Footprints and Tyre Tracks

Back to Basics ... and a Mini Challenge to Myself

2012-01-17T11:19:00.003Z

Jez and I attended a Dirt School session at Lee Quarry on Saturday. I desperately needed something to kick start my MTB skills and confidence as they have been on a bit of a downward spiral for quite a while now.

Thankfully the weather was relatively kind with glorious sunshine but it was also baltic and I'm not sure I've properly warmed up yet. It was a useful day for me in quite a few ways...got much better at drop offs, a bit of jumping, flat off camber corners where I managed to find the traction limit of my front wheel a few times (which I'd normally never get near) and some advice on bike set up.

My (admittedly very slight) ability to manual appeared to have completely deserted me when I was thinking about it, was fine when I didn't (see drop offs). My shoulders and back got a serious work out as I started to throw all sorts of muscles into getting the front wheel to come up.

Jez's day was made by learning to clear tabletops, smoothly and in control...I'm not far behind but still get some OMG! when both wheels are off the ground, even though it was deliberate for a change.

So a few things to think about and put into practice. The mini-challenge? Learn to climb properly on flats, I just couldn't do it, kept lifting my feet right off. Got the hang of descending on them again pretty quickly and felt pretty attached to the bike at all times apart from climbing. I'm obviously very dependent on the upstroke from SPDs for climbing (no wonder my hip flexors are always tight). It just annoyed me, so I want to see if I can change it, no other reason really so the flats are staying on the hardtail for the forseeable.

Fitness Fightback

2012-01-15T11:55:00.002Z

Whilst I am getting stronger I still feel quite slow on the bike. I am hoping some of this is due to riding the Kinesis with rack, guards and often rack bag or pannier and that when I get back on nice light Bianco she will practically pedal herself up hills - wishful thinking probably.

I've done some swimming and commuting now, one very dreich road ride over Rivington way which was cut short due to how miserable it was. We did go over the steep 17 - 20% climbs from the Waterman's Cottage and Alance Bridge and I was actually quite pleases that a) they weren't as bad as I thought the would be a and b) Jez couldn't drop me. Obviously b really cheered me up as earlier in the ride he was flying up the short power climbs and dragging me along the flat whilst I tried to hold his wheel as part of my ride with a bit of purpose campaign...find doing that harder than long hills tbh.

I still feel like I am only two thirds back to fitness on the bike though strangely my run fitness seems ok? Why I don't know. I had a fantastic run on Thursday when I decided to sod the swimming and go for a run on the beach in the sunshine. It seems like forever since I ran at lunchtime due to swimming and it was fantastic:

Friday I braved the cold and rode to work, trying to keep up with Jez until Warton then tootling on my own for the next 8 or so miles. I've been slightly extending my commute in/out lately by taking the less direct route along the sea front. It takes it up to 19.5 miles or so now and you get views like this at the moment in the morning:

Won't be long til my commute home coincides with the sunset...then it'll be nearly spring!

2011...2012

2012-01-15T11:24:00.002Z

2011 was a bit of a mixed year for me, started well with lots of road riding and a serious increase in my bike fitness. Lost a bit of lard to help with the hill climbing and I rode further than I ever have before. Totally fell in love with my road bikes somewhat at the expense of my MTBs and began learning to swim front crawl somewhat at the expense of my running.

Highlights were definitely the Etape Du Dales, even with the minging weather and our second Swiss MTB tour. The increased fitness was a big help on those long 10 mile climbs.

The year ended with a bit of a whimper with an knee injury, followed by lurgy, then the death of my Nana. December was spent beginning the road to dragging my way back to fitness.

The year ended with 3467 miles ridden, only 569 miles were actually offroad (no wonder my MTB skills are disappearing). The rest was pretty much on the road either just riding or commuting. I did over 1200 commuting miles last year which is also the most ever so I'm quite pleased with that.

Running wise I only managed 288 miles though it was squeezed out a bit in favour of swimming at which I am only slightly less crap than I was at the start of the year. Only 60 miles swam but everyone was hard fought. I had a rough goal at the beginning of the year that I wanted to average out an hour of some sort of exercise a day, I managed 386 hours last year so comfortably managed that.

Onto 2012....

The aims for this year so far 400 hours of exercise, the Etape Du Dales again (praying for better weather). Just riding even more and perhaps just a little faster, last year was all about making sure I could do the distance this year doing it a bit faster if I can. I am a complete dawdler on the road really and my body doesn't cope well with lots of serious intensity so my plan is to ride with just a bit more purpose sometimes. I do reserve the right to dawdle though, its what makes road riding fun for me believe it or not, dawdling and exploring new roads.

I'm going to keep on with the swimming as I think it is good for me, helps me stretch out and develops some core strength which I really need. I'm going to try and fit in a triathlon at some point this year but its not going to be the focus. I want to do more riding rather than anything else at the minute and I need to build up and maintain some running form so swimming will be cut down to twice a week (and will no doubt get worse).

I need to develop my running again as Jez and I have been drafted in to support a friend at the CELTMAN! part of the requirement is one of us needs to be fit enough to do the supported run leg. The plan is for Jez to get run fit enough to do it but it is probably best either of us can do it.

Other than to shed a few kilos put on at the back end of last year I've not really set too many targets. I did a kettlebell class last Monday which was pretty hard at the time and the next day I felt as knackered as if I had just ridden EDD all over again (seriously!) so I am going to continue with that for a few weeks at least as I clearly need the strength. I currently still feel I'm clawing my way back to fitness so I'll review at the end of January.

A Nightmare November

2011-12-11T18:10:00.001Z

Warning: Self Pity Content!

So glad it's December, hopefully things can get better! In my last post I mentioned my knee injury that was on the mend and that I was hoping to get my activity level back up to normal if the "cold I was nursing" went away. D'oh, spoke far too soon.

Whatever monster lurgy I developed had me effectively sofa bound and off work for a whole week (only cos choice of mindless telly was better than what I can watch in bed), then another week slowly becoming more human, working from home...In the end it was 12 complete days of doing absolutely nothing.

I managed to get my act together and get up to my folks in the middle of the month, mainly to visit my Nana. She was diagnosed with MND earlier this year and was deteriorating fairly steadily. I knew she had major problems moving, holding her head up and couldn't talk but she could still write, albeit slowly. So we had a conversation of sorts, the hardest thing to deal with for me was actually her complete lack of facial expression, there are so many nuances in a person's face normally.

She had refused the electronic voice thingy as she didn't want to sound like Stephen Hawking! Stubborn old bird. I left worrying what on earth was going to happen once she lost the ability to write, as mentally she was still as sharp as a tack, just stuck inside her own head with no other way to communicate.

8 days later she died in her sleep(as often happens with MND). It was quite a shock but also a relief at the same time. It was no sort of a life and I'm convinced she took the only control option left to her in the end by refusing to eat much..like I said stubborn. As you can imagine I was pretty pleased I'd managed to get to see her.

On the way home after the funeral (Wednesday 23rd), I stopped off at Glentress for a bit of a ride. My fitness had long since gone over a cliff due to knee injury followed by lurgy and my original plan was to just pootle round the red, just pedalling, thinking things over, enjoying the endorphins.

I ended up doing the black climb (why, I have no idea, haven't done it for years and I really wasn't really well enough) up to the mast then the red descent. The climb was a complete grovel at times, particularly as I kept trying to attack it in too high a gear but I enjoyed the pain in that weird way, I think I needed the effort. I need to ride this climb more often when I end up at GT, its fantastic.

I picked up the red descent from Spooky Wood and had an absolute whale of a time all the way back to Hub. It was due to shut on the Sunday so I was quite pleased to be able to buy one last piece of carrot cake.

Since then I've been trying to claw my way back to fitness. It's not going entirely smoothly, not helped by the stupidly windy weather and my desire to keep things short at this time of year. I've gotten a few "easy" short runs in, quite a few swims and am starting to get back out on the bike. I even set my turbo up again....not actually ridden on it yet but now the threat is there I'm actually going to cycle to work tomorrow, 30 mph gusts or not (I'm sure I'll be swearing like a trooper once battling it).

Onwards and upwards!

Stupid Knee...

2011-11-03T17:06:00.003Z

Been hiding a bit as feeling sorry for myself the last few weeks, due to ending up on the injury bench. My left knee has been causing problems, I spent almost a whole week where I could neither fully bend or straighten my left leg and back of the knee was swollen...the cause of this injury...sitting at my desk!

Ok, it was after a busy and very, very long day (0900 - 2350) in which I barely moved from my desk (very unusual for me) and I could barely walk to my car afterwards. As I'm quite paranoid about knees I rested for a week which helped a little but tried a two mile run and it all swelled up again so sorted out some physio. Cycling was a bit painful, as was swimming too - which seriously peed me off! Possibly the most annoying thing was I fancy having a go at another half marathon early next year to motivate me over winter, had drawn up a rough plan and didn't even get to do the first run.

Its likely its really just some inflammation around the knee, not helped by tight calves (stretching) and possibly tight hamstrings, though at the same time I have pretty good range of motion in them? No ligament damage or anything and am slowly building things back in, single leg squats are my future.

Have now managed up to four pain free during and after running miles. Commuting is fine as its flat though at first had to drop quite a few gears for pulling away with the panniers. Swimming is ok now too (pushing off the wall hurt) and I've done a couple of MTB rides. Riding the On One was still giving me a few problems, I ended up sitting right on the nose of the saddle (not particularly comfy).

I have moved it forward quite a bit now and the back of my knee no longer hurts. This is slightly "amusing" as I had a problem with the VMO muscle on my left knee a few years ago that resulted in me moving all my saddles back and buying layback posts for the MTB, ho hum.

This has resulted in geometry and layback comparisons on all my bikes. Most of my bikes are around 74 degree seat angle apart from the On One with is a super slack 71 and the Kinesis which is 73. I also wasn't aware that seatposts can have different laybacks, up to a whopping 25mm on my Bianco (which compares to 10mm on the commuter). No wonder I had problems when I tried to set the saddles into same position on the rails!

Next thing to try is some road hills, hopefully this weekend, if the annoying cold I now appear to be nursing disappears.

On a cheerier note, my new commuter is built (Jez did end up doing it but I stripped and cleaned the Ribble components, which took ages). I love riding it, love commuting with the panniers, it just feels so much more relaxing not having the weight on my back, it changes the whole feel of my commute. I love the mudguards and it seems more comfy on the rough roads than the Ribble it replaced. Not sure whether that is the frame or the 25mm tyres (find it hard to believe its the tyres).

Speed wise I think its about 1mph slower overall than the riding the Ribble with a rucksack, but I am slower at this time of year anyway. More importantly it is probably about 2mph faster than the Spesh...probably triple that in a serious headwind as I can get down on the drops. Stealth black to a bit of more visible colour (my Garmin now matches):

Physio tonight, hopefully will be more in the land of the active now!

Advanced Muppetry....

2011-09-28T11:19:00.003+01:00

Its a good idea when taking a hot pan out of the oven to carefully use an oven glove on the exceptionally hot handle. Its also a good idea to move said pan by the handle away from the edge of the cooker to a safer position, though taking the oven glove off before doing this was most definitely not a good idea.

Cue burnt hand and a few hours of sitting with my hand in a jug of cold water whilst necking pain killers. D'oh, d'oh.

Its a bit sore this morning, a couple of blisters on my fingers and thumb and a nice imprint of the pan handle on my palm and its throbbing a tiny bit. MTBing is out tonight but road riding may be ok tomorrow as don't hold onto the bars the same way. Just debating whether going swimming is sensible (no weeping from the burn)...may just content myself with a run?

Back from Switzerland...

2011-09-15T16:27:00.003+01:00

Had a great few days with day two being one of the toughest days of riding I've probably done. Journey back on Monday totally disrupted by flight cancellations in the UK, eventually got home after midnight sans bike and exhausted.

Currently sat at home waiting for said bike to be delivered after an anxious few days waiting for it to be traced and brought up to Manchester. The boys all got theirs on Tuesday but I managed to leave my baggage receipt on aircraft from Zurich in my hurry to get off. On future air travel I will not be so careless with baggage receipts, its not worth the worry and scanning the small print in house insurance policies whilst totting up the replacement costs!

Will post more, sort out pictures etc over the weekend.

August - meh

2011-09-05T19:03:00.003+01:00

Not had the best August I have to say, I think its been the lowest activity month this year with a measly 158 miles ridden and one solitary, very short swim. I did somehow manage to run 40 miles which is the most in a month this year. Currently feeling a bit unfit and out of sorts.

The reason is a combination of things all ganging up on me at once. Niggly injuries, a bout of sinusitis which caused a headache so bad I was sofa bound for two days and wasn't fit to drive as my balance was shot to pieces.

This was closely followed by a parental visit, which to be fair did allow me to recover nicely but then I was straight into the first period of on call I've done in a very long time. This was over the bank holiday weekend which meant I couldn't stray too far out into the wilds. Though the weather wasn't that great anyway.

Jez and I did squeeze in a quick blast on the mountain bikes on the Sunday where I tried my hardest to stay right on his wheel. Pretty much managed it too particularly uphill, though on some of the fast open downhills he gapped me a bit even though I was pedalling hard but that's momentum for you.

I indulged in a bit of retail therapy to cheer myself up and the extra money from the on call means I could finally start building the commuter/winter road bike with full guards and a rack I meant to build at the beginning of the year (spent the money on Bianco then instead).

The plan is to move the bits from my old Ribble frame to this new Kinesis frame. I foolishly said I would build it...that may or may not go well. It will certainly take me a lot longer than Jez would. I think he had Bianco built in about an hour, including the gears and fork steerer sorted. Somehow think its going to take me a lot longer....if I don't get banned from it due to lack of mechanical sympathy.

September has at least got off to an ok start with a swim (which went better than it had any right to), a run and I managed to squeeze in a bit of an MTB blast on Friday morning before heading north for a weekend in Edinburgh with friends. Its good fun being a tourist in your "home" city, saw stuff I've been meaning to for years.

Got another steady run in today up around Darwen Tower with one temporary misplacement incident in Tockholes woods which was hilarious. Somehow I managed to dodge the rain only have to run about a mile and a half out of 7.2 miles actually directly into the stupidly strong wind.

Going indoor skydiving tomorrow which should be interesting! Then starting the packing process for our trip to Switzerland (similar trip to a couple of years ago). I can't wait but just wish I was feeling a bit fitter for the hour long climbs.

The Cycling Gods Hate Me!

2011-08-15T15:06:00.004+01:00

Been quiet lately, suffering from a few niggles and an accompanying case of the blahs. Not helped by the weather seemingly bypassing the rest of August and heading straight for October last week. Have a bit of a stiff left shoulder and my old feeble left knee/tight left hip problem is trying to make a reappearance (the latter is actually causing the former).

So not much swimming at all and to be honest St Annes pool is so incredibly busy at the moment that its pretty unsatisfactory anyway (unless you want to do very slow breast stroke). The downside of its location at the seaside and an large elderly population I suppose. Actually thinking of trying out Leyland pool for a bit until the kids go back to school and hoping lunchtime swims become feasible again.

I did sod all this weekend in spite of grand riding plans and eventually had to force myself out the door on Sunday evening for a bit of a run. A promise to myself to do only 3 miles turned into 7 pretty enjoyable miles (apart from the first 2 that is). its probably what I needed as this morning, despite massing black clouds of doom I got up to cycle to work with Jez.

One mile into the commute and I nearly fall off my bike just after pulling away from a junction, my foot had slipped off the left pedal. Try in vain to get it to clip in and pull over thinking my cleat must have fallen off. As soon as I put my foot on the floor I knew that wasn't the case. A quick look at the pedal (Crank Bros Candy) and the spring has jammed open, great. Leave Jez to get on with his commute and I ride back home to get the fast road bike.

Get it down, get air in tyres and change shoes to roadie clogs then head off again. I don't know why I let it enter my head but I hoped I wouldn't get a puncture going through the messy road works on Strand Road as I had fast rather than durable tyres on. Banished the thought. The rain starts in earnest, I was hoping it wouldn't be too long a shower as I have no guards on the fast bike.

Got through the road works ok...just heading to the cinema on the docks and rear tyre start squirming, bloody puncture! Pull over at a handy bus shelter so at least I'm out the rain. Change tube ok after a serious check of the tyre, could feel the air whistling out of the punctured tube but struggled to locate the hole, manage to actually get the tyres on and off the rims with just my thumbs.

Pump a little bit of air in the tube with my mini pump to check all is seated ok before unleashing the CO2, all well. Unscrew the mini pump and the entire valve core comes with it. FFS!!!!! Never had that happen before, now seriously, seriously peed off. Now no spare tube at all.

Get the other one in, go straight for the CO2 and I did think about just going for it but I the way things had gone today I'd just end up puncturing again half way which is 9 miles from home and 9 miles from work and a good few miles either way from civilisation.

I then ride in a fairly angry manner towards home. Thinking that I could just jog if I get another puncture as its only about 4 miles max...then remember I've got roadie clogs on now so start riding a lot more sedately scanning the ground constantly for pointy things. At least the sun had come out.

Get home, try to touch as little as possible in case it breaks, drive very carefully to work. Unfair!

Big Sky Riding

2011-08-02T11:26:00.002+01:00

Saturday just past and I was back in the Dales, only about two months after EDD but a completely different weather experience. This is what I love about Dales mountain biking:

Bone dry trails and fantastic views. In fact, I think that was probably the first time I had actually ridden some of those trails in the dry, for some reason we seem always to tackle these grassy, limestone infested trails in the winter wet, complete slogfest then.

I managed to clean the evil climb out of Littondale up to the road skirting PenYGhent for the first time ever, pretty pleased with that, normally I just either don;t have the legs or spin out on some greasy bit of limestone. The lovely cheese and pickle sandwiches I'd just troughed at the pub were the deciding factor I'm sure.

The visibility was just awesome, this was the kind of view I knew I was missing in all the clag of the EDD:

A great ride and just occasionally on the descents I thought my descending mojo was really coming back, ear to ear grins at the bottom of every single one...hopefully I'll get it fully back before our trip to Switzerland in September.

Wot MTB Tyre Pressure? (For the girls really)

2011-07-14T14:35:00.003+01:00

Can't believe I'm actually asking this question but it was suggested to me last night that perhaps the reason I'm pinging around so much on the hardtail and losing traction really easily on the slightest hint of gravel on a climb is that my rear tyre is perhaps a little too hard at 40psi....it did feel rock hard to squeeze tbh.

So...who runs what psi on the rear of their MTB? For info I use tubed Kenda Nevegal/Blue Groove combo on both geared MTBs all year round/in all conditions and usually have 30psi at the front and 40psi in the rear. Minimum pressure is allegedly 40 psi for both tyres (oops) but I've run the front at 30 for a good few years now with nary a problem (touches all the wood I can find).

I just have this irrational fear that lowering the rear to 35psi or below will result in a sensation of riding through treacle with a squidgy tyre, making everything harder, particularly climbing. Though I have at least realised these days that much more than 100psi in my skinny road tyres only feels faster as I'm pinging off everything on the road as opposed to actually travelling faster.

No point asking Jez as he runs closer to 50psi in his and thinks my front tyre in particular is too soft. No I don't generally let him inflate my tyres unsupervised and yes he has pumped mine up to 50psi before..just before setting off on a ride with lots of wet limestone, hilarious it was not.

Morning Swimming

2011-07-08T16:07:00.002+01:00

After last weeks total swimming fail due to not being able to park anywhere near the beach because of the weather I have gotten up twice this week (Tuesday and today) and got an hour in the pool before work....and it wasn't that bad actually. A whole week out of the pool can really set me back.

I did have a couple of wtf am I doing here at this time of the morning but I am managing to get some good swimming in (that is a relative term!). I figured I should try to make it a bit of a routine before the school holidays start as lunchtime swims will be almost impossible.

I did head down at lunchtime yesterday for a short technique style session and it was a faff even then as some of the older kids have obviously finished and were in the pool. To be fair they were actually swimming but I get annoyed with (usually blokes) that thrash up the pool to beat me at crawl then slow breast stroke back because they are knackered and I catch them up.....

Lazyish June

2011-07-08T15:33:00.004+01:00

Feels like I've not done that much since the EDD, though looking at the stats its not quite true. It was no surprise (at least to me or Jez) that riding that far in that weather and taking in the best part of b*gger all calories did leave me somewhat lethargic for at least a week. What was a surprise was the fact that it took over a week for any sort of appetite to come back but hey ho. Enough time has passed that I have at least cycled in a headwind again..and a bit of rain.

June saw my motivation take an upturn when the weather did, though for some reason I have been hit quite badly a couple of times with hayfever. Not continually but has left me with a bunged up nose, streaming eyes a slight wheeze which made any sort of activity difficult.

It didn't occur to me that swimming would be affected but it was as I try to breathe out through my nose continually when my face is in the water. The chlorine actually irritated things even more and my nose unblocked just enough to allow a constant stream of snot out.

I decided that swimming through chlorinated snot wasn't a great idea (though at least it was my own I suppose), grim. Swimming was further kiboshed later in the month due to the world heading to the beach on the scorching days..I couldn't get parked within a mile of the pool in any direction those days.

I did manage a little bit of running, but hayfever and the heat meant I CBAd with it a lot. The totals don't look too bad though for the month:

24.5 miles/3:44 hours of running
5.41 miles/5:00 hours of swimming
325 miles/22:33 hours of cycling

31:18 hours overall which isn't too bad. I've had a rough goal since the beginning of the year to try to average out at an hour a day of exercise to help shed the lard jacket and I've managed it every month so far.

I should update on how that all went really, I think I've just about come to terms with my starting weight on the 1st of January this year...or maybe not but I've taken my eye off the ball slightly since the EDD and I don't want to head back to being that lardy again.

So scores on the door:

Weigh in 1st Jan.....66.7 kg (FFS, I'm only 5ft 4)
Weigh in 14th May....60.4 kg much more like it, glad I didn't have to haul those 6 kilos round the EDD.

I'm not flying up hills on the bike at all but they definitely require less effort than they did, I've got a good bit of free speed in running (what I noticed the most actually) and all clothes fit really well again.

On the slight downside, headwinds got a lot harder on the bike as I lost some power, I don't roll as fast downhill and I get pinged around a lot more on offroad descents than I did, especially on the hardtail but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I started being sensible again last week and as usual I felt really sluggish once I cut out the extra crap (I'll get used to it again) and was starving for my whole 50 mile road ride on Saturday and ended up with:

In my defence I didn't put all that cream on and I had to scrape most of it off to eat the scone (then ate the cream, oops). Incidentally I still seem to be struggling to get out of the training for EDD mindset as every road ride still has me seeking out as many chevrons as possible. This didn't amuse Jez on our recent ride around Pendle Hill, that and I'd forgotten how lumpy it actually was.

Etape Du Dales

2011-05-26T10:27:00.005+01:00

It's now almost two weeks (how did that happen) since I did the Etape Du Dales, 110 miles of hilly fun in the Yorkshire Dales...the last 65 of which were probably the most, wet, windy, cold and miserable I have ever been on a bike, well a road bike certainly.

The weather was awful, a permanent headwind (I knew this was a possibility in the Dales so it wan't too much of a surprise), there wasn't even a view to compensate for grovelling up the hills. I survived though and still think the Dales is a fab place to ride and will be back there on a bike soon (road or MTB) - though if you'd saw and heard me on the long slog to Tan Hill on Sunday 15th May you wouldn't believe me.

An early get up of 5:30 am and set off by some time after 6 am saw me being chauffered over to the Dales by Jez who had sorted my bike out the day before, checked the yres, gears, brakes etc made me eat and drink lots, generally had to put up with me being a major stress bunny as I was about to do the longest and hardest road ride I had ever attempted.

He dropped me off at the event HQ, helped me unpack stuff, attach number to bike, make sure I had my supplies, watched me set off at about 7:30 then headed off to Harrogate to amuse himself all day whilst I rode. I was expecting about 9 hours ish going by my speed on previous rides but would text him updates as I went round.

It was pretty much straight into the strong wind from the off, though at least the sun was out at this point. I had the course in the Garmin so set it to the course screen which gives distance to go and time remaining (based on current average speed). I didn't want to get hung up on actual moving speed numbers that early on, particularly into the wind, it was all about getting round. I sucked wheels where I could to keep effort level down.

It didn't seem long before Fleet Moss was looming, I was pleased as wanted the first climb out of the way. After the first ramp I decided my saddle was in fact too low, I've done some test rides since putting the roadie pedals on but nothing with serious climbs and the pedal/cleat combo feels very different. Put saddle up a smidge and things improve.

Over the top and back into the wind I have a slightly terrifying descent into Hawes as the bike squirmed around all over the place, horrible, the front of the bike was just a complete handful. Trying to stay away from the edge of the road but at the same time leaving enough space for the maniac descenders concentrated the mind somewhat.

Once the gradient eased off a bit I realised I had been desending MTB style hovering above the saddle, allowing the bike to move around. As there is nothing to disrupt the wobble on tarmac it just gets worse, there is no need to have the bike moving around. Park backside on saddle and things improve and knuckles get a bit less white....

...for about two minutes til approaching some sheep. Mummy sheep and one lamb on one side of the road, other lamb on the other who decides to spring across the road just as I was about to pass. I'd scrubbed quite a bit of speed off approaching them as I was rightly wary but the back wheel still fishtailed all over the place and I was glad it was still dry at that point.

Into Hawes and the first checkpoint. Get some Soreen banana loaf out to get some food in then realise whilst its tasty it is almost the same consistency as malt loaf and turns into a horrible sticky paste that takes me ages to eat. Only just choke it down before the next hill.

Onto Buttertubs, enjoy this climb too but still have a sneaking suspicion saddle is too low as the tops of my calves are starting to ache but decide to leave it in case its just the newness of the pedals, don't want to put the saddle too high as that brings its own problems. The clag was starting to move in a bit and I'm sure there were a few spots of rain but nothing much. Really enjoyed the descent off Buttertubs, probably because its not quite so straight as Fleet Moss and the wind wasn't quite so swirly. Hit 42 mph on the last section as I was feeling much happier with my descending.

There was some fairly easy riding for a bit that wasn't directly into the wind for a change, choked some more food down then left lower back started to stiffen up. Saddle too low then (my left knee splays out if its too low), saddle up a bit more and it stops aching instantly. I don't have any more saddle problems though calves were still aching ominously.

Soon heading off up towards Gunnerside...amuse myself thinking that one of the most miserable and wet rides I have ever had on an MTB was around here, quite a prophetic thought really. It was still great road riding, my favourite kind, quiet and exposed moorland roads. Through the ford, not sure what was dangerous about it, then up towards the long slog to Tan Hill.

It started off ok, very hard due to the wind but it wasn't raining yet. After waht seemed like ages the road swung round to a more westerly direction then it all got horrible. Think the rain came in, the wind got stronger, the view such as it was disappeared, it was just hell. I plugged away, as did everyone else. The odd group came past but they were going too fast for me to try and get some shelter on a wheel. Anyone I caught up with was going slower than I wanted so nothing for it but to grimace and grumble all the long, long, long, seemingly never ending slog to Tan Hill.

Still want to ride up there on a good day, like I say, empty exposed moorland road riding is my favourite, the downside its not great on a minging day.

Finally get to Tan Hill, lots of people in cars meeting riders. If Jez had come to meet me there I would have jacked it and got in a nice warm and dry car, no question I was so miserable. My legs ached, I was freezing, wet and I wasn't even half way FFS.

I refilled a bottle with energy drink, I had only drunk one in 50 odd miles, oops had one of the gels on offer and a couple of bits of flapjack which were easy to eat then got back on the bike and got down the hill to try to warm up a bit. Descent was a bit sketchy but I wanted to get down.

I really don't remember much of the next section all the way to Nateby, it had the potential to be good but I had lost the will to live by that point and it seemed I was barely turning the pedals. It seemed very up and down, more relentless wind and showery rain, I suppose at least it stopped occasionally and my legs hurt! I did manage to drink quite a bit though.

I was seriously thinking I couldn't go on, then I remember passing a sign saying "Welcome To Cumbria"! Reality dawned, Jez was in Harrogate having given up his whole day to let me ride my bike as well as checking over said bike and making it run perfectly and putting up with my stressing. The only way I could justify aksing him to drive all the way from Harrogate to Cumbria was a major mechanical (unlikely) or a stack (no thanks). The course changed direction at Nateby, the headwind remained, grr. I realised then that LittonDale was probably going to be the only place for a bit of tailwind..I know LittonDale from past MTB rides.

Somwhere after Outhgill, I came out of the other side, clicked the bike up a few gears and started riding again, getting some motivation from somewhere. I think I realised that my calves weren't getting any worse and my quads still felt pretty strong.

The weather completely deteriorated at this point but that just seemed to make me more determined. The section to Ribble Head was the worst of the whole day, strong head wind, horizontal stinging rain, standing water on the road filling my roadie shoes but I gritted my teeth and got on with it, thankful of my best decision of the day to leave the peak on my helmet. It really helped.

Third checkpoint arrived, I had one full bottle and one almost empty, hmm not drinking enough (or eating for that matter). Get another couple of flapjack fingers down my neck and one of my caffeinated gels for a boost and decide not to take two full bottles over the Coal Road but make sure I drink all of this one.

To the Coal Road, steep but not as hideous as I was expecting. I found sitting easier on the steepest sections to be honest, I'm not fast enough standing on that kind of gradient to justify the extra effort of standing. I was actually climbing a bit faster than most anyway. I nearly had to put a foot down as the back wheel spun badly at one point, I looked down and I had just ridden over a banana skin...there is a metaphor in there somewhere I'm sure.

Over the top and the clag was thickening, no view at all, was very disappointed by that. I was trying to smile for the Sport Sunday photog, it must have been minging stood up there but I only had slightly less of a grimace:

It actually got so foggy up there I couldn't see the guy riding 10 metres in front, it was very disorienting as all of a sudden the descent started and the road just dropped away. I had to take my glasses off completely here as they wer so badly rain splattered. Having the helmet peak on meant the rain missed my eyes. Once out of the fog the descent was fine, if a little steep.

Soon I was at the last checkpoint, still with one full bottle, oops no drinking at all then. No point filling up, had a quick gel then onto the last 20 odd miles and the last biggish climb. I was grateful for the chance to warm up, I was absolutely soaking wet and had gotten pretty cold on the way to the check point. It was a good climb, o view but I saw a small section of limestone pavemet which I like..it was right by the side of the road.

I have my Garmin set to lap at 10 miles on road rides, its normally a good reminder to eat/drink. I realised near the top of the climb that the next time it lapped that would be my first official 100 miler..the Trossachs Ton was 98.6. That cheered me up, over the top and onto the descent which was great fun even if I couldn't see anything.

Down into LittonDale and finally a tail wind, stick it in the big ring and get moving. See the 10 miles to go sign, yay. I reach the 100 mile mark around the pub, let out a bit of a woop and get some funny looks but don't care, keep pushing, head down and taking advantage of the wind. Notice Garmin seems to be stuck at 8 miles to go, bloody thing froze completely so no idea how long to go in either time or distance and can feel the beginnings of the bonk creeping on me and sit up a bit debating whether to fish some food out.

See the five miles to go sign and decide just to get a move on, I can make five miles even if starving. Bloody headwind makes a reappearance again and starts with the old horizontal rain but soon its one, seemingly very long, mile to go. Yay,
then its over, off bike, dib, get off, wobble over to rail and hang bike up.

Try to get a response out of Garmin, nada, locked, didn't think to reset it though, d'oh. Have no idea what time it is or how long its taken me, feels like about 10 hours though. Phone Jez to let him know I've finished, he's about 20 mins away so head into the HQ to try to get warm, get my time, find something to eat as I'm starving and more than a little light headed.

Hand my chip over and they print off my time 8 Hours 38 minutes, I had to ask her to repeat it as I thought there was a mistake. I was so pleased as I was hoping for 9 hours on a good day. I then got a cup of coffee and what was possibly the best tasting bacon butty in the world, hoovered it.

Even in the warm HQ I was beginning to shake uncontrollably as I was so wet, thankfully Jez arrived at that point and as quick as I could I got outside, bloody freezing out there then wheeled my bike over to the car. I think I lost about half my coffee as my hand was shaking so much it ended up all over my hand, I didn't mind as it was warm.

I quickly got changed into dry clothes and into the warm car, then home. I have a real sense of achievement over this ride.

Forgetting to take my wallet to work yesterday...

2011-05-11T16:25:00.000+01:00

Means not being able to buy my usual toast for breakfast (usually then covered in penanut butter and a banana) and think a banana will suffice. Think I'll be fine as I've remembered sarnies and rest of food so don't bother borrowing money from colleagues to buy more.

Wonder how hungry I'll be after swimming though...then realise I don't have my swimming pass..or money to park (it's refunded but I need to pay it). So no swim, think I'll definitely be ok. Eat all food..getting peckish at 2:30 (canteen closed now), very hungry by 3:00 pm then full on starvation/light headed mode by 4pm. Leave work early, drive home in a daze, stomach rumbling all the way.

Get home, race (ish) into the house, nearly skid on some cat vomit (thanks Kat) then get some bread in the toaster. Head upstairs very shakily and inhale jam and peanut butter covered toast forgetting all about the cat sick. Stop shaking as the sugar gets in my system, remember cat sick but by this time Jez is back and cleans it up instead (win!). Decide I am in fact fine, get cycling kit on and head out with Jez for a 20 mile blast on the road bikes.

Set off at warp speed, dropping Jez for the first time in my life in a vain attempt to convince myself I have plenty of energy. Heart rate rockets up to seeing stars territory and refuses to come down, Jez resumes his normal position of being miles in front. Slowly but surely the roads turn to treacle and I deny I am heading for the bonk though start keeping an eye out for nice patches of verge to lie down in.

Nearly kill myself several times trying to clip into my new road pedals, had absolutely no problems on the last two rides, my inner Kevin the Teenager starts to appear...SO UNFAIR!!!!!!! Stupid shoes:

Jez makes decision to alter route to avoid the black cloud of doom heading towards Abbey Village and tells me I need to get back and get some food as I appear to have lost the power of decision making and have a totally glaikit expression on my face (and probably some drool). Head home the fastest way, though the roads seem especially treacly then get my front wheel lifted in the air by the wind.. SO UNFAIR, too stroppy to get scared.

Get to our favourite chippy...closed...all the way into town to get some chips, Jez repeats his order to me five times and I still forget some of it. Home, shakes, food, bloody hell.

Etape Du Dales in on Sunday, stressed, unfit, schoolgirl pacing errors. Bah!

Over Resting..

2011-04-08T11:00:00.003+01:00

On Wednesday's evening ride I realised that somehow it had been a whole week since I had been on a bike, I'm not sure how I allowed that to happen (watching the Tour of Flanders on Sunday afternoon instead or riding might have something to do with it). I've got a couple of really enjoyable offroad runs in however and the rest has done my legs the world of good, now to spend the next couple of weeks beating the crap out of them again. (Swimming is still limping along).

Had a lovely ride on Wednesday evening, a social paced ride even though I was on the singlespeed, first time I've felt that way about a singlespeed ride, last weeks sneaky practice did help though as well as pretty fresh legs. It was a beautiful evening, shorts and short sleeves even for me who is always cold and the trails were almost dry, just some bog. There was a stunning, ride off the track inducing sunset to watch to and no lights required (just squeaked this though it meant a short ride).

March (and February) in numbers

2011-04-07T11:39:00.003+01:00

Just been comparing the last two months, I can kind of see why I really needed my rest week at the end of March

Biking: Feb 287 miles/ 19:40 hours
Mar 422 miles/ 31:33 hours

Running: Feb 39 miles/ 5:52 hours
Mar 23 miles/ 3:19 hours

Swimming Feb 7.1 miles/ 7:36
Mar 11.5 miles/ 11:23

Other Feb 1:30 climbing
Mar 5:48 hill walking

Total Feb 34 hours
Mar 52 hours

I do need to remember it all adds up and takes its toll!

Rest Week

2011-04-01T15:09:00.003+01:00

I'm taking an easy week this week, it is actually planned for once which was good as it was obvious on Sunday's road ride I was clearly in need of one. I faffed all morning before getting out on the bike even though it was a nice sunny day, that in itself should have been a clue as I couldn't wait to get out the week before.

Plan was to up the difficulty of the climbing a bit and head over to do a circuit of Pendle Hill. My legs were fine but for some reason my head just didn't want to ride. I ignored myself because some of my best rides have started out with that kind of mental approach and come good.

Lots of ups and downs to warm my legs up on the way over to Whalley, taking things nice and easy. Sunny day, bit of cold breeze but very hazy. Pendle Hill was pretty obscured, though for a change it wasn't heavy clag:

Soon I was riding through Pendleton, ready to climb up to the Nick O Pendle. Took it really steady, bracing myself for the stupidly steep bit, which didn't really materialise. It was really hard but not as stupidly hard as I was expecting, which was probably just as well as this seems to be a road where drivers like to try and brush your elbow as they pass, really felt like every car refused to give room.

A fast drop down the other side and up the climb to Padiham Heights...which kicked my arse, that's more like it! I made it up the evil climb, legs were still fine, still CBA to be riding though even though the roads were great. Eventually dropped into Barley and stopped at the heaving cafe for some food, they didn't have much left so settled on some chocolate sponge and custard and a cappucino.

I had a bit of a wait...realised the time 3pm, on a Sunday afternoon means most things will be closing. Only 27 miles ridden, 3500ft of climbing, just over two hours of riding (was that all). A lot of time to look at the map and realise there really was only one way out of Barley..up. An enormous plate of sponge and custard and a huge cappucino was plonked in front of me. Top marks for value for money but I was stuffed when I was finished...just before heading up a big hill.

I hadn't quite fully given in by this point so climbed out of Barley (no sponge after effects) and headed to Downham as I'd heard it was really pretty. It was but here the last of my motivation deserted me and I decided to go home. So a map check and I decided to head through Chatburn, Waddington then out to Ribchester then home, rolling terrain. Within about a mile of making that decision almost everything started to hurt, it's amazing how admitting defeat just changes everything.

It wasn't the most fund ride home I have to say, a bit of a headwind and the sponge started making its presence felt about Waddington. The grind out of Ribchester was particularly nauseous. A fastish blat down the A59 then home, shattered. With hindsight, starting the rest week on Sunday with an easy spin was probably a better idea.

Monday's swim was a bit rubbish for swimming but was a great stretching session for my shoulders, hip flexors and lower back. I do like floating about in the water even if my swimming isn't up to much.

Tuesday I canned my commute as I felt really tired and groggy in the morning when I woke up, which did worry me a bit so I opted for another half an hour of sleep instead. Within about five minutes of being up and about I felt fine, I'm always a bit groggy on the dark mornings d'oh. A three mile run after work was all I managed to fit in.

Wednesday the boys were off to Gisburn with some work colleagues, I couldn't get out of work early enough so decided it was time to break out the singlespeed and head to Abbey Village when I did get out of work. Get the first ride on it in a while without the sight of the boys disappearing off up the hill. Riding on my own means I can set a sensible pace on the initial climb through the woods and take the time to ~~get my breath back~~ coo over the lambs:

(I blinked first!)

Legs were ok for riding but the biggest surprise was my arms, normally my arms give out first on the SS but they were fine, which is the swimming I presume. The only annoyance was a bit of a mechanical where the jockey wheel fell out of the chain doofer, causing the chain to fall off. Luckily I was rolling along downhill when it happened and not stood up grinding out a climb. A lot of faff with taking the wheel out, screwing the jockey wheel back in, watching it unscrew itself before my eyes as I pedalled along as I'd not done it right then going through the whole palaver again.

I was still up near the tower when this all happened and its a bit of a sobering realisation that whilst its a mainly downhill 3 or 4 miles and not much time at all back to Abbey Village with a working bike its an entirely different situation if the bike couldn't be fixed and a walk was on the cards, I got quite cold very quickly too. When it first happened I also seemed to be the only person up on the moor, fortunately I did bump into a very friendly MTBer who checked I was ok when putting the bike back together the second time.

My repair held but I avoided doing any steep climbs on the way back to the car just in case the chain decided to fall off again. Was still a great ride though.

Thursday was supposed to be a bit of a run but it was stupidly windy at work, would just be silly at the beach, one of my "rules" for rest weeks is to have fun with "training" as much as possible and running against that wind is usually not that much fun. Had a great swimming lesson in the evening, back stroke.

I postponed the run to today, it was still windy but nowhere near as bad as yesterday however it was still really crazy at the prom. Running with my eyes closed as the sand was being whipped into my face but it didn't last long before it was behind me. Quite pleased I didn't venture down yesterday, even the seagulls were sheltering behind cars.

Plan for the weekend is a 3 hour max road ride and I may break my trail shoes out and go for an offroad run. Wednesday's ride reminded me how much I like being up on the moors.

Road Riding.....Weeeee!

2011-03-21T14:43:00.003Z

On the flip side to the swimming rant, road riding is coming along nicely. I'm starting to feel the benefits of a few long rides in the legs and I've got my climbing mojo back. That's not to say I'm flying up the climbs, I'll never do that but I'm seeing them as a good challenge again which I like.

The ride length has been building up...60 miles, 67 and then 83 miles in the glorious sunshine on Saturday taking in Waddington Fell, The Trough and a loop out to Quernmore to take in the grind up to Jubilee Tower before the long boring flat ride back south of Preston. I even managed not to need lights on that one as I got out riding before lunchtime. Having to cross the river to get home is a bit of a pest as there are only a few places that it's possible, either in Preston or out at Ribchester.

Not sure I'll up the distance much but will probably up the brutality of the climbing a little bit. I may even think about taking the car to somewhere like Garstang and ride from there as I have real hankering to ride over Lamb and Tatham Fells and its a bit of an epic from home with the the trog back to Preston. The new bike is fab, the gamble on the saddle has hopefully paid off (ordered another for the commuting roadie), the carbon frame stopped me from feeling shaken to bits at the end of the ride and the RS80 wheels are as fab as they ever were. Here it is (I've already changed the seat post to one that can actually have the saddle level):

Swimming...Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

2011-03-21T14:19:00.002Z

After almost three months of thrashing around the pool attempting to do front crawl I am now officially 10 seconds a length (a whole 40 seconds per 25 metres, didn't think it was possible to be that slow) slower than those first few times in January FFS. Nearly threw my pull bouy in disgust at the silver haired, head above water breastroking old dear that overtook me twice today.

It was a frustrating swim today in many respects but I have gone back to basics with my stroke after a friend pointed out I was overreaching above the water then slapping in which is not good and creates loads of drag (and requires lots of oxygen to continue. I'm concentrating on hand entry and I have realised over the last few weeks that my pea brain can only really cope with thinking about one thing at a time whilst swimming (maybe two if they are simple) or else I forget important things...like breathing.

At least things were slow enough today that I was never in danger of running out of air and that I have a whole weird timing thing going on when breathing to the right (my bad side) that seems to involve me separating each movement out before quietly sinking and inhaling water. It would be funny if it wasn't so frustrating. I can't even fall back to breastroke as that is even worse.

Back in the pool tomorrow then...

Big Sigh of Relief

2011-02-26T12:24:00.002Z

My dad was one of those British oil workers stuck deep in the Libyan desert...he's now at Gatwick, thank god for that. He saw no real trouble, though being totally miles from anywhere would have helped and actually had no problems getting a flight out (though not from Tripoli airport) but things definitely escalated earlier this week and talk of SAS on standby did nothing to calm me down that's for sure.

##!@%&*$ Muppet

2011-02-10T12:15:00.004Z

Perfect conditions for a good hours lunchtime run, forgot to pack sports bra, might as well have forgotten shoes. So bloody annoyed at myself. Friday run it is, grrrr.

More shinyness

2011-02-09T18:41:00.002Z

For some reason I really liked this white frame when I saw it hanging in Ribble's showroom. It's not going to be built up properly until my birthday at the earliest but that's probably not a bad thing given the state of the roads and the weather. Gives me time to make sure I have everything...need pedals but I'm sure there is something else I will have forgotten.

Washout Weekend

2011-02-07T11:48:00.003Z

Didn't get out on a bike at all this weekend. Saturday was awful, heavy rain and gales and I was actually feeling a little tired so wasn't too fussed about heading out. Thursday's swimming lesson was a bit of a fitness session rather than out and out teaching and I think it nearly killed me (certainly felt like I was going to inhale the pool at some points).

I have not built up any swimming endurance yet, not surprisingly only being at it a few weeks and the session started with 24 lengths as a warmup, the first 12 front crawl, 8 back stroke then 4 breast stroke. Up until that point I hadn't done 12 solid lengths of crawl. It then progressed onto sets with attempts at sprint swimming which finished me off totally. Fortunately we were mixing strokes as I got to the point I just couldn't get another length of crawl out of my arms. The swim down at the end consisted of head above water breast stroke..I wasn't the only one knackered. 52 lengths and dead arms, it took quite a bit out of me.

Sunday was supposed to be less windy but that turned out not to be the case. Spent a productive morning on bike maintenance. I gave my Ribble a good clean and we did a bit of wheel swapping, my old wheels are now back on the Ribble the RS80's are to be put on the new bike, they are too good to be banging into potholes and grinding the rims away with winter crap. The Ribble is as winterised as I can make it at the minute.

The long term plan is to move the bits from the current Ribble onto a winter frame (once I find one) that will take proper mudguards and a rack to make a proper winter bike. The Specialized is just too slow for commuting duties, especially as the back brake often binds and its crap in any more than a slight breeze, not good heading out to the coast where there is almost always a breeze. Its a great bike for fubbing about on though so will be staying.

As the rain came in in the afternoon I eventually ended up on the turbo. Then got off again after twenty minutes as the tyre kept slipping. The tyre was a littel soft so got the track pump on it and tried to pump it up. Our pump has been playing up a bit and decided to suck all the air out instead. Then spent an hour with Jez taking it to bits to find out what was wrong with it. Sorted in the end but I'd given it up as a bad job buy then.

Normally I swim on a Monday but Jez has my car so I was planning a lunchtime run, however the wind is beyond stupid here at the minute, think heading to the beach would just entail being blown off my feet and having my face sand blasted so I'm thinking of running to Warton this evening to meet Jez, six miles with a whopping tail wind, could be fun!

