Furious Cycling

Bob Graham bonkersness

2012-01-21T22:47:00.000+01:00

The other week I had the privilege of accompanying my mate Rich on his frankly bonkers Bob Graham Round attempt. If you don't know it, the BGR covers most of the tops of the Lake District, around 66 miles and maybe 28,000 feet of climbing. Say it quickly to minimise the horror. Few people have done it mid-Winter and nearly all that have are veterans of a successful summer round. Not Rich.

So that's how we came to be cowering in a windy Threlkeld layby at around midnight. It was all quite exciting watching the Leg 1 lights descending Blencathra, and equally bemusing when the lights split further and further apart as they took divergent lines. Rich was first home and had spat out his leg 1 pacers to keep to schedule. Quick massage and some fuel and he set off. Well most of Leg 2 set off - we had to wait around for his gear. Not a great start!

Most of the rest of the next 5 hours was a brilliant and slightly other-worldy adventure, accompanying the stag across the Dodds, Helvellyn ridge, beyond to Nethermost and Dollywagon. Then came the sting, a stinker of a 900' climb up Fairfield. This was the only time I felt group spirit flagging a little. We were down on schedule and tiring. I didn't feel he was eating enough, he thought he was eating too much ...and his knees were aching. The descent down the same path was interrupted by a scrabble for painkillers. The shorter climb up Seat Sandal took too long and doubts were creeping in. Another rendezvous with the road support saw a much longer massage and more refueling. Leg 2 passed on to Leg 3 and I think we all realised that this was the critical stage. He set off with walking poles.

Our job done I got a couple of hours sleep in the back of the car and headed home. Rich had been fairly public about the attempt so it was soon out on twitter that he'd packed in around 7am at Langdale. A truly valiant effort, some 30 miles and a lot of weather to traverse. Lessons learnt for next time — he's keen to keep the momentum and go for a summer attempt.

Some new friends made for me — one of the remarkable things about a BGR is the way unknown people, friends, previous completers, aspirants, friends of friends, etc, will turn out in the middle of the night to help out. Marvellous. More words here from Rich

Nocturnal light emissions

2011-11-13T19:38:00.001+01:00

Clubmate Ian came up with an interesting run challenge earlier in the year — the Three Peaks of North Cheshire — linking Frodsham, Helsby and Eddisbury hills by any route you like. Start on whichever top you want, finish on the same one. People have been gradually whittling away at the time from 2.5 hours down to the frankly ludicrous current record of 1h49 from Dave Douglas of Delamere Spartans and Awesome Walls. Routes have varied from 14.2 to 17.3 miles and around 1500' of climbing. Mine would have been somewhere inbetween.

Meet the new (night) record holder!

'Why don't you go for a run tonight and we'll have a family outing tomorrow?' I'd planned a longer one for the morning, and since the day was nearly done a plan quickly hatched. I popped a new set of Duracells in the Alpkit and found myself jogging to the top of Frodsham Hill just after 5pm. Quick check of the map, summit photo and I was off.

Now bearing in mind I haven't run anywhere near this far since May it went pretty well. Didn't get too scared in the woods, never blew up, paced it pretty well. Took a fairly conservative route through the forest, the main stretch it might be possible to shave the distance, and kept it simple. Roughly clockwise, Frodsham - Eddsibury - Helsby - Frodsham. 2h 25m 10s. A brand new record for the night run I believe[1].

Bits of time to be saved here and there, some stronger legs, less pics (that I can't get off the phone anyway!) would all save a bit. But more to the point, a great route and a good local challenge.

[1] I don't believe anyone else has run it at night yet.

Pignut hill revisited

2011-11-13T19:31:00.001+01:00

This year I've bought a cross bike with gears. Went in with tired legs (heavy week, long run in the hills the day before) and low expectations. Excuses in early. Big field, not pushy enough to go for a start position. Finally firing and warmed up after about 10 or 15 minutes, gradually picking off places. The sweet-spot lasted till about 50 minutes in, when I started to flag. Lack of time on the bike was making itself felt. Left knee bleeding from a hashed remount. Another rubbish low speed crash on one of the many grassy corners, all getting less and less navigable as the hour ticked over. Finished about 2/3 down of the 140+ field. Just behind a 70 year old. In my defence, Mick Ives is many times world and British champion in all kinds of disciplines. But still well into pensioner territory. Must try harder. And remember to change gear.

Clarke gardens xc

2011-11-06T21:14:00.001+01:00

First cross country of the season, 2 and a half laps of Clarke Gardens. Longish run in the woods the day before made for a bland performance. New bloke Adrian took me with a lap to go. Chopped the deficit down gradually and tracked him like a shameless wheelsucker, before unleashing the devastating finish. Ahem. Somewhere around half way down, a performance that needs a kicking really. Work began on the kicking legs the following day.

Thanks to the ever-reliable Dave Pinnington for the pic.

British fell relays

2011-10-22T09:48:00.000+01:00

A pleasure to turn out for this event. With the great unwashed lined up against the very best in the country, so it was that 1100 of the keenest offroad enthusiasts gathered in the Dales village of Kettlewell. Fielding a male and female team we were looking good to improve on our '10th from last' of the previous time I'd done it.

The relays are a solo leg, paired leg, paired navigation leg and a glory solo leg to finish, so it takes a little strategy to get the best out of your team. Our first man had a solid leg and our two strongest guys gave us a strong position to defend over the longest second leg. Then came Phil and I, designated navigators, meaning we were last to look away when the navigation was arranged. It wasn't bad on the day — not a super technical course, but certainly time to be made or lost by decisions made on the ground.

Unlike everyone else who could study the map beforehand we didn't know anything about our leg until, after being marshalled up a narrow stream valley, we were given a map around a mile in. You then need to find your way between 7 checkpoints as quickly as possible. Not many paths were involved. I must admit, with the blood pumping and sweat starting to drip from the stunning weather, I gave the compass a bit of a blank look taking the first bearing. We got by though, and it worked pretty well me taking bearings, Phil checking his altimeter and paying more attention to the lie of the land. My favourite checkpoint was in the bed of a stream, best approached by a heel slide down the waterlogged vegetation. Later on crossing one of many bogs, I went testes-deep in orange filth. Thankfully the shoes stayed attached.

We ran reasonably conservatively, pushing but not pinning it until the final fast and long descent of Great Whernside we ran really well as a pair.Great day, the males finished 85th out of 182 teams. Full results.

Thanks to Sportsunday, Andy Holden and Bill Keasley for the superb pics. Thanks to Bingley AC for putting on a faultless event.

Bruising Breidden hills

2011-10-13T22:14:00.000+01:00

I've never been faffed enough to turn out for a whole series of races, racing when it suits working around family and targeting things that look interesting. This time I made an effort to get to Breidden when it occurred to me that I might be the best placed V40 on the fells in the club. Ok, call me a shameless pot-hunter (and I'm not even sure there is a V40 fell trophy) but there we were. A chance to run somewhere new anyway, never raced in Shropshire.

Being the final Welsh Champs series, the turnout was good and the standard high, so there were no flattering results. About 7.5 miles and 2300' of climbing. Quite a tricksy routes saw some technical, steep, rocky and loose forest descending. Got lost at least once following a bit of marker tape downhill than ran out into brambles.

Came home with an injury that put this weekend's British Fell Relays into doubt. Minimal shoes, pointy rocks, racing. Bruised heel. Couldn't walk yesterday morning, almost a miracle cure by today. Fingers crossed.

Thanks to the splendid Al Tye for the pic.

Once more into the madness

2011-09-27T20:53:00.009+01:00

So it's late September again. Two years have passed since I popped my Three Peaks cherry and after a half-hearted and late attempt at a 2010 place I was persuaded to put in an entry. Memory fades, the misery grows further away, it seemed like a good idea again. I did the fell race version in 2010, and it seemed easier in some ways. At least you don't have 21lb of metalwork dangling from a shoulder.

So there we were, Helwith Bidge 25th September 2011. A healthy contingent of real and virtual friends gathered in the drizzle with a single purpose, to survive the ensuing 3-6 hours with some tenuous thread of dignity intact. And this 49th running of the event came with the added bonus of an appearance from my oldest friend Adrian (we met on starting senior school, swamped in oversized blazers, 36 years ago). Adrian had never done a bicycle race before. What a debut. He'd brought along his big brother, astonishingly all the way from New Zealand, for moral support.

The start was furious, I was expecting it this time and let it wash over me. I pedalled hard but without going into debt. As soon as we turned off the 'neutralised' 3 mile road section we ground to a halt. Not hard, just congested. Back on, easy farm track, gradual climb. BANG, a tyre goes off like a gunshot just behind. I have a suspicion it's my mate Rich (it was, suffering the first of a catalogue of mishaps). We climb. Now we're on grass, getting muddy, getting steeper. Then it gets really steep. Nothing really prepares a first-timer for the horror of Simon Fell, but this time I was more ready for it. I got my head down and plugged away, picking off places, alone on the right away from the mule train.

At last we can ride a bit, then push a bit more. Another traffic jam at the stile of Rawnsley's Leap. Eventually the top. We're on a big hill, in the mist and wind, on jumped up road bikes. There's a welcome respite with downward progress. A couple of pushed runs for sanity/safety, but I jump back on quicker than most around me, who are descending more cautiously. The fast whoopy grassy descent of 2009 has been replaced by Somme-like mud. Slower going, but I'm picking places all the way. Cold Cotes is reached after we emerge from the mist. Nice to be able to see.

Road section and I stuff a banana in. Not that I'm hungry. As per the script I lose places on the road to the foot of Whernside. I try and fail to catch a few wheels, but ride most of it alone. On the easy track to Whernside I'm caught by Nic Bertrand, an online mate. We introduce ourselves and he pedals smoothly away. I get him back on the steps of the 2nd monster climb. The climb goes on a bit, but I didn't let it beat me up. Again gradually passing, picking away off-piste at times, rather than settling into the shared pace.

Pic: Ed Rollason

The Whernside descent is something else, sustained and rocky, by the far the most technical section of the race. I run a bit, stumble a bit, but ride a whole lot more. I had a stormer. Feeling smug at the bottom, BC's photographer gets a pic splashing through a stream. Within a minute I'm felled by cramp. I pedal at snail's pace, putting no power in. It's not going off, I'm shouting at the wind. Bringing the bike to a stop, it's all I can do to dismount. Sat by the track stretching and pumelling abused and complaining muscles, the hard won places of the descent start to pass one by one. Back on I can pedal, then I'm pushing a bit harder, fending off the odd twinge. Back from the brink. In truth it's only a couple of minutes lost, but I'll carry those twinges and the seeds of doubt to the end.

Down to Ribblehead and the festive atmosphere of people's support crews. I spot a friendly face and beg a biscuit from Dee and Anne whilst I take off the jacket I haven't had time to shed till now. Perked up, it's the second long road section, again losing a few places. Right at the end I team up with a guy and we manage a bit of through-and-off to the PYG lane turn. Dig in, bottom gear, don't stop. Dig in, dig in. Fast boys coming down, supporters cheering you on the up. We're all celebrities for a bit. The pink jersey attracts some good banter, giving a little boost.

I see a Wheelbase rider coming one-handed down the stony track. It can't be Dave. It is, he's come off near the top of PYG and broken his collar bone. He rides back simply because that's where he needs to get to and still busts a 4h10 time.

On we plod, riding, pushing, climbing. The mist is long gone now and you can see exactly where you need to get to. A few more places before the final checkpoint on the top and an immediate 180 degree turn. I enjoy the descent, but by now am sufficiently tired to avoid really letting fly in a couple of places, just so's I don't get shaken any harder than necessary.

