but it is time for an albeit late, Maddy blog!

Its been a strange week weatherwise, high winds have been dominant but they've moved about a bit and been in combination with everything mild and sunny to cold and wet - sometimes on the same day! Here in England those in full time education are now back in the classroom and i'm now waiting eagerly for my turn to be stuck with a needle - and i hate needles!

With the high winds, think up to 40mph, on Thursday i decided on a shorter, 50km ride - no point killing myself! I headed off down the bike path to Bath then took in a short loop along the Avon & Kennet canal towpath before starting the return leg into the wind. Just for variety i used the B road to the north of the valley and rather than return to the bike path for the last leg, i stayed on the roads.

Except i didn't head straight in, instead i ended up following the ring road path around the east of Brizzle before picking my way via the 'Concorde' route towards the city. I turned off a bit short having been caught in a hail storm, twiddling my way to the Bristol & Bath for the last leg of the ride. Okay, 50km had become 70km, not bad considering i hadn't really been anywhere.

Friday i spent doing a bit of a food shop runaround before devoting some grey cells to a bit of plot development. I then set too on a bit of model construction - i'll post a pic when i'm done but i'm pretty chuffed with it so far.

On to Saturday and after balancing the weekends weather forecasts, it was a longish hike for the day's exercise. I had a rough idea of where i was headed, setting off at a fairly brisk pace towards Frenchay before cutting towards the UWE campus. Then it was paths sort of following the M32 southwards, i'd just returned to tarmac when the hail started, the last leg of the walk was undertaken with a mixture of wet, cold and wind for a total just shy of 13km, sods law states that it would dry up shortly there after!

Oh and i got my print copy of Gaby - On The Edge in the post - it looks damn fine even if i do say so myself!

Today then was nominated bike day and whilst the forecast was dry, the wind was still making its presence known. It was an unremarkable ride, a sort of loop northward to Ham before returning 'alongside' (well as close as you can) the Severn to Avonmouth. From there the wind was mostly behind as i followed the A4 into and through Bristol before looping back up the hill to Schloss Beverley, 105km covered in a few minutes over four hours.

Today's Gaby chapter is A New Plan, with the loss of the overall lead on the hill top finish, drastic measures will be needed for the final day's competition! Of course, Dave has a plan but with three heavy days racing in their legs, will they be able to pull it off?

That's it for today, tune in again on Wednesday,

Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid