You are a winner! - Well I am anyway.

Yep I won a competition, not strictly speaking a cycling competition per se but cycling helped!

Endomondo, a great site for recording workouts for almost any sport via direct mobile app or uploading your GPS results, run a series of virtual challenges each month, with various prizes on offer. I have been recoding data on the site for a year or so and "participate" in many of the challenges - "winning" some but always "competing".

Anyhow I was one of three winners for the April comp and will have some new kit heading my way as pictured above!

Elsewhere I have crashed through 4000miles for the year and with the Norwich 100 2 weeks away am looking forward to putting the miles in the legs to some serious effort! An ever growing potential posse of riders, there could be 7 or 8 of us forming a peleton on the day.

Great weather continues, and although chilly starts are the norm, the wet stuf is still absent, just a bit gusty at times - but as this is Britain, what would there be to remark upon if we did not have variable weather?

In other news Horner wins Amgen Tour of California, a great week for Team Radioshack, with Levi in 2nd and Bertie looks to be on for the Giro (hoping that he is not retrospectively dumped for that steak incident). Sad but it almost looks like no one else has "turned up" for the race.

The death of Wouter Weylandts, during the 1st week of the Giro was devastating for the sport, and illustrates how ragile life is - there but for the grace of God. RIP WW108.

Elsewhere Tyler Hamilton has fingered Lance for EPO / doping and other shenanigans. Truth is I don't know, but i still find it hard to believe - Innocent until proven guilty is and should remain as the stand that is taken. The internet is alive with the Lance haters, but no-one is brave enough to stick their head up above the parapet in support - the story will run and run, but I for one hope that the legend continues.

Normal Service is Resumed...

Aaah back to work, well for a day and then a long weekend, and then a 3 day week and then a long weekend and then a 4 day week and then a....

Bank holidays don't you love em? - just an additional excuse to get out and ride - huh?

Rounded off April with a celebratory Royal Wedding ride of 60miles, making it a (colossal?) 1144miles for the month - #30DaysOfBiking - well missed a few days but got out on seperate rides 33 times, and it hasn't rained once! - YTD figures up to 3500miles!

Looking forward to the Giro, but disappointed that Ballan has been exposed as a doper, slowly slowly catchy monkey(s) i guess? #FantasyCyclign is a lot of fun too - currently residing 488th out of 2000-odd teams.

Wind has dropped again today, with sunshine still remaining so hopefully a few more miles will be churned out this week too

Sabbatical - the last days

Sorry, got a bit lax with my updates, but here goes for days 25 - 31:
More cycling needless to say - sun is out and its been hot so what else would you do huh?
Thurs   42.45 miles
Fri        22.07 miles
Sat       22.08 miles
Sun      Day off!
Mon     43.35 miles
Tues     Day off!
Weds   58.47 miles

As you can see, plenty of miles and all on the posh bike too!

Day 26 & 27 was back on LT Foundations with John Groves on Pastoral Theology - a good couple of days, on Sunday, (Day 28) I went to Kings @ Mile Cross and spent the morning helping with their children's work - great fun!

The final few days of the sabbatical in amongst the cyclign aforementioned have been spent decirating the dining room and associetd jobs / tasks - back to work for a rest soon...!

Sabbatical Days 17-24 Riding pretty much plus some other stuff!

Title says it all I think?!

So rides in numbers were:
Weds - 56.79 miles
Thurs - 52.48 miles
Fri -  56 miles (with Simon)
Sat 29.81 miles
Sun - NO RIDE (boo!)
Mon - 43.56 miles & 17.44 miles
Tues 29.76 miles
Weds 24.32 miles & 25.73 miles

Posh bike getting a serious workout, as you can see plus did 1 ride on the Scott, but need to get the freewheel checked as it isn't (freewheeling that is). - Cutting a groove of getting up before the lark and doing a couple of hours thus keeping the day free - oh sabbatical I love thee..!