The crowds are thinning now as people have finished cheering their own racers. Not so many coming up. Back to the road, but a few more twinges mean I can't empty the tank. 2 miles in. Done.

[Thanks to Ed Rollason of BC and Bryan Mills from the FRA forum for the pics. I'm right next to Cav getting his World Champs jersey in the British Cycling photostream, which amuses me greatly. www.edrollasonphotography.co.uk]

One two, one two testing

2011-09-04T20:14:00.012+01:00

The thing I've been missing from the Three Peaks preparation is extended time in the saddle. Running's back on track, pretty much. I've racked up several thousand feet of climbing, I've done a bit of time on the cx bike (and let's not underestimate this — last time in 2009 I was on a borrowed bike I'd not seen until a couple of weeks before). Add in reps of a fast little circuit with a brutal 3 minute run/carry, I'm getting at least a bit familiar with suffering, even if we're not yet on first name terms.

Which brings us back to going long. 'Go long' said the sports physiologist (not to me obviously, but I'm happy to steal and borrow advice meant for someone else). Two or three extended work commutes were the extent of the going long. Great for 3 hours in the saddle, but inconveniently split by 8 hours at a desk. To summarise, I was exposed. A shuffle of weekend obligations left a ride-sized gap. A loyal family man, I pounced.

Llandegla forest. Built trails, lots of rocks, some jumps, plenty of speed, a bit of climbing. More rocks. No place for a cyclocross bike then. A visit here in 2009 gave me a confidence boost for the Three Peaks, so it seemed an exercise worth repeating.

Also a chance to iron out a few things — would these Rocket Ron tyres be robust enough for the misery of the Whernside descent? Have I got a low enough gear with the change to a 34t on the front? (And will the mech handle the wider gear spread?)

The numbers: two laps of the Black, one pinch puncture, one loose cleat bolt, one twisted bar, two cheese pastries, one run. Phew. About 26 miles and maybe 3000' feet(?). With rocks.

I got off pretty lightly and felt bit less wrecked than expected. The run could have been longer and climbed a bit more, but inevitably the clock was ticking with an extended faff fixing the puncture.

Interestingly I think I was only passed once on the actual riding, so either I'm some kind of hero (likely) or the cross bike wasn't that far out of its depth (somewhat likely). Or I got lucky (most likely).

About 3.5 hours effort. Which you'll note is still about an hour short of what I'll need in Yorkshire. But within winging-it distance. A few things to chew on.

Chunal of love/hate relationship

2011-09-01T22:48:00.004+01:00

Inspired by my mate Phil’s Hathersage birthday bash, I wanted to have a look at some more races further West. My very first fell race was the Kinder Downfall above Hayfield and I’ve always had a soft spot for the Peak. So that was how I came to be racing Chunal Fell on Wednesday.

This seemingly innocuous hill packed a terrier-like bite into its meagre statistics. I saw it described on the FRA forum as mixture of Herod Farm and Wormstones races, finding the worst of both! 4 miles and 950′ of climbing with some real brutal pulls on the ascent.

A quick glance at the BBC weather site in the afternoon gave a shower at 7pm. As if by magic it started to rain at 6:50pm for the 7pm start. That and a bit of waiting around for late arrivals made for a fairly low key start, with a fairly select field of 50 entries. I lined up with my old biking mate Rich, now running for Pennine, and that’s where we stayed, having a place swapping ding-dong over the rest of the course. I got him in the end.

The changeable weather made for a stunning final descent, with tired legs all heading to the finish neatly marked by the end of a rainbow. No pot of gold for this ageing runner though — 27th out of 54 and a time of 36’30. Aiming for proper top half next time!

An unexpected bonus was seeing Danny Chan, ex-clubmate, on the start line. Dan’s running really well at the moment and enjoying Sheffield life. Tonight wasn’t his night though as he had to pull out at the furthest point with some weird problem with his leg (nerve complaint?). With at least two physios on hand at the finish, he’s already booked in for fixing. That’ll be the one time I ever beat him I think.

Good race, well marked, friendly, good course. One to come back to. [Thanks to Glossop Ian for the pic]

Cross, not angry. Training.

2011-08-26T21:21:00.006+01:00

I've neglected the running a bit in favour of the bike. The event who's name must not be spoken is coming up in Sept, so in search of a niche within a niche I've been doing Frodsham hill repeats on the road bike (500' a pop) and a shorter offroad version on the Brand New CX bike. Lots of pics on flickr.

Wonder of wonders it's getting easier. After too few hours in the saddle this year, it seems to be having an effect. Low base I guess. What do you know the training works. I don't know if I'm kidding myself but I seem to be learning to dig in a bit, TTFU and all that.

There's no chance of me getting lots of miles in, so I figured a bit of intensity was the way forward. Roll on Simon Fell. Then Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen y ghent. It's going to be hell.

Druid fell race

2011-07-23T10:45:00.003+01:00

Wed 13 July. Another sunny evening, another fell run. The rehabilitation continues. Gentlish running with an ever steepening start, out and back course. Worked too hard on the stern sections to battle for places, died a bit on the way back down and lost those same half a dozen places. The odd 'what am I doing here' thought passed through my fatiguing mind. 49/123, 43'42. 1050'/4.5m.

Phil's birthday present

2011-07-19T20:45:00.004+01:00

I’m sure he won’t mind us mentioning it, but my mate Phil is now Officially Old. Choosing to celebrate his move up into a new V50 category with a run out at Hathersage last night, old age clearly seems to be working well for him. Phil’s had a good year so far and a steady improvement in his times, ticking off a fair few fell races along the way.

The club’s present to Phil was the Hathersage Gala fell race in the counter series. 7 vests made it over to the beautiful gritstone high peak, somewhat further afield than our normal outings, and were rewarded with a 4.5m loop with just over 1000′ of climbing. A warm evening and a big turnout, mostly runnable terrain with a couple of short scrambly sections over the back of Higgar Tor (where I proposed 15 years ago!). Jim made hay with a fast start to avoid most of the queues at the early stiles, caused by the big field, to lead the Helsby charge. A fit local population with the catchment of the outdoorsy capital of the UK (Sheffield), meant it was a decent standard race.

A record turnout on the night for the 4.5mile (BS) race with 243 runners in total, 7 from the club. Full results http://www.johnrdalton.org/hfr/results/2011-2
Time and position officially withheld. Slipped into the bottom half. The shame.

Moel y gamelin

2011-06-30T12:30:00.004+01:00

Sun 26th saw us gathering at the Horseshoe Pass. I think most who turned up here had done it before, which is curious really because you’d think knowing what was coming up would be a severe disincentive to coming back. Always a tough race with around 2400′ of climbing spread across 5 or more tops and 9.5 miles. The Llantysilio ridge is a real roller-coaster, no sooner is one climb over than you’re straight into a steep descent, and some of us at least found it hard to get into a rhythm.

The day was blessed with very warm weather, as it has been for the last few years, making the added water stops at the two road crossings very welcome. Helsby presences from Adair, Chris BH, Jim, Steve, Phil, Andy S & Jackie, with the usual high quality marshalling and vocal support from Joe. Good to see Robbie out as well doing his own thing earlier in the day, missing the worst of the heat.

I came in exactly 18s slower than 2009, how tediously consistent. Probably reflects a better race plan, given current fitness. There, a positive!

Full results over at wfra.co.uk

Put it in your diary for next year. And if I haven’t sold it you, put the date in anyway for a long weekend away elsewhere, for the guaranteed weather.

Trail race up the beast

2011-06-20T19:16:00.004+01:00

Trailing in. Back to taped ankle, not my finest hour. Last week's ‘Up the Beast’ (they seem to be dropping the prefix ‘Trail Race’, rightly so) was an eye opener and a right torment. A sneaky race, with two really tough ascents and plenty of off-piste action, some of which required a bit of scrambling technique. The second big climb (not that there was much flat) went on for a long time, really taxing lung and calf. Lost a bazillion places towards the end, just scraped into the top half of the results. 4.5m, 1500'. Blerrk.

Sandstone trail challenge

2011-06-07T19:09:00.012+01:00

There's a long distance footpath, optimistically running the 'length of the Cheshire spine' (yes, the first 3 mile are along a canal towpath) from Whitchurch to Frodsham.

I run along bits of it every week and for a long time idly dreamt of doing the whole thing. Fat chance, what with me being a lazy dreamer and it being 33 miles long. Anyway it turns out quite a few other runners I know had the same idle dream, so we decided to make it happen.

The running club, resurrected the thing as an LDWA event for walkers and runners. I thought I was off the hook, being part of the organisation. It further transpires that there is a tradition of the 'marshalls run' for these kinds of events. Brilliant, all the hardship but none of the amiable companionship of fellow competitors.

So it came to the 14th of May and the full thing awaited. 33 miles and 3,700' of climbing. Now I know any hardy fell runners are scoffing, it's definitely more trail than hill but still, 33 miles. Why would you do that?

6 hours later I was thinking the same thing. My three companions soon thought better of the 'sociable run' option and it became every man for himself, with a side order of record attempts. Thus I barely saw a soul for the latter half and trailed in last. Albeit from a fairly select group. I don't mind admitting, I felt a bit lonely towards the end. Could have done with some chat to distract from the effort. And that's how I became an ultra runner.

Andy got the record for best V50, Chris shaved a bit of time off his previous (why would you do it twice?) and Ed surpassed himself having only decided to do it the week before.

More pics over on flickr.

A warning to the children

2011-05-12T20:20:00.000+01:00

In my role as un-appointed cheerleader to trail-curious runners at the club, I often extol the virtues of fell racing. For a host of reasons people think it's not for them — they'll get lost, they haven't got the right gear, they won't fit in, it's too hard — and are reluctant to get involved.

Many of these objections are easily countered, and indeed fell racing is truly the most accessible, democratic and friendly branch of our sport. But it's to the last of these that I need to make a small confession, you see I've been living a lie in my enthusiasm to recruit new devotees. It's hard, really hard. Your legs will beg for mercy, more likely before that your lungs will be close to igniting, new and unusual parts of your body will hurt. And it's still great! Witness the spectacle at last week's Dinas Bran event over on the left there.

I'll leave it to blogger Alan to give an objective view "Guffaw. Killer 'elderly gent going to shops for fags' look." As another fellow who enjoys the suffer, I'm sure it was meant as a compliment.

Oh yeah, Top 20 (20th, small field). 4.3 miles, 1150'. Happy with that.

Faded engrams

2011-05-01T20:04:00.010+01:00

In climbing we used to talk about the concept of engrams — a sort of 3D body template, a stored memory of the way you hold your limbs and move through a path in space to get from one set of holds to another. The idea being that the more you do, the deeper these learnt vectors becoming engrained and stored for future use. The less consciously you have to think about things, the more natural and fluid the movement. [flickr link]

As someone who's been pretty much out of the sport for half a dozen years or so, the library has gotten fairly dusty. In some ways it's been a lot like going back to beginner-dom. In recent weeks I've got off the couch and tried to ease my way back into the climbing world, helped greatly by a love affair with an almost brand-new venue right on the doorstop.

Sometimes performances have been laughably poor, occasionally I've shown flashes of form. On my second visit to the quarry, I slapped my way up a slightly technical arete, and I've redone it each visit, hoping to get it wired. Last time slightly self-consciously climbing it 4 or 5 times to approximate some fluidity.

Anyway I was back again tonight. I knew I could do it, progress I guess, but it still didn't feel that stylish. And there's something to be said for excellence as a virtue in itself, rather than just completion. So a couple more repeats were in order. Data in the bank.

