What with "Come Dine With Me" (which if you're wondering, I won), ordering mowers and barbeques, tidying the shed and having friends over for the bank holiday, I haven't exactly set the world alight with the cycling.

That said, I managed to put in 3 quick stints last week after work, the last one as follows ...

Time : 26 mins

Distance : 4.7 miles

Av. Speed : 10.9 mph.

Like I said, not exactly Lance Armstrong just yet, but taking it nice and slow ...

SPOILER ALERT! Don't read this if you still haven't watched the final episode of LOST.

It's time for another rant I'm afraid as I find myself cheated by the ending of my favourite TV show and the fact that Gemma feels the need to justify it.

Since 2004, like many people, I have been invested in the story of the mysterious island. The 6 series have been brilliantly confusing and left you wanting more. We've had flashbacks, flash forwards and now we discover, at the 11th hour that the the flash sideways were ... wait for it ... purgatory. We'll there's a surprise, if for no other reason that there was a huge belief after series one that the island was purgatory. It's as if the writers have gone, "Oh, that's buggered that up, we've been rumbled ... I know, we'll introduce a flash sideways ... in the very last series ... and make that purgatory. That'll fox 'em". And so it did.

Gemma accuses me of not being to suspend belief, something I happen to think I'm very good at, especially with LOST (the polar bears, time travel, immortality, need i go on) but this flash sideways lark is a complete get out. So they're in purgatory, right? I get that, but they can't remember each other ... OK, bit weird but I'll run with it. Oh no, hang on, Jin and Sun can remember each other, but can't remember anyone else, or little things like, oh i dunno, how to speak English? So they both drowned together, died ... arrived in Purgatoryland, and what were they doing then? Watching TV, wondering why they couldn't speak English any more. It's then explained that they didn't all die at the same time ... but baby Aaron must have done, cus he's still a baby and the others or still the same age as when they were on the island. Imagine Sawyer, dying at 70 only to arrive in purgatory the same age as he was when he was on the island. He might think that was just a little bit odd, but then again, maybe not, and decides just to be a cop instead. Lapidus is on the plane so I guess he won't be in purgatory with the others ... oh, but Miles is? John Locke dies and he can walk but then arrives in purgatory and is in a wheelchair again? Would he not have thought something weird was going on? Juliet falls down a well and dies, wakes up in purgatory to find she's a nurse in the same hospital as Jack ... not only that, married to him??!?! At the limits of my belief suspension I could perhaps con myself into believing all this was going on if they knew they were in purgatory and just getting on with this but that's just it, the whole 6th series is hinged around the fact that they are remembering stuff from when they were alive, remaking connections and wait for it ... don't actually know they're dead. Unbelievable! It's a total farce. I could go on but it's making me mad just writing this stuff. Utter TOSH!

After overindulging at Drew's wedding on Sunday, my diet has consisted of (very little) tuna, salmon, lentils, and low fat yoghurt ... and no alcohol. I've been out on my bike twice this week. Only half and hour each time, but as Tesco say, every little helps. Oh, and I've lost half a stone in 3 days. Not particularly healthy but needs must.

Looking forward to the 6th and FINAL (at last), Come Dine With Me on Sunday. No pressure Al but we're expecting you to cook up a storm ... and I'll probably put the half stone back on.

The Big Bowel Bike Bonanza
Challenge Ride - 51 Miles - Glasgow to Edinburgh

Following the success of the 3 Peaks Challenge in aid of Bowel Cancer UK last year, I've decided to compete in the Pedal for Scotland event in September 2010.
This time I'll be raising money for "Beating Bowel Cancer" and at the same time supporting Maggie's Cancer Care Centres, to which the entrance fee is donated.

Before we get into the details of the challenge, I should point out I'll be taking part on my old school mountain bike (a few of you might remember the red Diamondback) and I can honestly say my arse has barely touched the saddle since I passed my driving test ... nearly 20 years ago.
So apart from not having done any cycling for 2 decades and taking part on a mountain bike older than the average age of the cast of Glee, pedalling about on cycle paths for the equivalent distance of Bournemouth to Portsmouth should be a doddle.

The challenge is now in it's 12th year. The 51 mile Glasgow to Edinburgh ride is Scotland's biggest bike ride and attracted over 7000 participants last year.

