Mind games.

YES! YES! YES!

As you might work out by the above statement, I have made the 500km mark.

I have promised my wife that I will make reindeer stew for all our guests we have invited to celebrate new years tomorrow, so I decided to bag the the last 70km`s this morning, giving me time to peel spuds and stuff tomorrow.

When my alarm went off at 06.30 today I really struggled to get my weary body out of bed, especially with the fact that i could hear hailstone battering down on the bedroom window. I consequently pulled the duvet back over my head but with a helping elbow from Anniken I finally managed to roll out of bed at 07.30.

The temperature outside was -2 degrees and the sleet/hail had died somewhat. Today I decided that I would just ride a loop around my village on the roads that were almost ice free that I had spotted yesterday.

The loop is 7.5km`s long and I would have to ride it 10 times to get the needed km`s.

After round nr.2 the storm eased off a little and I found a photo opportunity.

Not soon after I shot the picture, the skies turned black again and the sleet returned and the wind picked up.

I was pretty miserable by round 5 and stopped at the local petrol station for a coffee. I grabbed a customer and asked her to take a picture. The result was my head inside, and her legs outside.

The ice on the roads was almost completely melted where the car tyre tracks were, so I could either chance riding on rotten slush, or a gully full of water. It was raining so much at this point that I kept my wheels firmly in the gully and put my head down. " I am not wet, or cold", "I am not wet, or cold". "Only 20km`s and I can get a shower" were about the only things I thought about round the last few laps of Søgne.

The ice and rotten snow was blocking the escape routs for the accumulated water mass.

Hehe. Childish i know but these signs still make me snigger.

All in all I am very pleased with myself and I am not going to pretend I havn`t had some tough times over the last week. Its been pretty hard at times due to the conditions and the fact that i have been solo on my 13kg cyclocross bike with studded tyres. (and with an average temperature of -6 Celsius)

Iv`e spent 31 hours 32 mins 54 seconds out on my bike, 26:6:03 of actual moving time. (a lot more than last year, even though i`m a little fitter) and My 2 minutes of fame being that i was on top of the Norwegian leader board on Strava when I uploaded my final ride, with one less ride than my "rivals".Brilliant!

As per usual today Strava log is here and my Instagram photos are here

This has got to be the best base mile week I have ever had, so if i doesn`t help me out next racing season, I really am a basket case!

Thanks go to Strava, Rapha and my family for the motivation.