Mmm shiny

2011-02-02T11:09:00.002Z

January in numbers

2011-02-02T10:59:00.003Z

January was not too bad a month really, was a bit meh at the start due to the cold. I seem to be struggling with riding in the very cold, last Saturday Jez and I went out for a ride in the beautiful sunshine but I wheezed my way round and we had to cut it short.

So

307 miles /23 hours of riding only 45 turbo miles but need to pick this up more

35 miles / 5:15 hours of running

5 miles / 9 hours of swimming (ratio of actual swimming to faffing/drowing/blowing water out of nose in the middle of the pool improving lots now though)

2:30 hours of dangling on the climbing wall

2 kilos of lard lost (yay, a good few more to go, boo)

0 units of alcohol drunk, continuing this to my birthday on 5th March.

So roll on February...lost more actual swimming hopefully, more hilly rides though won;t be doing much longer than 3 or 4 hours at the minute and keep running ticking over. Oh and some more lard blasted would be nice.

Not waving but drowning

2011-01-28T10:30:00.003Z

2011 is well underway and I've set myself two (or is it three) challenges for the first half of the year. The main one is the Etape Du Dales in May, I was supposed to be entering this with Jez and another friend but the event is now full and their names are conspicuous by their absence from the entry list..buggers. So that means lots of grovelling up hills for the next few months, I kind of figure it doesn't matter whether I'm on road or off I just need to get lots of hills in my legs.

Challenge two is to acquire some swimming ability. I signed up for lessons at the beginning of January. I have no real background in swimming, I did all the school stuff, jumping into the water wearing pyjamas and all that gubbins but I was never one for swimming club or such like. I used to love playing in the pool so I'm not scared of the water as such but I am aware I am a poor swimmer. I learned to dive into the deep part of the pool before I could really swim out of it. However, I do have an achievement badge for a 2000m swim somewhere so god knows how I managed that.

The swimming should be complementary to the cycling, especially when the mileage ramps up. I can do it without hammering my legs, unlike running. The lessons started on the 6th January, which was the first time I had set foot in a pool for about six years, prior to that I used to do a few lengths of breastroke before heading into the steam room when I was a gym member.

So far...I have a slow breastroke, arms are actually ok but kick is awful. Front crawl I had never done but am now relaxing and able to string together without stopping four very, very slow lengths together as long as I don't kick too hard (too much oxgen required for that!). A lot of chlorinated water has rinsed my nose and mouth to get to this stage. I've been purposely doing bilateral breathing from the start so that should help things and it now seems almost automatic so I can start thinking about something else instead of counting to three all the time.

However, at last nights lesson I discovered I have a mean backstroke. It was ace, moving through the water at speeds I didn't think I was capable of. Shame it would need quite an empty pool to do outside the lesson, I'd probably hit some poor old dear at ramming speed otherwise. My main focus is the crawl but I am actually quite enjoying doing the other strokes, give me something else to think about when progress on crawl if frustrating, which it will be I have no doubt.

The other driver for the swimming is that St Annes pool reopened last summer, it's only two miles from work and has a good long public/lane swimming session every lunchtime so it's easy to get some practice in. It's also on £83 a year for unlimited off peak swimming which is quite frankly a bargain. I'm currently aiming for two 30/40 min sessions in there and the hour lesson a week. I've been advised to keep sessions on my own short and stop before I get too tired to make sure I don't reinforce sloppy stroke technique.

The third challenge is to shed some of my lard jacket I have been carrying around. Jez bought some scales late last year, I stood on them, it wasn't a nice number (bit of self delusion going on) but it is on the way down thankfully. The EDD is going to be hard enough without too much excess lard. I'm making a big effort now and next month, mixing up training with runs/swims/SSing offroad/turbo/Shorter road rides/climbing wall, once the long rides start I'll need to keep fuelling up so it will get harder.

So..just need to sort out some build up events. Currently thinking Cheshire Cat, 100 mile this year perhaps(Jez not at all keen!) Lakeland Loop and the Brian Robinson Challenge as Jez's sister lives near Huddersfield so we can tie in a visit. Lots of hills in those to be going on with.

2010

2011-01-12T14:50:00.007Z

How can we be at the 12th January 2011 already! 2010 had some good stuff in it for me. A fantastic five days in the Cairngorms in March in superb snow and mainly blue skies and low winds (fingers crossed I haven't used up my good Scottish weather quota). Riding the Etape Caledonia on closed roads, riding my first 100 miles on the Trossachs Ton. Riding coast to coast across Scotland was superb, I think I've finally forgotten about the headwind.

The ice and snow at the end of the year put a bit of a dampener on road riding but I got quite a few offroad rides in. On the first ride with ice on the ground (on the 12th of December, marked the date) I even rode over a three or four metre long sheet of ice that boys rode around. The look on their faces was priceless.

I actually did this not through bravery but because my back brake was not working very well so I was faffing with the lever as I was riding and not paying attention and looked up just in time to see the now unavoidable ice but even the big feardy that I am knew that the best bet was just to keep things as straight as possible and ride it out.

It did help things though and I was quite happy to head out in the snow though the first ride in the fluffy stuff saw us take about two hours to cover five miles, was beautiful though:

Some slightly less successful snow rides followed this as I couldn't get my front wheel to behave on anything less than well packed snow. It would just wash out continually. A suggestion from Jez, which I actually paid attention to for once, was to put a lot more weight over the front wheel and shockingly it did help a lot, who knew.

Fingers crossed I stop being quite so pathetically panicky around ice now.

I set some mileage goals for 2010. They were 700 running miles and 2250 bike miles. The scores on the doors are....

Running 342! So less than half, total fail on that one then.

This was partly due to finding running not very relaxing cross training for cycling then being plagued by a persistent calf niggle from the end of June onwards.

Cycling: 3149! That's a bit more like it. Road riding really does boost the mileage totals somewhat.

D'oh and Double D'oh

2010-12-10T13:12:00.003Z

Planned to take advantage of the thaw and get outside for a short run at lunchtime, considering how close to the coast it is St Annes has had way more snow/ice than Lostock Hall.

I had a bit of a debate this morning...do I take the full length thermal tights or is it warm enough the 3/4 length thermals.....I thought the answer was the 3/4, in reality it turned out to be neither.

I left the tights (and socks as well) at home so no run for me, idiot! Might be able to fit one in this evening but running round local streets is just dullsville.

Fairfield Horseshoe

2010-12-10T12:27:00.003Z

I've been mixing it up a bit with my activities since the cold snap. As I'm no fan of ice (I might have mentioned this before) I've not been keen on taking a bike out. I decided to just do some things I don't normally do so hour long sessions on the turbo doing intervals, a bit of running, some winter hillwalking and even back into the gym to primarily do some weights but also a bit of rowing.

I've been quite enjoying it but I'd had enough of being indoors and last Saturday afternoon saw me head out to Abbey Village in the pouring rain to go for a run. I fully expected it to be sleet higher up and normally I'd be totally meh about running in it. I wasn't sure how far I would get and took my microspikes with me. I didn't need them on the way up as the wet slush got progressively more snowy as I climbed. I had the moor almost entirely to myself which is very rare even for a dull, cold Saturday afternoon. I saw only one other person at the Tower.

I put my spikes on for the descending as the slush was compacting under my shoes and causing traction issues. Legs were a bit tired on the last trog back to the car and it was pretty much dark by the time I got there, damn these short winter days. Just over 8 miles which is the longest run for quite some time no wonder my legs felt a bit battered.

Sunday saw us head up early doors to the Lakes due to a good forecast, the Fairfield Horseshoe was the plan. I figured it would be well tracked for good progress. The drive up was a bit sketchy, lots of ice on even the main roads, there was more snow in the Lakes than I thought.

Parked up in Ambleside to a balmy -6, quick kit then set off to do the walk clockwise with the boring trog to Rydal first. A while later trog back again as forgot to get parking ticket...find its free parking anyway. Grr. Head off again but this time anti-clockwise to just get up on the hill. The trog from Rydal will be easy in the dark if necessary.

Beautiful blue sky, white snow, mist on the lakes, stunning:

Crampons weren't necessary but I did have my axe out for a bit of support for big step ups with my short legs though I think, for the first time ever when walking, poles would have been really helpful for me as the axe is a little short.

Didn't seem to take long to get to the summit of Fairfield. I think I've been on it about four times and this is the first time its been free of clag. We didn't linger really and I remembered that the last time I did this walk it seemed to take an age to do this side of it.

It didn't disappoint! It seemed to trog on forever, my legs were a bit pasted to be honest, as were Jez's. Though unlike him I'm not prone to cramp so was having a slightly easier time of it. We realise now that neither of us had eaten enough, we only had one butty and one Lebkuchen each (which didn't go rock hard in the cold, recommended!) quite early on, but we got into that push on mindset.

The last descent was most amusing, lost of judicious application of the ice axe and to be honest would have been better with a pole or even putting crampons on but the adrenalin did make me forget my legs hurt. Considering how much of an ice wuss I am I actually quite impressed myself with my "just about controlled" sliding.

Last hike back to Ambleside was a pain filled nightmare and freezing, was warmer up on the hill as the sun got to it.

We got back to the car about 15:45 and decided just to get straight off due to the state of the roads on the drive up. I don't think I've ever left Ambleside without going for a wander round the gear shops. Great walk though my legs took two days to get over the weekend.

A Reduction In Commuting Speed...D'oh

2010-11-30T19:49:00.005Z

Not that I've done any this week but I managed to commute in again twice since my rear tyre debacle (reminds me..new tyre to wrestle on). I have been noticeably slower and slower riding, so much so that I thought I might as well get the Spesh out as the road bike is not conferring any speed advantage at all. Is the reduction probably because:

a) Simply not as much riding of late
b) Denser cold air to push through and more layers to weigh me down.
c) Making a hash of fitting the Crud road guards such that they have minimal clearance and clog at the merest hint of mushy leaves and road muck then act as a brake.....*

One hour of pain in the freezing cold garage, it was utterly baltic and I felt the cold. I am not one of life's warm people it would seem, if it stays like this it will be long fingered gloves, full thermal tights and top and a buff for the next session. Brrrrr.

*(....I swapped the wheel out to put bike on turbo last night.)

Half a commute

2010-11-16T21:49:00.005Z

For the first time in what seems like ages (because it is) I got up and cycled to work. It was a little chilly and there were a few patches of ice/frost on the tramway but nothing to scare even the big jessie I am around ice.

My legs were battered from the turbo the night before so it was a nice steady spin. Just passing the Texaco garage at Lea Gate (which isn' even half way there) when I heard a little ping. A memory is triggered and I think that the last time I heard a noise like that I got a puncture and sure enough the back wheel started squidging. Grrrr.

Couldn't find anything in the tube and being right next to a quite fast and very busy road meant no chance of hearing anything. Checked the tyre loads of times but couldn't find anything which I hate, past experience tells me there is usually something lurking somewhere.

All back on with a new tube, get the CO2 out as my fingers are freezing and time is getting on as I set off a bit late anyway. I hadn't put the valve ring on and the valve just pushed back in as I tried to cryongenically freeze my already numb fingers instead of pushing air into the tyre, lovely. Noticed about half way through the canister..I thought..sorted it and got what I thought was a reasonable amount of air in. Put it all back and just about to set off, check tyre and its soft.

A bit of a dilemma...pump it up and hope it holds, replace with my other tube and hope it doesn't puncture, if it does I don't have many options apart from to call Jez who is already at work. I have sticky patch things as a last resort but if I can't locate the actual puncture site then they are useless.

Decide to take it all off again, pump loads of air into the tube whilst thoroughly checking the tyre, rim etc at least six times and still nothing. Tube still seems relatively inflated so take a chance and stick it back in and pump it up with the mini pump rather than waste another canister.

Pump it up so it reasonably passes the finger squeeze test (which is way out usually on road tyres) and it holds once I'm ready to ride. It actually got me all the way to work (about 9 more miles) amazingly without being topped up but it was a little soft.

I left home at 7:30 am and arrived at my desk at 9:27 and I still had to get showered and changed.

I dithered a bit about whether to ride home or not, tyre was most definitely softening but I topped it up during the day and it passed the finger squeeze test but it did soften again. I just didn't want to get caught out on the pitch black section of my commute so took Jez up on the offer of a lift. He reckoned the tyre was reasonably firm.

Got home and got the track pump on it....45 psi, a pinch flat just waiting to happen, that would've been an interesting ride home. Pumped it up to 100psi and have left it to see if it goes down. Will have to have a thorough check of the tyre and possibly replace as there were a couple of deep cuts in it.

Owned

2010-11-12T14:29:00.002Z

Seem to be getting owned by everything at the minute...mountain bike trails, road riding and my sinuses being the main ones. At least the latter explains the motivation dip recently as I fight off about of sinusitis, deep joy.

Got owned by the Whinlatter red route on the last weekend of October, off camber slippy rocks I can do, roots not so much. I realise now during the duathlon I must have ran over most of the technical stuff due to the traffic on the route. Had a couple of quality spud moments and once getting stuck behind my saddle on a techy, slippy rocky chute whilst avoiding someone else and ending up on a stupid line.

I have swapped my road bike and Titus saddles round as I just couldn't get comfy on it on the roadie, its fine on the Titus as I'm more upright. Its narrower, which is great for getting off the back but its one of the modern Flite designs with the handy hook for racking your bike in transition....or getting hooked on your shorts and digging in (nice bruise) and preventing you getting up again when making a dogs dinner of a trail obstacle. How I managed not to clatter into that rapidly approaching tree whilst sitting on my crud catcher so much I could hear it rubbing on the back wheel and having absolutely no control over the bike I'll never know but I'm pleased I didn't.

My technical riding needs some serious work and it's all basics like not looking far enough ahead. We did the blue which was fun but I died a death after that and jsut wanted to lie at the side of the trail and shake, though realised I'd had quite silly amounts of coffee which is never a good idea for me. I'm very susceptible to caffeine (which is why I like it) but it does tend to cause me to go off at warp speed then have a blood sugar crash if I have too much. A bit like blowing up a balloon and letting it go...that's me on 4 large mugs of good coffee.

A night on the beer in Ambleside meant I was a touch fragile and wobbly when we set off on the Grizedale red (no way I or anyone else for that matter was up for doing any of the natural stuff). Having done the trail a few times I knew the most dangerous thing on it was likely to be me in my slightly befuddled state and it somehow wasn't me that got owned by the boards.

I've never had much of a problem on the Grizedale boards, I've never had anyone stop in front of me on them either. They were like ice and seemed to be causing carnage and stoppages. Once stopped it was almost impossible to get going again it was so slippy, I tried to jog off the end of one and could barely stand up on it, was safer riding. When I was unimpeded I was actually riding them fine.

There were a few offs in our group with no damage until:

Watched a lad come round that section of board when we were faffing with the disk and he landed on his chest on the boards, ouch. Some of the gouge marks on the sides are impressive. They couldn't straighten the disk out so he had to ride the last section without a front brake.

We were round quite quickly then into the cafe, I've not been there since it was rebuilt and the food was superb.

Motivation has not been up to much since then, a few turbo sessions but had a low grade headache for a while, took me a while to realise it was sinusitis as it normally comes on after a cold.

Headed out on a road ride with Jez on Sunday just past which was a bit of a disaster for me, totally owned. It was only 45 miles with about 1700ft of climbing, pretty much all in the first 10 miles and my legs were not having any of it. No power, eventually realised saddle was probably too low, saddle swap with Titus. I am totally and utterly "princess and the pea" with saddle stuff, I'm sure I've mentioned it before. I'd probably notice a mm adjustment and I knew the saddle change would open a can of worms...

After the climbing its quite flat and I just could not keep up with Jez and I was trying quite hard. There is nothing worse that flogging yourself to death to stay with someone when you know they aren't even bloody trying. He had it in the big ring the bugger - we have triples on our road bikes so he was right up at the top of the gear range and I just couldn't/can't muster that kind of power, certainly not for any length of time. Pest!

We had a brief stop whilst he chatted to his sad puppy rc model mates and I do some more saddle tinkering. A stop for some food then home. About two miles from home the inevitable happened, his legs started to go into meltdown and mine started to remember what to do. The answer to this of course is a long hilly ride to induce cramp in his quads then I can ride off leaving him upside down in a hedge...Waddington Fell and the Trough here we come...or offroad in West Yorkshire..hmm.

However on Tuesday I suddenly had motivation and energy in spades and have got a couple of runs in so fingers crossed. Hope this wind bogs off over the weekend but will be heading up for a run on Darwen moor tomorrow to see the damage to the tower and the state of the trails.

Just want to hibernate....

2010-10-25T18:27:00.004+01:00

Where have I been...I gave blood on the 8th of this month and spent about 10 days feeling a little oxygen deprived so took it easy (i.e.got lazy). It all went well this time though so will be doing it again in a few months, I will be wary around any big events I'm doing.

The cold temperature and the dark mornings have made me want to hibernate, the running mileage is climbing back up nicely this month but the cycling most definitely is not. It still feels a little, "unnatural" as my legs want to pedal but it will come back I'm sure. So after the third attempt at getting out of my pit to cycle to work in the last week failed and I forgot to take one of my running shoes with me today (d'oh)...the punishment is ready for tomorrow.

Lets see how long it takes me to crack and get riding outside again:

Nearly hit a cyclist with my car yesterday...

2010-10-15T16:21:00.003+01:00

...I'm not sure who got the bigger fright, me or her. It wasn't fun that's for sure.

I was passing by a load of cars turning right (as were a couple of cars in front of me) and she just appeared from the junction on the right and I nearly t-boned her. I'm not sure why she thought it was a good idea to do that, maybe the guy at the front of the line turning right beckoned her out (that's happened to me) and she went for it without really checking the traffic going straight down the road but whatever she nearly got sprawled over the bonnet of a large bus of an Audi.

Fortunately I had been going nice and slow and was only just picking some speed up again so easily stopped in time but the wide eyed panic on her face just reminded me so much of the time I once did exactly the same stupid thing. She tried to take her hand off the bar to apologise whilst turning pale and mouthing sorry and almost lost control of the bike.

I slowed right down to check she was ok and riding, caught her eye and gave her a bit of a wave, which she returned as she cycled along so I think she was ok. She didn't look like an experienced cyclist so hopefully it won't put her off cycling, though my "incident" was earlier this year so not sure if experience is a total defence against stupidity anyway. I'd just about stopped hyperventilating by the time I parked up at work. It was a reminder of how quickly things could go wrong.

It's a particularly crap, busy junction so people do do silly things. On the way home I practically skidded to a halt as a car pulled right out in front of me as I was passing and the driver seemed to forget which pedal was the accelerator (it's the one on the right love!).

Scottish C2C Days 1 & 2

2010-10-11T12:13:00.003+01:00

On the Saturday of the 11th September (was it really that long ago) we were picked up from my parents house, yes really, door to door service! It helps that my parents live between Glasgow and Edinburgh about five minutes off the M8. The guys had already picked up Mac and Lori in Glasgow, an American couple with an amusing amount of luggage as they were coming over for more than just the week of riding.

A goodly amount of packing tetris with bags and bikes went on before we got in the van...(duct tape was employed) Due to the fact that we were heading off for a week of riding in Scotland where the weather could be doing anything and everything neither Jez or I could be accused of travelling light either with two very stuffed dead body bags.

Off to the centre of Edinburgh to pick up Mickey and Joy, another American couple who actually had perfected the art of travelling light, thankfully as the van was totally rammed. A long and tedious drive up to Aberdeen followed..as did the rain but then the sun came out as we neared the Granite City, thankfully as Aberdeen looks utterly miserable when it's overcast, all those grey buildings.

We parked up at the beach there then ensued a goodly amount of faff whilst bikes were built etc, then we set off for an easy 20 mile spin out towards Banchory. All that time faffing and this was the only photo I took around the auspicious start (totally crap I know)!

We had to ride through the city, mostly quiet roads and cycle paths but we did have to negotiate one very busy, narrow and congested road where I decided to get a puncture after not even one mile of riding. I had to pick the bit of road where there wasn't even a proper verge to move to, I had to carry the bike hanging onto a railing for a bit whilst inching along a kerb.

Wasn't long before we were out on some easy cycle paths and a nice 20 miles to Banchory were done. We arrived at the first B & B of the trip to find our bags had already been taken up to the rooms, yay! This was particularly welcome on some of the less easy days. A couple of beers and some great food rounded off a good day.

From Banchory the next destination was Braemar, via the Royal Lochnagar distillery. Unfortunately the Balmoral estate was closed to the public so there was a bit more road work than ideal. Normally this would be fast but day 2 was the first day of "the raging headwind from hell" 44 miles of it and it didn't seem to let up for the rest of the week. I know it's a risk when travelling west but jeez, one day without it would have been nice, at least the sun was still shining. It meant the day was suprisingly hard work. It's never, ever fun or fair having to pedal downhill to keep moving. The only picture I took all day but I really can't remember if it was before or after the distillery:

The distillery tour was very interesting, after the evil b*st*rd hill to get up to it, there was no real view of Lochanagar itself which was a bit disappointing but the whisky was actually ok, it's very light on peat so that's probably why I liked it. I'm glad it was pretty much downhill to Braemar from there as I had the usual problem of the alcohol going straight to my legs and turning them into wet noodles if I have any whilst riding. They did come back to me which is just at well as we were taking turns riding into the wind...downhill. By the time we rolled into Braemar I had a headache from the cold wind.

The hotel was large and overrun by elderly coach parties, as was Braemar in general. The food here was very cheap but probably the worst of the whole week though portions were generous and the showers were good and hot (always important). The entertainment was a little "old" for us and we escaped out of the dining room to the hotel bar when a weeble shaped man started playing guitar and singing.

We did think we were going to be crushed to death in a slow, white haired stampede though as codgers appeared from every direction and made their way there, particularly the ladies, of which there were lots, as always with the retired generation.

Two warm up days in, some proper offroad bog, heather and river crossings up next.

Scottish Coast to Coast...bit late

2010-10-07T12:57:00.002+01:00

Confession time..I had actually written some stuff regarding this a week or so ago in a Word document that I cannot find anywhere, on any computer I come into contact with. As someone who looks after databases and other people's data for a living that is a a bit of an embarrassment, lol.

In summary, it was a great trip, some stunning scenery, some pelting rain, some sun, some clag, some bog to park bikes in, some great riding, great company and a not so great a raging permanent headwind for about 6 of the 7 days. Will get some more detail out soon.

Highlight for me were the Corrieyairick Pass (or River Corrieyairick as it was that day) and the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, I will be going back there again, definitely.

Photos are on Flickr and get noticeably more numerous the further west we travelled.

GRRRRRRR!

2010-09-06T17:16:00.003+01:00

Just about sums up the last few weeks for me....in no particular order:

Car trouble, more car trouble, calf injury and hobble of shame back to car after half a mile of running trouble, suspension fork trouble, even more car trouble, moron runner trying to push me off my bike trouble, car basically dead trouble, buying another car trouble, surfing forums relating to "new" car today to find it is also prone to injector problems trouble and nowhere near enough riding and no running.....thank god I'm off to ride across Scotland on Saturday.

Car has spent most of last three weeks in garage, with a week of respite when it worked properly but was soon back in...diagnosis, new fuel pump, injectors and possibly turbo which would cost about twice as much as the car was worth to repair. The fuel pump thing is not unknown in 02 Mondeo's but I was a bit p*ssed off that a car that has done just over 100, 000 miles is basically scrap. It was not a good car at all, I managed to limp it to webuyanyshed to offload it. It smoked like crazy all the way there but behaved itself when being "inspected". Not a great result.

