16th March: On the Road Again.

Finally, finally it seems the weather has finally turned and we appear to have days where it rains for less than 18 hours at a time, some of them even one after the other!

I took advantage of feeling good after the Sunday MTB session with a blast out on the road with my Christmas prezzie from LSS of a pair of road trainers - Asics Gel Sugi’s - as the marathon after next is on tarmac so getting them at least broken-in would be advantageous.

The new pavement pounders.

Well I survived and felt ok about it afterwards, so onwards and upwards, as I would like to have a go at a PB in that marathon.

On the Wednesday I managed to drag Kelv out for a ride - the first of the year for me and even longer for him. We went off on our normal route and needless to say, as it was the first ride Kelv has done for several months he was feeling it a bit, namely breathing out of his arse by the time we were 3 miles in!

As part of the normal ride, on the turn for home from the furthest away part of the route we went along a road that had signs in it warning us it was closed and flooded - should be alright I thought as we went wearily along it… Then the puddle started - it was only shallow, at least at first, but it got deeper and deeper. The water was beautifully clear, so crystal clear you could see to the bottom of it through the mist now starting to rise off the top as it flowed the way we had come… Then before I knew it the water was over a foot deep and getting significantly harder to pedal through with the spray from the rear wheel now soaking my arse and needless to say my feet had a good dousing.

Kelv was behind cursing and swearing as he experienced the same, but hey, you’ve got to go through it to get home… Eventually we did, and pretty chilly we were too seeing as the temperature had dropped to near freezing as a mist descended.

At the weekend I decided to re-ride the route to see how the flood looked like in the sunlight. The day was wonderfully sunny celebrating spring had sprung - the trees are in blossom and bud, the birds are singing and building nests, and the road was a river!

It seems that with the excessive rain and the rise in groundwater levels around here a new spring has sprung… The road in question is called ‘Ford Road’, although there’s not normally a river near here! There is also a farm called Ford Farm at the head of the lane which has a stream leading to it from the spring of the River Whitewater around a quarter of a mile away to the north, but nothing has flowed this way in living memory… Until now! It seems that the ground water is so high that there is now a new spring in the field next to the farm which has become a small lake, with the water heading off down the lane from it, in part washing away the road surface at the edge and leaving large craters here and there in the middle of it.

I wonder how long the spring will be active for? Judging by the torrent of water pouring down the road it may be like this for a little while!