Please Pass Wide and Slow......

I've seen this message regularly on the back of horse riders, usually on a flourescent jacket and I think the meaning is pretty self explanatory. The Highway Code says that when passing a horse (or cyclist) to give them as much room as you would a car. As a commuting cyclist and "vulnerable road user" I know that some drivers haven't paid any attention to this part of the Highway Code and a lot won't have looked at it since passing their driving test however many moons ago that was. I freely admit that I am hyper aware of it because I am said vulnerable user. I have had cars passing too close to me on a bike loads of times, it still gives me a fright and I have had wobbles at speed because of it. Passing a cyclist too close is one thing but surely common sense dictates that you should give a large animal like a horse plenty of room, its one thing spooking a cyclist its quite another spooking a large sentient animal with hooves....I always pass horses wide and slow, even on a pushbike and always warn the rider if I come up behind them and they haven't acknowledged I'm there.


On Saturday morning I saw the nasty (thankfully not as nasty as it could have been) consequences of not passing horses wide and slow.


Just heading away from Grange over Sands towards the A590 then the M6, the road was single lane each way but still reasonably wide. There was a stream of traffic heading towards the A590 and two horses and riders heading back towards Grange, single file with the rear rider wearing a flourescent jacket with the title message on it. A car appeared behind the riders and decided to pass rather than wait a little while (I'm sure he regrets this decision bitterly now). As there was a lot of traffic heading in the opposite direction from the horses there was no real space to overtake them safely but he did so anyway. I saw the whole thing and if he actually crossed the white lines it wasn't by much. He moved past the first horse which didn't do anything but he was so close it was scary. The horse in front took a real fright (as I would've done if a car had appeared that close behind me) and he spooked, badly. The horse reared up and it hit the front of the car, the car stopped but I think the horse stumbled and reared a bit again away from the car which eventually unseated the rider, she'd managed to hang on well until he lurched to the side. I think she bounced off the car before landing hard on the road and the horse started trotting off a little down the road then stopped.


I pulled over, as did Mel behind me and a few other cars. Mel used to work professionally with horses so went to catch the horse while I and the others went to the rider. She had landed hard on her knee and was complaining about it. Someone called an ambulance and Mel brought the horse back and we moved both horses off to the side of the road. The horse was bleeding from one of its fore legs but was surprisingly calm considering what had just happened and stood there quite happily while chaos ensued all around. It was not a skittish horse, it just didn't appreciate a car trying to pass with inches to spare. The only time the horse got a little restless was when someone tried to apply a dressing to its leg to help stem the flow of blood, which according to the non-injured rider looked worse than it really was. Rachel and Nicole were both struggling with looking at the bleeding horse as they are currently taking riding lessons. We sent them back to Mel's car until things were sorted to try and stop them getting too upset.

It turned out thehorses were from a stables only minutes down the road, the uninjured rider had phoned ahead and two people walked up the road then led the horses away quietly. They didn't seem too concerned about the bleeding leg and the girls seemed happier as they saw the horse walk by without problem. During this time the ambulance turned up and the injured rider was convinced to go with them to hospital. A couple of other witnesses were controlling the traffic and another witness turned out to be an off duty policeman who took everyone's details and a brief statement.

Once it was clear we could do no more we continued on our drive home.

The above happened on the 2nd of August and about a week later I saw two women riding horses on the roads around Rivington.....with no helmets on. I thought it was a legal requirement to wear a helmet when riding a horse. I know when I used to ride many moons ago the helmet rules were changed, the old style helmet I used to ride with wasn't good enough and jockey skull caps and silks started to become the norm.

Wednesday 30th July: Sacrificial Offroad Ride

Hurrah some bike time! The reason I have described this ride is sacrificial is that it was something that had to be gotten out of the way rather than enjoyed - sacrificed on the altar of my (and Jez's) return to fitness, much like yesterdays run was really. It was a case of reminding my body what it is like to ride a bike. It wasn't pretty and it wasn't really that enjoyable but it was needed.

In the end only Jez and I headed out and we took it pretty easy (and cut it short, lazy sods). It took a while for me to get into it, my heart rate climbed high early on and kind of stayed there, which is what I was expecting and it made everything seem hard work. I also hit 190 which isn't territory I visit very often thankfully. My bike handling skills were still ok and on the few occasions I did mess things up I managed to wrestle the bike back to where I wanted it, though as I was on the Titus I was being let off relatively easy. It was quite soft and weton some tracks to we decided against the track round the back and took the swoopy path back to the ford at the bottom of Mill Lane. The rough Mill Lane is one of my favourite descents but it is generally always wet, even on the driest of days and I hadn't brought my glasses. I have almost come off my bike on that descent in the past due to the amount of water and crap that ended up in my eyes due to lack of glasses. I enjoyed the change of whizzing down the smoth track and we headed back on the cheeky path through the woods .

It ended up being just under 9 miles which is pathetic really but hopefully things should improve now.

It looks like the bearings on the Titus swingarm are not long for this world, will need to get on Fattreads website or give them a ring to get some more. I need to get Jez to take a look at the bottom bracket too as I think its a bit grindy, kerching!

Tuesday 29th July 2008 - Short Road Run

Distance: About 4 miles

Chuffin' hell, this month has been a wash out as far as cycling or running is concerned. I was still struggling last week and had decided to rest up completely for a few days as we were due to attend a wedding on Saturday then drive over to Grange-over-Sands to meet up with Mel for a few days on Sunday. As it was it didn't quite work out like that due to my numptiness however I did rest up. Having too much beer at the wedding helped and it was too hot for me on Monday evening anyway (lack of motivation didn't help).