Not having a car has had a real impact on my riding, I've done a good few rides to work and the odd offroad ride if Jez is around but the amount of faffing and working from home has made it surprisingly difficult.

I decided to pick up the running to make up for the lack of riding but my left calf decided to go ping after a mere half a mile of my inaugural run so hobble of shame back to the car (which was actually working that day). I think it is due to singlespeeding/pushing harder gears and the wrong kind of stretching. I think it is just being loaded a bit more with all the out of the saddle riding (and low cadence sitting sometimes), my usual stretches don't seem to touch it but handing my heel off a step seems to so I've been doing that daily though it is still not right. My knees aren't bothered at all on the other hand.

Sent rear shock and TALAS fork off the Titus to TF Tuned for servicing...shock needed new body but otherwise ok TALAS are apparently dead, anodising all worn off down in the lowers, deep joy. They were actually working ok so the guys at TF Tuned suggested running them into the ground then replacing with a set of Revelations, lol.

Last Sunday headed over to Hurstwood for a bit of a Calderdale ride, my car worked perfectly on the way over. Very windy day but sunny. I was having one of those days when I couldn't ride for toffee, felt dead and had no control over the bike at all. Had a proper girly strop and sat on a rock for a while, hee hee. Been years since I did that. Day was not improved when we encountered the runner on the canal towpath.

He was jogging along the canal towpath towards Hebden Bridge, wearing MP3 player and totally abd utterly oblivious to anyone or anything else. He was also apparently incapable of running in a straight line which made getting past somewhat difficult as he couldn't hear our shouted "excuse me's". Eventually he seemed to settle on the left side to Ed and I went to pass him on the right when he decided to jump a puddle. Well not only jump it but completely jump to the other side of the towpath without a backward glance, bloody numpty.

Of course he landed on Ed's front wheel, got a bit of a fright because obviously noone would be passing then started bawling at us, we weren't offended as it was clear he thought he was talking at a normal volume, just his music was obviously on pretty loud. We did point out he was prancing about like a fairy on a public towpath and perhaps he should pay attention as he wasn't running so fast that nothing was going to pass him. He let all 6ft 3 of Ed go past but as I went to give him a wide berth on the left (away from the canal, thankfully) he stepped over and tried to push me off my bike, fecker.

I had an attack of the red mist, skidded to a halt and as he ran past I thumped him in the chest as hard as I could, don't think he expected that. To be frank, neither did I and it didn't escape me that it probably wasn't the most sensible thing to do. I have a feeling he also thought things had gotten a bit out of hand and he left the towpath a few metres later. Nearly ruined the ride for me and really wasn't clever but I do get quite p*ssed off at a certain type of bloke who wouldn't say boo to Jez or Ed or any of the lads as they ride past but will voice their "disapproval" at me (whatever it happens to be at the time, just being a woman on a mountain bike seems to annoy some of them I think) , had it loads of times.

Had to fight a raging headwind all the way back to Hurstwood, including having to pedal all the way down the Gorple Road, don't think I had to touch my brakes once. On the way home my car decided to start packing in.....

Anyway, happy thoughts, 3 miles of mainly downhill back to the car:

Picking up a VW Passat tomorrow, more injector problems heading my way it would seem. This time it'll be Jez's fault, he insisted on a Passat or an A6 (out of my budget).

Rucksack advice required.

2010-08-10T10:15:00.002+01:00

I've not died just been quiet and not had the best July early August ever I have to say. Jez has been away a lot, we have a bit of a standard joke that something always breaks or goes wrong when he's away...the fridge, the kitchen lights, his car getting stolen (not really fun that one) but this year it seemed to have been mainly ok.

Until last few weeks where grandparent, codger cat then heading for codgerdom car all decided to have something quite wrong with them. A bit stressful to say the least. However, got a good blast on the road bike on Saturday and ridden in to work yesterday and today and things are starting to feel right in my world again, yay!

Anyway, back to the matter in hand the zips on my trusty Salomon 20L commuting rucksack have both finally given up the ghost. I've had it for years and got my money's worth so I now need to replace it with something similar. I think it was too long for my back really so looking at the OMM sacks. My last drop is too small really so its a choice between:

The Adventure Light 20L

http://www.theomm.com/products/packs/adventureLight.html

Or the Ultra Light 15L

http://www.theomm.com/products/packs/ultra-15.html

It needs to have waist pockets for works pass, keys and enough space to take clothes (no shoes or owt as they are at work), a camp towel thingy and some food but not be so big I'm tempted to carry too much. Will also probably use it for light hillwalking and general fubbing around. Anyone got one of the above, how big are they really and what can you squeeze in them?

The Grinch is reborn.....

2010-07-19T19:03:00.003+01:00

Here it is, good to be putting the frame to use again as had great fun on it before I bought the ti one and I do like the grinch green colour even though I normally wouldn't go for green, it seems to glow in murky light:

Friday evening saw it's first ride from Abbey Village up to the tower and round about the moor, currently gone for 32:18 on there and it will stay for a bit methinks. The climbs were as hard as I thought they would be but only had to walk a couple of very short sections (though one was spinning out on roots) so not too bad. What I hadn't even thought about was how much I use the gears to recover between efforts and not being able to was surprisingly hard but in a good way.

The chainline needs a bit of tweaking as it would skip when I got to that last gasp grind on the climb when I couldn't turn the pedals anymore, will need some spacers to fine tune it. The stem is also too long and puts me too far over the front when stood up, will put a shorter one on. A colleague of mine mentioned one of his mates had managed to go over the bars whilst going uphill, I can see that happening to me if the stem doesn't get changed!

Having the front tyre pumped up to "rock bloody hard" (thanks for that Jez) didn't help the handling I have to say, had a corking stack early on as it just pinged sideways off a root and skittered everywhere on the climbs. Only thought to check once I got to the tower as I know I'm really not fond of the tyre that's on the front and thought it was that (tyre will be getting changed as well).

Did 12 miles which was just right, though it was my arms that were complaining more than my legs which I expected, shoulders absolutely killed on Saturday. It will certainly make the short midweek spins harder, which is what I wanted. It still goes downhill very well but feels sluggish on the up in comparison to the ti one but hey, it'll do.

Stuff....running...and a bike project...

2010-07-16T10:40:00.004+01:00

Been a bit quiet lately, my hip/lower back has been annoying me quite a bit since my topple onto the rocks last month. It didn't hurt at all during the Trossachs Ton but ached quite a bit for a few days afterwards and I was aware of it aching when riding the MTB's.

Jez and I had a few days away to Wales taking it easy, a quick blat round the Marin Trail for the first time in a few years was fun though I had forgotten just how much fireroad there was on the bloody thing and how much the singletrack doesn't actually decend. However it was dry and dusty and we were both on full suss for first time round there too and it was faaaaast.

A bit of a toddle up Snowdon (on foot) and some touristy stuff wandering round Caernarfon Castle and Newborough beach. We were lucky with the weather as it didn't start tipping down until we headed back home.

In the last couple of weeks I have resumed running, yay just in time for the wind and rain! No more than 6 easy miles and mainly all offroad, hip was achy afterwards for the first two runs but it now seems ok. I am now a complete convert to running in compression tights/shorts, I bought them for recover after my long mara training runs and I am now wondering why I wasn't wearing them when I was running, really stopping the little calf niggles I get when doing more cycling than running.

I had a visit to the chiro at the beginning of the week and my pelvis is moving fine and not hurting after short rides/runs now so it's time to start getting some good rides in again, will leave the runs short for a while yet.

Tonight I'm heading out to test out my new project....been feeling guilty about my old 456 frame just hanging in the garage so have assembled various bits from our garage/flea bay/singletrack classifieds/Merlin and Jez just finished building it before he bogs off for another few weeks. I did originally intend building it myself but he offered as he was servicing forks/faffing with brake hose/servicing hubs anyway.

Anyway photo and report of pain to follow.....

Trossachs Ton

2010-06-26T09:17:00.009+01:00

Last Sunday (20th) I did the Trossachs Ton 100 miler (or 98.85 as it turned out on my Garmin annoyingly). As June hasn't been great cycling wise due to falling onto a big pile of rocks I wasn't sure if I was going to actually go for the full distance or do the shorter one.

It was a bit of a last minute decision to enter anyway, I entered mid week with an eye on the forecast which was pretty good and thought it would be good to tie it in with a visit to my folks on father's day weekend.

A quick 25 minutes on the M9 from my folks on the Sunday morning saw me parked up in Stirling and as I rolled to registration I decided to go for the full distance, sod it. Plan was to settle into a steady pace, eat and drink regularly, actually look at the scenery occasionally as the Trossachs is a lovely part of the world and basically just get to the end. The route had around 6000ft of climbing so it wasn't a brute. Two major long (but alpine style) climbs: the 3 mile long Duke's Pass at about 22 miles and the 5 mile long Crow Road at 75.

Set off just before 8 and the first 20 miles are pretty flat, I'd forgotten how much of a plain Stirling was on, there was a reason they built the castle where they did, can see for miles from it. I was kind of sitting in behind a group, not too close as there was some shonky riding going on but close enough that I was getting some benefit. It was a bit windy and there was a bit of cloud cover, however it was due to get quite warm later on.

Soon we were at the bottom of the Duke's Pass, quite a few 12 and 13% ramps at the bottom and my legs didn't seem happy but I think it was just the transition to climbing. It soon eased off and steadily climbed away and my legs found their rhythm, I even overtook a few people. The steady climb gave way to a steady descent, easy to keep a really good speed going and not too many tight corners to worry about, just the odd cavernous pothole and a corking view - theme for the ride really.

Soon into the first very, very well stocked feed station. Lots of flapjack, biscuits, jelly babies and other goodies on offer. I stocked up on some jelly babies and some chunks of flapjack, topped up the bottles and set off on the road around Loch Katrine. I'd taken my gilet and armwarmers off at the feed station as things felt like they were warming up, got about 10 metres out of the station onto the lochside and stopped to put the gilet back on, the wind was strong and cold blowing up the loch, brr.

The road was single lane but basically closed to traffic apart from water authority vehicles (Loch Katrine is the main reservoir for Glasgow..and it was pretty empty looking). It was typical lochside road, up and down and twisty. On the outward side it was generally heading uphill. There were a few other cyclists around but I quickly decided to ride in my own space after watching a few near misses as people didn't quite make bends or slithered around on gravel.

With it being single lane there were effectively two clear lines where the vehicle tyres travel but lots of gravel piled up in the middle. It was also forested so the edges of the road had pine needles strewn everywhere, add to that some fair old potholes and I took it steady and kept plenty of space around me. As the road twisted around the edge of the loch it seemed to move in and out of the wind. Once around the end of the loch the wind briefly became a tail wind and the track started heading down.

I had settled on eating solid food approximately every 10 miles or so and drinking regularly, anytime I saw someone else go for their bottles I took in some fluid too even if I thought I didn't need to. I had a bottle of energy drink and one of plain water and alternated each drink.

Once off the Loch Katrine road it was back onto a slightly wider but still twisty and pothole strewn open road. The potholes were just unbelievable, often seemingly covering the entire road and being unavoidable. A few cars were travelling in the opposite direction so had to ride on the left and the dappled light through the trees made spotting the holes difficult too. I manualled the road bike over several huge ones I couldn't avoid, somehow managing not to explode the rear tyre or get any sort of puncture.

The road surface was so broken and holed there was no way I would take my hand off the bars to warn anyone behind me, the riders in front of me were clinging on for grim death too. At least it was mainly downhill, got stuck behind a camper van for a bit on the twisty road but managed to draft it a bit through Aberfoyle so I forgave it!

I rolled into the second feed station at The Rob Roy hotel, Aberfoyle just after 50 miles. It was billed as a "lunch stop" and they had proper food. My plan was to have a proper break, use the loo (proper loos, fab), top up bottles etc. I queued up for some pasta with a savoury meat sauce which was great after all the sweet stuff. I ate that and some cheese salad then was itching to get going again. I still had the Crow Road to come at 75 miles so I was very mindful of saving some energy for it and took off at a steady pace.

I found this section the hardest by far, mainly because it was seemingly into the wind again and I was on my own and it was quite a busy road. A couple of groups sped past but I thought they were going too fast for the effort I wanted to put out at this stage. It was quite undulating which broke things up a bit. I could see Dumgoyne in the distance and I knew the course went somewhere near it but it just never seemed to get any closer.

Eventually whizzed past the Glengoyne Distillery where I could see the WHW and wondered how Kate had got on. Things were starting to warm up, the cloud cover had gone but the wind was still there in my face. Blew into the last feed stop at the bottom of the Crow Road still feeling pretty good. I could see the climb snaking up the hill in a very alpine style, I would be turning back on myself and realised I would be out of the cooling wind once heading up.

Stocked up on more jelly babies and had a caffienated gel for that last kick for the end then started up the climb. Like the Duke's Pass the Crow started with some 12 and 13% ramps but my legs were happier this time. It soon eased off and I kicked the cadence up a few notches and started overtaking people, lots of people. I really enjoyed the climb, seemed to suit me though it was a bit warm.

Only one person overtook me and it was a very fit looking roadie bloke stomping up in the big ring. A switchback with a 10% ramp had me out of the saddle briefly but then it was fairly easy gradient to the top. It took quite a while to get to the actual top but the five miles of up passed quite quickly, one of the motorbike marshall's gave me a thumbs up as he passed and said I had made it look easy.

Once over the top it was onto the long steady down where I had a near crash nearly missing a turn....because the view was just jaw dropping, it really was and I stopped looking where I was going. Took it slow for a while to stare then started heading down, fast and open descent apart from one dodgy sharp turn near the bottom then it was onto the last stretch along Carron Valley Reservoir to the finish.

I knew from the course profile that it was quite lumpy for a while but I was still climbing well, the road was very quiet but still had quite a few potholes. It wasn't too twisty which was great for pedalling hard downhill, not something I tend to do very often. I think most of the last 10 miles were downhill which was nice. Rode over the M9, out of the quiet roads and into Stirling and a bit of traffic, was quite a sudden change. I felt good all the way to the finish. Total time 6:35 and ride time of 6:05 with 16.2 average, pretty pleased with that as I did most of it on my own.

The event wasn't officially timed but as a first 100 miler it was a good one to pick, great scenery and good organisation.

Oh no...

2010-06-17T16:29:00.001+01:00

...the work vending machine now stocks Haribo Starmix and Tangfastics! I lasted a whole morning but just caved for some Starmix. This is very dangerous.

Back on the bike!

2010-06-15T12:54:00.002+01:00

Didn't get out for much of a ride on Saturday after all, spent a good part of the afternon trying to get the front mech on the Spesh to work. It was seized solid and given the amount of (probably road salt filled) gunk I pulled out of it even after a serious clean I'm not surprised and a little ashamed, even a regular spray of the mech with WD-40 would have gone a long way to preventing the build up. Lots of WD-40, penetrating oil and lube later it would move quite happily up the chainringa with cable pull but just wouldn't return back down without manual intervention so it's borked. It was the original mech that came with the bike in 2001 so it's not done too badly, new one on it's way. Lets see what a mess I can make of fitting it....

I stuck the mech in middle ring position to make the bike rideable and gave the Spesh a bit of a test ride, only five miles and my hip wasn't massively happy during or after really. Sunday was another day off (raining so not too bad) and last night I took the road bike out on some local hills, nothing brutal and all seemed fine. Took a while to get into the ride as it does after some time off but I was buzzing by the end.

My hip still seems a little stiff in the mornings at the minute but I've ridden into work today and felt great, rucksack didn't bother me either.

Running is still out though which is annoying, was hoping to dust off my trail shoes last week but falling over put paid to that and an experimental jog across the work car park yesterday showed I need to leave it a bit longer.

Bruises and bike maintenance

2010-06-11T18:59:00.005+01:00

The aftermath of my inability to stand on my own two feet has meant no riding this week. I have a couple of corking bruises, even by my standards (I do bruise very well it has to be said) the one on my leg is a stoater, it continues on round behind my leg which you can't quite see in the photo. Annoyingly the non-purple bit in the centre is what really hurts which means it will be hanging around for weeks, just as well I no longer wear skirts to work.

The bruises are just a minor irritation, my left hip pretty much seized up and feels very bruised indeed, I also have a very, very painful spot on my back, at the bottom of my ribs and about three centimetres to the left of my spine (I know). Even today it is still sending shooting pains if I prod it, however there is no bruising on my back as yet. I can't wear any sort of rucksack and surprisingly using the clutch whilst driving has been very painful.

Today, I seem to be getting normal movement back in my hip at last and driving isn't so painful. Planning on doing a road ride tomorrow to see how things are.

I've made good use of the week (and some of last week too) to learn some bike maintenance skills as mine have extended to changing the odd pair of brake pads and lubing the odd chain. All my bikes have something wrong with them, some serious and as Jez is away until the end of the month I kind of had no choice. It's costing me a small fortune in boring bike parts.

I've had to change the bottom brackets on the Spesh and the road bike, my original plan was to practice on the Spesh first then do the road bike but the Spesh had other ideas. Even using the old clamping the tool in a vice and using the whole frame as a lever failed to budge it. I poured a load of penetrating oil down the seat tube and left it overnight. Luckily the road bike one was easy to change.

As this was the Saturday and I borked my back on the Sunday there was no way I could twist enough to have another go so I borrowed an impact wrench from a guy at work who said he'd managed to get two stuck BB's out with it. It still took a bit of persuasion, I had to apply it for a solid 15 seconds but it did the job. What a racket it made but it was good fun, I had a brief look around the garage to see if I could find something else to attack with it but saw sense and packed it away. Impact Wrench: 3 BB's: 0!

Surpassing myself falling off *

2010-06-10T12:59:00.008+01:00

(* actually, should really be "falling over" as I was stood next to the bike at the time).

Sunday just past Ed and I headed out on offroad on a great loop neither of us have done for ages, effectively a half MTL route. Starting from Clowbridge Res, picking up the MTL for a while until on Deerplay, past Thieveley Pike and down to the Bacup Road, over that then heading through the post industrial landscape towards Ramsden Clough on some interesting bridleways, pick up the MTL around Whitworth again and a pretty much follow it all the way back, with a diversion into the new stuff at Cragg on the way.

Set off into fairly persistent rain and low cloud, the surface easy going due to being MTL and still pretty dry. Once off the MTL and particularly over the Bacup Road find actual boggish tracks for a while, it's a grassy slog generally but I've seen it a lot worse. We once did this route in the winter into a raging headwind, it took us three hours to go 12 miles due to the wind and soft tracks. The bike was actually good and filthy for the first time in ages.

Anyway, skittered down a short, steepish, grassy slope and got bogged down in some rocks. The track was raised, with a drop to either side. I did think about getting going again then thought better of it, got off the bike at the edge of the narrow section to push it on a bit. I'm not sure what happened exactly but as I pushed the bike it sort of fell over onto me, I obviously wasn't very well balanced and I just timbered right over like a sack of spuds off the side of the track, bike landing on top of me. Unfortunately it was onto:

Right onto that big pile of pointy rocks, track is on the left. It wasn't quite onto my back but almost and not surprisingly it really hurt. Due to the Titus being on top of me I couldn't actually move, fortunately a very concerned Ed picked the bike up off me and I got up. Nothing was broken (probably) so decided to get riding asap, usually the best thing to do, keep moving so it doesn't seize up. This was about 7 miles into what in the end was a 30 mile ride.

I can normally tell by the state of my riding how bad a "crash" was (not that I can call it a crash), it quickly became clear that the last thing I wanted to do was fall off again and add to the pain...you can imagine how and tense wussy my riding became, I had to shout at myself, a lot to get off the brakes and look ahead etc. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to cut the ride short and try to head back to the car but it didn't. I was actually enjoying being out in the mud and rain, I thought the pain would ease off...it didn't.

The long drag up Rooley Moor Road was a complete miseryfest for me again, legs were fine (apart from the huge throbbing bruise above my left knee) but my lower back had gotten progressively more sore and stiff. I stood up once in an effort to stretch it and it felt like someone had knifed me in the back, I'm sure I saw stars briefly. The sun had also decided to come out especially for the climb and for once the Rooley Moor headwind was missing just to add to my overall misery.

By the time we got to Cragg it hurt the least sitting and pedalling steadily, standing pedalling was excruciating, standing without pedalling was a bit less excruciating but the worst thing was transitioning from not pedalling to pedalling, particularly if spinning madly due to too low a gear choice. I basically yelped and grimaced my way all around the fab Cragg trails (and they were good) but I was in no fit state to do much other than hang on and pedal a bit (as low cadence as possible). We decided against another lap!

By this time any lumps and bumps on the trail seemed to vibrate up into my back, I was on a full-suspension, I hate to think what the hardtail would have been like. The descent down to Waterfoot, normally a favourite, passed slowly in a blur of clenched teeth and whimpers. Thankfully, the rest of the route is fairly easyish going but getting on and off for gates really hurt, particularly when my Camelbak re-settled itself on my back. We finally got back to Clowbridge, total relief! Except I had forgotten about the last two flights of wooden steps down into the car park, it was like someone attacked my back with a pneumatic drill as I rattled down them, there were tears at that point.

Getting packed up was interesting, my ability to bend was almost zero and getting out of the car at the other end was painful.

Having said all that it was a good ride, really like that loop!

Etape Caledonia

2010-05-19T11:33:00.005+01:00

Been doing a few road rides since my last post but haven't really posted about them....think I'm actually in denial about how much I'm enjoying the tarmac.

Anyway, official result: 4:41 for the 81 miles, an average speed of about 17.3 including stops which I am pretty chuffed about. I was hoping for around the five hour mark but thought we would both have to be having a really good days to make it.

Both of us really enjoyed it (yes, even Jez), the closed roads thing is just fantastic. The organisation was superb, marshalling was superb as was the local support. I'm not really a fan of bagpipes but the pipers dotted around the course really raised a smile. Pitlochry had a real buzz about the place, don't think I've ever seen so many cyclists in one place as I did at the start on Sunday morning.

Actual ride time on the Garmin was 4:34 with an average speed of 17.8, we didn't stop much! As can be gathered from the time it was a fast course and a fast day, bit of a wind on the outward section but pretty fast other than that.

We did take advantage of a group for a while on the outward leg into the wind, cruising along at about 20mph effortlessly, which was nice. I was a bit wary but was getting quite happy in the group until suddenly the guy next to me seemed to be resting his right hand shifter on the guy in front of him's arse! A bit of wobbling and they separate but not without them nearly taking me off, I was a bit more cautious after that!

The Schiehallion climb wasn't too bad at all though I messed up my KOTM stage timing due to me not stopping when Jez had a comfort break. I rolled on a bit, crossed the timing mat without thinking then stopped to wait, d'oh. No real matter, took it quite easy anyway as not sure exactly what to expect. The scenery up there was stunning and it was nice to get a good look at Schiehallion as it was the first Munro I ever walked up.

Even though we weren't really tagging on to groups the sheer number of cyclists around just spurred us on to keep pedalling hard and coming up behind people before overtaking them must have been giving us some slipstream benefit.

