Moel y Gamelin

Hot hot hot race. Done a bit of racing lately but not enough training between. Yesterday it showed. Tough race over the hills of Llantysilio Mountain, all four of 'em. And then back over the last two. 9.5 miles and 2700' of climbing. As per usual — what a buffoon — went off too fast. Trying to hold back, but I couldn't help snatching the overtaking opportunities ...and probably lost all of them and a few more in the second half when I was suffering like a dog.

The sting in the tail up Moel y Gamelin for the second time resembled a scene from the trenches. It was a war of attrition out there, sworn enemies sharing water and jelly babies, brave warriors reduced to a shuffle with only the thought of being heckled by Joe[1] at the top pulling them onwards. It was great!

[1] It’s almost guaranteed that wherever you race, our man Joe Beswick will pop up from behind a tree or trig point to shout encouragement. Easily worth a place or two for everyone.

The kids reckon I was 33rd.

Roache Rumble

Superb evening run with Sam and Clive, starting in Danebridge. Up through the forest, under Hangingstone, Back Forest, Roach End, up to the trig, down to the edge of the Roaches, back to trig and Roach End, drop steeply down to the Dane, through the crazy Lud's Church chasm. Follow the Dane back to start. About an hour and half all in. Lovely to get onto the Staffordshire Moorlands again. A bit of me belongs there.

Rainow Five fell race

Rainow, a friendly little village just outside Macclesfield. Windy evening, shortish race - 5m and 750'. One fierce bank to climb, thankfully soon over, up to the curious White Nancy monument. Along the narrow ridge of Kerridge Hill, quick descent and contour back under the hill. Almost died holding off Ian from the club on the last climb (I'd managed to forget about). Ian's normally way faster than me on the flat, so I was pleased to sneak in front of him. Or maybe he's just training hard...

New course record from Simon Bailey and women's record equalled. 40' 50, 31/86

Many moels to climb

Clwydian run — Moel Arthur, Pennycloddiau, Moel Y Parc, Pennycloddiau, Moel Arthur, Moel Llys-y-coed, Moel Dywyll, Moel Famau, Moel Dywyll, Moel Llys-y-coed. Distance: a fair bit, ascent: somewhat. Cold, showery, really blustery. New jacket faultless.

Moel y gest house

Easter week in Portmadoc with the family. Moel y gest just out the back of the holiday house. Ran up four times and never went the same way twice. Some steep lung-busting work on the climbs. Quite technical ground on the top, making routefinding far from obvious.

Great views out to sea, across the estuary and towards Tremadoc and over to Snowdonia proper. About 4 miles and 900' a go. Turns out there was a WFRA race up there the week after. One to get to the frontish and avoid queuing with all the twisty turny singletrack.

Chester Spring 5

Wed 8 April. Fun race, didn't feel quite so outclassed this year. Knocked over a minute off my 5 mile time. 33'49, 125/347. Nice one West Cheshire.

Edit: beat first V65 this time. Things are looking up, watch out pensioners.

Ribble yell

Long bike ride today. Yay! First ride of more than a snatched moment or sporadic commute this year. Longest ride on the Pompino by some distance. Tell you what, riding for 4 hours on the fixed makes you realise how often with gears you do a little pocket shuffle, freewheel and raise off the saddle or otherwise 'take the pressure off'. In the second half I was looking for the smallest rise to give an excuse to get out of the saddle.

Trip to Lancaster to visit sister and cousins. Set off hours before the rest of the family and bizarrely we arrived within seconds of each other. Anyway, in the course of crossing at least four different accents, I'm giving it some beans in rural west Lancashire, just by the John Deere showroom, and this old giffer on an ancient Ribble gives that low fist shake you give to the local boy doing surprisingly well in a race against visiting professionals and lets out a fantastically childish 'Gwaaan!'. Cyclists eh, such berks at times, but also the very best of people. Kept me going for ages that little cheer. About 70 miles all in, didn't die.

Llangynhafal loop

The hills around Moel Famau belied their gentle appearance once again and handed out a severe beating.

Many times during the course of a modest 4.75 miles I wondered what on earth I was doing there. And as for the Great Stone Shoot... surely one visit would be enough to convince a fellow never to return? Not this fool. A rough count of the climbing puts it at around 1150', most of it in around a kilometre. The second half was pretty much unrunnable (although I've no idea what happens at the front of the race).