I decided I was definitely going running yesterday. It lashed down on the way home from work but I still got all my kit on then faffed for about and hour as it rained again. I did manage to organise tea and speak to Mel in this time but could have done with getting out earlier. The rain had stopped for a while when I got out and it had freshened up nicely. I decided to pick a loop which was quite easy - Brownedge Road, Leyland Road, cut down the field to the Penwortham playing fields, over the embankment and back along the tramway. My legs felt like lead for a while but I was running well (strong tailwind as it would turn out), really enjoyed it all the way until running back in the headwind along the tramway and it started raining heavily again. It wouldn't have been too bad if a couple of very large raindrops hadn't hit my eyeball (really hurt). I got pretty soaked in the last mile and the headwind was surprisingly strong, still good to get out.

Pendle Pedal, no more...

I decided last week not to do this as I just haven't gotten over being ill as well as I would have liked, spent next to no time on a bike anyway. The decision did seem to lift a bit of pressure so I think it was the right thing to do.

.......and anyway I appear to have double booked myself. I though Mel and the girls were down Sat 26th - Tue 29th July when it would actually transpire it is from Tues 29th to late on Sat 2nd. I completely misheard the dates when we were discussing it to the point that Jez and I had sorted out leave for Monday and Tuesday which had to be rearranged. I have managed to move my leave to Thursday and Friday however Jez can only get Friday afternoon off as he has just come back from Oz and had told everyone at work he would be available from Wednesday - meetings ahoy that he can't get out of. Ooopsadaisy!

On reflection with Mel, the girls (including one slightly stroppy 14 year old) and Leslie he's probably better off out of it until Friday night anyway, too much of a girliefest for hime.

Tuesday 22nd July: Lunchtime Run

I had intended on going out in the evening offroad but then remembered last night I had an appointment with Alan for a sports massage this evening, not that I'll need much doing after being ill. The forecast was for a sunny day so I decided to take my kit to work and run at lunchtime, which is something I used to do a lot but kind of stopped once I joined the Harriers and ran more in the evenings. It would be a good change from the norm as St Annes is pan flat and on a nice day running along the sea front is really pleasant. It turned out grey and drizzly in St Annes and didn't brighten up before I was due to run, it looked cold and I'd brought a sleeveless top. Once changed I walked to the main gate and was shivering a bit. I decided to run north towards Blackpool on the streets then head to the sea front and follow that down to Fairhaven Lake then head back to work, should be about six miles or so.

I set off into the wind and drizzle just heading north, it doesn't take me long to get fed up with the constant disruption of street junctions, I'd forgotten about this, its not until actually on the prom that I can get any sort of decent spell of uninterrupted running. I keep heading north on long St Annes streets until I reach a street running perpendicular then turn for the sea front, now I'm really in the wind though at least te drizzle has stopped! I decide to pop up on the little dunes for a look see trying not to get too much sand in my shoes. The tide is out and there looks to be some nice flat sand, I know it gets quite "muddy" further round so I decided to run on the beach until just after the pier then pop up back on the prom. The sand is reasonably firm but it is still quite slow going but at least the wind is diagonally behind me now. There are one or two hardy souls on this part of the beach, its not really that cold (now that I'm running). I pass under the pier and there are loads of people on this part of the beach, lots of those little tenty things everywhere. I have a look up at the pier and there is a sign which says that you are not supposed to go climb on or pass under the pier, I didn't see one on the other side, hey ho.

I can see the nice sand strip narrows a lot further on so I climb up off the beach and onto the prom. There is a pool thing near the lifeboat station and there are some kids inside large inflatable ball things floating on the pool. They looked great fun, one of the kids was running in it like a hamster on a wheel, far more fun that going back to work. I keep running down towards Ansdell enjoying having the wind behind me but I'd forgotten how long a stretch this was. I could see the whole way down Clifton Drive and it seemed to take ages to make any progress. I got to Fairhaven Lake eventually then headed back to work, which meant heading north again and into the wind. I took the footpath that cuts through Royal Lytham golf course, surprisingly few golfers around for a change so no worries about getting hit by a stray ball. I jogged the last mile or so back to work. I actually quite enjoyed it as it is so completely different to the runs I have been doing lately, though I can see why I was getting bored of it last autumn.


=======Summary=======
Distance: 6.27m
Time taken: 00:55:49
Average/Max Speed : 6.74mph / 8.25mph
Average/Min Pace : 00:08:54 / 00:07:16
Average/Max heart rate: 160/175
Calories used: 683
======Splits======
12:24:15 1.00m 00:08:52 6.76mph 7.82mph 152bpm 167bpm1
2:33:08 1.00m 00:09:17 6.46mph 7.88mph 154bpm 175bpm
12:43:48 1.00m 00:08:54 6.73mph 7.92mph 162bpm 171bpm
12:54:07 1.00m 00:08:18 7.23mph 8.19mph 166bpm 173bpm
13:03:09 1.00m 00:08:57 6.69mph 8.25mph 163bpm 171bpm
13:12:41 1.00m 00:09:01 6.65mph 7.89mph 166bpm 171bpm
13:22:15 0.27m 00:02:26 6.67mph 7.93mph 169bpm 172bpm