My legs were certainly feeling it on the last 5% climb to the finish, I thought that was uncalled for. Jez coped with that one better than me but waited til I caught him up before we crossed the finish line..aw.

Would I do it again...definitely!

Faceplanting

2010-04-22T10:42:00.008+01:00

Woke up yesterday and stomach felt normal at last, hurrah! An evening night ride was planned to kick off from Rivington, five of us riding which is the most of an evening for a while. Set off at a fair lick in usual Jez style, though with lots of pauses to wait the latecomer - usual Mr S style! Dry, dusty trails and we're altogether for the dive into Healey Nab.

It's the first time most of us have been there in what seems like forever, climbing up to the new trails we were a bit gutted to find they'd mashed the orginal track and replaced it with a motorway, a badly constructed one at that...think Tony is going to having some words...

Onto the trails, I'd forgotten how tight the berms were on the top part, ended up on the black for a bit somehow as its a bit confusing in there then down to the new stuff at the bottom which is all really nice, the berms aren't anywhere near as tight. Up the new singletrack climb then up another one that is only partially constructed, though we only did that because it was so dry.

Over towards Great Hill, past White Coppice and on the new bridleway until Wheelton Plantation. Jez goes straight up the main footpath the rest of us decide to try a piece of singletrack that I've run part of and I'm pretty sure follows the fenceline up and around to where the main track comes out. It does. It's very steep to start and very rooty and bits of it aren't really rideable as an up but it was an interesting new track and probably much better the other way with gravity assistance I would imagine though those roots in the wet would be entertaining.

Up to Great Hill on the big track, getting quite dark as we're on the summit, lights on for heading down. I tell everyone how dry the moorland crossing to White Coppice is but that there are possibly still a few front wheel traps. Obviously visibility very reduced with lights so can't see too far ahead on the line I've chosen and come to a bit of a dip that looks a little soft. I'd ridden through a smaller one just minutes earlier and it was fine so rather than go round I went in, expecting to roll out the other side.

Front wheel drops in and sinks, then sinks more, then sinks even more. My weight wasn't very far back at all as totally not expecting it and everything slowed down as the bike started tipping over....I thought I could save it so started pushing back on the pedals but it was to late for that and tipped over. I stuck my hands out but they went into the dip and I broke the fall with my face, what seemed like my two front teeth in fact, striking the edge of the dip. Ouch, bloody ouch! Watch those front wheel traps!

Got up and spat a gobful of peat out, thankfully both front teeth still there and somehow not wobbly. My mouth is completely numb though at least there seems to be no blood and no other damage to me or bike. So get riding again before I have time to think about it and no further mishap.

Well no more until about 5 minutes later when I get to the last rutty, loose and rocky drop into White Coppice where I part company from bike again. No idea what happened but one second I was riding well and confidently, the next the bars were wrenched round and the front wheel flopped to the left, perpendicular to track, which never tends to end well. Luckily I wasn't actually going too fast but crashed off to the side with a "bloody hell not again" and a few other choice words!

After disentangling myself again I noticed a whopping boulder lying on the track, I'm sure it wasn't there before I crashed so maybe I clipped it at the side of the track..who knows. Back on once again and catch up with the lads and we start heading back to the cars.

Onto the cheeky track around Anglezarke and I suddenly feel like my arms have turned to two bits of string, no strength to lift the front wheel. My legs start following suit soon after, it took a while for me to catch on what was happening but a quick time check showed it was 9:45 pm and I hadn't eaten anything since 4pm (a long time for me). I was starving and heading towards the dreaded bonk. The last mile or so was like wading through treacle. It's been quite a while since I've headed that way as I've been making a real effort to avoid it, though had been wondering if taking bottles of energy drink and slices of malt loaf out on my long road rides was overkill, err no, not for me it's not.

We didn't leave Riv until after 10, picked up some food on the way home. Eating so late meant it took me a while to get into a decent sleep so shattered this morning and resting HR was something ludicrous like 65 (normally around the 48 mark) so I had a complete rest day today.

I woke up with what felt like a massive fat top lip but thankfully it didn'tt look anywhere near as bad as it felt. The inside of my lip is very bruised and has a cut from where I bit it, I have a few small scratches under my nose and I had a few bruises on my legs but other than that I thought I had gotten off really lightly. However, as the day wore on my jaw got increasingly stiff and the side of my face a little tender. It feels like I've been smacked in the face, which I suppose I have. I also now have very sore ribs on the right hand side and probably a good few more bruises but really, I have gotten off lightly.

Bleurgh!

2010-04-19T11:21:00.001+01:00

This weekend was almost a complete write off for me. Gran plans for a hard road ride over Waddington Fell and Nick 'O Pendle, perhaps with a circuit of Pendle Hill thrown in if legs up for it. Plotting the route out on Friday evening and I suddenly had no enthusiasm for it whatsoever, tucked up in bed by 9:20 pm barely able to keep my eyes open and woke up with a very dodgy tummy on Saturday, just great.

Managed to eat and move around until Saturday afternoon when I was sofa bound for most of the afternoon, couldn't face food and any movement just made me feel queasy. Lots of (boringly mild) curry and I felt human again that evening.

I felt up for a bit of ride on the MTB on Sunday, had to take it very easy on hills as stomach not happy if pushing hard and heart rate would just rocket to silly levels, however dry conditions and a full suspension bike made pedalling most things fairly easy. I had another hour or two of sofadom afterwards but was able to get out and spend some time cleaning bikes later. My On One was so filthy it took most of the afternoon, that'll learn me not to take the DirtWorker. My plans of getting several bikes done failed, only got the On One and my road bike done.

Monday I felt a bit better, headed out for a run from White Coppice after work, running up the hills seemed fine and only had one slight queasy moment, oddly on a flat piece of track, the rest of the time things were ok. Amongst all the unusual dusty dryness I managed to stomp into a patch of ankle deep bog, strangely reassuring!

Tuesday, still felt a little out of sorts in the morning but decided to have an easy spin into work on the road bike. I didn't pay much attention to the forecast and was happily tootling along through a sheltered Preston when I turned off to the docks and straight into a raging headwind, think I went from 18 mph to about 8 in less than a metre. It was a long, long slog against it all the way to work, so glad I was on the road bike to at least get down on the drops a bit. Not really what I wanted that morning.

The ride home was obviously faster but the wind was more of a crosswind in parts and I got blown sideways into the main dual carriageway at one point, luckily no cars coming. Even with faffing through Lytham and Warton, almost wearing a bus and having to stop, being scared more than once battling to control the bike and often not pedalling too hard I was averaging 18.7 when I got to the roadworks at Strand Rd which I thought was quite impressive, wish I could do that normally. By the time I'd crawled through them I was at a more normal 17 and tootled home from there quite happily.

Almost wished I hadn't bothered.....almost.

2010-04-15T10:15:00.007+01:00

Home after work, cycling gear on, waiting for Jez to get back to go out riding. Dragged the Titus out as it hasn't been out this year and it's an expensive bike just to be sitting in the garage. Pumps tyres up, air in shock, change Garmin mount...hear the racket of Jez's motorbike engine...Jez arrives with a big CBA to riding. I go anyway, thinking I'll get a good spin in before it gets dark, being on my own will mean minimum faff (yeah right!).

Drive off, a bit of thought about where to go, as I'm on my own decide to ride Great Hill but where from? Abbey Village is the closest and most sensible time wise so get there unpack bike, get rest of kit on, lube the chain. Whilst back pedalling the chain to lube it it falls off the cassette and jams between cassette and spokes, grrr. Had to undo powerlink to fish it out, get it out and make note to do some serious bike cleaning (of all bikes) as chain is black and so now were my gloves.

Put it all back together and linked it up but failed to notice between threading it through derailleur and joining the powerlink it had fallen into the spokes again, grrrrrrrrrrrr! Undo it all again, rethread, join it back up, gloves even blacker, put car key in jacket pocket, jacket pocket now covered in black, oily fingerprints. So much for a quick and faffless start!

Set off riding, a few pedal revs later the grinding noise tells me I've done my usual crap job of threading the chain through the rear derailleur, seriously, seriously tempted to chuck everything back in car and go home but the prospect of dry, moorland trails is too much.

Pull over at Sawmill, undo it all again, thread chain through properly this time and manage not to lose powerlink in the long grass, off again with no grinding and working gears. Quick map check to locate the first piece of cheek I was intending to ride and head off to it, getting used to a squidgy bike again which was creaking annoyingly from the swingarm. It felt a lot heavier than the On One, particularly lifting it over gates.

Off up a section of relatively well packed double track onto the moor, will be a bit of a grassy slog in the wet but only one section looked like it would get boggy, mainly due to tractor tyres. Get up onto the moor and pick up one of my favourite pieces of running singletrack. In the spirit of minimising faff I stopped to take some pictures, it was lovely:

On again towards Great Hill and I'm finding the rear suspension (and the front to an extent) a bit of a liability to be honest, was like riding a pogo stick. I remember that last time I rode it I found the same and it needs some settings tweaked, more rebound damping I think, the rebound adjuster on the shock is turned wholly to one side (technical description) so I turned turned it completely the other way to see what happened.

Onwards onto the big track to the summit of Great Hill, more photo faff and the creaking seems to have stopped from the swingarm. Cracking view of the sun dropping, more picture faff and general staring:

Up to the summit of Great Hill, stare a bit at the sun dropping then head down again. Just as I was setting off I heard the low battery beep from my mobile, oh great. So now if something does go wrong with bike or me the mobile is about to die. That did make me pause a bit, original plan was to head to White Coppice but maybe it would be more sensible to take the big track back.

I got to the decision point and headed to White Coppice, it looked more fun. I do ride more cautiously on my own (especially with a dying mobile) and fluffed a few things across the rutty moor that the application of a little more speed would have probably fixed but it was fun and mainly dry. The rear suspension seemed a bit better so will need to twiddle the forks a bit soon.

The sunset was gorgeous and one of the reasons I headed up here, I know from past activities that the view is pretty good from Great Hill and I did watch for a bit, however I had lights/layers and food with me this time, the working and charged mobile phone thing obviously needs some remedial work though:

The bit I was worried about was the rutty drop to White Coppice but I had a whale of a time on that and was briefly tempted to ride/actually push (let's be honest) back up and do it again. Sense prevailed and I pegged it along the new bridleway for a bit then back up through the woods to pick up the moorland singletrack. I got down, just, without putting my lights on but fired them up for the last short bit of road back to the car.

Quick drive home for Chinese after a mainly satisfying ride and a cat runs across the road in front of me, I stop in time, just.

Road Riding

2010-04-14T14:27:00.003+01:00

Lots of it (for me anyway) is what I have been up to, 190 miles on the Ribble so far this month and have enjoyed pretty much every minute. Only 18 miles on the MTB so far but the road riding won't do my MTB fitness any harm. Have now taken in the local road hotspots of the Trough of Bowland from Dunsop Bridge (twice) and Waddington Fell from the easy side.

I've also had company for the last two road rides, I was surprised Jez, Ed and Rick wanted to come out again with me after killing them over the Trough and Waddington Fell. With four pairs of muddy mtb shoes, a peaked helmet and one large camelbak between us we look like what we were - a bunch of MTBers on a road ride - rather than a peloton.

Jez's riding was going to go one of two ways after the Cheshire Cat, either do even less and don't ride the EC or do more and thrash me round the EC to prove a point. It has gone the latter way (wasn't too surprised). His fitness and strength is coming back very quickly in that annoying way it does for him and already I can see road rides together won't really be feasible soon. On the plus side he can tow me round the EC and we may get a decent time.

Running is now down to two a week but Monday's easy beach run was great, I felt more comfortable and relaxed on that run than I did for most of my marathon training when I was running a lot and it was a similar speed for a lot less effort - go figure. They do say cycling fitness does translate to running well so come autumn I may not be back to square one running wise. I'm looking forward to a summer of evening runs on the moors.

I've got another 60/70 mile road ride planned this weekend though not sure where, did think of the steep side of Waddington Fell then over to Nick 'o Pendle or maybe over the Trough again and up to Quernmore. However, the EC is not actually as brutal a ride climbing wise as that so not sure whether to cut the climbing and go flatter for some of it...the MTBer in me says no!

A Run!

2010-04-01T22:21:00.002+01:00

Finally, today I got out for a run, it seems forever since I last put any running shoes on. Monday was a rest day after the Cheshire Cat. Tuesday was originally planned at 3 mile easy run but the weather was grim and I thought an extra lazy day wouldn't be that much of a bad thing. Wednesday I just plain forgot I was supposed to be running and didn't go out!

So today after work I headed out. Legs had lost most of their cycling leadedness but there are things that need to be stretched (hip flexors and mid back, no surprise really). However, it quickly became apparent that while an easy spin on the bike is a good recovery session for running I'm not sure, for me at least, its going to work the other way. Which is a bit of a blow, the impact is noticeable.

Anyway, it was just under 6 miles, some tarmac, some woods and hills and after the first 2 miles was really enjoyable. I think the best bet is to head off road for my runs as much as possible. My gait has changed back to being quad heavy again though....

March

2010-04-01T22:03:00.003+01:00

Well March was an interesting month. The start was spent in the Cairngorms learning all about winter walking and enjoying the best snow for years and also, unusually for Scotland excellent weather. A fantastic holiday.

Mileage wise things have been good in one respect and a bit dismal in another. The good aspect is I managed 310 cycling miles, the first time I've broken the 300 mark since 2006 apparently. Almost 200 miles of those were on the road bike, all "rides". I also did my first roadie sportive, the Cheshire Cat which was suprisingly good fun. I'm seriously in love with my road bike at the minute, very odd.

Only one cycling commute in to work jfor the whole month, ust after coming back from Scotland but I got the train home (and didn't have to pay). The rest of the miles are split between MTB (30 - rubbish) and fubbing about shopping.

The dismal aspect is running, in March I managed 21 miles! Partly being away for a week, then having the tightest lower legs imaginable for a week after, then a bit of running, then taking it easy for the Cheshire Cat.....Must do better!

I've kind of decided to do two runs a week for a while until after the Etape Caledonia and some fun trail/fell running is what I have in mind. I just need to keep it ticking over until the autumn where I'll most likely pick the running mileage up again.

The Cheshire Cat

2010-03-29T19:39:00.004+01:00

Yesterday Jez and I did the medium route of the Cheshire Cat road sportive. It was billed as 67 miles but turned out at 68.8 on my Garmin, the 1.8 miles mattered a lot to a certain person! I have to say I really enjoyed every single minute of it, this enjoyment was shared by my riding partner right up until, oh about just after Mow Cop, 16ish miles in.

An easy drive down to Crewe, straightforward parking and a little queue to pick up numbers and chips and we were ready to go. Unfortunately the queue to get started was massive and I think we were there for an hour before finally starting at 9:29. It was pretty cold and there was a fair wind blowing but the forecasted heavy rain wasn't there, I was glad to get moving and be able to try to generate some heat.

The first 16 miles were pretty flat and we were moving well, averaging about 16.8 which was faster than our 15mph plan but it was really easy riding. We got stopped at the level crossing at the bottom (of what I hadn't quite realised) was the climb to Mow Cop. We set off in a big bunch and the road soon headed up, I hadn't realised where I was and thought the road would soon level out so stayed in my middle ring but it just got steeper, a lot steeper.

My new Garmin said the gradient was 20%, whether that's entirely true or not it was too steep to be trying to grind up it in the gear I was in, there was no way the front derallieur was going to move due to being stood up and it was so crowded I couldn't do anything but keep moving, slowly forward. Once it eased off significantly my legs were toasted but I did think to myself "if I can get up that in that gear then there is a good chance of getting up Mow Cop". Then I looked up and there it was up ahead, oops. It looked like carnage at the top.

Lowest gear engaged, slow spinning to regain some sort of control over myself. As I got closer to the pub the steep bit started looking shorter and shorter (because it is very short) and I decided "I'm having that"...and I did. It did hurt, quite a bit and toasting my legs further down didn't help but I got up. The only slight eek moment was when someone bailed next to me and nearly dropped his bike on me, I squeaked and he pulled it away (thanks). I saw Jez stomp up it as well but he put a foot down somewhere apparently before the pub I think.

I continued on, unlike a lot of other people, until the road totally stopped going up. I waited for Jez then we set off down the descent and on towards the next climb. My memory of exactly what hills were what is pretty hazy (no change there then) but on the next one Jez stopped as he was knackered. Hmmm.

I stopped part way up the hill for a bit which was a bit of a mistake. We continued on, Jez walking bits if he needed to and me waiting at the top. None of the remaining climbs were as brutal as Mow Cop.

For a bit of balance, there was some excellent descents, particularly around Bridestones (I think). Jez pretty much managed to blast past everyone when the road headed down, very confident descending. I managed to hit 41.2mph on a descent around there, god knows what Jez was at as he was way faster than me.

We finally made it to the first feed station at 27 miles and it is clear he is not a happy camper! I make a suggestion that perhaps we could find out if there is a way of getting back to the start but I was informed that he was "not giving up, mutter, mutter, grr, bloody road bikes" (or something to that effect). Okay then....get round mode engaged and I stopped worrying about riding time taken - which was probably a good thing as I had forgotten to set autopause on the Garmin. I remembered to pause it manually sometimes but it was irrelevant really.

Fed, bottles refilled we set off again, next target feed station 2 at about 48 miles. The next 10 miles or so seemed to take absolutely ages, a few more hills to contend with though I found them fine and again waited at the top. Jez was in that special personal hell that you only visit when your knackered with miles and miles to go.

I've been there lots of times myself and I know there is nothing I could say to make it better (except perhaps "Taxi for Jez!"). I did what he has done for me loads of times before, ignore the grumbling and keep thing moving on..."you can't stop here".."why not?".."Road bikes are crap"..."It's not the bikes fault"..Only x miles to go..that was the last climb..and on and on.

I think the hills were pretty much done by 36 miles, a few more fast descents which were fun but it really seemed to take ages to get to the feed station.

We finally rolled into it, I decided to have my butty and Jez wandered in and came back with a sausage roll which seemed to start perking him up a bit - that and the fact there were only about 20 miles left. Next target, get to the finish.

Setting off from there we tagged onto the back of a large group, that meant tootling along at 15mph with very little effort. My legs were feeling pretty strong but we stayed with the group for a while until I started to worry about the route split as the miles were stacking up above 50. I didn't want to end up on the 100 by mistake (and had forgot to start the course I had loaded into the Garmin). I saw a signpost showing we were heading for Church Minshull, a quick squint at the route card on the back of the number and saw Church Minshull was on the long route and then looked at the wrong part of the card for the medium, saw it wasn't there and panicked.

We pulled over and lost the group, a proper look at the card showed that in fact we were supposed to come though it. I thought he was going to murder me, seriously if looks could kill.....We got going again and just round a bend, not more than 100 metres further was the bloody route split sign.

My penance for that little bit of stupidity was to ride on the front all the way back. I think it was at least 10 miles with a good chunk into a headwind. My legs were feeling pretty good, however both Jez's legs were now threatening to cramp so keeping a pace he could ride at wasn't that easy. However, eventually I realised that he was starting to get quicker and quicker. The last 5 miles were at 16.7 average, which I was really pleased about because it was my legs setting that pace and they could have gone faster.

As the stadium got really close a buch of fast lads came zooming past and Jez jumped on the back of them, blew past me with a big grin on his face and took off for the sprint finish!!!!!!!! I gave chase but didn't quite manage to catch him, the sod. He crossed the line a few seconds faster than me some semblance of male pride restored hopefully. It was a bit of a miserable experience for him but he toughed it out.

We queued up again to hand chips in and I got my medal for clearing Mow Cop. I can't remember the overall time, it was something like 5:25. My Garmin had 4:55 for ride time and an average of 14mph but it was really all about getting Jez round.

Overall, I loved it and whilst I knew my legs had done something by the end they were still going well. I had a bit of numb bum as I didn't stand enough and my gloves were starting to annoy my hands. I think I could have made the 100 but if I tried it yesterday would have probably suffered due to not eating enough early in the ride. It was fine for the 68 miles but wouldn't have been for longer I don't think.

The jury is out on whether Jez does the Etape Caledonia, I can't wait.

Playing Frogger

2010-03-25T15:36:00.002Z

On last nights ride, loads of the little things on the roads and trails near Anglezarke. Not entirely sure I was 100% successful in missing them. A very short and chat paced ride in the end with just Ed and I out, the only real effort put in was climbing Lead Mines, just for a change though its still firmly a decent for me. Everything was wet and sloppy, even stuff I didn't think was normally prone to being that bad.

Decided against exploring the new Healy Nab stuff for the first time in the dark and it was only when packing up that I realised we hadn't gone to the pike. Not really a proper Rivi ride for me if the pike isn't visited. Just perfect for an easy week.

Running has resumed and an easy five miles are planned tonight, then a lazy two days before the Cheshire Cat on Sunday. Forecast is for p*ssing rain....what tyres for stopping wheelspin on Mow Cop?

Hmmmm, now what?

2010-03-19T09:09:00.002Z

This weekend is the Whinlatter Enduro. I have been in two minds about whether to do it due to not getting in many (or actually any) long MTB rides due to the weather. In the last couple of days I had pretty much decided to HTFU and just get on with it but my stupid car has now got to go back into the garage.

It had developed quite an oil leak and spent last weekend there being "fixed", I got it back on Tuesday so far so good but Jez opened the bonnet last night to put the engine cover back on (which they had failed to do) and the whole of the engine is just swimming in oil. It looked like a fire just waiting to happen. Another car was used to get us to the Velodrome and apparently at some point today the garage are hopefully going to come and pick it up so I'm probably going to be carless again for the weekend and won't be able to get there.

Weather forecast is less than ideal to ask someone to hang around while I crawl my way around Whinlatter forest for five hours or so. I'm not doing very well with my planned events this year.

I think a road ride is the only real option but I do need to get in something over a couple of hours or so. as the Cheshire Cat is next weekend..........grrr cars.

Not much running going on

2010-03-19T08:41:00.004Z

Not sure what has been up with my calf muscles since I've come back from the Cairngorms but they have not been happy bunnies.

A short get back into it run last Thursday was enjoyable, I expected possibly a little bit of soreness but my calves were very stiff on the Friday. I ended up doing some lunchtime hill reps on the bike on Friday due to car faff and working from home meant I had access to some hills.

The reps were about 1.4 miles long but not massively steep, more of a gradual climb interspersed with steeper bits. It wasn't ideal but I didn't have time to really get anywhere properly steep so decided to make sure I worked hard all the way up and resist the temptation to take it easy on the easier bits and push on over the top of the steepish sections.

I have to say, at least mentally, proper steep is easier, its just "get to the top". Making myself push where I wanted to back off was hard. They took about seven minutes each and I got slightly quicker each one but there is lots of room for improvement. I only had time to get three in before heading back home. Since I found them so difficult I should probably do them again.

A lot of stretching afterwards and I thought my calves would be fine, nope. Saturday I woke up and could barely put my heels on the floor. My calves and achilles were just solid, from my heels to just below the back of my knees. I wasn't 100% sure if it was the running or the hill reps but the pattern of tightness was slightly different on each leg which made me suspect running, my foot strike is slightly different on each leg. Maybe something to do with doing lots of walking as opposed to running?