On my way in I'd noticed a couple of dabs of chalk on a wall I'd so far ignored. I had a look. I got off the ground easily but soon popped off. I worked out how to get the feet higher. The good hold wasn't the best one. I got the feet higher, I lay off the arete and held the feature open-handed without needing a crimp or hold. I got the top. Immensely satisfying to go from nowhere to complete, in a few attempts. I guess this is bouldering again. And something that I don't really get from running, and just occasionally from mountain biking. That repetition of failure, gradually chipping away at the problem, like a sculptor removing what doesn't work to be left only with what does work. An old engram drawn upon.

The other thing I learnt was not to fear the undoable. I'd looked at a steep wall a couple of weeks ago, admiring the strong lads' ability to pull on holds I could barely see, never mind use. Tonight I got to their high point. Just like old times, I had numerous attempts and enjoyed the repetition, not treating failure as failure, but as something learnt. [flickr link]

It's frustrating to be so rubbish at times, and inspiring to show flashes of ability, but fun to explore and fail and succeed. Something to build on.

Ronde van oost Lancashire

2011-04-05T21:32:00.017+01:00

Greater minds than mine have eulogised elsewhere about the winning excellence of this event, the eminent Mr Haygarth and the venerable Mr Dorrington being two of the more obvious examples.

Anyway suffice to say that this social ride proved itself the absolute template for future 'events that aren't events'. Imagine the pleasure of riding in great company, but with none of the faff of pre-entry, registration, licensing, etc., but with all of the upside of masses of cake, plus top-notch race photography. Surely an impossible circle to square? Somehow cobble-obsessive Alan pulled it off.

The shape of the day was a loose meeting of 60-ish like-minded folk in a car park, setting off in waves. Sadly the last wave containing anyone remotely my pace left just as I was arriving and changing. Stuck with the elites. Nearly got dropped in the first 20 minutes, were it not for some much appreciated charity. The day rolled on, we picked up a few groups, lost a few. Fortunately not too much routefinding. The icing on the cake hooking up with twitter-mate Greg who'd not only GPSed the route, but driven much of it the night before.

The distance around 50 miles and the climbing something around 4000', the beauty being it was hard but do-able for someone not particularly bike fit but suitably enthusiastic. Not quite as many cobbles as expected, but those we found had character. And there was cake. Lots of cake.

My favourite stretch was the rolling traverse across the moor passing Widdop. Thanks all for the company. Same time next year?

Pics: copyright, ahem, I'm sure he won't mind.

Diary of a reverse blood doper

2011-02-26T14:19:00.004+01:00

Disclaimer: no science was involved in the making of this post.

So it's been 2 or 3 years since I last gave blood. There always seemed to be an event around the corner, or training for something further away. Sod it, time to give a bit back.

Tues 22 Feb, a pint of the good stuff out of the crook of the left arm. That's almost an armful you know. Lots of water, lots of cups of tea. Against medical advice the best replacement of essential elements seemed to be a glass or two of red.

Wed 23, club run. About 8.5 miles at chatting pace, muster run waiting for slower folk, so not too taxing. Blasted up a 200m hill, just to see. Pretty quick on muscle memory, but very short of breath by the top. If I wasn't planning on slowing down, I would have been anyway. Took quite some time to recover, by which time the people I was with had easily caught up. Legs a bit heavy, but not too bad overall.

Fri 25, 40 mins in the woods. Could happily have stopped dead on several occasions or turned back. Hard work. Easiest explanation would be it felt like being around 2 stone overweight. [Probably - I've never varied by more than about 3/4 stone in the last 25 years]. Look pale, bags under eyes.

Liverpool and district dirty dancing champs

2011-02-14T20:37:00.005+01:00

Another Sunday morning, another filthy course. Why do they never clean them properly beforehand?

This time it was the Liverpool & District xc champs, held over the same Clarke Gardens course we'd run in November. A slightly higher standard than normal (L&Ds are always tougher, this one tougher still because it was the champs) the scene was set for some hard racing. And thus it was. Ran conservatively and opened the throttle (well, you know) in the last lap.

Just snuck in to the top 100 at 99, with 44'25 for somewhere around 6 miles.

Thanks as ever to Mick Charman for the pic.

Lakeland larks

2011-02-06T21:22:00.008+01:00

Some much needed relief from the horrors of career upheaval. This year's base was Patterdale Hall, an Outdoor Pursuits bolt hole for Blackburn schoolkids. We're all getting older and most of see each other only once or twice a year, these late winter/early spring weekends are a barometer of how our lives move on. People come in and out of the group, this year we had ten, including the long-lost Pete, whom I last saw over 20 years ago.

Saturday saw a mass ascent of St Sunday Crag in heavy frost, with snow on the top, dropping down to Deepdale Hause, up Fairfield's Cofa Pike, along to Hart Crag and down the very long gradual descent of Hartsop above How, a Deepdale Horseshoe.

Lots of banter, lots of catching up (lots of photographs).

Saturday night I found myself utterly wiped out, could barely muster the energy to eat. A mixture of physical tiredness and mental exhaustion, I was in bed by 8pm. Lightweight in the extreme.

Sunday morning, a short stroll to the Ulleswater steamer and boat ride up the lake. Gentle walking back along the shoreline and a climb up Place Fell. A proper 600m hill I'd kind of underestimated.

Here's to next year. Thanks everyone.

Piles more of my pics over on Flickr. Dave's pics, Adrian's pics, Phil's pics.

Four villages fiesta

2011-01-28T12:50:00.006+01:00

Another fantastic running of this great run, now in its 30th year (the same birthday as the London Marathon fact fans!). Growing from strength to strength from around a 100 runners in 1982, the race now boasts a reputation for smooth organisation, always gets great ratings, and always sells out quickly. The Helsby Half, as it is affectionately known, has just been voted no7 in the Runner’s World list of Britain’s favourite half marathons. And I helped make it happen.

Edinburgh AC's Neil Renault came home first in a quick time of 1:05:55, closely followed by Tipton’s Michael Aspinall at 1:06:05 and Altrincham’s Dave Norman in 1:07:34. Several athletes came into the race strong and confident and there was some talk of the course record going. As it was Carl Warren’s 2002 time of 1:04:36 was safe for another year.

Stoke’s Michelle Ross-Cope came in first woman, first F35 and 18th overall with a time of 1:14:31, followed by Sarah Harris (Long Eaton) 1:14:50 – another close battle – and Louise Gardener (Lancaster and Morecambe) with 1:16:52.

Further down the field numerous PBs were broken (including your author’s) on what was a great day for running, featuring cool-ish temperatures in the low single digits, with dry and windless conditions.

The race also featured an unusual world record (world’s best to be strictly accurate). Personal trainer and ex-marine Lee Riley is chasing the world record at London for running the marathon with a 40lb rucsac. Today at Helsby he showed the form he’s in by posting a world-beating time of 1h41, knocking over 2 minutes from the previous best. Well done, more about Lee at www.rileyfitness.co.uk.

When all the sums are done there should be around £6000 going out to local good causes.

Thanks to Steve Angus of Athletes in Action for the pic - a top 100 finish followed by a couple of thousand pictures. More at http://helsbyrunningclub.wordpress.com/

261/1627, 1:31:40. 46 and all my own teeth, still getting quicker. Maybe I should sort those ears out though.

Town park torment

2011-01-20T14:07:00.004+01:00

Another weekend, another dirty, wet, hard, excellent cross country.

Two laps of Runcorn's Town Park, including a gratuitous climb of the back of the man made ski-slope, followed immediately by an equally tricky descent where any excess speed would be rewarded by a nasty tumble into the hawthorn on the outside of a bend. Felt like I ran pretty well and happy enough with 51st. Getting towards the good end of top half.

Pic via Mick Charman

13th fastest 45-50 year old in Cheshire (of those that turned up)

2011-01-13T21:44:00.003+01:00

Cheshire XC championships

This sunday saw the annual Cheshire cross country championships up at Birchwood Park, Warrington. Spectrum Striders did a cracking job of organising the day with a course based largely on the Sunday League event. A bit longer than normal to suit the higher standard of entry, ahem.

Anyway I had a cracking run, again practising my new-found skills at 'not starting too fast'. Lap splits were almost metronomic, yay for (rare) good judgment. Five laps of the almost-2k loop, complete with lots of mud, some icy water, some sharp banks and hardly any respite. Just how we like it (apart from club-mate Ian, who pulled out with an injury ...about my only hope of beating him these days). Hard, but fun.

The club had a pretty good outing, particularly the women coming home with first V40, 3rd V50 and 2nd in the vets team prize, Jane being selected as a reserve for the inter-county champs.

Full results

Mick Charman has started putting his pics up on flickr, from where the above is shamelessly lifted.

Capenhurst border league

2010-11-15T22:00:00.004+01:00

Lovely chilly morning. Two laps of the Capenhurst 5k course - a nice little route on quiet lanes. Pretty good as road runs go. In contrast to the normal plan, I was really keen to do a steady first half and push in the second. Felt nice to be passing people in the latter stages, rather than being hung out to dry. Full results here.

Clarke Gardens XC

2010-11-05T13:54:00.006+01:00

First cross country of the year, Sunday League at Clarke Gardens park in South Liverpool. Little lap around the big field, followed by two laps of a fairly interesting course.

Bit of twisty stuff, plenty of mud, a boggy stream crossing and lots of laughs. In hindsight anyway. Some good ding-dong battles and lots of threshold panting. Will get fitter (have I said that before?). Just under 5 miles I think. 66/129 male or 75/184 including women to make me look better.

Thanks to Mick Charman for the pic, complete with stupid race face.

Pignut hill cyclocross

2010-10-25T13:34:00.009+01:00

Brilliant! A new sport to aim for high-end mediocrity! Fancied a go at cyclocross for a while and this was to be the occasion (I'm not counting the Three Peaks, that's more akin to warfare than cyclocross).

Round 6 of the nwcca league, Pignut Hill, Northwich. Good event and a nice one to try as the velocake squadra were there in force, together with Dave Haygarth and my twitter mate Crossjunkie. The course looked a bit dull on a truncated practise lap, with quite a lot of level grass looping back on itself with tight hairpins. Once the flag went down though, it proved more fun. And there was mud, and descents, and climbing. And cowbell.

Struggled with fitness a bit, knowing I was going too hard, but knowing I was enjoying the rare opportunities to pass I pushed on. Excuses: NO long rides, nothing longer than a 5 mile commute for many weeks, heavy cold after the Sandstone Trail run led to 10 days off, no gears (yeah whatever, want a medal?), narrow frame clearance, big tyres, lots of cloggage.

83/116, only lapped once. I'm counting that as top half of the bottom half. Plenty of room for improvement, but hey nice to have somewhere to go. Great to see everyone from real life, internet and twitter.

Some great pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ed_rollason/sets/72157625231611022/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ckingimages/sets/72157625232287722/

My pics after I got home:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/steverile/

Thanks to Dave for the one at the top.

Sandstone trail

2010-10-14T11:45:00.005+01:00

Short version: Oof. Squelch, squelch.

Longer version: Sunday morning 3rd October. Two and half hours of unremitting rainfall over this 17.5 mile race. Got a late place courtesy of an injury. Bit of last minute cramming to get close to the distance.

Woke up Friday morning with a chest and a thick head. Thick head turned to pig-headedness as I was still keen to run. Foolishness overcomes discretion.

Normally I really enjoy this race, but this year I started to fall out of love with it. With a lot more experience in proper hill races the terrain is starting to look a bit tame. There's some good technical running in the first 7 miles, but I was determined not to overcook it this year, having died in the last half previously. That and not really having the legs this year, led to a bit of a cautious run this year.

