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Well that was a cracking ride today....  Got up on time, went through the usual pre ride rituals of 4 weetabix, cup of tea, get drinks for ride ready, sort out all back pocket stuff, jelly babies, inhaler, tea cakes, gel in the event of a 'bonk'.  All was well, I set off on time destined for Sheffield.  It was a nice drive up there, very little traffic around.  Conditions were OK, 10c and dry although the ground was wet from overnight rain.

Upon my arrival of Sheffield it suddenly dawned on me that I had everything with me except one key piece of equipment, my GPS.  Without this I'm up the proverbial creek with that broken paddle form Oxfords boat yesterday, with no computer on the bike either it would have been hard to use the cue sheet given.  Now some would argue that I could have still rode and used said cue sheet, and they are right, some people could.  Not me though, I'm not into this faffing about and stopping every ten minutes, I like to keep my head down with the occasional glance at the GPS to check I'm still on course.

So rather pissed off I turned around and headed back home.  A quick unload of the car and fitting the GPS to the bike I selected a route of similar distance to what I was expecting to ride today and headed west into Derbyshire and Staffordshire.  Not done this route for some time, the roads west of Burton are very nice and quiet. That old foe of mine Hanbury Hill still has a nasty kick but as most hills these days was easier than last year.

I did forget about the psychotic dog that sits outside a farm just past Hanbury, I spotted him on approach and gingerly rode towards him.  I got level and thought last time may have been a one off, and then WOOF, he sprang into action, baring his teeth and snapping at my ankle, I trod on the pedals and sprinted, for a little dog he has got a turn of speed, I had to keep going until he gave up.  It's a wonder he didn't get hold of my ankle, he was giving it his best shot and I feel lucky he didn't manage to make contact.

The ride home from the half way point of Hoar Cross was quicker than the way out thanks to the westerly breeze that pushed me home nicely.

I've recently started using Strava a site similar to Daily Mile.  The main difference though is with Strava you can split the ride into segments such as the climbs or long flats to measure your progress against other strava users and of course your self.  It doesn't integrate with Facebook and Twitter as well as Daily Mile but it's features do seem better, for the time being I'm using both whilst I get used to Strava.

Distance = 114.5 km
Time = 4 hrs 17 mins
Ave Speed = 26.7 kph

2012
Road Bike = 1320.6 km
Indoor = 331.4 km
Ran = 217.9 km
Total = 1872.9 km