust your set. The blurring you see now is merely your eyelids closing and your brain shutting down. Activity has been reduced to essential survival functions only - an automatic response to reading this website. This is your third and only warning.

I note that Blogger has got its arse into gear and realised that I've made 138 posts, not 51. Or 139 if I count this one, and I probably shouldn't. Blogger seemed to be stuck in October 2004 for quite some time. I don't know why, because it wasn't a particularly good month and the wine was off. Unfortunately, the word count feature in the profile page has disappeared. But I think I've pasted my whole collected bilge into a text file somewhere and it comes to a scary number of words, considering my purported lack of time.

I blame codeine. It has been making me sleepy since the good doc prescribed me some in a cough syrup last week. It has also clouded my judgement, because I decided to renew my training program as if July never happened. 130 km on Saturday (Schelde ride) and 165 km on Sunday (Berchem ride). Saturday was OK, but I broke my vow of silence and got into the break with about 10 km to go and didn't want to leave for some reason, despite the fact that my HR was 180+ for the rest of it. There were six of us rolling over at between 45-48 km/h (I was the 45 km/h dude) and there wasn't much wind. Well, I guess we stayed away...

I got back home, took two teaspoons of my cough mixture, and promptly fell asleep on the couch for three hours! That's not a nap. Didn't feel much better for it either.

Sunday was even stupider. I got up at the crack of 6:40am (yeah, six hours sleep) and rode out to Berchem. I thought it was going to be a bit sunny so I had sun cream on. I needn't have bothered, because after 15 km it started raining and I got fairly cold. What to do? Keep going into the headwind because it would blow over, and it did after 30 km.

I arrived in Berchem, rather damp, and there was only a small group there. No Eddy, so we could take it a bit easier. We did the same circuit as normal and I think I ended up doing more work than normal, but we kept the pace lower. On the hill up to Lahamaide, a couple of the younger guys took the lead and I followed, doing what I thought was a moderate turn. One of them dropped off and by the top it was just me, Guy Callens, and the other dude, while the rest had gone and presumably were going to take the short cut.

We kept the pace up after that, but didn't go too hard and stayed together. Mr Callens was a little bit stronger while the other dude was suffering more. However, everything is relative when you're not fit and I was definitely running out of juice at the finish. As soon as I hit the Schelde to ride 40 km home - seemingly still into a headwind - I blew up. Limped the next 8 km into Oudenaarde where I found the vending machine emporium and downed, in rough order, a coke, two coffees, and a chocolade covered wafel. Oh, the humanity. Strangely, I felt bloated and sick, but I had enough energy to get home and that's the main thing.

What else did I do? Saw Fantastic Four last week, and it was good for a laugh. A bit lighter than the usual crap.

Dad, who has been in Ireland/England/Wales for a Harp Exhibition/Showroom/Warehouse, may be coming from London to Gent tomorrow. That's not as far as Aix to Gent, I don't think. We'll see if he can follow my precise directions of how to get here...