An easy day of fubbing about on the shopping bike due to no car and an easy afternoon ride on the MTB did nothing to help but at least my calves didn't hurt when pedalling. It was too sore to stretch or bear the foam roller. They didn't hurt like that after the marathon so I rested on the Sunday completely.

They felt much better on the Monday, I could walk properly so decided to celebrate by going out for a run. I got less than quarter of a mile before my calves felt solid again, a bit of stretching and I decided to carry on taking it easy for a couple of miles to loosen them up.

They did loosen up a bit eventually but I was having to stretch them a lot at road crossings, or at the top of inclines, I should have taken the hint and cut it short but I carried on and did over 7 miles. I was hobbling for the rest of the night and the next morning so it was a bit of a stupid thing to do.

An easy spin out on the road bike on the flat on Tuesday, a fantastic dry trails and spring temperature night ride on Wednesday (so glad I made myself go) and a fantastic session at the Velodrome last night and I think, touch wood, things are heading back towards normal.

The Cairngorms

2010-03-11T09:46:00.010Z

I've been back from the Cairngorms for almost a week now, a bit of a sniffle and post holiday blahs this week and it all seems a world away now.

I could write loads about the experience but I won't, it was just utterly fantastic. The snow was simply amazing. We had a pretty painless drive up on the Sunday, avoiding the worst section of the A9 it would seem by coming up from the Edinburgh side. Managed to drive past the turn off for Glenmore Lodge as the sign was totally obscured by snow. Heading up the ski road was entertaining, the road hadn't been ploughed, it had had to have a snow blower to cut through it. There is a four metre high wall of snow near the Coire Cas car park.

Days 1 -4 had pretty much no wind, which is quite frankly rare in the Cairngorms. We also had lots of sunshine and blue skies, again rare. I just hope I haven't had my lifetime's quota of good Scottish winter weather in one week. Soft snow meant slow moving progress particularly being the shortest member of the group, with the shortest stride. It wasn't always easy following others footsteps and as I took a lot of photos I spent a lot of time as the tail end Charlie.

On the Tuesday we were accompanied for the day by cameraman from the Adventure Show, they are doing a piece on people beginning to venture out into the Scottish hills in winter. It was quite odd doing stuff and then having a camera watching or being asked questions. Its only shown in Scotland and probably won't be out til the autumn so I'll have forgotten all about it by then. I will no doubt look and sound like a complete plank!

Ice axe arrest practice was hilarious, crampons and ice axes were seriously confidence inspiring though there wasn't always a massive need for them due to the soft snow. Snow shelter digging was interesting but quite frankly I think I'd rather bust a gut to get off the hill. A snow hole on the other hand might be fun for a night. Avalanche awareness was a hot topic for obvious reasons, lots of attention to the forecasts, looking for wind scoured slopes etc, learning new words for snow....loaded:

Sastrugi, my favourite word for snow:

A good walk around the Northern Corries on the Wednesday with visibility for miles in every direction, not sure if I'll see it like that ever again:

Lots more photos on Flickr if you want to trawl through them.

Just to redress the balance the normal weather closed in on Friday. We wanted some experience of trying to navigate in white out conditions and we got it. Snow shoes and following the pistes up made for fast progress up to Cairn Gorm summit. Sheltering in the Ptarmigan ski station for some food and layer rearrange it was then up to the summit, walking on bearings in pairs using dark patches in the snow to sight off - it was the only detail and using hand signals to correct the lead (voice signals drowned out by the wind). The view from Cairn Gorm summit, the little grey "sighting" patches visible at the bottom:

From the summit over to another feature on a bearing taken and measured by me (gulp) but it worked. I was the lead of our pair, we managed to stay on bearing and I managed to keep counting paces. I found it was a good way of blocking out thinking about the conditions. I had my only real "I'm not liking this" moment across here as everytime I had to turn back to check I was still on bearing I got a load of icy snow driven into my eyeballs, not pleasant.

Still, we found the little tor we were looking for, walking round it I got blown off my feet three times due to the combination of 40mph winds, soft, deep snow and snow shoes. Hiding behind the tor on quite frankly, dodgy windslab (just as well it was flat) I managed to get my ski goggles on and what a difference. Eyes protected, hood up, in my own bright yellow bubble it made a huge difference to things.

We set off back to the Ptarmigan with more bearing walking and pace counting and I was by then really enjoying the challenge. The only slight annoyance was having to carry my walking poles to use the compass and they kept icing to my gloves and making whatever hand was holding them freezing. The compass base plate was ice, all toggles etc were covered in rime ice, jacket hoods etc. It was a good reminder of exactly how serious things can get up there.

Packing....

2010-02-26T21:27:00.003Z

Heading up to my folks tomorrow then onto Glenmore Lodge on Sunday to do 5 days of winter hillwalking skills (or how not to get swept away in an avalanche!). Already had mum on the phone with the "are you sure it's a good idea" conversation (after the Glencoe avalanche). I'm not sure my assurances of being with some of the finest mountain instructors around reassured her...

Currently in the process of assembling every single hat, pair of gloves/mitts, buff, socks, baselayer, waterproof, down/merino garment etc I own.......maybe we should just pack all our clothes and take them with us.

Finger crossed the Highlands have finally been reopened by the time we have to drive up there on Sunday afternoon, can snow us in if it likes after that, I won't care then but don't want to have to spend a night in the car on the A9 on the way up.

Catching Up

2010-02-25T17:37:00.003Z

After tweaking my left backside slipping about in the dunes on the 12th I was hobbling the next day. The "next day" was the Mid Lancs XC at Hyndburn. The Chorley Harrier ladies were hoping for promotion and to get as many out as possible to help, I had said I would run (help make up some numbers rather than actually count for the team). On Saturday morning I did lots of stretching but it didn't help, a bit annoyed as the Hyndburn course is really enjoyable.

At about noon when it wasn't getting any better I did the sensible thing and necked a load of ibuprofen and went anyway. Once I warmed up a bit it only bothered me when my left leg slid sideways...which happened a lot on the stodgy course. I was over two minutes quicker than the year before but getting out of my car at home was not very dignified! I wouldn't have done it for a longer race (probably).

It seemed fine for cycling thankfully so got some road miles in on the Sunday....for some reason decided to go chevron bagging around Belmont way and got my backside kicked, even with a 30 * 27 lowest gear. I found the hills mentally hard too which wasn't good, I'm no climber but I normally just get on and grind them out without too much thought. 44 miles, 3800 ft of up and an embarrassing average speed of 13.9....more work needed.

I did some short runs in the week as bum was still tight, it started to ease off after a trip to the climbing wall meant some serious stretching of various tight muscles.

On Saturday I headed out to check out snow conditions around the moors. I was only intending to do about six miles but it was so lovely I ended up doing over 9. Lots of snow:

I ended up on the turbo on Sunday afternoon but probably should have gotten the MTB out really.

This week I've managed to get back to some better running, a quick 4 miles after work on Monday saw me set off with leaden turbo legs. Last time I did that after about two miles my legs were fine and sure enough I managed to up the pace each mile, really enjoyed it and no problems the next day.

Tuesday was some turbo intervals, hard but bearable now I have invested in a fan. It meant I was able to work harder without boiling myself or having to open the door and freeze the house out.

Yesterday was another set of intervals, running this time. Possibly not the most sensible decision but I wondered how my legs would cope. A little leaden at the start but changed into running mode after about a mile. I did 3 x 1200 metres as slowly building the interval distance back up to three miles. They went well, not having fresh legs meant I paced things more evenly and didn't tear off at the start though on the last interval I had to push hard to keep the pace as I got stopped at the one road crossing. First and second interval had the same time, third was two seconds slower which I thought wasn't too bad. Run back to work was fine after the first half mile.

Yesterday was finished off with a trip to the wall again, which was really good fun.

Today I'm taking it very easy, I did think of cycling into work but couldn't get myself out of bed. The cycling gods punished me for my laziness by having me sit on the M6 for ages, eventually took 1 3/4 hours to get to work as opposed to 30 minutes.

Tweak!

2010-02-15T20:55:00.006Z

I felt a bit lifeless last weekend, not sure why but got a couple of easy rides in. One short MTB ride with new front brake pads that were binding hard and had to be worn in. Did I moan? Nope, just treated it as extra resistance (could have done without the slipping seat post though), it needed to be done. The wheel was spinning much better by the end.

Monday, I was much more lively and got some 800m intervals out. I managed to pick the wrong direction and run them straight into a strong wind which meant the pace was well off but the effort level was there.

Tuesday was a good ride to work, really enjoyed both journeys though had to tell Jez to go off on his own after about a mile in the morning as there was no way I was going to keep up with him on his road bike when I was on the shopping bike.

Wednesday was a rest day due to neither of us getting home from work early enough to contemplate riding anywhere. Thursday was an interval session on the turbo where I attempted to boil my head again and nearly succeeded...thinking of moving it outside onto the patio to entertain the neighbours.

Friday was a run but with no plan, just for fun so headed to the beach to play in the dunes. The sun was out over Blackpool:

The sand was dry and really loose and after clambering up the third steep dune I thought maybe I shouldn't be hammering my calves and achilles like this as I had said I would turn up at the XC on Saturday. My glutes were also notcieably tight from the turbo session the day before. Just around then my left leg slipped in the sand down and away from me with a tweak sensation in the bum. A definite ooof! moment. Not great timing.

Onto the flat beach and seems no harm done so head way out towards the sea faffing about taking some pictures as the cloud rolled in for some dramatic sky moments:

Had a bit of a run in the lower dunes which are a lot more packed down then I could feel things starting to niggle, bit of a stretch and head back to work with my left butt cheek and hip trying to cramp up completely. Oops, needless to say an afternoon sat down at a desk did nothing for it. I got into my car like a 90 year old.

Field Test

2010-02-04T20:33:00.007Z

Yesterday I was planning to do some running intervals, unfortunately work meant I couldn't get out at lunchtime (same today, boo). I decided to have a go at Field Test to try to determine how hard I should be working when I drag myself onto the trainer. I'm not convinced I haven't been slacking.

A colleague suggested the CTS Field Test as a starter for 10, a reasonable way to determine "lactate threshold" apparently. I programmed it into the Garmin so I didn't have to think:

1. Warm up: 10 minutes easy pedalling
2. Power Interval: 1 minute hard
3. Recovery: 1 minute easy
4. Power Interval: 1 minute hard
5. Recovery: 4 minutes easy
6. Field Test Effort: 8 minutes eyeballs out, maintain around 90-95 rpm
7. Recovery: 10 minutes easy
8. Field Test Effort: 8 minutes eyeballs out, maintain around 90-95 rpm
9. Recovery: Keel Over! 10 minutes easy

Got kit on, towel, drink, Shuffle on the brake cables and off I went. I forgot to open the patio door for some air which was a bit of mistake. First 8 minute field test effort was very, very hard, sweating absolute cobs, ugh. In the recover section I spun for about 2 minutes then had to quickly nip off and open the patio door befor my head boiled. I felt well recovered after the 10 minutes, the worst part being I had 10 minutes to think about the fact I was going to have to do another 8 minutes.

The second one felt better at the start but the last two minutes I was giving it all I could to maintain the rpm without changing resistance and there was an absolute fountain of sweat dripping off my chin - must get a big fan! Geeky HR graph:

Stats from the two efforts look pretty similar to me:

Ist Effort:

Dist: 2.49, Av Speed: 18.7, Av HR: 173, Max HR: 180, Cadence: 92

2nd Effort:

Dist: 2.5, Av Speed: 18.7, Av HR: 175, Max HR: 181 Cadence 91

It did feel very hard and I couldn't help wondering if I was shooting myself in the foot a bit by going all out but I suppose the test would have been a bit pointless otherwise. I also think I would have gone faster if I was working that hard on the road. Need to do some more research on what it means but at least I have some idea of how hard I need to work on the turbo - I certainly won't be applying it to MTBing. I'm guessing I should be aiming for a greater distance/higher average speed as a sign of progression?

Interestingly I don't think its that far away from what I would try to achieve whilst running, running is supposed to be higher. My last two running XC races were at an average of 171, which I found just bearable.

Loading it into Garmin training centre I was most amused at my apparent "route":

January

2010-02-02T20:50:00.002Z

Running: 96 Miles
Cycling: 162 Miles (87 real miles)

Considering I'm doing a few cycle events that seems not enough cycling compared to running. The amount of running is due to the weather really and the cycling looks okish but 75 of them were turbo miles which don't really count.

Two Hours and Twenty Minutes

2010-02-02T12:20:00.002Z

...is how long I spent on the Turbo on Sunday.

Original plan was to meet up with some other people for a bit of a road ride, waking up to a covering of snow put paid to that. I have borrowed some Spinerval DVD's and one was to help for longer riding efforts, the others are high intensity stuff which wasn't my plan for the day. I didn't think I'd do it all but I did, not sure what that says about me but only the last few minutes were really tough as the "enough" switch was flicked and I really wanted to stop.

A Rather Enjoyable Potter On Winter Hill

2010-02-01T21:17:00.005Z

Saturday was a very enjoyable run/slide/walk on Winter Hill. I had planned to get out at 10am at the latest though a lot of computer faff meant it didn't get out till closer to 11. I realised that the problem didn't need to be fixed there and then so got some kit together and headed out.

As I have no long running event to train for I decided to have a bit of an explore, do some new tracks, walk a bit, practice map reading and enjoy the sunshine and see how things go. A sketchy drive to the car park with lots of ice at the edge of the road, I parked up to see absolutely rock hard ground. No need for the Mudclaws I had and to be honest the length of the studs on them were a bit of a liability sometimes.

I head off to explore a track which heads up to Redmond's edge, between Great Hill and Winter Hill. On the map if officially runs out but sure enough it did continue all the way up, lots of ice dodging. Amazing visibility up there:

I made a note of where the track joined up to the flagged path I often run, it was quite obvious and I wondered why I had missed it before. About a minute after setting off on the uneven and randomly sized flags I realised why as I was concentrating so hard on where my feet were going I couldn't see anything else.

Straight up onto Winter Hill on a new track for me and the unusual sensation of skidding over the top of icy bogs (think I prefer sinking in). Once in the shadow of the hill it was baltic! Thankfully the climb was steep so I generated some heat on the way up. I seemed to have the top of Winter Hill to myself for ages.

Headed off down the track following the ruined wall, remembering there was a really obvious track heading off to the right then somehow managed to miss it? Quite a bit of practising relating map to terrain but I had a 1:50000 with me and I think the 1:25000 would be better, mainly due to the 5m contour interval showing up a bit more of the few features.

Found some more new tracks for me then started heading back towards the car. I could have quite happily stayed out in the sunshine a lot longer but I was feeling a little peckish. So out past Holden's Farm back up to the access road, across to Two Lads then to the Pike all the while dodging ice. Cursed the cobbly track down from the Pike then headed to the top of the ICR. For reasons best known to myself tried to take the riding line right down the rubble, eventually got up onto the smooth track when I dinged my ankle off about the third rock.

Back to the car and it seemed the world and its wife had now arrived as the car park was rammed. A good afternoon of fresh air and sunshine. 10.93 slow and steady but immensly enjoyable miles, about 2:14 of running and an hour of faff/navigation etc on top of that. A bit further and longer than I had planned to be out but such a beautiful day.

Running Intervals and Some Outdoor Cycling Miles

2010-02-01T21:08:00.005Z

Thursday last week saw me reintroduce some running speedwork, all various leg niggles I've had this month from various falling overs seemed to have gone so I had a go at some 400 metre efforts. 2 sets of 4 x 400 metres with 1 minute recoveries and 2 minutes between sets.

It went well, pacing was good and even and it was just the right amount of hard stuff. I've not done anything similar since the beginning of December and I had forgotten the puzzled looks you get when you zoom past people only to stop and jog back towards them then zoom past again. Good for upsetting little dogs on extend-a-leads it would seem.

Friday had a decent forecast so I took the opportunity to ride into work, good steady riding both ways and it was daylight enough to switch my lights off well before I got to work. More importantly I managed to do six miles homeward without switching them on either which did cheer me up.

Turbo Torture

2010-01-26T20:16:00.002Z

Working from home today due to car being in garage for service so no commute. I got on the turbo for an hour of intervals using the Sufferfest Downward Spiral vid. Strangely satsifying in a "shouldn't have eaten that carrot cake 30 minutes ago I'm about to puke" fashion.

Like a running interval session the hour as a whole seemed to fly by but the individual efforts seemed to take forever. I was only tempted to get off on the easy pedalling 5 minute warmup/down and recovery between the sets. I definitely need a structure to a session on it else I'll just get off!

Running intervals definitely help my running speed so it'll be interesting to see if cycling intervals help my cycling speed (assuming I make myself do them regularly).

I'm also wondering how to schedule them around hard running sessions and if they can be a replacement for running hill reps or not.

Wavering Motivation......

2010-01-26T10:56:00.002Z

Struggling a bit this January for some reason, particularly in the last week or so. Dark mornings, grey days are not filling me with joy. Last January was pretty good overall with 100 running miles and over 200 bike miles, this year is a completely different story on the biking front -running miles still ok due to the weather at the beginning of the month.

Last Tuesday I cycled to work, the morning ride in was great, no wind, no ice and just great to be out riding (once I'd scraped myself out of bed). Flew into work in 1:07, averaging over 16mph which is good going for me riding the shopping bike.

The ride home on the other hand was a complete nightmare. The wind just got stronger all day so I rode the entire 18 miles home against a raging headwind. It didn't help I was starving after about two miles and spent the whole miserable, grinding commute fantasising about food. What I was going to have for dinner, tomorrow's lunch, what I was going to be eating next week fgs...It took 1:29 to get back home, an embarrassing 12mph or so.

Character building? Miserable more like and I've kind of CBA's riding outside at all since (or even on the turbo)...not good when I've got some cycling events coming up.

On Saturday I got out for a run in the hills, it took me until 3pm to actually get out there but it was great to be out in the fresh, still air. It was misty in Lostock Hall but clear around the hills:

Just under 7 miles, managed to get back to the car as the clag really came in but before I completely ran out of daylight (just). Sunday was almost a complete write off but managed to prise myself off the sofa for a trip to the climbing wall.

I gave myself a talking to on Sunday night, no slacking this week. Yesterday I got the week off to a good start with a lunchtime run. I decided to have some fun in the dunes which did absolutely nothing for average speed but should be good for the old leg strength if I don't ping my achilles tendons off. 6.8 miles with about 4 ish miles of dune sliding and beach running. Excellent fun.

Today's plan: Drop Car off at garage for service and run the 2.5 miles home (done)

Intervals on the Turbo (One hour of pain)

Pick up car (run, walk, ride - not decided yet).

Stretching.

Somebody kick me if I don't get the turbo torture done.....

Pendle Hill Plod

2010-01-11T20:01:00.008Z

Jez and I headed out on Saturday for a bit of a bimble on Pendle hill rather than bother with bikes, neither of us had been up it for years so I was looking forward to it. The forecast originally was for a nice morning but clouding over/potential sleet etc in the afternoon.

The M65 was slushy in places and the roads up and down into Barley were interesting to say the least. Keeping an eye on the weather was high on the agenda, getting out of Barley could prove challenging otherwise.

I think there was only another couple of cars in the car park when we set off up the obvious track, aiming for the trig point. Glorious blue sky and crisp white snow:

As it turned out we were pretty sheltered, getting up on top there was a fierce and bitter wind though luckily our choice of route meant it was to our backs as we headed to the trig point.

I had completely forgotten exactly how much of a hill Pendle actually is and as a runner overtook us I made a note to come up here and run, hopefully soon. Snow was quite firm underfoot on the top. As the cloud seemed to be building we decided to start generally heading down via Ogden Clough, given the strength of the wind I didn't fancy being up there if precipitation started and visibility dropped.

As it was we chose to ignore the obvious cairns indicating the way and trundled about on the fell for a while in remarkably shallow snow, a quick check of the map and spotting someone else heading the way we were supposed to. A quick yomp across increasingly deeper snow, I think I may have fallen over once we get back on track and catch up with another walker who knew Pendle rather well and gave us lots of information on potential routes around the hill.

The wind was whipping loose snow crystals across the top of the fell, to who knows where. Dropping down into Ogden Clough we found out where it was going, I fell over several times stumbling about in thigh deep drifts, soft landing.

The really deep stuff didn't last long at all though and not that much went up my trouser leg (no gaiters), unlike the Pentlands were I spent most of the walk with a collection of snowballs up each trouser leg.

Dropping down to almost near the top reservoir we parted company from the other bloke and continued down. The sun had come back out again. Descending was fine and I hadn't slipped at all until approaching a gate. The snow had cleared to show the track below so I strode confidently down not noticing the sheet ice and ended up on my backside rather abruptly. My arse was fine but I landed hard on my right wrist too which hurt. I got away with it though, d'oh.

After that an uneventful trog back down to Barley and into the warm pub for a rather delicious bowl of soup, chips and a pint, the heat from the fire making my windburn tingle. The drive back was on significantly less slushy roads, stopping off at the rather chaotic Outdoor Action to pick up some gaiters. Only five miles or so but I'm sure we'll be up there again.

Snowy Beach Run

2010-01-09T18:53:00.003Z

Yesterday I hauled myself out of the door at lunchtime for a run after listening to the CBA demons on Thursday. My main excuses on Thursday were...sidestreets will be slippy to cross, might be ice patches, half cleared driveways, its baltic........

The Friday run had all of that but it wasn't too bad, it was a glorious, sunny and clear day. My car said -1 when setting off (out clearing the windscreen after the washers had defrosted) but the lack of wind stopped it from feeling too bitter.

It was a bit slidy in places on the way down to the beach but I ran on the shady side of the street and mostly it was fine just taking it really easy. I was curious to see what the beach would be like but I didn't quite expect this:

Snow covered beach! It was also really busy, all those people not able to get to work..

I was almost late back to work, 7 miles at a slow 10mm but not too much slower really.

New Year Running

2010-01-05T20:31:00.003Z

After the icy ride/walk of New Year's day I've not been on two wheels since. Which is a bit of a pain as the events I have entered so far are quite bike orientated (been looking at Turbo Trainers, shhh). I have run the last four days though, I don't normally do consecutive running days and definitely not on tarmace but hey ho needs must.

The first run of the year was a local loop on Saturday afternoon with a surprising amount of ice around. Initial plan was to do an easy four or five miles but in the end I was enjoying it so much I ended up doing 7.75, I only headed home as I could feel the temperature really starting to plummet.

Sunday was another local loop, even more patches of ice to dodge but I kept it to a nice easy 3.5 miles. Legs felt better than they had the day before though a little grouchy at the tarmac.

Monday I ran at lunchtime, it was a stunning day even if it had been -5 when I arrived at work. It was really cold but there was no real ice in St Annes just a very hard frost which was fine to run on. My original plan was to do some fartleks to start getting some hard work introduced again but it was so cold my quads wouldn't seem to warm up.

I decided to keep it steady but thought I was actually being a bit of a wuss. The tarmac was feeling a bit harsh so I had hoped to get some running in on the beach but the tide was in. Arriving near Fairhaven Lake I realised that the sea was slush! Near the beach it was one giant, brown slush puppy. If the sea is like that then it is way too cold, I didn't feel like such a wuss after all. I was a bit gutted I hadn't brought my camera, I've not seen anything like it.

