Germany oh Germany

Last week was spent in Cologne for work, probably the last time, it was okay.

What was not okay was the fact that whilst there I recieved a text message telling me that an old friend had passed away that morning, another soul lost to cancer.

What was good was that being there meant that I wasn't riding and therefore was resting, come Saturday and I was raring to go, a local 45 miles on the Stiffee, mixed road and off road, sunshine and lollipops, all well and good.

Sunday was spent in York celebrating No1 daughters birthday, Monday was as boring as ever at work but then an evening road ride beckoned.

All okay until I got home and my right knee exploded again !!!!.

Not happy, but in context its a very minor issue, physio tomorrow.

Low tech bikes

The plan was to ride to Delamere, ride at Delamere and then ride home from Delamere on single speed mountain bikes, a few things conspired against us but in the end the most sensible and in hindsight obvious solution presented itself, single speed cross bikes !.

One gear and rubbish brakes.

Miles were what was wanted, at least 62 so that I could keep my century a month dream alive, the weather looked mixed, the roads were full of bank holidayers so we stayed on the dirt, the trans pennine trail headed west. It wasn't too busy, lots of families and kids on bikes, and some of the gates were open due to the Manchester to Liverpool charity ride that had taken the same route earlier in the day. We arrived at the sea after heading into quite a headwind, a 5 minute break for an energy bar and then turned back to retrace our steps (although the mile or so of wind assisted singletrack along the estuary was fun) till we got to Warburton.

I wanted to show Jenn some of the back lanes that I ride, a future century in mind, so we headed off for a slight detour that cunningly passed by a pub, a pint later and we were back on the lanes and heading home in the dying sun, about 70 miles in all, a cup of tea and we're done, a nice introduction to the flat lands of Cheshire :-)

Simple things

Not felt like riding much this week, Monday afternoon must have taken more out of me than I thought, Thursday and I rode in the short way, taking a longer route home but no spark, Thursday night saw some tinkering with my Stiffee leading to a long ride this afternoon, the sun did its job and now all is well again :-)

and we're back in the room

100 rides is completed now, some of it might get published in STW sometime soon.

So, what's been happening ?

Sore knees, eye infections, heat stroke and lots of riding, culminating in this last weekends 24 hour solo UK championships, it was probably the best race I've ever been involved with, a brutal course of 11.5 miles that had 580m of climbing per lap, the climbing was particularly tough with what felt like half of it on either grass or through the woods on a freshly cut trail.

Although my race went as well as I thought it might I only completed 4 and a half of those laps, doesn't sound much (and to be fair isn't compared to the winners 22) but it still amounted to 52 miles in 29c heat over about 6 hours riding time, considering that right upto a few days before I wasn't going I'm pleased with that, my fitness was fine, my preparation was fine (no cramps at all) and I made the right decision to pack when my knee started to creak.

Grant did really well to complete 7 laps despite suffering from quite severe heat stroke, Jac and Amy put us to shame by completing 10 and 13 laps respectively, all 3 riding singlespeeds.

The team behind the event once again pulled out all the stops, I couldn't see anything to fault the organisation, next year I'd like to be on their side of the event helping out and putting something back.

So what else ?, work is on going, still no actual end date in site, NZ is off, the timing is just wrong and I'm not about to walk away from work whilst they want to keep paying me, maybe next year when I'm free.

So what next ?, evening rides with Jan, Jack and maybe even Jennifer are on the cards soon, soon as exams are out of the way for the kids, Afan later in June, then SSUK in August (followed by a few days in Brighton) all this interspersed with a few small adventures, bivvies and fun rides during the best summer for a decade.

and more updates here soon.

100 rides

is coming to a close, well less than 20 to go now so should start reporting more inane drivel here soon, betcha can't wait eh, both of you :-)

me in 25 years

actually thats my dad, every day finds me catching myself doing something or other that my dad does, the most frequent one is the way I clear my throat, every time I do it I think my dads in the room :-)

so, whats been happening, well work wise is pretty well documented, the plant is shut down now and the new year will bring the decomissioning period, that'll be a bout three months or so and then the majority of people will leave the company, myself a and a few others will remain until the end of July at the earliest, hopefully till the end of the year when I can get my year off.....

although that may well have to be put on hold for another year, one door closes and another opens, there are some interesting opportunities opening up that could provide more wages, if it does come off then I'll have another string to my bow which will help me find work longer term :-)

Hopefully NZ is still on.

Bike wise, well I've taken on a commission from STW for a series of articles, the 100 rides is one idea, riding has been short and sweet of late, yet another underlying cold thats refusing to surface, his is the third year on the trot that this has happened, a bad chest infection two years ago and then last year a debilitating bout of flu, what will this years treat be ? .

I hope its not too severe, I had a flu jab to try and avoid that and I have made some committments to do some long rides this coming year, a century a month (metric and imperial, but aiming for imperial) and two races to have a crack at, the national 24 hour solo champs in May and the Keilder 100 in Sept. Now I know as well as everyone else that I'll not be getting a top ten in either of these, in fact top 100 is out of the question, no what I want is to finish and do myself proud, thats all. I'll be happy to do that.

Training has yet to start, I've been doing a bit but thats more to just keep ticking over, this coming week was to be the start but the weather has been unkind and by actually not riding my bike I am doing some good, the sheet ice everywhere is just dangerous, sat watching the road today confirmed that I made the right decision not to ride, maybe tomorrow ?

Moving out for a while

I'm here for a wee while

http://100rides.blogspot.com/

back by the end of Feb I hope