The Dean that didn't happen

Grr, I didn't cycle the Dean,
Despite being very keen,
The weather turned mean,
And that made me green,
And I wanted to scream!
So I changed the scene,
And started to dream....
...If only I had this machine: 

Felt a little peeved that I was not able to cycle 'The Dean', that was the 4th DNS this year! Still wanting to turn the pedals, I decided to go out on a couple of my local routes instead. The first adventure was the 'Deer Route'. I cycled a clean version earlier in the week, but this time around I cycled the dirty version. The dirty version went off-road. Below is a map demonstrating the route.

This adventure was fun but it sure was cold, below freezing. Snow covered much of the road and in some instances completely covered the trail. Check out the photo's below.

The rivers were not frozen over but proved to be menace all the same. One poor person had gotten their car stuck in Coughton Ford. Strangely enough, the wheel on the car was clamped. I wonder if the car is still there?! I was more sensible and cycled over the bridge!

My second and final adventure of the week was a lap of the 'CS SR 1' route. This was a lot slower than when I cycled it last time - I was on a single speed mountain bike this time around due to the weather conditions.

What made the route so nice this time around was a certain castle and a certain Mr Fox. The castle I cycled past was Studley Castle, where my wife and I spent our first night as a married couple exactly one year ago. I love you SJ, happy anniversary! Fantastic Mr Fox was running alongside my bike (in the woods) for a little stretch. How cool to see a fox running but not for it's life!

Despite not completing 'The Dean', I was happy with my cycling this week. I managed to cycle a fair amount of times in the week. My LEL training target was 100k and my 'ideal' weekly target was 161k (100 miles). The total distance I covered was 184k which brings my yearly total up to 1,877k.