Attempt two

Last year my aim was to hit the 1,000 mile mark on the ole' bicycle and I managed but a mere 723 miles. It was all going so well right up until the end of summer. Shocking. Anyhow, since it's another year I reckon I'll give it another shot. 1,000 miles in 2006? Well ... I can but try. However, since it's now the 2nd week in February the outlook's not promising.

The wee cycleometer(tm) has been reset and even though it shows a whopping total of 0 miles, I have actually been out. (I shall update my total later on). It was a couple of weeks ago and I decided to go out for a leisurely 25 mile ride out towards the office, in preparation for taking the bike to work. Things were going fine until about mile 3. That's when I thought I was going to expire. I guess you don't keep your fitness over the winter period by eating mince pies and watching TV. Dagnammit.

It's now officially light enough to cycle to work in the mornings, possibly even without lights by next week. However, getting home is still an issue. It still gets dark too early, and even with lights I don't fancy the prospect of zipping along the side of the canal tow-path in the dark. Too easy to hit a rock and end up in the water. Or maybe I'm just lazy. Regardless, we're also moving office in around 6 weeks or so, which will mean a change to the nice 11ish mile ride to the office I currently have. Wonder if it'll be light enough to cycle by the time we leave here...

And my 10 mile radius has been broken. At the weekend a 30 mile trip was made to Edinburgh, and next week I'm being forced to go to Sunny Derby, a whopping 200ish miles from home. Still shocking poor.

Going places

I have itchy feet. That's as in liking to travel, not a bad case of athletes foot. Just for clarification. Seeing new places and new things makes me happy, and is a damn sight more enjoyable than sitting at a desk all day. Even the act of getting from A-B is a stress-relieving, enjoyable pass time for me. In fact, in a lot of cases I enjoy the journey more than the destination. That is most certainly true on the journey to work in the morning.

So anyhow ... I was playing with Google Earth the other day and it suddenly dawned on me that I've not been very far in the past couple of months. So .. I decided to see far I had actually been and was I shocked? Well, yes .. I was.

Since the end(ish) of November 2005, the furthest point I've been from my flat is the Coatbridge Adsa. Now while Coatbrige isn't technically Glasgow ... I would argue that it's Greater Glasgow, although I'm sure the Coatbrigionians (or whatever they call themselves) would disagree. So .. to my mind I've not been out of Glasgow in over 2 months.

Now Glasgow's a reasonable size, I suppose. Not quite as big as continental Europe, but you know .. not the size of a shoebox either. But how far from my flat is the Asda Coatbridge? 40 miles? 20? Well no ... in the last 2 months ... I have been no further than 10.04 miles from my front door (as the crow flies). 10.04 miles!!! Now that IS disheartening.