Anyway 66th place and 2h 33, still good enough for top half but some way off my potential.

Thanks to Geoff Shaw and the Deeside team for organising. Full results.

Wirral round up

2010-09-30T14:00:00.004+01:00

A month of not enough running, too much M53 and a few patchy results.

Capenhurst 5k, PBed with 20.15. But mainly because I haven't run a 5k in ages, too fast and not enough hills. Shoulda been under 20 really. Wirral multi-terrain midweek round 1: Royden Park. Fast first lap, faded badly in second. Forget that strategy then. Round 2: Thurstaston beach run. Made a bit of ground on the beach, lost a bit of ground on the flat return trail. Bit better than previous week. Missed round 3.

Round 4 Arrowe Park: heart not really in it. Tired from long runs trying to get a bit of fitness for late place I'd just got for the Sandstone Trail. Back to mid-pack. Dull place to run, almost the same as the winter xc - not keen on that one either :)

Of moss and malts

2010-09-01T13:29:00.008+01:00

A long overdue trip to the mountains, in the company of three other ex-climbers. I'd liked the sound of Eskdale for a a while. One of Lakeland's forgotten valleys, its a decent walk-in from anywhere. We met between Wrynose and Hard Knott passes and set off, burdened by climbing and overnight gear.

Almost a couple of hours later found us at the foot of Esk Buttress. I don't mind saying I was a little nervous, out of my comfort zone if you will. The guide seemed a little confusing, the routes massive. Eventually we plumped for pretty much the easiest route on the crag, Bridge's Route, weighing in at a mighty grade of Hard Severe. The start was damp, the rock mossy. I was too scared to scramble to the foot of the route proper and roped up, even placing little micro-rocks. I was about 40 foot up before I started to feel vaguely comfortable and even enjoy the climbing a little. A better warm-up might well have been advisable though. The pitch went on for maybe 120 feet and I felt pretty wrung through at the top. A decent enough belay though.

Glad of the changeover to seconding, Neil made good if measured progress across the remaining three pitches. There was too much damp, nay Sopping Wet Rock, moss and precariousness for my liking. I got really cold, I shivered uncontrollably. I got worried by the weather, the light was going, the mist was swirling. It would have only taken one of the mist clouds to hold a real shower and we'd have been in real bother. We were on the easiest route around already. Too tall for abseil down the rock wall below, escape would have been awkward. As it was I got to the top of the last real pitch in the dark and we still had a bit of scrambling to get right off.

The descent was character-building, not quite sure of the line we traversed steep rocks, unsure about the drop below till we hit the stream which we descended. Literally. In the dark, in painfully tight rock shoes. I mean who packs a headtorch when they set off in August at 3pm?

We were both pretty relieved to be met on the final slopes of the descent some 40 mins later by Chris and Herm. I'm not proud of the way I slightly fell apart on the climb, but at the same time I was all too aware of how things could have gone wrong, hours from help.

The bivi was light relief in comparison. Evening meal at 11pm(!), bit of light port, cheese and single malt and then into the Alpkit bag. Surprisingly comfortable, could have been warmer though. It stopped raining after about an hour, but even the wet wasn't as much of a problem as I'd imagined.

A couple more pics on flickr here.

Green green grass of home fell race

2010-08-03T16:59:00.005+01:00

Last week’s Green Grass of Home race provided a hugely entertaining finish for bewildered border runners. A popular mid-week race, the Green Grass keeps everyone on their toes by changing the route every year. This year was a tough one.

Being experienced mountain folk, few of us bothered to memorise the map beforehand, preferring the normally reliable strategy of “it’ll all work out somehow”, with a small side order of “there’s always someone to follow”. Thus we set off.

There was some climbing, some more climbing, a bit of traversing, a bit of descending, a bit of godawful flogging through featureless gorse, bracken and tussocky grass. Even the sheep had more sense than to provide us with a trod to follow here.

The blessed relief of the end of this section saw more open ground and wishful thinking led to many runners seeing what they wanted to see and following a path leading gently over the brow and hence down to the finish. Those of a more pessimistic nature glanced up the steep and unpleasant hillside to see the telltale sign of a flash of marker tape. We accepted our fate and turned up the climb.

We climbed and climbed some more. Eventually there was a narrow singletrack path leading almost levelly up and across the hill. Away from the finish. We were almost too tired to run on level ground here. More climbing. More pathless featureless difficult ground. Then a descent. A steep one at that, lots of ankle snaffling vegetation to worry about, or not, depending on your descending prowess.

Eventually we popped out on the stony track we’d left some 45 minutes earlier on the ascent and a fast drop to the finish. Where we found the slack group looking remarkably fresh having been back for some time. The realisation began to hit as it became clear what had happened. Everyone had a nice run, just some people chose to cut the race a bit shorter.

Organiser Martin took the sage decision to swiftly reclassify the race into ‘short’ and ‘long’ versions, generously giving two sets of his always-amusing prizes.

The moral of the story is to never, never underestimate the hills. They can be cruel and unforgiving mistress. Always be prepared for the worst and follow someone who know where they are going.

16th of those that did the full route (5m/1800′). Turns out my best chance of doing well is if everyone else gets lost. Noted.

Results and pics on the wfra site. Thanks to Al Tye for the pic.

Hotfoot up Moel Famau

2010-06-28T21:23:00.004+01:00

Another outing on this friendly mid-week race, the first of the 'Clwydian Summer Trots' series. It goes a little something like this: up, down, up, down, uu-up, doWN. That big up is the horrendous stone gully leading almost to the top of Famau. Really I've run up there sufficient times to know better by now. It's not a fit place to walk, let alone attempt to race.

Still a bit short on race fitness, I thought I'd have a go anyway. Tough job - 45' for less than 4 miles. I don't know. Some characteristically bonkers prizes from organiser Martin - a water pistol, chocolate, watering can and sleeping mat, amongst the usual beer and wine. Anyway 23/67, so not too bad considering.

Mind the gap!

2010-06-24T19:16:00.010+01:00

Dave kindly invited me to share his birthday treat of a skills day at Gisburn with the heavily-bearded Great Rock. Now as we all know, riding a bike begets riding a bike. The more you do, the better you get, the more you want to do, a Virtuous Cycle if you like. I was pretty low down on the upward curve of familiarity, only just getting out offroad with any regularity in the last couple of weeks.

We met at the excellently appointed Dog and Partridge at Tosside, part cafe, part pub, part bike shop. Ed Oxley runs a lot of courses out of here and has done bits and pieces of course building. We were there to improve ourselves; Dave, me, Carl and Matthew. Four forty-something blokes with a bias more towards fitness than radness. In my head, I'm a pretty good rider, certainly more skilled than in real life. It was this skills gap I was looking to close.

After a bit of a warm up, we reached a swoopy singletracky section with lots of bends and a few bumps. We rode this again and again — something I rarely do in real life — each time getting a bit faster and a bit smoother with a gentle nudge in the right direction from Ed. His teaching style is pretty low key, but pretty effective. His off the bike instructional movements felt a lot like dance to me. I'd imagine it's a lot like being taught the tango, except without the tickly beard.

Later we piloted the bikes down some fairly steep, but not-that-technical drops, on dirt and the grippiest of gritstone. All about confidence. My favourite section was actually the least instructed, a long fast descent including the world's biggest berms. Or were they wall rides? No space or inclination to stop, we just sent it down in a smiling single file train. At last some flow.

Where I was more disappointed (with myself) was the lack of any great revelation on riding Stuff That Scares Me. Drop-offs where you can't see the landing, jumps you can't roll if you chicken out. I was hoping for some sort of epiphany where it all comes together. I guess really that has to come from within. Keep calm and carry on.

We all made some good progress in one way or another, with Dave in particular really grasping the nettle and able to verbalise, visualise and work on his limitations. My fears about being unteachable were not quite realised, but felt I could have put a bit more in. Once frustration set in later in the day, something switched off inside and I was mentally digging my heels in. Ah well.

Dave's blog post
Dave's Flickr pics
My Flickr pics.

This machine kills fascists

2010-06-06T21:37:00.008+01:00

I don't know for sure if Woody Guthrie rode a bike, but if he did I've a feeling he would have liked it. Scarcely ridden a mountain bike this year, but the new Kaboom and the thought of doing some sort of event later in the year has got me into gear.

A few rides later and finally I'm getting my hand back in. Tonight I let go of the brakes and listened to the loam spewing off the tyre treads. Tonight I got my chest down on the saddle, really off the back on a steep descent for the first time in what seems like years.

Riding mostly on my own, I've stayed within my comfort zone for too long. Tonight I drifted towards the edges of it. Which is nice.

Rainow 5 fell race

2010-05-14T09:13:00.003+01:00

A hearteningly strong showing from the green vests over at Rainow last night (a lovely village just outside Macclesfield, home to two ex members of New Order, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer and a Stone Rose, it says here).

A shortish race (5 miles), without too much climbing (750′), this is a fairly beginner-friendly event. Or depending on your perspective, short enough to make you feel obliged to really, really try. And consequently get really, really tired. Anyway, there were some good performances on a perfect evening for running, with a couple of club colleagues notably taking 2 and 3 minutes off last year. Rather tediously I was 6 seconds faster than last year, which is staggeringly consistent.

Quite an undulating course with one short sharp grind up to the folly of White Nancy (built to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo, but this time witnessing a more friendly form of conflict).

Back in the second tier for the men, there was a veritable log-jam of green club vests, with 4 of us battling away and finishing within about 10 places and another shortly behind. Strong support from Joe for all, poor bloke didn’t know who to cheer for hardest.

Full results on the Macc site http://www.mh.k313.com/mh/index.php.

Three peaks fell race

2010-04-27T21:08:00.010+01:00

The other half of the three peaks double act. This one an even older and more venerable race, now in its 56th year. Same 3 Yorkshire fells - Pen-y-ghent, Whernside, Ingleborough - clockwise, starting and finishing in Horton-in-Ribblesdale. 700 gallant fools set off for the 23 miles and 5,300' of climbing, on a unseasonably hot April morning. Not all were to return.

Knowing this was going to be a long slog and a hot day I set off cautiously up PyG without getting too out of breath. Soon enough Chris started to pull away after around 15 mins climbing. No point trying to hang on to his slipstream. Just as with the cx version, it starts with a grind that steepens and again you get to see the fast folk barreling down at impressive speeds whilst us mortals slog up. Reached the top in 40-something minutes, comfortably inside the cut-offs. Put that out of mind then. Rocky descent (did we ride road bikes down there in September?).

After a while we levelled off and split off towards Whernside, deviating from the ascent route. Road junction, met by Chris' family a top up of energy junk and some welcome encouragement. Pottered on through the dullest section on road to Ribblehead viaduct. A bit of cross country and the featureless steep grassy slog up the side of the hill to the summit ridge. Lots of groaning from my comrades as the preceding 2 hours started to catch up with them. Surprisingly, by doing my own thing and pushing on to the side of the queues, I made up around 100 places before the checkpoint.

The descent started gingerly, legs battered from the climb. Down the steep steps and rocks towards the Hill Inn checkpoint at 17 miles. More supplies and the delight of Phil and family taking pics, shouting support. Another boost. And then onto Ingleborough, last hill so no point saving too much. Again, managed to pass plenty on the steps. Steep stuff. Ingleborough summit and another electronic dib. Turn around for the final 5 mile descent. Part of me's had enough now and positions have pretty much evened out by now - took a few, lost a few. Guts playing havoc now with all the energy drink, gels and bits of food I've been forcing down for the last 4 hours. Ready for the end now, but there's plenty of rocks to pick your way over so no opportunity to coast. Finally the tented arena hoves into view. The crowd is amazing and everyone's a celebrity for the time it takes them to cover the final 100m. A massive grin and it's over.

