It’s been a few years since I last did a Day in the Life post but I was musing on how stupid my routine gets during the Tour de France so decided to record a day in tedious detail. Enjoy! Side quest: spot how many Pusheen things I use (this post is not sponsored by Pusheen Box).
It’s July 16th and stage 12. If you’re not aware, the Tour de France is a 3 week-long 21 stage bike race across France, this year from Barcelona (in Spain, yes) to Paris. While I watch too much bike racing all year round, the Tour is so much bigger in every way with full coverage every day (5-6 hours) and hundreds of little stories to follow. It’s a lot. I picked today because it’s a relatively flat stage and I won’t just be glued to the sofa registering record high heart rates and shouting at the TV.
5:50am – check the time with some trepidation, hoping that it won’t be 4am like the past couple of days. At this time of year, anything after 5:30 is getting up time to make the most of the cooler temperatures and limited pre-race hours. Remember to cancel my alarm for once (still set to 7am just in case).
6:00 – Make breakfast and take it back to bed. Currently I am alternating between porridge and a bagel and today is porridge day. I did not think I would still be eating it in the summer but it’s quick, easy, filling and healthy (more so if I didn’t put brown sugar on top but that’s what I’ve always done). I have perfected my routine to have my Aeropress coffee ready at the same time. I mix normal coffee and decaf depending on my tiredness and today is 95% caffeine.
6:15 – Watch latest episode of the Tour Daily podcast from Escape Collective on Youtube. It’s always a lot of fun, especially since they’re on location and slowly losing their minds over three weeks. I also appreciate the way they prioritise all the silly and unique stories from what is a very silly sport. This year’s highlight is undoubtably Iain getting to live his dream and ride on a cabbage car in the publicity caravan (gift link).
7:15 – Skim through my emails, news, socials etc. Consider today’s single rider fantasy game pick again before the deadline. It’s a flat stage but I’ve used all the big name sprinters already so hopefully Huub Artz can get another top ten. I am also playing 2 teams games but I am weird and like to stick with my original team for the whole race unless they abandon. It’s all just for fun anyway.
7:30 – have a shower and get dressed. I finally remembered to lower the water temperature in the main thermostat yesterday and get to have a very warm shower instead of a very hot one. The plumbing in this building is ancient. My slipper situation is getting ridiculous – I will wear all of these today: slides for socks, flip flops when it’s too hot for socks and Pusheen slippers when it occasionally gets too cold. Yes, I’m wearing Christmas Pusheen socks.
8:00 – Work. Nothing particularly urgent today (I miss having lots of shop orders, why not buy something?) Answer a couple of emails and get back to some freelance work. I considered tidying up a bit for this photo but I couldn’t be bothered getting up. Reality!
10:45 – OH NO, the man across the street has got his pressure washer out. It is extremely loud, like a lawnmower, and he usually enjoys himself so much he spends hours washing everything in sight including half the street. As you can imagine, I hate him so much.
10:55 – yeah, I cannot deal with the noise, even with the windows closed (it’s now 20C). End of proper work for today. Eat a cracker with peanut butter.
11:00 – Pop to the supermarket for a couple of things. Glare at pressure washer man (PWM) from across the street. These hydrangeas are so pretty!
11:30 – Hurray, PWM has stopped already! Take some photos of the new Pusheen Box for an upcoming review (live now). It’s a really cute box but really needs a beach/pool for photos, and a helper for the tee, hat and bag. I will have to do my best.
11:55 – make lunch hastily for the start of the TdF pre-show. I have ham and potato salad in a roll (if that sounds weird, you should try it!) and another cup of coffee (60% caffeine) because my head hurts, thanks to PWM. Also a choc chip muffin (not pictured) I love my lap tray! It is far too sunny to have the curtains open but there is a gap for a nice breeze. It looks like I’m using a comforter here but it just lives there for chilly times.
12:05 – Oh, so PWM was just having a break and is now back. Shut the window and read some magazines through my library app while TNT Sports waffle on until the race actually starts.
13:00 – PWM has stopped again. Everyone wants to be in the breakaway, which is worrying for my fantasy pick. Start doing some work that needs less focus (photo editing, setting up blog posts).
13:12 – Aw, it’s another solo outing for this year’s breakaway hero, Baptiste Veistroffer. Continue my one-sided petty feud with TNT by switching to the multi-camera feed for 3 minutes every time there’s an ad break. Removing the ad-free stream during the Tour while charging £30.99pm (I pay less than half that, thanks to EE but still) never stops being outrageous behaviour.
13:55 – PWM is back with a vengeance. I HOPE YOU GET SUNSTROKE.
2:30 – My laptop is overheating as it is, in my newly adopted heat ranking, “too hot to play pétanque” (thank you, old French men watching the Tour). Change into cycling kit to ride my bike, which is on a smart trainer connected to Zwift for virtual riding. Zwift is currently doing a Tour Fever challenge event for their new France map expansion so I do one of this week’s stages. All the theming is so fun and matches the Tour, down to the sponsor ads, mascots and cheering crowds. This is a very boring route with about 12km of flat before a small climb and then a horrible long climb. I am later delighted when I realise this is a (much shorter and easier!) copy of tomorrow’s Tour stage.
4:00 – Finished! I needed the fan on full blast and a damp cooling cloth around my neck to get through it. 25km in the end. Get changed, grab a well-deserved ice pop from the freezer (strawberry). I think PWM stopped for a bit but is back at it, in case you thought I’ve been overreacting here. Glare at him out of the window and see he’s almost reached the end of his extension cable so fingers crossed he’ll stop cleaning the pavement soon. Back on the sofa just in time for everyone to start attacking.
4:30 – Ugh, horrible crash near the end of the stage. I feel bad for hoping the one Lotto rider left in front is Huub (it is, P10). Tim Merlier’s incredibly cute little son is stealing the post-show coverage. This little recap is probably my favourite thing from this Tour, so far.
4:45 – PWM has finally stopped and put everything away – joy! I went across the street the next day to take a photo of the jet-washed pavement for lolz and I couldn’t even see where he stopped! What a waste of time. May suggest he starts playing pétanque instead.
5:00 – Remember to check my stats on Strava – apparently this was my 150th activity! The very stupid but extremely motivating Athlete Intelligence (yep, “AI”) tells me I hit a 30 day best 60 minute power and that I was “solid across endurance and threshold efforts”. I hate genAI but this kind of stuff is actually useful to help me see that I’m getting better, sometimes even when it feels like I was struggling.
5:20 – do the washing up, start preparing dinner. Timings are a little vague after this point. I have limited edition smash burgers from the Co-op, which come with a pickle and mustard melt. I do the melt bit in the oven this time and it’s even better. Glad I took a photo as this point as the assembled burger was a right mess. Extremely tasty though. I also have fries and a couple of plums after. I’ve been rewatching The (US) Office but I’ve hit the bad times post-Carell so not sure I will carry on.
6:50 – Do my Duolingo (2663 day streak!). Today is Dutch history and kind of depressing so I only do one lesson.
7:00 – Share today’s SCK post – Summer Flowers Crafts & DIYs. Watch some more TV/Youtube, look at stuff on my phone. Brain generally frazzled from 2 weeks of TdF excitement.
9:20 – Fill up my Pusheen tumbler with a huge ice cube and water and head to bed. I finished a book yesterday so it’s probably time to get back to The Count of Monte Cristo, unless my brain is too tired. I do indeed fall asleep almost immediately.
The end.
