Sun,squirrels,badgers,woodpeckers and bunnies.

An Azores high pressure system has developed in the last few days and is now bringing lovely warm and settled weather to England. All of a sudden we all feel happier and cycling becomes a whole lot easier. Warm muscles, sun on the back. It's no wonder that half of the country is either on permanent holiday in Florida or is emigrating to Spain or Australia.

This is easily the best time of the year. The evenings are drawing out, the light has a special quality, the temperature is perfect, and there is that tremendous optimistic feeling of better things to come. I've just walked the dog down the lane to Dunsbury Farm and managed to come across 2 red squirrels, a badger, a woodpecker, pheasants, rabbits, and the icing on the cake...a barn owl working the fields with its curious loping low flight pattern. There was even a strange Bill Oddie character lurking in the lane, standing still, looking at the tree tops. He was obviously from The Mainland because apart from the beard and funny camouflage clothes, the other clue was the carbon fibre walking pole in his left hand. Anyway, I had to ask him, 'Alright there Nipper, what's up that there tree what is so interesting, like?' And the answer...... he thought that he had seen a red squirrel, and of course, he's never seen a red one before. And nor had I until I moved to the Island. Now they are ten-a-penny. Which brings me to my tenuous link.... 40 mile rides are now hopefully becoming commonplace for me. I've adjusted my goalposts and whereas a month ago I would have a sense of achievement if I did a 3 hour ride, now it feels like a basic ordinary training session. And so it needs to be. I'm more than aware that there is a long long way to go between now and July. According to my very cunning training plan, I need to do a 68 miler this week. I'm on leave, so I'm going to do about 65 tomorrow and then hopefully about 70-75 on Saturday or Sunday. I'm planning to take in all of the Island's worst climbs, and I'm also going to go out at 7am in order to simulate the Etape as much as possible. I know for certain from 100's of early morning fishing trips that I don't ever feel like eating when I get up unusually early, and I definitely don't feel like exercising. That 1970's jogging boom which saw tons of people out at the crack of dawn in their Nike waffles was never my scene.

So, I've loaded the Ipod with a new playlist, the energy drinks are mixed and I'm actually looking forward to the ride.