4h 26m for 264th, immensely happy to beat my finger in the air estimate of 4h30. 602 finished. Full results. Pic 2 the excellent Ady in Accy.

4000, 1000, 2000, 3000'

2010-03-30T20:59:00.005+01:00

Best training week ever!

1. Sat 20th - Calder Valley Round. Self-paced run with Chris round an established course. Report your time on the FRA forum thread. Rained from start to finish, barring about 10 mins. Good course, navigation not too bad on the ground for quite an intricate route. Got a bit lost coming off Stoodley Pike on a bearing in the mist, just when head was turning to jelly a bit. 4000' and 16m, 3h 24' (which they generously give as a First Class time).

2. Wed 24th - headtorch run with a couple of Helsby folk on the Helsby & Frodsham Hill. 1h 40 and maybe 1500' of climbing.

3. Sat 27th - Causey Pike race. On holiday just up the road, back from a morning walk and realised I could just make the start with some one-handed driving, other-handed map reading. Last to register and carried full kit just in case. Joined the race at the back. Steep. Not one to get yourself at the back of the single-file queues. Scrambling at the very top and really windy. Crikey I'm a rubbish descender though, lots of good positions wasted on the very steep drop off the summit ridge. Better shoes, more confidence. Blah, blah. Hard rocky run in to finish. Again, not one to be fretting over weak ankles. My first Lakeland race and a good one. 4.5m/1780', 74th/169.

3. Mon 29th - Skiddaw. My first 3000' footer. Up at 6:30 and up the great hulking lump behind the holiday barn. Frosty on the top, with some good views. Probably the first up that day, saw two people coming up just as I was finishing. Just over an hour to the top, and still well over 40' back down. Too steep and rocky to let go with already battered legs. Not an endearing hill, you can see what you need to do and just need to keep chipping away up the rocky bridleway.

Pic from Keswick AC.

Town Park xc

2010-03-08T15:39:00.003+01:00

Last cross country of the year, just up the road so it would be rude not to.

Rescheduled from January, when it fell foul of the snowy weather. We actually managed to field a full xc team! Yesterday saw 6 adult males with nothing better to do than run around in the grass and mud of Runcorn's Town Park. Actually quite a tough race for its modest distance. Thankfully devoid of long dull sections, there was always something to keep your interest. Sometimes it was a bit too interesting, as the small crowd gathered at the top of the ski slope who witnessed the procession of runners slow to almost a grovel, at the top of this short sharp rise will attest.

Team results were bolstered by our 7th man Joe Beswick, now in his late 70's and still fiercely enthusiastic about running. I for one was encouraged in the final stretch to try for a couple of extra positions by his vocal support, at a point when I was would otherwise have been settled in to the finish.

Superb conditions for running: a still morning with plenty of sunshine, contrasted nicely with those stretches yet to see the warmth, still covered in frost.

Birchwood xc

2010-02-22T15:40:00.004+01:00

Thanks to Spectrum for putting on an excellent race yesterday up at Birchwood, Warrington. Opening the curtains on Sunday to a fresh dump of snow put a seed of doubt in place over the run going ahead. Shouldn’t have worried, the race was on and the snow only added to the fun. As did the Icey Puddle of Doom (a trench of mud and slush, barely above freezing point).

Still at least we only got to run it 4 times. After a good half lap of running the feeling came back into my toes ….just in time for the Slippery Banks of Dread, a set of steep rollers with no other purpose than to sap your leg strength. Good runs from Ian, Steve and Andy S completed the Helsby turn-out. Really you’d be mad to not try a cross-country at least once in your running career.

About halfway down the field, which I'm pretty happy with after a couple of hours in the forest the day before. Finally some meaningful training! I was only there for a little run around :)

Pic from Mick Charman’s set on the Spectrum site.

Mountain nourishment

2010-02-22T15:26:00.005+01:00

Another weekend of mountain madness in the company of middle aged buffoons. Annual get together with a loose group of friends around this time of year. People drop in, people drop out. This year was a good un.

Two days of unfettered good weather in the lesser-trod patch south of Snowdonia. Day one on the Arans and day two on Cadair Idris. Some magnificent cloud inversions, so much so that you actually get a numbness to the splendour. We were even treated to the rare phenomenon of Brocken Spectres, looking into the mist filled Cwm with sun at our backs. Just excellent.

Thanks all for making it a great weekend.

Lots of pictures from various people on the Bread of Heaven flickr pool.

Walton Park xc

2010-02-10T14:39:00.002+01:00

A return of the snow saw another nervy trip up to Liverpool for the cross country. In the end it wasn't too bad and there was only a small amount of snow around for the race. Two laps of a park course, pretty flat with just a couple of short banks. Fitness coming back a little, but nothing to get giddy about just yet. Snuck into the top 50 this time ...not sue how many entered. Just over half an hour's running.

Four villages half marathon

2010-01-31T21:27:00.004+01:00

Belated catch up. Great race, spotty performance. 17th Jan, 1h35'19". Hoped for a bit quicker. Should have puckered up and trained harder. Not bad considering I guess.

The race that threatened not to be, with all the minor country roads frozen solid up until a few days beforehand. A miraculous thaw, after the settled cold weather for the previous 10 days, cleared the last of the snow. Race day dawned sunny and considerably warmer - vest weather anyway. Couldn't have been better planned.

Buried myself on the last downhill to try and get a time, probably the reason I was in such mischief for the following few days. Took it out of me!

Great reviews on Runner's World, makes the effort into organising, and my small part, worthwhile.

Onomatopoeia run

2009-12-27T22:25:00.006+01:00

Fabulous outing up Winter Hill in the snow. Parked by the reservoir, ran up to Rivington Pike (last time there was possibly Commonwealth MTB in 2002, yikes). Mostly on good tracks or the steep steps up the last bit. Surprisingly few people out in fabulous conditions. Down off the top across the deeper softer snow to the giant aerials containing all the telly, for all the north west. Amazing structure. Off the top NW towards the Belmont Road and back down the Chinese Terrace. Just lovely.

Called in on Matt Booth, who lives nearby and has a view of the pike from his front room, took delivery of his old Kona Kaboom. Truly generous fella - wouldn't take any cash for it. Looking forward to building the thing up it and replacing the Pine Mountain. Something actually built for suspension forks! How mode-ish am I? Couple more pics on flickr.

Wallasey border league

2009-11-17T16:00:00.003+01:00

Uninspiring run in the Border's League this weekend. Four laps of Birkenhead Park, which made judging progress easy, but I far prefer the distractions of a decent offroad run.

Lack-of-training chickens came home to roost slightly, so I was down on my normal placing. But not desperately far, so that's alright. Should get it back. Once I stop working too much/decorating/drinking too much...

It's only now with a bit of hindsight that I can really see how much the Three Peaks cx and Sandstone Trail 17m on consecutive weekends took out of me. I was definitely flat for a good couple of weeks and then sufficiently overstretched that the joint pains saw a window of opportunity to return.

On an upward curve now though I reckon. 4th counter for Helsby, behind Harry, Ian and Mike (who's going well at the moment).

Vertical chess

2009-09-29T21:47:00.010+01:00

Two days later and I'm still chewing over the Three Peaks. I've raced quite a bit this year, more than any other, but this thing is different. Regular racing has perhaps dulled the experience — turn up, do the best you can, go home — but the Three Peaks is made of sterner stuff than most events. It's an experience you pass through, rather than a mere sporting event.

I borrowed a quote from one of Henri Desgrange's 'victims' at the birth of the Tour de France, chatting to Dave Haygarth afterwards... 'It's not sport, it's war!'. I'm sticking with that description.

In the interests of denial and sanity, I'd honestly not thought too hard about the nitty-gritty details of the race in advance, naively thinking 'It'll go'. Somehow. Sure I'd run through the place names, heights and distance, even made some half-hearted attempts to study the map. Surprising how doable those tightly-packed contours seem from the comfort of the dining room table. But I don't think any amount of pondering and chin-stroking would have prepared me for the horror of the actual event.

I was late getting the bike sorted, so happy to join the peloton pretty much at the back, where I immediately found a few friendly folk. Almost 500 riders take up a lot of road. There was an air of anticipation and plenty of gallows humour at the back.

The start was pretty low-key, the neutralised first few miles anything but. I was hammering along at 20mph, knowing it was too fast, breathing too hard ...and still getting passed. Soon enough we dropped the lead car and swung left onto the first climb. Which steadily got steeper. I passed a guy with exploded shoes and Biff with a popped calf, on their way down. Two races over too soon. We got to the bank of Simon Fell, where some folk are wont to use the wire fence as an extra handhold, before I had a proper look behind. There were only a small handful of folk behind. I began to wonder if I was out of my depth. A punter out for an enduro, in the company of athletes in a proper race.

As it got proper steep, I found my own lines out right away from the fence and crowds, and picked off places, without getting too in debt. Fell running fitness I guess. This thing went on for ages though, you go into another zone. One foot, other foot. Keep off the calves if you can. Zig-zag a bit for relief. Eventually the angle eased. More pushing, more carrying, some riding. Picked off some more places.

Ingleborough! The summit emerged from the mist and a dib of the timing chip. I'd almost forgotten why were up there, such was the single-minded demands of simply making progress. Start the descent, a bit of quality banter, a few more places. Bloke in front loses it on some rocks and brings me down. I'm back on before I've thought about damage to me or the bike. Hey! This is racing.

The descent went on for a long time, a lot of it fun. Couldn't be more different from the climb. But crikey the forearms were ready for a break by the bottom. Must. Brake. Less. Onto the road and out towards Ingleton. This was hard, lack of road fitness kicked in and I was annoyed at losing places to people I'd outridden earlier. Nobody at our end of the field works together, so there's no respite.

Whernside. More quality chat on the approach, but it's not long before we're all off and shouldering the bikes again. I try to wheel a bit when the terrain allows, saving a bit of energy. Again I'm picking off places on the climbs without really burying myself. The top is a mad place to be, on a jumped-up road bike. I chuckle to myself a little.

The descent was cruel. Rideable, not rideable, sketchy. Never time to get a real rhythm. Easy rock flags, punctuated by drainage ditches with big raised edges. Already nervous of punctures, I was wishing for more psi. I felt the rims almost bottom out a couple of time when I mistimed the un-weighting (I won't dignify the process by calling it a bunny hop).

Ribblehead was ace. Lots of support crews and cheers. Couldn't resist showboating, with a little jump over a grassy lump. More road, more lack of basic speed.

Climb up to Pen-y-ghent is unusual in that as you're inching your way up, faster riders are flying back down the same way. Again the climb went on for a long way before we even approached the top. Great support from people though. Carrying was again the order of the day nearer the top. Too steep, too rocky. Summit. Final dib of the day, turn around. Pleasantly surprised by how many folk were still on their way up. Not a super-technical descent, but I'm fighting off cramp in all sorts of places now. Back on the road and the final run in.

I passed a group of CTC riders on a Sunday run, only to suffer the indignity of being reeled back in when the road turned up and there was simply nothing left. I got them on the final bend though on the run in to the finish. That'll learn em.

Proper big event finish with commentator and crowd barriers. It's done. 308th place and 4h44, in the end. A long way from embarrassment I think you'll find.

A horrific event, but compelling.

