Single speedin' in the snow

England was covered in snow this week. Snow makes cycling difficult. Difficult but not impossible.

Last week I let the snow beat me and cycled zero miles. This week I was determined to get a few miles in. Cycling my road bike was out of the question but that's where my mountain bike came into action. I used 'Queenie' my single speed steed for a number of adventures.

The first adventure took me on a familiar trek through naughty fields and onwards to the Bread Crumb trail. It was hard going from the start though, the snow was thick and slowed me down greatly. Once I reached the naughty fields further menace struck - I had to battle with these cyber scarecrows! Horrors!

Sadly, I spent much time pushing my bike because the snow was just too deep. I would cycle short stretches and push short stretches. Once I reached Alcester all was good again. I couldn't wait to blast round the Bread Crumb trail (a single track loop around Oversley Wood). The trail was difficult too - hard to navigate due to snow covering and hard to cycle through due to depth of snow. How I managed to complete the trail I do not know - snow had turned to ice and froze up the pedals not allowing the cleats to attach. This was a major problem and my pedals remained frozen until I got home.

My second trip was in much snow again. This time I took a trip to Redditch (to return DVD). Once DVD was returned, I returned home deliberately making my trip a loop.

The last adventure of the week was a figure of 8 loop which passed Ragley Hall on many occasions. Snow was still about but had started to thaw. This journey was an attempt to increase my distance to my desired target (100 kilometres) for the week. Am pleased to report my weekly distance was exactly 100k which I was real pleased with after cycling zero k's last week. My yearly mileage to date is now 372 miles. Hope to cycle (at least) 120k next week. Time will tell.

Talking of time, I fitted Queenie with a new time piece (as shown in picture below). This is a great little gadget and just a fiver from ebay - bargain! I made this purchase after reading about same on Chris's blog, which can be found here: http://bikingbulletinboard.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/week-1-2013.html