Met with Wouter @ Kings last Thursday - a good chat and catch up, before he moves on to a New Frontiers Church in Peterborough. Visited St Catherine's on Sunday, fairly traditional service, but know some of the people there so not too painful, also visited Andy Jones' holiday Club in Wymondham on Tuesday - great effort in preparation - a Chocolate factory with very cool cyclone machine (think grab a grand cubicle or crystal dome) loads of helpers too - hmm perhaps I could get some tips on team attraction / retention...

A week left, with nothing formal planned except LT foundations and a visit to Kings Mile Cross on Sunday (oh and maybe a ride or two as well...?!)

Sabbatical Day 16 - Riding in the wind & selling stuff

Another day, another ride!

Despatched wife and daughter off to work and college course placement, then it was just the boys remaining. Precipitation overnight made it look iffy, but i went with the BBC's forecast and went out with the aim of completing 50miles on the posh bike.

18mph maintained or first hour and a half to the mid-way point (27miles), then I turned into the wind and almost stopped! - 1 hour 52mins for the other half of the ride.

After devouring a hearty lunch, someone rang about the table and chairs on Gumtree, and popped round later and paid for them to pick up on Weds, an also expressed an interest in our dresser unit, so may even sell that tomorrow too?

The wanderers returned, and following a quick tea, I went out for an hour or so for a coffee with a mate, then arrived back to a conundrum of a cake that had been baked but no box big enough - so off to Asda to buy one - as ever go for one thing buy 5 things - ho hum...

Sabbatical Day 15, School hols begin for some, Cycling and Coffee

Easter holidays have commenced (well Ryan is now off school anyway - think the rest of the world don't break up till Friday?).

Strange day weather wise, had most of the options at one point or another, although managed to sneak out for a 2hr stint whilst it was dry but still windy - just shy of 39 miles clocked up.

Then off out for coffee with my extremely beautiful wife, to the newly re-opened "The Tea House", just off Elm Hill, a friend has just taken it over with his brother-in-law.

After our bargain dining room table purchase at Next at the weekend (£83 for a £335 table - they were selling off all shop stock due to a re-fit) we managed to sell our sdeboard on Gumtree, and are hoping to sell some other furniture too, including our existing dining room table and chairs.

Lazy evening, bit of ironing, concluding part of Waking the Dead, folowed by Twenty Twelve, BBC4's very funny poke at the olympics, and off to bed...

Sabbatical Days 11-14 Long Ride, 2 Short Rides, Gardening, Quiz, First Taste and zzzzz

Thursday dawned and with it wet roads and drizzle - yuck! Wind was also blowy from the South West. So being a fickle so and so, thought i'd wait till it dried before departing, so mid morning off i went, very quick first hour, but then paid the price for the blustery conditions - 70miles in around 4 hours.

Friday and Saturday saw the start of both 30 days of biking and the peoples grand tour (2 online "events" to get people to ride every day in April) so 2 identical rides, albeit Saturday faster than Friday - both 37miles, just over 2 hours for both, and then plenty of pottering about in the garden thereafter. Singlespeed project gathers pace as bar tape now fitted, freewheel off and single speed cog on, single chain ring bolts arrived so chainring secured and new skewers bought and fitted, slightly miffed as chain i had was about 2 inches short - grrr! Found another chain though so just need to shorten it (next week's job) and brakes need overhaul me thinks.

Saturday night was quiz night - we were "Pinky and the Brains" and attained 2nd place overall, a good night other than the dubious noise imposed on us by the band during the interval.

Sunday, was Mother's Day and being the 1st sunday of the month meant it was also First Taste so for one morning only I relaxed my sabbatical and attended church - a good morning, really buzzing - well done all!

What's that song? - Lazy Sunday Afternoon - precisely! No ride, so have already failed in riding every day in April, but thought that the pressure is now off, but on the upside I am confident that i can achieve a minimum of 30 rides before the end of April -not quite in the spirit of things but I am sure the pro's have rest days - don't they?

