Never mind this poncey triathlon malarky - I reckon the way forward with multi sports is adventure racing.
Reasoning: It's mountain biking and not roadie racing; it's in the hills and dales and not round towns, and best of all there's no 1500m swim so I can bin the training for that (Jeez, swimming is boring and I also won't need to fork out £200 for a wet suit). Really, who wants to swim round a dock anyway?
Sunday's 5 hour race was great fun. My partner, Will, I'd met once the week before at an LMC meet and he was a fine choice in that he is a Polaris veteran and therefore extremely well versed in the efficient use of time and resources on these things. And he's a fine navigator.
With neither of us that fussed on running we planned a one descent, one ascent trot to bag as many points as we could in about an hour and then get back for the bikes at the transition. And then I found the running desperately hard for no real reason so was very pleased to set off on the bikes after about 90 minutes. The Hebden Bridge area is VERY hilly and riddled with bridleways and therefore makes for excellent mountain biking territory. The great weather helped as well, but there were the inevitable mud and water obstacles along the way. We went hard but not stupidly balls out and got back to base just before the 5 hours were up, so we incurred no time penalties. A quick change and then free tea and coffee and some mingling with our fellow racers preceeded the prize giving. We'd come about half way in the male pairs competition which wasn't too bad I thought. The next one in the series in at Hamsterley Forest in March.
Any takers for the 24 hour effort at the end of July then? :-)
(See the Open Adventure link).
Friday, January 27, 2006
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Jamie's birthday
Jamie is 3 today and we had his birthday party last Saturday in the form of an outing with his friends and family on his very favourite 'ride' of all time - The Keighley Worth Valley railway, preceeded by a Pizza Hut dinner. What more can a boy want?
The KVR is excellent it has to be said: proper full sized steam engines and some wonderful authentic stations, running through "Bronte Country" from Keighley to Oxenhope via Haworth. It's always really busy at the weekends and the whole thing with a couple of stops makes a great day out for kids and adults alike.
(This is the line which is probably most famous for being used in the film The Railway Children. THAT station and THAT bridge are still there along the way.)
Today the lad's been at nursery where there's cake and a party laid on. Kids' birthdays are just ace. I wish my birthdays were that good. :-/
The KVR is excellent it has to be said: proper full sized steam engines and some wonderful authentic stations, running through "Bronte Country" from Keighley to Oxenhope via Haworth. It's always really busy at the weekends and the whole thing with a couple of stops makes a great day out for kids and adults alike.
(This is the line which is probably most famous for being used in the film The Railway Children. THAT station and THAT bridge are still there along the way.)
Today the lad's been at nursery where there's cake and a party laid on. Kids' birthdays are just ace. I wish my birthdays were that good. :-/
Progression
It's an odd thing suddenly becoming 'single' again, and I all of a sudden realised that it's very easy to just disappear, in the sense that you can easily hole up at home all week and do naff all apart from watch TV and surf the t'internet.
The former I admit I could happily do. There's little or no TV signal though in sunny Calverley but I've managed to connect up the NTL box that I found in the house. I guess NTL are meant to come and pick these things up once agreements run out but if not then one can access a decent package of free channels ie. most of the ones on Freeview. And in cable qualty digital quality. Handy. Best bit though is all the radio stations on it. Whacked through the hi-fi amp Radio 6, Q Radio and Kerrang all sound great.
As for the t'internet I have made the decision not to bother as it's too temptin a thing to just stop in and write crap on blogs and trade on the (admittedly excellent) Rush web group (www.t-n-m-s.com) etc etc. Single bloke at home trawling the internet - I think not.
So, what else is there? A social life in general means 'down the pub' or so it seems. Everything seems to start with drinking. Not that I am specifically against drinking or pubs but that's what we all seem to do - a lot. A mate comes to stay and we go - to the pub. Jo next door comes round and we go - to the pub. I got and meet some people from Leeds mountaineering club (LMC) and it's - in a pub. Seems that I'd just gotten of of the habit of going to the pub and it's one habit that I am not that keen to get back into to be honest. Having said that I look forward to my Friday nights out locally with Jo in the local(s)!
Away from the pubs I have re-joined the LMC and that sets me up for their hut meet weekends away which are excellent. There's a string of privately owned climbing club huts all over the UK in wonderful locations and the clubs all book them up for weekends the year. The LMC's next meet is at the K Shoes hut in Duddon valley in the Lakes (nearish to Conniston), and their half term meet is 4 days in the fabulous Lagangarbh hut at the foot of Buchaille Etive Mor in Glencoe. Can't do the K Shoes as Liz is away but may do Glencoe for some Scottish winter stuff.
This Sunday coming I'm doing an "Adventure Race". This 5 hours of mountain biking and/or running orienteering starting from neaby Hebden Bridge. A chap from the LMC is partnering. Should be great fun. With a bit of luck we'll be able to do as little running as possble and lots of biking! What with this kind of stuff; the mountain bikers regular jaunts out; staring to go to the Leeds (climbing) Wall again and the Pudsey Pacers runners (who I still actually haven't met properly yet) there's plenty of scope for a decent social life. And it'll all keep me fit.
The former I admit I could happily do. There's little or no TV signal though in sunny Calverley but I've managed to connect up the NTL box that I found in the house. I guess NTL are meant to come and pick these things up once agreements run out but if not then one can access a decent package of free channels ie. most of the ones on Freeview. And in cable qualty digital quality. Handy. Best bit though is all the radio stations on it. Whacked through the hi-fi amp Radio 6, Q Radio and Kerrang all sound great.
