This year has started with a bang and as of today, it hasn't stopped. Lots on at work, including a preview of the BikeRadar Live venue at Brands Hatch last Wednesday. Must work on a) being less stilted and b) being faster.

I also did a blog on it for BR with a video of me going around on the TT bike. It was bloody cold, I tells ya. 0 degs, snowing in the morning and a bitingly cold nor'easter. Not a day to be riding in lycra.

That said it generally isn't as bad as it was over Christmas/New Year. It's merely bloody chilly and definitely colder than any of the previous three winters. It's meant to be -5 here tomorrow night. The NE wind is sould destroying when you're on a bike. It kills speed more than a SW wind does, probably because it's colder and drier.

I'm still waiting for me power meter. There's been no stock in the UK for ages so I'll need to wait until the end of Feb/early March. Dang, I could really do with one now. But I did get out one day this week with my powerdisk, and got a decent idea of where I'm at. I've also done a couple of long rides with Stu Dodd (wot has an SRM), so I can get an idea based on his numbers. He's an inch taller and a bit broader than me so if I lop off 25-30W I can estimate my power.

Basically, it's good although you'd never know it from average speed. Today's ride would have been almost the same power that I averaged during the 100 mile time trial I did last year. But because I was riding on a road bike with no aero gear on not particularly fast roads and it was freezing, I was 13km/h slower than then. That is a lot. Also, you can't directly equate power done on the road bike to power on the TT bike, because of the difference in position. You might put out less power in the TT position but you'll get an aero benefit, so it's worth it.

My solution is to get a powertap wheel that I can use on both the TT and the road bike. That's gunna be interesting.

Lots of other news (won many trophies at the Chippenham club dinner, helped Liz move across the road) but the biggest is that my grandparents are turning 90 and 89 respectively. That is 179 altogether and quite a lot of years. Happy birthday Jim n Joan!

I also managed to spill ginger tea on my keyboard which did not do the keys a lot of good. It's not that healthful and wellness-inducing for inanimate objets. Oh well, it was 5 years old and due to be replaced anyway. I got a Lenovo G550 for under £400, based on a review in one of our mags and it's superior in every way. 3GB of RAM, 250GB hard disk, built in webcam, wireless etc. My TalkTalk connection works brilliantly now :-)