Today I've mostly been getting wet. Saturday 16th January

When I was given the schedule for today the directions were 4hours at 18mph average with intermediate sprints (sprint for village signs) and attack the hills. No where in there did it say find a 20mph head wind to ride into, nor did say spend 3+ hours in the rain and it certainly didn't say find flooded roads to ride through where the water comes up to your ankles.
But then again, they are the things that add to the richness of life. I was joined by Angie Thorp, Will Hall and Russell Clarke with the intention of following a 72mile that Will had plotted, but with the wind we decided to see how we got on over the first 20miles. Will was tired before we started and Angie was struggling from not doing anything for the last 3 weeks and they both turned round and headed home before we got to 15 miles. And by the time we got to 45miles Russell was questioning the wisdom of not having breakfast. The idea there was to encourage the body to use fat stores for fuel rather than carbs.
We altered the route to 58miles and found the road flooded at 30.5miles just after crossing the A140. Averaged 16.1mph but the conditions took their toll on that. Heart rate averaged 72% of HRM.
I hadn't appreciated how cold and wet I was until I got home. Headed straight to bed to get some warmth. Really not the day for the boiler to be playing up following the plumbers visit yesterday to fix a radiator thermastat. (Fingers crossed might have fixed it now.)
So once warmed up I headed to UEA pool for a shower and to make up for missing yesterday's swim session. I'd expected to only get 55minutes due to the pool closing to switch between 25 & 50m mode. When I discovered upon arrival that it was staying at 25m all evening I opted for a longer steady session comprising 5x 1k with 1minute rest between swimming full stroke on the odds and pulling the evens (arms only with a pull buoy between the legs).
Figured I'd earned a beer and curry following that lot (sssh don't let on about the two slices of christmas cake after the ride).