I was so fascinated by it I ran all they way up to St Annes Pier and ended up with 7.25 miles which I thought wasn't too bad on cold and unwilling legs.

Today was supposed to be a rest day but the snow conditions meant I worked from home today and just had to get out in it while it was soft and powdery. Original plan was for a mile or two on the local pavements. I ended up doing 6.18 miles I was enjoying myself so much, I had thought about heading out on the bike but by the time I faffed it wouldn't have been much point as I was actually still working.

My Mizuno Harriers were great in the soft snow, crossing side streets was treacherous but other than that it was fine. Definite rest day required tomorrow but it'll probably all be ice by then anyway.

The New Year (and all that)

2010-01-04T20:17:00.002Z

Happy New Year!

Unusually for me I actually was able to get out and about on New Year's Day, being on call meant a return home on Hogmanay and being spared the normal excess of a Scottish New Year.

It was a baltic but clear day so three of us headed over to Abbey Village for a ride. Due to the complete absence of snow in Lostock Hall we thought the trails would be pretty rideable, wrong. There were a few patches of ice at the lower levels which I was happy to ride round, even briefly on but the start of the climb to the tower was just a rink. Frozen compacted snow.

Jez actually managed to ride it but about half way up decided to turn back and then proceeded to successfully ride down it. I could barely stand on it:

I did actually manage to get back on further down when there was a bit more of a verge. We took a different way back, which entailed more ice and lots and lots of people walking where I wanted to ride.

The bridleway down from the visitor centre started off ok then was just about rideable at the edge - if there weren't people on it, it was mobbed. I did have one little lad who must have been about three or four tell me to be careful as it was slippy. Then to be extra careful going round the corner as that was even slippier and to be extra, extra careful at the bottom. It was quite sweet and he wasn't wrong!

Once back on the main trail it was back to patchy ice and dodging people. Into the heaving pub for a pint and some chips. Decided not to bother going running here the next day.

A (very) snowy walk in the Pentlands

2009-12-30T21:00:00.007Z

We drove up to Scotland on Monday 28th on a glorious sunny day and the start of a serious thaw of the snow in Lostock Hall. , the temperature gauge in the car read -7C at a particularly exposed part of the M74 and that was in the sunshine! It had climbed back up to a balmy 0C by the time we hit Glasgow though dropped down to -4 as we got into West Lothian which was totally white, not seen anything like it since I was a kid. My parents road was tricky.

We got out for a short walk in the Pentlands on the 29th, they aren't particularly high and there are no cliffs to walk off so they felt like an easy choice. The plan was to park up at Flotterstone and walk to Allermuir and Caerketton on the Edinburgh side. We weren't really banking on so much snow. The intial climb up to the firing range was nice shallow powdery snow, two fell runners passed us heading up.

A bit of a bitter wind and driving snow made things a little unpleasant, it stopped but the cloud remained.

The further up we went the, deeper the snow got. It was quite drifty, so some fairly deep patches. Then we passed the fell runners heading back down, they had turned back, we soon found out why!

We battled to the the bottom of the last pull up to Allermuir, spoke briefly to a skier who was making better progress than us then decided to turn back. It had taken quite a while to get there, would take jut as long to get back and neither of us were prepared for anything more than a bimble. We could also see people coming down sinking and generally struggling in the deep snow. We needed snowshoes!

My lower legs were starting to get very cold too. We seemed to find even deeper snow on the way back, at one point Jez disappeared up to the top of his legs and had to crawl out, the same drift was up to my waist and had me crawling on knees and elbows commando style for a good ten metres before I found some shallower snow to stand up in (then fell over again on the next step).

It really was stunning and fun.

Slush Running...

2009-12-29T19:48:00.002Z

On the 27th I decided I had to get a run in, tarmac conditions near home weren't inspiring so I headed off to Abbey Village with my trail shoes to get a few miles in. Like Rivington the day before the trails were rather slushy, soft and very slow.

After about a mile of sliding I realise that my Mudclaws would have probably been a better choice of shoe, the slush was overwhelming the trail shoes. It was generally runnable but even on the flat I struggled to get much above 12 minute mile in the slush I was sliding so much.

I had thought about doing a short low level run but once going headed up to the tower. Bit of a flat light day so not much stopping to take pictures, apart from this robin perched on a post. I was probably about a foot away from it but it only moved when the camera flash went off., even then only to a low branch close by.

The enforced slow pace was probably a good thing as I was feeling pretty unfit from not doing much earlier in the month. 7.5 miles in an hour and a half. It was good to get out.

Slush Riding...

2009-12-27T22:29:00.006Z

Yesterday I dared to take my On One out for a ride in snow/slush/ice, I am not a fan of riding in such conditions at all. Mainly because I fell off commuting in dodgy conditions a few years ago, trapped my left hand in or under the bars and broke the middle two fingers. It hurt, made work difficult, kept me off a bike completely for over three weeks as I couldn't brake properly and stopped me MTBing for about two months. I've not been in a hurry to repeat the experience.

What seemed to be perfect conditions on our Christmas Day doddle were replaced by total slush at Rivington on Boxing Day. Setting off about noon onto rapidly thawing snow made for a short, slow but hard ride. We met up with a friend of Jez who was bringing his young lad out for his first MTB experience. Not the best day to pick but as young kids tend to do he kept going like a trooper.

We covered about 3.7 miles in 52 minutes (of moving time, lots of stoppage). It was just such hard work in the soft snow. However, I did enjoy most of it, it was certainly good for the old bike handling skills as the front and rear would slide away in various directions and as the time wore on and the snow got softer the rear would just spin out. Here is the evidence of snow on my tyres:

As it was slush things tended to happen relatively slowly, it was just like riding in sticky mud. Our original plan to climb up past Yarrow Res then take the road was abandoned as we realised that the roads were pretty much as bad as the trails. Heading back the decision was made to take the track on the west side of Anglezarke from Knowlsey lane to Horrobin Lane.

It started off pretty well then changed to an ice rink for quite a reasonable stretch. I was riding along, just thinking to myself that "this is going well" when the front wheel caught the edge of a lump, the front wheel went away and whoomf I was on the deck pretty much instantaneously. Jez's mate turned to check I was ok and of course he hit the deck too. The little lad sailed serenly between us and Jez had already successfully ridden it.

I was ok and more importantly no Paclite was harmed. I actually think I was lacking a little speed. In the end Jez was the only one not to fall off, I can't believe how hard a less than four mile ride was. I earned my pint! Not sure its really done anything for my phobia though.

Starting plans for 2010...

2009-12-27T22:26:00.002Z

Jez and I now have entries for the Etape Caledonia in May.....just trying to convince him to do the Whinlatter Enduro in March.

Do need to get some sort of list together.

2009 Goals

2009-12-26T16:52:00.006Z

Merry Christmas.

I appear to have been hiding! Not been up to much at all this month, being ill then the snow has left me very demotivated and lethargic. I had lots of plans for December this year, normally I tend to take it easy for the month but with finishing work on the 21st I had hopes for lots of running and cycling to ward off the festive calories. Ah well, not to be.

I had two mileage goals for this year, the main one being to run 750 miles with a secondary goal of cycling 2000 miles which I didn't expect to reach due to marathon training. I passed the 750 running miles on the 18th December with a run on an ice covered St Annes beach. I'm pretty chuffed with that, so one goal reached.

I'm currently at 1929 bike miles for the year and I think its unlikely I'm going to get to 2000 due to the weather conditions and not taking bikes up to Scotland next week (no point) but I can't believe I have got so close. I have done over 500 miles more that last year and I didn't have a marathon getting in the way then.

So next year's plans.....I am currently planning on not having one event to train for and hoping to do lots of less committing stuff. Of course the danger is that I end up doing nothing at all.

So mileage targets for next year, which will be a stretch but hey:

700 running miles
2250 bike miles

Events? Not totally decided yet but have the Two Crosses in January which I am no way fit for, possibly the Whinlatter Enduro on the MTB and the Etape Caledonia on the road bike. Not sure yet....

That inbetween stage...

2009-12-08T21:21:00.003Z

of getting over whatever had infected me but not quite sure if its entirely gone. A very easy 4 mile run yesterday, felt great after and enjoyed the run. I kept my layers zipped up to keep the cold off my chest as much as possible even if I was a little warm.

7 slightly less easy miles, still all zipped up, feel slightly less fine this evening. I hate germs!

Jez is also ill too, enough to take a day off work which is exceptionally rare, though his appears to be gastric related rather than tight chest. Watch this space as I'll probably get it next.

Still not well

2009-12-05T11:38:00.002Z

Not sure what is wrong with me, no sniffle but my chest feels really tight, almost like there is a weight pushing on it. Had a bit of a cough this morning and hoped it meant things were shifting but its stopped now. Could just happily go to sleep...

It's a complete no no trying to exercise if its "below the neck" isn't it? Pah.

Germ Factory...

2009-12-03T11:46:00.003Z

My office that is. Felt terrible yesterday afternoon, woozy, scratchy throat. Pulled out of night riding and had an early night. Fingers crossed but I actually feel lots better today but have decided not to do todays planned 6 mile run and give myself a chance. Its currently tipping down with freezing rain so probably best to stay warm and dry today.

I've another easy day tomorrow then hopefully will get out and do something on Saturday and race XC on Sunday. The Marl Pits XC course is supposed to be quite a good one so hopefully I will get there and not feel like death warmed up.

Both my running and cycling mileage targets for the year are tantalisingly close but a heavy cold or dose of swine flu could put them out of reach.

Anyway, off to make some home brew style lemsip.....I am amusing my colleagues with my little tubs of freshly squeezed lemon juice and honey.

OMG How Cold?!

2009-12-01T17:40:00.002Z

Breathtakingly cold today out on the prom, literally. I headed down there not sure if I was going to do the intervals I had planned or not, so cold and the wind was just biting and stronger than I was expecting!

I had on fleecy tights, thermal undershorts, thermal top, Oz Pullover zipped almost right up, gloves (ok thin ones) and a buff on. The top and the Oz have handwarmer style thumb loops to cover part of the hand, I never took my thumb out of those loops at all or really unzipped the jacket, even during the intervals I was that cold and I wished I'd put my windproof hat on.

Anyway, 2.2 mile "warm" up, 6 x 800 metres done (was supposed to be 5 but I obviously set it up wrong), wind assisted which made me set off far too fast every single time but I still found the pace hard to maintain as I think my legs were just cold and clumsy. Then back to work, still haven't warmed up properly.

It was probably good for me after the written off weekend....

Yaaaaawwwwnnnnnn!

2009-12-01T17:26:00.004Z

Two sleep disrupted weekends on the trot, the one just past entirely self inflicted and alcohol related (serious, "never drinking again, god I am getting too old for this" stuff) , the previous weekend was work/on call related so not my fault. Not really a great deal of excitement to report apart from a new kit frenzy.....

Haglofs Oz Pullover, fab, getting lots of use already but the flappy hood is getting annoying/may strangle me/ acts as a parachute in strong head winds.
New Mudclaws half a size smaller, didn't start bothering my feet until after 10 miles on initial run so hope there (just wondering what to do with hardly used size 6's...running in Sealskins is in my future I think).
Thermal Odlo poncetastic undershorts - I suffer from painful cold arse syndrome badly, they seem to help for running.
Waterproof shorts for cycling, caved and bought a pair as full trousers too much and to help in the battle against cycling cold arse.

So ready for winter, just as well as its here!

I have bought metres of paclite in the last twelve months....

Oh, I forgot something...

2009-11-15T17:40:00.002Z

...setting an alarm for 6:00 am on my works phone, which hasn't been used since the beginning of October and not had the clock changed. Woke up at 5:00 am!

Whinlatter Offroad Duathlon

2009-11-15T17:22:00.003Z

Ouch, that hurt a bit! Overall time 2:41 so a bit more than I was expecting to be out there in the wind and rain. A tough course.

The Good:

My Ti 456 - it seemed to fly along the singletrack, felt fantastic.
My singletrack riding, gained a lot of places on the bike leg.
The Altura trail - need to go back on a less busy day, the traffic sometimes made the technical bits difficult.
The organisation and encouraging marshalls.
The other competitors - everyone cheery, happy to pull over, etc.
The occasional stunning views.

The Bad:

Losing over 5 minutes in transition, partly due to big faff with my gloves.
Setting off on the second run still wearing my helmet! (A lovely marshall, held onto it for me until I came back, he already had someone else's).
My slow climbing - bike or run, always lets me down.
My front brake jamming on hard, thankfully loosened off but rode the last few sections using back brake only.
Not paying any attention at all to how long I had been out there.
Seeing the lead man out on the second run when I think I was about half way through the bike leg.
The peeing rain!

The Ugly:

The guy going OTB in front of me on the bike leg, I stopped to make sure he was ok.
The guy sat at the side of the track on the second run in the throes of a complete bonk, gutted I had no gels on me to give him.
The second run in general, I was verging on bonking myself....which leads nicely onto:
Having a litre of energy drink to try to get through on the bike but have arrived home with....about a litre - I was saved by having a gel in transition.

Overall, I would do it again, but need to learn some lessons!

A lunchtime run in glorious sunshine.

2009-11-10T11:06:00.005Z

Yesterday I headed out at lunchtime for an interval session. Now, I moan that the prom is the only place in St Annes to get some decent uninterrupted running and it is. There really isn't much else, getting to the prom is a big faff as St Annes is jam packed with houses so that you have to stop constantly to cross roads etc. I can find it hard to motivate myself to do the same old run, same old streets, even though it really is good to get out in the daylight over the winter months.

However, occasionally a gorgeous day comes along and I can't wait to get down there, yesterday was one of those days. I then realise that I am actually very lucky to be able to get the chance to run on the beach at luchtime, I love the feeling of wide open space.

I had an interval session planned, 2 sets of 5 x 400 metres, 1 minute recovery. Before that I took it steady to the beach, then faffed around a bit taking in the sunshine before getting to the hard work. I have a new ickle bumbag which is to carry, gloves, tissues, lip balm 20p for the loos etc but also fits my camera in. Some jogging about taking photos before heading up onto the prom itself for the intervals. Not surprisingly there was a lot of people around but it just seemed to add to the good vibe.

The intervals went well, I did them at the correct pace, 4 out of 5 of the first set were at 1.49, the other was 1.48. I did have a slight muppet moment in that I thought I had longer to rest between the sets than I did and set off on the first one of the second set 40 seconds late......

The next 4 were all around 1.49 too. Legs felt good and I could have done more. I then tootled along the bottom of the sea wall for ages before realising that it was 1:40 pm and I really should drag myself away and get back to work.

My legs felt good all the way back to work so I think last week's rest has done them some good after all.

Red Rose XC Bury

2009-11-09T11:46:00.003Z

I picked a good week weather wise to be taking it easy, though the rain meant I didn't get any cycling in at all. Saturday I headed over to Bury to do another XC race. I somehow managed to get myself there without ending up lost in Bury centre but once again I found myself thinking a Sat Nav may be useful.

The course was laps around a sodden field, no real climbs or downs just constant shoe sucking mud and standing water. My feet were freezing from my short warm up and didn't warm up until I got in a hot shower at home.

Considering my legs had had most of the week off they didn't feel as sprightly as I thought they should, maybe the answer is to do a long MTB ride the day before? On the first lap I started suffering from a stitch, then I realised for reasons best known to myself that I had been practically holding my breath up the incline. Whoops.

3.5 miles in 31.01. I was totally covered in mud, I was less muddy the last time I fell in a bog.

The next XC is on the 21st of this month, however I have just realised I have races planned on the next three weekends which isn't going to leave me much time to do some miles, either bike or run. Depending on the weather I may not do the XC on the 21st.

Some "Racing" Advice Required: MTB

2009-11-09T09:39:00.004Z

So, the duathlon looms this coming weekend. Starting to think about the logistics, what to wear etc.

I think I should stick a bottle cage and bottle on the on one (as fortunately it will take one, Titus will not) and put puncture stuff etc in a saddle pack so I can ditch a camelbak when riding, not have to wriggle it on/off. Jez reckons I should take a small back pack.

I have never tried to race on a bike before so any advice accepted.

Dead Legs

2009-11-04T19:13:00.003Z

I postd a comment on Kate's blog recently about resigning myself to permanently dead legs combining running and cycling....if anyone else had said that I'd be advising them to take it easy for a bit.

I had a look back at what I have been up to over the last month, my rough goals are to do 200 miles of biking and 50 miles of running to keep on target for the year (2000 miles and 750 miles respectively). I did 239 bike miles and just squeaked in 50 running miles, not huge volume really.

I also had a good few days off here and there but the big change was the reintroduction of running speedwork, the dreaded intervals and tempo runs are back! I have done sets of 400's. 800's and 1600's (set off too fast and they so, so hurt)- forgot to do 1200's! Two miles worth of fast stuff, and two runs with 4 miles at 8:30 mm which is just slower than my 10K pace.

This is the only way I will keep running at lunchtimes over the winter, I have no real choice of route so I have to break the run up into chunks. Its been a big increase in intensity so I've backed off this week, quite a lot due to the blooming weather! Nothing more than four miles (if this rain ever stops).

Next week, start again with 400's and 2.5 miles of fast stuff. I am not looking forward to those mile ones again.

Ti 456 first ride

2009-11-03T12:17:00.010Z

I got out for an afternoon spin on the ti 456 last Friday. It took a while to actually get out the door, idly flicking though BBC iPlayer is not conducive to removing oneself from the sofa to go ride in strong winds.

As it was my last Friday off I eventually crowbarred myself out about 1pm ish. I decided on just a short ride, didn't want to end up too far in case things weren't ok, though my bike mechanic is usually pretty reliable! I also chucked a pair of running shoes in as I should do at least one brick before this month's looming duathlon. So, was aiming for no more than about two hours out total, run included, back well before dark. Except it didn't quite pan out like that....

Legs felt tired and heavy on the initial climb out (running speedwork), this was partly helped by increasing saddle height, which was the only faffing I had to do. As lots of people on the main track decided to do the fence track which looked quite dry. It wasn't, it was really stodgy, standing water further on but it had a covering of deceptive dry leaves. Bike was filthy within ten minutes, as it should be.

Off up the long climb to the tower, thought I was out of the wind but no it swirled round the hill so it was a bit of a grind. Along the top and the sun was out, just for a change:

Arriving at the tower and effectively on the other side of the hill I realised that what I thought was a headwind was just a slight breeze! Strong winds made the rutty descent difficult. I decided to try out a new track which started off well but got a bit rocky/droppy/rutty for me. It's the kind of track that needs a bit of knowledge as sometimes what looks like a good line suddenly gets a bit dodgy. I could also have done with lowering my saddle and having someone to follow (and a big dose of bravery).

Will be fun to run though! Back up towards the tower again, blown up by the wind then back to the top of the long climb I did where I had a bit of a think about where I wanted to go next. As I wasn't riding fast I thought a bit of exploring was worthwhile.

I keep meaning to ride across the top of Darwen moor. I've done one of the tracks (the straightest one) on a very dry day a good while ago but I actually prefer running on the other one as its not quite so rutty. The ruts are vehicle tyre ruts so I find them hard work running. The other track also has a great deal of hard pack on it too.

It wasn't too bad at all on a bike, only a few little bits where I had to get off bike and jump over stuff, though it was pretty soft in other places and is probably best avoided after a big downpour. I would say its more rideable than the other one, especially at this time of year. I was the only person on that part of the moor, which was just lovely after the busy tower area.

As I was enjoying myself on the windswept empty moor I thought I would continue down the Witton Weavers Way to the A666, ride briefly on the A666 then turn off and pick up the Catherine Edge bridleway back, which would give me a nice tailwind.

Started dropping down the track, it has some stones/cobbles and as I was going over them I remember thinking that it was much more comfortable on my steel frame. Then I realised that due to the headwind I was actually sat down pedalling downhill not stood up flying over them!

Some considerable time ago I rode down this track behind a group of lads who then did a short hike a bike onto another parallel track which eventually ended up at the A666 as well. I had no map with me but thought I would try to find a way to get up to the other track.

Rolling down I keep an eye out for likely places to try. A broken fence had me having a look but it ended with a large concrete drainage channel too wide for me to jump. I could see a footbridge further down and did briefly entertain the idea of climbing onto one of the concrete walls and shuffling along carrying my bike. Realising it was a reasonable distance to shuffle and I'd probably fall off I pushed back up to the main track.

I rolled down a bit further and a stile appeared, so over it and down to the footbridge and:

Hmm, there is a bit of a track off to the left so follow it up and round shouldering my bike onto a grassy plateau. See the where I want to get to and start riding, then have to get off and start yomping through marsh grass, which was hiding a nice (not) mossy bog.

Most of the grass is up above my shoulder height, a couple of times as I step into a deep bit of slop it goes over my head. I realise that at times I am probably invisible, in the unlikely event anyone heads down the main track anyway. I entertain myself with thoughts of being stuck out on the moor, waving my bike at the helicopter as it searches for me...hee hee.

I get there eventually, no idea how long it took but realise those lads didn't come the way I just did! I walk along the track I've just arrived at, heading back up the hill to see what's what. There is a stile, so there is obviously another cut through. I gave up after a short while as the track degenerated to stinking slop, oozing the stench of sheep poo:

More pedalling down hill against the wind, get to the A666 and realise its a bit gloomy so try to ride as fast as possible to the turn off before I get flattened. Get to the gate at the start of the Catherine Edge bridleway and realise I am really hungry. I chucked in a Chorley cake just in case so fished it out and sat down for some food. At some point around here I realised that the red lights on the Winter Hill mast were really bright...... which means light is fading fast. The time was well past 4pm, oops no wonder I'm hungry.

Luckily, I had thrown my joystick into my bag so I had a front light but the rear light is still on the Titus. I flew back along that bridleway due to the wind, a lot better than the last time I crawled along it. I was riding at least four gears higher!

I rode to Slipper Lowe car park and took the descent down through the woods. It was very murky and the leaf cover made things slippy but it wasn't dark enough for a light. I got to the ford at the bottom and there seemed to be loads of people around so rather than slalom through them I headed for the road, it would get me back quicker in the gloom.

Got near the road, it was indeed very gloomy, car headlights very bright, remembered about the rear light not being on the bike. Had a vague memory of buying a little emergency LED on a cord a month or two ago and chucking it in the Camelbak, had a rummage and found it (sometimes I amaze myself with moments of sense). Hung it off the LED loop, set it to flashy, got on the road and hoped no one flattened me.

A fast whizz down the road to the car, packed up while briefly entertain the idea of getting running shoes on but it was now pretty dark so I chucked the bike on top of the shoes so I couldn't get at them.

A fun ride, the ti frame definitely accelerates better than the steel one, bursts of power (the few there were) we rewarded with an immediate jump forward. Need to get it out on a long ride, that will be the true test.

Well...It's built

2009-10-29T14:49:00.003Z

My new, shinier and hopefully lighter than the steel one it replace On One Ti 456:

My last Friday off tomorrow so......run or ride? Got stuff to do in the morning so won't be able to escape anywhere too far. I'm currently leaning towards local ride at the minute, am at the Velodrome all day Saturday for the track world champs and Sunday's weather looks stupidly windy.

As long as I do something!

A few days away...