Woke up with cramp this morning. Events conspired to put me late to registration. A panic-stricken climb across fields to get to the mass start arriving tired, just as 112 runners were leaving. Begged a number from the extremely generous timekeeper with a promise to pay later. He even went to the bother of timing my delay to try to adjust the results. It wasn't long before I was on the back of the field. Passing was a nuisance, and you don't benefit from being dragged along by people of a similar pace. Blah, blah, blah. It was hard, I ran badly, I'll get over it. Total ascent for the race 1750'. Cooked.

Thanks to Alastair Tye for the pic. Great set.

Capenhurst borders league

A return to racing. Lovely morning, two laps around the Capenhurst 5k course (minus a bit). Running without my watch, plus some time out with the ankle again, so not sure how I was going really. Pretty pleased with the time of 37'12" for (I think) 5.3 miles. Bang on 7s, mustn't grumble.

First back of the Helsby lot, but really need to get fitter and move up a bit. 132/151. Next target is to get in the top half of this club series. And then save another minute and a bit to get ahead of the first V65. A modest target I think.

http://www.bordersleague.org.uk/

I'm a twit, you're a twit

I've started twittering. Can someone remind me what it's for? twitter.com/steverile. Like anyone cares...

See you on the other side.

An unusual hormone

Three days riding in a row. Quite remarkable, something of a mojo return going on. Set off in the dying minutes of daylight, after a day at the museum. Still riding at 5:30pm without lights which, for someone slightly obsessive about sunset times and solstices, is a very cheery thought indeed.

Anyway, so I'm at the top of this 'new' hill I've only ever run up and enjoying the unexpected bonus of snow and daylight and set off down the hill, which I know has a kicker halfway. Before I even get there, I'm gathering a good amount of speed (which is hard to get rid of with icy rims and badly maintained v-brakes) and the front wheel's heading straight for this 26" wheel shaped depression. I just know it's going to end with a thump and a whimper and over the bars incident. Somehow I come out the other side and carry on gathering speed and mopping up smiles through the bowl-shaped whoopy turns, and there's an unexpected thumping in my chest. I batter to the bottom and brake for the kissing gate, feeling slightly weak at the knees. Adrenalin rush, it's been a while. No bad thing.

The whispering commute

What a strange day yesterday was. I figured a ride in would nicely dodge the chaos of an inch of fresh snow, and so it was. Sailed past the long queue of traffic waiting to join the expressway and dodged the new field of broken glass in the underpass. A few beautifully executed fixie skids completed the trip nicely.

Popped out for a run on the heath with Clive in the snow, which was great fun until I went over on the ankle again. xxParental Advisoryxx. Hobbled back. Lots of self pity. Thought I'd seen the back of that.

Turned down Sam's offer of a lift home, after the ankle turned out to be less bad than feared. Bike then. Coccooned in the warm gear with a cap under the helmet and a neck gaiter over the mouth, I kind of got lost in my own space. Everything a bit more real than real. Acutely aware of breathing, traction, cold wind and every passing car. It was a hyper-concentrating trip. The sound deadening blanket of snow. Big fresh flakes occasionally hitting me square in the eye, blinding for a moment. One stretch of downhill was mostly done with the real wheel locked just feeling the subtle shifts of balance and where they sent the bike.

Anyway, no serious death threats, which was nice. So cold though, the gloves just didn't work. Got home and inside and everything shut down. Couldn't concentrate on anything but getting warm.

Helsby Half Marathon

The organisers always seem to book the weather well in advance for this — another cracking morning. Sunny and cold, not at all like the hail showers the forecast was predicting.

Set off thinking I'd get a bunch of 7'15"-ish miles in and see if I could avoid slowing down too much. In the end, I hung on pretty well to get round in 1h34 and a bit. 4' off my best, where I'd pretty much plateaued three times running. 301/1550 (top 20% statistics fans). Good stuff.

Picture from Dave Pinnington's excellent set.

Town Park XC

Sunday League event around Town Park Runcorn. I've been coming up here occasionally for a couple of years on lunchtime runs, so it was nice to race there. Shortish and furious race with a couple of climbs. One gratuitous beast with really slippery mud right at the top, followed immediately by a slippery, fast descent.

Someone nudged the thermostat up and turned all the lovely hard frost into lots of sticky mud. Not a bad position, 42nd, helped I think by the County Champs being held the day before.

End of term report

Satisfactory. Improvement needed in key areas.