Sunday also saw the Tour of Flanders - what a race! Spartacus appeared beaten, then made a late surge, but was eventually pipped on the line by Nuyens and Chavanel - Roll on Roubaix (next weekend)

Sabbatical Days 8-10 Riding, Gardening, Woodbridge, Wymondham and Haverhill

Monday (week 2) and amidst the dawn chorus, I went out for a swift 42 miles, darkened morning and fog, plus a tad chilly again so skull cap and sleeves re-instated - grrr! The remainder of the day was an outdoor workout in the garden, emptying rotted compost bin, refilling rotted compost bin from part rotted compost bin, digging over back corner of garden, planting raspberries / strawberries - potting up runners from both to sell plus general tidy up all round.

Tuesday, getting into the habit now - walk to station, head off to destination (Woodbridge) then return to Norwich and walk home. Had a good meeting with Tracey Fearn of St John's in Woodbridge learning about their gap year programme - Form. Once home it was out on the bike for a quick round the block spin (18 miles) in contrast to yesterday, the legs,arms and fingers were all exposed for the first time this year! Then another quick change before out to Wymondham to see an after school club in action - Awesome!

Wednesday - earlier start but same routine walk/train/walk this time destination was Cambridge, before being onwardly transported to Haverhill. Cambridge station is like a bike graveyard - approx 500 bikes "abandoned" by their owners in the cycle racks outside. Spent day looking at Reach a community outreach project headed up by River of Life Church (Henry Wilson) - Foodbank, Furniture Bank, CAP, Drop in Cafe and more... - so inspiring, a great day even though the weather was miserable. Home for tea then First Taste small group - phew!

Sabbatical Days 5-7 Christology, Hermeneutics and an evening in Diss!

Twas LT Foundations for a couple of days, so head down, ears back and brain engaged for study.

Almost a full house in terms of attendees this time, we had Mick Taylor for both days - very engaging to listen to, and he probably presented the most interactive sessions yet. It was Goff's birthday too

Friday night it was off to Diss to deliver the kids for the youth weekend and then back to Norwich to collect two others whose car had broken down, before returning as far as Long Stratton to hand them on.

Out Saturday night for take away at Simon and Sian's - nice relaxing evening, in great company.

Simon and I now have our rider packs for Norwich 100, and we are...wait for it...numbers 1 & 2 or as our respective partners have taken to caling us Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Clocks forward overnight, which meant lie-in on Sunday (obviously!) lazy day with my beautiful wife, before the kids returned around 5ish.

1st week already over - eeek!

Sabbatical Day 4 - Of Trains and Brains

Trains, Brains, training, brain training - busy day today!

So it was off to Bury St Edmunds (BSE!) on the train. Seemedd simple, Norwich to Stowmarket CHANGE then Stowmarket to BSE. Only snag was at Stowmarket, the sheer volume of comuters getting on, prevented my leaving so it wa on to Ipswich and then back - nice and scenic but obviously killed the time schedule.

Arrived at BSE and got to venue for Re-thinking Evangelism seminar/forum thing - quite varied and informative, and also presented in a relaxed way. Speakers included Andrew Buttress (Spectrum), Krish Kandiah (The EA), Dave Gardner (Vicar of Woodbridge) and others.

Returned by train (no mishaps this time) , and managed to finish reading my first book - "Brothers we are not professionals" by John Piper (only 4 more to go!).

Evening in, on my own so cracked on with my LT foundations assignment (and completed it) due in tomorrow whilst watching the World Track Cycling on the Red Button - British Girls got Team Pursuit Gold and Sprint Silver, Hoy and Kenny through to Semi's (unfortunately against each other) in men's sprint.

LT Foundations for the next two days, and that will be the first week over - phew! Out Saturday night with friends. Might squeeze in a ride on Sunday...