2009-10-28T18:40:00.004Z

We headed up to Scotland for a few days last week. Didn't do too much really, a bit of a bimble in the Pentlands which was fun, I definitely need to try to get some running in on them. The clag was down as it usually is when we are on top of any hill in Scotland. By the time we were walking back along the valley floor towards the car the cloud had lifted clear of the tops. By the time we came out of the Flotterstone Inn after some food it was blue sky and sunshine, typical.

I also managed to scare myself silly on the Aerial Assault course at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, only 10 minutes away from my folks. A video here, I was made to go first and my face was apparently just as much of a picture. I have to confess to having a raging hangover which really, really didn't help and also meant I didn't actually get any climbing in! However, I was getting vertigo just watching people climb, those walls are huge!

I would recommend it but not with a hangover, swinging around does nothing to settle the stomach.

A Friday Fell Run

2009-10-20T09:47:00.007+01:00

The morning of Friday 16th was spent waiting in for my new cranks and new frame (more later). By lunchtime the cranks had arrived but the frame hadn't, however it was such a beautiful day that I couldn't let one of my few remaining Friday's go by without doing something, so a run was planned.

Being such a crystal clear day I decided to head for Winter Hill and have an explore. I had a feeling my legs would be tired from this weeks riding/running so a run with lots of map faff would probably be just the ticket.

I know a couple of major tracks on Winter Hill from biking but that is about it so to give me an idea of where to explore I had a look at the checkpoints for the Winter Hill fell race and picked a couple of them to try to find (none of the ones that involve trekking up and down the steep side of the hill though, I'm not that daft!).

Final route I did is here. I started at the barn and ran clockwise. It was an enjoyable run, found lots of tracks which I've never run before. I wore my Mizuno Harriers as I know I can run a long time in them without them bothering my feet, I wasn't intending on running fast so a little bit of slipping around was no biggie. I also took out my new OMM Last Drop for a test, even though it was a beautiful day I still had some windproof cover and a pair of gloves. I had my compass with me to practice bearings too, camera, gels, phone etc.

I gradually picked my way up to the trig point, disappearing up over my ankles in slop twice jumping off stiles, to where lots of people were paragliding, it was quite busy up there. A stop for a gel, a good look at the map and to take in the view across to Great Hill, beautiful day:

On the other side of the road I can see the track that I ran along in the dusk, I can also see the where the bog I fell over in is (behind that first rise).

It was surprisingly busy up there, lots of paragliders having a great time. The wind was strong on that side of the hill and pretty cold. From the trig point I just headed off down Dean Ditch, following a path running alongside the wall ruins. I took an educated guess that at some point there would be a path branching off somewhere. It's not something I would have done on an unknown hill on a claggy day that's for sure!

Anyway some slip sliding in a generally downwards direction and eventually a path does branch off in the direction I wanted to go. It skirted round what looked like a reservoir then eventually joined back up with a track up Smithills Moor that I knew. Which was good as I was now starving due to not having eaten anything since breakfast (now after 3pm) and the stop/start was now taking its toll on my legs. It was easier to keep moving.

Trundled (slowly) up towards the masts, down the tarmac road which hurt, got fed up with that and decided to take my chances with a boggy path heading for the Pike.

A good decision it was much fun and easy on the legs. Up to the Pike then try to figure out the best way back to the top barn, being on foot meant all tracks were fair game. I found running on the hard cobble tracks quite painful after all the soft stuff and for the first time on the run nearly turned an ankle - on a tiny pebble on a flat piece of track.

Found a nice but convoluted route down through the gardens, nearly slipping on a greasy step. Got back to car, chucked stuff in, checked how much cash I had on me, not much. Drove from the top barn down to near the other barn and headed into the cafe to see what I could buy managing to stop myself diving face first into one of their large display cakes. Had a nice piece of shortcake to bring the sugar levels up.

Good run, nice to do some new stuff. The OMM sack was comfy, comfier than my little one. The trails shoes coped ok as things were still quite dry. I never took a single bearing, oops.

Catching Up

2009-10-19T20:50:00.006+01:00

So..a couple of days off due to knee then another few days due to bunged up/infected sinuses. Thankfully, no cold materialised but I had to resort to decongestants which alway make me feel a little other worldly. So basically had four complete days off everything.

Friday 9th: Went climbing, the less said about that the better. Floundering around on 4's badly. On the plus side, the ability to string moves together increased after a few climbs. Conversely, strength disappeared, so I fell off the last climb trying to do a big move that I didn't have the strength to carry out!

Saturday 10th: Time for some running. Felt like heading off up Great Hill but would take it easy as just shaking off sinus trouble. I took a camera and faffed about but the climb was difficult, just no real strength. Had great fun running down the other side towards the A675 where it was still pretty dry, well apart from the odd section:

Won't be long til there is a lot more bog. Mudclaws were fab but again started to rub my right heel after about 5 miles. I got back near the car and almost headed out on another loop with a fair old climb but sense got in there as I was actually pretty tired.

With hindsight, some easy tarmac miles would have been a better choice! Will have to steam the heels of my Mudclaws to see if it helps.

Sunday 11th: Supposed to be an easy bimble around Gisburn with some novice friends but they cried off due to weather just as we were on the M65. Headed to Abbey Village instead, just as well as I forgot my helmet! A shortened ride, made shorter by the minging weather (my head was freezing as I had no buff either):

Took it easy on the descents due to being helmetless, almost got away with it until a tree lined trail with low branches and I got thwacked in the head three times. Ouch.

Monday 12th: The new week started with some running intervals, 2 sets of 4 x 400 metres to start things off. Seemed to go well and fairly consistent. Will start with two miles of fast stuff then increase to three (as that's how long the prom is!).

Tuesday/Wednesday: Riding to work - got towed in by Jez which was fun, made him work! Some offroad night riding fun on the Wednesday too.

Thursday: More running, this time two easy miles and two faster miles. In the evening I headed to the Chill Factore for some snowboarding......didn't go very well! I think I need to get right back to basics again.

An injury scare

2009-10-19T14:28:00.000+01:00

The Sunday after the 3rd Oct XC race Jez and I headed out on a road ride to spin my legs out. The initial plan was for 30 odd miles taking in Belmont. My legs were pretty tired which wasn't entirely suprising. My left leg in particular was feeling a little odd.

Half way up the climb from the M65 roundabout over to Abbey Village I had to stop due to a very, very "bad" pain just above my left knee. I thought my ITB had gone, though I didn't say it out loud because that would make it seem true. It wasn't so bad if I stood up but seated climbing was very painful. I had been sort of aware of it at the end of Friday's ride too.

Anyway, we headed back so the ride was only about 20 miles long. My left leg was definitely not feeling right at all.

Later when tidying up my riding shoes I noticed my left cleat was in a bit of a bizarre position. The cleat was very loose and moving around all over the place, d'oh.

"How can you not notice these things?" asked a very exasperated Jez.

A few rest days and I think I got away with it.

Red Rose XC Womens Race - Blackburn

2009-10-19T13:56:00.000+01:00

My first XC race this season was at Witton Park on the 3rd of October. I drove over in heavy rain and strong winds though the rain stopped before I got there thankfully. A bit of faff with parking before heading to the Chorley tent to pick up my number.

Conditions were not as stodgy as last year but still soft. I expected to have heavy legs after the wet 30 miler on the MTB the day before but they were actually fine. I had a good run and managed to keep working hard til the end and was a bit quicker than last year. Really enjoyed it even though the saucer was a much longer hill than I remembered. I finished the just over 5k in 28:34, 8:36 mm pace. A minute a mile faster than the year before.

Friday 2nd Oct: A Two Towers Ride...

2009-10-16T19:38:00.007+01:00

...or three if you count Turton Tower. 30 very wet, windy, cold and sometimes plain miserable miles. The On One was out to play as the knocking headset/brake squealing was actually due to the brake hose connector coming loose and spilling fluid all over the brake, making for juddery stopping - oops. I was under orders to get the disk covered in crap to help clean the pads up.

I set off from a grey, not very windy Lostock Hall for a local ride and arrived at the car park just off the A675 Tockholes turnoff to driving rain and gusting winds. Its a little exposed there. Anyway sat in my car for ages being not remotely tempted to get out:

Finally, wriggled into waterproofs before even stepping out of car and got ready. Hands were wet and freezing cold before I had even set off and trying to wrestle them into gloves resulted in a few choice words! Saddle very wet too but hey ho. Had a near off within three metres of the car as the front wheel slid along a piece of wet wood edging the track. Ignored the demons telling me to give up and headed out.

I had no plan other than a vague wish to ride over to Peel Tower. In the end I did manage it by making myself ride "just a little bit more" rather than think about the whole ride. I learned that trick from my Hebden Bridge ride. The final route is here.

I decided to do a bit of downhill in the woods first then head up to Darwen tower, a vain hope it would stop raining. Nope. I took the most sheltered way I could think of up to the tower and I was almost at it before I could actually see it:

I sheltered from the howling wind for ages and ate a bit of my first butty - only about two miles in! If I'd been riding with someone else and they had suggested heading back home I think I would have gone like a shot! As it was I had to head back past the car to go anywhere else so I put off the decision until that point. The clag got really bad for a while, just as well I know the hill:

So off towards the car, drop down off the moor and the combination of wind and descending speed meant the rain stung my face hard. At the decision point the wind was behind me so I thought I would continue up over the moor again, drop down to the A666 then pick up the Catherine Edge bridleway back to the car. I couldn't be bothered with the faff of trying to pack up in the rain quite yet really.

Up and over then a fast, wet descent down towards the A666 where the cloud lifted briefly and it seemed to be brightening up:

Cheered up by the thought I continued off down the hill, unfortunately the cloud had other ideas and chased me down the valley:

Once at the road I then had a decision to make, back to the car or onto Peel Tower. I was sheltered from the wind and the rain so decided to head to Peel Tower. Some fairly straightforward track and road riding led to the bridleway along Holcombe which I really enjoyed. A short but steep pull up then I was at Peel Tower:

The cloud had actually lifted quite a bit and I could see Ramsbottom below. I stopped for a proper butty stop and just as I was getting ready to ride the cloud closed in again.

I decided just to head back the way I came up rather than chance one of the paths across the top. Back along the bridleway back to the road. As I was rolling down to Edgworth the rain seemed to start in earnest. It was hard to see flying down the road and my waterproofs were beginning to get a little overfaced.

I found the Turton tower track (handily signposted) then made my way across the golf course to Egerton. I did think about heading up to the Pike as although I was cold and wet my legs would have probably made it. However, once through Egerton I picked up the road past Delph Res and the full force of the wind and the rain hit me.

I decided to just head back, the last three miles from Delph along the bridleway back to the car were just awful. There was nowhere to hide from the wind and rain and its a gradual climb. I was very cold and just wanted it to end. Once finished I think I just chucked everything in the car, got a towel on the seat and drove home with the heating on full blast.

As I got on the M65 the sun came out.......

A ride out of Hebden Bridge - 25th Sept

2009-10-12T19:28:00.014+01:00

I am so behind with posting.......

The long spell of dry weather had me fancying a go over High Brown Knoll so I planned (then re-planned) a route out of Hebden Bridge. The original route had me checking out a long stretch of the Bronte Way from Oxenhope, however I realised this would be quite committing so revised the route to give me plenty of get outs. The final planned route was an ambitious 40 miler with over 5000ft of climb. In the end I took a get out option and the actual route was around 30 miles with still over 4000ft of climb.

My legs hadn't properly shaken off the Rivi half really, I don't know why I was surprised as it took about a week and a half to shake the last half marathon I did. I should check my training notes more often!

The ride starts with a long drag out of Hebden Bridge on the Keighley road. I was on the Titus as the On One seemed to have developed a knocking headset and the front brake was squealing with the pitch of nails down a blackboard, urgh. I had tried tightening the head set but to be honest the bolt was tight and I didn't want to twist it so much the star fangled nut wrenched out of the steerer tube (not that I've done that....recently).

Anyway full-suss magic carpet it was. I think the climb went on for about 2.5 miles, its not steep, just a drag but it gives a good indication of how things are. My climbing legs were not at all there, which was going to be a problem on a ride with a potential 5000ft of up.

A strong, cold headwind greeted me as I climbed out of the valley. I seemed to have a perpetual headwind for most of the day, the area isn't dotted with windfarms for nothing! I finally get to the bridleway to head over HBK and I had completely forgotten about the first part. It took all my mental resolve to not just roll back down the hill again.

The first part was indeed dry but its quite "steppy" and rutty peaty track, hard to describe but it can be tricky to ride and a pain to get going again if you stop. Then it leads to a short push - always a push which I had forgotten then onto the lovely track I remembered, dry as a bone and once on it initial petted lip forgotten:

It's not the best picture but it was the only one I took of the fantastic dry singletrack on the ride as generally I was enjoying riding it too much to stop. The trig point was practically luminous for the obligatory bike shot:

The lead grey skies never really brightened up much, Stoodley Pike is just visible in the distance. Due to the totally flat light I never really stopped to take many pictures. Anyway across the moor, almost entirely dry though there were a few boggy and foul smelling patches still.

Then it was the descent to Luddenden Dean, saddle down for the top steep part which was fun then about half way down it seemed to really have disintegrated. Normally, I am following one or two people down so you can see which ruts work and which don't. I had to find it out for myself and I had to pull the bike out of a dead end rut more than once, though I at least never parted company from it in an "over the bars" stylee.

What drops steeply down must come back up again (at least around Hebden Bridge) so it was a road slog up out of Luddenden Dean then pick up the bridleway along Cold Edge - which was indeed cold due to the wind. I also realised along Cold Edge that I hadn't in fact sorted the Titus gears properly and they were all out by one!

When I thought I was in lowest gear I was in the second lowest, great. I could get it into the lowest gear but I don't think it was great for the drive train, though in my typical fashion I pushed the worry to the back of my mind. I needed that gear dammit!

Soon it was the fast drop down to Ogden Water where I was glad I was on the Titus, flattened the cobbles out a bit. The cafe was open so I stopped and had a can of coke as I needed all the boost I could get and checked the Garmin to see what was what.

About 10 miles ish, 1.5 hours of riding time, a whopping 1 hour of paused time (where?) so far and an average speed of 6.9. Hmmmm....rethink. The full route is probably not a good idea, tired legs etc and I'm obviously in faff mode. Had a map check. I still really wanted to do the bridleway from Ogden over Thornton Moor to Oxenhope. I can then climb out of Oxenhope and head back towards Hebden.

Plan made and off towards Thornton Moor. The track was quite frankly, lovely! Dry as a bone, multiple line choices and I managed to not make a bad one. Great fun until the end when I got to a now sanitised piece of rocky descent - boooooooo:

It was still fast though and there is a promising looking track off to the right which needs some investigation. At the gate I was originally supposed to head straight down but a memory was dredged up from somewhere and I realised we normally head off left. Along and down another fun and rocky track which I really like. It finally pops out at a road and I have to get the map out to check how to get back on plan.

A grassy roll down a bridleway which eventually seems to go through someones garden, it felt a bit wrong riding my bike effectively on someones lawn, especially as I was now on a footpath I walked that short section. Productive greenhouse they had!

I kept checking the map going through Oxenhope and at one of the checks I finally noticed the name of the hill I was about to head over..."Stairs Hill"....that means I'm about to climb "Stairs Lane" oh feck. Not a sight for sore legs I can tell you:

I was in fail mode before I even got to it, convinced it was going to be one long push once the tarmac ran out...Bottom third or so was quite loose and I CBA'd fighting it but it also didn't take me long to get bored with pushing. The upper two thirds while still steep were mainly dry cobbles so I trundled up in diesel truck mode and managed to clear most of it.

I realised that whilst my legs hadn't livened up they hadn't actually gotten much worse either, steady effort was fine short hard efforts were not. Back up into the wind and a rather nice track across the top then a fast, eye watering, descent off the other side.

I was getting pretty close to Hebden again, one more steady climb then I could roll back into town. I thought I would roll straight onto Crimsworth Dean, dive down the little fun bridleway at Hardcastle Crags then back to the car.

However, I arrived at the turn off for the bridleway over to New Laithe moor and decided I wasn't ready to go back quite yet. I would head over to New Laithe moor then roll down the long fast fireroad, then the Hardcastle Crags bridleway back into town. A bit more descending payback I thought so off I headed.

Another nice stretch of bridleway which I haven't been on for a long time, through a field of cows and onto the wide track at New Laithe moor. I again decided I wasn't ready to go back to the car....so headed on towards the Gorple reservoirs. I knew the tracks well and they were steady riding, apart from the headwind, it was a bit of a grind for a while. It would also mean I could finish the ride with the descent from Jack's Bridge.

I soon pop out at the turnoff for the Pennine Bridleway past the Gorple reservoirs. I did have a big moment of indecision but sense prevailed and I decided not to head up over Widdop, if it had been less of a pig of a climb I may have done. Average speed had climbed up a little to 7.3.

I continued trundling past the reservoirs and up and over Heptonstall Moor. Finally, as I turned towards Colden I got a tailwind. A fast, easy ride down through Colden towards Jack's Bridge and the final descent of the day. This made me laugh:

I hate to think what has tried to get down there as the tarmac runs out quickly and it becomes a narrow track for a while, with a drop to the left. A Smart Car might be able to make it, just. Its a fast descent to finish on and I only had to slow for walkers twice on the whole thing. It was a great way to finish the ride and I was buzzing at the bottom and wondering if I really should have headed back to the car.

Then I just had to remember where I parked my car in Hebden Bridge. I stopped behind a bus at some traffic lights, then realised as a policeman cycled past me that the bus was parked. I got the map out to make it look deliberate....

A quick hose off of bike and a wander around Hebden Bridge before setting off home.

A final total of 30.02 miles and 3:45 of riding time (faff time not recorded!). After the fast riding from Heptonstall the average speed had crept up to 7.9 mph, amazing what a tailwind can do.

Wednesday 23rd September: Another Dry Night Ride

2009-10-05T19:24:00.007+01:00

On the Sunday after Rivi half I woke up with a very sore little toe on my left foot, it was quite bruised and hurt when in shoes. I vaguely remember kicking a boulder during the race but it didn't hurt at the time. It took until the Wednesday before the toe was happyish being in bike or running shoes.

Some e-mails flying around ended up with just Stu and I out on a fantastic evening at Rivington. Dry trails again. Normally we would make our way out to Healey Nab first and then make our way up to the Pike but we decided to head up to the Pike first while I tell Stu the details of last Monday's run.

Gorgeous, clear view from the pike then we decide to head out to Anglezarke to ride the bit of track I had noted on the trail race.

Its pretty much all downhill to Anglezarke from the pike then along the cheeky track, which rides very well indeed! We then decide to head to Healey Nab and do the new bit of trail.

The rocks on the climb up to the start of the new trail in the Nab look bigger than normal but its the shadows cast by the lights. Onto the new trail and I start well by riding straight on where it turns right! I realised quickly as I got tangled up in a load of branches probably put there to stop people cutting the corner.

Back on and down the red route. As the trails are so dry everything looks the same and its hard to tell where the actual track really goes and once again I part company from it and have to shuffle back on. I'm not complaining about the dry track though. Some of the drops seem a lot bigger than they really are in the dark. We arrive at the track just after the drops (which we need to ride once again soon) to find the lower part "under construction". We respect the request to stay off it and roll down the bridleway then climb up to the little quarry.

I rekindle my love affair with the bush at the side of the step up on the track as I try to ride into three times and never clean the step. That old problem again! Stu has problems too but they are chain rather than ineptitude related.

Back over towards the Go Ape course then we decide to ride the reservoir track towards the castle, it definitely rides better coming the other way. A good evenings ride in almost perfect conditions.

Rivington Trail Half

2009-10-05T15:11:00.001+01:00

Saturday 19th September saw me head bleary eyed over to Rivington and Blackrod school for the inaugural Salomon Rivington Trail Half. A crap nights sleep saw me accompanied on my way by a large, strong coffee in an attempt to wake up.

Parking up and picking up timing chip was fairly painless and caffeine was thankfully well into my system when I realised that drinking so much digestive system accelerant so close to the start probably wasn't a good idea. I toddled up the hill to check out the start then back down to visit the ladies.

The cubicle door was really stiff and I gave it a big kick to shut it then thought perhaps that wasn't the most sensible idea. Sure enough I couldn't get the door back open again! After a minute or so of pulling on the little door catch I start to wonder about missing the start due to being stuck in a toilet. Luckily, being the ladies there was a queue outside and someone shoved it open from the other side.

I headed off to car got all my stuff on/off ,whatever, carefully keeping Garmin away from boot at all times. Head off up to the start, get up on the road to the start and realise I don't have my chip on, d'oh. Back to car, find it, put it on and get up to start a bit later than planned and find a few other harriers. It doesn't seem long til we're off.

The race starts with some easy running along the track I ran in the dark on the Monday where the gate never seemed to come. It still took ages in daylight, a right turn then up a way steeper than I was expecting track that joined up with the wide climb up to the pigeon tower. Its not too steep so running was ok on this. The climb doesn't go up too far before it heads down onto the "Commonwealth Down" (Polar Bear World) at the corner I fell out onto.

Its a fast descent but I have to say I think I ran it better in the dark (the threat of the Polar Bears no doubt). Once again past the start, out to the gate that never seems to appear then off towards Anglezarke reservoir via an empty field. I had never been on part of the track alongside the reservoir and made a note to come back on a night ride.

Up past the top end of the reservoir, up a steep flight of steps. I think it was about 7 miles ish as I took the opportunity to have a gel - wasn't sure if I needed it but decided to err on the side of caution. Soon running again on Heapey Fold Lane. About 9 miles or so my legs start to hurt a bit, mainly the quads which I put down to the extra biking lately. I wasn't that surprised to be honest, not run many long ones lately and none that haven't involved faffing about taking pictures or falling in bogs.

I seemed to be fine on the flat running, any climbs were beginning to hurt. Pass Trio and Ali on some steps that my legs were very unhappy about having to climb and back across the now not so empty field. Loads of cows (bullocks it turned out) had now moved up and across the track and they seemed a little frisky.

I and the woman running near me were a bit wary and were trying to decide which way to go when one of the little blighters charged at me, wah! I think I put my hand on its head in a vain attempt to stop it, stupid animal. I heard a bit of a yelp behind me and turned round to see one lad had been chased up onto a stile. Once through it was quite funny and the marshals were wading in to try to chase them off. Never expected to get charged by a cow on a race.

Legs were very unhappy on any climbs but still seemed up for it on the flat or downhill and they managed to run the last mile to the finish pretty well. I crossed the line in 2:08 eventually, not brilliant but not that bad either. Kate introduced herself to me at the line, then I was de-chipped and picked up the rather marvellous goody bag. I picked up a medium t-shirt after being advised that I was too fat for a small one! Hee hee, no unisex t-shirts here.

Met up with Trio and Ali and saw Jane and Vikki cross the line too. Plan were made to head for lunch, directions were given to me on how to get to the pub. After speaking to Jez I forgot the directions and set off on auto pilot back home, remembered where I was supposed to be going and somehow managed to find my way to the correct pub.

A fun race, enjoyable course and great to meet up with Trio, Ali, Kate, Vikki and Jane. Not forgetting Glyn and Flipper the dog!

Whinlatter Offroad Duathlon

2009-10-01T14:31:00.000+01:00

Just entered......eeek.

£33 did make me take a sharp intake of breath but think duathlons/tris are usually expensive.