Pain in the butt...

Literally - I was doing a few preparation drills for this weekends Hill Climb Championships (checking equipment, checking body - both good) and when I was descending back down after a run I felt a massive sting on my inner right thigh (the bit that rubs, or is close to, the saddle). I looked down to find a honey bee stuck to my shorts.

Panic mode started - two days before an important weekend of racing and I just got stung by something that I have a known very bad reaction to. In August 2006 I got stung on the face (turned into a "Mars Bar Head") and again in July 2007 I got stung on my forehead (another "Mars Bar Head" incident). The second reaction was much faster so I knew time was crucial. I headed home as fast as I could and started to call Cycling Ireland and the Irish Sports Council to find out what I need to do as I was pretty sure I would be getting an injection of Solu Cortef. I was doing all this as I was getting dizzy and in a lot of pain. With the documents I needed I visited the doctor and got sorted pretty quickly. (The receptionist remembered me from the last two times and pulled me straight into the Doctor)

Now, I'm pretty good and the doc said I should be okay by the weekend - fingers crossed.

Crazy!!!

I did a loop of the upcoming marathon course yesterday morning. The course is pretty good and reasonably weather proof. One of the climbs is a killer and I suspect that unless it stops raining for the next few days (currently raining) I'll be walking sections. It is not very long though and the rest of the course more then makes up for it...

Anyway, getting back to what I thought was crazy - I stopped off at a part of the marathon course where I joined in to drop off a bottle and some extra clothes I didn't want to carry (hidden nicely in the trees). I rode for two hours (the loop) and arrived back to find this:


Seriously - who the hell does this? I'm in the middle of nowhere and someone dumps all their crap (There is a link to report such things). The recent weather is bad enough to push me out of Ireland let alone this type of thing! It's not even that unusal. I also passed a truck pilled high with 5 burnt out cars that they just picked up from the forest.

Seriously - people in this country (any country) that cause any issues should have to do a mandatory 500kms a week on a bicycle - then they wont have any energy left to get up to badness :) Grrrr

Delivery Companies...

Over night delivery - yeah right...

As my friends say - Dominos or Four Star Pizza should sort the "last mile" delivery problem. They always find my place :)

Speaking of annoyances - why the hell does Tesco have to change around the isle orders on a weekly basis. Only it is so close I would change to a different supermarket. I was able to do our weekly shop in less then an hour (including walking over and back) in the past but now it takes 1.5 as I have to find that the eggs which have moved four isles and the orange juice that I didn't buy because I couldn't find it... Ahhh...