Full results here. Pic from eddieallenbc's excellent flickr set.
[Thanks for the nudge Dave.]

Three peaks ramblings

2009-09-08T14:28:00.005+01:00

So I was thinking why on earth would anyone want to read about an ordinary bloke trying an extraordinary event? Of course, the answer's in the question. I’m an ordinary bloke, one that makes too much noise on the internet, and the Three Peaks is clearly an extraordinary event. So clearly bonkers, that no race in the country is quite like it. Heck, the world maybe, I don’t know. Your average cyclo-cross racer is pretty good at beasting themselves for an hour. The average roadie, a little bit longer. This event seems to suit neither. But with an extraordinary event comes an extraordinary reputation, and an entry drawn from a far wider demographic than when it first got started. I’m one of those people. A curious onlooker. Perhaps you are too. If you’re a veteran of the event, you know exactly what you’re in for already and can stop reading right now.

I’ve always loved bikes, and have dabbled in a few things. I like a laugh, sometimes involving bikes, sometimes not. I like to do the odd event here and there. I’m also a family man, I fit in rides and training when I can, around work, kids, home; all that stuff. I’m guessing lots of you do to. Lately I’ve been doing a lot less riding and a lot more running. Ironically because it was the quickest way of getting tired. Now as I get older I find myself more drawn to endurance stuff and less bothered about those 30 minute blasts that seemed like the answer when Child Two was on her way. Hey ho.

Various ‘friends’ (I use the term loosely) had been encouraging me to enter the Three Peaks for a couple of years now. I’m a shrewd enough fellow, I knew they just wanted me to share their misery and see someone else suffer. It’s obvious to anyone with eyes, a 1:25,000 sheet and a sprinkle of common sense that the Three Peaks was no place for a jumped up road bike. The event was pretty much obsolete once someone had come up with the notion of the mountain bike. But still, the Three Peaks soldiers on, gloriously inappropriate. So I weakened and put an entry in, safe in the knowledge that the world and his dog had all done the same thing, the day that entries opened. I could show willing and that would be it for another year. There was a mix up at Central Clearing. I got in.

I’ve bought the bivvy bag, the OS sheet, I need to do something about the bike though. My offroad worthy bike is currently running 23mm tyres and a 70” fixed gear. Gears would seem to be a wise choice. I really do need to find some pipe-lagging too — carrying up a tiny local 400’ hill was worse than a recent filling replacement. Believe me, there was a lot of drilling.

I won’t pretend I haven’t done any training, but I know some of you folk reading this have knocked off thousands of miles this year, and with what I’ve done you’d be right to cast withering looks. But I’ve tried to make it count. Last week I did 4000’ of climbing before breakfast, without getting more than a mile from home. I consider this mental toughness training, dear reader. We had croissants in the kitchen and new packet of coffee to pop. The other day I did another 2,000’ on the bike and then ran some hill reps. It was a bit chilly and I couldn’t feel my feet for the first couple. I’m planning to take a day off and ride the singlespeed A Very Long Way. I think I’ve passed the stage where I feel completely outclassed and worried about the cut-offs. Now my main concern is getting beaten by pensioners. I know from fell running how that can knock your pride. Most of all I want to join in and take part and do justice to this great event. After all, if there weren’t a mid-pack there’d be no-one for the fast folk to beat.

See you on the start line. I’ll be the bemused looking bloke, trying to work the shifters.

Ponderosa fell race

2009-08-13T10:28:00.003+01:00

Terrific turn out of green vests last night at a very damp Ponderosa event, a shortish friendly race starting from the Ponderosa Cafe at the top of the Horseshoe Pass.

The rain was falling pretty much till the start and the tops were invisible. Navigation was pretty straightforward with only a couple of turns to think about, all marshalled or taped. New folk are often put off fell racing by the thought of getting lost. But it's rarely an issue in my experience, so long as you don’t make the mistake of being first.

With the lure of club a few counter points boosting the Helsby turnout, the race was well attended with 132 (I think) runners, most of whom finished with a smile on their face. There were a few well fought battles out on the course. I had to chuckle at the chatter behind me at one point. The noise caught up. Shouts of 'on your right', followed by gasps of exasperation. Here's a tip from my extensive race experience - if you want to pass, run faster. No charge.

Considering the race starts with a heartbreaking climb up the access track to the aerials and finishes with a heartbreaking slog up slow, muddy trails with leaden legs, I’m still at a loss as to why we do it. Other than because it’s great, and probably defies explanation. Try it, you’ll see.

Results to come.

An afternoon on the Clwyds

2009-07-29T14:23:00.008+01:00

Sam and I had been talking big about running the length of the Clwyds for a while now. Afternoon off work on Monday and it all came together.

Rubbish forecast, so I didn't bother packing any stuff in the car and cycled to work as normal. A glimpse of sunshine in the morning, the propoganda machine started and we talked ourselves into it. And then more 'urgent' work arrived that had to be done. Bah.

Set off via home to rustle together some gear and food and we set off on two cars, dropping Sam's off at the top end by Bodfari and then driving down to Llandegla for the start. Finally set off running at 3:30pm. The first section was pretty non-descript across muddy fields, a couple of herds of cows and bullocks. Sam lost a shoe, I realised my camelbak was leaking. We both tied a knot in them respectively.

Following the Offa's Dyke paths, which we're pretty well marked in the main, it wasn't long before we were climbing onto the first top of Moel y Plas, a new and quite wild area to me. Drop down and a quick food stop under Moel Llanfair. Steep climbing brought us to a walk up to Garreg Lwyd with the Ravens wheeling and stunting overhead. Across the only big road of the day by the Clwyd Gate Inn and onto more familiar ground on the northern section.

Moel Eithinen and Foel Fenlli skirted by and time for another foodstop. We're keeping going when we can but never getting too out of breath. All the steeps were walked to conserve energy. Climb up towards Moel Famau, the big one, following the start of the Hotfoot race. It's starting to feel like it'll go now, keep ploughing on, keep eating, don't get too tired, it'll be fine.

Very familiar ground now, across to Moel Llys-y-coed, drop down to the minor road, top up with food. Starting to feel hungry and tired now. Last quarter. Up past Moel Arthur and a fast grassy descent to the minor road wher we could let go for a change. Up onto the high moorland past yet another ancient fort and onwards towards the massive tv aerial of Moel y Parc. It's been pulling us forwards for hours now and at last is coming close. The actual Dyke drops down to Bodfari here, but we felt obliged to visit the final top, for a more fitting end to the day. Steep descent and a bit of tarmac was all that remained between us and the car. About 18 miles all in, not sure of the ascent. A leisurely 4.5 hours, for a Grand Day Out.

More pics on flickr.

Trail race up the beast

2009-07-11T20:56:00.002+01:00

I'd like you to focus on the second half of the name of this race, not the first. Poor performance, bottom half. Something Must Be Done. I think the only only explanstion can be that none of the weak people I can normally rely on to make me look good actually turned up, such is the fearsome reputation of The Beast. 4m and 1200', not a lousy bit of flat.

28/45, 34'39"

Moel y Gamelin

2009-06-29T20:49:00.005+01:00

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.

Edit: Results 35/71, 1:45'42 from the Wrexham folk.

Roache Rumble

2009-05-21T22:40:00.002+01:00

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

2009-05-17T09:42:00.003+01:00

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

2009-05-04T20:06:00.004+01:00

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

2009-04-30T21:48:00.001+01:00

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

2009-04-30T21:43:00.003+01:00

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

2009-04-05T21:26:00.007+01:00

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

2009-03-28T20:59:00.009+01:00

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

2009-02-23T15:19:00.003+01:00

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

2009-02-17T11:49:00.004+01:00

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

2009-02-08T23:09:00.005+01:00

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

2009-02-03T15:12:00.002+01:00

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

2009-01-24T18:31:00.005+01:00

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

2009-01-12T14:05:00.005+01:00

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

2009-01-06T13:03:00.004+01:00

Satisfactory. Improvement needed in key areas.

Ooh so close!

2008-12-18T14:27:00.002+01:00

I won a meccano set when I was 10. Last night I nearly won something else. 2nd in the club handicap, just over 22' for about 3.3m. Set off quite near the back and, because it was an out and back, I could see how many people were in front by about the half-way point.

As I picked through them I realised I was on for a place. One more fast person to get and someone I knew I could catch. With about 1/2 mile to go I realised I'd overtaken Gareth but not shaken him off. He took me back again and there was not much I could do about it. A long way from fastest — some bloke's very talented son did 17', but with a miserable handicap to claw back.

Bottle of wine prize and free fish and chips for everyone. Splendid!

Stadt Moers XC

2008-12-13T21:34:00.005+01:00

Blimey that was tough! A whole lot harder than Arrowe Park. Lots of mud and an intricate course with lots of turns made cornering a challenge. A grand total of two Helsby vests again - me and Andy - neither of us troubling the results too much, but a good hard work-out was had by all. Just short of 10k I think, which put me into mischief a little. Racing this week at least, rather than making up the numbers with a cold.

A bizarre sequence of events after a lift offer from Clive. We were a few minutes from the race start when we realised we were travelling to entirely different events! His Manchester & District League race was a few miles up the road in St Helens. Ours being the Liverpool League. Clive very kindly took it on the chin and rather than trying to make the start of his run, entered ours as a team of one for West Cheshire. Good man. Shame he left me behind after 2k. Results here.

Arrowe Park cross country

2008-12-10T14:12:00.007+01:00

About 4.5 miles around Arrowe Park up on the Wirral. Felt awful - tail end of a cold - "I'll just go up and watch". Who am I kidding? Anyway, I was surprised to get there and find myself changed into racing kit. I'm guessing about 100+ club runners turned out. Ground frozen solid with some muddy bits that had caught the sun. Smaller loop, plus two big loops.

I'd heard lots of scare stories about how hard x-c events are, and I guess they might seem that way if you do all your running on the road. Anway it seemed like a flat excuse for a fell race to me! Not that I could keep up a decent pace. Faded a bit in the second half. Usual story, went off too fast. Getting giddy, thinking I'm better than I am. 61st overall, 1st counter for Helsby (which isn't saying a lot!). Must get faster.

Turning back the clock

2008-11-10T16:44:00.006+01:00

Man turns back the clock, not in a good way, just catches the hands and stops them spinning rapidly back to a time when he couldn't balance on two wheels.

Missed out on what should have been a cracking weekend away with friends. Managed a little muddy outing Sunday morning. First time off road in a looong time. Funny how you forget, riding a bike, that is. Alarmingly funny.

Comically bad at anything remotely techy, kept putting a foot down on the approach to puddles, you know in case they were fifty foot deep or contained killer whales or something. Confidence. Slowly it came back.

Delamere's changed a fair bit this summer, lots of the spadework has been levelled, presumably by the Forestry covering its back. Some of it's left though. Enough I think, for punters like me to aspire to something. Anyway I found myself looking up from the bottom of No Brains. This used to be the initiation test when I first started. My old mate Steve wrote a rather nice piece on it in Singletrack a couple of years ago. Things have moved on, but it's still some kind of benchmark I think, so I had to go and have a peek from the top.

First attempt I got no more than a few feet down the now deep cut channel at the top and slithered into the slides, whimpering at the drop-off ahead. Really this wouldn't do. Second go, get off the front brake a bit, get off the back of the saddle further (on a 1994 race bike, that started life jey-as-you-like, that's a long way back). Much better. And you know, I got a real sense of achievement from staying in control on something I've done hundreds of times.

Bikes eh. Always the same, always different.