As for the t'internet I have made the decision not to bother as it's too temptin a thing to just stop in and write crap on blogs and trade on the (admittedly excellent) Rush web group (www.t-n-m-s.com) etc etc. Single bloke at home trawling the internet - I think not.
So, what else is there? A social life in general means 'down the pub' or so it seems. Everything seems to start with drinking. Not that I am specifically against drinking or pubs but that's what we all seem to do - a lot. A mate comes to stay and we go - to the pub. Jo next door comes round and we go - to the pub. I got and meet some people from Leeds mountaineering club (LMC) and it's - in a pub. Seems that I'd just gotten of of the habit of going to the pub and it's one habit that I am not that keen to get back into to be honest. Having said that I look forward to my Friday nights out locally with Jo in the local(s)!
Away from the pubs I have re-joined the LMC and that sets me up for their hut meet weekends away which are excellent. There's a string of privately owned climbing club huts all over the UK in wonderful locations and the clubs all book them up for weekends the year. The LMC's next meet is at the K Shoes hut in Duddon valley in the Lakes (nearish to Conniston), and their half term meet is 4 days in the fabulous Lagangarbh hut at the foot of Buchaille Etive Mor in Glencoe. Can't do the K Shoes as Liz is away but may do Glencoe for some Scottish winter stuff.
This Sunday coming I'm doing an "Adventure Race". This 5 hours of mountain biking and/or running orienteering starting from neaby Hebden Bridge. A chap from the LMC is partnering. Should be great fun. With a bit of luck we'll be able to do as little running as possble and lots of biking! What with this kind of stuff; the mountain bikers regular jaunts out; staring to go to the Leeds (climbing) Wall again and the Pudsey Pacers runners (who I still actually haven't met properly yet) there's plenty of scope for a decent social life. And it'll all keep me fit.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Nite riding
That'll be mountain biking in the dark. In my quest to find new people in life I hooked up with a local crew of mountain bikers last night and they go out each week at least once round the trails in the dark. I actually led them round my familar Pudsey trails and it was excellent fun, if a bit muddy in parts.
I've not done nite biking for AGES, and I'm thinking back to probably the Cardiff Uni for my last memory of lashing round the trails in the pitch black. Back then of course we made to with 1.5w Ever Ready torches, with a halogen bulb if you were very lucky. So, of course you could see jack shit, and less when your rechargeables ran out (which they always did). Also, the Cardiff nite riding experience was not complete without a pint or two at the excellent pub near Rudry hill who's name escapes me now. Hehe - that lovely feeling of getting inside into the warm round the fire and literally steaming until dry. And then, fortified by two pints of XB, reluctantly stepping out through the door again into a frosty Welsh night knowing it would be ages before you warmed up, and there was that infamous Whips drop down the narrow steep steps to come. Actually, having done that bit on sheer adrenaline the crashes tended to come on the narrow lanes dropping down towards town ...
Things have changed and these days of course we are all equipped with the current choice of 10 zillion candle power LED spotlights which run for about 3 weeks non stop. This does make things a little easier but a little less fun? Mind you when it comes to the alarmingly fast downhilling round Pudsey, sliding round in the mud at the same time I was somehow glad to have some vision at least.
But my bike when I got back - HOW muddy? Not having an outside tap with a hose is not good when your main hobby is mountain biking I can tell you. (I should have though of this when I was looking for accommodation...) I checked at the local garage which is about half a mile from the house and they have a jet wash. Excellent! Except then I found I had no money. Arse. And the miserable git at the till wouldn't stand me a £1.50 token on the promise I'd come back in the car and buy petrol later. Wot a twat.
So, the trusty hand pump garden spray thingy had to suffice and actually I got most of the gloop off. Then there's leggings, bum bag, overshoes etc etc which are caked in it. Never again. Except I see they are out again tomorrow ...
I've not done nite biking for AGES, and I'm thinking back to probably the Cardiff Uni for my last memory of lashing round the trails in the pitch black. Back then of course we made to with 1.5w Ever Ready torches, with a halogen bulb if you were very lucky. So, of course you could see jack shit, and less when your rechargeables ran out (which they always did). Also, the Cardiff nite riding experience was not complete without a pint or two at the excellent pub near Rudry hill who's name escapes me now. Hehe - that lovely feeling of getting inside into the warm round the fire and literally steaming until dry. And then, fortified by two pints of XB, reluctantly stepping out through the door again into a frosty Welsh night knowing it would be ages before you warmed up, and there was that infamous Whips drop down the narrow steep steps to come. Actually, having done that bit on sheer adrenaline the crashes tended to come on the narrow lanes dropping down towards town ...
Things have changed and these days of course we are all equipped with the current choice of 10 zillion candle power LED spotlights which run for about 3 weeks non stop. This does make things a little easier but a little less fun? Mind you when it comes to the alarmingly fast downhilling round Pudsey, sliding round in the mud at the same time I was somehow glad to have some vision at least.
But my bike when I got back - HOW muddy? Not having an outside tap with a hose is not good when your main hobby is mountain biking I can tell you. (I should have though of this when I was looking for accommodation...) I checked at the local garage which is about half a mile from the house and they have a jet wash. Excellent! Except then I found I had no money. Arse. And the miserable git at the till wouldn't stand me a £1.50 token on the promise I'd come back in the car and buy petrol later. Wot a twat.
So, the trusty hand pump garden spray thingy had to suffice and actually I got most of the gloop off. Then there's leggings, bum bag, overshoes etc etc which are caked in it. Never again. Except I see they are out again tomorrow ...
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