Garmin gone wrong

Well, my Garmin seems to be on the blink. If I go over a bump it sometimes turns off. I called Garmin and they said they would replace it for £65. I was thinking of going for a 705 but unfortunately, they won't allow me to pay more to upgrade. I'm going to try to work on that though. They said that it takes 10 days for the unit to be sent out, once they have received the faulty one - OUCH! 10 DAYS!

I still don't have a number - hold on, let me check again - no, still nothing. I'm not concerned about it, as many others still don't have their numbers either. I'm just so keen to find out what the number is that I'm checking a bit too often than is healthy.

I have, what I assume to be, a saddle sore. It just looks like an enormous Ventoux shaped boil on the inside of my thigh - really, really sore and sooooooo attractive. Thankfully, I still have plenty of the cream that the Doc gave me the last time this happened. I'm really looking forward to getting that new saddle and hopefully eliminating these painful sores.

On the saddle front, it should be any day now. I called Race Scene, the shop which did my bike fitting, and they are going to help me get it onto the bike according to the fitting measurements. If it arrives tomorrow, I will be able to get it on the bike on Wednesday and get 3 rides out on it before the Etape Caledonia at the weekend. If it's not here tomorrow, I think I should wait for the following week to have it fitted. I'm sure it's going to be wonderfully comfortable to ride but I think it's too big a component to change a few days before an 80 mile sportive.

I went on a great ride into the peaks & over the Cat & Fiddle yesterday - will try to get a link on here to the route. I was on fire! The brickworks hill, which I wasn't able to get up in one go when I first tried it a couple of years ago - now it is really quite straightforward (not exactly easy) and I didn't have to go into my lowest gear. I'm feeling great. Now I just have to reign myself in during the next 5 days while I get ready for Etape Caledonia.

I've now changed from Powerbar drink powder - I couldn't hack the taste - and have gone for Torq, as recommended by some readers of this blog! The flavour is much more palatable. It worked really well on the ride yesterday. I also bought a bucket of plain Torq so that I can increase the carb without increasing the flavour. Torq have these handy little screw top containers, which contain one portion of powder - they're really going to help me streamline my bottle filling process on sportives. I have been experimenting with different gels too - my favourite is Powerbar Apple with caffeine. They are thick and take some getting used to but I feel that they really do work - mentally as well as physically. I am buzzing after a couple of those!