Winter is Here

Winter has definitely arrived.  Monday was proper icy.  Only where the road was muddy or where water had been splashed from roadside puddles, but still real ice. And cold. 

I was down in Bristol til Friday, but again it was pretty cold and icy.  And foggy.  Coming back from the pub on Friday night, the visibility was down to a dozen feet, made worse by the condensation on my glasses.

I had arranged to go mountain biking on Saturday with Karl and co.  The plan was for Karl and Alison to pick me up at 8AM and drive up to Grizedale for a 9:45 start.  If I’d had my mobile with me when the alarm went off at 7, I would have rung Karl and cancelled. 

I’m glad I didn’t.  It was glorious.  As we drove round Windermere, the clouds and the mountains were reflected in the water.  It was picture perfect.  We met up with the others a bit late and exchanged the usual pleasantries and insults, before hitting the trail.  The day was a nice mix of fire road climbs, fast loose descents and swervy singletrack.  I was bitterly cold, not getting above freezing all day, but bright sunshine and no wind.  The only real problem was that the short stretch of road we had to do was covered with black ice.  Joe took a tumble when his bike just slid out from underneath him.  Highlight of the day was Tony loosing his mobile, then finding it again.  Lowlight of the day was right at the end.  There is a short loop of the North Face Trail we could do before going back to the car.  Alison didn’t want to do it, so headed back to the car park, while the rest of us hit the first of several short ice covered boardwalks.  Not only were they unrideable, they were also largely unwalkable. At one point we were crabbing along sideways with our heals hooked over the edge in order to avoid sliding down.  By the time we’d got past this and onto some rideable tracks, Alison rang to say she was lost.  We retraced our steps, she retraced hers and by the time we found each other it was too dark and we had to head back to the cars.  All in all it was a brilliant day.

Cheers

Tim

Pride before a Fall

Not a literal fall, although I came close.  Just two poor mileage weeks.  Again work has got in the way.

Last week I was in London and didn’t get out too much.  I only managed one and a half days of commuting and didn’t feel up to our usual Thursday ride as I didn’t get back from London til late ish.  I had stayed in a really crappy hotel and didn't sleep particularly well, I never do.

The week before, I only did the Thursday ride and a short MTB ride on Sunday.  I was knackered at the beginning of the week after the mammoth exertions of the previous week.  The Thursday night was hard work, with strong winds and heavy rain again.

Sunday we went up to the South Lakes for a leisurely mountain bike ride.  Forecast was for rain, wind, cold, sleet and generally poor.  On the whole, it was OK.  Very wet but not too cold.  At one stage I was sliding sideways down the face of a rocky outcrop, while the trail went forwards.  Not exactly out of control, but not in control either.  But I survived.  My second MTB ride in as many weeks, and in as many years!

Hopefully, I can still do the 3500 for the year, but it does mean doing 100+ miles every week from now on.  And I’m in Bristol for 3 days next week.

Wish me luck

Tim

Another good week

After the promising start to the week, the weather turned even nastier, wetter and windier.  Parts of the Lake District, were I was on Tuesday have had severe flooding.  Several bridges are either down or damaged.

I rode in on Wednesday in appalling weather, soaked to the skin when I got to work.  Even on a radiator, my stuff didn’t dry out.  It wasn’t too bad on Thursday, I got in and home relatively dry.  But it was very windy.  Karl rang me to see if we were going on our normal Thursday night ride, his car was being rocked back and forth by the wind.  But we went anyway.  It was a great ride out to the pub, 30mph wind on you back feels good.  The ride back wasn’t so good, 10 miles of head on wind.  I was on my fixed.  I was knackered.  Friday, I went in the car.

Karl had some friends over this weekend and yesterday we went for a ride.  It was still very wet and windy.  We rode out to the Cafe de Lune at Conder Green where we stopped for a egg, bacon and sausage barm.  Delicious.  We then set out across the wind, heading for Scorton, the Priory and a tea cake.  However, when we got there, no one wanted to stop.  We decided to press on to another cafe at Catforth, but by then the weather was awful, we were knackered and didn’t stop again.  50 miles of wet and windy, with no tea cakes.  I don’t think my body can cope.

This morning we did a dozen miles on the tandem, just got caught in the rain on the way home.

Miles for the week – 145

Total miles so far – 3154

Cheers

Tim

First MTB in years

I got out for more riding yesterday and today.  The weather here is a bit variable to say the least. 