British fell relays

2008-10-19T22:30:00.009+01:00

Well I guess I'll have to stop whinging about the ankle! Today was the FRA British Relay Championship in the Clwyds, and it was great. Helsby were good enough to give me a run in the team of 6, despite the transparent cynicism of joining the club just for a run in these championships.

I was on Leg 3 along with Andy, club captain. Leg 3 is unusual in that you don't get to see where you're going until after you start. You get handed a map and you then need to visit 6 checkpoints, in order, however you see fit to get there. I initially deferred to Andy on the navigation, but it turned out we were pretty evenly matched and stopped each other making poor decisions on the fly. Andy was a bit short on legs later into the run, but that was probably a good thing as it held me back on the descents and stopped my undoing the rehab. Definitely helped having a bit of local knowledge, 2 of the 4 legs were pretty much identical to two of the summer series. I'm guessing our leg was something around 8 miles and 2,000' of climbing.

We were rubbish, I mean really rubbish, a few places up from bottom probably. But we all had a great time, and it's great to rub shoulders with the greats of the sport. Marvellous.

Blocked cyclepath

2008-10-13T10:41:00.004+01:00

The 90's nostalgia boom continues to gather pace. Last week the plaid shirt and Doctor Martens out on the street, this week the return of the bunt out car. Smokin! Quite literally. A little bit spooky wheeling past the still steaming empty hulk.

A Montego Estate I think, can't be many of them left.

Fingers crossed

2008-10-10T09:27:00.004+01:00

Now an expert in strapping techniques and regular customer at Return to Fitness. Several short steady bike rides and a few short runs. Still a bit swollen, not that painful.

Went to watch the Sandstone Trail Race on Sunday, with a few mates racing. Normally something I really look forward to, but good fun to watch. The girls were ace and got stuck in helping out on the water table. Inspiring stuff, got me out for 45' in the evening.

8 miles with the club on Wed night. Went alright. I feel just the kind of cockiness returning that got me into bother last time :)

[1] Apologies for self-absorption. Heck, it's a blog.
[2] Architecture in Helsinki aren't bad.

Fallen!

2008-09-22T14:03:00.004+01:00

Raced the other night. Went really well, 'I'm back!' I thought. Got cocky and ran some hills next day with Sam (never believe his 'easy leg loosener' claims). And then went out with the club in the evening. About 6 miles in and went over again on the ankle. Much foul language later I managed to hobble to the nearest road and get driven home. --> Square One.

In other news, today is apparently the Autumn Equinox. Which would be fine — I love the cool clear days you get at this time of year — but I think I'd like a refund on the Summer. Badly underperforming on a flimsy asset base, it seems to have had a hostile takeover by the season known as Grey. No government help available.

Chariots of fire

2008-09-17T06:57:00.007+01:00

I seem to remember Nigel Havers running along the beach somewhere on the Wirral. You know, back when we could shed a small tear at heroic deeds without irony. I know the track at Bebington featured, could be imagining the New Brighton bit.

Anyway, that brings us circuitously to race 3 of the Wirral Multi Terrain series. He's back! And slower than ever! A curious run and no mistake, and my first in the Helsby green courtesy of Adair's well used spare club vest (shrunken into more of a crop top and a cut likely to be appreciated on the gay scene).

The crunch of 300 pairs of club runner's feet, over the razor-clammed high tide line is definitely new to me. Hard for a mostly flat run. Good fun. About 4 miles, just over 30'. 103 and room for improvement is the best spin I can manage.

Rice paddy

2008-09-04T21:14:00.004+01:00

Nearly 3 weeks into a sprained ankle. Bah! Out on an innocuous run with a camelbak to practise for a plan in the mountains and went over on my ankle on a steep descent. Luckily only a mile from home. I actually heard it give out a crack, quite the most painful thing I've felt in some time. Now thoroughly fed up with rest, ice, compression and flipping elevation. Plans for a hot autumn of manly adventures now on hold.

Ponderosa fell race

2008-08-11T10:31:00.005+01:00

Tough old race, with a real kick to finish. About half a mile of steep boggy climbing, just when you've burnt your biscuits. Probably the quickest race I've done for some time – 33' – but you kind of feel obliged to try harder because of the distance.

Absolutely bucketed down before the start, got soaked just running from the car to the cafe to collect a number. Miraculously turned to drizzle by the time of the start and then cleared up altogether. A fair bit of mud and lots of singletrack where you couldn't pass. Worked in my favour, with there was a quickish guy in front I wanted to hold onto and a slightly slower guy behind that let a slight gap open. 4m/950'.

Thanks for the coffee

2008-08-05T11:58:00.004+01:00

Thanks for the cash people! You guys rock.

That was hard work. Long way, lots of hills, more riding required. My brother snapped his seatpost bolt and rode 5 miles standing up, till we found a helpful man in a shed. Then we had 3 punctures in a row. Proper gunshot pffts, just at the bottom of a 40mph hill. When I got home I noticed my headset had come a bit loose, explaining the scary speed-wobble on that 40mph hill.

Not too late to bung £2 to http://www.justgiving.com/steveriley2 if you're feeling inclined. You'd lose that in your pocket fluff and not notice.

I'll stop now.

Buy me a latte please...

2008-07-29T11:02:00.007+01:00

I know you're fed up with people asking for money. I used to be a cyclist, now I'm older and lazy. My brother, who's even older and lazier and taken to golf, decided it would be a good idea for us to ride 100 miles from Lancaster to York, with some flimsy War of the Roses theme. Jeff joined in, he's registered blind or partially sighted or something.

Bung me a couple of quid for BHF and I'll go away. Various funding packages are available:

I don't know you at all, seems like a worthy cause. Single shot of espresso. £2.00
Sounds like hard work, a coffee and a bit of cake should help. Latte and a nice muffin. £5.00
I am an incredibly generous person. Your call.

Go to http://www.justgiving.com/steveriley2 if you're feeling super generous. Whatever you want, every bit counts.

Just Giving's small print
Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor me: British Heart Foundation gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

So please sponsor me now!

Green green grass of home

2008-07-24T08:54:00.009+01:00

Rated R for caution
Race 3 of the Clwydian Summer Trots series.

Ouch ouch ouch! So much suffering! Brilliant. Martin Cortvriend, the race organiser, seems to have perfected the art of finding the fine line between brutality and runnability. I'd seen the course map here on Sanoodi before, but choose not to think too hard about the reality of that sawtooth profile. His races seem to specialise in losing lots of height very quickly, turning round and gaining it again.

Needless to say, it was tougher than the leather casers we learned to play football with in juniors. If this course was a ball, you wouldn't want to head it.

The best part of an hour for a 5 mile course probably tells you as much as you need to know. After struggling to get into any sort of stride with the rude shock of a steep uphill start, I did alright in the end, coming somewhere just in the top half — 31/70, according to the results now up at the WFRA site. Hot evening. Ill fitting shoes, poor choice of socks, sweaty conditions — oh I don't know — something combined to produce a pair of almighty flappers on each heel, that made themselves known on the last descent.

Never fail to be impressed by the friendly atmosphere at these events, always a chance to swap banter with familiar faces and people you've never met alike. Thanks to the organisers, marshalls, etc. For some reason I'll be back.

Dave Pinno's pics here
Yours truly here

Hotfoot up Moel Famau

2008-07-03T14:21:00.006+01:00

Fantastic evening race. Low key, really friendly, lots of contours. The evening started with an absolute cloudburst of a downpour so wasn't promising, but turned out perfect. Unusually this race starts with a bit of a gradual climb followed by a howler of a descent through thick vegetation along a twisty hidden track. Then a steep climb, where people at my pace soon ground to a heavy-breathing walk. Over the ancient fort at Moel-y-Gaer. Followed by another howler of a descent. Don't know what it was like up at the front, but it was too steep for me to properly let go, so I was zig-zagging a bit to reduce the gradient without braking too much. Seemed to make sense at the time.

Turn right through the stream at the bottom and start the gradual climb to the Big Stone Chute. Looking at the contours, it doesn't look too gradual now. No wonder it felt tough. Then it got hard. Must have been close to 1000' of climbing in less than a mile. Needless to say it was a walk. Got to the top of that in such a state that the descent, which should have been a freewheeling plummet, was really hard work. Took me a good few minutes to get into any sort of stride. Pretty pleased with my position - not far behind some proper fast people.

3.8m/1200', 46 mins and 20/56.
12 minute miles. V poor!

Gmap of the route
and Adair's Broughton's splendid purple prose on the wfra site.

Run for your (Reader's) Wives!

2008-06-23T13:28:00.003+01:00

14 miles this weekend and most of the rest of the time up a ladder pruning and sawing, so a gentle leg loosener seemed just the thing at lunchtime.

So I'm midway through my first lap and someone else is loosening far more than their legs — there's a woman getting ready for some sort of photoshoot. As I arrived on the top she was just zipping herself into some thigh length boots and, well, that's about it really. There didn't seem to be much grip on them boots, and I can't see a pair of stockings keeping her warm in that breeze. I hope she was alright.

Funny old world.

Boar's Head race

2008-06-13T11:37:00.004+01:00

Another good race. Good half of the results, could do better. The bell-shaped curve means I'd only need to save a few minutes to go rocketing up the rankings. Has anyone got a few minutes I can have?

7 and a bit miles and about 1300' around Lyme Park on the very edge of the Peak. Surprisingly lovely terrain too, given it's only a short hop outside Stockport.

Local knowledge would have helped. Note to self: don't follow the athletic-looking group in front across the featureless tussocky hillside. Follow the smug looking group going up the slightly longer footpath. The next time you see them they'll leave you for dead when they arrive fresh and full of running. Good to hear it happens to those at the front too.

67/167, 57'53"

4,000 revolutions

2008-06-09T11:36:00.003+01:00

Yesterday had its frustrations, but these all disappeared with the simple act of climbing on a bike. Spent the last drips of the day on a familiar whiz around the deserted lanes near home. Not far, just far enough.

Now you all know the simple truth that Bikes Are Great, but silly me, I needed reminding. Back just before proper darkness around 10:15pm to the accompaniment of some glorious changes in the sky.

About 4,000 revolutions long.

Moel Famau redux

2008-06-06T13:48:00.004+01:00

Sam's found a nice variation on running up Moel Famau. Running up Moel Famau twice. He showed me it last night and it turned out be a great run. Lovely clear evening run after work, just after a shower had cleared the muggy air. I switched several times between thinking 'why on earth am I doing this?' and 'why would anyone do anything else, ever?' Mostly coinciding with the gradient.

About 2400' of climbing and 9.5 miles all in. An hour and 40 mins.

Burbage skyline race

2008-05-14T16:12:00.005+01:00

Splendid, splendid, splendid.

6 more miles of misery and they managed to find 1200' of climbing from somewhere. Took me ages to find my feet and stop stumbling around on the technical, bouldery ground. Slightly panicked about getting there on time after getting stuck in a million traffic jams. Felt better after the big climb to Higgar Tor (and the spot where I proposed. Ah.). This was followed almost immediately by the descent, not for nothing known as 'the plummet' . Whee!

A whisker over 50 mins. Sam had a blinder of a run and should make an impression on the results when they appear.

A special place.

Local hill reclassified

2008-05-07T14:03:00.009+01:00

Woodhouse Hill has been found to be a 'gateway drug'. The hill, normally avoided by sensible runners, is known to lead onto much more fearful things.

Investigation revealed that the hill, no more than a couple of minutes bottom to top, was a regular hill repeat for Mark Hartell in preparation for The Most Lakeland Peaks in 24 Hours (77 since you ask), when living in Frodsham.

