Bigman's battle of the saddle

This is a picture from Cape Epic 2009. The weather is very different!

Looking out on the weather this morning, it looked like the world had gone 'skeleton' crazy. The path and gardens were winter wonderland white.

After returning from the Wingman's Baby Head Wetting ceremony at around one-ish, Bigman was just in time to catch Britain winning its first solo gold at the winter olympics since Robin Currie.

In the interview, Amy commented that the run was just a blur!

And that about summarises today's outing. The sky was blue, the light was bright, but it was BALTIC.The wind chill cut through every layer of clothing and left you counting down the miles until a change of direction. The strange thing was, no matter which direction the posse headed, there was always a breeze into the faces.

It started with a nag. Bigman had been excited to get out on the new stead and went out to make sure it was good to go. The Posse was going to meet at 09:30. At 09:23 Bigman receives a text from The Ironman saying he is delayed by a couple of minutes. Not even The Ironman can cover the 5 miles between houses in 9 minutes. Bigman went back inside for a cup of tea. This was going to be a cold day.

With a Trek tripometer fitted to the Bigman's new bike, every mile was counted out. A steady average over the 60 miles at 15mph was a satisfying rate.

There was not much chat in the posse. The Ironman has gone 12 consecutive days of training to de-construct his muscles in order that he can build new ones over the coming weeks. Tomorrow he will have a rest day.

A decision was made at Stirling to cancel the coffee stop and keep going. It did not really warm up however the shade on the cycle track brought further chill factor.

Meeting a fellow roadie on the track provided an opportunity for chat. He had done the Giro d'Italia, the italian equivalent of the Etape du Tour.

Initially the posse breezed passed however he hung onto teh wheels of Bigman and Ironman, providing feedback as he did this ' you two are givin a fair lick, but what a 'bl***' noise with these nobbly tyres'. We apologised for destroying the peace and harmony in the countryside and explained our mission.

We cruised back to Dunfie at 17mph with the roadie on our tails. The Posse's thoughts drifted to the fact that this was the penultimate BIG ride out before we start the tapering. Only one more BIG ride. Only 12 more hard training days. An epic journey that started nearly 340 days ago. And now we have over 1700 blogging followers which has provided superb encouragement. You are all heroes.

By the time Bigman had returned home his backside felt like it had gone nine rounds with Mike Tyson. A new saddle always brings life to dormant muscles! There is now less dormancy and more activity. Time will tell who will win the battle for supremacy - the saddle or the backside!

You can read about it hear first!