Yesterday morning started grey, wet and windy, but by 11 it was bright and sunny, so I thought I’d get out for a spin.  After being out for about 30 mins, the wind picked up again, the rain and even hail came lashing down.  Or rather across, most of the rain was horizontal.  Eventually it eased and I staggered round to Bonds for a cup of tea and a tea cake.  Leaving the warmth of the cafe was a wrench, as was heading into 30-40 mph head wind.  I finally got home after 22 miles in an hour and a half, knackered and soaking wet.

Today I had arranged to meet Catherine to go mountain biking.  Catherine’s bike was at Bike Treks, so were going to head up to the Lakes.  The overnight weather was gale force winds and heavy rain, but we woke up to light winds and sunshine.  We decided to set off.  This would be my first mountain bike ride for over 18 months.  The last ride I did was a quick hour or so around Ashton Court in Bristol.  I was a bit worried about how I would get on.  Catherine was worried that her bike wouldn’t be ready.  She’d meant to ring the day before but forgot, and we had to set off before they were open.  Sadly, when we got there, the bike wasn’t ready, her forks hadn’t returned from the manufacturer.  The did lend her a 2010 Specialized Stump Jumper FSR demo bike so that we could go riding though.

We set out to do a bit of Loughrigg.  Not all of it, not the hilly, hard bits, just some of the nicer bits, just in case I wasn’t up to it.

Up the first road climb, I managed to stay in front of Catherine.  It set the tone for the day.  The drop down into Sawrey was basically down a stream.  Although it wasn’t raining, by the time we got to the bottom, we were soaked to the skin.  This was the second theme of the day, every off road climb or descent was a running river of rain run off.  We got very very wet.  But we decided to crack on but the hail and rain came down hard as we dropped in towards Coniston.  It soon cleared and as we were ahead of my schedule and expectation we headed up the hills again.  One more blast of hail and rain saw us into Elterwater and the slog up Red Bank.  Then pretty much down hill home.  One final obstacle was the big rock in Rydal water.  There is usually a bit of rock sticking up to tell you where the route is.  Unfortunately, it was fully underwater today.  I rode straight into it and stopped in thigh deep water.  This did allow Catherine to avoid me and the rock and ride through clean, but actually no less wet than me.  Here’s a picture from a few years ago when the water was less deep!

That rock to my right was completely covered, by at least 8 inches of water today.

We headed back to Ambleside.  Catherine returned the bike and I bought us bacon butties,mushroom soup, tea cakes and tea.

For my first MTB ride in 18 months, I was pretty please.  Thank you Catherine for taking me out.

Cheers

Tim

Made it

3009!

Not quite there

A few weeks back I was not far off 3000 miles, I only needed 160 odd miles.  In the last few weeks I’ve barely managed 40 miles a week.  Work and sickness have got in the way.  Nothing major, just busy at work and a bit flu-ey at home.

Anyway, I have 20 miles left to do.  I’m going to see if I can do 3500, but with work being so busy, it might be a stretch too far.

Wish me luck

Cheers

Tim

Mileage Update

My mileage for this year currently stands at 2851.  This is nearly a 1000 more than last year and double or more than the year before.  What has been responsible for this transformation?

Certainly not mountain biking.  The last mountain bike ride I did was over a year ago, just before the Olympics in fact, a short evening jaunt around Leigh Woods in Bristol.

Nor was it tandem riding.  we've got our Swallow back on the road now, but only for the last month, and we did very little on the KHS.

Having my Hewitt has certainly helped.  I've done a fair few 50-80 mile rides since I got it, plus lots of shorter rides.  I've also ridden to work every chance I had, helped by the economic downturn which has cut down work travel quite a lot.

Probably the main reason is that the boys are growing up and calming down.  We don't go out expecting the house to be trashed when we get back anymore.  So we feel happier going out further and for longer.  Jayne and I have regularly done an hour in the evening or a couple of hours on the weekend. 

It has all added up to a decent total.  I set myself a target of 2000 miles for this year, seeing as I failed to get that last year.  Then quickly revised it upwards after the first 1000 were done.  My revised target of 2500 was met a month or two ago and I've revised it up again to 3000.  Only 149 miles to do.  If I really wanted I could do all of that next weekend!

Should I revise up again to 3500?

Cheers

Tim