It's February

Thank goodness January is over. Despite spending half of it in Oz, I still find the lack of light when I get back to the UK hard going. February is somewhat better, as the mornings start to get lighter and you don't feel as though you're spending the whole day indoors or in the dark.

Also I managed to get sick with a virus the day after I got back from Oz and that knocked me out for a week. It's happened to me several times now - long haul flights are the worst thing for getting sick.

So my first week back at work consisted of half a day in the office, three days in bed, then a return on Friday. Hardly ideal as January is quite a busy month. Still, things are falling into place and I'm hoping that BikeRadar will have some solid growth this year.

Training has thus been delayed, although I'm back to where I was now. The good thing about doing lots of base work is that you don't lose much if you have time off. The downside is that if you've been riding for many years, as I have, you don't see much in the way of fitness gains. Case in point: I did a 3hr ride today that was almost the same average and normalised power and heart rate as one I did over the same route in early November. And I've done a lot of miles in the intervening period.

The real question is whether this base will lead to a higher peak than previous years when I start to get stuck into some harder work. I'll probably only realise that come June, when my target races are (national 25, 50, 100). But I'll also do some Rudy Projects and a few local events early on to see how I'm going.

Other news: the Chippenham club do has come and gone, and it was a good 'un. We were graced by Sarah and Barney Storey, wot have won many world championships/Olympic golds in para-cycling and swimming. I collected five trophies this year (Liz is not a trophy, despite what she says on facebook). Followed closely by Luke Davies, who managed four. I think Luke raced over 80 times (or was it 100?) last year and did some huge PBs, which is impressive.

Movies: 1) The King's Speech. Very good with Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and a bunch of other good actors/actresses/actuaries. If you haven't seen it then do. 10/10.

2) Black Swan. Natalie Portman, Barbara Hersheybar and a few others. I'd describe it as a ballet-horror fusion with a dash of lesbianism. Liz and I weren't sure if the horror elements really worked. And Portman's portrayal of madness is classically overblown. 6/10.

Finally, happy birthday to my granmother Joan, who is 90! Wish I could be there to celebrate it with youse all.