One recent ascentionist was said to be 'sick as a dog' at the top and remarked he 'won't be doing that again in a hurry'. Whilst his companion noted: 'Great, can we do laps?'

Locals were said to be undeterred by the change of classification 'I'll keep going back, I could stop whenever I wanted,' remarked one 'I just don't want to'.

The tyranny of data

2008-04-28T17:00:00.007+01:00

I had to swap a wheel across on the commuter. (Yay, I'm a commuter again! Doldrums be gone!) So I'm zipping along thinking 'wow, these tyres are fast' (pumped up properly, more like). And in the 20 mins it takes to get to work, I'm stunned at how often I glance down at the Stupid Mute Computer. Its inscrutable face telling me nothing more than an approximation of the time.

Life's much easier if you're not constantly trying to looking for a metric to validate yourself against. And look Steve's had the same thought, which is nice.

Game birds

2008-04-19T11:11:00.005+01:00

Yesterday we saw off Thelma Lee, one of the finest people I know. A woman universally remembered for her warmth, spark, humanity, intelligence and cheerfulness. A role model for me as kid, the sort of person I wanted to be when I grew up (still waiting).

As a small reward and an act of rememberence I went for a run on the rolling grouse moors above Jubilee Tower and along to Ward's Stone. Despite a fierce Easterly wind and some pretty shonky routefinding in good visibility, it was a wheeze. Loads of climbing, loads of effort. Ran within a couple of feet of the birds several times before they bothered their arses to get out of the way. (Those hunters are so brave.)

Around half an hour in I was plodding along, thinking slightly pompous thoughts, when my left leg was swallowed up by the evil peat bog, releasing it's grasp just below testicle level. I can think of one 83 year old woman who would be quite chuckled by that.

Kinder Downfall race

2008-04-14T13:32:00.005+01:00

What a classic, classic event. Really good outing. About 10m of running with somewhere just short of 2000' of climbing, most of it in the first 3 miles.

All sorts of conditions, grass, rocks, mud, peat. Seeing a bit of old snow cheered me up the last steep pull to the plateau, to get a bit of falling sleet on top was a real bonus. My first 'proper distance' fell race and I was slightly nervous of getting my ass kicked, thankfully cheeks came away unscathed. Well done organisers, well done anyone who takes it upon themselves to stand around in the cold to look after us.

Great to meet up with Dave again — he had a really good (data enriched race) coming in 9th. Rich, who inspired me to have a go in the first place with a recce back in February, also had a good run. Looks like he's in the process of becoming Hayfield's newest entrepreneur.

Just sneaked into the top 100 I think. Couldn't have gone much harder I don't think. Could have walked a bit less on the steeps I guess, but I'm sure I'd have paid the debt back later on.

Mojo rising

2008-04-08T10:18:00.005+01:00

A welcome blast from the past got in touch in the form of Jon WIII, an old biking mate. The boy's only gone and taken up climbing and wanted a tour around the North West Face in Warrington. Just the excuse needed to recommit to the old Monday night training sessions.

Jon's only been climbing a short while (indoors) and already showing some pretty good talent. Great to see his confidence rising over the course of the evening and a great appetite for leading everything, rather than top roping. He'll go far. Inspiring stuff.

Measured second impressions

2008-02-29T12:11:00.006+01:00

Used the Alpkit Gamma a few more times now. Still impressed. [first impressions here]

Did a night run with a few of the Helsby lot and a couple of fell runners. The torch stood up well in comparison to more expensive competition — I never really felt like I was being outshone by the others. I'm well used to the phenomena on night rides where your (previously adequate) 15W halogen is reduced to a brown smudge of light by all the super-bright HID users. Thankfully that wasn't an issue. It was fine on more technical terrain, but wouldn't really be up to a fast, technical descent. More light would be good, but more light costs £40+. We were out for around 90-mins in the end, so I'm sure any shortcoming would have made themselves felt.

Still on the first set of batteries after around 6-hours total, although I'm a habitual battery-miser, switching off or to low power whenever possible, so I suspect there's plenty more to come.

The button sequences make more sense when you get used to the two separate cycles of Big LED (high, low, flashing) and Small LED (white, green, red, flashing red) with a long press to switch between the two. If you switch it off on Big, it comes back on in the Big cycle, and vice versa) ...you can see why I was confused now. Good stuff.

Parbold Hill

2008-02-18T10:51:00.006+01:00

Cracking run out over Parbold Hill 6.75M on Saturday. Sort of a longer version of the Harrock Hill race series from last year. Another 'fell race lite', with somewhere around 800-1000' of climbing.

Good turnout for a local-ish event, although this one comes with a decent history — this was the 38th event. Not too muddy all things considered. Vaulting straw bales towards the end (over the wire fence) added a bit of thrill on tired legs. Enjoyed the singletrack and rougher stuff, the long road climb was nothing short of a nuisance.

134/456, 53'35". Working hard, but there's probably a bit more to come.

Thanks to Mark Sanderson for the great pic.

Kinder surprise

2008-02-10T22:43:00.000+01:00

Long run up from Hayfield, past the reservoir, up William Clough and then along the edge of the Kinder plateau. It's been a long time since I've been up there and damn, it was good.

I'd spotted a similar run on Rich's blog last week (close enough to just borrow his tracklog thing), and was just the kick I needed to get out there.

After finally getting up on the plateau (and yes it did involve slightly too much walking) the territory is pretty wearing. Barren, wind-stripped gritstone boulders, the feet never fall in the same place twice and a missed step could easily have consequences. That and running into the late afternoon sun, conscious of time passing, added just the right amount of spice. The Walshes worked admirably. Finished up with a little extra climb up Coldwell Clough and back to Hayfield. Splendid.

Gullible first impressions

2008-02-07T10:17:00.000+01:00

One less reason to shop. The Alpkit internet retailer appeared on my radar last year with some good products, keen prices and an enthusiastic user base. I spotted them after vaguely looking for a bouldering mat — there's seemed to be the right price for the features offered (you know when you look at something and you just know it's not "worth" the asking price: the big names want £150 for what seems to be a pretty simple, lo-tech product).

So anyway, the light. The LED revolution has given the outdoorsy light market a proper kick up the arse in the last year or two, performance finally catching up with potential. This little thing is massively featured, seems decently put together and pumps out a good, if not quite blinding, amount of light. For any price, it's promising. For £12.50, the Alpkit Gamma is stunning value.

First requirement was a lamp I could use for running at night, and this did the job admirably. Enough light from the main (single Watt) beam for running along familiar forest tracks without compromising speed. The secondary 5mm LED is great for unlit roads and there's all sorts of quirky 'special forces' features for night vision and stuff, to do with green and red LEDs and reading orange contours on the map. Further tests will prove if it holds up on fast descents, more rocks and roots, and unfamiliar ground.

I have no doubt it will be more than up to the job of getting off the hill with an over-optimistic finish time and general camping duties.

The thing sits pretty comfortably on the head, with a lightweight 3xAAA battery pack on the rear. Beam adjustment is positive and it's not a nuisance to wear even bouncing around offroad. The buttons are fine to use with a lightweight liner glove, the only thing I can fault it for at this early stage is the slightly idiosyncratic button sequences for going through the (many) features. Nice one Alpkit.

Moel Famau

2008-01-22T16:32:00.001+01:00

Sam and I had a jog up Moel Famau at the weekend. I've had it in the back of my mind for a long time, Sam mentioned it last week saying: "I'm doing it on Saturday", simple as that (there's a lesson in decisiveness somewhere).

Anyway, things I learned: I had a go wearing a hip pack to get used to carrying map, jacket, food and stuff. Turned out to be a nuisance, must try something smaller. It's always further than it looks on the map. Sometimes it's quicker to walk hard than pretend you're still running. 'Walking hard' can be exhausting. Going up was hard, but as soon as we were on the tops I felt we could have carried on for ages. Watching your friend falling over in his road shoes is cruel, but funny. Running in the hills is bloody magic.

Delamere Forest Summer Trail Running Series

2008-01-21T16:21:00.000+01:00

Not one race, but a whole series confirmed:
Thursday June 12th (7.00pm start)
Thursday July 3rd (7.00pm start)
Thursday August 7th (7.00pm start)
Thursday September 4th (7.00pm start)

Ace. More info at http://www.epicevents.org/section.php?xSec=10

Delamere Dash

2008-01-07T13:40:00.000+01:00

Met up with Chris and Sam for a new 6 mile event in Delamere forest. It would be rude not to, being just up the road and all. Stunning day again, cold and sunny and an early start at 9:15. Haven't run for a fortnight, what with Christmas colds and stuff, so didn't expect too much. Came in just under 43 minutes, which was good enough for 62/212. Must do something about that grimace. Chris played a blinder and showed some proper speed for 21st and 38 mins. Nice one.

Epic Events were talking about putting on another event in July, which would definitely be worth looking out for.

I dreamed about Ron Hill last night

2007-12-17T10:14:00.002+01:00

I'd just been telling Jon in the office about Ron Hill's unbroken streak of not-a-day-off since 1964. So anyway, I'm lining up at the start of the Staffordshire Moorlands Christmas Cracker and the bloke next to me turns to the bloke next to him and says 'still running every day?' 'Aye' comes the reply, 'I'm due to tick over my 150,000th mile next week.' And there he was, with a twinkle in his eye. Alf Tupper personified. Jeezus, feck! 150,000 miles!

Brilliant race again, freezing cold, loads of ice on the ground. Tough work boulder hopping across past the Roaches and over the tops past. I figured the only way I could improve on last year was to suffer more on the climbs and keep going when it got hard, so I did. It was hard.

64'57" for 8 and a bit miles, 44/321. Pleased with that.

The drug that keeps on giving

2007-12-14T12:17:00.000+01:00

I keep trying to run less and ride more. But it's just so damn easy — shoes on, out the door.

Anyway, I've just come to the end of seven days on. Just to see if I could really. It doesn't really make sense training-wise for where my fitness is at. Still, if I was Matt, I'd only have another 358 days to go. And if I was Ron Hill, only another 43 years. Luckily I'm not.

Low point on the fifth day, but by six and seven I was hungry for miles again and had recovered from the heavy legs earlier in the week. 38 miles in total, which will be an all time record for me. Chastening to think this is barely above 'beginner' schedule in the training plan I was looking at in the library.

Hot aches on the bike today, those new winter gloves aren't quite as warm as I'd hoped.

Riding a bike, climbing a rock

2007-11-28T15:44:00.000+01:00

'take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints'

Which of course implies that you can't help but change the trail you're there to enjoy. Rather like Schrodinger's Cat, you can't enjoy the thing without changing it (not that I enjoy killing cats, you understand).

I sometimes take a bouldering approach in the woods - if I can't do the thing, I'll go back up and try it slightly differently. I'm also looking for new routes, even doing the odd bit of gardening. Sometimes I only ride the thing once, no-one ever goes the same way again. Order and balance are resumed. Sometimes it becomes a regular, I've caused a new bit of erosion. I've 'chipped' the trail.

There's a lot of grey in my world, that's the trouble with ethics. It all makes sense internally, but I'd be hard pushed to justify everything I do in the pursuit of fun.

Pils, thrills and bellylaughs

2007-11-12T22:55:00.000+01:00

Recipe: Take one group of friends and loose acquaintances. Add beautiful, wild countryside. Mix in a dash of alcohol, superb hospitality and the common ground of riding a bike. Result: a superbly rewarding weekend.

Thanks so much to Raoul for organising and Tim & Bee putting us up in their excellent house. If their northumberlandbikebreaks.com enterprise doesn't take off and make lots of people happy, well the world's a very silly place. Book early, book often.

More pictures here.