A big thank you to everyone who supported us last year. Together we raised over £6000 for Bowel Cancer UK. Any donations this year for another fantastic cause would be gratefully received.

TEST RUN 1 - Aim 10 miles

Conditions - drizzle, mild wind (oh and gears kept jumping from one to another ... v.offputing)

Achieved - 6.35 miles

Time - 37 mins

Av. Speed - 10.3 mph

Comments - Not particually happy with the outcome, but we've all got to start somewhere my ol' muckers and on the plus side, I didn't split my shorts and my cycle helmet fits!

Following on from the success of the 3 Peaks Challenge last year, I've started to think about another challenge for the end of May. Not wanting to do any bloody hill climbing, and having finally picked up my bike from Mum's house in Dorset ... and the fact National Cycle route 7 runs through our village, I'm tempted by a cycling challenge.

I'm struggling to know where to pitch it though. Aim for 10 - 20 miles (as many people who know me and my fitness levels seem to be suggesting) and it's hardly a challenge to rank up there with the 3 peaks. Aim for 100km on the other hand and I might kill myself.

Having cycled EVERYWHERE in my teens (well, probably until I was 17 and got a car to be fair) I have this notion in my head (a bit like I did with the 3PC) that I'm much fitter than I actually am. I decided to cast doubt on the doubters and go out for a little jaunt up the cycle path one night after work last week, before it got dark. 4 miles later I was out of breath and back home. In my defence, only 2 of the 18 gears worked, the back brake was goosed, one of the pedals broken and the chain fell off twice. In my bike's defense it's my old school bike and hasn't been ridden for the best part of 20 years. Safe to say both me and the bike were knackered.

Anyway, hence the picture (above). I took my bike to Wheelcraft in Campsie Glen on Saturday and asked them to give it an overhaul, and tonight ladies and gentlefolk, I have it back ... it tip top condition (from what I can tell from the 2 mins I cycled around the car-park in the dark to check that everything worked).

Whilst waiting to have it fixed I have also visited the local Lidl (purveyor of all top quality biking merchandise) and although being £71 worse off, I now have a crash helmet, cycle shorts, 2 cycle tops, a rain jacket, gloves, a mileometer, 2 sets of lights, a mini pump, and a toolkit.

There are now 2 months to go and other than 4 miles up and back on a cycle track and 2 mins around the car-park, I haven't been on a bike since 1991. John, my co-climber last year, thinks we should be aiming for 30-40km for a good challenge. I'm still keen on the 100km but then I always was a bit of a prat. Any suggestions or anyone wishing to join in, bring it on!

I'll keep you posted on any developments.

As for writing ... work has been really busy so I'm still labouring with the planning.

The Edinboro 48 hour film challenge is on at the end of May as well ... so look out for that too!

I have entered Digging Deeper into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Firstly, whilst I admit I shop at Amazon ... in fact I'll hold back for now until after the first round of judging in case they're reading this.

They started accepting submissions yesterday and you've only got until the 7th Feb. So if you're interested, this is how it works.

"Now through February 7th, 2010, or until we've received 5,000 entries in each category, you can enter your unpublished or self-published English-language novel into the General Fiction category, or the new Young Adult Fiction category. The contest will then proceed through four phases of judging:

First Round: Amazon editors will review a 300 word Pitch of each entry. The top 1000 entries in each category (2000 total entries) will move on to the second round.

Second Round: The field will be narrowed to 250 entries in each category (500 total entries) by Amazon top customer reviewers from ratings of a 5000 word excerpt.

Quarterfinals: Publishers Weekly reviewers will read the full manuscript of each quarterfinalist, and based on their review scores, the top 50 in each category (100 total entries) will move on to the Semifinals.

Semifinals: Penguin USA editors will read the full manuscript and review all accompanying data for each semifinalist and will then select three finalists in each category (six total finalists).

Finals: Amazon customers will vote on the three finalists in each category resulting in two grand prize winners.

Review the Official Contest Rules and watch our video tutorials for instructions on preparing and submitting your entry."

If you fancy giving it a bash, visit https://www.createspace.com/abna?ref=480641&utm_id=5141

I'm not particularly hopeful of winning against 10,000 entries but you gotta give it a go eh?